Justice

Creating Hope in a World of Fear

By Talking Cents / 30 November 2007

Early in November, I returned from ten days in Belgium where I attended the first Triennial World Assembly of Pax Christi, an international peace movement founded in the Catholic Church at the end of World War II (rf. www.paxchristi.net). Representatives of 53 countries came together to report on the state of their world and to plan future action for a more peaceful one.And oh, how we need peace. Report sessions heard of arms trafficking in places like Sierra Leone, struggling to lift itself out of a calamitous civil war, where disarmed militia seek purpose in a climate of corruption and state failure. And of drug trafficking and its associated legal and illegal arms trade in Colombia, where youth are drawn into violence by easy money, where millions have been displaced and human rights defenders are targeted by military and corporate death squads. Now, still more are displaced from their land by corporates seeking new wealth from the production of biofuels.Young men from Iraq told of living in a fractured state where women desperate for food can cross from one security zone to another and be shot as spies on their return. Where families receiving a “leave or die” phone call go without hesitation to join 2 million fellow-displaced in inhospitable desert camps. Stories from Palestine, Gaza, Lebanon, Congo and Zimbabwe echoed similar inhuman situations endured by growing millions. That night on the TV news, we heard, by contrast, of the sacking of a US corporate leader from his US$40 million job.At another section of the gathering, I joined a group addressing the unconscionable growth in arms technology, production and trade. Here I heard of US pressure to get Japan to rescind Article 9 of its constitution which prohibits any form of aggressive military action. They want an increasingly militarised Japan to counter a US-perceived “arc of instability” stretching from Palestine to North Korea. It involves increasingly aggressive arms, including the deployment of Patriot missiles even in public parks set aside for children’s play, and counter-terrorism. The US delegates also told of a “Complex 2030” plan, whereby US$150 billion dollars will be put aside to raise US nuclear weapons production to the highest Cold War levels (back up to 32,000 warheads as against 5000 now). Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans spoke of astronomical cancer rates in their territory where depleted uranium weapons were developed and tested.We also heard how investors throughout the world are drawn into collaboration with this military expansion through high returns from investment in componentry which contributes to new techniques such as laser sights in “smart” weapons. Here, I had to admit that New Zealand is involved through government support for such investment and production, through special incentives for local and overseas firms and even through links with NZ Superannuation Fund investments.A moving adjournment from the meetings took us to Passchendaele, Ypres and then to a vigil at a burial site at Vladslo where 25,644 German soldiers are buried, a fraction of the more than five hundred thousand young men killed on both sides in the horrific conflict in that region of Europe. In the peace of an autumn forest, it seemed unbelievable that world leaders are still sending young men on such missions, but even more chilling to think that in today’s wars, it is civilians who bear most of the impact of such insanity. News of the state of emergency in Pakistan, renewed disturbance in Georgia and US sabre-rattling re Iran gave no comfort as we returned to our deliberations. One of our companions left the meeting in haste to get home to Pakistan before airports were closed.Our restarted discussions were much affected by the experience at the war cemeteries as we focussed on possible reasons why there is no real progress among world leaders to answer the call for peace among all everywhere.US speakers blamed the pervasive influence of “multinational corporate death merchants” acting to maintain their grasp on a disproportionate share of the world’s wealth. They saw the use of torture by US against its perceived enemies, duplicating similar abandonment of international law and human rights convention in other, less democratic countries, as a dramatic development in this scenario. The drafting of people into “us” and “them”, made by President George Bush in launching the invasion of Iraq, is seen everywhere in the growing demonisation of “others”. It is present in the widespread proliferation of anti-terrorist legislation and in many immigration laws, including revisions of our own.With the latter in mind, it was deeply embarrassing to read an article in the “Guardian” which gave an historical context for the recent arrests among Tuhoe and other peace and environmental activists. In linking these events to the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed legislation and resulting UN condemnation of New Zealand relating to race and diversity issues, the author was very clear that this “us/them” trend is damaging NZ’s self-promoted reputation for fair dealing and racial harmony.What then, do the events and trends noted above signify and what can we do about it?They show clearly how much we have become entangled in the interconnected corporate ownership of the world’s resources, the growing dominance of world affairs in the interests of the affluent few. Although much of the leadership comes from the United States, determined that a small minority of its 5% of the world’s people should continue to dominate more than 25% of the world’s resources, the rule of affluence has its supporters in every country, including our own.The grasp of these corporate death merchants, prepared to increase even more the peril in which we currently find ourselves, is almost complete. But their control depends on a predominant fear in our competitive, consuming community that we have more to lose than to gain by reducing the power of corporate values. The Iraqis at the meeting in Belgium told us that suffering communities with no more to lose are learning to dialogue with each other about their fears and hopes and gradually to develop a strength in civil society which can challenge and turn around the fear-based, death-dealing status quo with a spirit of collaboration and hope.Surely, we can do no less. We share a commonality of concern with all peoples at the state of the world and a common need for hope. But we who are free to do so can do more to give hope to those more deeply oppressed by affluence and repression. We must throw off our own apathy and fear of loss, recognise and advance the rights of the other to a fair share of the goods of the earth and challenge corporate power and values. We can find common purpose with people of all faiths and spiritualities who share a belief in the welfare of all. For us, Jesus’ call to “be not afraid” offers hope to others by asking Christians to put the fullness of life for all before concern for our own way of life. Today, it is a call that we ignore to the growing peril of us all.Kevin McBride