CWS Update September 2008
>>Congo: 1200 people are dying every day from the
conflict yet the media is not covering it. Help break the silence on
one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Read more
>>Sri Lanka: Food prices have doubled and trebled in the last year. How can people already spending 80-90% of their income on food survive? Read more about the people’s campaign on food prices
>>Feeding the world: “Peasants are detested by both communists and capitalists - but when it comes to productivity a small farm is unbeatable.” Read more
>>Food and GMOs: Why GM foods won’t solve the food crisis. Read more
>>WCC 60 years: The world’s ecumenical movement turns 60. Read more
>>Zimbabwe: Bishops say don’t rush political settlement but focus on ending violence and transforming politics. Read more
>>Kenya: Poor rains and this year’s political violence have led to acute food shortages. Read more
>>Food still on the menu: The issue of food - the cost and
shortages thereof - is still very much alive for most of the world’s
population. Learn more about it from CWS documentaries (vhs/video and
DVD) “The Global Banquet”, “Water, Who Owns It?” (Sri Lanka) and “Lauru
Our Land” (Solomon Islands). Contact CWS to borrow any or all of these.
>>Day of Prayer for Peace: On 21 September, churches and
communities throughout the world are committing to the International
Day of Peace through prayer, meditation and other forms of spiritual
observance. For 2008, the WCC office for the Decade to Overcome
Violence (DOV) has made available prayer and liturgical resources
developed in the context of this year’s DOV focus on the Pacific region
and its theme “Witnessing to God’s Peace”. See www/oikoumene.org and
make your own contribution.
Congo: Breaking the Silence
Untold millions of people have suffered and died in the Congo – now
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – since the 1880’s, under the
brutal reign of Belgian King Leopold II (and before that from the slave
trade). Belgian colonial rule continued to 1960 and left the country
ill-prepared for independence. Subsequent governments have proved
corrupt and failed to ensure the people can meet their basic needs. It
is estimated that internal conflict between 1998 and 2003 alone caused
the deaths of 4 million people.
According to the International Crisis Group “up to 1,200 people
continue to die each day from conflict-related causes, mostly disease
and malnutrition, but ongoing violence as well. The DRC is the site of
one of the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crises. The country
emerged from what has been called “Africa’s first world war” in 2003
when the former warring belligerents came together to form a
transitional government, but rampant corruption and pervasive state
weakness allows members of the national army and members of armed
groups alike to perpetrate abuses against civilians.
“With the help of the world’s largest and most expensive
peacekeeping operation, MONUC, the country overcame major logistic and
political challenges to hold its first free and fair elections in 40
years in July and October 2006. However, the country faces substantial
challenges, including the creation or recreation of state institutions
that are accountable to the Congolese people and the construction of an
integrated and professional army that protects civilians rather than
abuses them. Renewed violence in the east, as well as recent brutal
government crackdowns in the west, have underscored the country’s
continued fragility.”
Although the UN described Eastern Congo as the ‘world’s worst
humanitarian crisis’ in March 2005, the situation remains largely
unknown in the rest of the world – as is the main cause of the ongoing
conflict, namely the rich deposits of minerals, such as coltan (the
vital component of cell phones and laptop computers), cobalt, gold and
much more. These resources are largely being exploited illegally by
foreign governments and corporations, with the complicity of local
elites. Only a few people benefit, the local majority, especially those
who actually dig out the ores, suffers intensely and the country as a
whole is robbed of precious income.
To ‘break the silence’ about this situation, student groups in the
USA are organising a Congo Week in October during which they will
publicise the story of the DRC and its people and lobby for decisive
action to be taken to end the conflict, the hunger, disease and
displacement of people – estimated at 850,000.
CWS is planning a special effort to help ‘Break the Silence’. More information will be available in next month’s Update.
Congo: The Current Situation
The UN Information Service reports that thousands of the displaced
citizens are returning home, but lack food. “The food situation is
deteriorating and the number of children admitted to the special
centres for malnutrition cases has doubled in the last three months,”
said a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) in the DRC. The ICRC had distributed at least 680 tons of food,
along with seeds and farming implements to meet immediate food needs
and to help the people to be self-sufficient as they prepare for the
next planting season. The situation had been aggravated by the previous
bad harvest.
Aid workers were also worried about security for the returnees
following reports of militia movements, suspected to be allied to
dissident general Laurent Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of
the Congolese (CNDP), not far from the area of return. This in spite of
a peace accord signed in January. The UN mission in Congo (MONUC) says
it has information on continued recruitment by the CNDP and other
violations of the ceasefire accord arising from a ‘lack of trust
between the different parties’. These include the Forces Démocratiques
Pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), comprising groups of armed Hutu,
many of them remnants of militias largely blamed for the 1994 genocide
in Rwanda which have been active in eastern DRC for more than a decade,
and various local militias fighting to control their areas.
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Sri Lanka: People’s Campaign on Food Prices
CWS Partner in Sri Lanka, MONLAR, writes, “Food prices have begun to
reach unprecedented levels. Rice, wheat flour, bread, milk, coconuts,
coconut oil, and dhal have increased two to three times during the past
year. For poor people who are already spending 80% to 90 % of their
income on food, these increases are totally unaffordable.
“About 46% of the population in Sri Lanka receives incomes less than
the world’s poverty line of US$2 per day. About 30% of the children
below 5 years of age are malnourished, affecting development of their
brains and physical growth. The required per capita calorie intake is
2030 K.Cals (kilo calories) per day, but half the population receive
only around 1,600 K.Cals. This situation is killing the future of the
nation. The spread of such diseases as diabetes, kidney failure, heart
diseases, cancers and loss of immunity due to unhealthy, chemically
contaminated food has reached alarming rates.
“Experts worldwide have predicted that the crisis of high food
prices globally will continue, due to the behaviour of big businesses
which only look at possibilities of maximising their profits, even when
the world’s poor are facing a serious food crisis. Land that can be
used to produce human food is being transformed into biofuel production
on a massive scale. There is a rapid process of growth in converting
wheat, maize, sugar cane and other food into biofuels. Much of human
food in the form of grain is converted to animal feed, since meat eaten
by richer people brings more profit than low price human food. Further,
food production is damaged due to climate change through global warming
and hunger is aggravated by droughts, floods, storms, changed weather
conditions and reduced crop yields.”
Implementing solutions: MONLAR believes that the current situation
of near famine is a disaster created by wrong policies and failed
strategies in food production and distribution. A complete
transformation of agriculture and the way natural resources, food
production and distribution are dealt with is needed and is possible.
With many other organisations in Sri Lanka MONLAR has had many years of
experience proving that small-scale, ecologically sound agriculture is
an effective solution to the problems of food insecurity. “Ecological
rice farming,” it says, “minimising or completely eliminating the use
of chemical inputs, some using indigenous rice varieties and others
using conventional rice varieties, has been applied effectively,
leading to reductions in the cost of production and improved quality of
rice.
“Local initiatives already exist and policy-makers are being
compelled by conditions to move in the direction of such a
transformation. Obstacles that still remain are the influence of big
private businesses and policy advisers who are still advocating
neo-liberal reforms. Global advisers are beginning to admit that their
policy advice has not succeeded and the World Bank has admitted that
domestic food production should obtain high priority, going back on
their previous position of promoting export, high value crops.”
MONLAR’s campaign will build on existing, clearly worked-out
proposals for alternative sustainable development and for poverty
eradication, which have been widely discussed by farmers’, fisher
people’s and workers movements, plantation sector organisations and
women’s movements and can form a comprehensive set of alternative
development strategies. These include proposals for alternatives in the
energy sector, milk and dairy, water, health and education.
One major objective is to have food production and marketing
declared as ‘an essential service and an essential requirement of all
people’ therefore food should not be seen as a ‘commodity’ for profit
making. This is in line with the concept of the ‘right to food’ as
included in the social, economic and cultural rights of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
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Feeding the World: Objects of Contempt Our Best Chance
“Peasants are detested by both communists and capitalists - but when it comes to productivity a small farm is unbeatable.”
Discussing the issue of land reform, for example in Zimbabwe where
it has gone horribly wrong, George Monbiot, writing in The Guardian,
says, “The issue of whether or not the world will be fed is partly a
function of ownership. This reflects an unexpected discovery. It was
first made in 1962 by the Nobel economist Amartya Sen, and has since
been confirmed by dozens of studies. There is an inverse relationship
between the size of farms and the amount of crops they produce per
hectare. The smaller they are, the greater the yield.
“In some cases, the difference is enormous. A recent study of
farming in Turkey, for example, found that farms of less than one
hectare are 20 times as productive as farms of more than 10 hectares.
Sen’s observation has been tested in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Malaysia,
Thailand, Java, the Philippines, Brazil, Colombia and Paraguay. It
appears to hold almost everywhere. The finding would be surprising in
any industry, as we have come to associate efficiency with scale. In
farming it seems particularly odd, because small producers are less
likely to own machinery, less likely to have capital or access to
credit, and less likely to know about the latest techniques.” There is
no agreement as to why this is so. “The most plausible explanation,”
Monbiot continues, “is that small farmers use more labour per hectare
than big farmers. Their workforce largely consists of members of their
own families, which means that labour costs are lower than on large
farms (they don’t have to spend money recruiting or supervising
workers), while the quality of the work is higher. With more labour,
farmers can cultivate their land more intensively: they spend more time
terracing and building irrigation systems; they sow again immediately
after the harvest; and they might grow several crops in the same
field.”
Monbiot goes on to examine the outcomes of the ‘green revolution’
and of experiences in Asia, including China. “But the prejudice against
small farmers is unchallengeable,” he continues. “It gives rise to the
oddest insult in the English language: when you call someone a peasant,
you are accusing them of being self-reliant and productive. Peasants
are detested by capitalists and communists alike. Both have sought to
seize peasants’ land, and have a powerful vested interest in demeaning
and demonising them. In its profile of Turkey, the country whose small
farmers are 20 times more productive than its large ones, the UN’s Food
and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) states that, as a result of small
landholdings, ‘farm output ... remains low’. The OECD states: ‘Stopping
land fragmentation ... and consolidating the highly fragmented land is
indispensable for raising agricultural productivity.’ Neither body
provides any supporting evidence. A rootless, half-starved labouring
class suits capital very well.”
After discussing the actions of big business, for example in taking
patent rights on things like seeds, and of international bodies like
the FAO, he concludes, “For many years, well-meaning liberals have
supported the fair trade movement because of the benefits it delivers
directly to the people it buys from. But the structure of the global
food market is changing so rapidly that fair trade is now becoming one
of the few means by which small farmers in poor nations might survive.
A shift from small to large farms will cause a major decline in global
production, just as food supplies become tight. Fair trade might now be
necessary not only as a means of redistributing income, but also to
feed the world.” ( George Monbiot The Guardian, Tuesday June 10 2008)
A copy of the full article is available by email or by sending a
stamped-self-addressed envelope to CWS. And to see the issues for
yourself borrow the documentary “The Global Banquet” from CWS on
vhs/video or DVD.
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Food and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
A massive public relations campaign is underway across the globe to
try and exploit the current food crisis and concerns over climate
change to promote GMOs, undermine bans and regulatory checks and
sideline public opposition, according to ‘GM Watch’ (UK).
Genetically-modified crops are not delivering on the promised benefits
of increased yields or reduced pesticides according to Friends of the
Earth, responding to a report on the growth of GM. The report by the
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications
(ISAAA) details the rise in GM crops and the ‘contribution they are
making to tackling world hunger and poverty’.
But the Friends of the Earth report says damaging pesticides are on
the increase as a result of widespread farming of the GM plants. Rather
than tackling poverty in developing countries, much of the GM crops
grown - the vast majority of which are in the US and South America -
are used for animal feed or for biofuels. Genetically-modified soya,
maize and cotton make up 95% of the total acreage and none of the crops
introduced so far has increased yield, or enhanced nutrition,
drought-tolerance or salt-tolerance.
Because they are genetically engineered to be tolerant of pesticides
they allow farmers to spray herbicides more frequently - which in turn
encourages the growth of herbicide-resistant plants. The report claims
widespread take-up of GM crops resistant to the herbicide glyphosate.
The use of the pesticide atrazine, banned in the EU because of links to
health problems such as breast and prostate cancer, increased by 12% on
maize in the US from 2002 to 2005. It also claims GM products have not
increased food security for the world’s poor, with none of the crops on
the market modified for increasing yields.
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World Council of Churches - 60 Years
In 1948, the World Council of Churches was solemnly founded “in
order to render clearer witness together to the Lord who came to serve
all.” This is how Willem Visser ‘t Hooft, the WCC’s first general
secretary, described the Council’s vision. This vision of unity helped
bring together pre-exisiting ecumenical streams that promoted common
witness in areas of theology, Christian service, mission and education.
In the time of Jesus, the Greek word oikoumene was used to signify “the
whole inhabited earth”. The ecumenical movement today brings together
Christians of different traditions from all parts of the world. The
World Council of Churches is an expression of their common witness at
the global level. It has also encouraged the creation of forums in
which churches can meet on national or regional levels.
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Zimbabwe Bishops Call on Parties Not to Rush Settlement
The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference has called on negotiating
parties in their country not to rush into a government of national
unity, but to urgently dismantle instruments of violence, reject
impunity and usher in a new political culture in which accountability,
inclusiveness, transparency, healing and reconciliation are paramount.
"The crisis in Zimbabwe is one that was caused by exclusion from power
and from the people's right to participate in the processes that affect
their lives and from the benefits of growth and development," said the
bishops, in a statement on 15 August.
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Kenya: Tens of Thousands Facing Acute Food Shortage
Nine months on from the riots which followed last December’s
elections, tens of thousands of people are facing food scarcity in
Kenya's north Rift area, according to the Kenya Red Cross Society
(KRCS). There is an acute food shortage and the situation has been
rated as alarming. The food scarcity was attributed to poor rainfall,
drought, and high food prices. The KRCS has launched relief food aid
distribution targeting at least 68,000 people in the affected areas. So
far, it has distributed 1,246 tonnes of assorted food stuffs, including
1,152 tonnes of cereal.
Poor rains and the presence of internally displaced persons in Central
Kenya, a traditionally food-secure region, have stretched available
resources with government and humanitarian officials predicting a sharp
drop in food reserves.
This year has not been normal because of the internally displaced
persons who took refuge in the province and also due to unfavourable
climatic conditions that adversely affected our food crops," Japhter
Rugut, the Central Province commissioner said, adding that there was a
need to double the relief food rations for this year. The weather in
the area was cold and dry with very few days of scanty rainfall.
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