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Kairos Times: January 2006 Vol 5, #1
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| If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? Yet if I am for myself only, what am I? |
-- Jewish teacher Hillel |
Take action!
All the news
- Hong Kong WTO Conference ends with the beginnings of a bad deal
- Making South-North connections to overcome violence against women
- “Are you crazy?” A peacemaker returns to Iraq
- Churches’ Week for Racial Justice, March 19-26, 2006
- KAIROS Job posting: Asia/ Middle East Human Rights Program Coordinator
- Help us create a new website
- National ecumenical youth event coming up
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Walk for Water March 22! |
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This is an invitation to take community action for World Water
Day: March 22, 2006. This is a great opportunity to continue your
work on the campaign, build community, and get even more signatures
on the postcard!
World Water Day has been observed every year since 1993 on March
22. The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
in Rio de Janeiro (the Earth Summit) designated this day as a time
when nations might bring attention to and implement the recommendations
of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 dealing with the protection
of and access to fresh water.
This year, March 22 is also the last day of the World Water Forum,
a gathering of international financial institutions, multinational
corporations and governments to solve the world’s water dilemma
through the privatization of water systems.
Many groups, including KAIROS, Development and Peace, the Council
of Canadians and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, are encouraging
their networks to participate in World Water Day events this year.
KAIROS has developed a “How-to Kit” to help you plan
a Walk for Water in your community to help draw attention to the
need to keep water in public hands. Visit our website: http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/action/worldWaterDayActionKit.asp
or contact Network and Campaigns Coordinator Sara Stratton
at 1 877 403 8933 x241 or
sstratton
to see how you can get involved.
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Hong Kong WTO Conference ends with the beginnings of a bad deal |
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Negotiating teams from the 149 member states of the WTO converged in Hong Kong December 13-18th, 2005 for the 6th Ministerial Conference. The last two attempts at moving global free trade forward had ended in spectacular failure: Seattle in 1999 and Cancun in 2003.
The clock was ticking – the legitimacy of the WTO and indeed the very idea of free trade were on the table. In this pressure cooker scenario, and after a week’s worth of high drama, the ending was lukewarm at best.
There is cause for concern. The tepid deal hatched in Hong Kong validates the current unjust institution that is the WTO. Most disturbingly, the deal brings with it new dangers, particularly new ways to cement global corporate power at the expense of people, communities and the environment.
In Hong Kong faith-based communities and organizations, including KAIROS, came together at the Ecumenical Conference on Globalizing Economic Justice and Social Sustainability. To read their final statement go to: http://www.cca.org.hk/home1.htm
KAIROS was also invited to speak at the Ecumenical Women’s Forum on Life-Promoting Trade sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance and others. KAIROS, and representatives from the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada joined church women from around the world to reflect on free trade and discern an alternative vision. Upon conclusion of the Forum, representatives sent a letter to WTO Director Pascal Lamy. To read the letter in PDF format go to: http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/economic/trade/stmWomensForumWTO0512.pdf
The next Global Economic Justice Report is due out in February and will provide a detailed analysis of what happened in Hong Kong, its significance and what’s next in the upside down world of global free trade. To receive a complimentary copy, please contact orders
For more information contact Rusa Jeremic, Global Economic Justice
Program Coordinator,
rjeremic
or 416 463 5312, ext. 225.
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Making South-North connections to overcome violence against women |
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KAIROS and Canadian Crossroads International are organizing a capacity- building and solidarity exchange between the Uganda-based African Women's Economic Policy Network (AWEPON) and Toronto-based Low Income Families Together (LIFT). These two groups will look at violence against women, including the many ways in which unjust economics are a form of violence against women.
Josephine Gray of LIFT will travel to East and Southern Africa to learn from AWEPON's network and share gender dimensions of LIFT's anti-poverty work in Canada as one part of a number of similar exchanges. African and Canadian women will conclude their respective exchanges at a violence against women conference in Swaziland on International Women's Day, March 8th. The conference, supported by UNIFEM, will assess and deepen the respective exchange experiences, mark the 25th anniversary of the UN's Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and draw attention to Swazi women's groups who are addressing violence against women and expanding democratic space in Swaziland.
The first phase of the exchange occurred in Canada last October with the visit of AWEPON's Elizabeth Eilor to Canada. Canadian Crossroads International, the International Development Research Centre, and the Africa Canada Forum have all contributed to this exciting exchange.
For more information contact Jim Davis, Program Coordinator, Africa Partnerships, at 416-463-5312 X 238 or jdavis
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“Are you crazy?” A peacemaker returns to Iraq |
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A note from Allan Slater, a farmer, peace activist, and member of the KAIROS community. Allan has returned to Iraq as a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). Here is a letter that he sent before his departure. We invite thoughts and prayers for his safety, for the safe return of the four CPT hostages, and above all for the true security and an end to violence for the people of Iraq. Learn more at http://www.cpt.org
January 15, 2006-- "Are you crazy?" Heather Rivers-Harron, a reporter for the Woodstock Sentinel-Review asked me a few days ago. Heather is a good journalist. It was a good question asked out of a genuine concern. I do not think I answered the question well at the time but I have given it some thought since.
Am I crazy to be heading back to Iraq on January 20? I am not crazy enough to think that my presence in Iraq will miraculously bring peace to Iraqis, get young American soldiers home to their loved ones and free our four missing comrades. But war is crazy. People who have experienced the chaos and trauma of war can be driven crazy. Journalists speak with political leaders who contemplate war. Citizens write letters to political leaders who contemplate war. In a quiet respectful tone, we need to ask those people who start wars, are you crazy?
I am returning to Iraq for two months. Norman Kember, Harmeet Sooden, Tom Fox and Jim Loney are still missing. Team members who have been present in Iraq through these difficulties need a break. I will be replacing Greg Rollins from Vancouver who will be back in Canada about January 23. We believe our friends will be released. They will come home to our apartment in Baghdad where we have lived for several years. Fellow CPT volunteers will be there to welcome them home.
We choose to live outside the protected walls of the green zone with the people of Iraq so we can experience some of their realities. We did not wish for the experience of having four people detained. But that is the reality of Iraq. Tens of thousands of ordinary Iraqis have been arrested in violent raids and detained in US operated prisons. The secrecy surrounding the whole situation leads us to believe the detainees are being denied any reasonable due process by the US government.
Please, I am asking for your thoughts and prayers:
For all the detainees in Iraq,
For our missing comrades,
For my family, of whom I ask so much,
And for CPT volunteers in Iraq.
Those thoughts and prayers make our work possible.
Thanks so much.
Allan Slater
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Churches’ Week for Racial Justice, March 19-26, 2006 |
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March 21 is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination. Racism remains a reality throughout Canadian society—including
the churches. That’s why the Canadian Ecumenical Anti Racism
Network (CEARN), of which KAIROS is a member, has called for a Canadian
Churches' RACIAL JUSTICE WEEK 2006. To be held March 19 - 26, 2006,
the Week includes a 37-page free kit that offers worship, sermon-writing
ideas, Bible Study, and children’s resources. You can download
it here: http://www.ccc-cce.ca/english/downloads/God_so_loved.pdf
The Week and the kit of resources is the fruit of five years of
learning, reflecting and acting together in the Canadian Ecumenical
Anti-Racism Network (CEARN). If you and your faith community do
participate in the Week in any way, please let us know. We need
your feedback and ideas—we are all in this struggle together.
You can contact any of the CEARN members through http://www.ccc-cce.ca/english/justice/racism.htm
or get in touch with Julie Graham, Education Programs Coordinator,
at 1 877 403 8933 x233 or
jgraham
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Job posting: Asia/ Middle East Human Rights Program Coordinator |
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This is a re-posting of our August 2005 job posting. We encourage you to bring this opportunity to the attention of anyone you feel would be a good candidate for this position. Please see the detailed job description at http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/support/jobMideast-re.asp.
The closing date is February 8th, 2006. Please note that applications
will only be accepted by email to
tdineen
or by mail to Therese Dineen, KAIROS: 129 St. Clair
Ave West, Toronto, Ontario M4V 1N5
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Help KAIROS create a new website! |
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Our website is our home, and for the rest of 2006 KAIROS will be doing major renovations to our electronic house. Our site’s look, its content, the way info is organized… all of that and more is up for renovation. But since we aren’t one of those expert home renovation TV shows we need your help to write the renovation plan. We’ve set up a survey designed to tell us more about who uses the site, and to help you tell us what we can do to make the site better. Please take the twenty or so minutes needed to fill out the survey. If you want to give us your email at the end of it, we’ll enter you for our Grand Prize Draw for a Fabulous Prize.
All survey responses are totally confidential. Just click on this
link when you have the time to sit down and do some thinking: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=245981532029
We thank you in advance, and if you want more information, please
contact Julie Graham, Education Program Coordinator, at 1 877 403
8933 or
jgraham
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National ecumenical youth event coming up |
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If you’re a youth or young adult, expand your view and check out the cross-Canada, cross-church, diverse happening called NIDUS at http://www.ccc-cce.ca/english/youth/index.htm
Be there. What more can we say?
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