Special Representative Virginia Gamba stated that “once again children paying the highest price and the COVID-19 pandemic has put an additional burden on them, their families and communities all over the world”.
“Now more than ever we must all act to protect children and support all international efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, particularly in situations of armed conflict”, she asserted.
“I join the UN Secretary-General in his appeal for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world — UN envoy
Ms. Gamba pointed to several incidents, including in Libya, where “the few functional health facilities engaged in the COVID-19 response in Tripoli and Benghazi were repeatedly hit and damaged by shelling”.
And last week in Cameroon, she recalled that “several children were reportedly killed, and several others wounded when a school was attacked in the South-West Region”.
Meanwhile in Somalia, attacks against schools and hospitals by Al-Shabaab continue at “an alarming rate, often in conjunction with other grave violations, such as the abduction and recruitment of children”, added the Special Representative.
“In Afghanistan, indiscriminate attacks on schools, universities and other educational facilities are taking place despite the beginning of historic peace talks”, she continued.
Just today, gunmen disguised as police officers stormed Kabul University, taking hostages, and killing and wounding people.
Keep schools safe
Parties to conflict, whether Governmental forces or non-State armed groups, must keep schools and hospitals safe and not use them for military purposes, urged the UN envoy.
“I join the UN Secretary-General in his appeal for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world and, once again, call upon all parties to conflict to abide by their obligations under international law and prevent attacks against education and health facilities, as wellas other civilian infrastructure and protected personnel”, she concluded.
Tuesday, 3 November 2020, 9:17 am Press Release: Oratia Books
New Zealand author-illustrator duo Dawn McMillan and Ross
Kinnaird will see the latest in their bestselling series of
hilarious ‘bum’ children’s picture books release
simultaneously in North
America, the UK, Ireland,
Australia and New Zealand at the start of 2021.
New
York-based Dover Publications and London-based Scholastic UK
jumped at the opportunity to purchase rights for My Bum
is SO NOISY! from originating publisher Oratia
Books,
after previous titles I Need a New Bum
and I’ve Broken by Bum achieved bestseller status
internationally.
Packed with laugh-out-loud rhymes and
zany illustrations, their latest creation follows our hero
on comical adventures caused by his bum and the astounding
and uncontrollable noises
it makes, building to a
crescendo of hilarity.
The first print run for My
Bum is SO NOISY! will be over 120,000 copies
globally.
“Now more than ever, we could all do with
a laugh – and Dawn and Ross’ books bring laughter in
abundance,” says Fiz Osborne, Editorial Director,
Illustrated Books for Scholastic UK. “We can’t wait to
share My Bum is SO NOISY! with readers next
year.”
Dawn McMillan conjures up the storylines of
the Bum books from her coastal home outside Thames, and Ross
Kinnaird brings them to life from his waterside studio on
Auckland’s North Shore.
“It’s been wonderful to see
the series reach so many readers worldwide, and we hope that My Bum is SO NOISY! will bring more fun and laughter
to kids and adults alike,” they say.
Oratia publisher
Peter Dowling reports that CITIC Press also plans to publish
the new book in China in early 2021.
“We’re
thrilled to be part of Dawn and Ross’ international
success, which proves the appeal of Kiwi creativity
worldwide,” he says.
My Bum is SO
NOISY! By Dawn McMillan and Ross
Kinnaird. Published by Oratia
Books
Publication: early 2021 | ISBN:
978-0-947506-81-0 | RRP
$19.99
20 years of independent publishing is a milestone, but your support is essential to keep Scoop thriving. We are building on our offering with thedig.nz our new In-depth Engaged Journalism platform. Now, more than ever sustainable financial support of the Scoop Foundation for Public Interest Journalism will help to keep these vital and participatory media services running.
(Photo: REUTERS / Gil Cohen Magen)Archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel speaks to the media at Elah Fortress or Khirbet Qeiyafa, some 20 km (12 miles) from Jerusalem, November 2, 2008. Archaeologists in Israel said on Thursday they had unearthed the oldest Hebrew text ever found, while excavating a fortress city overlooking a valley where the Bible says David slew Goliath.
Archeologists have uncovered one of the earliest churches in the Holy Land at the foot of breathtaking waterfalls in the scenic Banias Nature Reserve in Israel’s north.
The church is at a site traditionally believed to be where Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom of Heaven, Christian Today reported.
The rare circa AD 400 Byzantine church was build atop a Roman-era temple to Pan, the Greek god from whom the park takes its name, The Times of Israel reported.
Christian builders in the 4th-5th century modified the Roman pagan temple to fit the needs Christianity, a relatively new religion at the time, University of Haifa Professor Adi Erlich said in a brief Hebrew-language video announcing the find.
Erlich posits that the church was built to commemorate Jesus’s interactions with Peter.
It is in this region that Jesus directed Peter with establishing Christianity with the famous phrase, “You are Peter, and, on this rock, I will build my Church… I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven,” recorded in the Gospel of Matthew 16:18.
The church suffered damage through an earthquake at one point, but was renovated in the 7th century, a press release on the site said.
Israel Nature and Parks Authority head of heritage and archaeology Dr. Iosi Bordowicz said that the Banias National Park has stunning archaeology, spreading from the Roman period through the Crusader era.
Bordowicz said the finds will be conserved and made accessible to the many thousands of tourists who in non-COVID-19 times visit the breathtaking waterfalls from all over the world.
“Public health is more than medicine and science and it is bigger than any individual and there is hope that if we invest in health systems…we can bring this virus under control and go forward together to tackle other challenges of our times”, UN World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in a regular press briefing.
Speaking via video conference from self-quarantine, having himself been in recent contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, the symptom-free WHO chief noted that over the weekend cases spiked in some countries in Europe and North America.
“This is another critical moment for action…for leaders to step up…for people to come together for a common purpose”, he said. “Seize the opportunity, it’s not too late”.
He also flagged that where cases are going up exponentially and hospitals reaching capacity “patients and health workers alike” are at risk.
“We need countries to again invest in the basics so that measures can be lifted safely and Governments can hopefully avoid having to take these measures again”, the UN agency chief asserted.
As some countries are putting in place measures to ease the pressure of health systems, he attested that building “stronger systems ensuring quality testing, tracing and treatment measures are all key”.
“WHO will keep working to drive forward science, solutions and solidarity”, the WHO chief concluded.
Battling COVID
To understand more about how hospitals can prepare and cope with COVID-19, three guests spoke about how their countries were coping with the pandemic.
The Republic of Korea went from the second highest caseload of coronavirus patients globally to one of the lowest – without having to lock down the country – by drawing on lessons it learned from the 2015 MERS COVID outbreak, according to Yae-Jean Kim, Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunodeficiency Department of Pediatrics, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine.
In addition to rapid PCR swab testing and rapid isolation, she explained that physicians for the Republic of Korea, among other things, developed “drive-through testing facilities”; had a community treatment centre for milder cases; prepared public hospitals for high-risk communicable diseases; and had private hospitals pick up overload cases.
From South Africa, Mervyn Mer, Principal Specialist at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, University of the Witwatersrand, said they worked within their capacity to reach the greatest number of people.
Since the pandemic struck South Africa months after other countries, they used their time to draw up a protocol to maximize “everything we feasibly could”, including expanding the capacity of existing hospitals as opposed to putting up field hospitals, he said.
Meanwhile, new WHO staff member Marta Lado, an infectious disease specialist and chief medical officer of Partners In Health in Sierra Leone, underscored that the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak had that country how to manage infectious diseases through contact tracing, surveillance, critical care and PPE use.
“One of the most important lessons learned is how we were able to develop a critical care training” that covered monitoring patients vital signs and for shock as well as ventilation and oxygen, she detailed.
The NRM is presenting to you a Manifesto for the period of 2021-2026. This Manifesto builds on the big successes of the NRM ever since 1965 when we formed a Student Movement, on the basis of new principles, having come out of the old Political Parties of DP, UPC and Kabakka Yekka, that were based on sectarianism of religion, tribe and gender chauvinism.
Over the years, this Student Movement, came to understand the long journey of 4½ million years of the human race, on this Earth, as well as Africa’s position in that long journey.
In the speech I gave to the Conference in Namboole on the 25th of January, 2020, I pointed out to the country how the human being, initially only living in Africa until about 100,000 years ago, used his unique characteristics of his big brain, a hand that can shape things by holding and working and his bi-pedalism (walking on two legs), to make tools (stone, hammer, chisel, etc.) and use those tools to do work for purposes of producing or catching food (hunting, fishing, agriculture) and improving his quality of life. In that effort, he was assisted by the continuous discovery of new technologies that used the laws of nature to assist production (the invention of fire 1.5million years ago, iron in the year 1200 BC etc.). These continuous discoveries changed the way of living of man and the way he was producing wealth and food or he was catching food (hunting, fishing). The invention of fire enabled man to descend from the trees and live in caves; enabled people to cook (kuteeka), roast (kwootsya), kukara (dry on fire), kutarika (grilling, to smoke), kujumbika (earth-oven, cooking pit), rather than eating the food raw (kukoota, kumeketa); and, eventually, enabled man to get the hard metal of iron (ekyooma) out of the iron ore, a rock or soil, known as obutare.
This ability of man to discover new technologies, reached a watershed point (a revolutionary boundary point) in the year 1440, when a German man by the names of Johannes Gutenburg, invented a Printing Press. Most of the previous tools were powered by human muscle. However, the Printing Press used technology of a screw press. In the year 1698, Thomas Savery, a person from England, invented the water pump that was being powered by condensing steam. Eventually, by the year 1812-1813, the water pump technology, was developed into the steam-engine technology that, started pulling trains. This change by part of the human race from the use of the muscle-power to machine power, came to be known as the Industrial Revolution – the first Industrial Revolution. The second Industrial Revolution was the invention of electricity and the third one was the automation of machines. The human race, is now entering the 4th Industrial Revolution of Artificial Intelligence, machines that have got artificial brains.
This is great for the human race. However, the problem is that Africa, the pioneer of civilization, the origin of the human race, had missed out on these water-shed phenomena. Why? Two reasons. The first, the failure by our indigenous rulers to detect the new danger of Europeans that broke out of Western Europe, blocked by the Ottoman Turks that captured Constantinople (Istanbul) in the year 1453 AD, when they started looking for a Sea route to the East (Asia) to replace the Marco-Polo land route that had been blocked by the Turks. These chiefs, failed to unite us to fight this new danger. Instead, putting on leopard and lion skins, pretending to be those animals in courage, they were busy fighting one another.
Secondly, at the very moment new inventions were being made in Europe and China, Africa came under assault by these new arrivals, starting with the bombardment of Mombasa by Vasco Da Gama on the 7th of April 1498, on his way to India. Indeed, the first slaves were taken from Sierra Leone in the year 1652. By 1862, when the first European arrived in Uganda, Uganda was still a three class society of farmers (livestock and crops) and fishermen, Artisans (black smiths, carpenters, banogoozi – ceramics, bashakiizi – herbalists, bakomagyi – bark cloth makers etc.) and the feudal rulers. The Europeans had used the 400 years since Columbus and Vasco Da Gama, to advance in Science (the steam engine, quinine etc.) and military technology (breech-loaders and the maxim machine gun).
Our chiefs, had misused the 400 years, fighting one another; but the Europeans, had used those 400 years to discover answers to our only reliable defenders: the long-distances of Africa and its jungle, rivers and forests; the mosquitoes and the tsetse flies; and the ferocious-tribesmen, but poorly led by the chiefs, poorly armed and isolated from one another by the same myopic chiefs but also by the difficult terrain.
By 1900, the Conquest of the whole of Africa was complete, except for Ethiopia. As I have told Ugandans repeatedly, this conquest of Africa was potentially fatal. Many of the other Peoples that were conquered, never survived. The Red Indians of North America, the Aztecs of Mexico, the Incas of Peru, the Indians of Bolivia, the Indians of Brazil, the Caribes of the Caribbean, the Aborigines of Australia, the Maoris of New-Zealand, etc. Many of these groups were either exterminated or are still greatly marginalized. Their languages and cultures were replaced by European languages and cultures. The languages in use now in those lands are: English, Spanish, Portuguese and French and not the indigenous languages of those peoples.
By the 1950s, part of Kenya was being called the “White Highlands”. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia were being paraded around as White Countries. Angola, Mozambique, Guinnea Bissau and Cape Verde and Sao Tome were “Overseas Provinces of Portugal”. The complicating and redeeming factor in Africa were the genes of the Africans and the advanced civilization of Africa. We could not easily die because our cattle, goats, chicken, that stayed with us in our huts, had long inoculated us against the zoonotic diseases. We, therefore, survived in spite of the slave trade, the genocide, the colonial wars, the hard labour etc.
When we, therefore, met at Igongo as CEC on the 23rd of December, 2018, I proposed to CEC in the Paper I presented, that while addressing the issues of Uganda’s Political – Social – Economic metamorphosis, we should ask the following questions:
How was Uganda’s economy in 1900?
How was it in 1962-1971?
How was the economy in 1986?
How is it now?
Where do we intend to take it? And what stimuli shall we use to achieve our goals?
This way of erecting milestones, can help us discipline the discussion. The Manifesto is a voluminous and comprehensive document that has dealt with these questions following my proposal to them. I thank the Manifesto Committee so much that was led by Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu.
Abi took up the post of chief reporter at Farmers Guardian after a stint working for the NFU as part of its government affairs team. …Load More
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EU pledges to learn lessons from coronavirus pandemic with new food security plan
The plan, designed to ensure a continued supply of safe, affordable and nutritious food during crises, will be put together by the Commission alongside a broader Farm to Fork Strategy.
The Farm to Fork Strategy aims to make food systems fairer, healthier and more environmentally friendly, and is part of the European Green Deal which sets out a roadmap to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.
A statement on the European Commission website launching the strategy said: “Food systems cannot be resilient to crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic if they are not sustainable.
“We need to redesign our food systems which today account for nearly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, consume large amounts of natural resources, result in biodiversity loss and negative health impacts (due to both under- and over-nutrition) and do not allow fair economic returns and livelihoods for all actors, in particular for primary producers.”
The strategy is very wide-ranging, including targets to reduce the use of pesticides by 50 per cent, fertiliser by 20 per cent and sales of antimicrobials for farmed animals by 50 per cent by 2030.
Animal welfare legislation, including on transport and slaughter, is to be revised and certification and labelling on the sustainability performance of food products introduced.
A new set of ‘eco-schemes’ will be developed for farmers, offering funding to boost sustainable practices such as precision agriculture, agro-ecology and agro-forestry, while new revenue streams for sequestering carbon will also be created.
The document goes on to recommend that member states make ‘more targeted’ use of VAT rates to improve diets, by supporting organic fruit and vegetables.
There is a strong focus in the strategy on ensuring other countries move towards sustainable practices alongside the EU.
Importer
The Commission statement said: “The EU is the biggest importer and exporter of agri-food products and the largest seafood market in the world.
“The production of commodities can have negative environmental and social impacts in the countries where they are produced.
“Therefore, efforts to tighten sustainability requirements in the EU food system should be accompanied by policies which help raise standards globally, in order to avoid the externalisation and export of unsustainable practices.”
Proposals to meet this aim include examining EU rules to reduce dependency on soya grown on deforested land and reviewing import tolerances for certain plant protection products.
In his homily at Mass for the commemoration of the deceased faithful, in the Church of the Teutonic Cemetery in the Vatican, Pope Francis made the prophet Job’s words his own, and explained that Christian hope is a free gift of the Lord that we must ask for, an “anchor that we have on the other side, where Jesus awaits us”.
In moments of joy as well as in moments of trial, even when death is approaching, “let us repeat, as Job did: I know that my Redeemer lives, and I will see Him with my own eyes”. This is Christian hope, the Pope said, a gift that only the Lord can give us, if we ask Him for it. Today, “in the thought of so many brothers and sisters who have died, it will do us good to look up”.
This was the message at the heart of Pope Francis’ homily during Mass for the deceased faithful, celebrated on Monday afternoon, All Souls’ Day, in the church of the Pontifical Teutonic College of Santa Maria in Camposanto. The Pope then prayed at the tombs of the Vatican cemetery and in the Vatican Grottoes, at the tombs of the deceased Pontiffs.
He commented on the passage from the First Reading of today’s liturgy, taken from the Book of the Prophet Job, who though “defeated”, expresses a certainty: “I know that my Redeemer lives and that, in the end, He will stand on Earth”. Pope Francis explained that Job is feeling “lower, lower, and lower”, but that at that moment “there is that embrace of light and warmth that reassures him: “I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another.”
The Pope underlined that this certainty, that arrives almost at the moment of the end of life “is Christian hope”. This hope is a gift, and “we cannot have it”, we must ask for it: “Lord, give me hope”. There are many ugly things that lead us to despair, to believe that everything will be a final defeat, that after death there is nothing, said the Pope, “but the voice of Job returns.”
Pope Francis went on to explain that Paul told us that hope does not disappoint. Hope attracts us and gives meaning to life. Hope is God’s gift that draws us towards life, towards eternal joy. Hope is an anchor that we have on the other side: we sustain ourselves by clinging onto its rope. I know that my Redeemer is alive and I will see him, and this must be repeated it in moments of joy and in moments of trial, in moments of death.
Hope, adds the Pope, “is a free gift that we never deserve: it is given, it is given. It is grace”. And in the passage from John’s Gospel, Jesus confirms “this hope that does not disappoint: ‘All that the Father gives me will come to me. This is the purpose of hope: to go to Jesus”. The Lord, concluded the Pontiff, is He “who receives us there, where there is an anchor. Life in hope is living like this: clinging, with the rope in your hand, strong, knowing that the anchor is there”.
Today, thinking of so many brothers and sisters who have died, it will do us good to look at the cemeteries and look up and repeat, as Job did: “I know that my Redeemer lives and I will see him, myself; my eyes will contemplate him, and not another”. And this is the strength that gives us hope, this free gift that is the virtue of hope. May the Lord give it to us all.
The rector’s address
In his greeting, at the beginning of the celebration, the rector of the Teutonic college, Monsignor Hans-Peter Fischer, pointed out that the participants attending the celebration in the small church are “in communion with all those who have gone before us and who sleep the sleep of peace here, our holy neighbours next door who remind us every day that we ‘drink’ the time of life, we still live it”.
The rector told the Pope that in the college, the guest priests, scholars of Christian archaeology and Church history, come “from different cultures and peoples,” and explained that they all “speak different languages.” the differences, he continued, are many, but nothing “has prevented us from meeting and being happy to be together”, because “we know that Someone makes us brothers and sisters”. In expressing his joy and gratitude for the presence of the Pope, “pilgrim among pilgrims.” He concluded expressing the will of all those present to be in tune with the Pope and his teaching, “welcoming the great gift of his tenderness as a father and friend”.
The prayers of the faithful
During the prayers of the faithful, the assembly turnede to the Lord in prayer for the Pope, so that “His instinct, the Holy Spirit” and the love of the Christian people, “may continue to support and guide him” in “his work of purification of the Church”. For the migrants, “so that with their lives torn apart, fleeing wars, natural disasters and persecutions, they may be welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated because something can be learned from everyone and no one is useless”. And then for all of us, “so that the pain, uncertainty, fear and awareness of our own limits” brought by the pandemic may lead us “to rethink our lifestyles, our relationships, the organization of our societies and above all the meaning of our existence”.
The final prayer was for the people of God, that “they may experience a Church that is more human and closer, a family style community that inhabits the labours of people and families, so that it may be a presence that knows how to unite love to truth and love to every man and woman”, and for all the dead, “for the dead without voice and without name, so that God the Father may welcome them into eternal peace, where there is neither anxiety nor pain”.
DUBAI – From gender parity to religious tolerance, Canadian Ambassador to the UAE Marcy Grossman has a busy agenda from the embassy in Abu Dhabi.The Jewish civil servant arrived in Dubai as the consul-general in 2018, but within a year was promoted to ambassador, moving to the UAE capital. The timing could not have been more auspicious.“I don’t believe in chance, but I believe we are all in the right place at the right time, so I am sure that’s really why I’m here,” she says. A public servant of 30 years, she has spent the majority of her career in the US, including Miami and Denver, before returning to Ottawa in 2016 to work on Canada’s presence in the upcoming Dubai Expo, slated for 2020, though now postponed to 2021.It was seen as an unusual choice of posting by some around her, to choose a Muslim country that they perceived to not yet be open to the Jewish faith, but Grossman felt drawn to the UAE. “I felt Dubai was calling me; as if it would be the pinnacle of my career, even if at the time, I wasn’t sure what exactly that was.”Her first posting in the Middle East has been a whirlwind. One of only roughly seven female ambassadors in the UAE alongside around 100 men, she feels she has much to do for Canada – as a woman and a person of faith.“Two months into my arrival in Dubai, there was the story in Bloomberg about the secret synagogue coming out of the shadows, so not only did I know I was a female diplomat in a male-dominated environment, I had the opportunity to embrace my culture and religion, which was very exciting,” she says.She admits it was a liberating time. “It’s always a responsibility to be authentic to who you are and I’ve always had to manage my ‘Jewishness,’” she admits. But now, the country where many Jews once hid their religious identity, has now given them the opportunity to publicly embrace their faith. cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: ’36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b’ }).render(‘4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6’); });“With my name, everyone pretty much knew I was Jewish and I didn’t hide it, but of course I will be a little more open now,” she adds.During 2019, she witnessed the announcement that Abu Dhabi would be home to the Abrahamic Family House, comprising a synagogue, church and mosque in the grand complex, the pope made his first historic visit to the region, and the UAE was enveloped in a mantra of peace and tolerance.“By the time the Abraham Accords were announced, I had seen there was already a lot of relationship-building going on, especially through my involvement in the Jewish community,” she says. “I knew Israel had a presence at IRENA [the International Renewable Energy Agency], that Israeli business people were coming and at the government level, there were connections, so I always expected that this was going to lead to something, although, I was shocked like everyone else when it was announced. I think it was a very close-held decision.”More than the decision, she has been most surprised by the speed of progress, with the likes of high-level research collaboration in areas including AI and health, as well as foreign investment, plans for 28 flights a week between the two countries and a rapid influx of Jewish and Israeli tourists and business people. As Canada already has a large Jewish population and a close relationship with Israel, she says the trilateral relationship she can now help facilitate, feels close to her heart. But one cause even closer to her heart is that of women’s empowerment and being an ambassador for Canada’s feminist foreign policy. The Abraham Accords brought that home even harder.“When we saw the delegations for the Abraham Accords, there were a lot of men,” she says. “There are still gaps in many places; military, politics, diplomacy, in every field. I lead from the prism of being a woman in a man’s world.”Though the UAE’s cabinet and government offices have far better gender parity than any other country in the Gulf, when it comes to diplomacy, Grossman is vastly outnumbered. She has female Canadian counterparts heading missions in Amman, Beirut, Washington, London and Paris, but this is not so representative of other nations. “I’m a bit of a novelty here,” she smiles. While ministers such as Reem al Hashimi and Noura al Kaabi have made a strong statement on the international political stage for the UAE in terms of the importance they place on gender equality, there is still much to be done for gender parity around the world, says Grossman.“We’ve seen that boards with women are more successful in business, governments with more women have policies which better reflect the interests of women, and the same in diplomacy. There is more opportunity to get diverse opinions, to promote inclusion, and represent the other 50% of voices.”Most of all, she says it is critical for peace. “The more women involved in peacemaking, when they’re at the decision-making table, the more peace there is,” she says.Involving more women in major global accords such as the Abraham Accords, she says is critical for peace to endure. “It’s with great personal pride that I’m here at this time. I feel the Abraham Accords are a bold step in diplomatic efforts to reaffirm peace in the whole region.”
In the Philippines, the death toll from the world’s most powerful cyclone this year has climbed to 20 so far. As super Typhoon Goni lashed the country over the weekend, some 13,000 shanties and houses were damaged or swept away in the eastern region that was first hit by the ferocious storm.
Albay and Catanduanes provinces, south of the capital Manila, took the brunt of gusts of up to 310 kph and accounted for all deaths. More that 400,000Civil defence officials estimate about 370,000 people have been displaced. The 18th storm to hit the Philippines this year, evoked memories of Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, and displaced more than 5 million in the central Philippines in November 2013.
“It is a very sad situation because many have lost their homes, have lost everything and would like to rebuild their homes,” said Brother Joseph A. Salando of Legazpi Diocese in Albay province. Speaking to Vatican News on the phone, he explained that many lost their homes and everything, and were left with only what they were wearing. Hence, they need food, clothes and material to rebuild their homes.
Brother Salando spoke about destruction everywhere. Many survivors found shelter in public schools, others in parishes, many of whose churches were damaged. One had most of its roof blown away and inside it was a mess. A parish was sheltering some 30 families who requested to be accommodated for two more days.
Listen to Brother Joseph Salando
He also spoke about the resilience of the people to be back on their feet. He said they are coping with the situation by saving what they can. He saw two families preparing dinner with pork from a pig that drowned.
Complex calamity of typhoon and pandemic
The string of typhoons that hit the Philippines this year, comes at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic is straining the nation’s financial and logistical resources, making the typhoon relief work very difficult. With 2,298 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection on Monday, the total has surged past number to 385,400, with more than 7,200 deaths. With the displaced sheltered in schools and parishes, there is fear of a surge in infections.
With the Covid-19 pandemic and typhoon, they are going through a “complex calamity”, Brother Salando said. People who have taken shelter in evacuation centres, public schools and churches, find it difficult to maintain social distancing.
This is arguably the touchiest issue when it comes to religion. There are those who take an uncompromising position against anything that they believe started after the death of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Let us call them hardliners (for lack of a better term). On the other hand, there are those who see no problem in certain practices so long as they serve a good purpose. Let us call them enthusiasts (for the same reason). Everybody is aware of the acrimonious nature of the old conflict between the two. But there is much more controversy than there needs to be.
The problem can easily be resolved given cooperation from both sides – for either side, at one time or another, is guilty of transgression here. So long as the enthusiasts do not bother anybody else and do not insist on others joining them, there ought to be no problem. The hardliners must refrain from interfering or unnecessarily giving their opinion when it is not sought. It is one thing to choose not to participate in something that one deems improper (more power to one), but to deliberately make a scene by calling in question the faith of somebody else is not only uncalled for but counterproductive as well.
There is plenty of leeway when it comes to temporal matters, but if something is presented as part of religion, then one must be prepared to back it up with evidence. Taking offence when somebody demands proof for something being a religious activity is by no means an appropriate attitude.
Let us take rituals such as qul and chaaleeswaan as familiar examples. Those who stage it are obviously convinced about its advisability or are following (in their view) a time-honoured tradition; else, why would they hold it? In addition, they are in an emotional state of mind after the loss of their dearly departed. Now, it is one thing to believe that the practice is un-Islamic, but those who point that out on the spot should hardly be shocked when they fail to become heroes of those on the other side. But at the same time the enthusiasts, on their part, must also make sure that they do not take offence when their invitation to join such activities is politely declined. And of course, they must not present such practices as mandatory, failing to participate in which is to the detriment of somebody’s faith.
When it comes to academic debates however, there is an important limit to the validity of ‘What is the harm in it?’ retort. For starters, if there is no use of something, then that is harm enough. But more significantly, whether there is harm in some activity or not depends on its nature. Much bad blood can be avoided by being clear on the answer to a simple question: whether the advocate of a ritual considers it a religious activity or not (for every religious act there are a hundred cultural traditions in a society). If the answer is no, then there is no cause for further debate. So long as the thing does not harm anybody else, it can hardly be objected to. However, if the answer is yes, then the advocate must be prepared to justify the activity as a religious one. Here, it must be borne in mind that for something to qualify as religion it must have a warrant to that effect from Allah and his messengers. Anything less, and the advocate has failed to prove that it is indeed a religious matter. A useful rule-of-thumb is this: In the worldly sphere, everything which is not forbidden is allowed; while in the religious domain, everything which is not allowed is forbidden. There is plenty of leeway when it comes to temporal matters, but if something is presented as part of religion, then one must be prepared to back it up with evidence. Taking offence when somebody demands proof for something being a religious activity is by no means an appropriate attitude.
On an ironic note, there is hardly anything innovative about these innovations. Adherents of all religions invariably recycle the same old things, sometimes in a thinly disguised manner but often extremely obviously. Take birthdays of religious figures: Christians have their Christmas. Many Muslims have their milaad-un-nabi. Followers of other religions have also celebrated the birthdays of their real or imaginary founders. While I do not intend to comment on other religions, a lot is to be said about those who propose to commemorate Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) by celebrating his birthday, after the extensive arrangement for his remembrance (made by God Himself), where the Prophet’s name resonates five times every day from all mosques in every part of the globe with millions of Muslims praying for him in between. In the obsession between mandatory and forbidden (with nothing in between), it is easy to forget that some practices, like this one, could be in questionable taste. As was pointed out by an intellect, there is no one day for the Prophet (peace be upon him); every hour, every day, and every year is his.
