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Yearly Archives: 2019

The Mafias.The Sea routes for drugs.

The drug-mafias have become experts in organization and logistical planning for the management of the dispatch and distribution of drugs by sea. The Sea Route 10, the Narco-Highway. The international drugs trade uses, for the most part, a means of transport that has been in use since time immemorial, that of maritime vessels, used today…

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Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Nobel Peace Prize 2019.

In February 2018, in the midst of ongoing political turmoil, few could have predicted the radical political change of direction Ethiopia would experience within a matter of weeks. The election in March 2018 of Abiy Ahmed as Chairman of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and consequently the country’s Prime Minister heralded the…

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Music. Noa. Seeds of peace.

Deeply rooted in the land and culture of his ancestors, Achinoam Nini, known in the world of art as Noa, is still sending out a message of peace that involves all of us. The western world came to know of her when, in 1994, with her own special grace and simplicity, she performed her own…

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Nigerian gangs.

A large part of the drugs coming from Latin America and Asia is controlled and managed by gangs of Nigerians (such as the Area boys known as Agberos, other gangs of young boys called Bakassi and the fearsome violent confraternity of the Black Axe) dominated by the powerful Nigerian mafia which, with its centres in…

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Namibia. Nothing Surprising.

Ever since it won the first democratic elections, held in November 1989 and supervised by the UN, by a comfortable 57%, the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO, now called the ‘SWAPO Party of Namibia’) has continued to enjoy an absolute majority over its opponents. A majority that grew even further over the years from…

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Economy. Too much inequality.

The structure of the economy of Namibia reflects the contradictions that are typical of all southern Africa. On the one hand, the country may boast of one of the highest per capita incomes in the continent (almost 12,000 dollars which, in terms of 2017 real purchasing power, amounts to five times that of the poorest…

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Research and Rating, a tool of Advocacy.

Advocacy is a strategy used around the world by NGOs, activists, and even policy makers themselves, to influence policies. Advocacy is about creating reform of policies, and their effective implementation and enforcement. A policy is a plan, course of action, set of regulations adopted by government, business or an institution, in order to influence or…

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Burkina Faso. Father Jacques. Biologist and Geneticist.

A Camillian and also professor at the University of Ouagadougou, Father Jacques Simporè assists the sick and most neglected. He has always worked with tenacity against the spread of HIV decimating the country.  Fr. Jacques Simporè’s dream was to place himself at the service of science and the poor: besides the motivation he received from…

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Western Sahara. The wall that nobody talks about.

The 2,720 kilometre wall, which  separates the areas occupied by Morocco and those liberated by the Polisario Front in Western Sahara, is actually the largest active military barrier in the world,  and the second longest wall after the Great Wall of China. One can observe the wall only from the mandatory safety distance of five…

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South Sudan. Death. A place of Rest.

The Bari, a South Sudan ethnic group who live on the Savannah along the White Nile, believe that death is not a curse but a ‘going to rest’ . Among the Bari, death is seen as something natural, the common fate of all. It is desired by God but is not seen as a curse.…

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An Unhappy Fish.

0nce upon a time there was a colony of little fishes who lived together in their own small pool, isolated from the rest of the fish in the river. It was a still, grey pool, dotted with stones and clumps of weed, and surrounded by thorn bushes and a few palm trees. Most of these…

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Eswatini. Arriving unannounced.

Originally from the Argentine, Mons. José Luis Gerardo Ponce de León has for five years been Bishop of Manzini in the Kingdom of Eswatini, the former Swaziland. He shares his experience with us. Before becoming Bishop of Manzini I had been appointed, in 2009, to the Apostolic Vicariate of Ingwavuma in South Africa, a diocese…

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Advocacy

Sister Rosita. Four Decades of Refugee Advocacy.

When asked how a farmer’s daughter who became a Catholic nun ended up as one of Brazil’s most influential refugee advocates, Sister Rosita Milesi, 79,…

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Baobab

Kalulu and the Great Spirit of the Forest.

Vusi was an honest man and a hard worker. He had cleared a large piece of moorland and turned it into a beautiful fertile field. He…

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Youth & Mission

Towards World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul with the courage…

On 24 November, the Solemnity of Christ the King, on the occasion of World Youth Day in the Particular Churches, in St. Peter's Basilica the traditional…

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