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This is Beatrice. She lives in Ghana. She owns a small shop where she sells sewing supplies. I lent her money through Kiva so that she could grow her business and keep her children in school. So far, she has repaid 75 percent of her loan and will have paid it all back by June 2010. When she finishes repaying the loan, I will use it to help another person somewhere else in the world.
You could too, if you wanted.
I just heard about this, so I’m sorry for the last minute news. But for those who see this in time and are interested, there’s a webcast event happening today where Save Darfur (an organization working for peace and justice in the conflict area of Western Sudan) will sit down with representatives from the White House (Scott Gration and Samantha Power) to talk about approaches for peace. They’ll be taking questions, so join the converasation at 3:00pm EST today, by clicking here.
The following is from Causecast’s article on the event:
Recently, the Obama administration unveiled the government’s new strategy for dealing with the Sudanese government and addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region. To keep the ball rolling on a national conversation about this important topic, and to engage Darfur activists and the general public alike, the White House will be hosting a national discussion on Darfur. On November 10, government officials and nonprofit leaders will come together for Ask U.S., a nation-wide question and answer session about Sudan and the Darfur conflict.
Whoa, lots of posts, all in a row. I have a lot of time to think these days, and a lot of things to think about.
My friend Nicola is in Thailand right now. She’s been blogging about her experiences and asking some tough questions similar to some of the stuff I’ve been thinking through about hope, which is great because its only through conversation that we are able to probe deeper into these mysterious concepts that elude simple explanation.
So a post she wrote called ‘Surprised by Grace’ got me thinking tonight. The last essay I wrote for my university degree (just a few weeks ago) was on grace and redemption in the works of Flannery O’Connor. And the ideas I explored in that essay have sort of been floating around in the back of my mind for awhile, lacking articulation and personal implication.
The essay concluded with these thoughts:
Though we fill our shelves with self-help books and spend millions of dollars on counsellors and therapy to try to understand our own suffering, it is not enough. O’Connor is saying it’s not enough. There is not enough of anything, nor could there be, for us to be truly happy and free of suffering. At the end of the day, like every one of O’Connor’s characters, we need to cry out to a god and say I’m suffering.
In this way, faith has moved from being belief in a set of tenants or dogma to belief in our own humanness and fragility.
Now, I’m sure there will be those who disagree (and please do through commenting or email or conversation), but let me try to explain myself. I do not think this shift in how we (or perhaps just I) view faith is a negative thing in any sense. It allows me to throw my hands in the air and say “I don’t know.” Maybe even “we can’t ever really know.” And by ‘know’, I mean with the exact, scientific certainty we know so many things about our human experience. (And yet here too, there are flaws. When I was a kid Pluto was a planet, now science tells me otherwise).
And in admitting we don’t, can’t, won’t ever have all the answers, we are free to finally say “I am broken.” Free to accept our humanness and fragility and the fact that we can’t really seem to fix it on our own.
May I digress for a moment? I’m sure some of you caught the above use of ‘a god’ as opposed to ‘God,’ and this was not without reason. Many Christians would argue that what we ultimately need is to cry out to ‘God’. And they might be right. (This is a question I admittedly am still asking myself.) But my point is that we are all crying out to some god or another, whether or not they be healthy, helpful choices in all cases. I am not speaking about religion here, I am speaking about the multitude of ways that we seek to sooth our own pain – shopping, alcohol, mind-numbing entertainment, casual sex, etc. etc. etc. We consume and consume and consume with false hope that x will somehow alleviate our feelings of emptiness and loneliness. But maybe that’s what O’Connor is trying to show us. As a devout Catholic she would certainly argue that apart from God, nothing will offer the redemption we seek.
In fact, God may be the only answer to our humanness, by which I mean our brokenness. (But which God, or in what form, oh dear…)
The important thing for O’Connor, and what I think I am slowly beginning to understand, is that grace that is somehow ‘earned’ is no grace at all. And when we begin to believe we understand how and to whom God chooses to extend grace, we miss the boat entirely.
Sure, no one would try to argue that God would extent grace to the hurting, the poor, the lonely, right?
Would God extend grace to the perpetrator of injustice? To the human trafficker? O’Connor says yes. Not yes, if he repented. Not yes, if he changed his ways. Not yes, if and only if, he somehow earned it. O’Connor just says yes. But I am still on the fence. Because I think it is easier to believe in a God who is ‘on my side’, who punishes the evil [people] and rewards the good [people].
I came across this verse the other day, Matt. 3:12, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” I was brought up in a church culture that told me that the correct interpretation of that verse meant that some people would go to heaven when they die and some people would go to hell.
But I think we are all a little bit evil and a little bit good. Maybe some of us exercise one more often than the other. But we all have capacities for both within ourselves. And maybe its not evil people that God wants to ‘burn up’, but the evil in us all. Afterall, the wheat and the chaff are both parts of the same plant.
I think that is a better view of justice. One that, rather than be driven by hatred of ‘evil people’ and despair at what we have managed to destroy, chooses to be driven by hope in humanity and our potential for good. And I am reminded once again of Gandhi’s words:
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it–always.”
My good friend Dan just sent me this email with VALUABLE info on how Canadians can do something small regarding human trafficking in Canada. Be part of justice. Read this. Find your senator. Contact him or her. Please.
“All it takes for evil to triumph is that good men [and women] do nothing.”
Do something.
The email from Dan:
A current action point on the human trafficking issue within the Canadian politics realm:
Right now, there is no minimum sentence for trafficking minors in Canada. So in recent cases people have been getting sentences of around 2-3 years or less for human trafficking.
Joy Smith, an MP from Manitoba, recently introduced a private members bill (C-268) which establishes a minimum term of 5 years for trafficking a minor.
The good news is that it passed through the House of Commons (not many private member’s bills ever get through this stage – so this is great!). And right now it is going through the 2nd reading in the Senate, then it will go to committee and then come back for a final vote. Then it can be given royal ascent and be passed into law.
***The point is, you need to contact your Senators and let them know that you want Bill C-268 to pass!
While on the Hill this summer, I learned that personal emails and letters get noticed more as opposed to form emails/letters/post cards. Really just say who you are, where you’re from, what you want them to support and why. If you’re feeling really motivated you could call up their offices; you’ll just get an assistant, but they do tend to pass this stuff along, especially when it’s concerning a Bill that the Senator is dealing with right now.
–> You can contact your senators here (Senators represent provinces, so you can contact all the ones in your province).
If you want to send letters (no postage necessary) you send them to:
[Name of Senator], The Senate of Canada, Ottawa ON, K1A 0A4
Hope you have a couple minutes to send a few emails!
-Dan
So if you know me at all, you know that these two words are often on my tongue, usually followed somewhere with a question mark. I continue to wrestle with the questions of justice and hope. What is justice? How are we involved in justice, and injustice? How can we hope for justice in a world that seems inherently driven by greed, fear and complacency? How can we continue to cultivate hope against overwhelming odds? Really, I could go on and on.
I just got home from having coffee with two new friends, Jay and Michelle (www.hopeforthesold.com). First, its refreshing to find that there are other people out there in the world worth knowing. After university, when everyone scattered across the nation (or more accurately, everyone moved to Vancouver) and I came home to find most of my old friends are now in other places, I started wondering whether I would be spending a whole lot of time thinking through stuff on my own. Which is tough for a person who processes best through discussion, such as myself. Hence the need for this blog. But clearly, this is a tangent. Suffice it to say there are people out there, even in this area of Ontario, worth knowing. And I’m gonna find them.
So Jay and Michelle are back recently from a cross-country road trip which took them from one place to another researching, interviewing and filming footage for a documentary they are putting out on human trafficking.
Say what? Human trafficking – which I learned is the third (or maybe second now) largest industry in the world. Next to weapons and drugs. The buying and selling of human lives.
But I thought slavery had been abolished in the 1800s. International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org) states:
Today, millions of lives around the world are in the grip of injustice.
More children, women and men are held in slavery right now than over the course of the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade: Millions toil in bondage, their work and even their bodies the property of an owner.
Trafficking in humans generates profits in excess of 12 billion dollars a year for those who, by force and deception, sell human lives into slavery and sexual bondage. More than 2 million children are trapped in forced prostitution.
Did you catch that? More people are enslaved TODAY than the combined number of slaves bought and sold during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. More women and children are trapped in forced prostitution than the number of Africans who were forced to work on cotton plantations in the South.
And this isn’t just a third world problem. The largest ‘consumers’ of sex tourism are North American men. The domestic trafficking of aboriginal women in CANADA for the purpose of sexual exploitation is still rampant.
So what can we do? Where do justice and hope meet? I think it’s in a number of places – to begin awareness, advocacy and education. Awareness of injustice must be forced into the minds of the public if we are going to see anyone stand up and demand change. Jay and Michelle reiterated again and again that as long as there exists a demand for it, human traffickers will continue to supply.
And the demand will continue to exist as long as we remain ignorant and complacent to reality. Remember that quote from Edmund Burke? “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men [and women] do nothing.”
So what can we do? I think what I am really starting to understand is that justice and hope meet in the individual. The individual who refuses to turn a blind eye to systematic injustice. Because the individual has power to do something. Maybe not everything, but something. Because justice begins in small places, in small ways.
And justice and hope meet in the individual who is changed because of that one individual. Maybe that person is someone who will now advocate on behalf of the victims of sexual exploitation. Or maybe that person is someone who will get involved at a street level, working with women involved in the sex trade, whether by force or by ‘choice’, offering them hope and maybe even a way out.
And maybe that street worker won’t be able to save everyone, but maybe he or she will be able to give hope to one individual, to help one girl see her own worth, and to find a way out. One individual.
I think that is a good place to begin.
If you’re looking for more info and ways to get involved, go here: http://humantrafficking.change.org/.
For an in depth look at domestic trafficking of women in Canada, go here:
http://www.cncew.ca/Publications/MicrosoftWord-CNCEW_Trafficking_Discussion_SJS.pdf
I’ve been home for about a month and a half now. Roughly three weeks ago I completed the last course of my B.A. degree. Though I have submitted dozens of applications for positions with various social justice organizations, I still don’t have a job. I feel like I’m drifting in an ocean of possibility with little direction or means of propulsion.
I’ve been told a lot in the last little while, through a variety of voices, that justice begins in small places and small ways. What is required is focus, then determination and grace. How do I begin to focus when I feel pulled in so many directions? I spoke with a lawyer who works with International Justice Mission (www.ijm.ca) recently who advised me that I should choose one country to which my heart is pulled, and then submerge myself in the study of that culture – language, history, literature, social issues, politics. By this method, we become experts at one thing, instead of dabbling in a variety. Perhaps this is what keeps us from becoming overwhelmed – to take on the world’s injustice is so great a task, and with resources stretched so thin, how can we expect to affect change? No, instead, we choose to till the small piece of the earth which can yield life-sustaining fruit.
The difficult question is where to begin.
I volunteered today at a conference called World Concerns Day, an event for junior high and high school kids in this area where various presenters and exhibitors talked about human rights, different social justice issues, and most importantly, how students could be involved. My role was simple, setting up chairs, directing people to the right classrooms, greeting speakers as they arrived. Ah, but the benefits of being around people who are currently doing what I someday hope do be doing more of – advocating for justice, and best of all, empowering youth. Because, as we have all heard before, kids are the future, and if anyone has the chance to change the world it is them.
Wait, that may very well be true, but it’s also you and me. You and I don’t get off as easy as saying it’s the future generation that will change the world. If you know me, you know this is something I have been seriously questioning in the last little while – can we make a difference?
I know I still don’t have an answer, and I’ve been reminded by a few people that there really aren’t easy answers. I think my greatest struggle in finding peace in life is to accept that. Because I want to solve the problems, and figure things out, and come up with the solution, so I can sleep at night. So at the end of the day, all the packages are tied with pretty ribbons and the cobwebs are swept out of all the corners (ah, if only I could actually apply such thinking to my cleaning habits). But this is a tangent.
So there isn’t an easy answer, but I do have some thoughts.
The first is this: I talk and read and write a lot about ‘social justice’, but I’ve never really challenged myself to define the term. Social – that’s easy, you and me and every other person on this planet. True many have offered the “think global, act local” slogan recently. And I agree wholeheartedly. Except when people think that doing something about global issues isn’t a local thing. But here again is another tangent, perhaps one I can return to in a future post.
Justice – that one is a bit stickier, and though I’ve taken a course on the philosophy of justice and read a lot about it, I’m not sure I could easily sum it up for you.
But I heard it defined today in a way that grabbed my attention and will most likely hold it for awhile: justice is the right use of power. Seems simple right, and yet deep. And I’m sure my philosophy friends could tear this definition apart or say it’s missing this or that or whatever, but for me, for now, it works. It works really well. Because the thing is that this definition can easily be changed to say that injustice is the wrong use of power. The misuse of power. The abuse of power.
But here’s the better reason for liking this definition: it calls us to be accountable for our power. Because justice is not just in the hands of NGO’s, international organizations, governments or activists. It really truly is in our hands, because we really truly do have power. We have voices, we have resources, we have influence. And when you combine that with something to say, well, maybe enough people can use enough power in the RIGHT way to see justice here. Now.
And more, when we turn a blindeye to injustice, we are failing to use our power correctly. We are misusing our power. We are not excericising the right use of power. We are not only ignoring injustice, we are perpetrating it. 17th cenutry Irish political philosopher Edmund Burke wrote, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men [and women] do nothing.” Justice is the right use of power. Maybe all that is necessary for the triumph of good is that good men and women do something. Anything.
And here’s where I hope this blog will be something. I plan on continuing to reflect on life and the things I was writing about this summer – rootedness, home, forgiveness, nature, living in the moment - but this blog will probably bring up justice a lot. Links to documentaries. Poetry and song that inspires action. Links to petitions. Blurbs on different organizations and what they are doing. And me trying to wrestle through the issues of hope and justice. Because I’m starting to think you can’t have one without the other. But more on that in the next post.
Most of all I hope this blog is a place to begin conversation. Because that’s how ideas are spread. That’s how we empower each other to exercise the right use of power. So, tell me what you think.
