International Development

If huge steps can be taken to save the most developed economies from crisis, why can't more be done for poorer countries, asks a Vatican spokesman. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, posed this question as he analyzed the urgent needs of the global economy on the last episode of the weekly Vatican Television program "Octava Dies." "The economic commitments that were suddenly taken on to salvage the American financial system, and by connection the international financial system, are of impressive dimensions," he said. Father Lombardi noted that the effort to save the most developed economies from crisis is much greater than all international economic aid effort combined.

Gen. Omar al-Bashir overthrew the government of Sudan in 1989. Since his militias attacked in Darfur, Sudanese in numbers equal to the population of Pittsburgh have been killed, and Nevada-sized numbers have fled their homes. Mr. Bashir has traded Sudan's oil to China for billions in arms and cash, and is eyeing the oil fields of south Sudan. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has demanded that Bashir be arrested for crimes against humanity. The US government has responded to Bashir's gross violations of human rights by declaring a genocide in Darfur and tightening economic sanctions. These efforts are admirable, but we need to stop Bashir's power at its source: stolen oil. The oil that Bashir sends to China is not his to sell. America should act to safeguard Sudan's oil for its rightful owners: the people of Sudan.

U.S. bishops and the aid organization Catholic Relief Services welcomed the passage of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Congress passed PEPFAR last week and President George Bush said Saturday he is eager to sign it. Both the bishops' conference and the aid organization expressed appreciation at the retention of the "conscience clause," which will help assure that Catholic and other faith-based organizations are not discriminated against as HIV/AIDS service providers.

Recent news from Africa continues to be negative. But positive news can be found as well. Ultimately, reform is needed on both the international and national levels. The United Nations has found some success in offering assistance to developing African nations and applying pressure on repressive governments. Its security forces have made a difference in Liberia, Darfur and the Congo. But much depends on whether the G-8 group of nations will live up to its promises of support for debt reduction and assistance with the ongoing AIDS pandemic. In the United States, the Senate's recent approval of the so-called Pepfar reauthorization act, already passed in the House, will also bring some relief by providing funding to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the globe.

Last Monday, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, made history by charging the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan el-Bashir, with genocide in Darfur. The pundits argue that el-Bashir will show his anger at the charges by retaliating against civilians, aid workers, and the small, helpless contingent of international troops in Darfur. The result will be, as some members of el-Bashir's regime have menacingly predicted, "more violence," as well as starvation after aid flights are blocked. The displaced populations of Darfur and those trying to help them are certainly vulnerable. Although the killings, rapes, and expulsions that produced 2.5 million refugees in 2003 and 2004 have tapered off, Khartoum's agents are still doing damage, still attacking villages.

The next U.S. president needs to urgently rethink America's relationship to Africa. In the past, America has often treated Africa as a backward "Dark Continent," a place bedeviled with poverty, tribalism, AIDS and post-colonial conflicts. Africa is and should be a concern for all Americans- and for the next U.S. president. To be sure, not all of Africa's post-colonial problems have vanished. Poverty is still a serious burden, as are AIDS and malaria in many African nations. But in the U.S., Africa is still often viewed through the lens of the exceptions: Yes, Darfur is a gruesome tragedy, but the conflict there is no longer typical of Africa. In much the same manner, Zimbabwe's faulty election hardly proves that Africa is unprepared for democracy. In fact, Africa is far more democratic today than ever before.

In a momentous legal move that could pit the immediate stability of Sudan against that regime's long-term accountability for murder and mayhem in Darfur- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been indicted on charges of genocide by International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. The prosecutor's indictment argues that over a five-year period, Sudanese state military forces under Bashir's "absolute control" used a rebel insurgency as an excuse to conduct ethnic cleansing of three Darfur tribes from their native land- using tools of mass rape, murder, and deportation. Nearly 2.5 million people were displaced, and some 300,000 people, mostly civilians, died. Bashir denies any wrongdoing.

Something extraordinary happened in February when President Bush visited Africa: He was cheered by locals and showered with kisses. That is in no small part a result of the $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which has helped millions suffering from HIV/AIDS find treatment and may be the one arena in which the White House has shown positive leadership abroad. Yet despite strong bipartisan support in both houses of Congress and the spirited backing of the White House, this lifesaving program might not get reauthorized.

The U.S. bishops' conference approved an additional set of grants for the Church in Latin America, bringing the total for the first half of 2008 to $4 million. The Church in the States supports Latin American faithful with grants each year. The majority of the funds come from a Sunday collection, taken up in most parishes in January. The financial support provides aid for seminary and religious formation, religious education, catechesis and youth ministries, evangelization, lay formation and ministry, diaconate training and research.

One of the most beautiful places in Mexico, Oaxaca has a gorgeous main plaza and never-ending market, but 75 percent of its people, most of them indigenous, suffer grinding poverty, thanks to NAFTA and multi-national corporations. The plight of Oaxaca, of course, symbolizes the world. While the average yearly income of U.S. households is $60,528.00, nearly half of the world’s six billion people live on less than $2 a day. The U.N. estimates that some 900 million people are currently starving. Perhaps 100 million people have joined the ranks of the starving this year alone, the U.N. says. That number will continue to climb as long as U.S. policies support the greedy multi-nationals, and their total disregard of the world’s poor and the environment.