|  | |
Previous | Next People & events
Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace agreement June 18, ending a two-year conflict. Many people, primarily the elderly, women and children have been affected by the war. Ethiopia is also suffering through its second serious drought in a decade and the food situation appears to be worsening. Rains have failed for the third straight year in some areas, and some people have been without adequate food for months. Mennonite Central Committee is partnering with the Ethiopian Mennonite Church (MKC), the Lutheran Church and Afar pastoralists to distribute food to people affected by the drought and displaced by the war. The bulk of a 4,500-tonne wheat shipment, provided by Canadian Foodgrains Bank, has arrived in the Somali region of Ethiopia. The remainder of the shipment is expected soon. MCC and Eastern Mennonite Missions, in conjunction with MKC, will contribute $90,000 to hire a material resources coordinator and purchase a vehicle to increase MKC’s disaster response capacity. – Mennonite Central Committee
In Canada, a number of vaccines are grown on human cells from aborted fetuses. The new chicken pox vaccine from Merck Frosst Pharmaceuticals is grown on the MRC-5 cell line derived from the normal lung tissue of a 14-week-old male fetus aborted “for psychiatric reasons”. So are the polio and hepatitis A vaccines. The rubella virus in the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) three-in-one shot is grown on the WI-38 cell line, developed in 1961 from an aborted three-month-old female fetus. For some abortion opponents, this is an ethical problem. Enough parents had asked questions about the use of aborted fetuses for vaccine development in England and Wales in 1994 that a briefing paper, prepared by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, called the practice “a kind of evil which is widespread in biomedical research and which people rightly think they should combat when they can.” It added that refusing vaccination is one “way of seeking to turn medicine from a course which will increasingly subvert people’s confidence in it.” However, critics fear research dependence on fetal tissue could grow so financially powerful that there would be little hope of reducing abortion. The US congress has begun hearings into a lucrative trade in aborted fetal parts that has recently been connected to at least one Canadian tax-funded laboratory, as well as to vaccine manufacturers such as Smith Kline Beecham Pharmaceuticals. In 1993, Canada’s Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies reported that aborted fetal tissue is used routinely by Canadian pharmaceuticals – primarily for vaccine and viral research. The average Canadian child already receives 30 vaccination doses for eight different diseases by grade 1, and six more before completing high school. – Western Report
M2/W2, a one-to-one prison ministry in Abbotsford, B.C., operates in 24 federal and provincial prisons and institutions. Last year, 1,053 inmates related to the organization; 217 inmates were still waiting to be matched with volunteers; 2,811 visits were made to prisoners; 492 escorts were provided for inmates with temporary passes; 375 ministry-related events were held in prisons; 53 presentations were made to churches, conferences and schools; 73 new volunteers were recruited; and $27,000 was raised in promotional dinners; 219 people are currently members of the M2/W2 Association. – Time Lines
Oasis Retreats, designed for pastors and missionaries experiencing burn-out in ministry, will be running Oct. 1-6; Nov. 26-Dec. 1, 2000; Feb. 18-23; Apr. 29-May 4; and June 10-15, 2001 at Cedar Springs Retreat Center, Sumas, Wash. Oasis’s new Web site, www.crusade.org/oasis, includes a colour brochure and registration forms. Due to the high demand for these retreats, retreat directors had to turn down three couples who had wanted to come to the last retreat. – Oasis Retreat
Bridgehead, a company that has sold “fairly traded” coffee since 1981, is out of business. The company was formed to help small farmers in developing countries get a fair return on their coffee beans. Taken over by OXFAM in 1985, the company expanded into gift shops and a mail-order business, but by 1998 it was bankrupt. Bridgehead’s wholesale coffee business will be taken over by US-based Equal Exchange, its brand name will continue to be used, and some of its stores will remain open. The Vancouver store will be taken over by Ten Thousand Villages, an arm of Mennonite Central Committee. – Canadian Mennonite
Michael Valpy has been assigned to cover religion for The Globe and Mail. Valpy is a former Africa correspondent and national affairs columnist. “There is a spiritual hungering in Canadian society,” he says, adding that he wants to be “a link between this hunger and the spiritual wells that can slake that thirst. . . . I think this is what a newspaper should be about.” Valpy is an Anglican. The assignment was given to Valpy by new Globe and Mail editor Rich Addis, who sees religion as “very important”. – CM
International Community Investment Deposit is a socially responsible investment opportunity created by VanCity, Canada’s largest credit union. It will allow VanCity’s 262,000 members in Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Victoria to invest in projects benefiting poor people around the world. Each ICID purchased becomes part of a larger pool of dollars that VanCity will invest in innovative loan funds, including Sarona Global Investment Fund. The Sarona fund, formerly Mennonite Economic Development Associates Global Investment Fund, lends money to small businesses run by low-income people in the developing world and North America. – Mennonite Economic Development Associates
ASSETS, a program of Mennonite Economic Development Associates, has been recognized by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity for supporting and promoting small business development in the US. ASSETS offers business training to low-income people. This spring, 58 people graduated from ASSETS programs – 21 in Lancaster, Pa., 10 in Norristown, Pa., 10 in Harrisburg, Pa. and 17 in Toledo, Ohio. – MEDA
The number of wars fought worldwide increased significantly in 1999, after three years of steady decline, according to the Armed Conflicts Report 2000. By year’s end, there were 40 armed conflicts being fought in 36 countries, up from 36 armed conflicts in 31 countries in 1998 (and compared to 37 in 32 countries in 1997, 40 in 34 countries in 1996, and 44 in 39 countries in 1995). The report includes six new conflicts (Eritrea/Ethiopia, Andhra Pradesh state in India, Molucca Islands in Indonesia, Nigeria, Chechnya and Senegal). The conflict in Punjab state in India and the Kurdish conflict in Iran, which were included in earlier reports, have been removed, resulting in a net increase of four, or about 10%. In almost all of the cases of new conflicts, the fighting had begun earlier, but it was in 1999 that they reached the threshold of 1,000 combat deaths (the report defines an armed conflict as having a minimum cumulative total of 1,000 combat deaths). Fighting between Eritrea and Ethiopia began in 1998, but the most intense fighting was in 1999, resulting in deaths in the tens of thousands. Forty per cent of all current wars are in Africa. Asia follows with 35%. While the Middle East has 15% of the world’s armed conflicts, it is considered to be the most war-torn region of the world because 43% of states there are experiencing warfare, compared with 34% in Africa and 21% in Asia. – The Ploughshares Monitor
Over 300,000 children under the age of 18 are currently participating in armed conflicts in more than 30 countries worldwide, according to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. While child fighters are used mostly in Africa and Asia, many countries in Europe and the Americas continue to accept children into their armed forces. Human Rights Watch reports that about 3,000 youth under the age of 17 currently perform active duty in the US armed forces, which total 1.2 million troops. Britain reportedly used 16-year-olds in the 1991 Gulf War. The world’s governments reached a consensus Jan. 21, 2000 in Geneva agreeing to raise the minimum age for participation in hostilities from 15 to 18. The consensus establishes an “optional protocol” to the almost universally ratified UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (to which only the US and Somalia are not party). The protocol bans drafting of youth under 18 into state military forces; bans voluntary enlistment of persons under 16; and also prohibits non-state armed groups from using or recruiting children in their forces. – TPM
Gail Reid of Toronto has been named director of communications for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, effective Aug. 1. As director of communications, she will be managing editor of Faith Today. Previously, Reid was managing editor of Fellowship Magazine, an independent evangelical publication of reform groups within the United Church of Canada. She has also worked as a journalist; was a psychiatric social worker and family caseworker; has led Bible study and Alpha groups; and has experience in organizing and leading the high school ministry in her church. She replaces Larry Matthews, who was interim managing editor of Faith Today after Marianne Meed Ward resigned in February 1999. – Evangelical Fellowship Of Canada
The Aboriginal Rights Coalition, made up of church groups including Mennonite Central Committee, has called on the federal government to take immediate steps to address the ongoing injustices against Aboriginal people. The group is also petitioning the government to establish an independent commission to implement Aboriginal land, treaty and inherent rights, said Rick Zerbe Cornelsen, coordinator of MCC Canada’s Aboriginal Neighbours program. In its landmark report in 1996, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples found that reforming the land claims process and ensuring that Aboriginal communities have an adequate resource base is essential to their long-term well-being. It concluded that without a greater share of lands and resources, economic development initiatives and Aboriginal self-government institutions will fail. – MCC Canada
Previous | Next
Last modified August 12, 2000.
© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.
|
