Here are a few from this week:
1. Eliana Rolemberg is a feisty, strong and deeply committed human rights and political activist from Brazil. She is the director of one of the organizations doing work in development and humanitarian aid. We work closely together on many projects. Below is an explanation of recent events in her life.
Eliana Rolemberg, Director of CESE was a victim of repression and human rights abuse during the military dictatorship in Brazil. Eliana was arrested at the end of 1969, taken to an interrogation centre in Sao Paolo and tortured for 20 days. She was kept prisoner for two years. She and her family were forced to remain in exile for several years afterwards.
Recently, in a special ceremony in the Helder Camara Memorial, the President of the Commission of Amnesty of the Ministry of Justice of Brazil formally offered Eliana apologies on behalf of the State, and asked for her forgiveness.
During the ceremony Eliana spoke about her cell-mate Helena Guariba, who was tortured and disappeared, and Paolo Wright, who also disappeared.
Anivaldo’s Padilha of Koinonia (another one of our partners), was in the same interrogation centre and prison with Eliana, and will also be asked to pardon the State.
This was an extremely significant moment for Eliana, and one which encourages continued solidarity with people struggling against injustice, oppression and exploitation.
2. Where were you?
Where were you when I sold myself into slavery to follow a dream of a better life?
Where were you every night when my father beat me?
Where were you when I paid a year's wages for an illegal ticket as a stowaway?
Where were you when the foreman locked me in at night and the house burned down?
Where were you when my first eight clients raped me of my virginity?
Where were you when my sister escaped and fell off the seventh floor balcony?
Where were you when my 16 hour day in the fields ended with being bedded down in a barn?
Where were you when my wages never came?
Where were you when I needed a doctor?
Where were you when the pimps hunted me down?
Where were you when I returned home and my family threw me out?
Where were you when the gang master said "it's quite safe" and the tide came in and drowned so many?
Where were you when I couldn't bear it any longer?
Where we you when I was sold into bondage?
Where were you when I travelled by night in a crate?
Where were you when I was worked to the bone, worked to the limit of my psychological and physical limits?
This powerful poem was written by a colleague of mine as she attends a workshop on migrant workers' rights and the work of the European churches. It addresses the different but common problems women and men face as they try to get into richer countries for a "better life".
I wonder though... who is the poem addressing? Us as fellow human beings, our communities, our systems... God?
3. A friend of mine is currently going through a horrible experience. She is currently in Asia for a meeting. Two days ago, she calls me to say that her partner has broken up with her out of the blue - accusing her of having affairs and threatening her through email and texts. Her partner supposedly destroyed her belongings and is threatening to bring them to her office premises to "ridicule and shame" her. She is being harassed emotionally and psychologically. It seems that her partner is having a nervous breakdown and taking it out on my friend, who isn't having an affair by the way! Despite having to come back to Geneva homeless and betrayed, she is bloody strong and is standing her ground! She is coming back earlier than anticipated to sort this out but she will still try to enjoy some of the sights and "celebrate" her birthday tomorrow. Good on her, I say!
So what do you reckon? Are you blessed, fortunate, lucky or whatever you want to call it?
No comments :
Post a Comment