God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

03/21/2023 • 10:08 am 1

Human Rights Day in South Africa

The Human Rights Day in South Africa is historically linked with the 21st March 1960 and celebrated as a Public Holiday in the new democratic South Africa.
And why the 21st March 1960, those not living in South Africa, will ask.

Sharpeville is the answer: On that day, 69 people died and 180 were wounded when police fired on a peaceful crowd that had gathered in protest against the unjust pass laws.

Today we commemorate on those events, and those laws are gone, and we live in a free and democratic society, so we say. But looking more closely, we have to admit, that changing to one person one vote has not brought us to the point where human rights are respected in South Africa.

The last weeks we experienced how a political party can call on infringements of human rights and threatened violence with their “national shutdown”. It was in most parts prevented by a coordinated effort of police and security services, as well as court decisions. Alone that Members of the National Parliament are able to use intimidation and threats tells a story.

But looking at the living conditions of many of South Africans, it triggers the question about human rights and the ability to enjoy them in current times.

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education and the list is longer.

At the end, it is the right to have a decent life in safety and security and sheltered in an adequate human way.

Looking at my working place in a township, I am not sure, I witness human rights making it to the front. Violence, gender-based-violence, poverty, lack of education and work opportunities, just to name some, prevent people from enjoying their human rights. It is not particular one place – many townships and locations don’t provide for the living conditions needed to enjoy the real meaning of human rights and human dignity.

I honestly often take my hat off seeing and experiencing the dignity and good will of people who are deprived of the chances and who still try to make the best out of it.

With all those people of goodwill, there is so much more to do to make our Human Right Day in South Africa a celebratory day. For now, it is a day of reflection and commemoration, but also a day of awareness and a reminder, what all has still to be done.

As the world is currently in general in a bad space or in a transition time, it is even more difficult for an emerging democracy to get it right and to give its citizens what they rightfully are entitled to.

Human Rights Day 2023 – a day of commemoration, reminder, and order and not political Sunday sermons.

Filed under: Africa, General, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, South Africa, Uncategorized, democracy, dignity, freedom, GBV, good-will, human, Human Rights Day, shapeville, south africa

01/16/2023 • 7:01 am Comments Off on Create HOPE in the World

Create HOPE in the World

Rotary International revealed last week the motto for the Rotary Year 2023/2024.
Reflecting on this motto at the beginning of the new calendar year, indeed hope is needed. Looking around into the world in January 2023 one could be frightened.

The constant attacks of Russia trying to bring a neighboring country down by sheer bombing terror towards infrastructure and non-military aims has shown no letting down on ferocity.

Brazil and the USA, followed by Hungary and now Israel continue to show how democracy can be eroded on a continuous base, and it seems that a major part of the respective population supports the move into more anarchy and oligarchy.

China’s COVID-19 politics has shown how dictatorial states irrationally govern and at the end are bringing more suffering to the people solely through nonsensical decisions filtering down from top to bottom without being questioned.

And in the country I live, the blackouts give witness to the ongoing incompetence and corruption of the nationally governing parties; failing their very own people in basic matters.

So yeah, hope is needed, and fascinating is, that Rotary does not want to give hope, but indeed create hope. This sounds like a very active approach, and an approach which is the only way to go against the wave of hopelessness and despair, people experiencing on a daily basis.

And this despair brings lots of people to turn towards populists and conspiracy theories. Being told that there is only “black and white” and one is given a clear path to walk is often perceived as the most easy way to escape the amount of challenges the world is facing.

Creating hope means now to actively go against populism and all the other woes of modern society. It means to be on the ground and to work with the people concerned by developing alternatives, by voicing reason publicly and by simple leading and living by example.

For me, as the chairperson of HOPE Cape Town Trust, the new motto is also an encouragement to do more in this regard. It seems to me one of the best wishes for 2023. Not only because it is so desperately needed. But also because I know that millions of Rotarians around the world can make a difference, joining forces with all the NGO’s and civil society institutions already hart at work.

We need a coalition of the willing, a term we know from the Iraq war, but now meant in a very positive way of goodwill and enthusiasm. We need people who put their ideologies aside and first and foremost see the person and his/her needs. And we need people who understand human rights, human dignity and the portion of freedom and self-determination to be afforded to everybody.

Looking at the challenges the world is facing, creating hope means a hands-on approach. It means practicality at work and a mixture of grass-roots approach and policies giving reason and direction.

With this motto Rotary has set a scene giving hope – now lets see how the creation of this hope looks like in real life. As a Rotarian myself I am thrilled to be part of this creation.

Filed under: General, Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, Brazil, china, hope, israel, NGO, Rotary, Rotary International, Russia, Ukraine, usa

08/14/2022 • 10:15 am Comments Off on Only those who live the Torah… observations from a sommer study

Only those who live the Torah… observations from a sommer study

Summer academy in Tabgha and Jerusalem – refresher course on bible history, Islam and Judaism and as always something new to learn.

To speak about Israel is a minefield, especially for a German. The Holocaust lingers constantly over all discussions, and the trauma somehow continues. To criticise Israel, whose politicians have cleverly conjoined the State of Israel and the Jewish faith, is consequently made difficult. How easy is it to be called an antisemite while criticising Israel’s politics towards the Palestinians.

The wilful ignorance towards the original plan to keep Jerusalem under UN administration has added to the woes. The trauma of the Holocaust has obviously also caused Israel to use massive force against Palestinians in a way which clearly hinders any political solution and kills also innocent bystanders. The violence on the part of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups does not help either. It is a poisonous circle of violence, madness pure and not leading to any solution.

Visiting a Jewish service in a synagogue to welcome the Sabbath is touching, observing the ritual joy of welcoming the day of rest. It is admirable to see how traditions are kept and hopes are lived while having endured so many changes in their history from the deportation to Babylonia, the destruction of their sacred temple via the murderous crusades till the Holocaust and all the Antisemitism growing again in our days.

Having Jewish lecturers for the topic of Judaism, it was interesting to be reminded, that ultra-orthodox Jews oppose the State of Israel. A man-made state is not acceptable because at the end only God can establish the new Israel.

Besides this, we learned that the promised land is from a religious point of view only for those who live the Torah – and looking at the modern Israel on a Sabbath shows that Israelis are not per se living according to their holy books.

Another observation is that obviously the stretch of land has a history before the promised land was occupied by Jewish clans – and there are historians indicating that the people led by Moses originally have been from the same background as the Canaanites they battled.

Living in South Africa, there comes the same thoughts: What a beautiful country, and how magnificent could it be if only the people living there would keep peace. My stay here has reminded me how intertwined the problems of trauma on both sites of the fence are. Judging becomes a difficult task, but there is something I believe in:

Jerusalem, the holy place for the three major monotheistic religions, should be an open city under the UN, belonging to nobody than human mankind – to be a witness for the peacefulness, all three religions somehow claim. It is a failure of the UN not to have followed the original plan; and it is a failure of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faithful not to create a location where love, hope, tolerance, goodwill and peace are liveable and touchable in this space and place.

Shalom, Salam and Peace

Filed under: General, Politics and Society, Reflection, Religion and Ethics, Society and living environment, Canaanite, christian, israel, Jerusalem, jews, Moses, Muslim, religion, study, UN

04/04/2022 • 1:26 pm 1

Another period of silence…

Weeks have passed since the last blog entry – and while the world is debating Ukraine forward and backward, trying to identify what went so terribly wrong in the years before, the fact is: nothing is forever, not even a long period of peace in Europe. So many hopes are dashed, and especially the elder generation suddenly has a déjà vu of their experience during World War II.
Blogwise, I kept a period of silence – withstanding the urge to hammer my convictions into the world. I was witness during my last travel how our friends of HOPE in Germany simply started supporting those fleeing their home country: Bringing people to safety and delivering medicine and food back into Ukraine.

Practical help – urgently needed. Discussions for later. But this “later” is coming, and I have, like so many others growing up in an open and peaceful period of Europe to acknowledge, that the aspirations to be able to create a more peaceful world has its human limitations. Obviously, living in Africa for the last years has given me the advantage to know, that peace and living peacefully next to each other must be attempted and accomplished every day anew.

Still, Covid-19 and now Ukraine – the question remains has human mankind not learned anything – are we sentenced to go through the circles of peace and war, unrest and living tolerant next to each other till the universe swallows our universe one or the other way?

Normally, churches are the carrier of hope and positive aspirations. Covid-19 has shown in many parts of the word that organised religion is not really system relevant. In many countries, people had to live without this carrier of hope, be it out of rules limiting worship, be it out of anxiety – or be it out of being occupied with itself like in parts of Europe and certainly Germany.

So my period of silence was like a cushion for all the questions bombarding the heart and soul of a human being: What gives me hope? What sustains really my being? On what can I count when systems fail to support me as usual?

And more: what is it in human beings that brings up war, torture, brutality, lies and fake news, racism and exploitation as a necessity at times?

I still believe that most people simply yearning for a decent life and a better one for their kids. So where are going our human systems fundamentally wrong? Does it remain a mystery? What is your answer?

Filed under: General, Politics and Society, Reflection, Religion and Ethics, Society and living environment, Covid, human race, Ukraine, worship

03/04/2022 • 6:36 am Comments Off on Change in the world in lightning’s speed

Change in the world in lightning’s speed

We have to be honest: The world has changed now twice in the last two years with the speed of lightning, and what was considered normal is now the good – or not so good – old times. And most people struggle to run behind and catch up with what’s happening.

There was first the Covid-19 pandemic – lockdowns, limitation of movement, the advent of virtual meetings as a new normal, civil liberties put on hold and countries punished and isolated because they were considered a threat – often more a gut-feeling of politicians or anxiety of political decision maker.

The threat for the human race already lurking in form of the climate change at every corner humanity passes, got an add-on in a small little virus, who loves the density of humans living closely together and expanding into nature in a speed unimaginable 100 years ago.

Now the bloody war against Ukraine – and our world-view changed overnight again:

Looking at Germany or the EU:
Having had a hard-line approach against immigrants and refugees coming from East Europe; looking down at that time on Ukraine as almost a failed and corrupt state with a comedian as president – rather only interested in certain aspects pertaining to the country – we now celebrate the bravery of the Ukrainian people and even sending buses to get as many refugees as possible for free into the European Union.

And suddenly the Johnsons, Orbans and all the other questionable politicians are out of scrutiny; such crisis situations lift suddenly even average politicians and the realisation of the political ignorance towards Russia in the past overrides finding the time for proper analysis and judgement.

Add to this the feeling of powerlessness of people including politicians and their emotional state coming out of a pandemic, we have to watch out not to miss out the balance between what is needed to be done and what is needed to be avoided in the future.

The changes of stopping a mad-man like Putin are slim or almost non-existing. The naivety of the EU (or better wanting to keep and eat the cake at the same time in respect of Russia) and obviously the poison of the Trump years and the downfall of the USA as the world policeman with dark shadows triggers more questions of how international relationships will be governed and organised in the future.

Looking at China’s hunger for power and its relationship with Taiwan, the next big drama is waiting to unfold. And there is Africa with all the aspirations and projected failures in the years to come while being one of the biggest economic markets in the future. Not to forget the reorganisation of the UN – the order established after World War II is coming to an end. The veto powers of some nations will have to be abolished in the current system – and this will not go without a fight.

So more dramatic changes are on the horizon. We have just to watch out, that we can digest as people and as societies what is happening. And not lose hope on the way to other new normals. An one encouragement in this respect is certainly the overwhelming willingness to help the victims of Russian aggression, as seen almost everywhere around the globe.

Filed under: General, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, EU, Germany, Putin, Russia, society, Ukraine, UN, war, world order

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