God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

11/13/2024 • 9:10 am Comments Off on Opportunities Amid Global Challenges

Opportunities Amid Global Challenges

The world is changing rapidly; not only in technology, but those who say world developments follow a sinus curve will notice that after years embracing a global world we suddenly are confronted with narrow-minded political leaders, partly drifting into the right-wing fascistic corner. USA, Israel, Hungary are certainly frontrunner in this game. This adds another layer to the anyhow complicated world where more and more people seemingly are marred by anxiety and fear in terms of their future. Fearful people love easy answers where the circle closes and populists win and start doing damage.

This sounds pretty negative but looking at the situation and giving up would defy the purpose of this blog entry. It’s the opposite: Times of transformation and hardship, times of challenges and outright human craziness, are times for opportunities.

The opportunity to see the situation and the world as is in reality – not as I wish for. The opportunity to see where systems are not coping any more and structures crumble under the new challenges. It is also the time when people rise to the occasion one would have never imagined they would do.

And it is the time for NGO’s to close ranks and to create synergies, carrying those who normally are loser in such transitions through those times.
NGO’s can keep humanity and common sense alive while politics spins out of control. They are the pointing finger that at the end, it’s about people and humanity, and not about power for some either connected or rich wannabe leaders.

NGO’s working globally together will keep the vision of human rights and human dignity alive. And those supporting the work done are contributing to this important work – especially in times like ours. And here we are at another important truth: NGO work needs support – needs the support of people but also from the economic sector. Another important synergy between the non-profit world and companies will be essential. It will be their cooperation on many levels which will at the end also shape the world.

So no, there is no time for giving up nor letting some self-absorbed and self-styled populists or the current anxiety of people and societies overcome the efforts of remaining open to life, open to dignity and humanity for all. Including the care for the environment, which can only be done as a global effort.

Filed under: Africa, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, HOPE Cape Town Trust, HOPE Cape Town USA, Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, South Africa, The Nex - Indawo Yethu, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

04/05/2024 • 10:18 am Comments Off on Explainer: HOPE Cape Town – Charity versus Development

Explainer: HOPE Cape Town – Charity versus Development

Travelling in Europe and the USA trying to tell the story of hope to the respective attentive audiences and to introduce our work, I am very often confronted with the word “Charity work”.

People, especially in the religious or humanitarian context, see HOPE Cape Town and its work in the context of “charity”. We collect money to help poor people – to say it in simple word. And obviously as a religious or humanitarian person, you give a contribution via the organisation to assist those in need.

“Those in need” – indeed this is charity when you help those who are in dire need, who are in a direct and life-threatening emergency. Charity means to feel with those who are in situations turning their lives upside down. And yes, HOPE Cape Town has in some segments of work also this charity aspect: giving out meals, handing out cloth is charity work.

But HOPE Cape Town does not define itself with “charity”alone – we pride ourselves of being a development agency. That sounds big and almost governmental – most people think of the respective government departments spending money on big projects via the foreign government entities; often in the knowledge that it is triggered rather by political interests than real needs. And obviously being aware that often not all money is reaching the goalposts set for the specific project.

Development, as we understand it, means indeed walking with the people we encounter. It means to sit and listen first to what the needs are instead of what we think is needed. It means to discuss matters, include all considerations and to make at the end joined decisions. Furthermore, it means to take people seriously, to discover the wisdom of people with different thinking – and sometimes it also means to run against a wall and to knock your head before being successful.

This development work is in our understanding the only way to sustain changes, to allow growing in personal lives, but also communities and to strive for a better world.

And “the better world” means that development does not end there. To really change the world on all levels there must be a clear understanding, that the impact is not alone – in our case – in South Africa – but that there is a two-way road back to Europe and the so-called developed countries.

The world is currently changing massively and only if we allow for encounter, for touching each other’s life and mindset, we develop an understanding for each other which is an added fertilizer for tomorrow’s better world. And those encounters have to be on eye-level. Some people say, the West has the money, the South the humanity and wisdom – whatever it is: only if we want to develop jointly we have a chance to create a world where the next generations will be delighted to live in. We owe it to them.

So development as we see it at HOPE Cape Town, it is like a bridge bringing worlds together to walk together and to reflect together to make sense of the colourful diversity and to show that nobody is an island any more. We need each other to overcome all the challenges be it social, economic or environmental.

Filed under: Africa, General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, HOPE Cape Town Trust, Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, The Nex - Indawo Yethu, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

12/30/2021 • 9:10 am Comments Off on At the end of the year….

At the end of the year….

I guess, most of us agree: this was a specific difficult year for societies and in politics. Looking around in our world, there seems to be little hope for 2022:

In the USA, we see a country struggling to keep democracy alive and fight off a sort of white male fascism driven by a Republican Party not ashamed to base politics on lies and deception.
In Great Britain, the Brexit promises have failed in a big way and the current Premier seems to have difficulties with truth and honesty, let alone clear policies.
In Russia old demons of power and might through military means aka Putin style becomes dominant and endangers world peace looking at Ukraine.
China demonstrates its willingness to go the extra mile to kill everything which smells like civil rights; only look at Hong Kong.
Europe throws part of its values into the Mediterranean Sea by letting people drown in exactly this sea and looking at Covid-19, the switching on and off of parts of Africa without common sense does not give the impression that values are universal.

The corruption in South Africa continues, and those fighting within the ANC for power are still pretty safe of prosecution. Even the admission of the President that state coffer money was used for party politics does not draw any consequences – business as usual.

Covid-19 and the vaccine story has divided families and societies – and the virus laid open the impossibility for the human race to act jointly and with common sense in a complex world.

Environmental questions remain to be answered with urgency if the human race wants to survive and have a future.

So 2022 starts with an exceptional package of “needs to be addressed” – and if we would only look at the big picture we could fall into depression.
But there is always our small world within the big picture. There is always the magnitude of kind acts, of friendly and supportive smiles, of acts of goodwill, and if the late Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu is to believe – all those acts will at the end form the safety net rescuing and changing the world to the better.

There is hope, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but we can’t wait for any divine force to make it happen here on earth, we have to do it ourselves with our hands and our hearts.
Let’s be honest:
the world will exist even when the human race disappears – the world, our environment and the universe does not need us – we need to relate to all of them in a healthy way. And we only can do this, if we learn much more to understand each other as one human race only being able to thrive and survive if we limit ourselves not only in the amount of human beings living at the same time on earth with limited resources, but also much more share common values not only in theory but in practice.

We have to be much more attentive to this – and we have in church, politics and society to understand much more, that being a leader is not about a career and power play but service; we have to examine our systems of governing and our structure of living whether they serve life and well-being of all or only an elite. We have to understand ourselves as a part of nature, and our fellow brothers and sisters rather as a support system we depend on within our environment. Furthermore, we have to watch out, that our systems and AI are not so perfect, that they don’t allow any more for the diversity human mankind represents. Perfect systems, or rather almost perfect systems, are endangering individual lives and livelihoods.

There is light at the end of the tunnel; there is the prospect of a good future, there is the constant dream not only of a rainbow nation, but a rainbow world, a rainbow human race – a unity in diversity – a connectivity which can be felt when one is attentive and open to it. We can’t leave the world to the doomsday activists nor to the Querdenker or those using and abusing the world and humans for their own advantage only.

Let’s welcome 2022 with open arms and hearts but also knowing that the majority of people of goodwill have to connect more to advance humanity, decency and civil freedoms carried by joined values for all.

Filed under: General, Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, Religion and Ethics, Society and living environment, South Africa, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

07/16/2016 • 3:12 pm Comments Off on World Aids Conference 2016

World Aids Conference 2016

“What do you expect from the World Aids Conference 2016?” is one of the common questions asked in the last week. Well, what does one expect from a conference with more than 15000 participants in a country which was hit the most from the pandemic. Insights into new developments? I guess the most important factor for me is being able to get an overview first hand what is going on the world of HIV and AIDS around the globe. It is indeed the direct contact with activists and researchers where I learn the most  – while listening to their experience and insights – and which makes the trip to Durban worth time and effort. Communication, exchange, but also the feeling not to be alone in the fight against the pandemic leaves on with the resolve of continuing the work one is doing locally.

Durban 2016 is so different from the previous World Aids Conference held in Durban in 2000. At that time it was despair, hopelessness and the ignorance of politics which ruled the situation in South Africa. It was the time when HOPE Cape Town was born out of the need to stop the dying of children and parents. So Durban 2016 is also about achievements, about the millions on treatment, the figure of new mother-to-child transmission slowly going towards zero and the great feeling, that we from HOPE Cape Town have been part of this unbelievable journey of hope and frustration, often changing first place in the matter of an eye-blink.

There is still so much to do – the transmission rate in South Africa is still scary high, other countries also register more new infections and a vaccine seems to be still far away. There are still millions of South Africans dealing with stigma and discrimination on various levels. There is still so much stigma attached, so much fear and anxiety when it comes to dealing with HIV and Aids. We are definitely not there where we want to be, and the next 10 years will be crucial in the attempt to make a new generation of zero new infections a reality. Given the moment state of affair in South Africa, all the service delivery protests, corruption, political ignorance and the still wounded society there is more than a question mark to put behind the question: Will we achieve a victory?  HIV is more than a medical syndrome, it has to do with poverty, with hunger, with despair, with job creation, with investments, with intact families, with proper sex education, with the end of religious bias towards moral questions – and obviously when looking at it globally the amount of resources will depend on how governments want to spend their money. Looking at madness of violence and terrorism, racism and war it seems that HIV will continue to have only a backseat. And this might compromise the achievements reached till today.

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, HOPE Cape Town Association, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, HOPE Cape Town Trust, Medical and Research, Politics and Society, Reflection, South Africa, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

02/04/2015 • 12:16 am 1

Wanderer between worlds

Often I am asked about “my holidays” when I return from a shift as chaplain to sea for one of the cruise liners going around the world in our days. And when I tell them it does not feel like holiday people don’t want to believe me.
Well, as a matter of facts, there is indeed the usual work load of a chaplain:
saying Holy Mass, conducting prayer services for passengers and crew, playing escort for land excursions. It means also being present 24/7 for a possible crisis or counselling, confession or any approach by passengers or staff.
On the other hand it is clear, that being on a cruise liner is indeed also a break from the normal routine of my work in South Africa and therefore has a sort of “holiday effect” of some kind.
What I discovered over the years is that the gap between the realities I know and partly work in and the “perfect world of luxury holidays” is widening and that it seems more and more difficult to bridge this gap or to just accept that those worlds live almost parallel to each other. The vast amount of food wasted on a cruise liner and the knowledge that at home kids go hungry to bed is difficult to comprehend. The way people often romanticise poverty while doing excursion in so-called third-world-countries is sometimes hard to swallow when overhearing it.
Giving talks about my work and engaging into discussions show how big the gap is between the realities people on board are coming from and the realities I know from my work.
It’s not that I don’t enjoy the luxury of a cruise ship once in a while. It is nice to be pampered and looked after and to have the chance to eat and drink whenever I feel like it. I also know that I have to be home in both worlds, as only then, encounter can happen and gaps can be bridged and understanding and help can be born out of the worlds meeting each other one or the other way. But there remains still this little devil of doubt whether it always works to bring realities together which couldn’t be more different. The only thing I know is that I am trying hard and that I need both worlds to do what I see as my calling.

Filed under: Africa, Catholic Church, chaplain, chaplain to sea, HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, HOPE Cape Town Trust, Reflection, Society and living environment, South Africa, , , , , , , ,

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