Famine and Human Rights

CRISIS IN ETHIOPIA Ethiopia is a country of ancient cultures and highly varied geography in the northeaster Horn of Africa. It has a proud history of avoiding colonialism by resisting invaders, in particular the Italians in the 1930’s. In recent decades it has given signs of prosperity and growing influence in the region and in […]

Food Security

EXTREME HUNGER IN NORTHEAST NIGERIA A major famine has struck in a part of West Africa that is beset by conflict:  Northeastern Nigeria and the surrounding region.  As with the simultaneous situation in South Sudan and its neighboring countries, a very poor and sometimes drought-prone area is suffering primarily from the effects of war.  Conflict […]

Food Security

FAMINE AND CONFLICT IN SOUTH SUDAN South Sudan is suffering a severe famine.  As of March 2017, some 100,000 people face starvation, and 1 million others are approaching that state.  Last year UNICEF treated nearly 200,000 children under five for severe acute malnutrition.  About 5 million people are now facing some degree of serious hunger. […]

Economics and Peace

VIOLENCE AND CELL PHONES? Aren’t cell phones great?  Today’s electronics and other products have wonderful capabilities, but also require some fairly rare components to accomplish what they do.  Certain minerals such as cobalt, tungsten, tantalum and others are not as abundant around the world as iron, copper, or lead, but they are vital to some […]

DEMOCRATIZATION and RESOURCE EXTRACTION IN AFRICA

Mansions and Mining On February 3, 2017, just two weeks into the new U.S. Administration, the Senate joined the House (in H.J. Res. 41) to revoke Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  The Dodd-Frank Act was a very large piece of legislation passed after the “Great Recession” that occurred […]

JPIC: Introduction

Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation:  What and why? The Catholic Church has a long tradition of Catholic Social Teaching.  Its roots go back to the Old Testament prophets, and reached a pinnacle with Jesus himself.  But as a collection of teachings, it was formally developed in modern times by the Popes and Bishops beginning […]