Vol 45 No. 2 June 2020

The Pandemic Is a Portal’ Arundhati Roy:

April 3, 2020 – Who can use the Delhi’s Muslims, who were blamed term “gone viral” now without for the humiliation. Armed mobs shuddering a little? Who can look of Hindu vigilantes, backed by the at anything any more — a door police, attacked Muslims in the handle, a cardboard carton, a bag working-class neighbourhoods of of vegetables — without imagining north-east Delhi. Houses, shops, it swarming with those unseeable, mosques and schools were burnt. undead, unliving blobs dotted with Muslims who had been expecting suction pads waiting to fasten the attack fought back. More than themselves on to our lungs? The number of cases worldwide 50 people, Muslims and some Hin- this week crept over a million. dus, were killed. Thousands More than 50,000 people have right Hindu nationalists? moved into refugee camps in local died already. Projections suggest In December, while China was graveyards. Mutilated bodies were that number will swell to hundreds fighting the outbreak of the virus still being pulled out of the net- of thousands, perhaps more. The in Wuhan, the government of In- work of filthy, stinking drains virus has moved freely along the dia was dealing with a mass upris- when government officials had pathways of trade and interna- ing by hundreds of thousands of their first meeting about Covid-19 tional capital, and the terrible ill- its citizens protesting against the and most Indians first began to ness it has brought in its wake has brazenly discriminatory anti- hear about the existence of some- locked humans down in their Muslim citizenship law it had just thing called hand sanitiser. countries, their cities and their passed in parliament. March was busy too. The first two homes. The first case of Covid-19 was weeks were devoted to toppling But unlike the flow of capital, this reported in India on January 30, the Congress government in the virus seeks proliferation, not only days after the honourable profit, and has, therefore, re- chief guest of our Republic Day central Indian state of Madhya versed the direction of the flow. It Parade, Amazon forest-eater and Pradesh and installing a BJP gov- has mocked immigration controls, Covid-denier Jair Bolsonaro, had Contents biometrics, digital surveillance and left Delhi. But there was too much The Pandemic is a Portal…….p 1 every other kind of data analytics, to do in February for the virus to Quo Vadis COVID 19?...... p 4 and struck hardest — thus far — be accommodated in the ruling Indigenous Sovereignty and in the richest, most powerful na- party’s timetable. There were the Peaceful Co-existence……….p 6 tions of the world, bringing the Delhi Assembly elections that the engine of capitalism to a juddering Bharatiya Janata Party was slated Bernard Collaery’s Bombshell.p 8 halt. The tragedy is the wreckage to lose unless it upped its game, of a train that has been careening which it did, unleashing a vicious, Book Reviews: down the track for years no-holds-barred Hindu nationalist Rockefeller and the Demise of Ibu And what of my country, my poor- campaign, replete with threats of Pertiwi, ………………………p 10 rich country, India, suspended physical violence and the shooting Ask the Beasts………………..p 10 somewhere between feudalism of “traitors”. and religious fundamentalism, It lost anyway. So then there was Betty Williams, Irish Peacemaker caste and capitalism, ruled by far- punishment to be meted out to ……………………………….. p 11 government in its place. On March surely none of them can support 11 the World Health Organization the calamitous lack of planning or DISARMING declared that Covid-19 was a pan- preparedness that turned the demic. Two days later, on March world’s biggest, most punitive lock- TIMES 13, the health ministry said that down into the exact opposite of corona “is not a health emergency”. what it was meant to achieve. The A quarterly journal of Pax Christi Australia. It Finally, on March 19, the Indian man who loves spectacles created aims to provide members and interested prime minister addressed the na- the mother of all spectacles. As an peacemakers with peace news and views both tion. He told us of the need for appalled world watched, India re- local and international. We endeavour in each “social distancing” (easy to under- vealed herself in all her shame — edition to reflect the three-fold emphasis of Pax stand for a society so steeped in her brutal, structural, social and Christi which engages members in study, Non- the practice of caste) and called for economic inequality, her callous violent action and prayer for peace, justice, human a day of “people’s curfew” on indifference to suffering. rights, development and inter-faith and inter- March 22. He said nothing about The lockdown worked like a chemi- civilisation dialogue. what his government was going to cal experiment that suddenly illumi- do in the crisis, but he asked peo- nated hidden things. As shops, res- ple to come out on their balconies, taurants, factories and the con- PAX CHRISTI AUSTRALIA and ring bells and bang their pots struction industry shut down, as is an Australia-wide and pans to salute health workers. the wealthy and the middle classes Christian Peace Movement, affiliated with Pax He didn’t mention that, until that enclosed themselves in gated colo- Christi International. very moment, India had been ex- nies, our towns and megacities be- Human rights, justice and integrity of porting protective gear and respira- gan to extrude their working-class creation are central to its work. tory equipment, instead of keeping citizens — their migrant workers — We take a stand against militarism, nuclear it for Indian health workers and like so much unwanted accrual. weapons and the arms race. As an ecumenical Christian movement hospitals. Many driven out by their employers Pax Christi fosters the spiritual and scriptural Narendra Modi’s request was met and landlords, millions of impover- dimensions of peace-making. with great enthusiasm. There were ished, hungry, thirsty people, www.paxchristi.org.au pot-banging marches, community young and old, men, women, chil- dances and processions. In the dren, sick people, blind people, dis- days that followed, men jumped abled people, with nowhere else to Disarming Times is compiled by a team of into barrels of sacred cow dung, go, with no public transport in Pax Christi Australia members: and BJP supporters threw cow- sight, began a long march home to Joe Camilleri, Harry Kerr, urine drinking parties. Not to be their villages. They walked for days, Rita Camilleri and Barbara Hadkinson (Vic) outdone, many Muslim organisa- towards Badaun, Agra, Azamgarh, Claude Mostowik and Maggie Galley (N.S.W.) tions declared that the Almighty Aligarh, Lucknow, Gorakhpur — Pancras Jordan and Claire Cooke (Qld) was the answer to the virus and hundreds of kilometres away. Some INFORMATION ABOUT JOINING PAX called for the faithful to gather in died on the way. They knew they CHRISTI mosques in numbers. On March were going home potentially to • Pax Christi Victoria Visit ourP.O. website: Box 31 Carlton www.paxchristi.org.au Sth Vic. 3053 24, at 8pm, Modi appeared on TV slow starvation. Perhaps they even to announce that, from midnight knew they could be carrying the • Blog: http://paxchristi-or.blogspot.comTel: 03 9893 4946 03 9379 3889 onwards, all of India would be un- virus with them, and would infect • See Membershipemail: [email protected] Form on Notice Board der lockdown. Markets would be their families, their parents and • Contact a Pax Christi branch: Pax Christi New South Wales closed. All transport, public as well grandparents back home, but they P.O. Box A 681 Sydney Sth 1235, as private, would be disallowed. desperately needed a shred of fa- Tel: 02 9550 3845 or 0411 450 953 He said he was taking this decision miliarity, shelter and dignity, as well Fax: 02 9519 8471 not just as a prime minister, but as as food, if not love. email: mscjust @smartchat.net.au

our family elder. Who else can de- As they walked, some were beaten Pax Christi Queensland cide, without consulting the state brutally and humiliated by the po- PO Box 305 governments that would have to lice, who were charged with strictly Carina QLD 4152 Tel: 0415 461 620 deal with the fallout of this deci- enforcing the curfew. Young men email: [email protected] sion, that a nation of 1.38bn people were made to crouch and frog should be locked down with zero jump down the highway. Outside preparation and with four hours’ the town of Bareilly, one group was Unsourced material in Disarming Times may be notice? His methods give the im- herded together and hosed down copied with due acknowledgement. A copy of the pression that India’s prime minister with chemical spray. publication would be appreciated. Not all views thinks of citizens as a hostile force A few days later, worried that the expressed in this journal are equally shared by Pax that needs to be ambushed, taken fleeing population would spread the Christi Australia. by surprise, but never trusted. virus to villages, the government Locked down we were. Many health sealed state borders even for walk- Disarning Times is printed by Arena Press 2-14 Kerr St. Fitzroy 3065 Ph 03 9416 0232 professionals and epidemiologists ers. People who had been walking have applauded this move. But for days were stopped and forced

Disarming Times Page 2 www.paxchristi.org.au Pax Christi Australia to return to camps in the cities they cash available. Instead, money Medical Sciences in Delhi is closed, had just been forced to leave. from well-wishers is pouring into the hundreds of cancer patients Among older people it evoked the somewhat mysterious new PM- known as cancer refugees who live memories of the population transfer CARES fund. Pre-packaged meals on the roads outside that huge hos- of 1947, when India was divided with Modi’s face on them have be- pital driven away like cattle. People and Pakistan was born. Except that gun to appear. will fall sick and die at home. We this current exodus was driven by As the lockdown enters its second may never know their stories. They class divisions, not religion. Even week, supply chains have broken, may not even become statistics. We still, these were not India’s poorest medicines and essential supplies can only hope that the studies that people. These were people who had are running low. Thousands of truck say the virus likes cold weather are (at least until now) work in the city drivers are still marooned on the correct (though other researchers and homes to return to. The job- highways, with little food and wa- have cast doubt on this). Never less, the homeless and the despair- ter. Standing crops, ready to be have a people longed so irrationally ing remained where they were, in harvested, are slowly rotting. The and so much for a burning, punish- the cities as well as the countryside, economic crisis is here. The political ing Indian summer. where deep distress was growing crisis is ongoing. The mainstream What is this thing that has hap- long before this tragedy occurred. media has incorporated the Covid pened to us? It’s a virus, yes. In All through these horrible days, the story into its 24/7 toxic anti-Muslim and of itself it holds no moral brief. home affairs minister Amit Shah campaign. An organisation called But it is definitely more than a vi- remained absent from public view. the Tablighi Jamaat, which held a rus. Some believe it’s God’s way of When the walking began in Delhi, I meeting in Delhi before the lock- bringing us to our senses. Others used a press pass from a magazine down was announced, has turned that it’s a Chinese conspiracy to I frequently write for to drive to out to be a “super spreader”. That take over the world. Whatever it is, Ghazipur, on the border between is being used to stigmatise and de- Coronavirus has made the mighty Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The scene monise Muslims. The overall tone kneel and brought the world to a was biblical. Or perhaps not. The suggests that Muslims invented the halt like nothing else could. Our Bible could not have known num- virus and have deliberately spread it minds are still racing back and bers such as these. The lockdown as a form of jihad. forth, longing for a return to to enforce physical distancing had The Covid crisis is still to come. Or “normality”, trying to stitch our fu- resulted in the opposite — physical not. We don’t know. If and when it ture to our past and refusing to compression on an unthinkable does, we can be sure it will be dealt acknowledge the rupture. But the scale. This is true even within In- with, with all the prevailing preju- rupture exists. And in the midst of dia’s towns and cities. The main dices of religion, caste and class in this terrible despair, it offers us a roads might be empty, but the poor place. Today (April 2) in India, chance to rethink the doomsday are sealed into cramped quarters in there are almost 2,000 confirmed machine we have built for our- slums and shanties. Every one of cases and 58 deaths. These are selves. Historically, pandemics have the walking people I spoke to was unreliable numbers, based on woe- forced humans to break with the worried about the virus. But it was fully few tests. Expert opinion varies past and imagine their world anew. less real, in their lives than looming wildly. Some predict millions of This one is no different. It is a por- unemployment, starvation and the cases. Others think the toll will be tal, a gateway between one world violence of the police. Of all the far less. We may never know the and the next. people I spoke to that day, includ- contours of the crisis, even when it We can choose to walk through it, ing a group of Muslim tailors who hits us. All we know is that the run dragging the carcasses of our had only weeks ago survived the on hospitals has not yet begun. prejudice and hatred, our avarice, anti-Muslim attacks, one man’s India’s public hospitals and clinics our data banks and dead ideas, our words especially troubled me. He — which are unable to cope with dead rivers and smoky skies behind was a carpenter called Ramjeet. the almost 1m children who die of us. Or we can walk through lightly, “Maybe when Modiji decided to do diarrhoea, malnutrition and other with little luggage, ready to imagine this, nobody told him about us. health issues every year, with the another world. And ready to fight Maybe he doesn’t know about us”, hundreds of thousands of tubercu- for it. he said. “Us” means approximately losis patients (a quarter of the This is an abbreviated version of an 460m people. world’s cases), with a vast anaemic article in Online University Of The State governments in India have and malnourished population vul- Left . It first appeared in the Finan- showed more heart and under- nerable to any number of minor cial Times standing in the crisis. Trade unions, illnesses that prove fatal for them http:// private citizens and other collectives — will not be able to cope with a ouleft.spmesolite.tilted.net/? are distributing food and emer- crisis that is like what Europe and p=2979&fbclid=IwAR08Vkhox gency rations. The central govern- the US are dealing with. All health- X6yLCXW9TAtOZHOjdo- ment has been slow to respond to care is on hold as hospitals have 8kQJMCY5t- their desperate appeals for funds. It been turned over to the service of n8Igm2ZUmInAzaTBv5C3A turns out that the prime minister’s the virus. The trauma centre of the National Relief Fund has no ready legendary All India Institute of

Disarming Times Page 3 www.paxchristi.org.au Pax Christi Australia QUOQUO VADIS,VADIS, COVIDCOVID ------19?19? TheThe ChallengeChallenge postpost ------CoronaCorona Caesar D’Mello We are witnessing one of the most counter it. But it ignores what most and sections of society who are devastating pandemics in human can intuitively realise – that a pan- urging a return as soon as possible history. Already shocked as the demic reveals a society. It is a mir- to life as it was BC – before coro- world is, COVID-19 is still very ror that reflects society, the living navirus. Prime Minister Scott Morri- much alive and unfolding even as threads of its social fabric – how it son has already used a term for restrictions begin to be loosened. is formed and organised; its atti- this – snapback, or “not keeping True to the Greek origins of the tudes, priorities and values on life, Australia under the doona” ( quilt )! word – pan meaning ‘all’ and on the place of material wealth Caught on the horns of a dilemma demos meaning ‘people’ - the pan- and the spirit; the quality of its of saving lives yet reviving the demic is affecting almost every governance; how justly it allocates economy, he has already defined country on earth at varying stages resources; how its poor are “success” as less a matter of fewer of its development. The incessant treated. A pandemic forces, or cases, though important, than a updating continues on cases and should force a society to ask seri- return to a functioning economy as deaths, curves and vaccines, ar- ous ontological questions of itself, before. Such thinking is aptly ex- rangements at home, work and of its nature, its self-image and pressed in the cartoon by Wilcox everywhere, job losses, disrupted self-understanding, of the failings today: Ok team. The world has or slowing industry, thermal test- in the way it functions to better changed drastically and our chal- ing, economies shattered, life as itself. lenge over the coming period will we know changed, perhaps forever COVID-19 brings to the fore a fo- be to shoehorn this new reality into - faces of what has come to be cus on the centrality of life. Never- our existing ideology… (The Age, known as ‘dancing with the en- theless there is an obvious discon- 19 May 2020) emy’. nect: while we are desperate to “Snapback to what?” is a question The deluge of information, statis- preserve and save life even as we that arises regarding a number of tics and expert views – while not are struggling to do so during this dimensions of our society, includ- overlooking the assortment of health challenge, as humanity we ing the following two. mindless fake news, crackpottery have developed the technological Experts advise us that we have not and conspiracy theories - provides and scientific capacity to destroy all yet thoroughly understood the epi- analysis from a multiplicity of an- or most life on the planet, if so demiology of the coronavirus, and gles. However, the bulk of this re- desired! So why is life valuable in how enduring its impact will be. mains focused mostly on measur- one sense, and not in the other? But given the enormity of what we able medical, sociological and Though the preservation of individ- have experienced, it would be na- econometric data, but skirts con- ual lives engages our best minds, ïve in the extreme to be fixated on sideration of the root of the pan- this pandemic also appears to have a single event, cause or factor and demic. Truly, is it sufficient to iden- emboldened some put forth a new the associated polemics to help us tify its material starting point - as form of eugenics, a contemporary understand it completely. We have is the purpose of the just an- Darwinism, an utilitarianism of the to come to grips with why the era nounced WHO-oversighted inquiry survival of the fittest. In their ad- we live in is called Anthropocene, - and ascertain whether it origi- vocacy for an urgent and unnu- wherein humanity’s self- nated from wet markets, bats or a anced removal of most constraints gratification is a serious player in laboratory in Wuhan to understand suggested by medical experts, they shaping the nature of the planet it fully? Do name calling and finger ask why draw all of society under and the environment. As The pointing as the US and China en- those constraints when it is the Guardian writes, “ Humanity’s influ- gage in, or the lens of the stock elderly, weak, sick and sickly who ence is causing … a drastic decline market provide the total explana- are most susceptible? Would it not in the richness of life. Microbes are tion? There seems to be an un- be efficient to accept a certain level not exempt. Whether on coral stated but seemingly avowed at- of their mortality as inevitable, as reefs or in the human gut, we are tempt to limit examination of the “a new normal”, make provisions disrupting the relationships be- virus to the immediate empirical for their palliative care or isolation, tween microbes and their hosts, factors surrounding its emergence. and free everyone else and the often pulling apart species that But we will not have gone far in economy to march on? A placard in have been together for millions of coming to terms with the virus if an anti-lockdown demonstration in years.” Totally comprehending our study does not venture beyond the US exhorted “Let the weak COVID-19 is a long way off, but epidemiology and the economy. go” ! Such voices would justify the surely it is not beyond our wit to The public discourse concentrates mortality of a few for the many. realise that life in all its forms must on the pandemic as a health crisis, However, even though thankfully be respected and protected for the significant as this is for the com- all may not project such reasoning, well-being of ‘Our Common Home’. munity to consider seriously and there are leaders, opinion leaders,

Disarming Times Page 4 www.paxchristi.org.au Pax Christi Australia but surely it is not beyond our wit to that violates ‘the most universal of Pax Christi Australia, and is a realise that life in all its forms must law…the interdependence of every- consultant on “development” in the be respected and protected for the one with everyone, that there is no Third World. He was formerly na- well-being of ‘Our Common Home’. being, much less us humans, that is tional director of Christian World We have to reject our arrogant an island disconnected from every- Service Australia, National Council myths of our power and superiority thing else.’ In humility we have seri- of Churches, and director of Ecu- bred through a political and eco- ously to question the way we live. menical Coalition on Tourism. nomic system that is failing, and *Caesar D’Mello, cae- acknowledge the pervasive ‘anti-life [email protected] , is a member system’, as Pope Francis calls it, Covid 19 Good news stories From Anglican Overseas Aid.

Kenya ers and chiefs and are also as- communities for a long time now The situation sisted with food essentials, sup- through the Equipas de Vida (or With confirmed cases of COVID- port to link with government ser- ‘Life Teams’) initiative. The Life 19, Kenya put in place a strict vices, and help with starting in- Teams are groups of community- dusk to dawn curfew from March come generating activities within based volunteers, who are trained 27, including stay at home orders their homes. to improve the quality of life for all except essential services. With tensions running high, the through health and hygiene mes- This has put incredible strain on leaders have also been equipped saging. small businesses who rely on daily to report and deal sensitively with So respected is our partner and trade to survive and don’t have cases of women at risk of violence, their Life Teams initiative, that the the luxury of savings. to referring them to help as Government of Mozambique has The response needed, offer counselling and if recognised the Diocese and these Our partner, the Anglican Church necessary, help organising a safe teams as an essential service, and of Kenya, Mount Kenya West Dio- space for them to stay. they are now a recognised part of cese (ACK), is working in multiple This work is supported by the Aus- Mozambique’s official COVID-19 ways to prevent COVID-19 from tralian Government and AOA sup- prevention response. spreading, improving the lives of porters through the Australian The Life Teams have been trained those that are most impacted by NGO Co-operation Program. to deliver the life-saving health lockdowns, and supporting house- Mozambique and hygiene COVID-19 prevention holds with essential supplies. The situation messaging door-to-door within the ACK is playing an active role in Mozambique has confirmed cases 98 vulnerable communities that educating the community on hy- of COVID-19, including in the Dio- they are a part of. giene, prevention measures and cese of Nampula where our work The Missionary Diocese of Nam- facts on COVID-19 through train- is situated. The government imple- pula has also been distributing ing local volunteer community mented restrictions on public gath- soap to the most vulnerable fami- leaders and Community Health erings and put in place social dis- lies in each of the communities, as Volunteers. These volunteers cre- tancing measures. While this is not well as teaching them about food ate awareness on how to prevent a complete lockdown, it has sig- storage and distributing vegetable the spread of the virus and, at the nificant implications on people’s seeds for home gardening to sup- same time, distribute items like movements and livelihoods. port social distancing. soap and masks to the most vul- The response This work is supported by the Aus- nerable. Our partner in Mozambique, the tralian Government and AOA sup- These vulnerable households, in- Missionary Diocese of Nampula, porters through the Australian cluding those with disabilities are has been working towards the goal NGO Co-operation Program. identified by the community lead- of improving health knowledge in

Disarming Times Page 5 www.paxchristi.org.au Pax Christi Australia IndigenousIndigenous SovereigntySovereignty andand PeacefulPeaceful CoCo ------existenceexistence AnzacAnzac DayDay ReflectionReflection 20202020 PeterPeter GriffinGriffin

What Aboriginal people ask is Frontiers Wars have been disputed Needless to say, none of this that the modern world now and are still not officially recognised, reaches beyond archival records to makes the sacrifices necessary only adds bitterness to the injustice educate Australian children about to give us a real future…. of denial. their country’s actual history. (to).Acknowledge that we have The primary focus of this essay will The Frontier Wars survived the worst that the past be on the difficult journey towards Much evidence exists to back up the had thrown at us, and we are the recognition of Aboriginal sover- claim that this initial antagonism set here with our songs, our cere- eignty from the time of Captain the tone and the template for t he monies, our land, our language James Cook’s landing in Botany Bay fighting which first took place sev- and our people – our full iden- on 29 April 1770 to the present. eral months after the landing of the tity. What a gift this is that we Indigenous versus British set- First Fleet in Botany Bay in January can give you, if you choose to tler perspectives 1788 and ended with the last accept us in a meaningful way . Fundamental to Aboriginal and non clashes which occurred as late as (Galarrwuy Yunupingu, ‘Rom Aboriginal relations in Australia is 1934. According to Henry Reynolds, Watangu ’ in Final Report of the the divisive issue between those a minimum of 40,000 Indigenous Referendum Council , 17 June who view the British Crown’s claim people and between 2,000 and 2017, p. 53) to the eastern seaboard of Australia 2,500 settlers died in these wars. If you have come here to help as an act of settlement, compared The impact of colonisation on the me you are wasting your time, to the First Nations people who see Indigenous population is even more but if you have come because it as an invasion . dramatic. Before 1788 there were an your liberation is bound up with The Final Report of the Referen- estimated 300,000 to 1 million In- mine, then let us work together . dum Council refers to a division digenous people in Australia. By (Quote from Lilla Watson ) between “old” and “new” Austra- 1920, this number may well have Introduction lians. The invasion that started at dropped to as low as 80,000. Every year, the Anzac remembrance Botany Bay is the origin of the fun- Bruce Elder, in the preface to his gathering at the Marrickville Peace damental grievance between the old book Blood on the Wattle, states Park (Richardson’s Lookout) in Syd- and new Australians. This is a land that “the massacres of Aborigines … ney has always included the Frontier that was colonised without the con- should be as much a part of Austra- Wars. These wars refer to the vio- sent of its rightful owners. As the lian history as the First Fleet, the lent conflicts between Indigenous Final Report states, “their land and explorers, the gold rushes and the Australians and white settlers from sovereignty was annexed without bushrangers.” Indeed for some the earliest days of the colony. It is consent and without treaty with the years now a large and vigorous con- fitting on Anzac Day to look more country’s rightful owners.” This tingent of Aboriginal and Aboriginal closely at the significance of both forms part of the Truth passionately supporters have been a frustrated the physical conflicts between Abo- called for in the Uluru Statement (blocked) presence at the annual riginal and non-Aboriginal Austra- From The Heart . Anzac Memorial Service in Canberra. lians and also their deeper, seem- It is worth noting that the weapon- Australia is still not ready to accept ingly endless repercussions. ised hostility from the colonial set- the truth of its own colonial history. Acknowledgment of the Frontier tlers toward the Indigenous people Eventually the Frontier Wars came Wars is associated with an ineradi- dates from the earliest contact in to an end around 1934. However as cable truth, namely that the wars, 1770. Peter Fitzsimons in his book one form of violence and control massacres (on both sides) and a James Cook reveals that in his own subsided, governments employed whole gamut of genocidal practices journal, Cook records that the entry new policies of control and discrimi- (dispossession of land including sa- of a strange vessel entering Botany nation. As stated in the Final Report, cred and hunting grounds, devasta- Bay received an agitated response Aboriginal people were herded to tion from introduced diseases, food from the local people. Cook states missions and reserves on the fringes poisonings etc.) all occurred on Aus- that he fired three musket shots and of white society and the Stolen Gen- tralian soil. The irony is that none of one of these shot wounded an In- erations were taken from their fami- the wars into which Australia has digenous man in the leg. So, from lies. This was the policy of assimila- been drawn via one or other alliance the very first encounter of tion. As emphasised by Australians in the name of “defence” and “discovery”, the unannounced and Together, the a ssimilation approach “democracy” has occurred on mysterious visitors made their inten- “proposed that "full blood" Indige- mainland Australia. The fact that the tions known with the force of arms. nous people should be allowed to

Disarming Times Page 6 www.paxchristi.org.au Pax Christi Australia to “die out” through a process of 1925 which advocated for the right that the legitimacy of the Australian natural elimination, while "half- of Aborigines to determine their own State rests on the presumption that castes" were encouraged to assimi- lives. there was no recognisable legal or late into the white community.” Lack of a Treaty political organisation on the conti- White Australia Policy Australia is the only Commonwealth nent prior to the arrival of the British Coinciding with the latter years of nation where a treaty does not exist Crown. Consequently, the insistence the Frontier Wars, non Aboriginal between the colonisers and the In- on Aboriginal sovereignty fundamen- Australia had formed itself into a digenous people. An Indigenous tally contests the basis of the consti- Federation under a Constitution Treaty was first promised by Prime tutional order i.e. it is the polar op- which, among other things, was Minister Bob Hawke back in 1988 posite of terra nullius. heavily influenced by the White Aus- after receiving the Barunga State- A common misunderstanding from a tralia Policy. This policy, based upon ment from Aboriginal elders which legal perspective is that the Mabo the assumption of the superiority of called for such a treaty to be con- decision of 3 June 1992 recognised whiteness over non whiteness, al- cluded. No treaty eventuated. Aboriginal sovereignty. It did not. lowed for the passing of the Immi- The absence of a treaty is at the [While] the court demolished the gration Restriction Act 1901 which very heart of the historical injustice concept of Terra Nullius in respect effectively stopped all non-European in Australia. The continued lack of a of property, it preserved it in rela- immigration into the country and treaty with Indigenous Australians tion to sovereignty ... For 200 years contributed to the development of a shows an ongoing denial of the prior Australian law was secured to the racially insulated white society. occupation and dispossession of In- rock of Terra Nullius. One pinioned While this legislation sought to pro- digenous people and a general dis- arm represented property, the other tect whiteness from without, the regard for their rights and aspira- sovereignty. With great courage the Constitution sought to protect white- tions. It is a reminder that oppres- High Court recognized native title in ness from within. From the begin- sive colonial attitudes still have not the Mabo judgment and released ning, white Australia believed that been addressed. one arm from its shackles. The the Aboriginal people were a dying Sovereignty other remains as firmly secured as race and the Constitution only In the 1990s, Australia sought to ever and seems destined to remain made two references to them. Sec- redress its colonial origins by insti- there for some time but in the long tion 127 excluded Aboriginal and tuting a policy of reconciliation. Rec- run the situation will prove unsta- Torres Strait Islander people from onciliation processes are often criti- ble. What is more, the resulting le- the Census and Section 51 (xxvi) cized for demanding that the victims gal pose will become increasingly regrettably gave power over Aborigi- of state repression relinquish their uncomfortable as time passes. nal people to the States rather than legitimate claims to justice for the In Australia, critics claim that the to the Federal government. sake of national unity. One notable formal reconciliation process was a It took 66 years and a referendum Indigenous spokesperson, Kevin further stage in the colonial project in 1967 requiring a majority of the Gilbert, expressed his view this way: of assimilating the Aboriginal popu- voters in a majority of the States to What are we to reconcile lation into the colonizing society. include Aboriginal people in the Cen- ourselves to? To a holo- Against reconciliation, many Aborigi- sus of their own country. caust, to a massacre, to the nal people insist that their sover- The Aboriginal people and their calls removal of us from our land, eignty was never ceded. This claim for recognition, in contrast to official from the taking of our land? represents both an assertion of the and unofficial expectations, refused The reconciliation process right to self determination and a to go away. People of particular can achieve nothing be- refusal to recognize the legitimacy note who have fought for Aboriginal cause it does not…promise of the settler-colonial state that has rights, include William Cooper who justice. It does not promise incorporated them as citizens. was one of eleven signatories to the a Treaty and it does not Henry Reynolds claims that in any Maloga Petition in 1887. During the promise reparation for the discussion about the ongoing evolu- 1930s, William Cooper and other taking away of our lives, our tion of Australian nationalism, the leaders from the Australian Abo- lands and our economic and issue of sovereignty is inescapable. rigines' League collected 1,814 political base. Unless it can But this discussion comes with a signatures and petitioned Prime Min- return to us those very vital caveat. This common word belies ister Joseph Lyons and King George things…what have we? A the fact that for each collective, VI to intervene on behalf of Indige- handshake? A symbolic Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, sov- nous Australians “for the preserva- dance? An exchange of ereignty refers to a reality compris- tion of our race from extinction and leaves and feathers or ing different values. For Aboriginal to grant representation to our race something like that? Australia, sovereignty predates the in the Federal Parliament.” For Gilbert and many others, the arrival of the First Fleet and has Other Aboriginal activists such as possibility of breaking with the colo- never been ceded. According to the Fred Maynard and Tom Lacey nial past depends on the recognition Uluru Statement from the founded the Australian Aboriginal of Aboriginal sovereignty. But there Heart , sovereignty is a spiritual no- Progress Association in February is an elephant in the room, namely tion, a concept that is unfamiliar to

Disarming Times Page 7 www.paxchristi.org.au Pax Christi Australia non-Aboriginal Australia. Rather than desire for European concepts, institu- assertion that Indigenous sover- being a philosophical notion, it is the tions and values than from a refusal eignty “co-exists with the sovereignty “ancestral tie between the land, or to recognize the legitimacy of the of the Crown.” Sovereignty then has ‘mother nature’ and the Aboriginal sovereignty in the name of which a dual character: one that is non- and Torres Strait Islander peoples”. (the British) invasion was and contin- Indigenous and another that is In- And again, as the Uluru Statement ues to be justified.” In other words, digenous. The search for liberation emphasises, Aboriginal sovereignty the quest for Aboriginal sovereignty through sovereignty can only be “has never been ceded or extin- challenges non Indigenous Australia achieved by both sides working to- guished”. to let go of its right to define just gether. Postscript what sovereignty is and for whom. Peter Griffin is a member of Pax Fiona Nicoll argues that Indigenous This, I suggest, is the reason why Christi New South Wales sovereignty claims “come less from a the Uluru Statement includes the

BernardBernard Collaery’sCollaery’s bombshellbombshell Hamish McDonald

With the release of his book detailing benefits for their people from a re- the sorry saga of Australia’s negotia- source whose value seems to be tions with less well-equipped greater than the petroleum gas in neighbours over oil in the Timor Sea, which it has been hidden. Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery The same will go for the much larger has dramatically raised the stakes in Greater Sunrise field unless its pro- his impending trial for breaching se- duction-sharing agreement with the crecy laws. Oil Under Troubled Wa- Woodside Petroleum consortium is ter, published this month by Mel- modified. Timor-Leste’s negotiators, bourne University Press, is a trench- initially led by then prime minister ant and deeply researched account East Timor’s prime minister, Mari Mari Alkatiri, were advised by a Nor- of those negotiations. It shows how Alkatiri (second from left) and his wegian expert to add the words “and the Australian government and its Australian counterpart John Howard inerts” to the Bayu-Undan and lawyers unscrupulously misrepre- (second from right) watch as their Greater Sunrise contracts, but did sented petroleum discoveries in the respective foreign ministers, José not pursue the point. They were seabed and used high-pressure tac- Ramos-Horta and Alexander Downer, bound by a statement — signed by tics to push the cash-strapped UN sign the revenue sharing agreement Alkatiri, Xanana Gusmão and José administration and then the new for oil and gas reserves in Sydney on Ramos-Horta — that the holders of Timor-Leste government into prema- 12 January 2006. contracts signed under the Indone- ture and disadvantageous agree- had more than enough to justify ex- sian–Australian regime would con- ments. And it recounts Australia’s traction. ConocoPhillips, the opera- tinue to enjoy the same rights under March 2002 decision to withdraw tors of that field, got it for free, and an independent Timor-Leste on from the jurisdiction of international sent it via pipeline to a liquified natu- terms that were “no more onerous.” courts on questions of maritime ral gas plant in Darwin. The US oil The statement was drafted and boundaries, a move that continues to major then sold the helium fraction signed in September 1999 at a meet- jar with Canberra’s admonitions to BOC Australia, owned by the mul- ing in Darwin with officials from the about a “rules based international tinational industrial gases group Department of Foreign Affairs and order.” The bombshell in this book is Linde, which opened a plant next Trade and Phillips Petroleum, later that the Australian government, with door to the Darwin LNG terminal in ConocoPhillips. Australian-led peace- the Coalition in power at the critical 2010. By 2015, according to Collaery, keepers had barely begun securing times, neglected to include in pro- the annual output of the plant, which East Timor from the rampaging of duction-sharing contracts any men- cost perhaps $50 million to build, departing Indonesian troops and mi- tion of the helium component of the was an estimated 200 million stan- litias, and the Timorese had no legal gas flow from discoveries in the area dard cubic feet. At prevailing prices, advisers with them. of joint exploitation. that’s $2 billion in revenue per year. Collaery’s book will upset many of The price of this inert lighter-than-air When I enquired, BOC Australia re- Timor-Leste’s friends. It is bitterly gas — a critical component in high- fused to comment on these claims, critical of Alkatiri and other Fretilin tech processes including magnetic saying it cannot reveal confidential leaders, whom Collaery accuses of resonance imaging and liquid crystal information about agreements with adhering to undemocratic doctrines displays — has shot up in recent suppliers or customers. As Collaery’s and Leninist organisation and rushing years. Helium is mostly recovered account stands, both the Australian to sign unfavourable agreements to from flows of natural gas, and the and Timor-Leste governments have secure revenue flows. He is com- Bayu-Undan field in the Timor Sea neglected to obtain any revenue paratively soft on Gusmão, whom he

Disarming Times Page 8 www.paxchristi.org.au Pax Christi Australia has advised for twenty years. Most ence seem to have gained him the laery’s own defence counsel have of all, though, he paints an invidious security clearances that led Witness not been allowed to see the evi- picture of Alexander Downer, who K to his office. dence being brought against him. was foreign minister for all the pe- Whether or not it was Collaery who Affidavits have been given to the riod from Timor’s move towards in- told them, the Timorese informed court by former foreign minister Ga- dependence to the ratification of then prime minister Julia Gillard in reth Evans and former defence treaties in 2006 deferring any re- December 2012 that they knew of forces chief Chris Barrie. According drafting of the maritime border for the 2004 bugging operation and to Justice David Mossop, both men thirty years and giving Australia half were intending to use it as evidence challenge Porter’s assertion that the the revenue from Greater Sunrise. of bad faith in negotiations to annul evidence, if disclosed, would Downer was in thrall to Woodside the treaties reached with Downer. threaten national security. Both Gus- Petroleum, Collaery believes, and Not long after, the Australian Secu- mão and Ramos-Horta are ready to came to identify its commercial in- rity Intelligence Organisation (then testify as defence witnesses. terest with the national interest. led by the ASIS chief at the time of Whether or not Collaery’s lawyers Warned about further prosecution the Dili operation, David Irvine) manage to have the trial held in the and a possible ten-year jail term raided Collaery’s office and seized open with Downer and officials under post-9/11 intelligence laws, material. Later, the government cross-examined, this book has given Collaery studiously avoids the matter withdrew Witness K’s passport to the case a wider moral setting that that has him facing trial in the ACT prevent him from testifying at the will greatly influence the court of Supreme Court: the Australian Se- proceedings Timor-Leste had public opinion. If they manage to cret Intelligence Service’s bugging of launched at the International Court have it introduced as evidence, it Timor-Leste’s cabinet room at the of Justice in The Hague. After years might well sway the jury. The Dili height of the maritime treaty nego- of manoeuvres ended with Timor- operation taints not just the diplo- tiations in 2004. Collaery is charged Leste’s decision to withdraw its bad- matic and intelligence figures in- with conspiracy to communicate faith case (to Collaery’s great disap- volved, but also the entire govern- secret intelligence information to the pointment), Canberra agreed to me- ment of the time. Could Downer and government of Timor-Leste between diation supervised from The Hague. his department head, Ashton Cal- May 2008 and May 2013, and with The result was a vastly more favour- vert, have authorised the bugging sharing some of this information able carve-up of Great Sunrise for without seeking approval from cabi- with ABC journalists. One of the the Timorese. net’s national security committee, ASIS operatives involved in the Dili While Canberra’s lawyers were fight- whose other members would have bugging, known to the public only ing the bad-faith accusation in the been prime minister John Howard, as Witness K, is charged with International Court of Justice it deputy prime minister John Ander- breaching the Intelligence Services would have been counterproductive son, treasurer Peter Costello, attor- Act by discussing the operation with to prosecute Collaery and Witness K ney-general Philip Ruddock and im- Collaery, even though he had been for leaking about the ASIS opera- migration minister Amanda cleared to take his misgivings about tion. The threat of international con- Vanstone? Why, one wonders, has the operation to Collaery as a legal demnation removed, attorney- Porter chosen to pick at this scab? adviser. Collaery, deputy chief minis- general Christian Porter authorised The fact the prosecutions were ter and attorney-general in the ACT the director of public prosecutions to launched confirms the ASIS bugging government between 1989 and go ahead with charges against both. happened. With its 2015 decision to 1991, has spooky elements in his In a hearing scheduled for mid-April, return to international jurisdiction, own early background. His book Witness K is ready to plead guilty, the Labor Party ended the shameful mentions training in commando-type apparently in return for not having a bipartisan effort to rob the Indone- operations while at university, an conviction recorded and being free sians and Timorese. Porter is invit- activity ASIS pursued with trusty again to travel. Collaery’s case will ing a royal commission by a future potential recruits at least until the go to a jury trial, possibly in May if government. bungled “hostage rescue” at Mel- Covid-19 does not disrupt court Hamish McDonald is a former for- bourne’s Sheraton Hotel in 1983. He schedules. But a preliminary hearing eign editor and China correspondent also worked for a little-known secu- will test Porter’s invocation of the of the Sydney Morning Herald and rity section of the immigration de- 2004 National Security Information former regional editor of the Far partment, and was a first secretary Act, which allows intelligence mate- Eastern Economic Review. This arti- of the Australian embassy in Paris. rial to be revealed only in closed cle first appeared in Inside Story) This and his later political experi- court. So far, it seems, even Col- Fire Blessing from the Kimberley good in life so that you may hear the flow of May the fire be in your thoughts may it protect you from speaking water and of all Creation and of the making them good and just against another. Dreaming. may it protect you from all harm May the fire be in your ears May you be protected from gossip may the fire be in your eyes we pray that you may hear with and from those things that harm may it open your eyes to see what is deep listening and break down your family.

Disarming Times Page 9 www.paxchristi.org.au Pax Christi Australia BookBook reviewsreviews

Rockefeller and the Demise of the deeply flawed United Nations ernment, but with the complicity of Ibu Pertiwi, by Kerry Collison, sponsored plebiscite that disenfran- the USA, the UK and Australia. This Australia West Papua Associa- chised the peoples of West Papua is the real story of a totally colonised tion Melbourne. and placed their futures in the and brutalised people held together Copies of this new novel about West hands of the Indonesian govern- by an intriguing fictional story line. Papua is an informative read by an ment; and in subsequent events It is also the story of their struggle author who knows the story (and involving the total subjugation of the for freedom and of their courageous the back-story). indigenous peoples, that have re- resistance that continues to this The ‘Rockefeller' of the title is Mi- lentlessly robbed them of any con- day.' chael Rockefeller, the only son of trol over their own lives and desti- To buy a copy simply deposit or the New York Governor in 1962, nies, and of any access to the riches transfer $30 (includes $10 postage) who drowned in West Papua while of their own country. into our account, and then send us collecting Asmat sculptures for his 'Central to these events in the novel an father's museum. 'Ibu Pertiwi' is is the greed and corruption underly- email to frwpwomensoffice@gm how Indonesians fondly refer to ing the mining operations in West ail.com with your postal address. their homeland ( ibu - Papua that have enriched both their Account Name : Australia West mother, pertiwi - earth). After American shareholders and corrupt Papua Assoc-Melb reading a review copy, here's what Indonesian officials and business- BSB : 063162 Major Ross Himona (New Zealand men. The novel pulls no punches in Account number : 10610166 Army) wrote: its portrayal of the gross inhumanity Ref: your Surname 'A work of political fiction based in visited upon the West Papuan peo- the real events leading in 1969 to ples not just by the Indonesian gov-

Ask the Beasts, Darwin and done this? the God of Love, Elizabeth A In his hand is the life of every living Johnson. Bloomsbury Con- thing tinuum, 2014 This is a demand- and the breath of every human ing book but a very worthwhile one. being. A group from Pax Christi Victoria is Commenting on this text she sug- studying it as part of the Theology gests that: If you interrogate the of the Environment project . Eliza- flora and fauna of land, sea and air, beth Johnson is Distinguished Pro- the text suggests their response will fessor of Theology at Fordham Uni- lead your heart and mind to the versity, New York and a Sister of living God, generous source and the Sisters of St. Joseph, Brent- sustaining power of their life. This wood, New York as well as being a is not the way contemporary Chris- leading feminist theologian. tians have been taught to think She deals with an issue which has about God, humanity and creation. used up a much time and energy We think of God as the one who among Christians as well as causing created the earth in order and set it deep division: the supposed conflict going but who was primarily con- between the creation stories in the cerned with engaging humanity. Book of Genesis and Charles Dar- God has given the creation to hu- they are integral to it. The title of manity to use for humanity’s bene- win’s theory of evolution as an ac- the book comes from the Book of count of the origins of life on earth. fit. God is separate form creation. The arguments this “conflict’ has Job chapter 12: ‘But ask the God is static. God lives in heaven generated have been a complete beasts, and they will teach you; from which God sent Jesus to save waste of time and energy because the birds of the air, and they will us and where we eventually join they rest on a fundamental misun- tell you; him and leave creation behind. derstanding about what the Book of ask the plants of the earth, and Professor Johnson sets out to chal- Genesis and what Darwin say. they will teach you; lenge these beliefs. Professor Johnson shows that Dar- and the fish of the sea will de- She investigates Darwin’s book The win’s theories need not stand in clare to you. Origin of Species against the back- against a religious belief in the God Who among all these does not ground of his diaries and the notes who created the universe. In fact know of his explorations as he travelled that the hand of the LORD has around the world studying the ani-

Disarming Times Page 10 www.paxchristi.org.au Pax Christi Australia around the world studying the ani- their own faith said about the origin in authority but in love. Jesus is the mals and plants which he found. She of creation: that it came from God ultimate expression of the life and describes in great detail how Darwin who created a world of harmony in love of God. All things came into discovered how living organisms which every part was related and being through him, and without him change and adapt to changes in en- humanity was has a special part of not one thing came into being. What vironment, how some species flour- play but was no separate form eve- has come into being in him was ish and others disappear, what hap- rything else. This picture contested life, and the life was the light of all pens when catastrophe strikes, how the Babylonian creation story. They people. ( John 1.2) The Holy Spirit is variations develop and much more. believed that creation was the result life proceeding from the father and However this is not raw science. of conflict between the Gods and the son. God’s life is not fixed but She unfolds it like the development that therefore conflict and violence is always evolving and becoming as of symphony, the deeper reality be- was an essential part of being hu- God draws us into his evolving and hind the life of the universe. man, an idea which is alive and well becoming. Our life belongs in the Darwin’s theories created uproar at in our world today. life of earth and creation and in the the time. However Professor John- Professor Johnson goes on to look at life of the Universe itself. The iron in son points out that this was not the origins of the universe itself, our blood takes us back to the great what we might expect. Most of the how it developed from the original eruptions of energy at the begin- criticism of Darwin came not from Big Bang. How galaxies and plane- ning of time. We live and belong in the church but from fellow scientists tary systems developed, who the the living entity which is Earth and who were wedded to the traditional right conditions came together to let the whole universe, which is itself reading of the Genesis creation sto- life grow on earth. She speculates the expression of the life and love of ries. On the other hand some lead- on whether similar conditions may God which becomes real in the life ing Christians, including a future have led to the development of life death and resurrection of Jesus. Archbishop of Canterbury, were very elsewhere in the universe, some- I cannot do justice to this remark- interested in Darwin and wanted to thing we will never know. able book in a brief article. I can know more. She asks how God might relate to all only commend it to you and invite It is worth noting at this point that this. She suggests that we have to you to read it for yourself. Genesis 1 & 2 does not claim to be a change the way we think about God. You can get the book from scientific explanation of the origin of God is not apart from the life of the www.bookdepository.com creation at all. Genesis was written universe, reigning from his throne in for $29AUD when the people of Israel were in the skies. She suggests that God is Reviewed by Harry Kerr exile in Babylon, in a foreign culture life and that God is there wherever with very different values. It was life is and that his life is expressed written to draw the people to what not in distance but in presence, not Betty Williams, Irish peace maker Ivan Little Laureate Betty Williams, a co- dren in August 1976. They were the IRA to discredit the organisers as founder of the ground-breaking struck by a getaway car driven by 'dupes of the British' and to disrupt Peace People movement in Northern IRA man Danny Lennon, who lost their events. Betty Williams, nee Ireland who has died at the age of control of the vehicle after he was Smyth, was born to a Catholic 76, has been hailed as "a true soldier fired on by a soldier. Mairead Corri- mother, a housewife, and a Protes- of peace". The tribute from an inter- gan was the aunt of the three tant father, a butcher, in May 1943. national peace organisation was just youngsters and she went on televi- She said her background imbued her one of dozens of messages of sym- sion after the deaths to make a with a sense of religious tolerance pathy for the west Belfast woman deeply emotional plea for the killings and a "breadth of vision" which moti- who, along with Mairead Corrigan, to stop. Two days later she and Mrs vated her to join an anti-violence was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1976 Williams, who was one of the first movement that preceded the Peace for the work they did to try to bring people on the scene of the tragedy People. Mrs Williams insisted that peace to Northern Ireland. One of set in motion the organisation that the Nobel Prize wasn't awarded Mrs Williams' last public appearances would become the Community of the solely for what a recipient had done was in Belfast in January when she Peace People, along with former but what they would do in the fu- accompanied Hollywood film star journalist Ciaran McKeown. Mairead ture. And she certainly lived up to Sharon Stone to the City Hall where Corrigan's sister Anne Maguire, who her words, travelling the world to they signed a book of condolence for was the mother of the three young campaign for justice, especially on the late SDLP leader Seamus Mallon. children, took her own life in 1980 behalf of children who had been the Mrs Williams said the former MP after a failed attempt to start a new victims of horrific abuse, hunger, from Markethill was one of the first life in New Zealand. Mrs Williams cruelty and violence. She repeatedly politicians to support the Peace Peo- and Mairead Corrigan's marches for demanded that governments globally ple movement began after the peace were backed by upwards of should listen to the voices of the deaths in west Belfast of three chil- 35,000 people despite attempts by young victims who were going hun-

Disarming Times Page 11 www.paxchristi.org.au Pax Christi Australia NOTICE BOARD from p.11 QUEENSLAND VICTORIA hungry, pointing out that up to Pax Christi Meetings You are invited to the August 40,000 a day were dying from malnu- Pax Christi Queensland trition. Agape Mrs Williams once spoke passionately Contact: Pancras Jordan OP A conversation with The of her shock at discovering that so 0415 461 620 Hon. Barry Jones AC many children were living under the [email protected] threat of death, and called for safe SLEEPERS, WAKE NOW! havens to be established for them to NEW SOUTH WALES save them from attacks by armed Pax Christi Meetings Sunday August 16 th at Kildara, forces and others. One such haven was built in southern Italy by the We normally meet on the First rear 39 Stanhope Street East, World Centers of Compassion for Monday of each month at 6.00pm Malvern. Children International organisation for shared meal that members 1 p.m. SHARED MEAL and finish (WCCCI) who praised the woman bring and the meeting follows at by 4 p.m. whose pioneering efforts were the 6.30 pm. BRING FOOD TO SHARE launch-pad for their movement, Contact: Claude Mostowik which she formed in honour of the (02) 9550 3845 or 0411 450 953 Dalai Lama in 1997. In 2006, Mrs ISCAST CONFERENCE on Science Williams captured worldwide head- The venue: 209A Edgeware Road, and Christianity lines when she denounced US Presi- Enmore. dent George W Bush in front of an 10–12 July 2020 on line audience of hundreds of children at a COVID 19 WHAT DOES IT A HOPEFUL FUTURE, forum in Brisbane City Hall in Austra- MEAN? WHERE TO NEXT? lia on innocent casualties of the Iraq What does it mean to be faithful to War. She said: "I have a very hard Human self destruction Christ in a time of “eco-anxiety” time with this word 'non-violence', or a window of opportunity to a when patterns of consumption seem because I don't believe that I am better world? unsustainable and damaging to the non-violent. Right now, I would love creation? What does it mean to be a to kill George Bush. I don't know how You are invited to an online Christian in a time when many people I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, be- ZOOM agape cause when I see children die the possibilities of overcoming the limi- Sunday June 14 2020 anger in me is just beyond belief. It's tations of the human body? What our duty as human beings, whatever 2-3.30 p.m. does it mean to live in a time of cli- age we are, to become the protectors Caesar D’Mello and Brendan mate change and CRISPR, of animal of human life." Ivan little writes for James invite you into a wide rang- extinction and AI? See http:// the “Belfast Telegraph ing conversation. To join Email iscastcosac.org/ or [email protected] by June 12 Contact Chris Mulherin ChrisMul- [email protected] 0431 330 380.

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