Daily Archives: September 28, 2009

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Street Report from the G20

Common Dreams

Short video from Democracy Now
by Bill Quigley
The G20 in Pittsburgh showed us how pitifully fearful our leaders have become.

What no terrorist could do to us, our own leaders did.

Out of fear of the possibility of a terrorist attack, authorities militarize our towns, scare our people away, stop daily life and quash our constitutional rights.

For days, downtown Pittsburgh, home to the G20, was a turned into a militarized people-free ghost town. Sirens screamed day and night. Helicopters crisscrossed the skies. Gunboats sat in the rivers. The skies were defended by Air Force jets. Streets were barricaded by huge cement blocks and fencing. Bridges were closed with National Guard across the entrances. Public transportation was stopped downtown. Amtrak train service was suspended for days. Continue reading →

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No place like home: Brazilian immigrants leave US for better job prospects

Christian Science Monitor

The deep US recession – and a rebound in Brazil – have reversed the flow of migration. Will other immigrants follow?

By Taylor Barnes

Leonardo Nakao (right) along with his wife, Kelma Rodrigues de Sousa, and daughter, Ketellyn Dliveira de Sousa, pack belongings in their apartment in Norwood, Mass., before flying to Brazil. Leonardo and Kelma immigrated to the United States nine years ago, but have decided to return to Brazil after the recession has left them competing for jobs with Americans. (Mary Knox Merrill/The Christian Science Monitor)

Leonardo Nakao (right) along with his wife, Kelma Rodrigues de Sousa, and daughter, Ketellyn Dliveira de Sousa, pack belongings in their apartment in Norwood, Mass., before flying to Brazil. Leonardo and Kelma immigrated to the United States nine years ago, but have decided to return to Brazil after the recession has left them competing for jobs with Americans. (Mary Knox Merrill/The Christian Science Monitor)

When Leonardo Nakao’s flight from Brazil landed in Boston at 1:30 a.m., he didn’t have to search long for a job. By 5 a.m., he was pumping gas at a suburban service station. It was July 4, 2000, and Brazilian immigrants were enjoying a star-spangled boom.

More offers poured in. In his first week in the United States, Mr. Nakao got seven calls about jobs to fill the two days he wasn’t working. He was soon earning $1,000 a week. Then, two years ago, the global recession hit. Work got more strenuous, and the value of the dollar had fallen relative to Brazil’s real, slashing the value of the $400 a month he sent to his family in Brazil. Continue reading →

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G20: Leaders Agree on Reforms, Poor Still “Out in the Cold”

By Eli Clifton

U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the G20 on Friday in Pittsburgh. / Credit:Eli Clifton/IPS

U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the G20 on Friday in Pittsburgh. / Credit:Eli Clifton/IPS

PITTSBURGH, Sep 25 (IPS) – World leaders at the two-day G20 Summit in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh agreed to work cooperatively to recover from the global economic crisis and create structural reforms with long-term growth as the goal.

In their end of meeting statement, the heads of the world’s biggest economies also vowed to reform banking sectors and raise capital standards, replace the G8 with the G20 as the primary forum for international economic diplomacy, endorse a World Bank-led food security initiative for the world’s poorest countries, and commit to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies. Continue reading →

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VATICAN: Pope Names Participants in African Synod of Bishops

VATICAN, September 25, 2009 (CISA) -Pope Benedict XVI has named participants in the second Africa Synod of Bishops to be held October 5 to 25 at the Vatican.

The list includes bishops, experts and auditors from dioceses and Catholic institutions across Africa. The synod theme is: The Church in Africa, at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace. “You are the salt of the earth, … you are the light of the world.” Continue reading →

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Waiting for the Second Synod for Africa

News from Africa

Is Africa the future of the global Church? Numbers are in its favour. In 1900 Sub-Saharan Africa’s catholic people were less than two million, but in 2000 they increased up to 130 million: an amazing growth that never happened before in the Church’s history.

Renato Kizito Sesana

The atmosphere of enthusiasm and joy of being Christian makes the participation to a Mass into an African village an absolutely new experience for European Christians. Continue reading →

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Brown move to cut UK nuclear subs

BBC

The Lib Dems said keeping Trident on a 'like-for-like' basis was 'unrealistic'
The Lib Dems said keeping Trident on a ‘like-for-like’ basis was ‘unrealistic’

The prime minister is to tell the United Nations that he is willing to cut the UK’s fleet of Trident missile-carrying submarines from four to three.

Gordon Brown will make the offer at a meeting of the UN Security Council on halting the spread of nuclear weapons and reducing existing stockpiles. Continue reading →

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ACTION: Immigrants STILL need protection

Justice for Immigrants

Take Action!

Contact your Senator on Health Care and Immigrants

Background: On September 16, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), introduced his version of health care reform in the Senate.  The Senate Committee on Finance will likely debate this bill during the week of September 21.  A key issue in the Senate will be whether legal immigrants are included in any health care reform proposal that moves forward.  Continue reading →

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Bishops say health reform should include all immigrants, legal or not

By Chaz Muth

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Though Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., concedes there’s no political will in Washington to include illegal immigrants in health care reform, he believes it’s the country’s moral obligation to ensure that everyone in the nation receives proper medical care.

That includes those who enter the country illegally, he told Catholic News Service in mid-September. Continue reading →