Radical respect for human rights
While volunteering for KARAPATAN, a human rights organization, I was shocked when I came across a secret military document called the Neutralization Timeline. The document lists the names of militants and activists and the estimated date each one is expected to have been neutralized. I think we can deduce what is meant by the term “neutralization”. As of 20 May 2008, there are 903 victims of extrajudicial killings and 193 victims of enforced disappearances in the Philippines since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power in 2001.

For those who have made extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances the “unintended policy” of the Philippine government’s counter-insurgency program; the individual person is expendable in the name of “national security”.

The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition makes a clear stand against such a view. Blessed John Duns Scotus proposed the principle of Haecceitas (individuation or thisness). Because of Haecceitas, each individual
thing is different “from all other things to which it may be compared.” It follows that “each person is unique in all time and for all eternity.” (Nothwehr, 2005)

Article #131 of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church restates this idea of man as a “unique and unrepeatable being”. The uniqueness makes each human person deserve “respect on the part of others, especially political and social institutions and their leaders.” (Vatican, 2004)

As a Franciscan, aware of the uniqueness and therefore the great value of each individual, I am moved to make a clear and vocal stand against the perpetration of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

Radical respect for human spirituality
I had the opportunity to join a biblical reflection session organized by activist youth for an urban poor community in Caloocan threatened with demolition. After proclaiming the Gospel describing Jesus’ liberating mission (Luke 4:16-19), the priest spoke about the importance of praying and of going to Mass on Sundays. At one point, he even taught that God gives us trials (like the demolition of our homes) to make us stronger. In short, the priest was successful not in empowering his listeners but in demoralizing them.

The priest’s mistake was in letting his preaching be colored by his preconceptions against activists and the urban poor. His bias was that “activists and many urban poor people do not pray.”

I believe that Scotus’ concept of the “univocity of being” can help us develop a deeper respect for other people’s spirituality. The “univocity of being” means that God, humans, and all other creatures of creation have a common factor, “beingness”. Because of this common factor, “God, humans, and all other creatures of creation are intimately linked at the level of being.” (Nothwehr) “Univocity of being” enables us humans to speak about God, “know about God” (Osborne, 2003), and relate with God.

All human persons are therefore intimately linked with God and have the innate capacity to relate with God in a deep and meaningful manner. In the Franciscan tradition, there is an openness and an appreciation for those whose faith and spirituality are different from us. We recognize that they do have a genuine relationship with God and that His Spirit works in them. After the biblical reflection session, we affirmed among ourselves that activists do have a very deep spirituality as manifested in their radical compassion for the poor and the oppressed.

Radical respect for human freedom
Scotus’ teaching on freedom was radical and ground-breaking in medieval society, which valued conformity and blind obedience to “divinely-appointed” superiors. Scotus teaches that “a basic mode of the divine and human essence is freedom.” (McLean and Aspell)

If God is freedom, then the human person, made in God’s image, is also free. This is affirmed by article #135 of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which states that freedom is given by God to man “as one of the highest signs of His image.” (Vatican)

Scotus’ novel understanding of divine and human freedom enabled him to anticipate modern political theory. More than four hundred years before Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote his treatise “The Social Contract”, Scotus already posited that political authority is based on “the common consent and election of the community.” Scotus’ concept of political authority is “grounded in his concept of the native freedom of every person.” (McLean and Aspell)

As Franciscans, we are called to be promoters of human freedom in our fraternity and in the society. Because of our optimistic view of the human person, who is imago Dei (image of God) and imago Christi (image of Christ), we do not fear human freedom as though it would lead to anarchy and disorder. Rather, we place our trust in people, because “human actions are pleasing to God, human persons are pleasing to God
and humans are loved by God.” (Nothwehr)

References:

Aspell, Patrick J. “Medieval Western Philosophy: The European Emergence.” History of Western Philosophy. Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change. Series I, Culture and Values, Volume 9.
http://www.crvp.org/book/Series01/I-9/chapter_vi.htm. Accessed May 22, 2008.

Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004.

Nothwehr, Dawn M. “The Franciscan View of the Human Person: Some Central Elements.” The Franciscan Heritage Series, Volume 3. United States of America: The Franciscan Institute, 2005.

Osborne, Kenan B. “The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition: Tracing its Origins and Identifying its Central Components.” The Franciscan Heritage Series, Volume 1. United States of America: The Franciscan
Institute, 2003.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. New American Bible.
Washington, DC: USCCB, 2002.

I was a young boy when Ghana became independent. I remember seeing the photographs of Kwame Nkrumah with Queen Elizabeth in the newspapers at the time. Ghana, the first African colonial nation to become independent. The year was 1957. Fifty years on Ghana has been on a roller-coaster ride as Ghanaians lived through dictatorship, military rule, economic crises, corrupt and incompetent governance, structural adjustment programmes, near-famine and internal conflict.

Today, Ghana is on its way again. As I sped to the airport through Accra downtown I was caught up in one traffic snarl after another, evidence of the bustling intensity and energy of today’s Ghana. New buildings, major hotels and an explosion in the informal business sector drives home the message: Ghana means business. Maybe now the hopes of independence can be realised.

But go North close up to the Burkino-Faso border and it’s a different country. Getting off the plane in Tamale I was blasted by the searing Harmattan kicking up a dust-storm across the arid plains. Way to the North lies the Sahel, one of the areas of the world that is teetering on the brink of environmental collapse. Shift the compass a little further east and you are in striking distance of Chad, a failed state if ever there was one, and, of course, Darfur is just over the horizon.

I had the opportunity of visiting in turn Tamale, Bolgatanga, Kongo and Navrongo. I was working with the Presentation Brothers and the Christian Brothers who have schools and formation centres in the North. In Tamale I saw the spanking new football stadium where the Africa Cup was played some weeks ago. An enormous shining white testimony to modernity surrounded by humbler tin-roofed compounds, ramshackle Mom and Pop kiosks and clusters of round mud hut houses.

The stadium was paid for and built by the Chinese. Enough said. Something tells me the rondavel huts will still be there long after the stadium has fallen into rusting oblivion. Visit the Tamale and Navrongo markets and you will see current news headlines come alive before your eyes. Look for Ghanaian locally grown rice. You won’t find any. Instead, the rice comes from the USA, and Asia. And the price of rice has doubled in the past year due to environmental crises in Australia and a decrease in the availability of land for rice production because of the diversion of land resources into biofuels. Lack of investment in small-scale agricultural production and increasing reliance on supposedly cheap imports have also contributed to current food insecurity. You don’t have to tell Ghanaians in the blistering heat of the far North about food insecurity; they know all about it. The rest of the world can learn a lot from them.

by Dennis Claivaz / Edmund Rice International

The doors of the KLM flight were opened and immediately we realized that we had landed in a new world. The blast of hot humid air told us emphatically that we were in Accra, Ghana and West Africa was to be our new home for some time. At the airport we were guided through the usual formalities and collected our bags without a hitch. Walking out of the terminal we were delighted to hear a friendly voice calling our names and Br. Donal and myself piled ourselves into a vehicle for the short trip to the Guest House. A quick glance around proved that nothing had changed here since 1975. I don’t think even a coat of paint had been added to the structure since then.

The next morning we were collected and headed into the local market to do the “usual”, change money into the local currency. Since they had just knocked four zeros off their money the legendary “bags” of cedis were now a small bundle which could be neatly tucked into one’s pocket. Everything imaginable could be found in the market and at extremely competitive prices. A few hours of meandering, bargaining and absorbing the new sounds and smells, it was time to sit under the shade of a tree and have a refreshingly ice-cold drink.

The next morning we woke up at 4:00 a.m. for a quick shower and then off to the airport for a short flight up to the northern part of the country. Another world was awaiting us. The lush green of the south now gave way to the dust and brown of the Sahel. No change with the heat. It was still in the 40’s.

We then proceeded for a 2 ½ hour ride even further into the “bush” and Donal and I prepared to give a work-shop to the professed Presentation Brothers working with the grassroots. Explaining the raison d’etre of Edmund Rice International [ERI] was our mandate and also to begin the process of setting up a data-base. We certainly had a captive audience. We repeated this exercise with the Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers who are in Formation and were very impressed with the level of cooperation and informed questioning we received. Catholicism is alive and well in northern Ghana.

Donal has returned to Geneva and I continue the task of visiting projects, interviewing myriads of people, expanding the data-base and seeking all the necessary permissions to implement a National High School Debate on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention of the Rights of the Child. Hours turn into days and then into weeks as the familiar territory in which I find myself is seen through the eyes of someone who is trying to put flesh on the bones of Advocacy Coordinator.