Beech Forest in Autumn
The beech forest is the classic ‘wood’ covering most of old Europe, below the conifers on the steep slopes, and above the poplars and willows in the wetlands. I was…
The Dead Shrew on Dartmoor
I was walking through rolling vistas of rusty bracken and purple heather, on Dartmoor, with an unlikely straggle of lawyers and others. We’d just left Grimspound, the 4,000 year old…
Human Rights and the New Cosmology
I came across the paragraphs below in a Zenit report of the daylong forum organized by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See entitled “For Everyone, Everywhere: Universal Human Rights…
Major funding helps work against trafficking
The following article was recently posted on the Catholic Religious Australia website. CRA is the peak body representing all Religious Congregations in Australia:- Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans…
The world’s poor stand to lose the most
Aid agency representatives October 24, 2008 Aid and financial crisis. Photo: Dyson Governments are spending billions to save stricken companies. From another quarter comes a plea for them to offer…
The Ouzel in the Creek
The other day, on my way to work in Geneva, I saw my first ouzel. Also known as a dipper, it’s a cocky black bird with a white chest, that…
United Nations Human Rights Conference
This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the first universal statement on the basic principles of the human rights to which…
Learnings in Bangkok
Bangkok sprawls across a huge delta, where the Chao Phraya River slowly enters the Gulf of Siam, generating and renewing immense wetlands (now largely rice fields and prawn farms). For…
Two Months in Oceania
Oceania is more a state of mind than a place. It is what six former provinces of Christian Brothers are aspiring to become, a complex of islands and oceans, between…
Progress for Arusha’s street children
From “Mkombozi News” June 2008:- In May 2008, Mkombozi sent out a press release detailing the escalation of violence directed at street youth in Arusha town preceding the Leon H.…