Notes from a recent talk by
Br. Bryan Dolejsi, OP
January 21, 2004

1. Story of a Woman: Selling vegetables on the side of the road near Kericho, who is unable to compete in a larger market and who earns a disproportionate amount in comparison to her work. This woman is a living example of the unjust world trade practices.
    
2. World Trade Organization meetings held in Cancun, Mexico fail: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened the meeting stating: "the rhetoric of global trade is filled with promise. We are told that free trade brings opportunity for all, not just a fortunate few. We are told that it can provide deliverance from poverty and despair. And we are led to hope that the current round of trade negotiations will deliver on this promise."
    
3. Main Issues:
    
   1. Agricultural subsidies upon U.S. and E.U. goods which decrease market access and competition.
       
   2. Economic aid to developing countries to improve production and distribution of goods.
       
4. Subsidies Statistic: in 2003 the E.U. subsidized each COW $913 per year. The Average per capita annual income in the African Union is $490 per person. The annual among given in aid for each African person by the E.U. and U.S. is $8. The largest amount of aid from the U.S. in 2003 was given to Djibouti, one of the smallest African countries, at least double more than given to any other African country.
    
5. Aid and Development Statistics:
   1. Based upon the Human Poverty Index of Infant mortality under 5 years old, percentage of illiteracy, access to clean water, health care options, and underweight children, Africa has the largest percentage of people subsisting in conditions of poverty in the world earning less than $1 per day. Roughly 50% of all Africans subsist in poverty conditions while 35% in south Asia, 21% in Eastern Europe, 11% in South America and only 5% in Arabia. 23 of the world’s poorest countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.
       
   2. The main goods traded internationally from sub-Saharan African countries are coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, and cotton and even though Africa contains 10% of the world’s population it only produces 2% of the goods traded in the international market.
       
6. Positive Outcome of the WTO Meetings: A group of developing countries led by Brazil, India, and China (including Kenya) formed the G21, an affiliation of countries in opposition to unjust international trade practices initiated and continued primarily by the U.S., E.U., and Japan.

1. Justice—"the habit whereby a person with a lasting and constant will renders to each his due." (ST II-II, q.58, 1)
    
2. "Basic justice demands at least a minimal participation." (United States Catholic Conference)
    
3. Key Elements of the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church: Grounded in Scripture, the Tradition and the Magisterial Teachings, upholding the values of human dignity, respect of life, association, participation, preferential option for the poor, solidarity, stewardship, and the common good.
   
   
4. Justice and Charity/Service Compared: Justice responds to a human act, structural, requires reflection, is often controversial, deals with the causes, and has a long term vision. Charity/Service responds to accidents, is individually administered, spontaneous, non-controversial, deals with the symptoms, and is short term.
   
   
5. Justice Distinguished: Commutative, Contributive, and Distributive justice from ST II-II q.61 and q.62. (Diagram provided in class)
   

1. commutative: an exchange between individuals that in an unjust system is often born of desperation and an unequal interdependence;
   
   
2. contributive: goods provided for the common good requiring at least a minimal degree of participation in the socio-economic system;
   
   
3. distributive: proportional to productivity balanced with basic human needs.
   

1. Justice Applied: Due to the increasingly globalized economic liberalization of the market through capitalism, the majority of people in sub-Saharan Africa are marginalized at every stage of the transmission of justice. We hope in a truly free international trade market rooted in a reciprocal exchange based upon just development, prices, and access, which can increase the self-sufficiency and competitiveness of the majority of the countries in the world.
   
   
2. Prophets Applied:

1. agricultural intensification and the construction of the monarchy in the 8^th and 9^th BCE in both Israel and Judah;
   
   
2. neighboring powers of Assyria and Egypt decrease in influence providing the rulers with an opportunity to create monarchies in Israel and Judah focused around the court, temple and army;
   
   
3. move from a subsistent/risk aversion economy to a command/profit economy based upon the exports of wine, wheat, and oil and the imports of military materials (stores of food, metal for weapons, and training), monumental architectural materials (for temple, political, judicial, and economic sectors), and various luxury items (foreign teachers, clothing, furniture, etc.);
   
    
4. through a process of manipulation of the courts, tax system, land ownership, and technological advances, the economic and political leaders slowly took the land, labor, and freedom of the peasant class who was 95% of the population;
    
5. the prophets Amos, Micah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, and Isaiah condemn these unjust practices and predict the fall of both kingdoms.
   

1. Prayer: For conversion of unjust structures and for those who perpetuate them, especially political and economic leaders worldwide.
   
   
2. Organization: Continue methods of organizing and collaborating for mutual benefits among developing nations such as the G21, the African Union, NEPAD, and the East African Trade Association.
   
   
3. Development Aid: Encourage more aid that leads to an increase in production and distribution of goods for the global economy while decreasing the international debts of many countries. This would be a type of "independence in collaboration." The IMF and World Bank are helpful organizations but their aid comes with many trade ‘limitations’ imposed upon the country receiving the aid and thus should be evaluated closely by individual countries and by the United Nations.
   
   
4. Internal Healing: Continue to work towards less corruption in government allocation of resources, peaceful resolutions to civil wars, respond in proactive measures to diseases primarily HIV, decrease environmental degradation, while continuing to provide increased access to adequate health care, education, water, and technology.
   
   
5. Take Your Part:
    
   1. begin to think of oneself as world citizen;
       
   2. live a ecologically sound life;
       
   3. practice creative simplicity in solidarity;
       
   4. join with others in subsistent communities for change;
       
   5. practice occupational integrity;
       
   6. respect one’s own body;
       
   7. relate lovingly and compassionately to others;
       
   8. practice personal intellectual and spiritual renewal, and;
       
   9. continue to retain faith and hope for a new age where their will be a "New Heaven and New Earth" and God’s plan will be fulfilled.

View from the Edge: Reflections on Kenya

Photos of Africa