Cuts announced in #Budget15 will see our nation fall to the rank of 17th amongst aid giving nations this year. pic.twitter.com/ceXSkmyJVE
— Baptist World Aid (@BaptistWorldAid) May 13, 2015
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 The Rohingya were dying at sea and boats pushed back to sea as nations of the Indian Ocean refused help. This is not a "stop the boats" issue. This is a failure of international 'virtue' to act in the face of ethnic deprivation, religious discrimination and potential genocide. From Sight MYANMAR: HUMANITARIAN AND AID GROUPS PLEAD FOR UN SECRETARY-GENERAL TO NEGOTIATE ACCESS TO ROHINGYA CAMPS |
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21st May, 2015
Christian Solidarity Worldwide is among
group of more than 25 international humanitarian aid and advocacy
organisations who have written an open letter to UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon urging the international community to take steps to address
the humanitarian crisis facing the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.The letter, which was published yesterday, urges Mr Ban to use his personal influence to urge the government of Myanmar (also known as Burma) to allow increased access for aid to Rakhine State (also known as Arakan). The organisations - which also includes Refugees International, the US Campaign for Burma and the Asia-Pacific Refugee Rights Network - say that humanitarian access to temporary camps where at least 140,000 Rohingya have lived since fleeing their homes following "horrific violence" in June and October 2012 is "severely limited" thanks to the policies of the government and their "failure to ensure a secure environment for the delivery of aid".
They add that "at least
80,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar by boat, facing an extremely
precarious fate at sea because of the desperate situation they face in
their own country".
This ongoing crisis has made headlines around the
world in recent days after thousands of Rohingyas - along with some
Bangladeshis - have been left stranded in the Bay of Bengal and the
Andaman Sea. The UN said on Wednesday that it estimated almost 4,000
people from Myanmar and Bangladesh were stranded at sea, 2000 of whom
had been stranded for more than 40 days on boats off the coasts of
Myanmar and Bangladesh.While the governments of a number of South-East Asian countries initially refused to grant them permission to land, the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia have since relented and have said they will now allow them to land on the understanding that the international community will ensure they are repatriated or resettled within a year. The Myanmar Government has said that it was ready to provide humanitarian assistance to boat people but refused to attend talks involving Asian governments this week. In their letter, the organisations say that according to sources within Burma, at least 70 per cent of the Rohingya have no access to safe water or sanitation, only two per cent of Rohingya women give birth in a hospital and there is just one doctor per 160,000 people - well above the World Health Organization recommendation of one doctor for every 5,000 people. They say that while the humanitarian crisis is most acute in the camps of the internally displaced peoples, "it is important to note than around 800,000 Rohingyas living outside the camps are also in urgent need of assistance". "In some area the rates of malnutrition are over 20 per cent and the provision of health services is almost non-existent." The letter quotes the Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Baroness Amos - who visited camps in Rahkine State in 2014 as saying that the camps ranked among the worse she had ever seen. "It's a dire situation and we have to do something about it." Noting the success Mr Ban had in negotiating access for international humanitarian aid following Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the groups have urged Mr Ban to take a "personal lead" in negotiations with the government of Burma "for humanitarian aid to be provided to all in need, regardless of race of religion". "Hundreds of thousands of people who have little food, medicine or shelter and have been stripped not only of their citizenship but also their basic dignity are looking to you and the United Nations for help. We appeal to you not to fail them."
Mervyn Thomas, chief
executive of the UK-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide, says the
organisation is "deeply disturbed" at the "human tragedy" facing the
Rohingya people, thousands of whom had fled displacement camps where
they face "severe racial and religious persecution".
"It is time for the international community to work
together to address this crisis, both the immediate humanitarian
emergency and the longer term root causes, and that is why we have
joined with other organisations in writing to the secretary-general..."Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott said today that Australia would not be resettling any of the refugees within its borders and wouldn't do anything to encourage the people smuggling trade. "Nope, nope, nope," was the Prime Minister's response when asked if Australia would play any role in offering resettlement to any of the thousands of migrants caught up in South East Asia's refugee crisis. "I'm sorry. If you want to start a new life, you come through the front door, not through the back door," he said. Rev Dr Peter Catt, chair of the Australian Churches' Refugee Taskforce, called on the Australian Government to show moral and political leadership and to apply diplomatic pressure to Myanmar and bordering locations where the persecution of Rohingyas is causing widespread suffering and displacement. He said Australia could immediately take an active and constructive role in supporting the UNHCR to send mobile processing teams to the points of disembarkation, by taking in more refugees from the region and by supporting Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia to help disembark people and provide material aid and medical support." | |||
Who are the Rohingyas and why are they fleeing Myanmar? http://t.co/amHLF2GlsU pic.twitter.com/nELsnoeAG7
— HuffPost Religion (@HuffPostRelig) May 19, 2015
I wish we hadn't taken this money, and that's simply because we have in Canberra enough people that are in control of Government that are fiercely anti-environment, and very ideologically so.Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth
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 From Jody - Common Grace |
The temporary visa program is broken and facilitates the gross exploitation of migrant workers, a view confirmed by the Four Corners program that aired last night.
Urgent action must be taken by the Federal Government to clamp down and regulate the entire temporary visa and labour hire system and remove rogue operators. There should be an immediate halt to any expansion of the temporary work visa program until the full outcome of the Senate Inquiry is known. National Union of Workers http://www.actu.org.au/ |
------------------------------April 30, 2015 10:03 pm
Church of England blacklists coal and tar sands investments
Pilita Clark, Environment CorrespondentThe Church of England, one of the world’s wealthiest religious institutions, has decided to blacklist coal and tar sands investments, in a striking victory for campaigners seeking to make fossil fuels as unpopular as tobacco.
ON THIS TOPIC
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FirstFT is our new essential daily email briefing of the best stories from across the webThe Church announced on Thursday that it would sell £12m of its holdings in thermal coal and tar sands companies, two of the most polluting fossil fuels. “Climate change is the most pressing moral issue in our world,” said the Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Rev Nick Holtam, lead bishop on the environment.The move comes nearly three years after the appointment of Justin Welby, a former senior executive at the now defunct Enterprise Oil company, as Archbishop of Canterbury.The Church, which has an investment portfolio worth more than £9bn, will no longer put its money into any company that gets more than 10 per cent of its revenues from extracting coal burnt for energy or oil from tar sands.This means it may retain shares in companies such as BHP Billiton, which mines coal but earns a large chunk of revenues from iron ore, copper, and aluminium, said Edward Mason, the Church’s head of responsible investment. But companies that focus on coal mining, such as Peabody in the US, would be excluded.“It’s about an alignment of interests,” Mr Mason said. “If you are a specialist coal mining company you don’t share the interest that we have in the transition to a low-carbon economy and the sense of it as a moral imperative. But if you are a BHP Billiton, where coal is a small part of your portfolio, we can have a constructive conversation with you about the future of coal for you as a company.”In depth
The latest news and analysis on the world’s changing climate and the political moves afoot to tackle the problemThe Church’s move makes it one of the most prominent recruits to a grassroots campaign that is spreading around the world and is modelled on the 1980s divestment movement to end apartheid in South Africa.Heirs to the Rockefeller oil fortune, California’s Stanford University and the World Council of Churches have already said they will reduce or cut fossil fuel investments. The Financial Times reported this week that Prince Charles is also shunning such holdings.Pope Francis, meanwhile, is expected to deliver an encyclical letter — the most important form of teaching by a Catholic pontiff — in June, that will urge the world’s 1.2bn Catholics to consider the risks of climate change.Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, a member of the Pope’s inner circle who wrote an early draft of the encyclical document, told a conference in Rome on Tuesday that burning fossil fuels was disrupting the earth’s delicate ecological balance “on an almost unfathomable scale”.The Vatican’s move has stoked the expectations of environmental activists ahead of a global climate change agreement due to be agreed in Paris at the end of this year.
Some climate-conscious investors prefer engagement on fossil fuelsUntil now, the Church of England has been engaging with the oil, gas and coal companies it has invested in, rather than divesting from them. It led a successful shareholder push earlier this month to encourage BP to be more transparent about how climate change could affect its business.This engagement work is likely to continue, said Tom Joy, director of investments at the Church Commissioners, which manages Church assets. “But this new policy rightly goes beyond to incorporate investment exclusions for companies focused on the highest carbon fossil fuels where we do not think engagement would be productive,” he added.Pierre Jameson, chief investment officer of the Church of England Pensions Board, said: “We need governments meeting in Paris at the end of this year to agree long-term global emissions targets with a clear pathway to a low-carbon future.”
Financial Times:
(and Reuters - http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/30/ climatechange-energy-anglican- idUKL1N0XR3S020150430) ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ---------------------------
Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in firing line as UK charities shun fossil fuelsJames Chessel
Australian Financial Review
http://www.afr.com/business/energy/rio-tinto-and-bhp- billiton-in-firing-line-as-uk- charities-shun-fossil-fuels- 20150503-1myoi3 (Paywall)
May 3 2015
BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto may not be immediately affected by the Church of England's decision to shun energy coal and tar sands, but the big miners are an increasingly difficult investment choice for charitable foundations, universities and even the royal family in the United Kingdom.
The Church of England, which is one of the world's richest religious institutions with a £9 billion investment fund, last week became a high-profile addition to a global campaign to blacklist fossil fuel investments when it announced a £12 million divestment in any company generating more than 10 per cent of its revenues from thermal coal used in power stations or the production of oil from tar sands."It marks the start of a process of divestment as well as engagement with fossil fuel companies and better aligns the church's investment practice with its belief, theology and practice," said the Right Reverend Nick Holtam, lead bishop on the environment for the church."Climate change is the most pressing moral issue in our world."The Church of England divestment – which comes three years after the appointment of former oil executive Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury – was not the only victory in the UK for campaigners seeking to end investment in companies that produced fossil fuels.
The Financial Times revealed Prince Charles, the National Trust, the Church of England and the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh were reviewing their shares in such companies.
Meanwhile, the Guardian reported seven UK charitable foundations – including three linked to the Sainsbury family which founded the UK's second-largest supermarket chain – worth a collective £234 million had decided to sell their fossil fuel investments and re-invest the money in green businesses.
"Fossil fuel companies have not taken the opportunity to wind down or change their business models," said the statement from the foundations. "They are now significantly overvalued. The half a trillion dollars spent annually seeking new reserves will be wasted. The smart investors have already divested from coal."'Moral responsibility'
Both the Church of England and the foundations argue the continued use of fossil fuels contributed to income inequality among nations.
"The church has a moral responsibility to speak and act on both environmental stewardship and justice for the world's poor who are most vulnerable to climate change," said the Reverend Professor Richard Burridge.
Divestment plans in UK have been announced by the University of Glasgow, the British Medical Association, SOAS, University of London as well as the publishers of The Guardian, which has launched its own campaign: Keep it in the ground.
In the United States, heirs to the Rockefeller oil fortune as well as California's Stanford University have pledged to cut fossil fuel investments.The Church of England's pension board is a small shareholder in BHP and Rio with a combined holding worth £19 million according to its last published annual report in 2013.
Both companies produce energy coal but not enough to bring revenues above the 10 per cent threshold because of their substantial iron ore, copper and, in the case of BHP, oil earnings.
A spokesperson for the church, Claire Barraclough, was unable to say how the church arrived at the 10 per cent number.
It is understood both miners have held discussions with the church and its fund manager, CCLA, last year."Action for A", a coalition of investor groups backed by CCLA, a UK fund manager which invests on behalf of charities, this year successfully pushed for resolution at the annual meetings of BP and Shell obliging the oil majors to set out the potential cost of climate change to their businesses.A spokesperson for CCLA said there were not plans to file any resolutions at the upcoming BHP and Rio annual meetings.A CCLA representative complimented BHP chairman Jac Nasser on the company's "open engagement, efforts and commitment" to discussing climate change issues at last year's annual meeting, adding "we were also delighted to see you sign the World Bank's statement on carbon pricing".While the institutions that have made fossil fuel divestments hold a relatively small number of shares in Australian mining companies, some BHP and Rio executives are privately concerned the campaign could tempt larger shareholders to sell out.For example The Guardian is lobbying UK biomedical research charity Wellcome Trust – which had a combined $US307 million holding in Rio and BHP as at September 30 – to end investment in fossil fuel companies.The trust has held on to its BHP and Rio shares, preferring to "press for more transparent and sustainable policiesthat support transition towards a low-carbon economy".However, one senior mining executive it was "only a matter of time" before "some of the larger investors in resources companies withdraw from the sector".The executive cited Bill McKibben, a US environmentalist who founded the 350.org climate campaign group, as a "new and highly sophisticated type of group that is having a serious impact pushing the divestment agenda".Mr McKibben had previously criticised the Church of England for failing to act on climate change.The anti-fossil fuel lobby is expected to make its case for divestment to be global climate change agreement at the United Nation's climate change conference in Paris in December.
