stop vulture funds – action trick 4

Yesterday the vulture fund, Donegal International, that has been targeting Zambia for $55 million (we have talked about it before) was told it will only get $15.4 million. The fact Zambia has to pay anything to this company is still too much, but it is progress! The judge back in February found Donegal’s full claim to $55 million was not justifiable, but that it was entitled to something – and that award is now settled as being $15.4 million.

Apparently Donegal immediately claimed it had won the case and that Zambia should pay most of its legal costs, but the judge is restricting the proportion of the costs that Zambia has to pay, on the grounds that Donegal’s key witnesses were dishonest in their evidence before the court. You can read more at the Jubilee Debt Campaign website and BBC news website.

The UK and other donor countries funded Zambia’s legal fees, which enabled them to fight the case in the High Court – and get their losses reduced. But changes are needed to prevent such cases in future. Jubilee Debt Campaign and others are calling on the G8 to do what they can to prevent these companies targeting poor countries – through supporting the establishment of a fair, comprehensive framework for dealing with poor country debt, and funding legal assistance for countries targeted in this way.

Take action to tell the G8 to act against the vultures.

Audiomission podcast

This month we have made it onto the CMS Audiomission podcast.

Issue 16 – April 2007 is called ‘Dare to be salt and light’ and is based on an interview we did at CMS whilst in the UK in January. Despite many of the programme details we talk about having changed – and the fact that we were exhausted when we did the interview and didn’t think they’d be able to use it at all – they have mixed it well and, though we sound tired, the end result seems alright!

If you have good connection you can listen to it using the player below – just click on the play button below – or you can download the MP3 file here.

Crucial connection

Hooray! Polly has finished her dissertation. The past three months have seen Polly busy researching and writing her long put off dissertation, which is part of her Masters in Education for Sustainability. She has been looking at aspects of participation and what is locally relevant with an eye to helping community projects empower local people. She battled with power cuts and a laptop that broke halfway through… but still managed to finish by the deadline… all ready to email it on Monday…. but when it came to email it, for the first time ever, we experienced a (temporary) breakdown of internet services in Ndola! Not just at the office but every internet café in town could not get online. But nothing could dampen her spirits… the hard slog is over!

Easter e-card – New Life*

As I was thinking about Easter… the pain and suffering of the events of Holy week as Jesus was condemned to death – and then the new life we celebrate in the resurrection of Jesus – I reflected on what that ‘new life’ really means… and so I thought of Alex in the photo above.

I met Alex last week – he lives in a rural part of north western Zambia and is HIV+. He has known great suffering. Having discovered he was HIV+ 8 years ago… he was condemned to death… but then four years ago he was able to start taking Anti-Retroviral drugs that would transform his life…

Alex knows what new life is… he lives and breathes it every new day.

This Easter may you know the joy of new life

Matt & Polly

If you can’t see the image above clearly – click here.

Photo: Alex is happy for us to identify him as HIV+ and is pictured here holding his Anti-Retroviral drugs. He is married with one daughter and lives in a rural community where health facilities are still very limited – he is the chairperson for the constituency committee for action on HIV created at a Jubilee Centre led workshop last week. The words are those of Jesus from John 10:10.

 

Photos: Mufumbwe trip

We’ve been quiet for a while – things have been busy. Last week I visited the Northwestern province of Zambia (8 hours drive from Ndola) for a HIV/AIDS leadership building workshop being run by Jubilee Centre. I was helping film the workshop which brought together the local councillors and other political leaders, as well as church and NGO leaders to draw up an action plan for helping fight stigma and discrimination and strengthen the local battle against HIV in the constituency. It was an amazing trip – and brilliant to see more of the diverse landscape of Zambia – I have uploaded a few photo’s to give you a taste. Visit our Flickr pages (slideshow) to see them all.

Believing without belonging

A new report from Tearfund on churchgoing in the UK has some interesting findings – especially finding more evidence for the need to grow new communities and fresh expressions of church. I have not read it all but the BBC website says the report finds that whilst people find “the church thing a little bit difficult, they are willing to recognise God.” These people are dubbed the “believing without belonging”.

It seems in a post-modern age the “me” generation often find church boring and irrelevant – and it has to be said that they do because often it is! In the foreword of the report Revd. Dr. Steven Croft says: “The research underlines very deeply the need to grow new communities: fresh expressions of church alongside traditional congregations. These fresh expressions of church are beginning in different places as Christians do as Jesus did: going to where people are, listening to their culture, offering loving service, forming new communities, making disciples and beginning church in a different way.”

Many of the issues raised are explored in more detail in a book we are currently reading, called Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture, which we will blog about soon in more detail. In the past we’ve blogged about The Secret Message of Jesus and Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire, both of which cover similar ground.

If you want to find out more about the Tearfund research try: Tearfund press release / BBC Magazine article on the report / Download the full report