Perspectives on Social Issues
(September 2007)

Malaria Threatening Half the World's Population
"We live on a malarious planet. It may not seem that way from the vantage point of a wealthy country, where malaria is sometimes thought of, if it is thought of at all, as a problem that has mostly been solved, like smallpox or polio. In truth, malaria now affects more people than ever before. It's endemic to 106 nations, threatening half the world's population. In recent years, the parasite has grown so entrenched and has developed resistance to so many drugs that the most potent strains can scarcely be controlled. This year malaria will strike up to a half billion people. At least a million will die, most of them under age five, the vast majority living in Africa. That's more than twice the annual toll a generation ago.

The outcry over this epidemic, until recently, has been muted. Malaria is a plague of the poor, easy to overlook. The most unfortunate fact about malaria, some researchers believe, is that prosperous nations got rid of it. In the meantime, several distinctly unprosperous regions have reached the brink of total malarial collapse, virtually ruled by swarms of buzzing, flying syringes. Only in the past few years has malaria captured the full attention of aid agencies and donors."

“"Bedlam in the Blood: Malaria" by Michael Finkel, National Geographic, July 2007.

U.S. Public Missing Complexity of Conflict in Iraq
"Noah Merrill said he went to Jordan with one fundamental question: What are the Iraqis thinking? Earlier this year, Merrill, a journalist with Electronic Iraq, a Web site covering the war, spent six weeks talking to Iraqi refugees in Amman. The purpose of the tour was to bring the voices of Iraqis themselves to the ongoing debate about Iraq in the United States. [P]ublic discussions tend to miss the complexity of the conflict. ‘I think it’s more useful for us to talk about Iraq not as a war but as a catastrophe or as a number of different wars taking place,' Merrill said.

One of these wars is in northern Iraq between Kurdish political parties and Turkey over the status of Kirkuk, a city with a majority Kurdish population but with a significant Arab and Turcoman presence that Turkey supports. Another conflict relates to groups that oppose the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, nationalists who support freedom for Iraq from what is seen as foreign occupation. A third category of conflicts involves Iraqi separatists versus nationalists, with a dizzying array of groups on all sides. Al-Qaeda is a separatist group distinct from the nationalist anti-occupation forces, which it targets for attacks."

"U.S. Debate about the War Misses the Iraqi Perspective" by Margot Patterson, National Catholic Reporter, Aug 3, 2007.

A Must-read History of Catholic Peacemaking
"Among the books I would list as must-read but too-little-known is Ronald G. Musto’s The Catholic Peace Tradition (Orbis, 1986; Peace Books, 2002). The sheer accumulation of information gives the lie to the widespread and mistaken belief that ‘the just war has been in possession’ (of official Catholic thought) since the time of Augustine. Well after Augustine’s time, as Musto shows, pacifism and nonviolence had eminent spokesmen.

Protests against Christian militarism were often widespread. In the East, bishops and monks led nonviolent demonstrations against the emperor’s military excesses, and in the West, there were numerous protests against forced conversion of barbarians to Christianity.... At Verona in 1233, for example, the movement called the Great Alleluia brought 400,000 people 'to demonstrate for the end of war, for peace and for reconciliation.' ...In our own day, the peacemaking charism has flourished in a variety of Catholic groups."

“Of Many Things" by Drew Christiansen, America, May 14, 2007.

Long-term Study Validates Worth of Early Childhood Intervention
"More than 20 years later, educational attainment is higher and felony arrests are lower for the alumni of a Chicago early-intervention program for low-income children. The enrollees, who are now in their late 20s, are also less likely to describe themselves as depressed and more likely to have health insurance, according to a follow-up study, released [August 2007]. According to co-author Arthur J. Reynolds, a child-development professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, the gains in terms of reduced social-welfare costs already have far exceeded the program's $5,000 per student-year cost to the Chicago public school system. ‘By the time they're 65, a conservative estimate would be a l0-to-1 gain,’ Reynolds said, considering reduced societal costs for remedial education, health care, incarceration, and underemployment.

The findings, which appear in the [Aug 2007] issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Medical Association, are the first to affirm the long-term value of a large public early-childhood enrichment program. Chicago's Child-Parent Center program was -- and is -- more intense than Head Start, the main federal assistance program for low-income children and their families. Since 1967, Child-Parent Centers in neighborhood schools have provided comprehensive education, health, job and family services throughout the school year for kids and their parents."

“Early Childhood Program Pays for Itself, Study Finds," by Frank Greve (McClatchy Newspapers), La Crosse Tribune, Aug 8, 2007.

New U.S. Cuban Policy Needed
"The U.S. government's distorted views have led to a continuation of the 48 year old myth that Cubans, fed up with the economic stagnation caused by the embargo and other factors, will very soon take to the streets and welcome a U.S. backed regime change; whereas reality clearly demonstrates that U.S. policy is both outdated and counterproductive, and that the first step to building better relations with Havana is an immediate end to all U.S. economic sanctions and engagement with Cuban leaders in negotiation. While the Bush administration seems far from realizing its mistaken beliefs, travel remains the best way to debunk false impressions and build relationships of understanding between the two peoples."

"Washington's Misread of Cuban Realities” by WFP Cuba Team, Witness for Peace Newsletter, Spring 2007.