wfn.org | Title: Latin American seminar on youth and globalisation

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World Council of Churches
Feature 03-05
For Immediate Use
28/04/2003

Faith and living hope
Latin American seminar on youth and globalisation

Free photos available (see below).

By David Kohler and Cisar Dergarabedian
 
"We urge ourselves and all of you to walk the world with faith and hope" - a
hope "based on the conviction that our efforts will not be in vain", thanks
to the faith "that leads us to struggle to defend life on this earth." 

The call is part of the statement drawn up by young people from 14 countries
- mostly in Latin America with some from Europe and the United States -
participating in a 24-27 April seminar in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Youth
and Globalisation. The seminar was organised by the Latin American Council of
Churches (CLAI) and the World Council of Churches (WCC); its slogan was
"Faith and Living Hope". 

At the seminar, the debate focused on globalisation, foreign debt,
international trade and their consequences for young people and the churches.
The final statement highlights "exclusion, unemployment, loss of cultural
identity, consumerism, unequal distribution of wealth and ecological crisis".

According to the statement, "the trans-nationalisation of the world economy"
allows companies to "freely roam the planet seeking the cheapest labour, the
least protected environment, the most favourable tax regime or the most
generous subsidies". These practices deepen the "impoverishment of the
poorest for whom life, rather than being a gift of God, has become a real
tragedy". 

Faced with this reality, "We must value what we believe in: a kingdom of God
with justice that guarantees the human rights of all people. If we unite, we
will have more strength to face this very difficult situation," said one
participant, Joyce Torres (29) from Sco Paulo, Brazil.

National realities and alternative proposals

Young Brazilians described the impact of globalisation in their country. 
According to them, there is an "official Brazil" inhabited by the dominant
elite. Then there is a "virtual Brazil" created by soap operas and the
Internet. Finally, there is the "real Brazil", a "land of exclusion and
social conflicts": the Brazil of those "without land, without bread, without
anything".  

Paraguayan youth described the dramatic effects of globalisation in the land
of the Guarani. "Instead of going to school, many children are working,
begging in the streets, sleeping on the sidewalks," they said. Having been
deprived of their childhood they later, as young people, "continue down the
path to drug addiction, alcoholism and prostitution".

"Faced with the social fragmentation imposed by unjust relationships,
churches could work with each other and with social movements committed to
human life on this earth," said the participants in their final declaration,
calling such cooperation "an inescapable ecumenical vocation". A forum on
economic alternatives to neo-liberalism and capitalist globalisation could be
included in the programme of the next WCC assembly, scheduled January 2006 in
Porto Alegre, Brazil, the young people suggested. 

They also emphasised the need for a "true Christian social doctrine" which
would express the Christian principles of a society [...] based on the
Gospel." Such a doctrine should not only act as a guide for church
communities and their educational institutions, but also for "lay people and
youth who raise the voice of the church in their daily lives, in political,
social, economic and cultural arenas".	

United and organised in adversity

The seminar took place during the last days of a political campaign leading
up to 27 April presidential elections in Argentina. The day before the
elections, the participants visited one of Buenos Aires' poorest
neighbourhoods, where some 50,000 people live in poverty and adversity. 

In Bajo Flores, they saw some of the terrible social consequences of
globalisation at first hand, but also some examples of resistance. They met
the director of a community radio, Eduardo Najera, and visited a production
cooperative which also provides training opportunities.  

"The experience was extremely interesting. I was really able to learn a great
deal," said Elizabeth Jiminez (24), a medical student from the Dominican
Republic. Having seen similar projects in her own country, shed noted that
"here, people are more united and more organised. So they can work better and
with more results". 

Norwegian Freddy Knutsen, responsible for the WCC Youth Programme, emphasised
the importance of this type of event: "It helps young people see the
challenges of our times and perceive the true impact of globalisation on
people". What was essential, he said, was to "discover how young Latin
Americans can deal with this situation and propose alternatives".

The youth event took place immediately before another, continental,
consultation on "Globalizing the Fullness of Life" convened by CLAI and the
WCC in Buenos Aires, 28 April - 1 May. 

(Sidebar)

God in the backyard 

Enormous disparities between rich and poor are nothing new for Ole Jakob
Lxland, a 22-year-old theology student who spent six months working with
street children in La Paz, Bolivia, and two months travelling in Peru.	But
he was shocked by what he saw in Bajo Flores, a poor neighbourhood in Buenos
Aires.

"Seeing such huge disparities and the injustice endured by the marginalised
classes is such a contrast to life in Norway," he said. The experience of
Bajo Flores, however, helped him "reaffirm the liberation of the poor as
being central to me and to the church".

The visit has rekindled his desire to live among the poor. "In order to
understand the poor, you must enter the world of the poor," he said, evoking
Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiirrez.

Living in a Nordic country, said Ole, "it is very easy to forget the needy".
But in a poor country, it is dangerously easy to "grow accustomed to poverty,
to regard it as being natural."

Emily Ruff, a 22-year-old American who works with adolescents from homeless
families in Orlando, Florida, described the experience of Bajo Flores as
heart-wrenching. "I was overcome  with sadness," she said.

However, she drew comfort from "strong, brave people", struggling for their
daily bread. "I drew hope from their hope and the way they work their way
upwards," she said.

Emily compared the comfortable middle-class neighbourhood where the youth
event took place with the one before her eyes: garbage on unpaved streets and
unfinished houses. "The differences are dramatic. This is like the backyard,"
she said.

She was full of admiration for	the "cartoneros" (cardboard scavengers),
sometimes entire families, who hunt through household rubbish bins for paper
and cardboard that can be sold for recycling.

"In the middle of so much corruption," their "honest living" makes them stand
out, said Emily. They are a clear example that God "is walking with people in
their struggles".  

Free photos to accompany articles based on this feature are available on our
website:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/youthsempix.html 

The final statement of the seminar is available at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/youthsem.html 

For further information, please contact the Media Relations Office, 
tel: +41 (0)22 791 6421/6153  -  media@wcc-coe.org   

**********

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in
more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
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meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in
1948 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary
Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

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