tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83094527906184391382024-03-20T15:33:40.814-05:00Beautiful People MomentsWelcome to the Beautiful People Moments Project.
People are beautiful, and this blog is about remembering, advocating, and celebrating that.
#beautifulpeoplemomentsBrandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-62261598483357365762016-11-22T18:00:00.000-06:002016-11-22T18:00:23.057-06:00Portraits of Justice #25: Jennifer {Kingston, Jamaica}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Today I present you with a story from </i><i><b>Jennifer {Kingston, Jamaica}</b>, making this #25 in the </i><i>Portraits of Justice series. </i></div>
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<i>I had the honour of meeting Jennifer in Bethlehem, Palestine, last February when we were both present to consult on the Pilgrimage of Peace and Justice with the WCC. I took her portrait in Jerusalem, as we had tea with the locals and they shared with us about their desire to teach the children about each other across religious divides. </i><br />
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<i>As </i><i>Jennifer says, </i><span style="text-align: left;">"I'm of a great age, I’m a grandmother."</span><i> She has a special space in her heart concerning justice for children. </i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">"In my country justice is the recognition of people’s lives, in all kinds of life’s situations.</span></b> "</div>
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"There are institutions set up to protect justice for people, through our police department. <b>However, justice is not experienced by all to the same degree.</b> And so, truthfully, there are sometimes there are protests and cries for people calling for justice when they feel there rights trampled upon. Within this reply, <b>there is an indication to me that the country is sufficiently aware of what justice is, so that when people feel badly done by, they protest, and expect due process to take place."</b></div>
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"At the moment we have a very sad case, the death of 19 newborn babies, all of them newborn babies. They came into the world in delicate condition. But all of them died, in two different hospitals. The investigations so far have shown that they died from bacterial or viral infections, which can really manifest themselves in any hospital in any place in the world, so there is an international protocol of care to prevent or reduce the effect of such infection. "</div>
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"But it was shown that in most cases proper protocol had not been taken. <b><span style="font-size: large;">And because Jamaica is Jamaica, and we are a nation where people will speak out, the parents spoke out. </span></b>It caused a national campaign, it caused loss of jobs, it cost the shape of a board, in fact it caused the renaming of a board, and an investigation - a full complete and open investigation.<b>That represents a case in very visible justice, in process, because the whole thing is being looked at."</b></div>
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"The country was really quite alarmed, because no one was paying attention to the fact the children were delicate at the time of birth. If a child is premature, it is the duty of the country to protect that child, to the extent that the child has an opportunity to live.<b>The system failed those children. </b><b> </b>I am sad, very very sad, about the death of the children. The loss and grief caused to the families. But I am happy that they have not gone in vain. "</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">"The consciousness of my country is sufficiently alive to recognize, to repent, and pledge to do better for the protection of our children. "</span></b></div>
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"The conscience of my country is sufficiently alive to recognize that <b>we have a duty to protect our children</b>. In the cases where they have died, we have failed institutionally, or in the case of parents allowing their children to journey alone and come to harm, we recognize we need to have improvements in how we care for our children. And so to challenge us into ongoing awareness, consciousness, and action, our country has erected a monument just outside the the council offices, of our city council, in Kingston. There is, I have to say, a hauntingly beautiful sculpture of the crying child. It is the face of a child, beautifully sculpted, and when you look at the face, you can actually see tears. And then there are names plaques on there recognizing some of the names of our children. "</div>
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"You cannot but see and feel the beauty of the soul of the child, the human person that has gone, and is remembered." </div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-41047516529985607662016-03-20T14:31:00.002-05:002016-03-21T13:29:44.682-05:00Portraits of Justice #24: Patrick {Nairobi, Kenya}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXwCMwVq9eQ9JZwpYIkrqWaioCpxW3tjti6H9PHml4faSazznwo2zmisOzNuU_RNopXXX7il22gZyxEC4AyD-NPKlnE8QoF04VxCi3aG6IC_eyZuT9fm5bJhrVHCRf9cg-E0qDfRGOqsU7/s1600/24338454511_3be2a687fe_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXwCMwVq9eQ9JZwpYIkrqWaioCpxW3tjti6H9PHml4faSazznwo2zmisOzNuU_RNopXXX7il22gZyxEC4AyD-NPKlnE8QoF04VxCi3aG6IC_eyZuT9fm5bJhrVHCRf9cg-E0qDfRGOqsU7/s320/24338454511_3be2a687fe_z.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i style="color: #141823; line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">For </i><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #141823;"><i><b>Portraits of Justice #24,</b> </i></span></span><i style="color: #141823; line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">we return to Africa and hear from </i><b style="color: #141823; line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Patrick {Nairobi, Kenya}.<i> </i></b><i style="color: #141823; line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I met Patrick and his team, the <b>Nafsi Acrobats,</b> last summer in the Italian Alps where they were running their yearly workshop at the Agape Ecumenical Centre in Prali. They tour yearly.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">As an acrobat and peacebuilder Patrick, along with Bruce, Sammy, and Kenneth, use their crazy creative work to combat tribal racism in the face of many broken relationships in Kenya. They also do amazing work with kids, creating alternatives to drug and gang culture. That they maintain their friendships and hope in the face of incredible divisions and </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">adversity</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"> is inspiring to me. These folks create beautiful people moments everyday. </span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Context: As a democratic state, Kenya's elections continue to be held in swells of conflict, impacting economy, stability, poverty, and quality of life. </span></span></i></span><i><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Corruption seems repetitive and inevitable. </b></span></span></i><i style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every round of elections has brought about high ethnic tensions between different tribal identities, dividing society and at times bringing about great violence. The 2007 elections left 600,000 people displaced. This makes the peacebuilding work of the Nafsi Acrobats particularity</span> <span style="line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">critical, as <b>Patrick and his team are all from different tribes, bringing hope for a different kind of future as they work across divides.</b></span></span></i><b style="font-family: inherit;"> </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"<b><span style="font-size: large;">I</span></b></span></span><span style="color: #141823; font-size: large; line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>n K</b></span><span style="color: #141823; line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>enya no one can predict the work of justice</b>.</span> Sometimes (people) are honestly and truly working in trusted way, but justice is one of the major corrupted zone in Kenya."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"As for Christians, they always work as they know their role. It's difficult to lead the church without justice. Now a days most of the church almost everywhere have just jumped in to deep ditch where by they can't come out again, <b>since corruption knocked their doors</b>." </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij_hYnpDP1SIvnpAgTAJRjFWSPRfEIwBmwvm3i0Al80hrkoBMPBwId0S-eNuSF0BaGfWhlagER53rifIaqFDtRLKrUfuqKwteRLpbbBwLcsiYHOibsI77SPC0OF-RM3JSRTwf8ERc016W1/s1600/Location_Kenya_AU_Africa.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij_hYnpDP1SIvnpAgTAJRjFWSPRfEIwBmwvm3i0Al80hrkoBMPBwId0S-eNuSF0BaGfWhlagER53rifIaqFDtRLKrUfuqKwteRLpbbBwLcsiYHOibsI77SPC0OF-RM3JSRTwf8ERc016W1/s200/Location_Kenya_AU_Africa.svg.png" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kenya is located on the east coast of the African continent</span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It boarders </span></span><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tanzania</span></span><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Somalia, Uganda, </span></span><span style="line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ethiopia</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17.94px; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and South Sudan</span></span></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"It is difficult to relay your cases (of injustice) in church because they don't do what is right sometimes, And that's made people loose the trust on church. Thought, not all churches."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="font-size: large;">In Kenya, with no justice, means no peace. </span><b><span style="font-size: large;">Maybe in the next generations, we will find the truth and justice.</span>"</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>Interested in following the work of Patrick and the Nafsi Acrobats? <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NafsiAfrica/?pnref=lhc" target="_blank">Find them on Facebook HERE! </a></i></span></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-78168126840549078502016-02-28T20:15:00.000-06:002016-02-29T14:42:05.481-06:00Portraits of Justice #23: Bayan {Beit Sahur, Palestine}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>It's</i><b> week #23 </b><i>with</i><b> Portraits of Justice</b><i>, and I introduce you to </i><b>Bayan<i>, </i></b><i> from</i><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b><b style="font-style: italic;">{</b><b>Beit Sahour, Palestine.</b><i><b> </b> I met Bayan a year ago in Bogota, Colombia, where she successfully and passionately advocated for global support from the WSCF for justice in Palestine. Just last week stayed with her and her family in Palestine. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> Bayan asked to have her<b> photos taken in front of the Western Wall,</b> the separation barrier constructed between the Palestine territories and the state of Israel. This wall is seen by many as a global symbol of oppression and injustice. As it is one of her major obstacles in the pursuit of justice in her context,<b> I count Bayan's portrait among the most powerful in this collection.</b></i></span></div>
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"How does justice look like in my country? <b><span style="font-size: large;">Actually we don't have justice in my country, because we are under occupation.</span> </b>We are working to have our rights. <b><span style="font-size: large;">Justice for us is to have our rights to move, to study, to have a good job, to have a good salary, to live like other people in other cities; all of this we do not have." </span></b><div>
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<b>"</b>Another important this is safety: safety we do not have. We sometimes think about what we will do, for the same day, we do not think about tomorrow or the next year, because of the occupation. Maybe they will come and arrest us because we are saying something I know many children that are under age, they are arrested because they just threw a stone. "<div style="text-align: center;">
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"<b>We live and breathe in three religions.
I think we can live in that</b>. In Palestine, we don't have with Muslims
the same fight as the Middle East, as<b> we have the same issues. We are
working together. I feel the Muslims are my sisters and my brothers</b>.
Also I have to mention there are Jewish who support us in my country,
and they do not announce the Israel state. For me this is beauty." </div>
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"<b>I have many hopes, personally. To have
a family, to have kids. But also I am afraid</b>. I am really afraid. If
I want to get married and to have kids, <b>I don't want for my kids to
live in my situation</b>. I don't want that. Even if I have been in a
perfect school, a perfect university, I studied theology in Bethlehem
University, and as a tour guide, my situation is good, my parents
are the perfect persons. If I asked for something, they give it to
me. I am not afraid from these things. <b>I am afraid of my kid tomorrow
will ask me 'why, why are we living here? Why do we not immigrate?'</b>.
I don't want to put myself in this situation, because it is really
hard. All the time when I was a kid and I was looking at the TV
saying, 'oh! I wish I could, for example, I could skydive. I wish we
had in Palestine a Disney Land. I wish I can play everywhere'. All
the time, “I wish I wish I wish” And I grew up without out this. <b>We don't
have the right to movement.</b>"</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNn2rUVxxqONo_I6Q4jO2lWl2om-mHaPQTNTPdt3VwhTu96QLNBeoIFvJ3gQ2_HZ3-tgxSTgyhGKlh-FyBfW1QyMKMH6MYCuZxafKNRVg34W7Onc91dY9THlZTHWBhGfvhUvwoZTpxN3lq/s1600/feb+20++%252861%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNn2rUVxxqONo_I6Q4jO2lWl2om-mHaPQTNTPdt3VwhTu96QLNBeoIFvJ3gQ2_HZ3-tgxSTgyhGKlh-FyBfW1QyMKMH6MYCuZxafKNRVg34W7Onc91dY9THlZTHWBhGfvhUvwoZTpxN3lq/s320/feb+20++%252861%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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"I don't know if its justice, but we have
government, we have rules, we work on it.<b> <span style="font-size: large;">Justice for us is to get
our freedom, that is justice. To be equal, to get our human rights</span></b>.
As I said,<b> we don't have our human rights. We live like the dogs, the
dogs live better than us</b>!"</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhffBhjfo8vO1WF5gWBIqRqIsNaQuDt6CoeNVGjCCCqL-lXuubq46tltbeZCWrCLUs0PjJdmRH3lo51wUpqOo02xQxrotXweHJJZdyjh6QRsBuEM0QzAiUSkJJJPbPVT5vfRIUhsHaiHDzb/s1600/feb+20++%252865%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhffBhjfo8vO1WF5gWBIqRqIsNaQuDt6CoeNVGjCCCqL-lXuubq46tltbeZCWrCLUs0PjJdmRH3lo51wUpqOo02xQxrotXweHJJZdyjh6QRsBuEM0QzAiUSkJJJPbPVT5vfRIUhsHaiHDzb/s320/feb+20++%252865%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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"I think that God put me in Palestine
because I have a message, and to spread it all over the world. What I
did today [successfully advocating justice for Palestine with WSCF],
it was just an amazing thing for myself. I texted my best friend and
told her, finally,<b> finally I have done something for my country.
</b>Finally. It was – sorry! (starts crying).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1b1mEPYgXyLPpxfvaLGptDkDLImnc_vjxbBg4npXOAPEY3kqGxixnsNJYezS-4wYcAHF5v1BTu9VRn78J5QcywBYi3ic8P69ZH0Qi7FNumdgZGHmSgE1K7G1uW0mNWyQZKCMmovDAZmlV/s1600/feb+20++%252893%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1b1mEPYgXyLPpxfvaLGptDkDLImnc_vjxbBg4npXOAPEY3kqGxixnsNJYezS-4wYcAHF5v1BTu9VRn78J5QcywBYi3ic8P69ZH0Qi7FNumdgZGHmSgE1K7G1uW0mNWyQZKCMmovDAZmlV/s1600/feb+20++%252893%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1b1mEPYgXyLPpxfvaLGptDkDLImnc_vjxbBg4npXOAPEY3kqGxixnsNJYezS-4wYcAHF5v1BTu9VRn78J5QcywBYi3ic8P69ZH0Qi7FNumdgZGHmSgE1K7G1uW0mNWyQZKCMmovDAZmlV/s400/feb+20++%252893%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>"It was my dream to talk
and share with people what we are living, what we are suffering, all
these things I have said</b>. Its not about movement! It's about how we
don't have an airport. We have only one way to go outside Palestine,
which is through Jordan (And in Gaza, through Egypt). Also, the Israeli
controls our water, they control everything! OK, let Israel control
this water – but why do they not give us our right on water<b>? I know
families in Beit Sahour who suffer in this. They don't have water for
14 days and more and more. </b>Sometimes we don't have water in our
houses for one month and more! We want to have showers, we want to
cook, we want to clean! We are trying now to stop drinking water from
the tap, and we are buying water. Maybe then we will reduce the water
we use, and we can use it to clean or bathe. When I was in Lebanon,
they asked me to wash some tomatoes. I was opening the water so
slowly, because I don't want to waste water. They just opened it
fully and said, we have water!"</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">"Even though we lived with all these
things, I have to say that we still keep hope alive."</span></b></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-30894741318223474912016-01-27T20:45:00.000-06:002016-01-28T14:04:15.306-06:00Portraits of Justice #22: Marcelo {Montevideo, Uruguay}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">It's<b> week #22 with Portraits of Justice</b>, returning from a long hiatus of travel, photography, and research. I introduce you to my dear friend<b> Marcelo,</b> from <b>{Montevideo, Uruguay}</b>. I had the privilege of meeting Marcelo in Bogota, Colombia, again in the Alps of Italy where these photographs were taken, and a third time in Sicily this last December. Travelling the world for the work of justice, this has become a familiar face.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Marcelo shares his vision of justice for his country, battling injustice with strides towards equality with his faith and work in </span>environmental</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b> justice.</b> <span style="font-size: x-small;">He is currently based in Buenos Aires for work. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFk0uKGXez6cOE7zJOpLLIKOtZJ83vzsUKIEzXjL6x-3pV9_nfaLyutVGXhLdz_VnI6ZG_hjFQjQLzlgOgNq8LJN1zF5CJR8hgloIp5BRvldf7gtmvh8V3nwOQy_-LIOzJZklcvwy15rok/s1600/DSC_0244.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; clear: left; float: left; font-size: 12.8px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFk0uKGXez6cOE7zJOpLLIKOtZJ83vzsUKIEzXjL6x-3pV9_nfaLyutVGXhLdz_VnI6ZG_hjFQjQLzlgOgNq8LJN1zF5CJR8hgloIp5BRvldf7gtmvh8V3nwOQy_-LIOzJZklcvwy15rok/s320/DSC_0244.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>"Justice is strong word. Prophetic and beautiful. It appeals to the utopia of the men, women and nature, taking place in dignity and equality in a relationship with each other."</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"[Justice] is something that as Christians, young people, whom seek the kingdom of God, we cannot forget even for a minute. It is the ethical north of all our actions and behaviors, or should be. Justice is the place where God is present, and is the place where we have to positioning ourselves. And it's part of our main work, to love God and our neighbors as the same one. It is in fact the starting point and the point of arrival."</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl1gS597N-MaYJicIexacJtonRy9uMnwpV2iFKaW68Koqq6PEioYMPBxD9f0W8HC6qO3jKJdoBOXF7qAfBtG42N-YiQ99A8eDXuGZwvBMlH-9H0-R4GEo_qujB29YLy50mp2doQX91M5SN/s1600/DSC_0238+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyS34kyZZPiIGlgf01Vu0-iipd0EO9s5S9Ue0Y3PTKmAplzSHV4aIZ5Mg4iF9B_RJXnevOR4v2_8qZbYf6zgDLTHM1WSMZmnqeO_8m2fcxPJQMBLRWYR0uY46Cu9Itn22ejCmR8XuS471X/s1600/DSC_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Z9vdsob4xmQDxYGYytW1QEqhGNaYVHVQF_50T1jkKZn_Honlkd1IYFF4oq1SZbEffnFTl6l-lAZz77vEQ9qK9f3sx91MJZN9PN_OXkV7waoYavhoTOXejrVthD8NvLrlJthho3J4ofYY/s1600/DSC_0212.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl1gS597N-MaYJicIexacJtonRy9uMnwpV2iFKaW68Koqq6PEioYMPBxD9f0W8HC6qO3jKJdoBOXF7qAfBtG42N-YiQ99A8eDXuGZwvBMlH-9H0-R4GEo_qujB29YLy50mp2doQX91M5SN/s1600/DSC_0238+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl1gS597N-MaYJicIexacJtonRy9uMnwpV2iFKaW68Koqq6PEioYMPBxD9f0W8HC6qO3jKJdoBOXF7qAfBtG42N-YiQ99A8eDXuGZwvBMlH-9H0-R4GEo_qujB29YLy50mp2doQX91M5SN/s200/DSC_0238+-+Copy.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>"Justice in my country, or perhaps in my region, is something that is under construction. No peace without justice, no justice without righteous men and women, being the example"</b>. I could talk about processes that walk towards justice, individual and collective actions, of governors or movements.<b> In Latin America, especially in countries of South America these processes have started with the attitude of many social and political leaders supported by movements who have taken action and created </b></span><b style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.8px;">policies to greater distribution of wealth with the most vulnerable. "</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyS34kyZZPiIGlgf01Vu0-iipd0EO9s5S9Ue0Y3PTKmAplzSHV4aIZ5Mg4iF9B_RJXnevOR4v2_8qZbYf6zgDLTHM1WSMZmnqeO_8m2fcxPJQMBLRWYR0uY46Cu9Itn22ejCmR8XuS471X/s1600/DSC_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyS34kyZZPiIGlgf01Vu0-iipd0EO9s5S9Ue0Y3PTKmAplzSHV4aIZ5Mg4iF9B_RJXnevOR4v2_8qZbYf6zgDLTHM1WSMZmnqeO_8m2fcxPJQMBLRWYR0uY46Cu9Itn22ejCmR8XuS471X/s320/DSC_0225.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">"In some countries it has reduced poverty by 80%, thanks to these social policies. Uruguay, my country, wasn't the exception .Although much remains to be done, to correct and deepen, we must continue working, recognizing [justice] and advocating for greater inclusion and equity. Uruguay is a country not suffering a major internal conflicts, however access to quality education, and access to opportunities and a better quality of life, are urges to the most vulnerable population. <b>Justice in my country, is something that is being built, but always with the controller of social movements and political actors, as an exercise of a better democracy."</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Z9vdsob4xmQDxYGYytW1QEqhGNaYVHVQF_50T1jkKZn_Honlkd1IYFF4oq1SZbEffnFTl6l-lAZz77vEQ9qK9f3sx91MJZN9PN_OXkV7waoYavhoTOXejrVthD8NvLrlJthho3J4ofYY/s1600/DSC_0212.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Z9vdsob4xmQDxYGYytW1QEqhGNaYVHVQF_50T1jkKZn_Honlkd1IYFF4oq1SZbEffnFTl6l-lAZz77vEQ9qK9f3sx91MJZN9PN_OXkV7waoYavhoTOXejrVthD8NvLrlJthho3J4ofYY/s320/DSC_0212.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some churches have played an important role in my country. especially in advocating or witnessing in public policies aimed at greater equality, quality of life and dignity of populations that have been submerged in poverty. Many of them have played the role as an alternative to neoconservative sectors processes, that have been consistently against the rights of minorities and the right of women to decide. In Uruguay, the debate on equal marriage, sexual and reproductive rights has occurred in recent years, with the results of a change in public policies in favor of greater inclusion of sexual minorities and women. And some Christian and churches have played a constructive role against the reactionary sectors of the Uruguayan society. Being a secular country where church, religion and faith has always been underestimated this prophetic public witness is very valuable</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Environmental justice is also part of building peace and comprehensive justice. <b>One of the most important acts of justice in my country has been the synergy that between unions, social movements and political movements have been generated and styling to nationalize water resources and water."</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtLFBYMn6JLLBQzPTcb-D0VRA1FuaBecLiedNgoXDlRl8ekWcycZKJRN4HBF5iUpkDizz5Ek5doyk6W3nkne0AIXoaP_uwEKrF9v6SsW_DI9w1azFydql7mVx0vWlRO2aSVRCQlNFXzNDs/s1600/DSC_0239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtLFBYMn6JLLBQzPTcb-D0VRA1FuaBecLiedNgoXDlRl8ekWcycZKJRN4HBF5iUpkDizz5Ek5doyk6W3nkne0AIXoaP_uwEKrF9v6SsW_DI9w1azFydql7mVx0vWlRO2aSVRCQlNFXzNDs/s320/DSC_0239.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>"</b>The big move to make water a common good of all and change the constitution occurred in the early years of the decade of 2000. In 2005 Uruguay became one of the first countries in the world to nationalize and make water a common good, where any individual, firm or corporation may exploit. Also, the same social and political actors were instrumental in the creation of laws that enable equal marriage and the right of women to decide. This is important because it shows how students, civil society, unions and political actors have played together for more justice. This is not new, and is a very good practice. <b>People of Uruguay have a long history of to be together facing their rights regarding land and natural resources</b>"</span></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-76848827907491565852015-11-07T15:25:00.003-06:002015-11-07T16:25:49.209-06:00Portraits of Justice # 21: Clare {London, England}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>It's</i><b> week #21 </b><i>with</i><b> Portraits of Justice</b><i>, and I introduce you to </i><b>Clare<i>, </i></b><i> from</i><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b><b style="font-style: italic;">{</b><b>London, England}.<i> </i></b><i>I had the privilege of meeting Clare in Bogota, Colombia, and photographing her atop a bell tower in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden. Her interview response reached me through the magic of technology. </i></span></div>
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<i><b>Clare has thoughtfully reflected on </b>how her context of justice in England is a part of a larger context, in particular<b> England's response to the refugee crisis</b>. </i></div>
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<b><i>Encounter this story, and hear beauty in the broken, from a beautiful voice with a beautiful vision.</i></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19LkZUEbV10dF4R_LNvdXrbXAs70lR-qorAHS-aFkb3pmjMTppeJRHYjrLRiMxP0tLi6rtMJzX68UdZQ1wOfCXcyQ4dpRFuyqU4A6xHWaI_PN2WJ6p6sRyORS-Y0-ywoPuK7KFvLLzcJv/s1600/DSC_0063.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19LkZUEbV10dF4R_LNvdXrbXAs70lR-qorAHS-aFkb3pmjMTppeJRHYjrLRiMxP0tLi6rtMJzX68UdZQ1wOfCXcyQ4dpRFuyqU4A6xHWaI_PN2WJ6p6sRyORS-Y0-ywoPuK7KFvLLzcJv/s320/DSC_0063.JPG" width="320" /></a><b>“The steady flow of refugees into Europe </b>from other areas of the world, particularly North Africa and the Middle East, <b>has gradually became a torrent. </b>The issue of granting asylum to these individuals suddenly became headline news throughout Europe in summer 2015. In the UK, much of the press coverage was dishearteningly negative. The most popular newspapers gave these people a blanket label of “economic migrant”.<b> This misunderstood the complicated long-term issues which led to these people seeking help. Then a little boy drowned.”</b><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: inherit;">“<span style="font-size: small;">He
wasn't the first little boy, nor will he be the last, but somehow the
tragic deaths of him and his family changed the tone of the UK's
press coverage overnight. Public opinion spun with it, and many
individuals from all walks of life began to ask questions of the
government.”</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.1in; orphans: 1;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmlWi18wmip7bDPhetoLA5LBU0C3hqlQhnN6IZgiGrD9Ru_TGrgll0JjqhFPzs8WWoNj3jRRsLhIbU-i5_pFOtX068tq9NGJaBK3eOFe1JGKVsCaJt4qSZuTzRSapVq57Rat7mGrf4r4Sv/s1600/DSC_0119+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmlWi18wmip7bDPhetoLA5LBU0C3hqlQhnN6IZgiGrD9Ru_TGrgll0JjqhFPzs8WWoNj3jRRsLhIbU-i5_pFOtX068tq9NGJaBK3eOFe1JGKVsCaJt4qSZuTzRSapVq57Rat7mGrf4r4Sv/s320/DSC_0119+-+Copy.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #141823; font-family: inherit;">“<span style="font-size: small;">Crisis
meetings were held between leaders across the EU, and eventually the
Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron, announced that 20000
refugees (around 0.03% of the UK population) would be brought into
the country from camps in the origin regions of migrants and settled
in the UK. This would occur over a five year period. <b>But was this
justice?”</b></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.1in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“<b>Many
individuals, including myself, believe that so long as multiple
thousands of people are</b><b> walking
thousands of miles, are risking their lives in rickety boats in the
Mediterranean... wealthier countries such as the UK must cooperate to
welcome people into safe places</b>.”</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.1in; orphans: 1;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqtHvpjyHeTgTL66GzfzY8kE8mYkRq3-Ccy0CU4F9HxNnkjmabY7Ypjma8DJ4gc2Fl1dz9RSfrZb4XmJcCC-u-mspRHxequHvWfvjG2myaEcY0fXM0hjkeRr9091PHyfLTBqi9dEAkOd8/s1600/DSC_0121.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqtHvpjyHeTgTL66GzfzY8kE8mYkRq3-Ccy0CU4F9HxNnkjmabY7Ypjma8DJ4gc2Fl1dz9RSfrZb4XmJcCC-u-mspRHxequHvWfvjG2myaEcY0fXM0hjkeRr9091PHyfLTBqi9dEAkOd8/s320/DSC_0121.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #141823; font-family: inherit;">“<span style="font-size: small;">The
Church has often been complicit in other-ing those who have come from
elsewhere. We must now turn from this attitude and welcome the
stranger, feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked. And
churches and other groups of Christians throughout the UK are indeed
doing these things, in a variety of ways depending on their own local
contexts. We see churches sending parcels of food, clothing and other
resources to the 'jungle' camp at the Calais port. <b>We see groups
quite literally welcoming refugees into their church buildings and
into their homes. We see neighbourhoods coming together across
religious and political boundaries to petition the government to do
more.”</b></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 0.17in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.1in; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: inherit;"><b>My
vision of justice in this nation is that this crisis will spur the
people of the UK to continue to act in situations where others are in
such desperate need. </b>I long for a future where we no longer need
food banks to enable parents to feed their children. <b>I hope for
the day where we no longer have to argue over whether Muslims in the
UK should be entitled to live their life and worship God freely</b>.
I pray that the connections built by reaching out to refugees can be
strengthened by serving one another more.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">What does justice look like where you are? Anything like this?</span></i></b></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br /></div>
Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-10923084057343371302015-10-16T16:39:00.000-05:002015-10-16T16:41:56.343-05:00Portraits of Justice #20: Douglas {Harare, Zimbabwe}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">This week marks the story <b>#20</b> from Portraits of Justice - and I would like to say how profoundly grateful I am for the support all the way around the globe that I have received for this project. You do these powerful stories honour with your attentions. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ri_i2dB9WGViFMPAiiLUeayMPeWgIZi16XlNFiLVhR5u9APjkCujZJilpX69EsLtrovWb6lWxgbVUlvLe9FEoW2OwK58a5mygSwrIyT7PNwsk3KICgj36cpbTsKc4oGtVIwdG07hNVL5/s1600/DSC_0316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ri_i2dB9WGViFMPAiiLUeayMPeWgIZi16XlNFiLVhR5u9APjkCujZJilpX69EsLtrovWb6lWxgbVUlvLe9FEoW2OwK58a5mygSwrIyT7PNwsk3KICgj36cpbTsKc4oGtVIwdG07hNVL5/s320/DSC_0316.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ri_i2dB9WGViFMPAiiLUeayMPeWgIZi16XlNFiLVhR5u9APjkCujZJilpX69EsLtrovWb6lWxgbVUlvLe9FEoW2OwK58a5mygSwrIyT7PNwsk3KICgj36cpbTsKc4oGtVIwdG07hNVL5/s1600/DSC_0316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><i></i></a><i>This week I share with you the story of<b> Douglas</b> from <b>{Harare, Zimbabwe}</b>, in the south of Africa. I originally met Douglas in Ottawa, Canada, and then interviewed and photographed him in Prali, Italy. Douglas is powerful young voice for justice, speaking in the face of political oppressions in his home spaces. A member of the the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe, he is an inspiring leader for a rising generation.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>---</i><br />
<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: left;"> "</span><b style="text-align: left;">In
my country justice is a privilege for the affluent</b><span style="text-align: left;">, and a privilege
for those who are politically correct – when I say 'politically
correct,' I mean those are linked to the ruling party. If you do not
have connections to the ruling political party justice is something
that you might not realize. Our justice system is controlled by the
ruling party. </span><b style="text-align: left;">It is only those who are politically connected that can
enjoy justice in my country</b><span style="text-align: left;">"</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh6JUZDV_V76bfS_rzz4wi_vpGhsiclOvjt6fHyxxgOqqBDE-IecAUBvyp0N4E_bqesUxJGVheLoVO5A1tz_wQXh0e2pUn-C-sn6i_p4ejF3eqckErGi9TRUt9ZUBuarcPTbwwsuobYNHa/s1600/DSC_0325.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh6JUZDV_V76bfS_rzz4wi_vpGhsiclOvjt6fHyxxgOqqBDE-IecAUBvyp0N4E_bqesUxJGVheLoVO5A1tz_wQXh0e2pUn-C-sn6i_p4ejF3eqckErGi9TRUt9ZUBuarcPTbwwsuobYNHa/s320/DSC_0325.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;">
"We have witnessed a lot of injustices
to the opposition, or those who are perceived to be the opposition.<b>
Even if you want to demonstrate or to raise concerns against the
government, you will find yourself arrested or being tortured by the
government. <span style="font-size: large;">I myself, being a political activist in my country, have
been jailed several times,because of standing for the rights of
students and standing against the injustices that the student
communities experience</span></b><span style="font-size: large;">.</span> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;">
So in general justice is
something that is determined by your political connection."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSaFbX5QfIJTdrJeiLAgQHqjTV0AmRDs77stmNX5icyAum4A3IXaKGw3P-OXr6a6IkV62kq2qTYPphQWYUOGM95QMuv1CzX38dwN9K2GW7Gpga4PXkZUEcZa7m6In7LV-KmAmd6ZqqIeiE/s1600/DSC_0322.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSaFbX5QfIJTdrJeiLAgQHqjTV0AmRDs77stmNX5icyAum4A3IXaKGw3P-OXr6a6IkV62kq2qTYPphQWYUOGM95QMuv1CzX38dwN9K2GW7Gpga4PXkZUEcZa7m6In7LV-KmAmd6ZqqIeiE/s320/DSC_0322.JPG" width="320" /></a>"The role of Christians and church in my
country is to<b> stand up and speak loudly against any type
of injustice. </b>We have joined hands with other christian communities to stand up to any
type of injustice. For instance, <b>one thing that we have done is to
reach out to the student community and young people to work with the
elections, which we just did in 2013, whereby we mobilized the young
people to stand up against the abuse from politicians, to stand
against any form of political violence, and to stand up against any form
of political intimidation."</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilf4Ksi3xxIUx8dQ6IEGIxLJCPtD4iOLYNjjbtILuzJ4mQTfz6gSZSLaqMetXW_PYjR-tH9XVDD0V4fSMBN4xmuScA2zCTYGzMwWQ-TJF2IsAgMic61hyaNzJUHAqjw8iC_R9ADqFGwy2J/s1600/DSC_0315.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilf4Ksi3xxIUx8dQ6IEGIxLJCPtD4iOLYNjjbtILuzJ4mQTfz6gSZSLaqMetXW_PYjR-tH9XVDD0V4fSMBN4xmuScA2zCTYGzMwWQ-TJF2IsAgMic61hyaNzJUHAqjw8iC_R9ADqFGwy2J/s320/DSC_0315.JPG" width="320" /></a>"We draw our inspiration from the book
of Esther. It calls us during trying times to our duty to stand up
and speak against any type of injustice, like Esther did. This is
what we are doing as a christian community.<b> We strongly believe
that it is our duty to stand the rights of voiceless, to stand for
the rights of the downtrodden. </b>Even during our colonial times the
churches played a major role in supporting the marginalized. We still
strongly believe that it is our duty that the christian movement, and
the ecumenical movement to voice and stand against any form of
injustice. It is our duty to give hope, to give encouragement, and to
give strength to those who are facing any sort of injustice."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh6JUZDV_V76bfS_rzz4wi_vpGhsiclOvjt6fHyxxgOqqBDE-IecAUBvyp0N4E_bqesUxJGVheLoVO5A1tz_wQXh0e2pUn-C-sn6i_p4ejF3eqckErGi9TRUt9ZUBuarcPTbwwsuobYNHa/s1600/DSC_0325.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<i>Tell me something beautiful you have witness in your country</i><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgSrIGcSPSeLfmU9RxPrgVq-Iv-pn02SLEHEzkjLpbxrq1dZ7TMSGIauC7fb5A-XGOgPLwZZdxWETwbRV3-VmcTaW2wkz_laeV6jqRemkUIe1hl7s5Vey6NhtLvNRRocoZrGXFVUE_nvye/s1600/DSC_0335.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgSrIGcSPSeLfmU9RxPrgVq-Iv-pn02SLEHEzkjLpbxrq1dZ7TMSGIauC7fb5A-XGOgPLwZZdxWETwbRV3-VmcTaW2wkz_laeV6jqRemkUIe1hl7s5Vey6NhtLvNRRocoZrGXFVUE_nvye/s320/DSC_0335.JPG" width="320" /></a> In 2013 my country had one
constitution that was around from independence. This constitution was
not good for us, it had so many flaws. Up to 2013 is had been amended
several times. We saw that, as a country, it was not good for us, in
terms of building democracy. So it was that I and my colleagues
worked tirelessly in terms of <b>mobilizing young people to have
voice</b>, because we are drafting a new constitution. And <b>I am
happy to say that right now we have new constitution that implicitly
states and protects the rights of the citizens</b>. This is something
I am proud of, and this something that is good for the future of our
country. We still have a lot of work to do in terms of
operationalization of the constitution but <b>I strongly believe that
since we do have a constitution that binds us everything else in the
future will fall into place and do good for future generations</b>,
in terms of building democracy for my country.
</div>
</div>
Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-48329401404126840062015-10-06T09:26:00.001-05:002015-10-06T09:26:34.021-05:00Portraits of Justice #19: Aruna {Chennai, India}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 data-reactid=".1.1.0.0.2.1.0.0" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span data-reactid=".1.1.0.0.2.1.0.0.1" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: inherit;">In </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;">week #19</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: inherit;">, I introduce you to the brilliant eco-feminist theologian that is Dr.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Aruna</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: inherit;">Gnanadason, from </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;">{Chennai, India}</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: inherit;">. It was an honour to meet her, learn from her wisdom, and adventure with her to the tops of the Alps in Italy. Her beauty comes from within.</span></h1>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span data-reactid=".1.1.0.0.2.1.0.0.1" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">---</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; orphans: 1; text-align: left;">"W</b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 9pt; orphans: 1; text-align: left;"><b>orking
for justice is a daunting task in India today.</b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 9pt; orphans: 1; text-align: left;">
There is huge global publicity about India being a incredible
country; to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, the
producer of generic drugs, of alternative energy sources (we have
one of the only fully solar energy powered airports in the world!). </span><b style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 9pt; orphans: 1; text-align: left;">But
then we have gross levels of poverty;</b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 9pt; orphans: 1; text-align: left;"> of farmers committing
suicide due to indebtedness, of soaring prices that leave the
majority of the people with no access</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; orphans: 1; text-align: left;">. </span><b style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; orphans: 1; text-align: left;">Today millions of people do
not have access to clean drinking water, to health, to education."</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh66yGmD2neSSwoEJ2iMGkrz5WuwlUJwfoFi_q-4k4kgmR9lLPq-fSbzs3nLKqsNHxwQ-FQsmM9V7aZUoJTCJX395Yh9nDb2gWlcgxNKEBX19YeumNszCQ78oCHb3Py8dwxflYudKKEEGQR/s1600/DSC_0180.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh66yGmD2neSSwoEJ2iMGkrz5WuwlUJwfoFi_q-4k4kgmR9lLPq-fSbzs3nLKqsNHxwQ-FQsmM9V7aZUoJTCJX395Yh9nDb2gWlcgxNKEBX19YeumNszCQ78oCHb3Py8dwxflYudKKEEGQR/s400/DSC_0180.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 9pt;">"Added
to thi<b>s we have an Indigenous and religiously sanctioned form of
graded subjugation of people, called the caste system. Some 25% of
the population of the country are relegated as
"outcastes"</b> because they engage in the most degrading and
"polluting" tasks, cleaning the toilets, the roads, the
drains. These are birth based occupations. Dalits (as
they call themselves now) are getting organized and demanding justice for
themselves."</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">"To
this, one has to add patriarchy, which is strongly embedded into
Indian society - recently dubbed the "rape capital of the
world.” Indian women experience the worst forms of discrimination
and violence. </span><b>Working for justice is hard because so often
economic structures interplay with caste and patriarchy giving us
a complex and difficult agenda."</b></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>---</b></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #222222;">"About
3% of Indians are Christian (that is about a huge number given the
population of India which is roughly 1.3 billion!). But then
<b>our minority consciousness strangles us</b>! Additionally we
are a fragmented community, as much of what exists in the society of
economic disparity, caste and patriarchy has been infused the
churches too! </span><span style="color: #222222;">Our
theology too is still very much a slave to our colonial past. (There
is of course and ecumenical movement and a liberation theology
movement particularly Dalit, Indigenous Peoples' and feminist
theology posing strong questions to the church.)"</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1; text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">"We
do today face some real threats from the Hindu majority
(not all Hindus....the majority have lived in harmony with minorities
for all our history as a nation. But a core of Hindu
fundamentalists with a huge following have disturbed the equilibrium
of the country by claiming that this is a Hindutva (a country
for Hindus). <b>What makes it frightening is that this is the
ideology that undergirds the ruling party that is in power -
cultural nationalism is a real threat as they try to influence
education, the media, the right to propagate one's faith, etc."</b></span></span></div>
<span data-reactid=".1.1.0.0.2.1.0.0.1" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1; text-align: center;">
---
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><i>Tell me something beautiful you have witnessed in your country:</i></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">“<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><b>This
story is on going</b>. One of the insidious efforts by the Hindutva
ideologues and their followers was to<b> call for a ban on cow slaughter
</b>and the eating of beef! It is based on a conviction that
the cow is a sacred symbol in Hinduism. </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><b>What
makes it difficult is </b>that cow slaughter has been for centuries
<b>the occupation of Dalits additionally for farmers who depend on
rearing cows</b>. Literally thousands will lose their livelihood if
this becomes a national law,as is being proposed. Just a few
days ago<b> a Muslim old man was murdered for eating beef!</b>" </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 9pt;">Additionally
it is the cheapest form of protein for millions of Dalit and
Indigenous people and Muslims (and many others like me!)."</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<b style="color: #222222; font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="color: #222222; font-size: 9pt;">"</b><b style="color: #222222;">It
has been amazing the amount of support those opposing the slaughter
ban have received</b><span style="color: #222222;"> from eminent Hindus, journalists and others,
who are</span><b style="color: #222222;"> demanding the rights of Dalits, Muslims and others</b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 9pt;"> be given more serious attention than cows! “</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.therealmard.org/images/logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" src="http://www.therealmard.org/images/logo.png" height="74" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.therealmard.org/" target="_blank">http://www.therealmard.org/ </a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">"The
other good story is a campaign started by a prominent film star
Farhan Akthar, called <a href="http://www.therealmard.org/" target="_blank">"Men Against Rape and Discrimination</a>" (MARD), the symbol of which is a moustache! He has been
mobilizing Indian men to think and act against the horrific forms of
violence Indian women experience." </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"> Appreciate these stories? Leave a comment with your curiosities!</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-4782017931996529172015-09-18T15:41:00.001-05:002015-09-18T15:46:00.041-05:00Portraits of Justice #18: Mo {Yangon, Myanmar}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In week #18 of Portraits of Justice, we head over to {Yangon, Myanmar}, (formerly known as Burma) to meet the spunky and fierce Mo. </div>
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<span lang="EN-US">There are many ethnic groups living in
Myanmar with different cultures, traditions, contexts and religions since the
ancient time. There are 8 major groups with 135 tribes. Mo is from the Karen
ethnic group, one of the major ethnic groups. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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"<b>Myanmar has been in military dictatorship since 1962. </b>As the result the governing of a military regime, everything was under controlled: transportation, education, economic, health care, natural resource management. The people of Myanmar suffered a lot the human rights violations and lost their standard rights. A kind of civil war happened, wherein th local ethnic groups were oppressed by government military. <b>Local people suffered human rights violation; their houses, property, family lives, lives of women, and children’s education were destroyed by government soldiers. All that issues are happened because of the militarization mechanism</b>."<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">"The
word “justice” is the utopia word for the people from Myanmar. They don’t dare
to use the word of peace, justice and freedom in a time of military government."</span></b></div>
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"The root
of the problems has happened in the time of the military regime. The people competing
are those that have power, and those who are powerless. Different social statuses
have different powers. Unjust things happen because of power abuse. The
important things in society are power sharing, to appreciate and acknowledge
the different powers, and use it correctly. "</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">"Justice
is aiming to reconciliation, it is not about revenge there are many ugly
historic violence happen in my country, the incidents are already happen and we
need to get lesson learnt from there. The most important thing in justice is
confession and transparency and not blocks the history. Justice makes human beings equal and it aims to have peace and reconciliation and a peaceful future for
next coming generation."</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0UtE-eLgnXsfvlwkCm_sdVerLSKOtYxQo5xAB-zG3V4V-uFkywkfmEnqPkmsDnnCFmgpFJvnNlk-SgELZHUWwvm5E61oqJwCZLSRdI8SAwlnKsPQyvw9uBcTdNL1KYLLoG4DtniKhsMC/s1600/DSC_0146.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0UtE-eLgnXsfvlwkCm_sdVerLSKOtYxQo5xAB-zG3V4V-uFkywkfmEnqPkmsDnnCFmgpFJvnNlk-SgELZHUWwvm5E61oqJwCZLSRdI8SAwlnKsPQyvw9uBcTdNL1KYLLoG4DtniKhsMC/s400/DSC_0146.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkA9zeN-YJBtBYlYix61gBBZS2zv7sjjR6lje4cDSyhI_cmWGe6zFHk2CkGDBq6_PYZiuHJU44cTQyLmC6FBijxdQJrvjO52Zg8zs6torZ2wqLD9QhsFrk9SyCM2OiPpIJ0pGwmwW8gZha/s1600/DSC_0161.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkA9zeN-YJBtBYlYix61gBBZS2zv7sjjR6lje4cDSyhI_cmWGe6zFHk2CkGDBq6_PYZiuHJU44cTQyLmC6FBijxdQJrvjO52Zg8zs6torZ2wqLD9QhsFrk9SyCM2OiPpIJ0pGwmwW8gZha/s320/DSC_0161.JPG" width="212" /></a>"<i>Tell me something beautiful you've have witnessed"</i></div>
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"Before 2012, <b>when it comes to the words of
PEACE, JUSTICE and FREEDOM, these words are allergic to our government.</b> In 2012
September, the civil society and community based organizations were trying to
celebrate the International Peace Day. At the same time, it was happening during
the civil war in Kachin region (northern part of Myanmar) - the ethnic armed forces and government military were fighting for the land and natural resources.
The local people from this area suffered the impact of war, and so <b>we didn’t have a permit
from authorities to celebrate the event."</b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">"<b>The authorities intimidate the civil
society groups</b>. But our organization, Student Christian Movement decided to
participate by distribution the peace letters, slogans. We SCMers distributed to the public a pamphlet with peace message and. <b>That move was very dangerous for
us - we might have been arrested </b>because that event wasn’t approving by
government. Some leaders of this event were sued by local authority. I was pleased myself participated in this event. Although I
know that it was not easy work according to situation,<b> and although I was in fear, I
choose to participate in that movement. I was proud of myself although it was
just a small work</b>."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>Encouraged by Mo's words? Let her know, and leave a comment!</b></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-11563072024881269232015-09-08T17:24:00.000-05:002015-09-08T17:37:56.040-05:00Portraits of Justice #17: Mabel {Hong Kong, China}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>In Week# 17, I introduce you the<b> Mabel, of {Hong Kong, China}</b>, <span style="font-size: x-small;">of who I consider among the most lovely and brilliant of minds I've met in my travels. I photographed Mable in the cities of Turin and Riomaggiore, in Italy. </span></i></div>
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<i><b>Context</b><span style="font-size: x-small;">ually it might be helpful to understand that under British colonial rule</span><b style="font-size: small;">, Hong Kong operated as a separate entity </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">for many years.</span><b style="font-size: small;"> It returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with a promise of a high degree of autonomy, judicial independence, and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland China</b><span style="font-size: x-small;">, under a formula known as “one country, two systems." With recent changes in the ruling the government, the Chinese Communist Party, independence and</span><b style="font-size: small;"> </b><b>democratic procedures are being slowly undermined and eliminated</b><b style="font-size: small;">. </b><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Injustice lays in the wake. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mable is a part of the SCM and the Umbrella Movement, which is a group that is seeking for democratic reforms in Hong Kong. It has required dedication, sacrifice, and perseveration -- and it makes me proud to call her a friend. Here's what justice looks like in her world..</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0biLyMukTc-CbaUHf5knH42_lc_-zhAlCxNz8-IELrPKwLkJo4kYDUhwr6MIKuuEdBr0H-nszSacvknjQIl80lMxEzoYLVAoKzvIu-ikPgS1k_GIV_wW_9mjqEaliIsRQf6kj5H8719Km/s1600/DSC_0128.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0biLyMukTc-CbaUHf5knH42_lc_-zhAlCxNz8-IELrPKwLkJo4kYDUhwr6MIKuuEdBr0H-nszSacvknjQIl80lMxEzoYLVAoKzvIu-ikPgS1k_GIV_wW_9mjqEaliIsRQf6kj5H8719Km/s400/DSC_0128.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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“<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Hong
Kong’s judicial independence is coming under political pressure.
</span><span style="color: black;"><b>Core
values such as freedom of speech, human rights, rule of law,
democracy and professionalism have become shaky</b></span><span style="color: black;">.
Democracy is what Hong Kong people long looking for, but it's a yet
achieved goal. The dual universal suffrage stipulated in the Basic
Law has been rejected by Chinese government. They've insisted that
candidates for the position of chief executive have to be
pre-screened.</span><span style="color: black;"><b>
It means that Hong Kong people cannot freely choose the city’s next
leader in 2017.</b></span><span style="color: black;">
It is how injustice happening recently in Hong Kong.”</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmnar0VBuq_ngivbQPc9MbztH7vrHE_HtWzhODsrFjiQFH0glajDR2Hdq0pV1zn9HGcb4MpCxEKp7LJUoycan0dVy6XBVBbtV-aTFq0paPjKdZBbfwgxgDHpONqANkz883EdAv_uKq_AMm/s1600/DSC_0065+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmnar0VBuq_ngivbQPc9MbztH7vrHE_HtWzhODsrFjiQFH0glajDR2Hdq0pV1zn9HGcb4MpCxEKp7LJUoycan0dVy6XBVBbtV-aTFq0paPjKdZBbfwgxgDHpONqANkz883EdAv_uKq_AMm/s400/DSC_0065+-+Copy.JPG" width="265" /></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">“Worst,
injustice by <b>judicial
punishment has been used by authorities to suppress peaceful
demonstration.</b> A
deputy magistrate convicted a protester who used her breasts to bump
into a police office. Later, the female protester has been sent to
prison for 3 1/2 months with a charge of bringing threats to a police
office with her ‘big’ breasts. <b><span style="font-size: large;">Female
breast is now considered as offensive weapon. </span></b>It
is how injustice happening in Hong Kong!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">“Six
plainclothes officers took a man to a dark corner behind a nearby
building and threw him to the ground during umbrella movement. Some
kicked and beat him, while others kept watching. Pictures were posted
on Facebook and reported in television showed obvious cuts and
bruises on his face and neck as well as circular welts running down
his back. It is definitely a “real” threat to personal safety,
ironically, none of the officers has been sent to jail. <b>It
is how injustice spreading and threatening Hong Kong</b>.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy7bAl8_jqMPztOzArz2C1LzOPPokc283Wf9JPV2h3oz2gnR6v0HqFBTRpPXETZjTuJH1ld8msbe9U2mJTd9dDrgHBDgltZ5MPvKG4sds9mmCXuaowbMkCGE1HDZS8htM9Nr1mefHLO0R6/s1600/DSC_0125.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy7bAl8_jqMPztOzArz2C1LzOPPokc283Wf9JPV2h3oz2gnR6v0HqFBTRpPXETZjTuJH1ld8msbe9U2mJTd9dDrgHBDgltZ5MPvKG4sds9mmCXuaowbMkCGE1HDZS8htM9Nr1mefHLO0R6/s320/DSC_0125.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">"In
2014 July 1, after a grand protest against the HK government, a group
of students decided to escalate the protest by occupying a road in
Central until the next morning. They were demanding reformation and
universal suffrage in Hong Kong. There were six ministers, pastors,
and theology students among the arrested protestors. It is said that
their participation is to witness the presence of God among the
protesters<span style="font-size: large;">. </span><b><span style="font-size: large;">God is with the poor and the oppressed. I am so
proud of them who are willing to sacrifice personal freedom after
arrest, for a greater common good of society.</span> </b>Christians are
playing role contributing to a better world through fighting for
justice being the good example in China."</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhssvDpjl_opDcdVwdCAf8vkaG3F0WN3g31qE-deCdoqhwLdOeff9gOIjazDtoPzi2WnxXpuWNnRCRN21Gy36AlmksIPRUUw_cDsvLfwOcAmwBRWiR9gzce3oMy4Z0Hj9mbJBLUVEEgOxfS/s1600/DSC_0126.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhssvDpjl_opDcdVwdCAf8vkaG3F0WN3g31qE-deCdoqhwLdOeff9gOIjazDtoPzi2WnxXpuWNnRCRN21Gy36AlmksIPRUUw_cDsvLfwOcAmwBRWiR9gzce3oMy4Z0Hj9mbJBLUVEEgOxfS/s320/DSC_0126.JPG" width="212" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">"In
Hong Kong every June 4th, there is a memorial vigil to commemorate
the anniversary of China’s bloody military suppression of protests
in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. It is to witness the wickedness and
brutality of the authority. </span><span style="color: black;"><b>People
once again are being reminded of the plea made by the students in
1989, which they bravely yearned for a democratic political system in
China</b></span><span style="color: black;">.
We commemorate the victims of the incident and all the people who
yearn for reformation in China. This is an action to display the
solidarity of Hong Kong people with all activists, to understand what
happened in 1989, as well to </span><span style="color: black;"><b>calling
people to continue fighting for freedom of press, human right,
democracy and justice in both Hong Kong and mainland China</b></span><span style="color: black;">.
I met SCM members and some other my friends in the vigil yearly.”</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">It
is my luck to witness the Christians in Hong Kong responding to the
Occupy Central protest, as well as umbrella movement, in prayer and
actions. On July 1, 2014, a group of students decided to escalate the
protest by occupying a road till the next morning.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 1;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><b> I was one of
them.</b> I saw a group of Christians sitting in a circle inside the
park and praying for the protestors, universal suffrage and justice
in Hong Kong. Christian symbols are highly visible during protests as
demonstrators form prayer groups, carry crosses and openly read
bibles. <b>It is beautiful hear that churches are
supporting the protestors </b>during umbrella movement <b>with food
and shelter </b>while others were offering first aid, snacks and
refuge to the protestors.<b><span style="font-size: large;"> It is so beautiful on witnessing the
solidarity of Christians in fighting for common goods of society</span></b></span></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-72841938494096725742015-08-31T23:44:00.001-05:002015-09-03T22:38:59.178-05:00Portraits of Justice #16: Esteban {Buenos Aires, Argentina}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Can you believe it's already week #16 of this project? WOW! Today I introduce you to my good friend <b>Esteban from {Buenos Aires, Argentina}</b>. I met Esteban in Italy, and had the privilege of taking his portrait at the very top the Alps. He officially holds the position of portrait at the highest altitude!</div>
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Esteban does work with a community in Argentina, the Community of<span style="text-align: left;"> Sant'Egidio, seeking to bridging the vast gaps of inequality that exist in his home spaces. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ABq0qjZrvabzKTMruDTZ2ijr4mkm2mE0I6Uoy3lYT0sznUhxLVJ-OWrjxIBgjs54L9cUa3T1oPz1vwOHhEGwDAo2bapMpsktMWDSUaJipJaoFPB_besAXzS9xiQOvgFOxNs9hIbyLzIv/s1600/DSC_0177+-+Copy+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ABq0qjZrvabzKTMruDTZ2ijr4mkm2mE0I6Uoy3lYT0sznUhxLVJ-OWrjxIBgjs54L9cUa3T1oPz1vwOHhEGwDAo2bapMpsktMWDSUaJipJaoFPB_besAXzS9xiQOvgFOxNs9hIbyLzIv/s400/DSC_0177+-+Copy+%25282%2529.JPG" width="265" /></a><b>"The definition of what comes to my mind when I think of justice is the equality of opportunity."</b><br />
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"I am going to give an example, why I think the definition of justice for me, is equality. I am a member of this community, Community of Sant'Egidio. It is a worldwide community that was born in Rome, but it is also in Argentina. We have this program called School of Peace, for little kids who are living in marginalized neighbourhoods. In English people call it a “tutoring program”, for kids between 6 and 10 years old."<br />
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"They live in places that are super violent, and very marginalized. They are kids that are born in families that live in these neighbourhoods and they don't get to choose where to live. <b>I think everyone should deserve the same chances, access to education, food, health.</b> I know that some of them are not eating well nutritionally wise, and that's not helping their upraising, their development. Even though we call it school, it is an informal like-school. Everyone is invited, even though it's a Catholic community we don't ask their denomination – even Muslims.<b> Everybody is invited to work on peace."</b><br />
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"I have many many opportunities. I don't like calling myself rich, because people think rich is money – but I am rich with opportunity, and not money. Right now the kids won't have the same opportunities in the future, and I think that is not fair. I'd like everyone to have the same opportunities.<b> I think that having opportunities is going to change the way you are.<span style="font-size: large;"> I'm convinced about it, I really am.</span></b>"<br />
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We also visit elderly in nursing homes. It's nice to know that even though right now my grandparents are not with me I can be adopted by many of the elderly I visit. And with the kids – I'm not married, I don't have kids – but I still have many friends who are little kids. I'm not a father, but I have kids. I have grandparents even though they're not my parents' mother and father. In a way this community helps me grow my family. Even though we don't live together we are a family.So, <b>that's what I do to bring the equality of opportunity to many realities that I encounter. That's my way."</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKgj7ZvCutrGMs5guuZKG6eO87gZP4P83_Ov_8NvzGnQ7Y9gMZ4jJbw9C_QVo5zchMSEZW16m1HxtQjG8XBvyjyk1ioEp_RuOLLqRU4nMDRsLsJFj9NwkhWKtNs-AmEpS5602EfPqL4EQL/s1600/DSC_0174.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKgj7ZvCutrGMs5guuZKG6eO87gZP4P83_Ov_8NvzGnQ7Y9gMZ4jJbw9C_QVo5zchMSEZW16m1HxtQjG8XBvyjyk1ioEp_RuOLLqRU4nMDRsLsJFj9NwkhWKtNs-AmEpS5602EfPqL4EQL/s320/DSC_0174.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">"With this community I have found a way to help overcome this inequality, to bring people together, to bring this equality into reality."</span></b><br />
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<i>Tell me something beautiful you have witnessed in your country</i><br />
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"One time we set up a stage in the middle of a park and we had people play music. We brought the kids from the slums of the city into this park, which a is super fancy place in the middle of a residential area. An then we also invited kids from this area. It was beautiful to see kids that would have never been together, be together. Even though they were not wearing the same clothes, and of course they did not share the same interests, they were together, in peace."</div>
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"It's very difficult to define peace, but that is peace. Being together over our differences, and realizing that it is really nice. Most of the time I define peace as a feeling, and in that moment I felt really good. <b>It was the beginning of hope, and it was simple to make that moment possible.</b> "</div>
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Find yourself thinking about this story? Tell us your thoughts!<br />
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-44814749245325909642015-08-20T07:24:00.000-05:002015-08-20T11:25:20.041-05:00Portraits of Justice #15: Marco {Udine, Italy}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hello my beautiful friends from around the globe! I greet you this week (#15) from the beautiful Alps in Italy, and wish to introduce to you my friend<b> Marco from {Udine, Italy}</b>. I met and photographed Marco in Bogota some time ago, and share his story with you today, from his home country. </div>
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Marco is a pastor and activist, and has long been involved with the global justice movement through WSCF. </div>
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<b>In my everyday life and commitment </b><b>in Italy</b><b>, I think justice has to do with inclusion, with fighting against discrimination.</b> Different groups of people are suffering from this, in different ways, but showing the same pattern made of ignorance, prejudice, incorrect information aiming to create fears and to transform people into escapee goats. <b>Victims of this are, of course, minorities.</b> Sexual minorities, discriminated on the basis of an outdated, closed and unfortunately “christian-washed” mentality.</div>
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Among sexual minorities should also be paradoxically included women, who suffers similar situations for the same reasons.<b> In this time when our country has become more and more the door of Europe or of the West (become rich sacking for centuries all the other cardinal directions), other minorities suffering discrimination are all the people that are labeled as “strangers”</b>, including migrant workers, italian citizens with foreign origins, refugee, asylum seekers (of course only if coming from less rich countries, much worst if “arabs”) and, above all, the people on whom all the hatred concentrate (even in alleged progressive milieux): the Roma people. <b>Hidden or non-acknowledge racism and homophobia are the causes</b>, whose toxic fruits are discrimination, mainly in terms of access to rights (building a life and a family, work, security…) and way too often violence, perpetrated by individuals who feel tolerated, justified or even authorized by the common sense.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimjwjfIuIUgMBdmuD_BZAI35T_HgEJ84LIixMIwhvBKGaW8NdZm1DwfNe5Q4BAinhJWQcygoRv-NSAhnW_TdIGjew3ofsMwhPjv-Vfi_1QjrHv6DW3XoJEFfZv5LTSni01IS2YQ3EWIICj/s1600/DSC_0894+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimjwjfIuIUgMBdmuD_BZAI35T_HgEJ84LIixMIwhvBKGaW8NdZm1DwfNe5Q4BAinhJWQcygoRv-NSAhnW_TdIGjew3ofsMwhPjv-Vfi_1QjrHv6DW3XoJEFfZv5LTSni01IS2YQ3EWIICj/s320/DSC_0894+-+Copy.JPG" width="320" /></a><b>Justice would look like a society of differences and equals, where the stories, needs, rights, loves, problems and hopes of each and everyone deserve and receive the same care.</b></div>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.9400005340576px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I believe it is a precise christian responsibility to work to overcome this face of injustice and build a more just society. I am not always sure churches are enough into it. The responsibility is — at least — twofold: on one side has to do with the <b>healing of the wounds</b>, the other <b>cross-cutting the different dimensions of the life of the church</b>. So, preaching and diaconia have a role in offering empathy and re-humanizing relations, helping each one to realize her/his own dignity, that for us, christians, is to let every human being created in God’s image to shine in the reverberation of Grace. </span></span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.9400005340576px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Again preaching and diaconia have to be directed to dismantle the ideas that are the basis of discrimination and to teach and show the possibility of an alternative way.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvXfI7_aoZIfIBD49qoySMz49yeSPj7kD-vHVBJi7OLXb1EbaS3U8arnoIuxerKNOKQ6G6JI1yS3UfyUeE6McASkfCLwiUEoGXxcSRSE93S505GUxkx9kXII1GB3rEV9PZXq5Ga8TRhBSG/s1600/DSC_0896.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvXfI7_aoZIfIBD49qoySMz49yeSPj7kD-vHVBJi7OLXb1EbaS3U8arnoIuxerKNOKQ6G6JI1yS3UfyUeE6McASkfCLwiUEoGXxcSRSE93S505GUxkx9kXII1GB3rEV9PZXq5Ga8TRhBSG/s320/DSC_0896.JPG" width="320" /></a>A theological reflection is needed to bind all these aspect together and to give depth to this vision. In particula<b>r to seek the truth beyond and often against hegemonic descriptions of reality</b>, of the world and of the identities of its inhabitants, functional to keep the power in the hands of the few. All along its narrative, Bible tell of this continuous struggle to affirm the liberating word of God against the dehumanizing political, economic and religious powers. Moses, Deborah, Elijah, Esther, Hosea… and Jesus Christ. This is the most powerful narrative to inspire us.</div>
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<i>Tell me something beautiful you have witnessed </i></div>
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“Lo Sciopero dei Fiori d’Arancio” (The Orange Blossom Strike): it is a group of straight couples, really wanting to get married, decided they will not, until this will be a right for everyone. <b>A prophetic gesture of love, that could inspire other in many situation (and healthy provoke churches, for example)</b>, <b>with the rationale of self-suspending our own rights or interests to help affirm others’.</b></div>
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Like what you've heard or seen? Share your comments and stories!</div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-18252953618304515532015-08-11T07:29:00.003-05:002015-08-11T07:29:51.658-05:00Portraits of Justice #14: Carter Habeeb {Birmingham, USA}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Welcome to week #14 with Portraits of
Justice!</i></div>
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<i> We've been around the world a time or two in the last
months, and are doubling back to the USA for another look. The USA is
a large country with many stories that look very different depending
on your location, birth place, and the colour of your skin. In a
genuine effort to understand many diverse perspectives, I thought it
pertinent to hear a voice from the different experiences.<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></i></div>
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<i><b>Carter </b>is a student and comes from <b>Birmingham</b>, Alabama, in the south of the <b>USA</b></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Read a story from the northern states </span><a href="http://beautifulpeoplemoments.blogspot.ca/2015/06/portraits-of-justice-louis-chicago.html" style="font-size: x-small;" target="_blank">{Louis, Chicago}, CLICK HERE</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">).</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNxd_cmUCQzL6Y_34Z-c-MPvmwYfarSqbdJu_Ddvi-j84rj9VtHzF8SSB1duz0DwcMmWM0d5j812qc8yrE_3L-bxF_ZPCJrL3dzMs1ZY-0iPpmid2JQfob3zPc8SF1896lj2byc94njEH/s1600/DSC_0814.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNxd_cmUCQzL6Y_34Z-c-MPvmwYfarSqbdJu_Ddvi-j84rj9VtHzF8SSB1duz0DwcMmWM0d5j812qc8yrE_3L-bxF_ZPCJrL3dzMs1ZY-0iPpmid2JQfob3zPc8SF1896lj2byc94njEH/s320/DSC_0814.JPG" width="320" /></a>"My name is Carter Habeeb. From
my point of view, in the United States,<b> justice is when </b>we follow all
the rules set in place and we achieve an end result that is based on
precedent, on things that happened in the past. And <b>its not
necessarily what's right, </b>but what the structure allows for."</div>
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"Put simply, ideal
justice would be...what is <u>right </u>happening! Those have done wrong
being held accountable for their actions, and those who have had
wrong done to them are able to find peace and are able to reconcile
what has happened to them. But again, that is not always the case,
especially recently in America."</div>
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<i>To take it a
step further, what would it like to pursue the 'right kind of
justice'?</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3CNq7DDxBaKDT3iFQVJkNLC11WF3zmTigkYfRFpQg7nSysfeXAMbnCn28WhvMA2IlMW1VBMH63qAddzXhSeHBSSgmsQ2WJg33ROp6zswOss9DjaLeMo01pmVWYaybdKmx9mXHMdiuweDd/s1600/DSC_0810.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3CNq7DDxBaKDT3iFQVJkNLC11WF3zmTigkYfRFpQg7nSysfeXAMbnCn28WhvMA2IlMW1VBMH63qAddzXhSeHBSSgmsQ2WJg33ROp6zswOss9DjaLeMo01pmVWYaybdKmx9mXHMdiuweDd/s320/DSC_0810.JPG" width="320" /></a>"Its a hard for me
to envision because in my life time I've not seen it. What I suppose
it would look like is the voiceless, the people without a voice, they
start being heard. <b>The majority might start speaking up for those
who not being heard at all, because a lot of the time the
marginalized are those who are taken advantage of by the systems that
are in place.</b>"</div>
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"One of the biggest
roles in <b>my local context</b> is to do simple things like run food drives or hand out
clothes during the winter, or raise money for local communities. Very local work. In my context, as duty of christians, is to help out our brothers and sisters. One of the best ways to do this is through
programs like “Feed the Homeless”, help them get job skills, or
help young people get an education – just a lot of programs on the
ground. <b>Very practical stuff."</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgneVkHH-6hzUBs6cx9_iC5PH61oUeMTE0-JDv8A3NvZBKt73koFUKeMpG14Nniv2bgvp0M73w4dpkYZpLb25SViJnbUpSX8ou3Spz-sNQzZHUC8MYOzCMreMcgHsF9Q2CO0boexK6OLAJa/s1600/DSC_0811+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgneVkHH-6hzUBs6cx9_iC5PH61oUeMTE0-JDv8A3NvZBKt73koFUKeMpG14Nniv2bgvp0M73w4dpkYZpLb25SViJnbUpSX8ou3Spz-sNQzZHUC8MYOzCMreMcgHsF9Q2CO0boexK6OLAJa/s320/DSC_0811+-+Copy.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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"Something that
comes to mind that I feel is really beautiful is that on July 4<sup>th</sup>,
Independence day in the United States, a lot of people will come
together from different backgrounds and different traditions and
different ancestries.<b> They all come together and unite in the fact
that they have goal for the future: that goal being to be free from
oppression and to live in a world where we can see justice </b>even
though we are so far away from it. It's a day where we <b>celebrate
being free from oppression in the hope </b>that we can get even further
away from oppression, even though there are always forces in society
that are pushing down on us and trying to silence our voices. It's a
very hopeful day, we
all celebrate how fortunate we are, and how much work there is left
to be done <b>to make the world, and our context, more righteous and
more just. </b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOHP-FyawOq5a78Zj6rLsSuc6wb1QdDiZz4jOGrdnzGPb9502y2Hv9g_fa_DRskFx_eyJ0IlHI1FVPyB4UwYlg2L_VE8kxWtp0zCy16AjN5-WaHP7I-t1h8M0xcf0PFkisGXf97O66cJ9v/s1600/DSC_0816.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOHP-FyawOq5a78Zj6rLsSuc6wb1QdDiZz4jOGrdnzGPb9502y2Hv9g_fa_DRskFx_eyJ0IlHI1FVPyB4UwYlg2L_VE8kxWtp0zCy16AjN5-WaHP7I-t1h8M0xcf0PFkisGXf97O66cJ9v/s400/DSC_0816.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-919927252470206092015-07-29T14:59:00.000-05:002015-07-29T15:08:04.620-05:00Portraits of Justice #13: Immanuel {Colombo, Sri Lanka}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>It's week #13, meet Immanuel {Colombo, Sri Lanka}. </b><br />
Sri Lanka was colonized by the Portuguese, received independence in 1948, and has since experienced more than 30 years of civil war. Immanuel's family, a minority in these wars, survived by being sheltered by neighbours. He now works at shaping his country into a just one.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-ycGIg84aJKlGBBxqhlYyKjB77uQr_s2Xsg7svClrnomypfbyHo5319K4c0HfwIJFuOP_iRJG36ZtX93aKGpIeLvHlV44AcegDfpqb_NlsED8IcJYeggWTgnxvoW_DFQHZkwsqvC4d0Z/s1600/DSC_0784.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1gOlkl0QVmfgV79-KuQa7bbO6W_f8ZTd-zHvAVGIK7ila691HXHrHsgXUMktbGG__ulRZI1T-hY0cLDLrvZtprVOA_xrL2YPFX3JjgmgO_8MusthFgymjzHKiBOtK4QZg7HSv8xRtzPKC/s1600/DSC_0775.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1gOlkl0QVmfgV79-KuQa7bbO6W_f8ZTd-zHvAVGIK7ila691HXHrHsgXUMktbGG__ulRZI1T-hY0cLDLrvZtprVOA_xrL2YPFX3JjgmgO_8MusthFgymjzHKiBOtK4QZg7HSv8xRtzPKC/s400/DSC_0775.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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"<span style="text-align: center;"><b>Sri Lanka is a country that has been
affected by civil war for three decades.</b> We had a civil war, its sort
of ethnic conflict. But its our conflict for justice, just required
by the minority, the Tamils in the northern province of Sri
Lanka.which was affected mostly."</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div>
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"My father, one of
the stories he shared with me, was about when
the insurrection happened in the south. The Tamils, in 1983, were
<b>persecuted by the government. </b>Most of the Sinhalese have come and
protected us. For example <b>they have threatened my family </b>saying they
will will put the 2 children (my sisters, I was not yet born, as I
was born in 1984) inside the house and tie my mother and father to
the house and burn the house. "</div>
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"That kind of threat happened, but the
neighbours (who are Sinahelese) took my parents and the children and have
kept them for days and weeks and months. They are the people who are
protecting. <b>We are the only Tamils in that village to survive and
share these stories because of how the Sinhalese treated us</b>. Even
though the government was persecuting the Tamils, the Sinhalese came
forward to protect because that's how the society has been. Its never
a Sinhalese or Tamil issue, or a Muslim or Tamil issue, it's a
political issue always. <b>I think that it is beautiful in terms of
justice</b>, they come forward."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-ycGIg84aJKlGBBxqhlYyKjB77uQr_s2Xsg7svClrnomypfbyHo5319K4c0HfwIJFuOP_iRJG36ZtX93aKGpIeLvHlV44AcegDfpqb_NlsED8IcJYeggWTgnxvoW_DFQHZkwsqvC4d0Z/s1600/DSC_0784.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-ycGIg84aJKlGBBxqhlYyKjB77uQr_s2Xsg7svClrnomypfbyHo5319K4c0HfwIJFuOP_iRJG36ZtX93aKGpIeLvHlV44AcegDfpqb_NlsED8IcJYeggWTgnxvoW_DFQHZkwsqvC4d0Z/s320/DSC_0784.JPG" width="320" /></a>---</div>
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"The young people asking for justice has
been in the country more than 50 years, from
the time we got independence in 1948, after that. We were colonized
by the British last, and after we got independence in 1948 it has
been a struggle seeking for justice. So the armed conflict ended
official in 2009, but that doesn't mean it bore any justice, because
that victory was finished by military, so it is a military defeat."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy6nTS5jw_-f1o6qShyphenhyphendH-jrDijZWyygU1oBfc1ABb-iOCe5Kd9gMmhkprvXtVPn1wHExM-Vw2gvRyQ6w_Xv-GhzZqvx7EsohIJs92FZySciiYs_ncHbnCjpMeePI1EhKX5z139a_q4InM/s1600/DSC_0787.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy6nTS5jw_-f1o6qShyphenhyphendH-jrDijZWyygU1oBfc1ABb-iOCe5Kd9gMmhkprvXtVPn1wHExM-Vw2gvRyQ6w_Xv-GhzZqvx7EsohIJs92FZySciiYs_ncHbnCjpMeePI1EhKX5z139a_q4InM/s320/DSC_0787.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"<b>None of the questions for justice were
answered and we are 6 years after that now. </b>Last year we have to change the government that brought the conflict
in by the military mechanism, because they were not answering any of
the questions. They were moving towards a more military government in
terms of democratic values, etc. <b>The justice in the
country was in question. All kinds of justice. Economic justice.
Religious Justice. Educational – everything is still a question.</b>
We are hopeful with the new government we have elected that we will have justice. Some say because the young people were the forefront of electing this
new government. One million new votes made the real difference in
electing the new government. Mostly the minority voted for this. The
majority lost, we have to say.<b> Young people came together to elect
this government and we have a hope for justice. "</b></div>
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<b>Enjoy this portrait of justice? Let us know, and leave a comment!</b></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-6925496245321086492015-07-16T15:30:00.004-05:002015-07-17T09:34:45.203-05:00Portraits of Justice #12: Lucian {Targu-Neamt, Romania}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdaEgrI1fmVRTUC9n6Xiggrb5diApSed97qD2XfdH0x32G8uJ-n9z5oV-JRE1JSS9Z6elv7ozYpYu4aBfhguB3bZA7Y1HwbUy3FaEJFDkHHBh-OfYsX_I3F9d07YTWlhhJx8hyphenhyphendlRl5zp/s1600/DSC_0824+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdaEgrI1fmVRTUC9n6Xiggrb5diApSed97qD2XfdH0x32G8uJ-n9z5oV-JRE1JSS9Z6elv7ozYpYu4aBfhguB3bZA7Y1HwbUy3FaEJFDkHHBh-OfYsX_I3F9d07YTWlhhJx8hyphenhyphendlRl5zp/s1600/DSC_0824+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdaEgrI1fmVRTUC9n6Xiggrb5diApSed97qD2XfdH0x32G8uJ-n9z5oV-JRE1JSS9Z6elv7ozYpYu4aBfhguB3bZA7Y1HwbUy3FaEJFDkHHBh-OfYsX_I3F9d07YTWlhhJx8hyphenhyphendlRl5zp/s1600/DSC_0824+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdaEgrI1fmVRTUC9n6Xiggrb5diApSed97qD2XfdH0x32G8uJ-n9z5oV-JRE1JSS9Z6elv7ozYpYu4aBfhguB3bZA7Y1HwbUy3FaEJFDkHHBh-OfYsX_I3F9d07YTWlhhJx8hyphenhyphendlRl5zp/s1600/DSC_0824+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdaEgrI1fmVRTUC9n6Xiggrb5diApSed97qD2XfdH0x32G8uJ-n9z5oV-JRE1JSS9Z6elv7ozYpYu4aBfhguB3bZA7Y1HwbUy3FaEJFDkHHBh-OfYsX_I3F9d07YTWlhhJx8hyphenhyphendlRl5zp/s1600/DSC_0824+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Today marks <b>the 12th</b> story I have shared, and <b>will also mark 1000 hits on this blog</b>! </span></i><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Wow, thanks everyone for supporting this project and the amazing stories of people from all over the globe!</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Meet <b>Lucian from Romania</b>. <b>He is among the first generation to grow up under democracy</b> after a 50+ year rule of oppressive communism . This is a man who is shaping his country's future while pursuing social justice. </span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMrUBjacoDvNmDEcI5Wi821hrJwgK4csRf889iT1AFW8iWCD7CNR5TYeQ55HUgZk2fhoqHAdkhbG-MvnaOU1MGsZYPKIX9To9ze9BALhWBlKh8A3HPVULHcrVLd6n0vdiXMGN40TKzacL/s1600/DSC_0824+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMrUBjacoDvNmDEcI5Wi821hrJwgK4csRf889iT1AFW8iWCD7CNR5TYeQ55HUgZk2fhoqHAdkhbG-MvnaOU1MGsZYPKIX9To9ze9BALhWBlKh8A3HPVULHcrVLd6n0vdiXMGN40TKzacL/s320/DSC_0824+-+Copy.JPG" width="320" /></a>"Romania use to be a communist country until 1989. Now in a post communist period, the transition is from communism to democracy. This actually took us quite a long time. We are now having 25 years of so called democracy. Even though it was a bit unstable at the beginning <b>we still have hope we are going towards the road of democracy, rule of law and human rights</b>" </div>
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"In terms of justice, I would only refer to political justice, because we having a lot of efforts to strengthen our judicial system, our laws and constitution and so on. <b>I am quite happy to share with you that</b> in the last years we used to have a lot of VIP who were very popular in the country, that had a lot of “unclear” or “dirty business”, that are actually having a trial and are being put into jail. It was very helpful because Romania joined the European Union in 2007, so in this case with help from outside we are actually building right now a clear and fair system of justice in our country."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlp64tMuMhgGZp_-pFLYNoL5qtdt1XQu4V55mLyp73t9I4-LlZIn5XKPQ2Md-bwsYzG4oYYmq5q_3xxaG5Wg9zfQTgcMfk8SEqfdpDj91XUwwcDFk6bKhcM-MjkrVJIIWfQICiNgC7j9m1/s1600/DSC_0825.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlp64tMuMhgGZp_-pFLYNoL5qtdt1XQu4V55mLyp73t9I4-LlZIn5XKPQ2Md-bwsYzG4oYYmq5q_3xxaG5Wg9zfQTgcMfk8SEqfdpDj91XUwwcDFk6bKhcM-MjkrVJIIWfQICiNgC7j9m1/s400/DSC_0825.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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"<b>Young people are </b>raising this question and<b> getting involved </b>more and more in the process. This is very encouraging for a future of a country because young people, for instance, at the last presidential election last year in November, more than 60% of them participated in the election, which is quite remarkable – most of the time young people are not interested in politics.<b> It is a very positive sign that the young generation is ready to move forward and rebuild a society where everyone will live better.</b> "<br />
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<i>"Tell<b> something beautiful that has happened in your country</b>"</i><br />
<div>
<i><br /></i>"Let me go back to the 50's and the communist times. There were a lot of people who were persecuted by the new regime who wanted to change everything. The church and particularly the elite of the country were an obstacle for this change. We had a lot of priests, theologians, writers and politicians that were in prison, tortured, and in some cases killed. I think that it is one of the examples of witnessing the faith in very difficult conditions, and still having hope that God is going to save the country."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOs4aQxYz07PXHhm1y2u41JFyuVwjrhL1IOIB__JBfctVP8NgvEXVm9IaX4yJSCBP6iTHCH6MCcrrbZ7RI6RqNffs-61jKP0BLSP6jgbRwIUORF1Qgu50JBumSU_FDKeDuXkaQYwc6Ys6c/s1600/DSC_0829+-+Copy.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOs4aQxYz07PXHhm1y2u41JFyuVwjrhL1IOIB__JBfctVP8NgvEXVm9IaX4yJSCBP6iTHCH6MCcrrbZ7RI6RqNffs-61jKP0BLSP6jgbRwIUORF1Qgu50JBumSU_FDKeDuXkaQYwc6Ys6c/s400/DSC_0829+-+Copy.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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"Through the sacrifice of these martyrs there are still some people that survived after the communist era, and some of them are still alive today. They were able to witness what happened in the communist prisons. <b> Even though the communist era brought injustice, these people didn't lose hope.</b> I like to refer to this example because it was very relevant in 1989<i> (when Romanians were freed from the Communist Regime)</i>. <b>After this, people used a lot of these (stories of) people to rebuild the country, and remind us to build again social justice in the future."</b><br />
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<i>Appreciate Lucian's story, or the work of this blog? Let us know us know and pass it on!</i></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-15195840587217284452015-07-08T13:46:00.000-05:002015-07-26T22:16:15.983-05:00Portraits of Justice #11: Alex {Beirut, Lebanon}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><b>It's week #11 with the Portraits of Justice Project</b></i></div>
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<i>This week I invite you to hear from my friend <b>Alex, from Beirut, Lebanon</b>. Alex is inspiring in many ways. He's founded a non-profit recycling program in a country without an existing social recycling program. As well, <b>Alex helped start an inter-religious exchange in schools - within communities that are intolerant of one another.</b> Read more about this reconciliation project below!</i></div>
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<i>Located just north of Israel, and West of Syria, Lebanon deals not only with its own history of colonization and civil wars, but with a population that is nearly half refugees from Palestine and Syria. </i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3sUn-UtAQSwAcPZVplZyi0601mnJDIv795p1Gz7j-Va3dYixAwK3U9MdOtKq0hn4G728U_HFWx2x1uZUkbFlRSczuwRNUziuQMMsUM3rxb24jsFu1I8n2QVBlgyBu_N64nLIzamwDp7O/s1600/DSC_0579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3sUn-UtAQSwAcPZVplZyi0601mnJDIv795p1Gz7j-Va3dYixAwK3U9MdOtKq0hn4G728U_HFWx2x1uZUkbFlRSczuwRNUziuQMMsUM3rxb24jsFu1I8n2QVBlgyBu_N64nLIzamwDp7O/s400/DSC_0579.JPG" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEildvtcf18DPxqaq_fkT_77kUlIuWlqUXsz8V9WrbNnuol9RkipKuuP_2cT-LanMTWwMN4RdwrWIoT_2lplWmnkxpM2ASdH0XaQ-0qKIfeGNjvLyq5G1BbmGaU6fz_cSAm2ItsCVtQWImq1/s1600/DSC_0576.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a>"<b>I only hear about justice in books</b>, I've never seen justice, maybe anywhere in the world. Justice for me is a philosophical word, a relative word as well. All countries in the world seek justice, it is a lifetime process to be accomplished."<br />
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"If we are talking about minimal justice, the minimum to live as a human being, I never see it in my country. I live in Lebanon, an Arab country. We've been colonized for centuries. The last century we've been colonized by the Ottoman Empire and the French, we've had 15 years of civil war, We've had neverending Israeli attacks, since the creation of Israel in 1948. <b>Recently we have had what we call the Arab Spring – I don't call it Spring. I call it Arab Winter, because it is still war.</b> We as a Lebanese country we are surrounded by Syria. We are 4 million citizens, 1.5 million Syrian refugees, half a million Palestinian refugees, and a few hundred thousand Iraqi - about half the population consists of refugees."<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2JEKMwpLPLS4RvBKJh9RCjSp0nzNxCWx0RM1AwPwttlt-PUn_bgR1028Shz8_4AFXkIsORUD7HB0WUcTsbnR2SHGmNYL0mP3M9eRP8UzJXkQ3hPKn2p_Er-c6ON8yfO8OymU8sJ-NEP-x/s1600/600px-Lebanon_%2528orthographic_projection%2529.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2JEKMwpLPLS4RvBKJh9RCjSp0nzNxCWx0RM1AwPwttlt-PUn_bgR1028Shz8_4AFXkIsORUD7HB0WUcTsbnR2SHGmNYL0mP3M9eRP8UzJXkQ3hPKn2p_Er-c6ON8yfO8OymU8sJ-NEP-x/s200/600px-Lebanon_%2528orthographic_projection%2529.svg.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lebanon is just North of Israel, and shares<br />
the majority of its borders with Syria</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div>
"<b>On the local level</b>, poverty is everywhere. 50% of the Lebanese population is under the poverty line. Sectarianism* is also an aspect of my country, we have 18 denominations that co-exist together. I don't know if they were forced at point of history to co-exist and live together. <b>We are Muslim and Christian people</b>. We are now facing Muslim extremism, so we now have ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria."<br />
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<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg46cUNgIDFOX6GUQBc7h8QR8vwhyphenhyphenvEMTEhRStBZY8QBDDvGy5Nmfn7W_W_Eu-PTLpNVVX3iES_kKrZhVhQXQrjq-iaYJU8DTfRMH4vZykmlX82vs1YCNjhyphenhyphenV5_Go6t1cZikKAbwxHZXJSD/s1600/map-lebanon-360x270-cb1434488087.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg46cUNgIDFOX6GUQBc7h8QR8vwhyphenhyphenvEMTEhRStBZY8QBDDvGy5Nmfn7W_W_Eu-PTLpNVVX3iES_kKrZhVhQXQrjq-iaYJU8DTfRMH4vZykmlX82vs1YCNjhyphenhyphenV5_Go6t1cZikKAbwxHZXJSD/s200/map-lebanon-360x270-cb1434488087.gif" width="200" /></a>"<b>On a local level</b>, on personal level, if you want to seek a job you need to belong to a religion or a political party. You never get it on your competence. So your CV (resume) is read first to see if you are a Christian, and you are going to a Christian company or a Muslim company – it's nothing to do with justice.</div>
<div>
If you want to go to a hospital, there isn't a medical health care system in my country, and maybe in all Arab countries. People live to save money. There is an Arabic saying in my country, “Save money for your black day.” The black day is when you go to the hospital and spend all the money you have for medical care."<br />
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<br />
<i>What would need to change for justice to start happening?</i><br />
"Education is an important factor to taken into consideration for a long term change. <b>The change cannot be realized today or tomorrow or in a year, it's a long term process.</b> Education is an important factor for me in change. I can give an example..."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYhtNYSYOaJs6GL4sjAC2JwSGVGAd7VZ3QsGrI29JSuYHHjHm-FjNKi4PLxwJByBD56l2cG1GJoTxuhq3F7NR-kUlOnRdjEZUSGjpNAcpfNd5ZkO7NJ6IX08DdkWIKs0IAEyyoa8thP9ky/s1600/DSC_0578+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYhtNYSYOaJs6GL4sjAC2JwSGVGAd7VZ3QsGrI29JSuYHHjHm-FjNKi4PLxwJByBD56l2cG1GJoTxuhq3F7NR-kUlOnRdjEZUSGjpNAcpfNd5ZkO7NJ6IX08DdkWIKs0IAEyyoa8thP9ky/s320/DSC_0578+-+Copy.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
"Where we live in Lebanon in cities it is known that, for example, in the North it is for Christians, in the South it is for Muslims, and the West is for something else. So people that were raised in a Christian community don't know how the Muslim community live.<b>Because the Lebanese civil war was based on sectarianism,</b><b> Christian and Muslim hated each other. </b>"<br />
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"There is a project I worked on with a couple of friends. We went to a Muslim school and a Christian school as a day exchange for students. For example, on Monday students from a Christian school go to a Muslim school and experience living with a Muslim student and study together, Science and literature. A Muslim student will also go to a Christian community. They will see each other praying as well. Its a small project that was realized two years ago. Now<b> this experience is extended to many many schools in Lebanon to teach people how to co-exist together</b> and love each other. <b>Its a small project for reconciliation."</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEildvtcf18DPxqaq_fkT_77kUlIuWlqUXsz8V9WrbNnuol9RkipKuuP_2cT-LanMTWwMN4RdwrWIoT_2lplWmnkxpM2ASdH0XaQ-0qKIfeGNjvLyq5G1BbmGaU6fz_cSAm2ItsCVtQWImq1/s1600/DSC_0576.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEildvtcf18DPxqaq_fkT_77kUlIuWlqUXsz8V9WrbNnuol9RkipKuuP_2cT-LanMTWwMN4RdwrWIoT_2lplWmnkxpM2ASdH0XaQ-0qKIfeGNjvLyq5G1BbmGaU6fz_cSAm2ItsCVtQWImq1/s400/DSC_0576.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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"The church not prominent in my country to fight for justice. All projects are done individually, its not the church meeting and deciding to do something. It's about individuals, and its about Christian movements that take care of aspects. When we received the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, <b>we decided to</b> as an Orthodox Youth Movement to t<b>ake 1% of everyone's monthly salary and give it Syrian refugees</b>. And we dedicate one or two hours a week to teach Syrian students, because the Lebanese academic system is completely different than the Syrian, so they can't integrate into the Lebanese system."<br />
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<b><i>Does something here encourage you or spark your curiosity? </i></b></div>
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<b><i>Please leave your comments below, I love hearing from you!!</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>*Unfamiliar with this term? 'Sectarianism, like racism, is a form of bigotry, discrimination, or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, nationalism, class, regional or factions of a political movement'. See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectarianism">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectarianism</a> for a very basic but more expansive understanding. If you want some academic sources on this, just let me know!</i></span><br />
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-14376028767898213642015-07-02T16:33:00.000-05:002015-08-31T08:32:47.330-05:00Portraits of Justice #10: Cydney {Halifax, Canada}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><b>Happy week #10 of this project, Portraits of Justice!</b></i></div>
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<i>Today I introduce you to Cydney, from Canada's east coast, and invite you to hear her understandings of justice as connected to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The commission confronts Canada's colonial history of the Indian Residential Schools that resulted in a century of genocide and trauma for Indigenous populations</i><i>.</i></div>
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<i> With the recent conclusion of the TRC ceremonies, the responsibility of taking action for reconciliation has been commissioned to the government, various public sectors, the churches, and every citizen of Canada. It is but the beginning. </i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTCxjAIwBCkemZYHFancSHsb3faxg9jCGxrQPZ873zPbqRqNqRP_yzzk11HjzwumHA-_YGyPgancdCRxsK-JRq46hag4f7RLPstPhlTXWJcZ0AdWMdMsm6mDv3UeN7tXJoUajUPNAAweuQ/s1600/DSC_1000.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTCxjAIwBCkemZYHFancSHsb3faxg9jCGxrQPZ873zPbqRqNqRP_yzzk11HjzwumHA-_YGyPgancdCRxsK-JRq46hag4f7RLPstPhlTXWJcZ0AdWMdMsm6mDv3UeN7tXJoUajUPNAAweuQ/s400/DSC_1000.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
"In 2011 the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of Canada (TRC) came to Halifax. I went and heard some of
the testimonials and stories - that itself was very powerful and
moving. On the last day, they invited everyone who had even been
remotely associated with the event to come to a local venue. They
set the entire sports floor with seats and had a giant family
reunion. They served a giant meal, and everyone was there, first nations people and allies."<br />
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"Behind the stage
there were about <b>3000 cupcakes</b>. We put a candle in every cupcake,
and took them out to the floor and gave them to everybody and while
we sang happy birthday. <b>Because in the residential schools you
didn't get a birthday, we had a giant birthday party for everyone
who was there.</b> They sang happy birthday in English, then in Inuktitut, Amiga, Obijiway, Mohawk, Algonquin...we sang happy
birthday for like an hour in all these different languages! There
was this 80 year old woman who was bawling her eyes out, because
from the age of 5-15, she didn't have a birthday, and after that she
was so messed up that it didn't matter to her. <b>It was really
beautiful, </b>to see that it mattered now." </div>
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"The TRC sticks out to
me most.<b> It's a good <i>attempt </i>at justice</b>. It's not going to fix
anything or everything, but I think the start of
justice and reparations is telling stories. <b>I think that narratives
and storytelling is how you find commonality with other people, </b>and
is the way that you start any kind of process to tackle any issue.
You start telling stories. <b>That's not exactly what justice looks
like, but it is what justice sounds like</b>, is focusing on narratives
and storytelling. Everyone's story is important."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJRS1uv9ab6vn7bTFh2SYllh31CCD84k3DQrKwOiv8zAUl_mvH1sci1RXUV5n8Ia5B2qBmDI5OGc1n_jxUhyTkYpMgJYoJZTP8khgEdSGUuqDMIkQkUYCQxB1ttJGKB0iNzHJ_mxZFiu0/s1600/DSC_1006+-+Copya+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJRS1uv9ab6vn7bTFh2SYllh31CCD84k3DQrKwOiv8zAUl_mvH1sci1RXUV5n8Ia5B2qBmDI5OGc1n_jxUhyTkYpMgJYoJZTP8khgEdSGUuqDMIkQkUYCQxB1ttJGKB0iNzHJ_mxZFiu0/s320/DSC_1006+-+Copya+-+Copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
"My dream way is that (Christians) would lead the charge for justice because they are divinely inspired to do so, and understand why equality is appropriate, and good and right. Whether they are able to do that is inhibited in a lot of ways by a lot of things. The role church is to inspire people...and interpret scripture in a way that doesn't alienate people and that doesn't promote more injustice"</div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-79724484870187506892015-06-27T13:58:00.001-05:002016-08-10T15:44:46.720-05:00Portraits of Justice #9: Milka {Lahore, Pakistan}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>This week's Portrait of Justice features Milka, from Lahore, Pakistan. Being a Christian in Pakistan means that she is among the <2% minority in her country. Being a Christian woman in leadership, in a predominantly muslim and patriarchal society, makes her even more of a more of a minority. I'd estimate she represents less than .1% of the Pakistani population.</i></div>
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<i>Milka is a strong and beautiful person who has not let her constant encounters of injustice prevent her from laughter and the pursuits of equality in the heart of Asia. Her story is one that encounters injustice much more than justice, something more unfamiliar in Western context. This is a story that the will promise to linger in your mind as you walk on</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7WJFmHrwwjC_BxpuVy02JmkGcvbg0yhnE0OMOhRjByCRK0Hw9BWneJ0B5HgYSjEsGSdO0TtmTClX8RGAufYt63uLxwGn6OGhO98xEavZd7bKzI9sDkiD10mrCEBqvf2fxObflPgpMw2l/s1600/DSC_0483.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7WJFmHrwwjC_BxpuVy02JmkGcvbg0yhnE0OMOhRjByCRK0Hw9BWneJ0B5HgYSjEsGSdO0TtmTClX8RGAufYt63uLxwGn6OGhO98xEavZd7bKzI9sDkiD10mrCEBqvf2fxObflPgpMw2l/s400/DSC_0483.JPG" width="265" /></a><span style="text-align: left;">[In] the "Pakistan context we are not
finding the justice being a christian, being a minority. In Pakistan
the majority are Muslims, 97% are the Muslims. Only less than 2% are
Christians. <b>There is no justice, every thing is according to the
Islamic law</b>.</span><i style="text-align: left;"> </i><span style="text-align: left;">Christians don't have a right to speak. If
they have a right in any case, they need a witness. <b>One muslim
witness is equal to two christian witnesses. </b>Even in the
constitution we have blasphemy law, and the blasphemy law is this:
if you say any single word against prophet Mohamed, you are the
blasphemer. Nowadays the Muslim people who are in the majority are
taking advantage of that law. For personal reasons they are falsely
blaming the minorities, even assassinating and torturing them. One
of our christian ministers was assassinated by the majority."</span></div>
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<i></i><b>"There
is no justice</b>. If we are raising our voices, they (the Muslim majority) are saying 'no, they are blasphemer!”. They are facing false witnesses, in false
cases. Still the government is supporting the Muslims, not the
Christians. They are behind this. They started to burn the churches,
they started to burn the christian communities. If we are saying
that the Muslims are doing these things, we are showing them evidence
and names. Our police and army, our government are not taking action
against this. They are saying they will work on it, that they will
find those persons and who is behind it, and until now they have not
found those persons. They are saying "they are not muslims, they are
the fundamentalists who are doing those type of things."</div>
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"The
government structure should be changed.<b> We are raising our voices
that the constitution should be changed.</b> While you are burning
churches, that is also blasphemy. If you are abusing Christians,
that is also blasphemy. But they are not taking attention on this"</div>
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<span style="font-size: large; text-align: center;">"We are working, and having dialogues with the Muslims on these issues, on the blasphemy laws. We are talking and trying to figure out these things."</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span></div>
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"In Pakistan Christians are less
educated. They use to work in the Muslims houses as servants. While
they were working in the houses as a servant , the Muslims have the
power. They are torturing them, they are raping them. They are
forcing them to convert and accept it."<br />
<div>
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"While I was in school I was the
only Christian girl in my class. The girls use to say to me, why are
you not accepting this? You should accept Islam, you should be a
Muslim. I use to say to them, you should be a christian, would you
accept it? They are saying no, ours is the best religion of the
world. <b>In our colleges and schools we are facing discrimination.
<span style="font-size: large;">That justice we do not have</span></b>."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz9bZJEMIq8dvy6KJfpoSLn9hUB9xfNgyEBYaR5CngY_WG6FCO5j3_bcA6XpKiMpPjRw89IDgEFoMc3V_jW1YqETpRTN9N-X2hZlIQJHwRrRteZEyVd0McvWmVMGZI8OVoHqDioS3hzlFw/s1600/DSC_0484+c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz9bZJEMIq8dvy6KJfpoSLn9hUB9xfNgyEBYaR5CngY_WG6FCO5j3_bcA6XpKiMpPjRw89IDgEFoMc3V_jW1YqETpRTN9N-X2hZlIQJHwRrRteZEyVd0McvWmVMGZI8OVoHqDioS3hzlFw/s320/DSC_0484+c.jpg" width="212" /></a><i></i></div>
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<i><i>Tell me something beautiful you have witnessed:</i></i></div>
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Milka doesn't need to think about this question, and launches in to a story, "They have let me lead <a href="http://www.wscfap.org/nationalmovements/pakistan/index.html" target="_blank">SCM Pakistan</a>. I am
very blessed and happy that God choose me for this purpose. I have
studied theology, and living in Pakistan, I thought that I will never
go anywhere, I will just stay and my whole life will be in Pakistan.
Through the SCM that changed."</div>
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"I have a good family who always support
me." The emotion this statement was said with causes Milka to shed a tear as that support has been so life giving.</div>
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<a href="http://beautifulpeoplemoments.blogspot.ca/2015/05/portraits-of-justice-hind-amman-jordan.html" target="_blank"> Hind, from Jordan</a>, who is sitting with during the interveiw leans in. "Milka, you have a
family here as well that supports you"</div>
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"That is so true!" Milka responds.</div>
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With that our conversation found laughter. It found the joy that community offers, and that our strange and beautiful gathering had given us. We represented Canada, Jordan, and Pakistan, 3 countries from 3 different regions that were telling very different stories, but had found solidarity and a family all the same. To me, it was nothing less one of those #beautifulpeoplemoments, the ones you never forget. </div>
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Milka was interviewed and photographed in Bogota, Colombia</div>
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(c) Bthatlovelyphotography 2015</div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-32594714165494067842015-06-20T22:58:00.000-05:002015-08-31T08:34:13.657-05:00Portraits of Justice #8: Rachel {County Waterford, Southern Ireland}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">This week I introduce </span></span><b style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">Part II </b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">of a Portrait of Justice</span></span><b style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;"> featuring Ireland</b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">. </span></span><b style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">Rachel </b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">is a Masters student from the sunny </span></span><b style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">Southern </b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">part of </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.4799995422363px;"><b>Ireland, </b>and is engaged in interfaith/interdenominational </span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">dialogue</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.4799995422363px;"> in her home community. Her experience of conflict in Ireland is drastically different than what was shared in<a href="http://beautifulpeoplemoments.blogspot.ca/2015/06/portraits-of-justice-johnston-belfast.html" target="_blank"> Part I </a> of a </span></span></span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; text-align: center;"><i><a href="http://beautifulpeoplemoments.blogspot.ca/2015/06/portraits-of-justice-johnston-belfast.html" target="_blank">Portrait of Justice in Ireland</a>. </i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitoST6Y4q4PMNtuwe_AZvBLf9kYgqE5xwfMFGESR1jzqQfVgUEx55UUwjt_UccVeqCVJJQ5Nm5almk5_BE0tJqyzaQYen9Zcs7sv4dpUI3b8HX33wWgq6kdD_4_eoSlRcR3DVRqTkTxtzz/s1600/DSC_0808+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitoST6Y4q4PMNtuwe_AZvBLf9kYgqE5xwfMFGESR1jzqQfVgUEx55UUwjt_UccVeqCVJJQ5Nm5almk5_BE0tJqyzaQYen9Zcs7sv4dpUI3b8HX33wWgq6kdD_4_eoSlRcR3DVRqTkTxtzz/s320/DSC_0808+-+Copy.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">For me justice is very equality based.</span></b>
When I study every thing is the same, everybody is treated the same,
there is not much of a difference between a man and a woman. I could
do the exact same job as a man even though I am a woman. That's what
justice is for me anyway. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Something beautiful for me is becoming a part of SCM (Student
Christian Movement) Ireland. Something that I have witnessed, that I
have never witnessed before, is that <b>we have so many people coming
from different Christian traditions</b>. <b>To be able to come together and
dialogue is an amazing thing, especially because of the troubles up
North</b>.</span></div>
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Down where I am from we don't judge based on our religion. Everybody
is the same. I don't say 'oh, I'm Rachel, I'm a Catholic!' And my
friend wouldn't say, 'oh, I'm Victoria, and I'm a Protestant!”
We're just friends and we get on. Where as on the other side, where
<a href="http://beautifulpeoplemoments.blogspot.ca/2015/06/portraits-of-justice-johnston-belfast.html" target="_blank">Johnston</a> is from, there was no friendship basis there at all. <b><span style="font-size: large;">So that
is something beautiful you would see – that something so bad could
happen up in one end of the country, but something so amazing down
at the other end.
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Say something about this portrait and story, or about this project! I look forward to it!</div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-68102765639549404132015-06-12T00:03:00.002-05:002015-08-31T08:33:51.081-05:00Portraits of Justice #7: Johnston {Belfast, Northern Ireland}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; text-align: center;">This week I introduce <b>Part I</b> of a Portrait of Justice<b> featuring Ireland</b>. <b>Johnston McMaster</b>, professor at Trinity College in Dublin, is a wise soul who has been witness to the cycles of violence and pursuits of peace<b> in Northern Ireland</b> his entire life. I had the opportunity to meet, laugh with, and photograph Johnston after hearing him speak in Bogota, Colombia. </i><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; text-align: center;">Stayed tuned for <b>next week's Part II</b>, as a very different perspective<b> from Southern Ireland </b>will be shared. </i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"What is justice like in my country? It
is about equality, about sharing of political and social power. It is
economic justice and it is justice related to gender equality as
well."</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp07iy3-3lQMt5f5gMSIkO22f2nkwKg2l7XKuZOMFFn6Wptw3cVVYlKr7XGpbK6Ry_E02RVMvBaqUcMf4bxtF81DapVJrOspr9Iu-Ygjmw-Z44zMj04sooMrxvkH8Uv0lgEAFDIrNBJ1aC/s1600/DSC_0940+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp07iy3-3lQMt5f5gMSIkO22f2nkwKg2l7XKuZOMFFn6Wptw3cVVYlKr7XGpbK6Ry_E02RVMvBaqUcMf4bxtF81DapVJrOspr9Iu-Ygjmw-Z44zMj04sooMrxvkH8Uv0lgEAFDIrNBJ1aC/s320/DSC_0940+-+Copy.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"While in Cork (<i>Southern Ireland)</i> I could have been in Toronto, it was that far removed from what was going on in Northern Ireland. </span>It's a life time. Let me put in another way - <b>in terms of my professional work, the context has never been anything else than the conflict and the violence</b>. Even though it's meant to be peace process now, it's fragile, and has a long way to go. We are not all together post conflict, not just yet."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"There is a sense in which I think the
churches generally in Northern Ireland have taken flight. <b>They are
struggling to engage in reconciliation and peace building because
they have not worked out a theological praxis of reconciliation and
peacebuilding</b>. Reconciliation and peace in the church has very much
been reduced to the vertical, without a horizontal dimension, a
social dimension."</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbohofQ0gYKYLVDKoG57-4x__8X806rEFZjBuuvR_NYFoYnEiBoWTs23pJ5G2v6T1sm0f9PtTjK1uzlRIosFUR4kqrSWR4fQrwfhk-FMJ8i_ksY1SVUjuxaGSI9fUDSamY7Uyfy3WPPWJp/s1600/DSC_0935+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbohofQ0gYKYLVDKoG57-4x__8X806rEFZjBuuvR_NYFoYnEiBoWTs23pJ5G2v6T1sm0f9PtTjK1uzlRIosFUR4kqrSWR4fQrwfhk-FMJ8i_ksY1SVUjuxaGSI9fUDSamY7Uyfy3WPPWJp/s320/DSC_0935+-+Copy.JPG" width="320" /></a><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Does this have to due with Protestant and Catholic divide in community?</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"It has to do with the sectarian
division, but it also a conservative division. Ireland as a whole I think is
socially and theologically and morally conservative. So when <b>working out a public theology is difficult for Irish
churches</b> generally. I think they're all in a situation now where
there has been a retreat from the public square. There is an
inadequate or no real public theology, or knowing how to engage with
the public on social issues."</span></div>
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"<b>One of the amazing things after 35 years of violent conflict</b>, or during violent conflict<b>, is how many people have refused to be victims</b>, and in a very real sense have become survivors. <b>The beautiful thing in many cases has been the number of people who somehow or other, maybe for different motives, have been able to come to a place of forgiveness.</b> It has been liberation for them and has been part of their journey out of victimhood towards survival and more than survival. They are also in many cases people who are making positive contributions to peacebuilding."</div>
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Is this what justice looks like in your country, in your home? Does Johnston's story remind you of your own? Leave a comment below and let us know! We'd love to hear from you!</div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-43783618389545433962015-06-07T00:15:00.000-05:002015-08-31T08:33:24.377-05:00Portraits of Justice #6: Louis {Chicago, United States of America}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">As a part of my Beautiful People Moments project, I've launched this album entitled "Portraits of Justice", looking at justice around the world.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Today I gladly introduce this week's Portrait of Justice as a dear and hard working colleague of mine, <b>Louis of {Chicago, USA}</b>. Both pastor, student, and advocate, Louis shares a perspective on theological justice that comes from urban grassroots experiences, including racial violence, police violence, and food injustice. His prophetic voice of hope opens windows to us all. This is his voice: </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span class="il" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;">"<b>Justice</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><b> is a place where the police serve and protect, rather than fight and neglect. Our food </b></span><span class="il" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><b>justic</b>e</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"> is seen within the community in the forms of community gardens, supplemental nutrition assistance programs, and providing hot meals to senior citizens without access to nutrition."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "We believe that Christ’s church is for all people, and <b>it is not our job to sort, divide, categorize or exclude</b>. But as “saints and sinners,” we know and experience God’s work of healing and restoring as well as the persistent human pain and injustices of racism in the world."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span><b style="font-family: inherit;">This is where God has put us, in the thick of life, insisting on <span class="il">justice </span>and upholding human dignity for the inclusion of all people in the life of the church and society</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">. "</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>"We are called to be a church that embraces each person and confronts racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, age, gender, familial, sexual orientation, physical, personal and class barriers that often manifest themselves in unjust treatment, inequalities, exclusion and violence</b>."</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tell me about something beautiful you've witnessed</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"One of my most recent projects through the Kenosha Community Health Center was an event called the <a href="http://www.convoyofhope.org/" target="_blank">Convoy of Hope</a>. <b>It was a beautiful experience of <span class="il" style="background-color: transparent;">justice</span> </b>The Kenosha Convoy of Hope Outreach is a collaborative effort involving dozens of local churches, social service organizations, businesses, and Convoy of Hope, Inc.<b> An outreach of this scope in our community provides thousands of people with a message of hope </b>through groceries, health screenings, job fairs, family portraits, haircuts, prayer, and games and activities for children. <b>All goods and services were absolutely free of charge."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"This all-volunteer event mobilizes hundreds of area residents to serve and make a difference in their community. Strong participation by local businesses, churches, community agencies and individuals is crucial to the success of this event. <b><span style="font-size: large;">Through this collaborative effort, we can do together what no one could do alone."</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Our goal was that every guest be valued, respected, and treated as a Guest of Honor. We must unconditionally love, accept, and serve each guest without regard for age, race, physical appearance, or spiritual condition."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> - Louis {Chicago, USA}</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">What you think about what Louis has to say? Make a comment!</span></i></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-28777892362516585942015-05-29T23:04:00.000-05:002015-08-31T08:32:33.447-05:00Portraits of Justice #5: Hind (Amman, Jordan)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i style="text-align: center;">As a part of my Beautiful People Moments project, I've launched this album entitled "Portraits of Justice", looking at justice around the world. This week, I introduce a fierce lady I am proud to call friend. Meet Hind and encounter beauty in the astonishing social boundaries that are being crossed in the Jordan refugee camps.</i><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-align: left;">"</span><span style="font-style: normal; text-align: left;">[Justice] manifests in the relationships.</span><b style="font-style: normal; text-align: left;"> The only time I can spot justice, and unity and love is between people.</b><span style="font-style: normal; text-align: left;"> The structure is hugely unjust, but people try to do just with each other. I think this is the only blessing that keeps our country together, because we face a lot of problems. I do believe the structures are unjust"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-align: left;">"T</span></span>he problem in our country is that
the churches are not very involved in advocacy or in creating
structures that result in justice. Its more on the charity-personal
level. We have a lot of charitable attempts, nothing much on
advocacy. The churches role is very important in mobilizing people
and keeping them united. But for a long time our movement in Jordan
has been the only movement that has worked on development projects
and advocacy campaigns."<br />
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"In the political structure we have, we
have a lot patriarchy. Its not really just, we don't have proper
democracy in Jordan. <b>People do justice by each other based on
personal relations,</b> but not the structures. The structures we have do
not support structures of justice"</div>
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“ <b>We work a lot in refugee camps.</b> We
have always had this focus on refugee camps from Palestine. Lately
we've been having refugees from Iraq and Syria. They go and settle in
refugee camps of the Palestinians. <b>What fascinated me in the last visit we did
to the camps is how united and in solidarity they appeared –
Palestinians, Iraqis, Jordanians and Syrians.</b> They were literally
sharing tips on projects, management of their own small production
systems in their houses. The solidarity there is very different than
the picture given by international NGO's and federations, saying that
refugees are a threat or consume resources, or they are not wanted
and all that.</div>
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When you go down to the field you can
feel that [solidarity]. But when you look at how they are treated in
the system, you feel that injustice. Jordan has not ratified the
refugee rights in the United Nations. They don't even have refugee
status, we are hosting them, they are guests somehow. They have an
interesting legal situation. Nothing is certain for them.
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By doing these little things, projects,
trainings and working with them in their little workshops<b>, you
can feel how solidarity manifests itself</b>. They gather around
their pain or trauma somehow<b>. It always touches me and fascinates </b><br />
<b>me
at the same time. “</b><br />
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-28435424760232540322015-05-23T14:23:00.006-05:002015-08-31T08:32:18.404-05:00Portraits of Justice #4: Are {Stockholm, Sweden}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>This album entitled "Portraits of Justice", looking at justice around the world. Having just returned from Sweden two days ago, I thought that it would be pertinent that I should focus on Sweden today. I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Are </i><i>in Bogota, Colombia, and photographing him in both Colombia and Sweden. </i><i></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: bold;">"Justice for us is about trying to hold our society together, and to keep, to guarantee, and enhance human rights for everyone.</b> We are working on a national level with the Roma people, who come from Romanian and Bulgaria, and how to support their human rights in our context. As fascism and racism is growing in Sweden right now that is something we do on many different levels. Partly that looks like going out to the streets, which we are doing in huge numbers. It is also work that has to do with breaking down language barriers for example between Euro union immigrants.<i style="text-align: center;">" </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>"</b>I think that the church needs to be
deeper rooted in prayer and to have one leg in that baptismal water
somehow, and actually be very soaked in what we say and what we
do. What we have in the church that is unique, though we share it
with other religions, is our stories. It is indeed prayer and
contact with God. So i think the church needs to have that
tension, to be grounded in prayer and grace, and also to reach out
with arms and feet into society and the world. "</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Something beautiful that I have
experienced around Christmas, that for me was the most relevant
Christmas celebrations, that friends of mine who are volunteering in
an organization that works with homeless people organized a big
concert with musicians that volunteered. We filled up a big church
with people to gather clothes and money for people of the streets
who were freezing very much.</span><br />
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Right now this work is challenging in
Sweden because we have received so many more homeless people due to
the European Union and there is conflict between "Swedish
homeless people" and "Immigrant homeless people". How
to use the resources, this is challenging for the organizations
because the pressure is so big and the funding is marked. This
church gathered both groups, and what I thought was so beautiful is
that it included storytelling by actual homeless Swedes and
immigrant.</span><br />
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It was beautiful because it broke down a barrier, which is
what Christmas is about, remembering that the God that we believe in
is a refugee.<b> It really touched me and gave me inspiration to
always try to make sure that voices are heard and that
language barriers are broken down so that we can relate to each
other."</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Does Are's story resonate with you? Leave a comment and let him know!</span></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-82713258303606769342015-05-14T08:34:00.003-05:002015-08-31T08:32:06.177-05:00Portraits of Justice #3: Adam {Melbourne, Australia}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="text-align: center;">As a part of My Beautiful People Moments Project, I've Launched this album Entitled "Portraits of Justice", looking at justice around the world. This series will continue weekly for several months. May you be inspired by the beauty and the struggle of justice, as I have been. Today, meet Adam, from Melbourne, Australia.</i><br />
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<b>"I believe justice is a dynamic concept, always changing based on where you are from.</b> In terms of where I am from, Australia, we see justice as giving the People What They deserve. Whether its giving a voice to Those Who do not have a voice or uplifting Those Who are oppressed, Such As The Indigenous people, or giving people hope, and a chance at living a life That They deserve to live. That's my idea of justice "<br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><span class=""><span class=""> "I've got involved with a soup kitchen in Melbourne called 'Food Under the Bridge." </span><span class="">One of the beautiful things us that we cook food for the homeless people. </span>Its not just soup that's served, or bread, its actually decent food That you would want to eat yourself. <span class="">The beautiful thing Is that in talking to These people is that they appreciated how we treated them. </span>We do not just look at them as some burden on society, as someone you want to feed and then go away. <span class="">Its beautiful because They approached us and said thank you for cooking real food and taking the time to talk to them. </span><b><span class="">A lot of them are isolated, a lot of them are just runaways from home And they do not really have friends or connections</span></b><span class=""> . </span><span class="">Its good to see up close the works of the church and how it impacts people. </span>I think That is a beautiful picture of God's unconditional love. " </span></div>
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<span class=""><b>"Instead of just talking about it we have to go out and do the justice</b> . If we see people getting oppressed, it's the role of the church to speak out for Those Who Do not have a voice. If we see homeless people it's the role of the Church to do something about it. Provide shelter, food, a home, a family, instead of just waiting for the government to react. That's the sort of thing I see the Church being about. Its about being Christ to people. "</span></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-46227343322402588262015-05-07T13:19:00.001-05:002015-08-31T08:31:06.610-05:00Portraits of Justice #2: Johana {Baranquilla, Colombia}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>As a part of my Beautiful People Moments project, I've launched this album entitled "Portraits of Justice", looking at justice around the world. This series will be continuing weekly for several months. May you be inspired by the beauty and the struggle of justice, as I have been.</i></div>
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"Justice for all the Colombian
people, at least for me, is a hope we have. We have been though many
injustices. We have a lot of violence around us. Justice is like
being safe in your place and being able to have a good life with
good opportunities, without the worries of basic needs the struggles
of daily life. You have to think to preserve your family because
some places in Colombia it is really hard to even live. Justice is
to have peace, to live happily, with joy you can share others.<b> </b></div>
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hope, a dream we have really, to have justice.</b>"<i> </i></div>
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"Each day has meaning, and it is to
serve others. I think that this is what the role of the church is,
serving helping, giving hope, even listening because sometimes we not
able to fix anything, but we need to listen and to be there."</div>
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"Tell me something beautiful you have seen" <br />
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"<b>Well, its easy</b>. Yesterday night when
we left the conference I took food that was left over that no one
had used. We were walking to the hotel looking for people from the
street. There were two guys, and we called them, I said “ we have
some food, do you want some?”. He said 'yes! We were dreaming that
someone would help us'. We gave them food and said goodbye, they said bless
you, and we continued walking. At that time a stray dog came to
them, and they gave food first to the dog, and then they
started eating.<b> They shared, even though they didnt have much.</b>
We continued walking and found another man on the street, and asked
if he wanted food. He said yes, first thanked God, and then said
thank you for sharing. He said, 'I have a friend over there who is
with me, do you have any food for him?' He was thinking of himself,
but also for his friend. <b>Even when you don't have a lot, you
share. Even when you have little resources, you can share it with
joy because you want to be with the other people."</b></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">#PortraitsofJustice #BeautifulPeopleMoments #bthatlovelyphotography</span></div>
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Brandi Friesen Thorpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03456525534291542429noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309452790618439138.post-29581915628229886912015-04-30T20:55:00.001-05:002015-08-31T08:30:42.646-05:00Portraits of Justice #1: Yvette {Huye, Rwanda}<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>As a part of my Beautiful People Moments project, I am launching this album entitled "Portraits of Justice", looking at justice around the world. I'll be posting one or two a week for the next while. May you be inspired by the beauty and the struggle of justice, as I have been </i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />" In my country Rwanda, given its history (remember we had Genocide in 1994), justice has done a remarkable work. No one could imagine that after genocide we will have the country we have today. No more ethnicity in our country, no killings, no threats. Just a small country with beautiful people working on the development of Rwanda."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><br />" We went through a reconciliation among people. So, Christians as well as all Rwandese have been working seriously on the issue of learning from our history and build a bright future. And in Rwanda a big number are Christians, so most of times Churches play a good role in educating Christians about peacebuilding , reconciliation and justice."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Tell me something beautiful that has happened in your country"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Something (related to Genocide) big I have witnessed in my country is "Gacaca court". The Gacaca courts were meant to provide smaller courts to relieve the burden of the larger courts. Criminals were charged with acts against humanity, such as murder and serious assault. However, the idea was to let the village courts resolve these issues and hopefully provide some reconciliation. The trials were meant to promote reconciliation and justice. The defendant was accused and brought to trial. The trial was held in public, where survivors and the victims' families can confront the accused. The accused confess to their crimes or maintain their innocence. The villagers would either speak for or against the defendant. These courts had done a good job in reconciliation."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="text-align: center;">#PortraitsofJustice #BeautifulPeopleMoments #bthatlovelyphotography</span><br />
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