Ban on Plastic Bags Gains Momentum

By Christina Herman,former JPIC staff, now working with ICCR.

Over 20 million Americans live in communities that have banned or put a fee on the use of plastic bags, in an effort to reduce their use and the pollution that accompanies them.

In Laredo, Texas, Missionary Oblate Fr. Bill Davis, OMI has actively supported the local environmental group that worked successfully to get a bag ban through the City Council. The ban that went into effect on April 30^th is expected to help reduce the unsightly and unhealthy litter of the light-weight bags in the area.

In Europe, the 28 EU member states gave their final approval to new rules regarding plastic bags in February, which are to reduce the use of flimsy plastic bags by 80 percent by 2025. Member states have flexibility on how to achieve this goal – they can ban them or discourage their use through a tax.

In January 2014, Los Angeles instituted a ban on the distribution of plastic bags at the checkout counter of big retailers, making it the largest of the 132 cities and counties around the U.S. with anti-plastic bag legislation. City Councils from Washington, DC to Chicago, IL to Portland, Oregon have banned or taxed plastic bags successfully.

Currently 100 billion plastic bags pass through the hands of U.S. consumers every year—almost one bag per person each day. Laid end-to-end, they could circle the equator 1,330 times. The popularity of plastic grocery bags stems from their light weight and their perceived low cost, but it is these very qualities that make them unpleasant, difficult and expensive to manage. 

In landfills and waterways, plastic is persistent, lasting for hundreds of years, breaking into smaller and smaller pieces and leaching out chemical components as it ages. It never fully disappears though. Recent studies have shown that plastic from discarded bags actually soaks up additional pollutants like pesticides and industrial waste that are in the ocean and delivers them in large doses to sea life. The harmful substances then can move up the food chain to the food people eat.

While now ubiquitous, the plastic bag has only been around since 1962. Invented in Sweden, plastic bags were popularized by Mobil Oil in the 1970s in an attempt to increase its market for polyethylene, a fossil-fuel-derived compound. Their production is also energy intensive: The amount of energy required to make 12 plastic bags could drive a car for a mile.

A throw-away society is not sustainable. Moving from single-use plastic bags to reusable bags is common sense. The experience of people in areas that have banned or restricted plastic bags is that people adjust quickly to carrying cloth or other durable bags with them to stores and streets and waterways are cleaner and safer. Bag bans have actually spawned job growth at facilities that produce better alternatives. Forty years ago there were no plastic grocery bags; four years from now, we’ll forget there ever were.

Missionary Oblates Signed On: "No Fast Track for Human Traffickers in Trans-Pacific Partnership -TPP "

On May 15, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate JPIC office signed onto a letter calling on U.S Senators   to support, “No Fast Track for Human Traffickers" Menendez amendment to S. 995.

The amendment that passed Senate Finance Committee would safeguard the trafficking victims should the S.995 pass into law and would help also end human trafficking and modern-day slavery. 

Vote on amendments to fast track the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will likely be considered week starting May 18. 

View Letter here signed by Missionary Oblates with other national faith organizations

Already One Year since the Abduction of The Chibok School Girls

By Fr. Ali Nnaemeka, OMI - 

Nigerian Missionary Oblate Fr. Nnaemeka reflection on one-year anniversary of abduction of the schoolgirls in Chibok.

One year today, 14^th April 2014, the whole world was shocked by the news of the abduction of more than 200 school girls from Chibok, a community in Borno State of Nigeria. The incident drew attention and led to voices of concern and condemnations from different areas and works of life, among which the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Pope Francis, Michel Obama, Malala Yousafzai etc. All those who spoke, including many other important personalities, were united in insisting that everything be done to save the girls or that the  girls be brought home. Many Countries offered the Nigerian Government some military aid to rescue the school girls. However, apart from the few girls that were alleged to have escaped on their own, no one of the girls was or has been militarily rescued.

Shortly before the just concluded March 28 Presidential election in Nigeria, the outgoing president, Goodluck Jonathan, had been convinced on the need to a rescheduling of the date of election on the conviction that with a six weeks extension would result in redressing the Security issues caused by Boko Haram in the Country. After what could be likened to a commando operation at the famous Sambisa forest where the school girls were allegedly harboured, no information has been given on the whereabout of the girls. Presently, many Nigerians are fed up with the kids glove approach to crucial national issues, like the kidnap of more than 200 schoolgirls. This no doubt contributed to the failure of the incumbent president in his re-election bid, and that of most of his serving cabinet.

From all indications, the incoming government who throughout the time of electioneering always laid emphases on “Change”: taken as changing the situation of insecurity and corruption in Nigeria, would be faced with the two big giants – corruption and insecurity – that have been tying Nigeria down. Besides the fact that the incoming President has already insisted on fighting corruption, starting with his would be ministers, his speech on the occasion of the one year anniversary of the kidnap of the Chibok School Girls is quite encouraging. The President elect had started his speech by recognizing the extent to which the issue has affected Nigerians, and the public opinion about Nigeria. Then, after consoling the families and assuring them that the thought and prayers of the whole Nigerians are with them, he promised that his government will, with the collective effort of Nigerians, do everything within their power to ensure that the issue of Boko Haram is addressed properly.

As a matter of fact, with the coming to power of new government of Buhari, the Nigerian youths involvement in politics, and coupled with the expected involvement of the Nigerian Catholics in the policy making, Nigeria would most likely have a better tomorrow, while it is hoped that those things we have not yet been told about Boko Haram would soon be laid bare. 

Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM) urge for bold action to hold multinational mining companies responsible; to ensure protection of Indigenous Communities and Environment.

By Fr. Antonio Ponce OMI

Oblate JPIC Director – US Province

On March 19, Representatives of the Catholic bishops of Latin America Conference appeared on a hearing before the 154 session of Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC where they shared the impact and called for standards in mining companies that operate in Latin America. 

The hearing was held in response to a petition filed by the Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano (CELAM), religious men and women, Catholic relief agencies and Red Ecclesial Pan-Amazon (REPAM) calling for effective protection of indigenous communities and environment.

In their presentations, Latin America Catholic Leaders said they were very concerned about the negative consequences that the mining activities are having, especially in poor communities, in particular, indigenous communities who face human rights violations and live with pollution of water.

Speaking at the hearing, Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini, representative of Guatemala said: "We can live without gold, silver or oil, but not without water. That is why we care so much what is happening in our communities with mining corporations."

In attendance were Archbishop Pedro Barreto of Peru, Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini of Guatemala represented CELAM, along with Fr Peter Hughes. 

In Solidarity were Bishop Donald Bolen, who heads the Peace and Justice Commission at the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and U.S Catholic Bishops and some USCCB staff.  

Missionary Oblate JPIC Director Fr. Ponce and staff George attended the hearing.

What Really Matters in Nigeria Now?

By Fr. Ali Nnaemeka, OMI

Nigerian Missionary Oblate Fr. Nnaemeka offers insights about the Nigeria presidential elections which has been postponed to March 28, 2015.

One of the problems of our generation is the failure to understand what counts; failure to focus on the essentials. For a long time now, Nigerians seem to have focused their attention on less important things, forgetting the essentials. Everybody has been tamed and forced to fight a war that does not exist. Politics has become the order of the day. In every platform people are obliged to politicize issues, whether they want it or not. In fact, we have all become actively partisan-  supporting a candidate that may not even know that we exist.

Even the unemployed youths have all been lured into advertising, a mediatized non-existing massive job creation, which cannot benefit them in anyway. They all speak of a President to be, whose credibility has no bound, even if they do not know how he is going to carry out all his political propaganda. Even the so-called religious leaders have all been conditioned to see nothing except who becomes the next President of Nigeria. God has even revealed to somewhat He has planned to do to whoever votes a particular candidate. All we are yet to see so far, is when a Church choir will sing Vote Buhari! or Vote Jonathan!, even when it is not clear if they really have a plan for a united and better Nigeria.

Our Nigerian Catholic Bishops make a right timely appeal as expressed in the newly released Communiqué:GOOD FAMILIES MAKE GOOD NATIONS at the End of the First Plenary Meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) at the Daughters of Divine Love Retreat and Conference Centre, Lugbe, Abuja (February 20 – 26, 2015)

 “The time has come to realize that Nigeria is bigger than any individual, bigger than any of her ethnic, religious or political groupings. Our diversity is a beauty to celebrate in gratitude to God.  Every Nigerian has a right to be different in so far as such difference is not inimical to the common good and the ideals we share in common.  This is the time to reflect and to identify those ideals summed up in the words of our old national anthem: “Though tribe and tongue [and creed] may differ, in brotherhood we stand.” Faced with the challenge of nationhood, let us enlarge our traditional African concept of family.  Let us liberate ourselves from the shackles of ethnocentrism, of malicious ethnic and religious solidarity. Let us, in our diversity, recognize our common humanity.  For the sake of our children, and for the sake of generations yet unborn, let us see one another, irrespective of the families to which we belong, as members of the same family—the family of Nigeria”. See more at: http://www.cnsng.org/viewnews.php?

We have been staged one against the other in a country that should have been one..  No one asks the prospective contestants which Nigeria they are campaigning to govern? A country divided between North and South? A country divided between Christians and Muslims? A country where political party members have no plan or intention, than to fight  each other?

Who speaks now of our dear Chibok girls who have now spent ten months in captivity? Who talks about the deceased people of Baga? Who cares about the Nigerian refugees in the Chad, Cameroun and Niger? 

Our concern now is how to get our Permanent Voters Card – which is very good – but then, what about our fellow Nigerians who have been forced to quit their territories without burying their loved ones?  Nigerians have lost contact with reality. I am afraid we have already forgotten what really matters.

Ali C. Nnaemeka, omi

Our Lenten Journey