In Labour's first large donation for some time, Robert Smellie, QC, gave $100,000 this month, on top of the $15,000 he gave in December.

Smellie told the Herald one reason was his religion.

"[Former PM] Michael Joseph Savage once said, 'Labour is Christianity in action'. And I am a practising Anglican and as such I see socialism as being far closer to the Gospel than free enterprise." Continue reading

Kiribati has a population of just over 100,000. The Marshall Islands about 52,000. And Tuvalu close to 10,000.

The problem for small Pacific Island nations is that on a world scale they don't count.

The only leverage they have is morality and common humanity.

When Micronesians sought justice and redress, the then US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger is reported as saying "There are only 90,000 people out there. Who gives a damn?"

"Many of us from the Pacific Islands are old enough to remember how our small populations were used in the past to justify some of the worst environmental and human rights abuses in the form of atomic and nuclear testing," says Teresia Teaiwa.

Teaiwa is senior lecturer in Pacific Studies at Victoria University of Wellington.

"Today, all we have to challenge the giant perpetrators of climate change are moral arguments. And a bit of hyperbole," she says.

Recently the outgoing President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, compared climate change to trans-Atlantic slavery.

Was he really comparing climate change to nearly 400 years of brutalising enslavement of peoples stolen and sold out of Africa? Among them my maternal ancestors, Teaiwa asked.

Teaiwa is of Kiribati and African American ethnicity.

"Anote Tong's speech helped me focus my reflections in a way that I ended up appreciating."

"He made me think about slavery and climate change in simultaneously personal and systemic ways," she said.

Tong said slavery "was a system that was justified solely by its profitability."

"Morality was all that opponents of slavery had to argue against slave plantation economics."

This is the same with climate change, Tong argued.

Climate change is the consequence of a system justified solely by its profitability.

The fossil fuel and coal industries, for example, are profitable.

But they're also immoral.

They're reaping profits for the few, while spreading the costs around the world.

"If we are to learn anything additional about the abolition of slavery that might be useful to our struggle with climate change, it is probably this: abolition was achieved in what must have seemed like a glacial pace to slaves all around the world."

"And the most painful truth is that slavery has not been abolished."

"There are more trafficked and enslaved labourers today than there have ever been in human history."

"We have been and continue to be slaves to economic systems that are and always will be the ruin of us."

Source

• e-tangata.co.nz
• Image: itelegraph.co.uk

He greeted me: "That new pope of yours is doing quite well, isn't he? I don't know that he will show us the road to paradise but he has definitely opened a few doors out of the wilderness."

I told him that I would use this line shamelessly but he insisted that I honour his anonymity - and I do.

I think Pope Francis is doing quite well. My thesis is that Francis makes no pretence to be the world's greatest theologian, economist, politician or climate scientist.

His humble boast is that he is a pastor with the smell of the sheep, not afraid of dialogue, aware that there is often a chasm between dogma and pastoral practice, knowing there is a place for prophetic utterance though it is for others with democratic legitimacy, professional competence and accountability to deliver the strategies and compromises which need to be tempered according to the culture of the people.

He knows there are all sorts of issues inside and outside the Church, where for too long people with power have tried to keep the lid on, in the hope that the problems and complexities will go away, often by parodying those who see the problems or complexities as ideologues, small "l" liberals or cafeteria Catholics.

Francis delights in being joyful and troubled while contemplating big problems, calling people of good will to the table of deliberation reminding them of the kernel of the Christian gospels.

He has the faith and hope needed to lift the lid without fear and without knowing the answers prior to the dialogue occurring.

He faces criticism inside the Church for daring to insist on transparency and deliberation even about matters of pastoral complexity in relation to which the doctrine has been said to be well settled by enforcement during recent papacies. Continue reading

• Father Frank Brennan, S.J. is Professor of Law at the Australian Catholic University. His most recent book is No Small Change: The Road to Recognition for Indigenous Australia.

The trio have found that Maori are much more collectivist and non-materialistic and have stronger kinship ties than other New Zealanders.

They say these values may explain why many Maori enterprises are built on a "stakeholder" model, where profits are shared with all members of an iwi rather than a few shareholders.

But they warn: "There are arguments that it comes at the expense of economic efficiency, since stakeholder firms no longer become focused on the singular goal of raising shareholder returns." Continue reading

Multi-billionaire Mr Trump, who is one of the contenders to be the Republican Party's presidential candidate, said this during an interview on CNN last week.

Presenter Chris Cuomo presented a hypothetical scenario where the Pope and Mr Trump were meeting face-to-face.

If the Pope, in such a scenario, expressed a belief that capitalism can be "a real avenue to greed, it can be really toxic and corrupt", how would Mr Trump respond?

"I'd say ISIS wants to get you," Mr Trump said.

"You know that ISIS wants to go in and take over the Vatican? You have heard that. You know, that's a dream of theirs, to go into Italy."

"He talks to you about capitalism, you scare the Pope?" Cuomo asked.

"I'm gonna have to scare the Pope because it's the only thing," Mr Trump said.

"The Pope, I hope, can only be scared by God. But the truth is — you know, if you look at what's going on — they better hope that capitalism works, because it's the only thing we have right now. And it's a great thing when it works properly."

Mr Trump said right now, capitalism was not working properly in the US because of over-regulation of industry.

The real estate mogul said that though he is a Protestant, he generally likes Pope Francis.

"I have great respect for the Pope," Mr Trump said.

"I like the Pope. I actually like him. He's becoming very political, there's no question about it. But I like him. He seems like a pretty good guy."

Mr Trump also noted he doesn't believe the Pope is actually opposed to capitalism.

During his recent visit to South America, Pope Francis described unregulated capitalism as "the dung of the Devil".

But he has reportedly been told by his advisers to tone down his criticism to appeal to American audiences when he visits New York and Philadelphia next month.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• CNN
• Washington Post
• Image: Samuel-Warde.com

On a plane on his return to Europe from a three-nation South American visit, Pope Francis was asked by a reporter why he had hardly ever spoken about the problems of the "working, tax-paying" middle class.

Francis offered a rare papal mea culpa, thanking the reporter for his "good correction".

"You're right. It's an error of mine not to think about this," he said.

"The world is polarised. The middle class becomes smaller. The polarisation between the rich and poor is big. This is true. And, perhaps this has led me to not take account of this (the problems of the middle class)," he said.

Francis said he spoke about the poor often because they were so numerous.

But he noted that ordinary working people had "great value".

"I think you're telling me about something I need to do. I need to do delve further into this . . . ," he said

The Pope is due to visit Cuba and the United States in September.

On the papal plane, he said he was willing to have a dialogue with Americans who have seen his criticism of the global economic system and capitalism as an attack on their way of life.

Asked about the Greek crisis, he said "it would be too simple to say that the fault is only on one side".

"I hope that they find a way to resolve the Greek problem and also a way to have oversight so that the same problem will not fall on other countries.

"This will help us move forward because this path of loans and debts, in the end, it never ends."

Sources

• Reuters
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Vatican Radio

In September, the Pope will address a joint session of the US Congress and Senate, being the first Roman pontiff to do so.

What Francis might say on that occasion was previewed by Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga during a recent visit to Washington, DC.

The cardinal said he thinks "Congress will receive very well the advice [of the Pope] - even if there are some things that will not be comfortable".

"Even the congress people can listen to other voices, to counsels, to advisers. It's a human attitude that we have to develop," he explained.

The Religion News Service reported the cardinal saying both he and the Pope are aware of the opposition Francis faces from many activists and pundits in the US.

Nonetheless, polls show that the Pope is enormously popular with Catholics and the wider public, and across the political spectrum.

One topic that Francis could well touch on is political partisanship among US Catholics.

"For many Catholics, first is the political party, then is the Church," Cardinal Rodriguez said.

"I see this in some attitudes of citizens who are first Republicans or Democrats.

"Then comes Catholicism," said the cardinal, who leads the Pope's advisory council of cardinals.

"This is a big problem. Because we have to put everything in order.

"God is first, then all other human institutions."

Francis is also likely to make some pointed comments about economic inequality.

"Capitalism is not a god. It is not a divinity," Cardinal Rodriguez said.

"It is not a system that is perfect and does not need any modification.

"This system is fostering tremendous inequalities."

The Pope will likely promote an economy that supports middle class families and the poor, the cardinal added.

Other topics Francis is likely to address include welcoming migrants, protecting the environment and promoting dialogue, rather than ideology.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Catholic Herald

It was 25 years ago this month that communism ceased to be a threat to the west and to the free market.

When sledgehammers started to dismantle the Berlin Wall in November 1989, an experiment with the command economy begun in St Petersburg more than 70 years before was in effect over, even before the Soviet Union fell apart.

The immediate cause for the collapse of communism was that Moscow could not keep pace with Washington in the arms race of the 1980s.

Higher defence spending put pressure on an ossifying Soviet economy.

Consumer goods were scarce. Living standards suffered.

But the problems went deeper.

The Soviet Union came to grief because of a lack of trust.

The economy delivered only for a small, privileged elite who had access to imported western goods.

What started with the best of intentions in 1917 ended tarnished by corruption.

The Soviet Union was eaten away from within.

As it turned out, the end of the cold war was not unbridled good news for the citizens of the west.

For a large part of the postwar era, the Soviet Union was seen as a real threat and even in the 1980s there was little inkling that it would disappear so quickly.

A powerful country with a rival ideology and a strong military acted as a restraint on the west.

The fear that workers could "go red" meant they had to be kept happy.

The proceeds of growth were shared. Welfare benefits were generous. Investment in public infrastructure was high. Continue reading

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: ieaTV

It can be heard at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund.

Bankers sprinkle it into the presentations; politicians use it leave an impression on discussion panels.

The buzzword is "inclusion" and it refers to a trait that Western industrialized nations seem to be on the verge of losing: the ability to allow as many layers of society as possible to benefit from economic advancement and participate in political life.

The term is now even being used at meetings of a more exclusive character, as was the case in London in May.

Some 250 wealthy and extremely wealthy individuals, from Google Chairman Eric Schmidt to Unilever CEO Paul Polman, gathered in a venerable castle on the Thames River to lament the fact that in today's capitalism, there is too little left over for the lower income classes.

Former US President Bill Clinton found fault with the "uneven distribution of opportunity," while IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde was critical of the numerous financial scandals.

The hostess of the meeting, investor and bank heir Lynn Forester de Rothschild, said she was concerned about social cohesion, noting that citizens had "lost confidence in their governments."

It isn't necessary, of course, to attend the London conference on "inclusive capitalism" to realize that industrialized countries have a problem.

When the Berlin Wall came down 25 years ago, the West's liberal economic and social order seemed on the verge of an unstoppable march of triumph.

Communism had failed, politicians worldwide were singing the praises of deregulated markets and US political scientist Francis Fukuyama was invoking the "end of history." Continue reading

Source and Image:

• Spiegel Online

This is a comprehensive and timely book.

Klein says in part one, "If there has ever been a moment to advance a plan to heal the planet that also heals our broken economies and our shattered communities, this is it."

In the introduction she says "this is the hardest book I have ever written because climate change puts us on such a tight and unforgiving deadline."

This book is about our "climate moment" with all its challenges and opportunities.

First, Klein says we have to stop looking away.

We deny because we fear letting in the full reality of a crisis that changes everything.

The need to change everything is not something we readily accept.

If we are to curb emissions in the next decade we need a massive mobilisation larger than any in history.

She quotes the Bolivian Navarro Llamos who suggests it is time for a "Marshall Plan for Earth".

The question is posed: What is wrong with us?

What is really preventing us from putting out the fire that's threatening to burn down our collective house?

The global economy always takes centre stage. Market fundamentalsim has systematically sabotaged our collective responses.

Our economic system and our planetary systems are at war.

We are faced with a stark choice: "either we allow climate change to disrupt everything about our world or we change pretty much everything about our world to avoid that fate".

We need a radical rethink for these changes to be remotely possible.

Our "climate moment" is accompanied by what she calls a "fossil fuel frenzy".

A wild dig is going on in most nations on the planet. Aotearoa/NZ being no exception. Continue reading

• Fr Peter Healy is a Marist priest who lives and works in Otaki.

In a blog titled "Francis, capitalism and war: The pope's divisions", the British weekly accused the Pope of following Lenin in adopting an "ultra radical line" on capitalism.

This followed the wide-ranging interview the Pope gave to Spanish daily La Vanguardia.

"By positing a link between capitalism and war, he seems to be taking an ultra-radical line: one that consciously or unconsciously follows Vladimir Lenin in his diagnosis of capitalism and imperialism as the main reason why world war broke out a century ago," The Economist said.

"He observes what he calls the 'idolatry of money' in some places and hungry children in others. . . he concludes that economists must be missing some important point," the magazine continued.

But the blog conceded that even though Francis may not be getting the economic diagnosis or answers to problems exactly right, he is asking the right questions.

Continue reading

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Cardinal Dolan stated the Pope believes capitalism must come with "compassion and generosity".

The principal focus of Pope Francis's economic teaching is that economic and social activity must be based on these virtues, Cardinal Dolan explained.

"The Church has consistently rejected coercive systems of socialism and collectivism, because they violate inherent human rights to economic freedom and private property," the cardinal wrote.

"When properly regulated, a free market can certainly foster greater productivity and prosperity," he added.

"But, as the Pope continually emphasises, the essential element is genuine human virtue."

Cardinal Dolan also wrote that the capitalism experienced by many in developing or newly industrialised countries is "an exploitative racket for the benefit of the few powerful and wealthy".

Continue reading

At a recent conference in Rome for treasurers for religious orders, a constant theme was criticism of capitalism.

Several speakers denounced it as a "structure of sin" that purposefully does not attend to the needs of the poorest.

Outlining the Church's response to the global economic system over past centuries, Stefano Zamagni told the conference it was "an unforgivable mistake" that the Church had not more openly critiqued the capitalist system.

Zamagni, a professor of economic politics at the University of Bologna and a member of the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences, critiqued the American model of capitalism.

He said this allows people to exploit the world's resources to gather wealth and then only expects them to focus on charitable work once they are wealthy.

"A Christian just cannot accept this," Zamagni said.

"It is not me saying this. It is the sacred Scriptures. We cannot accept this logic."

Quoting Popes Paul VI's and John Paul II's writings on "structures of sin", Zamagni also told the religious that if they allow their money to be used according to societal norms for getting rich, they are contradicting Church teachings.

The religious orders were also challenged to evaluate their own holdings of wealth.

Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, the secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, told the conference "Disciples must have nothing, not bread, not money in their bags".

Accumulating such wealth, the archbishop said, "entails the danger of not being in the presence of God ... to lose the memory of God — trust in him — and forgetting about the poor".

Pope Francis had asked the congregation to organise the conference.

Last year, the Pope critiqued market capitalism in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.

This prompted some American critics to label the Pope's teachings as Marxism.

Pope Francis rejected this label.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Guardian
• Image: Pakistan Today

Addressing about 20,000 people, the pontiff said that his parents had "lost everything" after they emigrated from Italy and that he understood the suffering that came from joblessness.

"Where there is no work, there is no dignity," he said, in ad-libbed remarks after listening to three locals, including an unemployed worker who spoke of how joblessness "weakens the spirit."

But the problem went far beyond the Italian island, said the pope, who has called for wholesale reform of the financial system.

Pope Francis put aside his prepared text and improvised for nearly 20 minutes.

"I find suffering here ... It weakens you and robs you of hope," he said, "Excuse me if I use strong words, but where there is no work there is no dignity."

The crowd of tens of thousands of people, in a square near the city port, chanted "work, work, work" at the gathering.

"This is not just a problem of Sardinia; it is not just a problem of Italy or of some countries in Europe," he said. "It is the consequence of a global choice, an economic system which leads to this tragedy; an economic system which has at its centre an idol called money."

Urging people not to give up hope even in the harsh economic climate, the pontiff also called on the people to fight back against the "throwaway culture" he said was a by-product of a global economic system that cared only about profit. It was, he said, a culture that saw the most vulnerable society become marginalised.

Sources

The Guardian

The Telegraph

The London Free Press

Image: EPA/The Guardian

While roughly one-quarter of Republicans (26%) and Democrats (25%) say the lack of jobs is America's most important economic problem, Republicans and Democrats strongly differ in their views of the importance of the budget deficit (31% vs. 7% most important) and the increasing gap between the rich and the poor (6% vs. 21% most important).

Americans are generally pessimistic about upward economic mobility. Nearly half (47%) of Americans believe that their generation is worse off financially than their parents' generation, compared to 16% who believe their generation is doing about the same, and 36% who believe they are better off than their parents' generation.

The Silent Generation (ages 66-88) is the only generation in which a majority (59%) believe they are better off than their parents' generation. Only one-quarter (26%) of the Silent Generation believe their generation is worse off than their parents' generation. Baby Boomers (ages 49-67) are divided (45% worse off vs. 40% better off). Majorities of younger Americans in Generation X (ages 34-48) (51%) and Millennials (ages 18-33) (58%) believe they are worse off than their parents' generation.

A majority (54%) of Americans agree that hard work and determination are no guarantee of success for most people, while 45% disagree.

There are substantial divisions by income level. Nearly 6-in-10 (59%) Americans with household incomes under $30,000 a year believe hard work and determination are no guarantee of success, a view held by less than half (48%) of Americans with household incomes in excess of $100,000 a year.

Less than one-third of Americans believe the federal government is either generally working (7%) or working with some major problems (24%). Roughly two-thirds say the federal government is broken but working in some areas (40%) or completely broken (26%). Continue reading

Sources

• Public Religion Research Institute
• Image: Bloomberg

Bishop Peter said that each one of the "terrible statistics" of workplace deaths, injuries and illnesses represented the suffering of individuals and families.

He said human wellbeing was not simply a matter to be addressed as a side-issue after economic planning had been done, but needed to be factored in before the profits were calculated.

"The very starting point of all economic and social planning needs to be the innate dignity of the human being. Because when you start there, you've got a way of calculating the real value of human labour," said Bishop Peter.

"And if you don't start that calculation starting from the innate human dignity of the human person, it's no wonder that you end up concluding that human labour is only a cost to be reduced as far as possible."

Other speakers recalled the recent deaths of clothing workers in Bangladesh, ordered back to work in a building which subsequently collapsed, and of the 29 miners who died at Pike River. On average, one New Zealand worker dies each week in a workplace accident.

Findings from the Workplace Health and Safety Taskforce, which was released on Tuesday concluded that workplaces across the country are "not fit for purpose" and called for "urgent, broad-based change".

It said the country's health and safety system has "a number of critical weaknesses" and "needs major systemic changes to save lives".

However, on Wednesday Statistics New Zealand put a freeze on its release of work-related injury indicators because of "quality concerns".

The number of reported deaths from 2000 till 2011 was too high because in cases of multiple injuries the fatality was counted more than once.

The error was discovered before a scheduled release in November, and Statistics NZ said its previous figures should not be used until they were reviewed and revised.

Workplace Health and Safety Taskforce report's conclusions are:

• A stand-alone health and safety regulator - This would provide a single point of accountability and be best placed to promote and regulate workplace health and safety, and co-ordinate educational and compliance activities.
• Modern legislation - The current legislative environment is complex, confusing and outdated, with significant gaps in coverage. New Zealand needs new law that is comprehensive in its coverage and provides greater certainty for all participants.
• Tripartism operating at all levels - The Government and employer and worker representative bodies need to provide joint oversight of the system.
• Leadership and culture change - New Zealanders need to have a much lower tolerance of risky, unsafe and unhealthy work. A major national public awareness campaign is needed to shift attitudes. More people need to show leadership on workplace health and safety.
• Increased resourcing for new agency - Priorities include standard-setting to clarify expectations of all participants in the system; compliance support to lift the capacity and capability of the inspectorate; and in occupational health, which has suffered from significant under-investment and faces unique, complex challenges.

Source

• NZCBC
• TVNZ
• Stuff
• Image: NZCBC

He studied Korean for two years before being sent to Wonju, Gangwon Province, where he met Bishop Ji Hak-soon, well-known for his pro-democracy activities, who was in charge of the local church.

He spent 17 years working in the eastern coast city of Samcheok and the mining city of Jeongseon, where one of the notable things he did in Jeongseon was to set up a credit union. Nonghyup, the banking unit of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, which was the only financial service provider working in the village, was drawing complaints from community leaders for what they saw as excessive interest rates charged to the town's many low-income earners.

Source

• The Korea Times
• Image: The Korea Times

Not only was it a matter of social justice, Ford wrote, but paying high wages was also smart business. When wages are low, uncertainty dogs the marketplace and growth is weak. But when pay is high and steady, Ford asserted, business is more secure because workers earn enough to become good customers. They can afford to buy Model Ts. Read more

Sources

• Hedrick Smith in The New York Times
• Image: Wikia

Hedrick Smith is the author of "Who Stole the American Dream?"