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Women's Letter, Nr. 40, 2005, English |
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Dear Readers,
In this world, too few have too much. And too many have too little. This is the phenomenon of current globalization. It is easy for the rich man who has a very large number of sheep and cattle to take one little ewe lamb that belongs to the poor man(II Samuel 1-4.) We used to enjoy often in our daily lives the opportunity to take advantage of cheap production. But we were not thinking about the fact that somebody else would have to take on the burden of being exploited in order to make cheap production possible. If men have been suffering under these unjust circumstances of globalization, women have been suffering under more than double or even triple this burden, as the following UN Report shows:
Males
-are half of the world population
-worldwide they work 33% all of work hours
-they earn 90% of the world-income
-they hold 99% of the wolrd income in their hands
Females
-are half of the world population
-worldwide they work 67% all of work hours
-they earn 10% of the world-income
-they hold 1% of the world income in their hands
Even though there are some exceptions, this report reflects the reality of this world. Only the rich minority have great benefits from economic globalization in the world. The process of economic globalization and Americanization has moved fast after the collapse of the Eastern European socialistic countries. Of course, globalization has many positive aspects. For instance, there is the positive effect of making cross-cultural communication better and faster in the world. However, this kind of globalization kills the local culture as it spreads monopolizing consumer culture and westernization.
Therefore, current globalization means that there is global control of capital, products, culture, markets, technology and information etc. Even though there have been many fruitful results of the Christian mission, we are facing the fact that the Christian mission over the last hundred years has caused the current unjust global economic system. I think, to build up an alternative globalization, a working system in the biblical understanding, is a challenging task for mission in this 21 st.Century.
In this issue of, ‘Womens Letter,’ we would like to share the stories of the efforts of our sisters and our struggle against this kind of globalization, monopolization and manipulation by dominant powers in the world. There are already many NGO's, which are working and taking action on these kinds of issues. Mission 21 is working against the feminisation of poverty as well on the basis of Christian faith and the awarness of partnership. We all are connected on this earth (1.Cor. 12.) This fact should be more acknowledged. Some examples of these efforts are the following: in Europe, the fair trade program; in Asia, leadership training of women migrant workers; in Latin America, the movement against the privatization of water; in Africa, peace networking. May these efforts encourage and strengthen us all in the context of the next step.
I am also delighted to share the story of Ruth Epting, who works devotionally for solidarity with women in partnership. Last, but not least, we are able to share two documents: World Prayer day material for 2006 and the statement of Women and The Accra Confession: "Covenanting for Life" from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. May these documents inspire us towards global networking of women and towards women’s power through worldwide prayer and action.
Meehyun Chung, Basel, 28th. October 2005 |
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[인쇄하기] 2017-10-28 09:55:43 |
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