The Interfaith Working Group on Trade and Investment in Washington, DC, has recently re-edited its excellent statement of principles for international trade.  AFJN was instrumental in crafting the original document and continues to endorse the principles therein.  International trade is the field upon which the back of many African economies will either be lifted up or broken. 

In five clear points, the working group has spelled out the need for the protection of the dignity of the human person and the integrity of creation, for advancing the common good, for transparency in investment policies, for respecting the legitimate role of governments and civil society and for safeguarding the global commons.  We encourage our members and friends to familiarize themselves with these principles and to assist us in making them known to policy makers, to church and school groups as well as to friends and neighbors.  The statement of principles can be found by clicking here .

Bishop Kevin Dowling, who received the Faith & Justice Award from AFJN in 2005, recently spoke in Washington on "The Call of Christ in Africa."  

Please follow the link for the text of this inspirational and thought-provoking address to the FADICA (Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities) conference in June.  Bishop Dowling of Rustenberg, South Africa, speaks eloquently to the major issues in Africa today and to the needs that deserve the greatest attention of funders and donors.

Death came in the dark of night.  On the morning of August 24, 2000, Mill Hill Missionary Fr. Anthony John Kaiser was found mortally wounded on the side of a highway in Kenya.  He had been shot with a rifle in the back of the head, not far from the truck he had been driving.  The truck had scrapes of paint of another color on the side, as if it had been hit.  Many in Kenya and in his home community in Minnesota assumed that he had finally been murdered for daring to speak about the rampant corruption in the Kenyan government.  However, the Kenyan police quickly ruled it suicide to the great consternation of his colleagues.  Pressure was put on the US embassy to investigate and the FBI sent a team over.  The FBI, too, ruled that it was a suicide, cementing what AFJN and many others considered to be a whitewash if not a cover up.  The authorities in Kenya were too important to the U.S.to upset over such a small thing.  Finally, seven years later, after a reopening of the inquest, a Kenyan judge has ruled that Fr. Kaiser was indeed murdered.  Much remains to be done to finger the killers, but at least the laughable conclusion of the FBI has been officially discredited.  Our colleagues at The Nation newspaper in Kenya wrote....