01 April 2020

LIKONI FERRY MOMBASA MARCH 2020

PANDEMIC

     I write from a very comfortable abode in Urbana Illinois, caring for my 87 year old mother and working from home for Maryknoll Lay Missioners.  This week I received a video clip from the ferry in Mombasa Kenya, a place I would regularly cross over, on my way to do my clinics when I lived there from 2010 to 2018.  I had to force myself to watch the horror.

     Kenya instituted a curfew last week because of Covid 19.  They require people to be in their home by 7pm, which is dusk, until 5am.  The first night the police and army used tear gas and beat people viciously to force them to run towards the ferry as the night curfew approached. These are all of the common people who live across the harbor in little shacks and work on the island doing menial low paying jobs for people of means.  They live from day to day on the pittance they earn.

     On March 22nd the Catholic church in Juba South Sudan installed the new Archbishop at a huge celebration bringing people together from all over the country to eat, drink and celebrate.  I told our missioner who works there it should not happen and he should not go.  Three days later the government closed the airport and all borders because of the pandemic.  That is like closing the barn door after all the cattle have run out.

     In the USA New Orleans is overwhelmed with Covid patients for the last 10 days.  They celebrated Mardi Gras about a month before that, just about the time their cattle got out of the barn.  I pray for South Sudan during the coming month hoping the same thing doesn't happen to them.

     In Tanzania the president has said that all churches will remain open because the virus is a devil and it can't live in the body of Christ.  He says prayers are needed to get rid of it.  There are few test kits available where our people work.  Tanzania reports only 19 cases as of today.

     I am working long hours at the computer trying to support our people in Asia and the Americas too, but East Africa is what I know best.  Here in Urbana, Illinois I go to the grocery store once a week and take my elderly mother on walks in the neighborhood.  We have running water and electricity, shelter and money saved in the bank.  Many people here have lost their jobs.  The food banks and soup kitchens are ramping up to serve those who live from pay check to pay check since the last check just ran out and they can't buy food.  

     But I know we are blessed beyond measure compared to countries in the global south.  There, people live from day to day on the water and food they bring home to their crowded shacks in the informal settlements.  In this pandemic I suspect that those in the rural areas will fair better.  There will be more fresh air and some food in their gardens if the rains come and the locusts go away. 

     The last pandemic was The Great Influenza in 1918.  Some people call it 'Spanish flu' but it had nothing to do with Spain and that is a misnomer.  It killed at least 50 million people.  Because of WWI, various countries prevented reporting about the illness and huge ships with soldiers traveled from the USA to Europe spreading the virus which preferred to take the lives of young people in their early twenties.  The lesson to learn from that debacle is TELL THE TRUTH! 

     If we are smart we will learn that pandemic means none of us has any immunity to this virus and we are all vulnerable to varying degrees.  It is a super spreader which means it is very easy to transmit and because it is new we have a lot to learn about how it operates.  We live in a very globalized world with movement everywhere and it will make its way everywhere.  We may contain it in one place but if it pops up in another place it can come back to haunt us until we get a treatment and a vaccine.

     The experts tell us we need to test and  quarantine those infected to stop it from spreading so fast. It kills those who are most vulnerable because they are over 60 and weaker or have an illness like lung or heart disease or a bad immune system.  It has already overwhelmed some of the best health care systems in the world.  When it gets to the global south it will decimate them. 

     Lent is the best time to reassess the way we live our lives and let go of what holds us back from birthing something new and even better.  I do believe in Resurrection and life.  This pandemic will make sure we pay attention to what is essential...relationships and love.

PEACE OF THE DAFFODILS BLOOMING HERE TO YOU!

     

01 March 2020

South Sudan: Progress Toward Peace

Steve Veryser, a Maryknoll Lay Missioner in Tanzania and the Lay Missioners’ Area Director for Tanzania and Kenya/South Sudan, wrote the following article after visiting South Sudan. The article was published in the March-April 2020 issue of NewsNotes.

In February I traveled to Juba, the capitol of South Sudan, to visit Maryknoll Lay Missioner Gabe Hurrish, who works at an organization called Solidarity with South Sudan. I had worked in South Sudan in disease eradication before I joined Maryknoll, and Maryknoll missioners have worked there for years. While I was visiting, we spoke with a graduate of Solidarity’s Teacher Training program who is now teaching at a school outside of Juba in a “Protection of Civilians” (POC) camp, a place where internally displaced people are offered protection by the UN. Remarking on the ongoing peace negotiations in South Sudan, the teacher shared, “We all want peace. But we are at the mercy of the leaders. The two [main] leaders and others just don’t like each other. They don’t listen to the heart of the people. We feel there is more hope now than before. We appreciate international people obliging the leaders to discuss peace. Life in the POC is terrible. We can do nothing. We can’t improve our lives. There are no jobs.” 

There's a saying in East Africa that “when elephants fight the grass gets trampled.” Violent conflict in Sudan and South Sudan has wreaked havoc on the population on and off for decades. If the elephants are the leaders and the grass is the people, in the complexity of the conflict it is often hard to tell where the grass ends and the elephants begin.

On February 20, President Salva Kiir and his vice president, Riek Machar, who leads the main opposition group, finally started implementation of a unity government in accordance with a deadline set under the peace accord, which ended the devastating civil war in 2018. This was an important step, finally achieved after numerous delays and setbacks in the peace negotiations. Various international actors, including the United States, are supporting the agreement. As the teacher we met mentioned, it has often seemed like the leaders have been “obliged into” the agreements by these external actors.

What is the use of forming a “unity” government? In a unity government, people who were marginalized or targeted during the civil war, as well as members of active opposition groups, are asked to come to the same table for negotiations and to share offices, military posts, and neighborhoods. Given the trauma that people from all levels of society have experienced, this is a tall order. While I worked for an organization in South Sudan associated with the Ministry of Health, I remember that the Minister of Health himself, who was from a targeted ethnic group, fled Juba fearing for his life. Large numbers of refugees who fled the civil war are trying to reintegrate into society, although they may have grown up outside of South Sudan and may not even speak a language native to South Sudan. Many people lost land and valuable resources, such as herds of cattle, during the war. Ultimately, the tenability of long-term peace rests on how well people can reintegrate into society and the willingness of aggressors to accommodate those returning. After so many cycles of violence, will the aggrieved be able to forgive their oppressors? The churches in South Sudan are begging for these reconciliations and they know that peace is dependent on them.

While the greed of Kiir and Machar and tribalism are often blamed for the persistent violence in the country, there are also external interests at work behind the scenes. The Somali poet Ali Dhuh once said something to the effect, “the genius of whites is that they can both cause a conflict and then come in to broker peace.” Again, in this case it is difficult to say exactly who the “whites” are in this situation. Suffice it to say that the same neighboring regional countries and global powers that vie for the upper hand in this strategic and resource-rich region of the world are the parties trying to broker peace in the country and offering aid to the people of South Sudan. 

In the optimistic time in which South Sudan achieved independence from the North in 2011, one of the first major infrastructure plans proposed was a pipeline from the oil fields in northern South Sudan to Lamu, on the Kenyan coast. The proposed pipeline would benefit Kenya and allow South Sudan to sell oil to the United States. Currently South Sudan is only able to export oil by means of a pipeline ending in Sudan, and Sudan is barred from selling oil to the United States due to its inclusion on a list of “state sponsors of terrorism.” Other countries, especially China, which invested heavily in the existing pipeline, continue to buy South Sudanese oil from Sudan. So it seems that there may be bigger “elephants” fighting over power and resources than Kiir and Machar, and also bigger than the leaders in the neighboring countries. In trying to convince the leadership in South Sudan to come to peaceful terms and usher in a stable peace for the population, those brokering the peace are treating the symptoms rather than the causes of the conflict. The international powers need to be held accountable for their efforts to control power and resources without regard for the local people.

Gabe noted, “Despite the emotional trauma of losing loved ones to senseless acts of violence, the people of this country carry on. They are sad, frustrated, angry and even vengeful but they carry on. They do what they have to do to support their families. It is this spirit which I feel as I meet them and share their stories.”

As I was leaving, Gabe lent me a book about the life of South Sudanese Bishop Emeritus Paride Taban, the founder of Peace Village, a place where people of diverse ethnic groups live together. To close, I’d like to share a quote from him that I feel expresses the spirit of mission: “If there is any message I have continuously tried to pass on to others, this has always been the one of peace and love. I see myself as a bee; my task is to sting around, not with the intention of causing harm but of awakening people and transforming lives.” 

Photo: South Sudanese citizens affected by the civil war. Photo available in the public domain.

Greetings to all.  I was able to help with the preparation of this article above.  The signing of an agreement in Afghanistan yesterday is another hopeful sign of peace where there has been conflict.  Wishing you all a blessed Lenten season...susan

14 February 2020

Dr. Susan Nagele with South Sudanese family.
Photo credit: Sean Sprague

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

February 16, 2020 

Sir 15:15-20

1 Cor 2:6-10

Mt 5:17-37

Blessed are they who choose to follow the law of the Lord

Psalm 119:1

     I was crossing the border between Kenya and Uganda on the way to Sudan with a friend.  The border official asked our address.  My friend immediately replied, “Box 10, Nimule, Sudan”.  The official wrote it down and I kept my mouth shut while my eyes bugged out.  There wasn’t a post office in Nimule let alone a post office box.  Wasn’t this a lie?  Doesn’t the 8^th commandment say, “Don’t lie”.  Aren’t details important?  Why not just tell him the truth?  Today’s Gospel says that whoever breaks one of these commandments will be least in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Later, I chided my friend about our address and he shrugged his shoulders.  “They just need to fill in the blank,” he replied. 

     The first reading makes clear that it is our choice whether or not we follow the commandments.  If we so choose, the commandments will save us and we will live. 

     I was visiting the San Egidio Community in Rome many years ago with a Maryknoll priest and at the Eucharistic liturgy an Italian lay man gave the homily.   Only a few weeks earlier, the pope had announced that lay people could not give homilies.  My priest friend asked the other Maryknoll priests in Rome how this could happen with the recent papal announcement.  One of them chuckled and said, “This is Rome.  There is the law and there is life”.   There we were, right in Vatican City State, and it looked like the pope’s order was being flagrantly violated.  But laws and legal systems change over time.  It also takes time to change.  Jesus, himself, said he came to fulfill the law.  That suggests interpretive process, movement and change. 

     I was crossing another border from Sudan into Uganda on my way to a hospital.  I was sick with dysentery and the police were shocked as I dragged myself into their office and asked to use their latrine.  They quickly pointed me in the right direction and hastily wrote out permission for us to enter with our vehicle, encouraging us to go quickly and wishing us a safe journey.   Police at border crossings in East Africa are better known for intimidation and their need for extra cash rather than kindness.  They didn’t ask for my passport, check the car or any number of other details the law required.

     The commandments are guidelines written in black and white and can only give parameters to the spectrum of gray along which life is lived.  Jesus fleshes out some of the commandments and other laws in today’s gospel.  Killing can begin with anger and refusal to reconcile.  Adultery can encompass lust and disrespect.  Rather than making false oaths, just be straight forward and clear about what you want to say. 

     The Gospel last week came from this same passage in Matthew and told us to be salt and light for the earth.  How do we do that?  Let our righteousness surpass the letter of the law of the scribes and Pharisees.  Let the Spirit, ‘which scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God, illuminate those parameters and grey areas that reveal themselves in the day to day living of our lives.  In a nutshell, love determines the essence of the law.  That police officer who chose to care about my welfare, expedite my border crossing and wish me well was following a higher law than the rules in Uganda and the usual behavior of police officers at border crossings.

Blessed are they who choose to follow the law of Love

https://maryknollogc.org/resources/scripture/sixth-sunday-ordinary-time-1

01 February 2020

WOMEN PRAY AND FAST FOR PEACE

     Christian women members of the South Sudan Church Council (SSCC) gathered in Juba on 25 January 2020 to pray and fast for peace in South Sudan.
     The fasting and prayer initiative began six years ago (2014) after the civil conflict erupted in the South Sudanese capital Juba in December 2013.  The prayer program has continued ever since.  The daylong prayer brought together women from the seven members of SSCC, including the Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan, the Evangelical Church, the Sudan Pentecostal Church, the Sudan Interior Church, and the Africa Inland Church.

     While praying on their knees, and in tears, for peace in the country, the Christian women also prayed for their cantoned soldiers, children across the country, women of childbearing age and for all the churches that seemed threatened by their own internal conflicts to have improved relations.
     According to  a 2018 Aljazeera report, there are up to 19,000 children associated with armed forces in South Sudan.  Of these, boys are trained to fight while girls are taken as "wives".

https://www.aciafrica.org/news/735/lay-down-weapons-give-birth-to-children-south-sudan-christian-women-to-child-soldiers?

     When I worked in Torit in 1991 I was displaced to Palataka where I cared for hundreds of children kept in squalid conditions in a so called 'school' that was a front for the enslavement of these children.  

     Oxfam has just published a document entitled Our Search for Peace: Women in South Sudan's National Peace Processes 2005-2018.

file:///C:/Users/susan/Documents/South%20Sudan/Women-south-sudan-peace-processes-300120-en%20Jan%202020.pdf

     I knew some of these women personally and was impressed with their courage, strength and perseverance.  Slowly, their prayers will bear fruit.  On 12 January the Republic of South Sudan signed the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA) with a coalition of opposition groups that did not sign the 2018 peace agreement.  It is known informally as the 'Rome Agreement' as it was mediated by the San Egidio Community in Rome.

     Another stunning example of peaceful active nonviolence was seen in Sudan last year when President Bashir was removed from office and a Transitional Council was instituted.  Women were strong and visible participants in this movement that continues to develop with civilian leadership.

PEACE OF THESE MOTHERS TO YOU! 

01 January 2020

SUDANESE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS 2019 IN KHARTOUM

HAPPY NEW YEAR

     For the first time since 2011 the Sudanese have celebrated Christmas publicly.  The civilian cabinet named Christmas a public holiday.  The Minister for Religious Affairs apologized to Christians for discrimination under the previous government and promised more equality in the future.  Amna Azari, 18, visited a church for the first time in her life.  "We are becoming more tolerant and loving towards each other.  This is the legacy of our great revolution," she said.

     My first Christmas in Sudan was in 1991.  I stood at the back of the Catholic church in Torit. Shortly after the liturgy began a man named William Nyuon entered with his body guards, all dressed in civilian clothes.  He stood quietly behind me and I would later learn he was a high ranking officer in the Sudanese People's Liberation Army.  That same night I met Muslims and other Christians, all celebrating together.  Later on in the year, I attended Muslim celebrations of their holy days.

     As we begin another year and a new decade it is hopeful to see how the Sudanese have used a totally nonviolent process to remove a dictator and move towards a more democratic government.  They have a long way to go but I am impressed with how far they have come.  Other countries are using violence to bring about change and they seem to get more media coverage.  I am keeping my eye on the Sudanese and the path they are forging, hoping that the rest of us will follow in becoming more tolerant and loving.

PEACE OF THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS 

AND

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR PEACE

ON JANUARY 1ST

http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/peace/documents/papa-francesco_20191208_messaggio-53giornatamondiale-pace2020.html

01 December 2019

Steven Mom Pepper Susan

   

Dear Friends,

     I am now back in Urbana Illinois for the whole of this past year and have settled in well.  I work as a Maryknoll lay missioner doing medical consultancy, advocacy with the Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns and mission education and fundraising in the mid-west.  I’ve travelled to Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Chicago and it has been fun to learn more about my own country after being away for so many ears.      

May 2000

I received a great gift about a month ago.  In May 2000, I was working as a family physician in a remote village in Sudan.  A very sick little boy, Adimo, was brought to our clinic by his mother.  She had taken him to traditional healers but he kept getting thinner and thinner. The last town they visited was being bombed by the Antonov plane which was sent by the government to terrorize people.  They were afraid and had heard that there was a clinic deep inside their home area.  In desperation, they walked 120 miles to Nanyangacor where he met the first white woman he’d ever seen…me!  They didn’t know his age.  He looked about nine years old but he only weighed 20 pounds, the weight of a one-year old child!  Kala azar was killing him.  The little shepherds would sit in the shade of ant hills while tending the livestock.  Sand flies would come out of the ant hill and bite the children and pass on a little worm that would cause them to waste away until they died if they didn’t get treatment.  I was sure he would die but I was wrong.  We began to treat him with a painful daily injection in his tiny little muscles.  Over the next month he improved and lived.  Last month he found my email address and wrote to me.  He now weighs 140 pounds and wanted to say thank you. He gave me permission to share his story with you.

         

     Before I left East Africa, I went back to Adimo’s home area to say goodbye.  I failed to find him until now.  I am thrilled to hear that he is still alive and struggling to improve himself and his country.  He taught me never to give up on a sick patient and he continues to remind me how blessed and fortunate I am here in the USA. 

     In some ways, life is so much easier here.  The electricity and water work.  Drivers usually follow the rules of the road and it is a pleasure to get in the car and not be stopped by the police over and over again for no good reason.  It is wonderful to be with my family and enjoy meals together, a walk in the park, the changing seasons and reconnecting with friends in my parish and community who share this journey of life with me.  Unfortunately, we have a lot of consumerism and violence in our society too.  I feel like I need this time of Advent more than ever to focus my attention on love and the coming of Christ once again into my life.  I am very grateful for you and will pray for you during this season.  May it bring you joy, peace and love.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

                                                                                      

01 November 2019

     I was recently asked to write an essay on the Sudans to clarify how they came to be and what is currently happening in both countries.  For those of you who are interested hope this helps!!!

GOVERNANCE IN THE REPUBLICS OF

SUDAN AND SOUTH SUDAN

     Sudan was a collection of small kingdoms until 1820 when Egypt conquered the territory.  They unified and controlled the north but the south was full of swamps and disease.  This area remained fragmented, difficult to access, and was frequently attacked by slave traders.  In 1881 the Mahdi, a Muslim religious leader, led a revolt to unify the western and central regions.  His followers continue to this day as the largest political grouping known as the Umma party. 

     In 1882, the British invaded Egypt and seven years later agreed with Egyptians to rule Sudan as a joint protectorate.  Both countries ceded independence to The Republic of Sudan (ROS) in 1956. They reneged on an agreement to set up a federal system between the north and south.  This ignited civil war because southerners demanded more representation, regional autonomy and, for some, complete separation.  With the exception of an eleven-year cease fire, fighting continued until 2005 when the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was ratified to guide development in the south.  This culminated in a national referendum in January 2011. 98.8% of the population voted to secede from the north and the Republic of South Sudan (ROSS) was inaugurated on July 9, 2011.

     The world’s newest nation began with little infrastructure, devastation from 45 years of war and ecstatic jubilation.  Almost all citizens were hopeful a new day was dawning. 

     In December 2013, ROSS President, Salva Kiir, alleged that a faction of the army loyal to Vice President Riek Machar attempted a coup d’etat and put it down within one day.  This sparked the South Sudan civil war that continued intermittently until September 2018 when the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) was signed.  This war is far more complicated than a conflict between two men.  Several powerful groups are suppressing other groups and excluding them from mediation efforts.  For six years 200,000 displaced people have been living in church compounds and Protection of Civilian Sites secured by the UN.  Additionally, two million people are refugees in Uganda and the ROS.

     R-ARCSS requires Kiir and Machar to form a transitional government by November 12, 2019.  They must agree to the composition of the number and boundaries of subnational states and unification of the army.    While faith-based groups are praying and working for peace, few people are relocating from exile.  Some men cross back from Uganda into the ROSS to join a rebel group and increase its numbers.  But the reintegration of all combatants into one united army with a common purpose is far from reaching the goal.

     Meanwhile, the ROS also suffers from division and violence.  The former President, Bashir, was removed in April and on September 11^th the Sudanese Sovereign Council was formed to provide a transitional government.  Eight months of peaceful civilian protests culminated in this development under the guidance of Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and the 2019 Nobel Laureate for Peace.  Hamdock, the new Prime Minister for Sudan, made his first official visit to Juba, ROSS, signaling the importance he places on good relations.  He seeks to integrate trade, allow visa free access from the ROSS and offer dual citizenship.  These meetings led to the ROS allowing the World Food Programme to visit Kauda in the Nuba Mountains for the first time in eight years; a hopeful development.

     Both countries must combat corruption.  The Sentry has recently described the hijacking of the ROSS by South Sudanese military elites, international corporations, banks and governments.  A case in point is oil which provides 95% of revenue for the ROSS.  Several countries, including Russia, South Africa and China, have invested in this sector.  Dar Petroleum is the largest exporter of oil from the ROSS.  This company has funded the lavish lifestyles of government officials and provided direct support to militias causing mass atrocities.  Hazardous waste has been dumped around the oil fields, thereby contaminating drinking water, while the number of people suffering from cancer, birth defects and lung damage in those areas increases.  The largest shareholder for this company is the China National Petroleum Corporation.  Government leaders and their commercial partners enjoy personal gain without fear of retribution because the state has been captured and will not hold them accountable.  The international community could combat this by sanctioning not only individuals, but networks and companies.

     The United States has accompanied developments in both of these countries for decades, most recently with $4 billion in aid to the ROSS since 2013.  It needs to support the nonviolent change of government in the ROS which took the lives of hundreds of civilians.  Civilians in the ROSS have even more reason to protest but are in survival mode and are unable to organize and resist corruption, negative ethnicity and inept governance.  

The advice of Bishop Kussala of Yambio/Tombura diocese can suggest a path forward…

     In South Sudan we have come to know that most of the people who are fighting are in the government and they have the weapons, so to initiate the process of justice, first we need to stop the war, organize the government, and then gradually the people can have the security to be able to speak out.

https://allafrica.com/stories/201910090094.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Sudan

file:///C:/Users/susan/Documents/South%20Sudan/TakingOfSouthSudan-Sept2019-TheSentry.pdf

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/506c8ea1e4b01d9450dd53f5/t/5d95e3f68bb633646340bd85/1570104322464/South+Sudan+-+Dan+-+October+2019+-+FINAL+update.pdf

https://time.com/5700917/south-sudan-bishop-peace/

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwDrldhbHHwPKdtfKFkqzTKlxNx?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1