The world food crisis has not come upon us suddenly. Of course, the  Ukraine War precipitated matters. What has been a conflict between Russia and Ukraine has got amplified by the supply bottlenecks faced especially in the corn and cereal supplies to the rest of the world. It is strange to observe that when thousands of people, soldiers, their families, and children died, the world was not as worried as it is now when the prospects of hunger loomed large before the world with imminent disruption of grain supplies to the rest of the world.

The nations of the world are much more interdependent today than they were in the past. This happens because of the import and export of commodities, technologies, information, and even viruses. In this context, Pax Lumina would like to raise the question: How do the poor, the weak, and the excluded get affected by the present global economic imbalances as well as the legacy of the past structural iniquities of the world? Our contributors from many parts of the world have written about this with concern and empathy. They have also indicated some ways of thinking about solutions that can give us some hope.

Ukraine war has slipped out of the headlines, though not yet disappeared altogether from the news. There are some lone voices are still being raised.The kinematics of this war is by now fairly known to everyone. Any one of the players can stop playing the war game and the war will end and negotiations can begin.

Rape is universal infamy. It happens all the time, from high noon to midnight. It happens everywhere, from the mighty precincts of the
high, holy, and hallowed to the lowly backyards of the metros, cities, towns, and villages. Thus, it is the most perverse equalizer except that the victim is always the same, the powerless, irrespective of class, caste, race, and color. Rape is the uncontrolled application of power with the well-defined objective of the total annihilation of the other.

Tthe consequences of climate change affect the poor and the marginalized disproportionately and harshly, especially in the short term. In the long run, the future of the planet becomes endangered. This fact has been highlighted in recent years by grassroots activists and empathetic thinkers who care not solely for themselves and their pleasures but also for the lives and livelihoods of other less fortunate humans. Happily, this campaign has had some effect. An awareness has crept into people that climate change is a threat to each living being on this planet.

This issue of Pax Lumina focuses on the world of the differently-abled. When this topic was mentioned, there were some eyebrows raised, politically correct ones for sure. The world of the differently-abled, according to those eyebrows, conjures up an image of a different, separate world for some of us who are less fortunate than those “abled” inhabiting the rest of the society. We agree; but also disagree. Yes, discrimination of all forms reinforces stereotypes that perpetuate further discrimination, exploitation and cruelty. But, on the other hand, if we do not talk straight and hide behind politically correct and diplomatically acceptable gibberish, the truth will be hidden from those who can face the truth and act for change. This magazine addresses such people. When we looked at what we thought to be the world of the differently-abled certain things became clear. There is no clear boundary between the world of the differently-abled and the world of the so-called abled. It is all mixed-up and fuzzy. There is only one world of people, all differently-abled in different ways. Of course, there are those who care and those who have yet to learn to care. While the former does their best to share their abilities with those who need them, the latter just talks and talks. But all of us, I am sure, will agree that one of the biggest problems facing the world today is pollution. It is noise pollution. Instead, we need action. And we feature some of those who have reached out to their neighbours on this planet with hope, dream and empathy. It is also true that the differently-abled do not form an undifferentiated mass of humans waiting for our sympathy. They too have a right to live a life of fulfilment and honour here. Many people do not even understand what autism is.

All religious texts speak of peace as the ultimate goal of a human being. Peace is invoked during many religious rituals. Religious greetings generally comprise peace and its synonyms. Yet, many consider religion to be the cause of much violence in the world both in the past and the present. At the level of nations, most theocratic states inflict direct and indirect violence on their own citizens especially the most vulnerable, women, children, and the other excluded. Look at the Taliban which has come back to power in Afghanistan. They have shown themselves to be viscerally and sadistically intolerant of women and art. Can their guiding force be any kind of a religion? The founders of all religions preached peace, love, justice, tolerance, and a host of other desirable values. But when these ideals got concretized into institutions and organizations, they appear to have been short-changed for the need for preservation of the organizational identity and its expansion. Conquest for the accumulation of wealth and power seems to have replaced the original ideals.

All his life Fr. Stan Swamy SJ had fought for the protection of human rights of the excluded; the undertrials and the Adivasis. It is, indeed, a cruel irony that he had to die as an undertrial. But the irony does not end here. While his struggles and protests were peaceful and non-violent and involved only legal recourses guaranteed under the Constitution, the charges leveled against him amounted to abetment to waging war against the State. Also, the rights he sought to ensure for others were denied to him after his arrest under the Unlawful Activities [Prevention] Act (UAPA). Does UAPA or for that matter any other law of the land permit such a treatment to an undertrial?

Depending on the economic, social, and cultural background the youth vent
their frustration and anger in various ways. Some try to change the system,
some broker an uneasy peace and join it and some others opt out of it
altogether with tragic consequences. But even others who do not adopt the
path of violence but advocate peaceful change while protesting tyranny and
exploitation are also looked upon with suspicion by the authorities. Often,
non-violence in these cases is met with violence. This seems to be a universal
phenomenon. In this issue, we try to portray the spectrum of anxiety, despair and hope the young people all over the world today carry with them especially
in the context of the raging pandemic.

Childhood is lost to children because of a variety of reasons and this loss permeates all sections of the society cutting across class, caste, region, culture and any other categorization one can think of. Yes, the pain and trauma of the loss may differ.

The condition of the sex workers has not changed, if not for the worse, from the time Picasso painted them. They remain where they are, in their ghettoes, universally lit up in the red of the setting Sun stoically waiting for the darkness to swallow them. But there are lights of hope.We feature brave women and men who, despite all odds, have shown that change is possible, justice and peace are realizable. We just want to walk with the excluded in the hope of some meaningful action from those who are moved by the plight of these unfortunate people who are part of our society.

The focus of this issue is manual scavengers and their nullified lives. We know they are alive because of the indispensable work they do in collecting, removing, carrying and dumping the most dispensable commodity human beings produce-- excreta. The primary work of collection from the lakhs of dry latrines that still exist in many parts of India is done by women of certain communities which form the lowest of the low of the outcastes.

We are deeply delighted to let you know that Peace and Reconciliation Network of the Jesuit Conference of South Asia, along with its Nodal Agency, Loyola Institute of Peace and International Relations (LIPI), Kochi, has launched the  online Magazine: PAX LUMINA: A Quest for Peace and Reconciliation.

We are deeply delighted to let you know that Peace and Reconciliation Network of the Jesuit Conference of South Asia, along with its Nodal Agency, Loyola Institute of Peace and International Relations (LIPI), Kochi, has launched the online Magazine: PAX LUMINA: A Quest for Peace and Reconciliation.

We are deeply delighted to let you know that Peace and Reconciliation Network of the Jesuit Conference of South Asia, along with its Nodal Agency, Loyola Institute of Peace and International Relations (LIPI), Kochi, has launched the first issue of  the online Magazine: PAX LUMINA: A Quest for Peace and Reconciliation.

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Peace and Reconciliation Network of the Jesuit Conference of South Asia, along with its Nodal Agency, Loyola Institute of Peace and International Relations (LIPI), Kochi, has launched the first issue of  the online Magazine: PAX LUMINA: A Quest for Peace and Reconciliation.

This is brought out with a view to promoting Peace and Reconciliation worldwide with a South Asian Perspective. In fact, we are highly privileged to have an array of eminent scholars, writers and peace practitioners in our Advisory/Editorial Board.

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PAX LUMINA - September 2022

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