Poverty & charity

On 22nd June, the Catholic Lawyers gathered together at the church of St Paul the Hermit, Batang Berjuntai, (Bestari Jaya) on the occasion of the feast of St Thomas More, the patron saint of the society.

In conjunction with the feast day and in line with our motto as Catholic Lawyers Society (CLS), and living out its faith through love and service, the Catholic lawyers chose to celebrate the feast of their patron, by way of service. Read more »

“It is intolerable that thousands of people continue to die every day from hunger, even though substantial quantities of food are available, and often simply wasted,” Francis stresses in his message.

“I ask you to ensure that humanity is served by wealth and not ruled by it.” Read more »

Pronouncing Christian words without Christ or without putting them into practice hurts the person pronouncing them and others because they are based on pride and cause division in the Church.

This was the warning Francis sent out at this morning’s mass in St. Martha’s House.

Listening to and acting on the Word of God is like building a house on a rock, Francis said, inspired by today’s parable from the Gospel of Matthew (7: 21, 24-27). Read more »

In this “Handbook & Call to Action,” Kolko introduces the idea of wicked problems—large-scale social issues that plague humanity, like poverty and malnutrition—then describes the role of design in mitigating these problems.

Starting with the example of his experience with Project Masiluleke, Kolko points out that traditional approaches cannot deal effectively with complex social and cultural problems. Read more »

Some countries fail spectacularly, with a total collapse of all state institutions, as in Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal and the hanging of President Mohammad Najibullah from a lamppost, or during the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone, where the government ceased to exist altogether.

Most countries that fall apart, however, do so not with a bang but with a whimper. Read more »

I’m reading a fascinating new book called “Why Nations Fail”.

The more you read it, the more you appreciate what a fool’s errand we’re on in Afghanistan and how much we need to totally revamp our whole foreign aid strategy.

But most intriguing are the warning flares the authors put up about both America and China. Read more »