March 2009

–The lack of basic sanitation is a hidden problem–It’s hard to talk about certain things, but not talking make them worse. It’s true for certain feelings, certain problems and in this case, open defecation. The World Water Forum is meeting In Istanbul and several have already mentioned how not talking about this basic sanitation problem is costing lives since it literally is an open invitation to many diseases. One in five people in the world does not have access to what it would take for them not to be forced into open defecation. The problem would be so easily preventable when one considers that for each dollar spent in installing basic sanitation $9 would be saved on health costs, lost wages and sicknesses. In some areas women have to wake up before dawn and defecate under the darkness of open fields making themselves targets for rape and other attacks. In densely populated areas people defecate in plastic bags which are thrown into rivers and other places where pollution accumulates. The underlying problem is poor water or no access to water at all. In 2002 the number of deaths attributed to poor water, sanitation and hygiene was over 3.5 million. Over 94% of diarrhea cases which kills more than 1.4 million children a year would be preventable if basic sanitation existed.
We can put our bathrooms on our list of what to be grateful for, but we must do more than that, we must educate ourselves so that we can educate others that this problem be no longer hidden. Even more crucial, we must join those who call for water—and sanitation—to be declared a basic human right.

–The slow food movement may be popular in some social circles but how can it help world hunger?–I read how the global economic crisis is threatening hunger in several countries. I hear about the President of Sudan trying to expel international aid workers and the consequences for the already destitute and abused in Darfur. I see a documentary on a Cambodian mother teaching her daughter how to retrieve red ants from a bush so that what will be their only source of protein can be mixed into their noodle soup dinner. And then I come upon a TV segment on Alice Waters and her slow food movement. Is she as disconnected from world realities as she seems to me to be? Or, is it I who misses something? Good food, she says, should be a right. Amen! But how is slow food going to feed the hungry, help the half of the world’s population (yes, half) who are either hungry or malnourished? It may be that whatever its merits—and they do exist—the slow food movement is—for some at least—a misplaced priority.

–Our prejudices may be depriving us of an answer—We think of Shariah law as an outmoded and cruel judicial system cutting off the hands of thieves, so typical of a religion we do not trust. But Islam is thankfully more than our perception of it, and is not limited by our ignorance. The Koran forbids usury. As a result religious Muslims and Islamic states have developed banking systems that in conforming to the anti-usury laws also avoids the excesses of capitalism. University Bank in Ann Arbor, Mich, owned and operated by two Catholic brothers created a whole subsidiary to comply with Shariah laws in order to serve their Muslim clients. It has since shown that the resulting “mortgage alternative” type of financing for residential and commercial real estate can be profitable and avoid the pitfalls that have blighted our economy. Last week as the market plunged, University Bank had one of its best periods, recording the sale of 11 homes.
Early in March the fifth World Islamic Economic Forum meeting in Jakarta suggested the West should adopt Islamic financial practices as part of overcoming the global economic crisis. Some even urged undertaking “missionary work” to promote it. When the missionaries come, or even if we need to begin the work ourselves, we ought to put our prejudices away and listen to how “mortgage alternatives” can be used to everyone’s advantage.