Jimmy Burns's Blog, page 17

Catalunya: Seny must prevail in Madrid before the rauxa dominates Barcelona

 

Catalonia: Seny must prevail in Madrid before the rauxa dominates Barcelona

My Catalan neighbour and friend Joan could not contain his euphoria last night. He had spent part of his day helping form the human chain that had linked arms from the French Pyrennean border to the southern point of the Mediterranean coast that marks the end of autonomous region of Spain, Catalunya. “We are on our way to independence”, he proclaimed.

I am, to remind you, born in Madrid to a Scots father and a Spanish mother. I have, by choice,  a home in Catalonia I and my family hugely enjoy. It is a part of Spain I enjoy because of its culture and its people and its football -civilised and tolerant and creative- and its open frontiers to the rest of the Iberian Peninsula,and the rest of Europe. I do not belong to any Spanish political party. In the UK I vote Labour. I regard myself as a European without a national flag.

Joan is a businessman and an artist. While once he represented the seny (common sense) and the rauxa (exuberant creativity) in a archetypal personification of Catalan duality , of late his idiosyncratic moderation has taken on a sharper edge. As a businessman, Joan blames the incompetence not to mention the corruption of the Spanish state for the financial crisis he has been subjected to,while the artist in him has found common cause with a colourful increasingly outspoken movement that now dictates the dynamic of Catalan politics, having bolted from the control of Spain’s discredited main parties.

Yesterday provided an impressive photopportunity in the form a meticulously planned demonstration of political solidarity with independent flags and chants monopolising La Diada, Catalonia’s traditionally pluralistic national day. Cynics might dismiss this as a political stunt, mere choreography, lacking a democratic mandate, verging on xenophobia even.

Certainly there is no denying that Catalan politics have been in the process of increased radicalisation since Spain’s constitutional court declared illegal Catalonia’s new statute of autonomy. Friends in Madrid used to point out that just over thirty percent of Catalans actually voted for the Estatut when submitted earlier to a referendum in 2006 in a less than fifty per cent turn out. But history does not stand still. An apparent refusal by the PP government not only not to recognise former agreements struck with Catalan nationalists by the former socialist government but to do anything that might appease Catalonia’s historic sense of victimisation, not to mention its refusal to deal with its rotten apples,  has gradually reduced Catalan moderate opinion and boosted majority support for a referendum on independence,during a period when the traditionally dominant Catalan party the CIU has seen its own credibility seriously undermined by its sad record of corruption and political incompetence.

The continuing reluctance of the Spanish government led by Marian Rajoy to negotiate the terms of such a referendum(in stark contrast to Cameron’s agreement with Alec Salmond) shows not only a lack of statesmanship but also a critical lack of political maturity.

It makes no democratic sense for Madrid to continue to deny Catalans the right to determine their own future. Far from obstructing the referendum,both the ruling PP and the main main opposition PSOE, along with less radical Catalan parties should see this as an opportunity to offer a coherent case as to why being part of Spain can and should be seen as in Catalonia’s best interests,just as my own Labour party and the ruling British conservatives are preparing to argue the case for autonomous regions within the United Kingdom  in the no-vote campaign of the Scottish referendum.

What is not an option is to allow Catalonia to end up declaring independence unilaterally as a consequence of inaction and by default and the appalling bias of certain sectors of the Spanish and Catalan media. Catalans deserve better than that. So does Europe.

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Sense & Sensibility in Catalonia

 

Thousands of ordinary citizens making a human chain across Catalonia this wednesday-Catalan national day-will be intended to show world opinion that the cause of independence is hurtling towards fruition.

A great photopportunity it will certainly be, and one that will once again serve as a reminder that the unity of Spain-constitutionally defined as a nation state made up of autonomous regions under a King-remains a controversial concept in need of reform.

But a mass demonstration, whichever form it takes, does not represent a democratic mandate. The party that wants an independent Catalonia has a minority of the electorate, while its majority partner in the Catalan government is torn between those who favour a split from Spain and those who would like a negotiated settlement-more autonomy but short of independence. A few days ago, it emerged that the Catalan president Arturo Mas had secretly met Spanish prime-minister Mariano Rajoy and agreed to go on talking.

The talk so far is that Mas would only go ahead with a referendum on Catalan independence if this was done within the law. He wants to get a deal from Rajoy that would avert a referendum in the short term.The more radical Catalan nationalists want to go ahead with the referendum next year, without or without Madrid’s consent. But they are in a minority.

There has been a phoney war going on between Barcelona and Madrid-more bluff than bluster- and an appalling absence of objective journalism and debate in the Catalan , and some of the Spanish media. Neither Rajoy nor Mas are proven statesmen and in Catalonia those campaigning for independence have lost all sense of reason which makes the situation unstable and unpredictable.

Beyond wednesday, there is a need for constructive dialogue and sensible debate. A federal Spain in which Catalonia feels it is fairly treated is something worth working towards.

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Secrets & Miranda: A sense of proportion is needed

 

I have written before   (http://www.jimmy-burns.com/blog/espio... –

much to the shock of some of my friends and even close relatives – why I don’t subscribe to the conspiracy theory that the US-led  Big Brother intelligence community now controls the exercise of our freedoms to the extent that we must all live in fear of these being taken from us.

The public at large and  most journalists-and I include myself and those at the Guardian- are not in a position to necessarily judge with any degree of certainty whether the release of the information they may have leaked to them might help or hinder counter-terrorism-but I believe most of  the US and UK intelligence community is in the business of trying to make the democracies we live it more safe and secure not less so.

Snowden’s revelations about the US  government’s  collection  of phone records and Internet data have not altered my basic view that there is a trade-off between investigating terrorism and protecting personal privacy, and that I don’t feel that Snowden has done innocent law abiding citizens any favours- and seeking to make him stand trial for breaching state secrets-if this can be proven-  seems reasonable.

And for those claiming that the US and the UK have become ‘police states ’ it is worth remembering  that this whole saga has been widely reported and openly debated in the western media , and  that the UK has a police force that largely goes about its daily business unarmed and by popular consent, while Snowden has chosen to  take refuge in Putin’s Russia, a regime that routinely represses freedom of expression, including gay rights,  and murders dissidents and whisteblowers  , among them journalists.

The detention  and questioning of the Brazilian  David Miranda , partner of the Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald linked to Snowden , and other events surrounding of it  once again raises the issue of proportionality.

Miranda is not a journalist. According to the employment definition provided by the Guardian’s editor Alan Rusbridger, Miranda nevertheless  “plays  a valuable role in assisting his partner do his journalistic work.”  And that means more than just being his lover. His travel to Berlin, from where he was returning via Rio via Heathrow,   was financed by the Guardian. He had gone to Germany  to hand over documents related to the Snowden affair, although Miranda suggested in an interview that he did not know what documents he was carrying.

Clearly tipped off by the US, it was the  UK authorities who took the decisioun to detain and question him as a favour to its most important  ally, not least in intelligence sharing on terrorism. UK police used terrorist powers-specifically schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 which allows travellers no right to remain silent or receive legal advice, and to be detained for up to nine hours. Senior officers  are in favour of these powers as an essential tool to detain a known terrorist or disrupt a potential terrorist network. They also know that it is an extraordinary power that, in a democratic country, should be  used only sparingly-and figures show that of the relatively small proportion of individuals stopped under such powers, in recent years  only a tiny minority have been held for more than three hours.

It is clear that Miranda’s questioning for almost nine hours , (please note there was no evidence of physical abuse, let alone torture)was unjustified and  badly handled. The fact that Miranda was a Brazilian has necessarily brought back memories of Jean Charles Menezes who was shot dead by police on a London tube following the London bombings for no other apparent reason than professional incompetence.

As for the widely publicised destruction of hard drives containing copies of some of the secret filea leaked by Snowden, this is similarly disturbing. It has only now emerged that this  was carried out at the Guardian’s headquarters on July 20  by a senior editor and one of the newspapers computer experts and in the presence of technicians from the British Government’s secret Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) which shares information with US.

Rusbridger  said he authorised the destruction after receiving  pressure from a senior UK government official who warned that in the absence of a handover of the material or their destruction, the governnent’s intention  was to close down the Guardian’s reporting  of Snowden documents by bringing legal action.

The official was Sir Jeremy Heywood,cabinet secretary and  thus the most senior civil servant in the  country. He  acted with the  explicit approval of Mr Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Foreign Secretary William Hague.

 The government feared that if secret data held by the newspaper fell into what it called “the wrong hands” it could have been a threat to the UK, official  sources claim. A government spokesman went on to explain that  it was “reasonable” for Sir Jeremy “to request that the Guardian destroyed data that would represent a serious threat to national security if it was to fall into the wrong hands”.

The governnent spokesman continued: “The deputy prime minister felt this was a preferable approach to taking legal action. He was keen to protect the Guardian’s freedom to publish, while taking the necessary steps to safeguard security.

“It was agreed on the understanding that the purpose of the destruction of the material would not impinge on the Guardian’s ability to publish articles about the issue, but would help as a precautionary measure to protect lives and security.”

Mr Hague said it was a “very simple matter” of the government having a duty to retrieve classified information to stop it ending up with the wrong people.

As for the Guardian, Rusbridger claims that by destroying the hard drives rather  than handing them over to government, he has protected the newspaper’s source. Moreover it is understood  the files have been copied and the Guardian is expected to pursue other aspects of the the Snowden story, but from the US. Such a move with do its corporate strategy no harm at a time when it is losing money as a UK newspaper and is  keen on expanding its global market.

But lest you accuse me of putting this all down to a   cynical commercial move, let me conclude that I don’t believe a conspiracy exists in this story other than in  the wild imagination  of those who have not experienced the meaning of true repression. There are questionable  journalistic motives involved, as there are aspects of disproportionality  involving certain British police acting  on US information and UK government orders. This is not a major assault on press freedom or on  our essential liberties. The Guardian is still publishing, and Mr Miranda is back in his homeland without charge and with the full freedom to tell his story. I have no plans to resign my British citizenship.

 

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Sitges es y debe seguir siendo un pueblo tolerante

 

Desde Londres, donde aguardo unas vacaciones tardías en mi casa de Sitges en pocos días, leo que se ha generado cierta controversia  entre políticos municipales la decisión del CiU  con el apoyo del CUP de quitar el nombre de Espanya a una plaza del pueblo.

Los que han objetado formalmente  son los concejales del PP, pero sería absurdo e injusto dejar que este tema fuese monopolizado por los nacionalismos de un lado o el otro.

Para mi, el  tener una casa en Sitges es tener el gran privilegio de formar parte de un pueblo cuya identidad se define a través de la tolerancia y una visión cultural que rompe fronteras.

Es un pueblo con puertas abiertas a todo Español y al extranjero, no importe sus idiosincrasias, y su estatuas y monumentos dan testimonio a un sentido común alrededor de la historia, no como una mitología monopolizada, sino de algo capaza de evolucionar hacia un estado de consenso.

Para dar algunos ejemplos. El templo Católico de Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla sobrevivio los saqueos de La Guerra Civil para hoy en día permanecer como centro no solo de culto popular sino también de gran interés turístico.

La iglesia no so mantiene en un espíritu fundamentalista de exclusión  sino de convivencia con el mundo secular, cuyo calendario incluye unas  de las fiestas más extendidas (en términos de días) de Gay Pride que se conoce en el mundo.

Gay Pride se extiende por el Passeig Maritim y para dentro, igual que las procesiones de Reyes y de Semana Santa, y las playas de Sitges igualmente se resisten a exclusiones. Pueden ser gays y familiares. La gente se tolera.

Y ya que hablamos de iconos culturales, una plaza es como una estatua- o es parte de un sentido tolerante y consensual  y también testimonio a un hecho incontrovertible  o sirve para poco más que perpetuar egos, o manifiestos electorales.

La plaque conmemorativa de GK Chesterton y la estatua de El Greco que se encuentran en el Passeig Maritim conmemoran a dos personajes que poco tuvieron que ver con los  antagonismos políticos de la España moderna aunque eso sí, forman parte de hechos y una historia compartida cultural del pueblo.

GK Chesterton  visitó Sitges por primera vez en mayo de 1926, volvió en 1928 y en 1935. Suya es la frase “Barcelona es el pueblo más sucio de Europa, y Sitges, la ciudad más limpia del mundo”.

El 29 de agosto de 1898 se inauguraba en el paseo de la Ribera de Sitges el monumento a El Greco, un pintor que debe su actual consideración en el pueblo a la labor de rescate y revitalización al grupo modernista encabezado por el pintor y escritor Santiago Rusiñol.

Los que quieren cambiar el nombre de Placa d’Espanya a la Placa de Pou de Verde dicen que así recuperan el nomenclátor anterior a 1910- pero lo hacen con un visión partidista y selectiva de lo que  supone, hoy en día,  el pueblo de Sitges. Hay que dejar en paz a sus estatuas y sus plazas.

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Time for reason to prevail over Gibraltar

 

It was the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges who once likened his country and the UK staging war  over the Falklands islands to two bald men fighting over a comb.

One would hope and I expect  the current dispute between Spain and the UK over Gibraltar  will stop well short of war, but the current escalation shows the extent to which politics can play fast and loose with reason , particularly when it comes to the excuse of an unresolved sovereignty dispute.The future, as currently played out in  London and Madrid,remains unsettelingly unpredictable.

Let’s be clear.  Gibraltar has been allowed to flourish,  and the neighbouring Spanish towns to survive economically, thanks to diplomatic give-and-take over many years  which has involved men of reason in Madrid, London, and the Rock. Setting aside the sovereignty issue, they have identified areas of common interest- such as more open borders and the provision of Spanish labour, joint use of the airport, a thriving gambling industry in Gibraltar to which Spaniards contribute, and a laissez fare attitude to  fishing by Spaniards in disputed waters and engaging in contraband, on the one hand and Gibraltarians, living in Spain,  not paying Spanish tax.

And for those who have been recalling the bad old days of Franco when  Spain closed the frontier for thirteen year, it may be worth recalling that it was Franco who did us a few favours in WW2 by not allowing Nazi Germany as a stepping stone to Gibraltar, but on the contrary turned a convenient diplomatic blind eye to its use by the Allies, not least in the joint UK/US landings in North Africa – which spelt the beginning of the end for Hitler.

Of course it is even more absurd to equate the diplomatic posturing of Madrid’s centre-right Popular  Party government with Franco, as it is to argue that Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez is General Galtieri. Unlike Argentina, Spain is a  member of the EU and of Nato, just as the UK is,  and the economic, and social ties that bind Anglo-Spanish relations today are stronger than they have ever been in the past.

Anyone who doubts that should simply take a step back from the current claims and counter-claims focused on Gibraltar, and look at the investment of major companies in the UK, the continuing popularity of Spain as a tourist destination for the British (and the growing attraction of London to Spaniards) and the mutual British-Spanish cultural appreciation and exchanges from food and fashion to cinemas, theatre, and literature.

So what has put a spanner in the works, or where is the comb? At its simplest the dispute was sparked off by a blockade in disputed waters of handful of Spanish craft fishermen that for year not  sold their catch on the Spanish market but also supplied some of the better fishing restaurants and bars in  Gibraltar .

The blockade involved the Gibraltarian  government  dumping an artificial reef of concrete boulders. Similar boulders have been dumped by Spain around  some of its own ports, to control fishing on ecological grounds, but then then Gibraltar’s waters, like the Rock itself have been the subject of  unresolved sovereignty  claims which post-Franco successive Spanish and UK governments have wisely chosen not to fuel.

Now the blockade has played into the hands of a government in Madrid that mistakenly believes it has little to lose politically by stirring up a diplomatic row  over the summer months , that can distract the media and voters from the debilitating image of institutional  failure amidst ongoing allegations of financial scandal within the ruling PP. In an interview with a friendly newspaper, Spain’s foreign minister Jose Garcia-Margallo played his nationalist card declaring an end to the pragmatic  diplomacy of the  past- ‘games’ he called them-and justifying the  reimposition  of border controls on those going in and out of Gibraltar. He has warned that further measures being considered are the imposition of a €50 border fee, investigating the tax status of  estimated 6,000 Gibraltarians owning properties in Spain, closing Spanish airspace to flights headed to Gibraltar and bring in its huge gambling industry under Madrid’s tax jurisdiction.

Another thing is clear- any escalation  of this this-for-tat will damage the people of Gibraltar and the Spaniards who work there, while driving a deeper diplomatic wedge between London and Madrid which cannot possibly serve the better interests of either country.

Taking a cue from the new Iranian president, Spain’s prime-minister Mariano Rajoy  should put the interests of his country before those of his party, tone down  the rhetoric and resist further counter-productive  actions.  London should do everything it can to similarly defuse the situation, and to ensure that Gibraltarians  understand this is in their best interests for there to be an accomodation with Spain. A good beginning might be to have an interim period during which all blockades or restrictions are lifted, but further controversial fishing is halted.

Tripartite talks-brokered  by the EU or intermediaries in London and the UK who can be trusted as impartial-  should resume, with fishing rights and open borders points high on the agenda to agree on, as part of a consensus on what works  to the mutual political and economic benefits of Gibraltarians and their Spanish neighbours and of British-Spanish relations generally.

As a British-Spaniard-born in Madrid to a Spanish mother and a British father-educated as British citizen who holidays in Spain and has many Gibraltarians friends-this dispute makes no sense to me  whatsoever and is worth fighting over far less than the Falklands was in 1982 when a UK colony was occupied by a bloody military regime.

Of that war, Borges lamented afterwards, the death of  Juan Lopez and John Ward two fictitiously  named soldiers- enblemic of the many that died on both sides. “They could have been friends,” Borges wrote in a poem, “but they only saw each other’s faces once, on some islands that were far too famous, and each one was Cain and each one was Abel. They buried them together. Snow and ashes know them. What I have just recounted belongs to an event we cannot understand.”

 

 

 

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The Pope speaks a new language for our age

 

Pope Francis on saturday night underlined the importance he attaches to grassroots renewal of he Catholic Church by appealing to his young followers to become key players of a fresh and meaningful  project of evangelisation.

“We are building a church and you must become protagonists of history,” he told a gathering of Wold Youth Day that had grown to overthree million on Rio’s Copacabana beach by today, sunday, the final day.

In a scene which has been repeated through the week, the Pope looked relaxad as he engaged with the masses, blessing numerous babies while stepping down occasionally from his Papamovil to draw himself more personally to pilgrims and meet outstretch hands.

If this week has had the air of a campaign trail, then it is because Pope Francis is clear in his mission to win hearts and minds,to boost the faithful ,speaking a language for out times, and with a sense of Christianity’s early roots as a Church of the people, full of hope in the future.

Later, as he preached at the evening vigil, his love of football showed as he drew an analogy between a good team and a Church that did not betray its following,but drew it into a positive relationship with Jesus, and through him, with the world, making of it a more just, equitable, and spiritual place.

“Jesus asks us to play in his team but he offers us something greater than the World Cup- a life that is truly happy and fulfilled,” he said.

In words aimed not at young people, but all those who feel alienated by the institutional church, he went on: “We want to build a Church that is big enough to accomadate al humanity.”

This was a universal pastor speaking, deeply conscious of the damage to the Church’s reputation of sex abuse scandals , financial corruption, and its perceived denigration of the love shared by people of the same sex.

In his homily, Pope Francis invited those listening to lend themselves to rare moment of collective silence and contemplation,  and to be open to and trust it the humanity of Christ, not to feel rejected, excluded, or condemned. “ Do not look at the thorns and the stones but on the small grain of soil where seed can be sown….If you have erred, do not fear. Jesus understands.”

In his evident physicality with the crowds and his dialogue with the people (much too engaging to be called a sermon), Francis projects a living witness to the beauty and dignity of life, and the fundamental unity of the human person. He has strengthened and won over many young people with his direct and unpatronising way of addressing them. Nothing sanctionious about Francis . He is moving the Vatican  from autocracy to accountability. . And here in Latin America, continent of struggle and yet of huge promise,this Pope of immeasurable energy and inspiration ,  has  instilled a new dynamic into the Church’s social doctrine and its option for the poor, which governments and voters will be hard pressed to ignore.

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The razzmatazz around Pope Francis in Rio

 

On Friday  night there was a rare hush among the crowds-broken only by occasional applause- as Pope Francis spoke from the heart and directly to over one and half million mainly young pilgrims who had packed Rio’s Copacabana beach.

Christ’s Crucifiction was not defeat but a victory of good over evil, of hope over despair, the certainty of God’s love for the sinner, and the prospect of redemption, he prayed. Whatever our personal suffering, we know we are not alone, for Jesus is with us, in communion, offering us love and happiness with his presence, he went on to say.

Francis spoke in a quite and focused tone, that was not sombre but sought to engage in a language that could be understood . The Cross was  one shared with those who suffered the corruption and greed of politicians and the moral betrayals of bishops and priests, including those who abused or pursed careers instead of true holiness in humility.  This  Cross too would help Latin America find a way to confront injustice and violence.

At one point, as is his habit, Franciscalled out to the crowd, urging them to define their Faith in love and hope-with a passion and vigour that reminded one of his Argentine roots, before returning to his universal role as pastor of the people of God.

Earlier,Francis had show his less mystical and yet profoundly human side, reaching out and fueling the enthusiasm of pilgrims with his smile and direct eye contact and embracing countless young children he was brought along the promenade in an open truck.  Weary of journalists, to whom he denies interviews and press conferences,  Francs is nonetheless a natural physical communicator a populist priest and bishop of the people.  The bigger the crowds the more relaxed and engaged he seemed, a Pope at peace with his sense of mission amidst devoted Catholic youths he called ‘disciples of the new evangelisation.’

He watched in silence and with his head bowed as if turned inwards in contemplation. The Stations of the Cross ceremony that now ensued was elaborate,verging on bad taste. The  organisers seemed to have one eye on winning over the Pentecostals who are the biggest growing religious sect in Latin America, the other on the Olympics in 2016-testing loyalties and reaction. But then they could have simply wanted to have something which young people could connect with. This was after all one of the key events of  the papal World Youth Day.

Most of the ceremony was dominated by an eclectic modernist choreography , rock music, striking costumes, a giant neon giant Cross behind the Pope’s throne, and haunting voodooesque rattles marking the end of each station. Some scenes, like the appearance of a stripped and bloodied Jesus taking centre stage on a raised platform, were reminiscent of Jesus Christ Super Star , others of the London Olympics, or of Rio’s own Carnival. The wooden cross garlanded in ribbons of Vatican colours ,carried by white clothed youths, and followed by a band from the Brazilian navy and altar boys swinging incense only fuelled a sense of pure over-the-top theatrics.

Thank God for the moving testimonies by young pilgrims at each station aboutther personal expeiences of loss, and pain and redemption. In the end it was the  Pope’s words that restored a necessary note of spiritual sobriety amidst the invasive razzmatazz and near hysteria of the crowds. The ceremony was evangelical in its loud, simplistic assertion of Faith, with a charismatic Pope at its heart. It spoke to the converted but in a style that may have  its limits in its appeal, among the doubters,non-believers, and peoples of other faiths.

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The simple faith of World Youth Day in Rio

 

I walked for miles today, following the inner streets, tunnels, and coastline that weave

their way across Rio- a city that nature invades, but where rampant consumerism

and social inequality prevail. Behind and in-front were thousands of youths,

from different parts of the world, although mainly Latin America, on their way

to Copacabana to see the Pope. I struggled. They had a spring in their step.  It was a pilgrimage of sorts.

`They’ve been taking cold showers and sleeping rough, but their happiness is undimmed. You can feel Jesus is present, `said an Italian priest.

This long and generous beach and promenade is a venue of choice for mass gatherings from the Rolling Stones to New Year´s Eve, and of course part of the Carnival. This

World Youth Day seemed to have an element of all three-in its youthful energy, celebration, and mass euphoria verging on hysteria whenever Pope Francis came close. Only the hedonism was missing.

Instead there was of course much talk of Jesus and alegria dominated by chants proclaiming ´Here, we are, the youth of the Pope´.  On the beach, two Brazilians singers –one with a striking resemblance to George Michael, the other to Barry White- warmed the crowds, telling them to raise their hands to heaven.  Even sambas mentioned Jesus today.  The Argentine national flag was very much in evidence, but the emblems were diverse. Only one provoked the slightest controversy. ´Follow the Living Jesus, not a world

religion, study the scriptures, `´, it said in bold black letters against a yellow background.

It was held by Sarah, a young blond woman from Michigan who lived in Colombia. A middle-aged Brazilian at the head of his young family shook his head. ´Don´t listen to her,

she is a protestant.´

When the Brazilians had moved on, Sarah told me what she thought of Catholics who, she said, were in a `war´ with Pentecostals.  She was  not part of either side. She said she disagreed with the way Catholics followed the Virgin Mary and the Pope, instead of Jesus. So who was she, I asked? ` I am a child of God, ‘she replied.

Well, Rio seemed full of young boys and girls and priests and nuns who talked of their encounter with Jesus in mass gatherings like this. To engage with them in any detailed questioning of their beliefs was to encounter a solid wall of certainty on the sanctity of traditional marriage and family life, the authority of the Pope, the call to go out and evangelize.

Not a grain of doubt before a Pope that speaks to them directly, who stirs

their enthusiasm to fever pitch.

´Your youth is showing that your faith is stronger than the cold and the rain, `´ Pope

Francis told them on the beach where over a million stretched out between giant

screens.

It was raining and-for Rio-it was cold. The clouds hovered round the Christ Redeemer statue, clearing occasionally. After a long day, Pope Francis showed remarkable good

cheer and fitness amidst the collective dose of Faith.¨` This week Rio has become

the centre of the Church with its energy and youth. You have answered  Jesus´s  call to be his friends, his disciples ‘before launching the youths into a chant. “Say with me, a lot of faith, a lot of hope, a lot of happiness…´They did  so.

He then continued. ´Put Christ at the centre of your lives and in your hearts…Don´t

think that money is the solution. Don’t get satiated with money. It just makes

you weak…its Faith that gives you security and hope …`Faith is revolutionary.

Ask yourselves, are you ready to enter in this revolution of the Faith? `

It remains to be seen to what extent Francis´s simplicity of gesture and word  -the evangelicals and charismatics he appeals to- can prove truly transformative beyond the converted born agains, speaking not just to the faithful but to the doubters and non-believers.  Certainly, among the pilgrim young and   poor

present in this city this week he has struck a chord they will not easily

forget.

 

 

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The street walking Pope

 

Pope Francis likes tango because its is the music of the street, of the people, of his neighbourhood. He also has often recalled that Jesus Christ that he believes in  spent most of his life walking, meeting people,listening, talking to them, from the heart.

Today, his fourth day in Brazil, Francis took to the streets, deep into the depth of Rio’s poor, in the favela of Manguinhos. Earlier, his restored a sense of humanity amidst the  suited local authorities and frocked bishops and sports celebrities gathered round him in the City’s municipal palace, when he placed his healing  hands on the kneeling veteran Brazilian basketball champion Oscar Schmidt- a giant of 2,05 metres ,now prostrate and tearful, who has brain cancer.

Meanwhile the dwellers of Manguinhos waited patiently in the rain, against a chaotic backdrop of improvised housing and in the mudfield of the wasteland that doubles up as a football pitch and, today, as an open house of God.

Francis reached the shanty town dwellers in an open car, stopping now and then to kiss and bless babies lifted to him by his security guards, then leaning towards the crowd, before stepping down among them, meeting them with his smile, his handshake, his warm blessing the light breaking through the darkness rain, in an enduring gesture of human solidarity.

And then he stepped up to the makeshift stage , as to the mountain summit, and made them feel honoured, dignified, people of his world, and that of Jesus Christ, of the beatitudes.

“In you generous welcome…you have shown a great sense of solidarity..and the word solidarity is not one that can be or should be silenced,”he told them.

He called for greater social justice, and promised that the Church would be behind every initiative  that promoted development and the dignity of ordinary men and women..

“A nation is built on these essential pillars: family, tolerance,education, housing, health, security…violence can only be overcome with a change in the human heart,”he told them

And turning to government and others in position of authority, to recover a sense of the common good, while ending with a tribute to youth who, conscious, of the corruption of some of their leaders , call for a better society.

“We need an enduring peace in our communities,one that brings genuine social justice..do not lose hope.!”

They cheered him loudly in the favelas,

As a smiling Brazilian told me: “The Pope has already performed a miracle. He has achieved what seemd impossible: he has managed to get ordinary Brazilians to fall in love with an Argentinian.” A sense of spiritual transformation is palpable on the streets of Rio. And it’s  bound to be catching universally.

Later, in Rio’s  Cathedral, he told a packed congregation of Argentine young pilgims (there were 30,000 , including those in the surrounding streets). “What do I want? I want dynamic action. The Church cannot stay enclosed. It has to break out, get out onto the streets.”

 

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Organisational shortcomings of Papal visit to Brazil

One of the most loved public figures in the world, Pope Francis is in Rio de Janeiro, one of the friendliest and beautiful cities in the world  on his first ever trip abroad since being elected.

With hundreds of journalists and half a million young pilgrims in town, you would have thought the authorities would have taken steps to make sure than matters are organised well. Such is the good nature …of the Pope and the joy of his faithful  youth, neither deserve to be blighted by cock-up,

And yet even before the Pope had stepped onto Brazilian soil, the organisation has shown serious failings.

Despite its impressive array of computers, giant TV screens  and hundreds of smiling volunteers, the media centre in Copacabana suffered technical problems that delayed the issuing of press passes to several journalists.  Even when they had finally got their passes, it turned out that only a limited pool would get guaranteed transport to the papal events.

And transport has been and is a big problem in Rio. With a city overcrowded with subsidised  cars, both bus and metro system are well past their sell-by date-old, rusty, and uncomfortable they are not worthy of a country with the economic potential and growth  of Brazil. Yesterday one of the main metro lines collapsed, due to a signal failure, trapping pilgrims and provoking chaotic scenes below and above ground.

The Pope himself suffered a major security lapse within an hour of his arrival with his car being led by outriders into a traffic jam that had the pontiff hemmed in by lorries and police having to struggle to hold off crowds of people who quickly arrived on the scene. Thank God, there was noone there with a knife, a gun, or a bomb.

Later the Pope’s  open decked car truck tour through the city centre came close to disaster due to the sheer volume of crowds and a lack of coordination between volunteers and military police. In Brazil there is no concept of policing by consent . On the contrary the police these days, whe not shooting up drug traffickers in the favelas,  spend their time violently attacking those protesting against poor transport, rising  prices, and political corruption.

Most Brazilians have more faith in Pope Francis than they do in their own political leaders. But the Pope is not in charge of organising next year’s World Cup, and the Olympics that will follow it. On the evidence of this week, it will be a miracle of the events don’t turn into a public order disaster.

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