Mercy Global Concern - 1999 to 2001

The 52nd Annual DPI-NGO Conference

The Challenges of a Globalized World: Finding New Directions

15 - 17 September, 1999

Reflections of Mercy Participants

What remains with me from the conference at the UN is that first awesome feeling of being in the General Assembly hall, to hear Kofi Annan in person. A theme on which he spoke was the place of NGOs in the face of globalisation, and this was expanded on during the rest of the conference. While the majority of speakers were male, I was gratified that the women who spoke did so with such passion. All in all, it was a wonderful event. (Suzanne Ryder, Ireland)

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Seeing some fifteen Sisters of Mercy from around the world at the UN NGO conference was a fulfillment of a dream. In 1979 from across the USA a group of us RSMs into making justice began to meet regularly. We called ourselves the Mercy Mission to the Global Community. It was a seed; and before me at the UN was a young tree of Mercy for the world. Five continents represented by Sisters of Mercy must cause Catherine to smile down on us! (Rita Brocke, USA)

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Before I left the Philippines, I asked the high school students what they knew about globalization and what they expected of it, since they will be the future beneficiaries of whatever the collective efforts of this group will gain for them. They were unanimous in saying that they do not want globalization to achieve just economic progress, but to build for them a better world, guided with the Christian values of love, where people can live peacefully with one another. They want globalization to create a world that would make them better human beings. And so, as the conference progressed, I was very happy that the direction of the globalized world was towards human development, "to put a human face at the centre of globalization". I was very much impressed with this gathering of hundreds of leaders of NGOs, all concerned with the improvement of their fellow human beings - the children, the laborers, the women, the prisoners, etc - all those marginalized by the present dominant society. I will come out of this conference humbly acknowledging that as a Sister of Mercy perhaps I can encourage others in my group to do even more than we are doing now for our poor people and create a new sense of responsibility, of global responsibility. To be a witness to all these efforts at this UN conference of NGOs makes me fell as if I am present in a modern pentecost to usher in the coming millennium as a millennium of hope, promising peace and compassion in a globalized world. (Maria Villegas, Philippines)

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That I am a citizen living in a globalized world has become real for me during this year of my sabbatical, involving as it has mixing with people from different cultures and countries. The privilege and opportunity to attend the UN NGO Conference has been a further exposure to the idea of this globalised world and the shared vision and responsibility we each have to make it a better world for all people. When Martha Ojeda spoke so passionately about human rights violations and exploitation of her Mexican people, especially women, and the skepticism they felt of ever receiving the benefits of globalism, I was forcibly reminded of similar cries. A Zambian Sister I shared with in Wales on the discrimination against women there; a priest just come from the Congo where attempts have been made to capture and kill his bishop and where many people are being murdered; and our own Australian Sisters' concern for the slaughter of people in East Timor, - all have been asking the same questions as Martha: How can international organisations find effective ways of helping? How can proper mechanisms be applied? Through attendance at this conference I am reminded once again of the power of 'one'. Up till the present, the UN for me was a 'far away place' where certain powerful individuals endeavoured to promote and maintain peace and justice, and seemingly often failed. But listening to the various speakers, from the young sixteen year old Craig Kielberger to Kwesi Botchwey reminding us of the uselessness of giving someone a sixteen foot rope to save them from drowning in twenty feet of water, I realised the responsibility I have as a global citizen to join in solidarity with all people to work and speak for justice. I see now that the United Nations, in collaboration with the NGOs, is a forum where everyone can have a voice. I found that the United Nations does, in fact, have a human face, and that that face is calling on me to be an active participant in helping to make this world a better place for all. (Yvonne Channells, Australia)

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Walking through the long corridors of UN headquarters, I was struck by the great number of visitors from all parts of the world - people of many nations, cultures, ethnic groups, languages and faiths. Suddenly it dawned on me - they are not visitors. This is their home. This is our home. We are one humanity, one Earth. (Karen Donahue, USA)

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What I found most valuable in the UN conference:
- the organisation of the sessions and the good work that was done by the moderators to keep the flow of the panels;
- some very good speakers, like Puanani Burgess on 'New Partnerships and Structures for the 21st Century';
- the presentation of Ali Mazrui on 'Culture and Communications Technology: Empowerment and Marginalization', read by Victoria Jones;
- 'Globalization in the 21st Century' by Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe, Vice-President of Uganda.
I liked the welcoming atmosphere created by the organisers, the lack of tense feelings and ease of movement. The organisation of the workshops was excellent. As a whole, it was a big eye-opener for me, great learning and plenty of challenges. I was delighted to be among the participants. (Anne Itotia, Kenya)

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Photographs of the United Nations General Assembly viewed in Aotearoa New Zealand seemed to me to be of a realm that ordinary folk would never enter. Suddenly, there we were, Sisters of Mercy sitting in those very seats listening to Kofi Annan addressing us. The United Nations became a real and accessible place. The voices of women speaking articulately and passionately about the effects of globalisation - the global free market economy - on the poor, especially women and children, stirred up in me a determination to continue working through networks for a just and compassionate world despite, perhaps because of, the contrasting views of many of the speakers. (Clare Pierson, Aotearoa New Zealand)

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