Water
- Dom Luiz Flávio Cappio
One of my grandfather's favorite songs was Cool Water by The Sons of the Pioneers. I thought about that when I saw a story at the Independent Catholic News, Franciscan bishop wins Pax Christi peace award. Here's a bit of the story ....
The 2008 Pax Christi International Peace Award has been awarded to Franciscan priest, Dom Luiz Flávio Cappio, the bishop of Barra in the state of Bahia, Brazil, and the members of the Brazilian community who have worked with him. Dom Luiz was commended for his non-violent action in protest against the Säo Francisco river transposition project. Brazil's third-largest river, the Rio Säo Francisco in the north-eastern state of Bahia, was relocated to build more hydropower stations and supply water for industrial farming, shrimps production and steel plants in an area inhabited by rich people. The project would effectively destroy many fishing villages and river inhabitants and cause vast environmental damage. The award also honours the actions of members of the community, who worked actively against the project. The struggle behind this Award also echoes the many struggles around the world related to land and water resources and rights.
I tried to read up on Dom Luiz Flávio Cappio, but sadly most stuff about him on the web is not in English. I did find a past post about him, though, in an article from the ecumenical water network, and from there I came upon a rather scary article at Mirada Global, a South American Jesuit site, about water and its coming scarcity, and politics .... Life, liberty, water.
I hadn't realized that only 1% of the earth's water is fresh water (97% is salt water, 2% is in the form of ice in glaciers and ice caps), that about 1 billion people are without clean drinking water. Maybe we should be less concerned about oil and more concerned about cool water.
posted by crystal | 12:47 PM
2 Comments:
Cool Water.... wow that brings back memories! When I was I think 10, my family all piled in to the van and drove from Minneapolis out to Seattle for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. Along the way the 7 of us kids were taught to sing Cool Water, and at the anniversary celebration we all had to stand up and perform it together. (I guess it was my grandpa's favorite song).
As for water in the world, I think I was at a Casting Crowns concert when they took a break to show a video about the difference that having a source of clean water made to a village in Africa. Charities that drill wells for villages are now the charity I would most like to contribute to.
I can still remember the words to that song :)
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