2017
October
18
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

October 18, 2017
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It’s easy to think of inequality as being rooted in money. But it’s often the result of a complex interaction of factors – and a key one is gender.

The executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, Natalia Kanem, put it this way in introducing the State of World Population 2017 report yesterday: “Inequality in countries today is not only about the haves and have-nots…. [It’s] increasingly about the cans and cannots.”

Many of those cannots are women, especially poor women. A major barrier involves reproductive health and rights – the ability to decide when to marry, and when and how often to have children, and access to maternal health care. Without these rights, girls may find their education cut short, and are more likely to marry and give birth in their teens, thus dimming their prospects (and those of their daughters) for finding paid work. The cycle of poverty continues.

Too often – in both the developing and the developed world – opening up opportunity to more members of society is viewed as a zero-sum game: If you gain, I lose. But the evidence, rooted in many countries' experience, points firmly in the opposite direction. As the UN points out, “Inclusive societies are a conscious, achievable choice…. It is past time for every country and the global community to fully embrace that choice.”

Now to our five stories for today, highlighting restraint, respect, and the renewal of self-worth. 


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Charlie Riedel/AP/File
US military officers check systems in the underground control room where they work a 24-hour shift at an ICBM launch control facility near Minot, N.D. The crew is responsible for controlling and launching the 10 nuclear-tipped Minuteman 3 missiles located in remote launch sites under their command.

The ultimate power in US affairs of state resides in the Oval Office. But when it comes to the fearsome power of nuclear weapons, some are asking if more checks and balances should apply. 

We all know it’s important to choose our words carefully. And as the story of sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood intensifies, awareness is rising about how our language can make light of or belittle a serious problem.

Juan Ignacio Llana Ugalde/Special to The Christian Science Monitor
Eztizen Andrés (r.) and Álvaro López moved to Berlin in 2012 as part of the wave of Spaniards escaping economic crisis in Spain. With the economy in its third year of recovery, they were able to move back this spring. They recently spent a weekend in their hometown, Bilbao, where they often go for the weekend from Madrid.

The pull of home is strong, as Spain and Portugal are discovering amid a rebound from economic crisis that is spurring young adults who left in search of work to find their way back.

Do the ends justify the means? In the Philippines, religious figures are saying no – raising their voice in moral opposition to the president's violent "solution" to a social scourge.

Discomfort Zone

Experiences that transform

Voltaire warned that with great power comes great responsibility. That resonated with our reporter as he decided to visit a shooting range for the first time.


The Monitor's View

One gift to the world from the Philippines has been the term “people power,” or peaceful resistance in the streets against a leader’s arbitrary rule and violent suppression. In 1986, it led to a dictator’s fall and inspired pro-democracy protests in other countries. Three decades later, Filipinos are at it again.

This time they are quietly resisting President Rodrigo Duterte’s neglect of both the rule of law and the presumption of innocence in a violent crackdown on drug users and dealers. After 16 months in office leading a campaign that encouraged police to shoot “drug personalities” on sight – by the thousands – Mr. Duterte is facing a broad backlash.

His popularity has fallen below 50 percent, especially among the poor who backed his anti-drug campaign. One reason for the decline may be a video that surfaced in August showing police killing a teenager who did not appear to be resisting arrest. Even before the video came to light, more than half of Filipinos told pollsters they believe that many of the alleged drug users killed by police had not resisted arrest.

The shift in sentiment has emboldened more top figures in society – including the police and Roman Catholic bishops – to speak out, even at the risk of political retribution.

One such person is Byron Allatog, chief of police in the city of Bogo. He prefers his officers shoot only in self-defense and work with addicts to help them seek treatment. “Some people may say, ‘He’s a drug addict, nothing but trash.’ But do these people even consider the fact that these drug addicts have families? I want people to know that killing is not the final solution to the problem of illegal drugs,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The Catholic Church, meanwhile, has begun to speak out more forcefully. In a few cases, it has provided sanctuary to police who report the murder of innocent people by other police.

Earlier this month, Duterte stopped promising immunity for officers who kill suspects. And, in a major move, he decided that only the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency should conduct operations against drug-related offenders. The PDEA makes up only 1 percent of the nation’s police.

Many Filipinos still support extrajudicial killings out of impatience to end the effects of the drug trade. But the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines warns that Duterte’s war on drugs has created a “reign of terror in many places of the poor.” An even greater concern is “the indifference of many to this kind of wrong.”

That indifference, however, is steadily eroding as more Filipinos speak out. People power is at work again.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Recently, two Princeton University economists noted that since the early 1990s long-term stagnation in wages and incomes has “bred a sense of hopelessness” in many men, especially those without a college degree. Many yearn for those in such circumstances to feel comforted, to know that there is hope. There is. Even in the depths of despair, God’s help is always close at hand. There is not a more loyal, accessible, generous, or loving Parent than our heavenly Father-Mother. Nothing can separate any of us from God’s love and wise direction. Everyone is capable of finding freedom from anxiety and of feeling God’s infinite love, which inspires hope and brings solutions to light.


A message of love

Erik De Castro/Reuters
Fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces dance along a street in Raqqa, Syria, Oct. 18. Claimed as the capital of the so-called Islamic State, the city was recaptured earlier this week.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte and Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

I’m glad that you joined us today. Come back tomorrow. Among the stories we’re working on: Are the bidding wars for Amazon (and other giants) really worth it? San Antonio’s dropping of its bid to become the company’s second headquarters may set the tone for a contrarian economic-development style.

More issues

2017
October
18
Wednesday
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