Blog

17/05/2019

Community engagement coordinator for the Refugee Survival Trust (RST), Mahdii, tells us about his journey from asylum seeker to talk ambassador with RST in this week's blog.

I am Mahdi, community engagement coordinator for the Refugee Survival Trust (RST) since December 2018, but a volunteer since 2011 as a talk ambassador.

I converted to Christianity from Islam in my home country, Iran. I left Iran for exile in the UK in December 2008, when I claimed asylum.

In November 2012 I was granted refugee status, went to university and gained a BA Business degree. I know very well the problems which asylum seekers are facing every day. I am honoured to work with asylum seekers and refugees, and do everything I can to support them and help them to establish a new life in UK.

Refugee Survival Trust was set up in 1996 by a number of concerned individuals as a reaction to the problem of refugees and people claiming asylum being made destitute in Scotland. RST is a small organisation and can only exist with the continued support and expertise of its board of directors, its small team of dedicated staff, and the help of a committed team of volunteers.

The vision of RST is that all refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland receive just and respectful treatment and support appropriate to their needs. RST’s mission is to do everything within our available resources and powers to achieve that vision by enabling and supporting asylum seekers and refugees in need.

Our destitution grants programme provides small one-off payments to asylum seekers and refugees who do not receive support from the government or other sources and are at real risk of destitution. These ‘last resort’ grants are available to people seeking asylum and refugees for up to six months after they are granted refugee status. Our grants can make the difference between having somewhere to stay and sleeping rough; eating properly and begging for help. They offer brief respite from shocking hardship and emotional distress.

The Destitute Asylum Seeker Service (DASS) is a partnership project led by RST with the Scottish Refugee Council, British Red Cross, University of Strathclyde Law Clinic, Glasgow Night Shelter, Fasgadh and Rehoboth Nissi Ministries. Using a model of holistic support, DASS assists refused asylum seekers who are Appeal Rights Exhausted (ARE) and NRPF (with no recourse to public funds) to find a route out of destitution and resolve their situation.

We have three programmes that support refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland to integrate:

• Our Access to Education and Employment Grants help to overcome barriers that might otherwise prevent asylum seekers and refugees from study and work opportunities.

• Glasgow Welcome, our befriending programme, links up people who are new to Glasgow with those who are well-established, in order to explore the city, share cultural understanding, and build social networks.

• Our Office Internship programme gives refugees their first experience of working in a UK office environment.

RST has participated in the national policy debate on asylum in Scotland. Our ‘From Pillar to Post’ report reveals the barriers people face when they try to exercise their rights, including accessing education, health and social care services. The research also highlights the need for a national action plan to tackle asylum and migrant destitution in Scotland.

It is fulfilling to bring about changes in procedures affecting refugees and asylum seekers.

10/05/2019

Faith-based Investing

This week in our blog, Dr Quintin Rayer, reflects on why people choose ethical fincance.

Introduction

A range of reasons leads investors to invest ethically. Backgrounds can form a part, perhaps individuals want to “give something back” or are concerned about social or environmental issues. For many, their moral framework is set by religious beliefs.

How faith-based investing differs from other motivations.

Faith-based ethical investing is motivated by moral tenets based on a body of religious thought that has been developed over many years, centuries or even millennia. Pope John Paul wrote that the “decision to invest in one place rather than another, in one productive sector rather than another, is always a moral and cultural choice”.

Comparing faith-based versus secular motivations, investors may decide to invest sustainably by different routes. Secular scientific thought has concluded that sustainable investing is necessary to preserve global climate, protect ecosystems and the long-term viability of species, societies and livelihoods. Based on the religious principle of humankind’s divinely-appointed role of stewardship for the earth, and of care for fellow-people; faith-based investors also conclude the necessity of sustainable investing.

Financially motivated investors may use sustainability to identify long-term risks that they believe financial markets have not adequately responded to.

Consider fossil divestment:

• Faith-based investors may feel that carbon emissions generate unacceptable climate damage as part of their stewardship role.

• For secular investors, fossil divestment may help address unacceptable global warming.

• Financially motivated investors may feel that fossil firms’ valuations reflect fossil reserves that they will be unable to exploit, making them over-valued.

For different reasons, all these investors might feel they should avoid fossil companies. They have different motivations but share a common community across both secular and faith-based backgrounds.

Elements of agreement between faiths

Many faiths share similarities in their teaching. Care for others, supporting the weak, and respect for the environment, for example. Popes Jon Paul II and Benedict both spoke of the Christian requirement to “tend the garden” and protect the poorest. Caring for creation is one of the seven tenants of Catholic Social Teaching. Many principles are encapsulated in the ‘golden rule’ of “do as you would be done by”.

Religions often share prohibitions, such as bans on alcohol, tobacco and recreational drugs. The principle of “not harming your neighbour” identifies areas such as arms, and not selling alcohol or tobacco in business.

Several religions, either historically or currently have included bans on the practice of lending money for interest. This is prohibited in Islamic finance and historically in medieval Christian tradition.

The development of the Faith in Finance movement

In 2017, the faith leaders’ Zug conference in Switzerland, sought to address challenges and opportunities presented by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Delegates represented more than 30 different faiths, with trillions of dollars in assets, United Nations figures and leading impact investment funds. The organisers believed it should enable faith groups to share information and resources to put their investments into initiatives to help create a better world for all. Promoting a proactive policy ensuring that faith investments have a positive “faith-consistent” impact. Aiming to make money work for good, while still generating the returns they need to fund activities.

Dr Quintin Rayer
DPhil, FInstP, Chartered FCSI, SIPC, Chartered Wealth Manager
Head of Research and Ethical Investing at P1 Investment Management

03/05/2019

A Thanksgiving Service for Nuclear Deterrence??

This week in our blog Brian Quail reflects on the service of thanksgiving for nuclear weapons at Westminster Abbey on 3rd May 2019.

On May 3rd at Westminster Abbey there will be a service commemorating 50 years of CASD – Continuous At-Sea Deterrence. The great and the good will thank God that for half a century in His loving kindness he has granted us the ability to slaughter millions of His children, our brothers and sisters, at a moment’s notice - that He has given us the power to enact instant global extinction; to undo his work of Genesis.

But whatever prayers are said in Westminster Abbey, a landmark statement made on Nov. 10, 2018 will hang over the service. In that statement, Pope Francis categorically condemned not only the use but also the very possession of nuclear weapons.

The Pope’s statement rejects the compromising distinction between mere possession and actual use, destroying the moral basis for the UK government’s nuclear policies, and those of the official opposition. Possession means to have these weapons ready for use, devastating all moral limits.

It is a blessed relief to hear that Pope Francis vindicates the position the peace movement has always taken. It is for this that we should be thanking God.

Pope Francis told participants in a high-profile Vatican conference on nuclear disarmament, including the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, NATO’s deputy secretary general, and eleven Nobel Peace Prize laureates:

“…humanity cannot fail to be genuinely concerned by the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental effects of any employment of nuclear devices”.

He concluded: “If we also take into account the risk of an accidental detonation as a result of error of any kind, the threat of their use, as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned.”

But now, in my opinion, on May 3rd at Westminster Abbey a pantomime will be performed in the name of Jesus, who said we should love our enemies, do good to those that hate us, and pray for those who persecute us. His revolutionary nonviolence will once again be buried in a shroud of platitudes and religiosity.

Despite our scientific advances, the truth is that our position is really primitive. We are right back where we started. “I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both you and your children may live” (Deut. 30 19).

But we have chosen death.

According to peace activist Bruce Kent, these words were spoken at the launch of Resolution, the first Polaris submarine:

“Go forth into the world in peace; be of good courage; hold fast that which is good; render no man evil for evil…love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Beat that! Reality has replaced satire, and the laughter has died.

Deterrence is – in the lovely Americanism of the US Pax Christi statement – “a sin situation”. We should be begging God’s forgiveness for this ongoing sin, not celebrating it in Westminster Abbey.

We can only thank God that we have survived long enough to repent of our nuclear idolatry.

see the full article here https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2019/04/02/thanking-god-for-nuclear-weapons/

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