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Peace in our Hands: The Manifesto 2000 Proposals
In the Context of Economic Globalization
by Dr. Mina Ramirez

If one reads the Manifesto 2000 proposals one may say that the very basic of all principles enunciated in the manifesto is RESPECT FOR DIGNITY OF THE PERSON AND FOR THE INTEGRITY OF CREATION. This millennium in calling us to focus on the WHOLENESS OF LIFE and LIFE-FORMS. Our growth and development if it were true and authentic will have to be premised on the interconnectivity of all elements of creation. And this focus certainly will have to be instilled in our children and youth, our women and men to guarantee the well-being not only of today's generation but also of the future.

It is, however, unfortunate that the UN Human Development Report of 1999 reflects the uneasiness felt by people all over the world with regard to economic commercialized globalization which is enhanced by the rapid advancement of communication technology. The report has succeeded in bringing to the fore the vast human and social possibilities of a global community, yet presents social facts and figures of a trend towards an even more acute widening of the gap between the monetarily rich and the monetarily poor among and within countries.

In an international meeting in the Vatican State last February 21, I had the chance to listen to one of the authors of the 1999 Human Development Report and in summarizing what he meant by a globalization that makes the gap between the rich and poor wider.

The report has clearly come out with the reality that Globalization is not trending towards a people-centered development meaning that people are getting excluded. Requested to make a commentary on his report, I focused on what has been mentioned but not as much highlighted in the report. It is "the squeezing out of care, the invisible heart of human development." And who are inevitably negatively affected by a general lack of care in all institutions-it will be children and youth.

The great gap between the rich and the poor is certainly a manifestation of all what we strive to prevent in the Manifesto 2000 - exclusion, oppression, discrimination. Where there is a gap between rich and poor - there is an environment where the great majority are not respected in their rights, where organized greed leads to injustice, political and economic oppression; where the earth is exploited both by the rich and the poor (out of necessity). They go the way of short-term profits for a few, and long-term losers for all.

This great gap in this country has been elucidated by Mr. Teodoro Benigno in his article in Philippine Star "RP Road, Ahead, Rocky, Uncertain" Jan 1, 1999, p.2,4)

(There) are issues of crime and violence, a weak political opposition, difficult foreign policy problems in a new Asia, the deteriorating state of education, the low level of science and technology, the high prohibitive cost of health, medicare and medicines and the dire lack of understanding and unprepared ness of a world globalization.

It is within the above context that I would like to show how a group of five youth (four of whom were in the same high school in St. Scholastica prior to their college years), coming from various universities have come together to commit themselves into Kilusan para sa Kinabukasan ng Kabataan (KKK) in 1995. They were challenged by the Holy Father when Manila was the seat of the 10th World Youth Day. Today this movement of KKK which was first multi-university has become multi-sectoral with members especially from fisherfolk and indigenous youth. They have also networked with farmers youth and industrial youth and the urban poor communities through a consultation early in 1999. This year they will have a consultation in Cebu and Davao in view of forming multi-sectoral organizations in the principal cities of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Hopefully then the multi-sectoral nature of the movement will be national in scope. The focus of their activities is "Globalization without Marginalization, Globalization without Exclusion."

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