I am deeply honoured by the invitation of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches to speak before this historic general council. This is my first time to attend a global meeting of Reformed churches. I bring with me greetings from the Philippines and Asia. In particular I am here to share with you the concerns of women and children, the poor and all those who are marginalized and excluded from participating in the prosperity and wealth created by the current phenomenon of globalization.

I come to the general council in all humility. I am not a theologian. I cannot even be considered a church leader. I speak more as an academic who has spent her lifetime studying the impact of economic forces on those who are least able to defend themselves. I also speak as an active member of non-governmental organizations advocating reforms on a national, regional and global level. Most important of all, I speak as one who has been raised since childhood in the tradition of Reformed churches.

It is a deeply moving experience for me to be here in "calvinist Rome". Yesterday morning, as I marched during the procession, I passed by an elderly Hungarian who was openly weeping at the sight of Reformed Christians from all over the world. It must have moved him to realize that his church had circled the globe. Our eyes met and I too cried when I realized what a miracle it was to live thousands of miles away in one of 7,100 islands in the Philippines and be reached by that faith!

The Reformed church and globalization

In less than three years time, a new millennium will begin. This meeting of the general council is timely. Reformed churches need to make an assessment of the challenges which confront them and take a position on Reformed faith and the search for unity, Justice for all creation, and Partnership in God's mission.

Perhaps the most significant development in the material world for nearly two decades is the phenomenon of globalization. This is the accelerated integration of the global economy through finance and trade. Spectacular breakthroughs in science and technology, particularly information technology, have speeded up the process.

Even as it is an economic phenomenon, globalization is not limited to the arena of economics and economic institutions. Its impact is felt on political and social institutions, as well as culture. No human institution is impervious to it. Even religion is challenged by it.

Globalization has brought prosperity and wealth to many nations and individuals. It has brought the blessings of science and technology to more and more people. It has shared knowledge and information on a scale which is beyond measure. At the same time, it has its dark and dangerous side.

The darkest manifestation of globalization is the persistence of poverty, unemployment, and social disintegration even as economies are being integrated in the global economy. It is the continuing destruction of the environment and the marginalization of women even as more and more wealth is created at an unbelievable pace. Economic, social and political injustice have accelerated in the wake of the frenzied transactions in global financial and trade markets.

The leadership of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches deserves our highest respect and congratulations for courageously facing the challenge of globalization and calling for breaking the chains of injustice in all its forms. This afternoon, I will concentrate on economic and social injustice and the need to break the chains of injustice binding women.

Break the chains of economic injustice!

Break the chains of poverty!

The most visible manifestation of the dark side of globalization is poverty. The UNDP Human Development Report of 1997 states that about a third of the world's population live on incomes of less than $1 a day, or less than 190 forints a day. This means that more than 1.3 billion human beings live in conditions of extreme poverty. In addition, their lives are short (they die at an early age), they lack basic education and they lack access to public and private resources.

Poverty exists on a global scale. No country is safe from its dehumanizing effects. While all countries have disturbing levels of poverty, it is more pervasive in the developing countries.

I come from Asia, home of the famed tiger economies whose rates of GNP and GDP growth are unmatched anywhere else in the world. Paradoxically, Asia is also the home of the largest number of absolutely poor. Out of the 1.3 billion people who are absolutely poor, 950 million or over 73% come from Asia and the Pacific.

On the other hand, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of people - and the fastest growth - in human poverty. At present 220 million people in the region are income poor. It is estimated by the UNDP that by the year 2000, half the people in sub-Saharan Africa will be in income poverty.

In Latin America and the Caribbean 110 million people are mired in income poverty. In eastern Europe and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) income poverty is fast spreading. One hundred twenty million people earn less than $4 a day, or less than 760 forints a day.

Industrialized countries are not free from the blight of poverty. More than 100 million people live below the poverty line and thirty-seven million are jobless.

While efforts are exerted in many countries to combat poverty, new global pressures are creating or threatening further increases in poverty. These are slow economic growth, stagnation and decline in some 100 developing and transition economies; continuing conflict in 30 countries, mostly in Africa; slow advance in key areas as nutrition; and the rise of such threats as HIV/Aids.

Poverty is closely linked with unemployment. A disturbing aspect of global growth is that unemployment has consistently lagged behind growth, a trend which has been going on since 1975. In effect, we are witnessing jobless growth - growth which is not translated into more employment opportunities. Breakthroughs in science and technology and the incessant drive for profits have profoundly changed the nature of work. Security of tenure is disappearing and permanent jobs are giving way to short-term contracts as competition becomes more and more fierce. A person can have a job today and none tomorrow. For those with families to feed, and children to send to school, the prospect of contractual work is unsettling and terrifying.

The lethal combination of pervasive poverty and unemployment has resulted in the exclusion of 1.3 billion people from active participation in the economic, political, social and cultural life of their communities and countries. The phenomenon of exclusion has contributed to the disintegration of society. Alienation has driven people to suicide. In one country, it is said that one young man commits suicide a day. In many of these instances, poverty and unemployment are considered contributing factors.

As earlier decried by the Club of Rome and echoed by the UNDP, "In a global economy of $25 trillion, persistent poverty is a scandal - reflecting shameful inequalities and inexcusable failures of national and international policy".

In 1995, Oxfam, a global NGO based in the United Kingdom, came out with the Oxfam Poverty Report. The report noted the pervasiveness of poverty even as globalization brought prosperity and wealth to many. It graphically described in both technical and human terms the impact of global poverty on individual lives. The report called for global action from principal players - UN organizations, international and financial and trade organizations, transnational corporations, official donors and NGOs - to create an enabling environment which will allow people to act as agents of change. The United Nations has issued a similar call.

Our study text makes courageous calls for breaking down the chains which bind people to poverty. It is based on the theological observation that the market which has excluded over a billion people from the global economy is "not God... The economy is not an end in itself, but one means toward the well-being of all creation. The economy should not rule people; people should regulate the economy".

The different Reformed churches all over the world cannot help but reflect the realities of the global economy. Their members include those who belong to the seven richest nations in the world. They also include those who live in the poorest and most severely indebted countries. Some members are among the richest and wealthiest in their countries while others earn less than $1 a day. Our churches include those who are blessed by globalization and those who are blighted by the same economic juggernaut.

All of us worship the same God, profess the same faith, but are separated by this chasm, this gap which keeps the excluded apart from the included.

Break the chains of debt!

The external debt crisis has debilitated the economies of the third world for the past fifteen years. As far as the lending community - commercial private banks, multilateral institutions (World Bank, IMF and regional development banks), and donor countries - are concerned, the debt crisis is already over. They have been paid, and continue to be paid. Strategies have been worked out to ensure that debtor countries can access funds to enable them to continue paying. They have paid with the lives of their people who had to be deprived of health services, opportunities for education and other social development expenditures as a consequence of structural adjustment programmes. Fifteen years later, the debt crisis still strangles the economies of 37 severely indebted low income countries (SILICs) and twelve severely indebted middle income countries (SIMICs). Thirty of the SILICs are in Africa, the rest are in Asia and the Pacific and Latin America.

In 1980, developing countries had a total debt stock of $616.7 billion. By 1996, notwithstanding all the creditor-initiated debt reduction strategies, the total debt burden had ballooned more than three and a half times to a staggering $2.177 trillion!

In 1995, the Oxfam Poverty Report called for a comprehensive and lasting solution to the debt crisis. It called for a 90-100% write-off of the official debt of SILICs. The report likewise made the same recommendation for chronically indebted middle-income countries. NGOs campaigning for debt relief have called for write-offs of commercial and multilateral debt of SILICs and selected middle-income countries. The 1996 Human Development Report has likewise observed that the present solutions are not solving the debt crisis. It stated that debt repayments often absorb a quarter to a third of developing countries' limited government revenue, crowding out critical public investment in human development. The UNDP Report likewise calls for a comprehensive solution to all outstanding debt - commercial, bilateral and multilateral.

In light of the above calls, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches can do no less, especially since a good number of the 49 severely indebted low income and middle income countries have members belonging to Reformed churches.

Break the chains of social injustice!

Our study text declares that "In today's world there are many landless, homeless, and workless people; child labourers; people without space or time to enjoy and celebrate life. This is not the will of God. God's will is found in the visions of a just and peaceful society where people do not labour in vain, but live in the houses they build (Is 65.21); where each can sit under their vine and fig tree (Mic 5.4); where city streets are full of girls and boys playing freely while the elderly sit resting and watching with joy (Zech 8.4)".

What is the situation in developing countries? Even as dramatic strides have been made in health, education, food and nutrition, the degree of deprivation is still very severe, especially in the case of women and children.

In south Asia, where the concentration of poverty is most intense, there are nearly two million HIV-infected people, and the number may reach four million by the year 2000. About 250 million people lack access to safe water, and 850 million lack access to even basic sanitation. About 420 million people are still illiterate and 600 million people suffer from chronic malnutrition. Nearly 85 million children under five are malnourished. And we are talking only of south Asia! As for the status of women, even as female illiteracy has been reduced, it is calculated that about 80% of pregnant women suffer from anaemia - the highest rate in the world. While infant mortality has declined and 85% of one-year-olds are immunized, abut a third of newborn babies are underweight. Approximately 48 million children are out of primary school, and 94 million are out of secondary school.

How long will it take us to fulfil the visions of Isaiah, Micah and Zechariah? All over the world, millions of children are unable to play. They don't even know the meaning of the word. The elderly can't sit resting under the trees. They don't have money. Many are sick and abandoned.

Even as 1.3 billion human beings subsist on less than $1 a day, 358 multimillionaires around the world possess a fortune equivalent to that of 2.4 billion human beings. The richest person in the world, Bill Gates, is worth $39.7 billion [As of August 3 1997; internet]. According to Socialwatch, he has more dollars than the entire population of Afghanistan ($18 million), Chad ($6 million) and Bhutan ($2 million).

Such social injustice which exists on such a massive scale can only be the result of structures and institutions which exclude over a billion people from active participation. Many voices have spoken on social injustice. Reformed faith must speak out and call for the breaking of chains of social injustice.

Break the chains which prevent women from being true partners with men!

It is generally recognized that the economic contributions of women are still undervalued. The Human Development Report for 1995 notes that "of the total burden of work, women carry more than half. Three-fourths of men's work is in paid market activities, compared with only one-third of women's work. As a result, men receive the lion's share of income and recognition for their economic contribution - while most of women's work remains unpaid, unrecognized and undervalued".

Many scholars write about the feminization of poverty. In many developing countries the burden of keeping the family together in the midst of poverty falls largely on the woman. It is the mother who goes out to borrow money for food, medicines and the children's needs. The wide range of biases in society - unequal opportunities in education, employment and asset ownership - give women less opportunity to improve their status. In countries like the Philippines, more than one-half of overseas workers are women. Overseas workers remit more than $4 billion annually to the Philippine economy. While Filipino women tend to earn less than men, they send a larger proportion (if not all) of their earnings to their families.

Our study text calls us to challenge injustice related to gender. It also calls us to break the chains of unjust relationships particularly between women and men, whether in the economic, political and social order or in the Reformed churches. The recently concluded women's conference revealed that while a number of chains binding women in the church have been broken, many more remain.

Closing statement

I come from the Philippines. My country is classified as a middle-income country. It is considered "moderately indebted" by the World Bank. What comes to mind when the word "middle-income" is used? One imagines a couple with both husband and wife working. They own a house, probably have two cars and their children go to elite schools. What is the Philippines like? While four Filipinos have proudly made it to the list of the world's billionaires, 35% of the Filipino population or approximately 24.5 million live below the poverty line. According to the UNDP, 12.8% of the Philippine population are not expected to survive to the age of 40. Infant mortality is on the rise, along with maternal women's mortality. On the average, more than two million people are killed and affected by disasters annually. Every day, thousands of Filipinos with college degrees leave their "middle income" country to work as domestics, bar girls and nannies. Many of them undergo unimaginable horrors, including rape and murder. If this is the picture of a "middle income" country, the spectre of a "low income" can only elicit horror and shame.

I stated at the beginning of my presentation that I am neither a theologian nor a church leader. I spend a good part of my time in going to global conferences and telling the story of the Philippines, of Asia and the developing world. In the process, I have learned that economic, social and political injustice are global. I have learned that "in no society do women enjoy the same opportunities as men". While I and many others from the developing world have been bringing the story of the poor to international forums, our countries' debt has increased, the number of the poor has risen, and more children are unable to play freely while the elderly sit resting and watching with joy.

I believe that the general council is different. I know that when I come home from the council, I can say that things are going to change and that the vision of a just and peaceful society will finally be attained, with God's help. Let all of us who are still chained go home proclaiming that finally, salvation is at hand. Amen.