Back on the West Coast...

As you may have noticed if you followed the news about the G-8 Summit in Heiligendamm there was too much upheaval going on for me to feel a need to go there. Instead I extended my stay at the Kirchentag, which was just as well, since some of the same people spoke here and there (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Vandana Shiva, Mohammed Yunus, Hermann Scheer, to name some). Both events were very much connected as the church raised its voice to push for the government to exert all possible pressure on the club of the wealthy to open up their circle of privilege to pay attention to the rest of the world. And there were even some successes, arguably, given the extremely negative attitude the US Delegation brought with it. Absolutely the most moving moments for me was when Tutu thanked the German Protestant church for boycotting South Africa during Apartheid. "Because of you, we are free today." I couldn't believe my ears! As a young person, I remember standing in a supermarket wondering whether it made really a difference on whether I bought fruit from South Africa or not. I proudly chose to boycott, as my church then had invited me to do, but never really thought it amounted to much. Tutu had an entire audience of several thousands of German church people give standing ovations as loudly and excitedly as they possibly could, and then said: "This applause is for you." I could not hold back the tears. How can I ever again doubt that what I do does not make a difference? It may not be a boycott, but there is SOMETHING we can do. Even if it feels immaterial, just to know how supported sisters and brothers in South Africa felt when we did this little scrawny act of solidarity is worth it many times over! Just in case I can't believe he said that there is the german simultaneous translation transcript to remind me. Bottom picture: some of the audience present, outside the Cologne Cathedral