HUNGER FOR JUSTICE

Letter from sister organisations :

HUNGER FOR JUSTICE
The solidarity shown over the last few years by the Mallorcan people towards those who are deprived of the basic means of survival has been extraordinary. However, the generosity shown this past Christmas has grown to heroic proportions as so many people have shared with the poor and given them things they desperately need.
We would like to speak on behalf of the needy people to whom we distribute food, who suffer from hunger in their own homes, expressing our thanks to all those of you who make this human kindness possible. If the extreme needs of many of the people who live in Mallorca were the result of a natural disaster then we could speak proudly of such generosity. However the reality is that the desperate situation of this new poverty is caused by the perverse society we live in and the cynicism of people who abuse economic, social and political power. There are reasons and guilty people behind our crisis.
We want to continue helping the hungry by collecting and distributing food but we cannot give up our rights and our dignity. For us, silence would be worse than ignoring the misery.
We, the poor and needy refuse to be used to reinforce the system. In addition to our hunger for food we are suffering from hunger for justice.
We are not talking about a Utopian justice as a synonym of revolution, for which we have long given up hope. We demand a justice which is palpable and real as in the classic sense of the word. In other words, equality of rights, opportunities and responsibilities for everybody.
Justice means that the public money grabbers give us back everything they have stolen from us. Justice means that astronomical differences in wages are suppressed. Justice demands that public and private funds that have gone missing and have been hidden away are invested in the creation of jobs. While there continue to be around one hundred thousand people out of work in Mallorca, our society will be drowned in misery.
We can only dispel the stench of charity which is given off by our good deeds by complaints, criticism and self-criticism. We can only bear the pain of helplessness by shouting aloud about our hunger and thirst for justice.

Can Gazà
Fundació Minyones
Parròquia de sant Francesc de Paula
Caputxins, “Pa de sant Antoni”
Associació altruista El Refugi
Associació Zaqueo
Ciutat, gener 2013

------------------> We are in agreement with them.(MS)