---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Marie Venner <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Jun 8, 2016 at 3:01 AM The Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva, Mgr. Jurkovič, has revealed that too many young people remain jobless and things have still not picked up since the start of the economic crisis. A capacity for innovation is crucial if there is to be a transition from a speculative economy to a social economy that places the human person, their qualities and education at the centre. Technology should also be used to serve man, while working hours and salaries must respect criteria of equality and justice. Environmental disasters are also harming jobs [image: http://www.lastampa.it/rf/image_lowres/Pub/p4/2016/06/03/VaticanInsider/Foto...] The Vatican raises the alarm about the high rate of unemployment worldwide. [image: http://www.lastampa.it/modulo/gigya/img/facebook.png]*12* [image: http://www.lastampa.it/modulo/gigya/img/twitter.png] [image: http://www.lastampa.it/modulo/gigya/img/googleplus.png] [image: http://www.lastampa.it/modulo/gigya/img/linkedin.png]*0* 03/06/2016 *FRANCESCO PELOSO* VATICAN CITY “The information contained in the reports and analyses of this Organization regarding the inability to create a sufficient number of dignified and stable jobs is a cause of serious concern.” The international community must therefore do more to create new jobs and boost employment, especially among the young. The Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva, Mgr. Ivan Jurkovič expressed this concern, addressing the 105th session of the International Labour Conference organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which has been taking place over the past couple of days. The Holy See representative was particularly keen to raise “the pressing issue of youth unemployment. Despite a mild recovery in the 2012-2014 period, the youth unemployment rate remains well above its pre-crisis level. For millions of young people around the world finding a decent job is still a lengthy hard struggle. As Pope Francis reminds us, ‘we cannot resign ourselves to losing a whole generation of young people who don’t have the strong dignity of work’.” Mgr. Jurkovič was referring to a speech the Pope gave during his visit to the Italian dioceses of Campobasso and Isernia in July 2014, where he honed in on the issue of youth unemployment. On that occasion, the Pope stated amongst other things: “It is sad to find “neither-nor” young people. What does it mean, this “neither-nor”? They neither study because they cannot, they do not have the means, nor work. And this is the challenge that all of us in the community must defy. We must go forward to defy this challenge! We cannot resign ourselves to losing a whole generation of young people who do not have the powerful dignity of work! Work gives us dignity, and all of us need to do everything possible so as not to lose a generation of young people.” “A generation without work,” Francis added, “is a loss for their homeland and for future humanity. We must fight against this. And help one another to find a way of solution, of aid, of solidarity. Young people are courageous, I have said this, the young have hope and — third — the young have the capacity for solidarity. And this word solidarity is a word that the world today does not like to hear. Some people think that it is a bad word. No, it is not a bad word, it is a Christian word: go forward with your brother and sister to help them overcome problems. Courageous, with hope and with solidarity.” Taking Francis’ magisterium as the starting point, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United Nations in Geneva asked the international community to set itself the goal of creating a substantial number of jobs based on the principle of subsidiarity, ensuring a recovery “that allows each individual and each business to be the protagonist of the development of society as a whole”; this is a moral duty, Mgr. Jurkovič added. Naturally, in order to achieve goal like this, certain choices need to be made. Amongst these, the Holy See mentioned the development of economic models that are more inclusive and not aimed at serving the interests of a few but the ensuring the good of ordinary people and society as a whole. The idea is to move away from a speculative economy and towards a social economy that “invests in persons by creating jobs and providing training”. As such, alternative solutions that make it possible to link economic growth to wellbeing and employment need to be found. Technology itself needs to be placed “at the service of the common good” which “includes decent work for everyone”. This is why we urgently need to leave a purely consumerist mentality behind as human beings end up being “considered as consumer goods, which can be used and thrown away”. Work on the contrary needs to be decent, sustainable for workers, employers, governments, communities and the environment. Jurkovič also talked about globalisation of the economy which led to the spread of supranational production and distribution systems which, however, risk harming salaries and working hours – creating an imbalance in the employer-employee relationship – just for the sake of beating competition. In such a system, working hours and salaries become the two variables producers use as leverage to stay in the market. This often means lower salaries and longer working hours. Hence, salaries must not be “left solely to the whim of the market, but must be influenced by justice and equity”. Finally, the Holy See representative touched on the issue of climate change and “the negative impacts on economic and social development in general and on enterprises and workers” as many businesses and workplaces are left devastated by natural disasters, with a consequent reduction in the possibility of having an income. [image: Licenza Creative Commons] <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/> Alcuni diritti riservati. -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/
