another else visitor to boot, you can get more on the un chiefs visit lebanon, and everything else we're covering as well right here. al jazeera dot com. ah. just a look at the main stories. now. to grind force is battling the ethiopian government, say they are withdrawing their troops from the northern regions of afar, and i'm hora if the o p. a central government is that the retreat was a prerequisite for peace talks to take place. more than a year, a fight has caused a major humanitarian crisis. with more than 400000 people facing famine, rebels say thou withdrawing, so that aid can enter the region with governments as it's a cover up for their military setbacks. the u. k. government is one that further restrictions might be needed to keep the army con corona virus very under control. more than 91000 new infections were reported on monday with at least 8000 known to

be ami kron. senior ministers. it believes to be pushing back on implementing and you, you measures before christmas. prime minister boris johnson has described the situation is extremely difficult and has urged caution. we'll have to reserve the, the possibility of taking further action to, to protect the public and to protect public health, to protect our natures. and we weren't hesitate to, to take that action. but in the meantime, what i would say to every body is a, please exercise caution. meanwhile, in the united states has been a 50 percent surge and crone of ours cases this month. fears of you restrictions across the country and around the world resulted and wall street's main indices falling more than one percent on monday. you your casino 3rd straight day of rec old cases, while a state of emergency has now been declared in washington. the

former left a student eat a gabriel bar. it is set to become chiles youngest president, but he 5 year old wants to remain latin america most advanced economy, which is also one of the most unequal in the world. or it has pledged to raise taxes and oppose destructive mining practices. and nearly $400.00 people now confirmed to have died off to super typhoon ride toll. through the philippines bought more bodies are expected to be found. many towns are still cast off and military helicopters of ferrying food and water to survive is living in remote areas where i may land full on thursday as the strongest storm to hit the philippines this year. well, i was the headlines this out. the stream is the program coming out next. but that will be one use of myself afterwards. ah

ah hi anthony. okay. how has 2021 bein for you? and looking forward to hearing from you. and today's episode of the stream we gather together fe fleet, as we talk about their work this year, how faith has sustained them and is helping them prepare for 2022. this is an interfaith conversation. all denominations are welcome. you look of an engine induced locked down how we saw that. many people use that as an opportunity to reconnect with god and to drive is brushing hope

a resilience from the abbey rosemary. just radishes. when scholars like me now is that it can be a tremendously positive coping mechanism. despite evidence that showing that there may be a decline in church attendance or denominational installation. we're 2021 seems to be reminding us is that it's still a very important coping mechanism. for individuals who have experienced watson trauma, when i look at the fragmentation that's often present in various political persuasions or different aspects of our society, i see that the only way forward in division is low. and so my recommendation is to say, sacrificial love is the way forward so that we can demonstrate the eternal worth found and others as we move in to 2022. so how has your faith guided you in 2021? this is a conversation that is open to all of our viewers. if you are on youtube,

especially, you can comment right in the comments that should be part of our show and talk to our guest. let's meet your panel. hello, sister rosary. hello maggie. hello cynita. so good to have all 3 of you here to raise me, please introduce yourself to ass stream audience. i am rosemary and i'm lucky you know that you, linda and all these years. but 2021 has being the most extraordinary year for me and the people i work in the safety concerns. but again, i thought you could be a good test of faith because he will said we display should when we came in we didn't know what as it would do. but at the same time, those that had great longing to go back to one faith and trust in god. even you don't check it, we're not you can give longing to go back to god. and so i think from

desperation that can increase of faith of way. all right, setting the scene there and for the residents perspective, cheating. boom, uganda. maggie, nice to see you. please introduce yourself to international viewers. thank you for having me. i'm maggie, the senior director of religion and be at the center for american progress, which is a multi issue think think we focus on engaging and diverse based communities across america, in our public policy discourse and uplifting issues like that was just freedom. so okay, to have you and hello, stephanie. so welcome. please introduce yourself. tell me who you are and what you do now, mr. everyone. hello, i'm sidney savage, the executive director of hindus for human rights, which is a non profit based in the us. but our focus is human rights in south asia and north america and beyond. and we really are, we have to dovetailing priorities. one is to lift up human rights and

religious freedom from the perspective of our hindu faith. but also to add to that hindu voice and hindu force of love to interface spaces for social justice folk. it to have all 3 of you fav leaders with us on the stream. i'm going to start with something practical. 5th, a rosemary, which takes us to huge, big cartons of soap. i will kill my laptop. you rolled up the sleeves and helped your community. what is going here on here? it looks like you're taking inventory. i had to create and invent something. read, i knew might not of what we had to buy and to prevent a coffee. and so what it does, if you're going to put a for even have a leader or even any. so i decided with my children and the girls, the grant to teach them how to make it with the thought and the liquid. so we may

not so much so that we give out to the wonderful community around would give to really you would give to all one children we give to so many people. but that was a good lead to being taught this young people, you know, being, i think this, they learn something during the lot when they didn't have school. these are the home schooling. they've learned that time. i love that idea of rolling up the sleeves and just getting to action and helping the community. maggie, this is the 2nd pandemic ramadan, in recent history. how was it? how was ede? how was that togetherness, that celebration of togetherness? how was it now that one had gone and now there was another year with that? yeah, it was, it was still not the wrong,

but then i think many of us would have hoped for, obviously, but it was absolutely different from, from a done in 2020 which was just the time and great anxiety and grief that it was very early on. in the pandemic, we didn't know what was going on. we didn't know how cove it was even transmitted. and so we all had to be in a sort of complete lockdown for that month in order to be safe. and meanwhile. ready people were grieving, loved ones, and not being able to do that community. whereas for 2021, you know, we knew the public health guidance. some people, i think we're already, you know, we're already starting to be vaccinated. so, and we had kind of gotten in the rhythm of, of online communities, some boss are able to perhaps later in the year or not during on the gun. but, you know, do some in person gatherings and we were able to actually create eve outdoors. my family and i which was an absolutely wonderful thing to see everybody in person on that day and know that we were, you know,

still practicing public guidance and able to do that. so still a struggle, but you know, kind of definitely not where we were last year and we were so absolutely grateful for that. i'm going to bring him frank stella from the west michigan hindu temple. i'm going to ask news submitted to respond immediately. but maggie and sister rosemary, i'm expecting you to answer his question to his fright. i am deeply concerned for the spiritual health of our nation. many people look at this is only a political issue, but i look at it as moral religious and spiritual. and that is that so many people in positions of power, particularly those who are our elected officials, will lie so brazenly about important things such as the state of our democracy. many people know that last year's election was legitimate, and yet they will claim it was not merely to hang on to power and to take advantage

of the under educated and those challenged in their critical thinking. the same is true when talking about corporate and the remedies for this pandemic. i'm happy to hear any comments on base. soon as you saw my, my immediate thought is of course i agree with fred and my my heart and my mind goes immediate need to india, which is currently under the government, which is the b j, the government, which is a hindu nationalist government. and in today's india, the minorities, the religious minorities, especially muslims and christians and dallas, their rights are being severely compromised and democracy itself is on the line. and so freds were it to make me remember that when he speaks about the lies, you know, and thinking about religious gatherings, there is the world's largest religious gathering. that takes place in india. it's called the con, the mailer and the indian government. instead of putting the comma male are off,

for reasons of, you know, we're in a pandemic and when you know, millions of people come together, it's certainly not a good idea during a pandemic like this, this government of india actually moved the mainland to one to one year in advance, they moved it forward a year. and this, this massive gathering took place and hundreds of thousands of people were, you know, big got it because of it. and the reason that they did back was for electioneering for campaigning. and so, yes, 3 with bread, but i, i, i am, is transported to india where hinduism, the religion of fred and my, and we are united where we know in a hindu space. and so his comments apply to india as much as here. i mean, mike, what fred was saying is that politicians don't always tell the truth. they're not always good leaders. so as faith leaders, what do you do then?

yeah, that's, that's a real challenge. and i think what they're saying is, in some way they're really clear echoes in what's happening. and i said we had a white nationalist administration for 4 years. that similarly handled, they think depends on can really destructive ways and, and polarized people and spread a big lie as, as fred was saying, as faith leaders, fortunately, there is a lot we can do. we saw the phase leaders really mobilizing in the pandemic, for example, that were instrumental and vaccine rollout. we saw this year in particular, and this divine and ministration partnered with the communities to do that vaccine roll out and stuff. a decline and vaccine has it. and the amount of communities and communities have been so incredibly engaged, in particular in protecting our democracy, which is a beautiful thing to watch up in 20 you know, until the 2020 election in particular past that ensuring that we protect the

results. i know that there were faith leaders that were actively organizing to put their bodies on the line as a 2020 election to help prevent violence because there was fear of that at the polls. and then it's just, it's really continued on into 2021. the advocacy for voting rights, none were getting arrested in front of the capital a couple weeks ago like has been credible and credible activism on the part of faith leaders and base communities that have stepped up in new ways and in interesting ways as well. throughout this year to thursday you are living in a place called blue, which i know well it's in the northern part of uganda and your daily challenges are so much more different from the ones that maybe maggie is dealing with to need to is dealing with even just getting enough food for people taking care of people. those are some of the biggest challenges that you have. how do you deal with them?

do people say the government should be doing this? they need to be taken care of off. how do you deal with that? actually, what i think is that this visual tell and the physical of all people and very, very important for me it's not enough to say the government should do this, the government should do that. and i said at this point that the government is everyone who is i do my what then the government in and if someone doing his part or part, then we are the government. and then a very important for us as a leader to be able to direct what you know, right, way or thinking even as i call the, the question is concerned with the need to have the right. we still have the right and the power to the people to understand exactly how they can take them,

but actively getting involved in how they can to give them same breath. you're going to be showing them what they should do is not enough to speak. and again, our people need to be taught that they have it for you. they can speak out to say no, didn't not right? and this is ok, but they need to be lead forward because my people will wonder what so my so that they would give silent and able to walk on them and not know what to do as much as the concern we have given what we might get involved in telling people that this is the wrong thing. this is the right thing. yes. and i agree with you completely sister. you know, for us we, our question is as progressive hindus, what is our role? what is our her mom in any particular challenging situation? and when kobe, the 2nd wave, especially in india, was just ravaging the country,

especially the poorest people in india, especially the most marginalized. we were able to support a dallas organization in carola, which, and all the images that you showed in africa were very similar to what is the right group was doing, and carola, in villages and districts. and they also created an online school for dallas children in the villages because you know, middle class children were able to go to their computers in their home. but these villages didn't even have internet. so to be able to support the most marginalized, the list organization in, in a part of india was part of, you know, something that we could do and make a difference. and also we have this project called voice as a piece, which is a grassroots media project. and you can see it on our website. but through that project we have been lifting up the voices of just ordinary citizens of india and time and time again, you will find people who refuse to be divided by the politics of the nation and you

will find him booth and muslims, and christians just forgetting the differences between them and helping each other through this horrific crisis of coded india. guess i'm going to go to youtube because i've got a couple of questions here and our audience are asking you for your advice. so this is kim maggie, i'm gonna put kim's thought to you festival with so many ongoing economic, social, political, and ecological crisis. what role can faith play in sustaining optimism and hopefulness? maggie, that's a big question. oh yeah, thank you for my introduction. i'm glad i didn't get that question the book. thank you, lord huh. go ahead my day. i mean, i think in many ways the answer to that question is deeply personal and, and so it looks differently for many of us. and i don't want to kind of gloss over

that, but i can share sort of what sustains me. all of that for you know, in my tradition we believe that god does not give any person a burden greater than what they can bear. and that is something that is helpful to remind me that whatever is coming, you know, whenever i am experiencing that i find incredibly challenging and god knows already that he's place enough strength in my heart that i can enjoy that. and another. another thing that helps is that a friend of mine shared there's so much to fix in the world and i cannot fix everything. but i'm committed to doing what i can, where i can. and i think similarly back gives me hope that i know that god, who has given each of us a purpose and we have a duty to live out that purpose, whatever we can, wherever we can. we are not going to be able to solve everything in the face of these massive crisis and systemic challenges that we're subtract within,

but we can do our part. right. and that's what gives me hope we have. we have the strengths within us. we have the light within us to bring about joy to bring about change and you know, god willing to bring about economic recovery and, and the end to these kinds of systemic as well. sister rosa, he was chuckling at how huge came the question was like, how do we, how do we stay hopeful when we have so many global crises or happening at the same time? and you also to came would be what if the rosemary you know, what i'm thinking about ready is that when we talk about faith, faith, milan, follow some actions. they can not stand alone. there must be something which keeps moving us. we keep doing something and leave with a group of people who are so who was struggling to have some food to eat and they

don't have it who cannot and, and they don't how it is one of the challenges that you might be present investigation with them and it showed them the way, like what you thought we were making liquid. so why, why? well, making the liquid so we're making the liquid so to respond to do more wonderful, you know, community because we have many poor people we are leaving. what was the vision, but those who, who are the one of the worries and this is why it would be they really youth who came from call from south to where the most wonderful people are doing this. and i'll let you action to make liquid. so for that, and if you do then is a symbol action, then we do,

i'm going to go back to you tube and see to help me out with this question. from maple maple says, how can we respond to faith leaders that view and preach the pandemic as divine reckoning? i find this so harmful and building on a hope and love base spirituality. i've also found that a lot of, or faith leaders are using the pandemic to either up sustain their particular viewpoint. i. e, my religious freedom means i don't need to wear a mask. my religious freedom means that i don't need to get a vaccine of this is, this is quite quite a challenge for anyone who, who has faith and is looking to their religious leaders and, and perhaps they're being misled. anita, yes i, we've seen this in probably all the faith communities, but again, focusing on india when coded 1st came on the scene. it was that there were many

ways in which it was characterized as corona jihad. and the muslim community was blamed for coded and then the chinese were named for coded. and, you know, there was, there were all these ways in which, whatever, whoever are political enemies were we used coded to, you know, attack those communities even more. and then india had these massive protests against a very discriminatory citizenship act. an anti muslim citizenship though that were taking place. and as soon as coven hit, the government was able to use coded to shut those protests down. so those things happen and i just come back to, i mean i was resonating so much with the comments made about faith and in hinduism, we are taught that the divine is in you and me, and every one and every aspect of the universe. and if that is truly something that we believe of hindus, then really it, it,

it guides us and moves us to refuse to go to those places of division. and again, i, i just have seen over and over again among ordinary people. this review, the refusal to be divided, that's the only answer the answer is to the, in the, in the book critique that there is a line that says that where lord krishna says, do your own. her ma, him perfectly rather than somebody else's her. perfect. so it really is important that each one of us are spell is sure about what it is we stand for, what we believe who our god is, and live by that. and for me, that means being in spaces where i am, look at looking at somebody who doesn't look like me or doesn't agree with me and i see god in their face. best hard and challenging when it's people who are saying hateful things. but that's, that's the, that's the work we have to do. and the much more beautiful part of that is being in

a, in a space like that, where i'm looking at my sister's faces and i see god in your faces. that's how that's how we can find strength to speak up. i have one more voice to add to our conversation before i'm going to ask all me guess to give us something to sustain us, to get us to the end of 2021. and then over the hump into 2022. i don't know what they're going to say to help us do that, but i know it's going to be good. let's go to sha headfirst. 2020 left the world in a state of shock with them a cat. i think none of us really expecting anything like it and it really tested us in 2021. you start to see how the world reacted to it with respect to the world around us. i think for some of us, it made us more compassionate, more introspective. it forced us to consider what our values were with respect to the world. and i think for some people, unfortunately, it made us more cynical,

more fearful, more selfish. how can we tap into various faith traditions to encourage more of the former and less of the latter? oh, how can we be better of people? all. * right, wonderful guess you have 30 seconds each is not enough time. lucky it is. go for it . i don't want to repeat what i said earlier, but that really is that, you know, we have strength. we have lights that have been placed divinely within us. right? to do what we can wherever we can we are not asked to do any more than. ready that, but we can make a difference just by meaning into that meaning into those gifts that we've been given and quite willing can transform the world shanita you know, truth is, god, truth is divine and truth is not always pretty. and i think it is absolutely our

moral imperative, our duty as faithful people to speak the truth just a few days ago. and muslim boy 22 years old was lynched by a hindu set of boys, some of whom were his friends in how to honor those boys were saying, i am him. do you are a muslim as they killed him? as a hindu, i have to speak that truth and invite fellow hindus to stand up and say no, and keep on in our name, not in our name, and that is love that case. i will tell you that you love. i want to spend a little bit of love and give a little bit of love to see the rose, and we said that we don't end up without having her in the conversation. this throws me your sentence to sustain us to 2022. what is it? i think as we enter 2022, it's very important for us to give. remember that we are our brothers and sisters keep us and would need to have been freedom but a company we corporate. this was

a blanket set a time you guys were another take care of one another. we appreciate uses to raise way. maggie cynita, you chief comments, appreciate all of you the next time. ah . in the next episode of us royce nick, talk to him to greenpeace cameron on a voyage through the widdle scene to highlight the importance of protecting this fragile antarctic ecosystem against an expanding list of manmade threats. beneath the surface of this magnificent desolation is just tv. with life releases, so the remote rules and salt,

tick sanctuary on al jazeera when the news break side is tornado destroyed everything. it touched in mayfield. when people need to be heard and the story town, he has done his job to tell us what's going on with exclusive interviews and in depth reports i get on my right the wind. just b, 3, g 0, has teens on the ground to where you are award winning documentaries, and lives on air and online. cobit 19 is a public health crisis that has been compounded by capitalism. alleyway navigates the big questions raised by the global pandemic power system based on private shifting, the seat of profit. so the world in a ton of capitalism is the pandemic that causes so much of the suffering exploited protected people. all the profit episode,

one of all hail the look down on out his era to play an important role protecting you with. ringback me ah hello, i'm sorry, i'm your lazy and london al main story. now, to grind forces battling the ethiopian government, say they are withdrawing their troops from the northern regions of afar, and i'm hora. the central government and artist above us at the retreat was a prerequisite for any peace talks more than a year or 5. he has caused a major humanitarian crisis. thousands have been killed. more than 400000 are facing famine. rob.