| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| 2003 March 19 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 6 Number 9 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| A Slice of Post-Taliban Life |
|
"We have reports of raping, killing, kidnapping and
fighting in many cities. Only in areas of Kabul where
there are foreign troops is there security," says Hamid, a
member of the Revolutionary Association of Women of
Afghanistan (RAWA). "Women don’t feel secure. They wear
burkas because they are afraid of the Jihadis ('holy
warriors'). They don’t go to parks and they don’t go out."
In Afghanistan, RAWA clandestinely teaches girls and trains women in handicrafts and operates small home-based orphanages and medical facilities. Members videotape and photograph acts of violence against women. Their pictures of the Taliban execution of an Afghan woman were seen worldwide. Their Web site documents post-Taliban violence. In Pakistan, their members still receive death threats and work from friends’ homes using mobile phones to coordinate schools, literacy and training programs, orphanages, hospitals and political activities. Hamid and her colleagues argue that the warlords incorporated into the new government are as repressive as the Taliban. "We support Hamid Karzai but key positions have been given to the Jihadis. We see the government hasn’t changed. The fundamentalists are still in power. Taliban and the Northern Alliance are the same, even more dangerous for young girls. We have seen their crimes." Afghan women who have fled to Pakistan are still afraid to return home. "Until now there is no security to go back, the fundamentalists and Jihadis are still in power," says Diba, a long-time refugee. Hamid and her colleagues fear that only the presence of foreign troops restrains rival warlords from returning to the lawless pre-Taliban days. "Now it’s only foreign pressure that causes them to ask for democracy and women’s rights. Maybe they deceive the outside world but not our people," Hamid says. While RAWA’s vision of a secular, democratic Afghanistan would seem to coincide with Western interests, potential donors are willing to support their social programs but not their political agenda. Hamid believes that only political change can lead to social change. Source: MSNBC More Info: RAWA |
| Activists Target Taco Bell |
|
Over 1,000 people converged on Taco Bell Corporate
Headquarters in Irvine California, February 28, to show
their solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
Over 70 farm workers and supporters, in one of the largest
hunger strikes in US labor history, had been demonstrating
for their first wage increase in 25 years. Protesters were
asking Taco Bell to agree to pay one penny more per pound
of tomatoes, and pass that penny on to the workers. That
would effectively double farmworker wages.
Working conditions in the fields are so bad that in the past 5 years the U.S. Department of Justice has won conviction on six cases of slavery in Florida. Three of these cases were against tomato growers. While such cases are extreme, the sweatshop-like conditions in Florida’s fields are a reality for a significant percentage of the farmworkers who pick the tomatoes that go into Taco Bell’s products. In conjunction with the hunger strike, there were over 100 actions of solidarity across the US and Canada that week, and hundreds more people around the country fasted. In addition, the Student-Farmworker Alliance toured 14 California universities in four days, participating in rallies, protests, and attending benefit concerts in the strikers' honor. Responding to student pressure, Cal State LA recently cancelled its contract with Taco Bell on campus, becoming the 15th school to Boot the Bell. The Executive Board of the National Council of Churches (NCC) has voted unanimously to support the workers' fast. In a statement released on Feb. 25th, the NCC Executive Board called on Taco Bell "to enter into serious dialogue with the CIW." On Thursday the 27th, Taco Bell refused to meet with the NCC. Source: Independent Media Center |
| Pope Urges Science Should Benefit Poor |
|
Pope John Paul II urged scientists, last month, to
close the gap with poorer nations, particularly African
countries ravaged by AIDS, and said research should free
itself from any bonds of economic or political interests.
The 82-year-old pontiff, himself a big booster of science and recently burdened by health problems, expressed gratitude for those working in biomedicine for improving quality of life. Research, he said, must follow "an authentically humanist orientation" and keep itself "free from the slavery of political and economic interests." John Paul said there was growing urgency to fill the "unacceptable gap that separates the developing world from the developed world" in advances in biomedical research, "to support the populations afflicted by misery and by disastrous epidemic. I am thinking in a special way of the drama of AIDS, especially grave in many countries of Africa." There has been outcry in recent years over the inability of poor people to afford AIDS medicines that can ease symptoms or prolong survival. Source: Associated Press |
| Asian-Americans Face Less Homelessness |
|
While homelessness continues to be a problem in
Northern California's Santa Clara County surrounding San
Jose, it appears some ethnic groups have found ways to
minimize the suffering. Although Asians make up 25% of the
county's population, they make up just 4% of people who
sought emergency shelter last year; nationally, they make
up 3% of that group.
In a report from the San Jose Mercury News, factors such as the shame of failure and access to housing with relatives, even in tight living situations, appeared to be the main reasons Asian communities are shielded from experiencing as much homelessness. Even though Asian poverty rates are as high or sometimes even higher than other ethnic groups, they manage to find ways to care for or find help from people from their local communities and families. "I don't know what we would have done without family," one Chinese immigrant told the Mercury News. "It allowed us to survive." Source: Street News Service |
| Note to Liberals: Welfare Moms are People, Too |
|
Most opponents of reform missed--thanks to their own
good intentions and their focus on the "systemic" factors
creating inner city dependency--the insulting premises of
the welfare system. They should foreswear those premises
forever now that former welfare moms have so outperformed
liberals' sorry expectations for them.
Opponents of welfare reform argued that it would increase poverty, since they didn't expect former welfare moms to actually work. Instead, according to a new study published in Science magazine, welfare recipients who left the dole and entered the job market nearly doubled the income of their households. Almost all households where mothers went to work were lifted out of poverty. Opponents had also said that reform would stunt the emotional and intellectual development of children as their mothers got chased out of the home. The Science magazine study detects no such effect in preschool children, but finds that adolescents are actually better off. While the study rebuts the gloom-and-doom predictions, there is still a long way to go. After several generations of welfare, it will take years to re-establish a thoroughgoing ethic of work in inner cities. And there is no substitute for a revival of the traditional family structure--work is important, but so are dads. To that end, a reauthorization of welfare reform pending in Congress would advance the work requirements of the 1996 bill and also undertake steps to encourage marriage. Source: Editor, National Review |
| Abstinence Education Lowers Ugandan AIDS Rate |
|
In the early 1990s, Uganda had one of the worst AIDS
problems in the world, with 30% of its population infected.
Then in 1994, the country switched its AIDS prevention
approach from primarily encouraging condom use to an
emphasis on abstinence until marriage. Since that time,
Uganda's AIDS infection rate has fallen to its current 10%
level.
While Ugandan officials still encourage condom use, infectious disease specialist Dr. Vinand Nantulya, who has advised Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on his AIDS prevention programs, said the nation's people "really never took to condoms." "Abstinence remains the best strategy, especially for the risk group aged 15-25 years," Kenyan HIV/AIDS activist Dorothy Kwenze told the Cybercast News Service. "The concept has worked well for Uganda and can work equally well for other African countries." CNSNews also pointed to a study by epidemiologist Rand Stoneburner, who determined that Uganda's AIDS strategy, if implemented across the continent, could reduce Africa's AIDS cases by 80%--even in the nations with the worst infection rates. Stoneburner formally worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. Source: AgapePress |
| How to Avoid Giving to Terrorists |
|
Since the war on terror began, most of the greatest
victories on the domestic front have been struck not on
bomb-making cells, but seemingly good-hearted groups. In
the past year and a half, at least three charities have
been shut down for allegedly funding terrorist activities.
Last month, four men involved with Help the Needy, a New
York-based charity that purports to help poor children in
Iraq, were indicted on federal charges they illegally sent
at least $4 million to Iraq.
There are a number of ways to make sure your money is going to the right place. Nonprofit sources say the best way to determine where a charity's resources are going is by looking at its 990 form, required by the IRS if they have applied for tax-exempt status and have annual incomes of $25,000 or more. Charities are required to provide a 990 upon request, said Suzanne Coffman of Guidestar, a non-profit database of philanthropies. Many states also require charities to have their financial statements audited by an outside observer, said Bennett Weiner, COO of the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, a national charity watchdog. "At least in some cases it's possible that some of these problems may be found out by an auditor," Weiner said. Potential donors should also ask for an annual report, Weiner said. "It's not required by law but it is generally the literature that includes the most detailed narrative of what the charity has done in the past year." From an annual report, you can find out what the charity has accomplished, and get an idea of who's on their board, he said. A charity's language can also clue you into its intentions, Coffman said. They should be specific with their goals and provide quantifiable results, she said. A group that says their goals are to "feed the hungry" or "help suffering people" should inspire more caution than one that says it wants to expand the capacity of their soup kitchen or increase the number of coats they want to donate in specific numbers. "The more information you ask for, the more of a track record a charity has to establish," Weiner said. The Internet has a number of resources to help potential donors find more information. Coffman's Guidestar is widely cited, but it only gives information. It does not rate entries, Coffman said, because giving is very much based on values. Weiner's Give.org does give ratings--on a comprehensive scale, from governance to fund-raising practice issues. Some sites that rate charities only do so on the basis of their finances, he said. The FBI said it maintains no exclusive watch list on charities, but made note of the Combined Federal Campaign, a program supported by the federal government to encourage philanthropy. The CFC maintains a list of approved organizations. "Donors of charity in general should remember that fraud and illegal action are still the exception and not the rule," said Weiner. Source: ABC News |
| Life-Net News Extras |
| Relief and Retraining for Mass. Fishers |
|
As fishermen struggle to adapt to tough government
regulations imposed on the industry 11 months ago, $7.7
million in federal aid has been allocated to help
Massachusetts boat owners pay bills, and retrain workers
for other jobs.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy announced early this month that the US Department of Labor would release $2.42 million of the Fish V Assistance Grant to help retrain the state's fishermen and fish industry workers. The grant will be administered by the Commonwealth Corporation's Fishermen and Families Resources Center in Gloucester, with $916,268 dedicated to retraining North Shore residents. "This is another important step in our effort to provide relief to our fishing families who have suffered through very difficult times in recent years," said Kennedy. "It is crucial to provide resources to help fishermen obtain meaningful jobs." This is the second year that nearly $1 million has flowed to the North Shore for retraining, and career counseling. Inside the center on the Jodrey State Fish Pier, men and women who worked all their lives fishing for cod, flounder and haddock share a seat next to lobstermen, clam diggers, and fish factory workers filling out intake forms as they begin their paths to new careers. Today, 62 former fish industry workers are enrolled in classes that will eventually produce a new crop of charter boat captains, computer programmers and technicians, truck drivers, plumbers, tug boat operators, and electricians. Angela Sanfilippo, the center's project manager, said many of the new students were crew members on boats that have downsized since US District Court Judge Gladys Kessler instituted new regulations that limited fishing grounds and reduced the amount of days ground fishermen could work a year. The grant comes just three weeks before an estimated $5.3 million in emergency relief funds is expected to be released to 700 boat owners who have seen their income drop in the last year. For Russell Sherman, a Harvard-educated fisherman who has fished these waters since 1970, the relief funds cannot come soon enough. Sherman has invested $450,000 into his 76-foot-dragger Lady Jane, but is now facing a financial crisis. "I haven't had a paycheck since November," said Sherman, 54, who said he is bitter over the fishing restrictions. Sherman, who estimates that he made $20,000 from his boat last year, has rationed his days since last May, and now has seven groundfish days left before May 1. The Gloucester man said he would use part of the emergency funds to pay his boat mortgage and insurance, and would split the remaining dollars with his three man crew. Joe Parisi, one of Sherman's crew members, is wondering how long he can stay fishing. "We had to get a second mortgage on the house this year, and our kid wants to go to school now and we don't have the money," said the third generation Gloucester fisherman, who ends most sentences with a good natured laugh. But Parisi said his career options are now limited, and because of his shrinking paycheck, he's had to cancel his family's health insurance. "I'm 57 years old. I've got a few more years to go. If I was a young man I'd go look for something else, to be honest with you. But where am I going to go at 57?" Sherman, who also put his house up for collateral in exchange for a bank loan for his boat, said the new regulations have forced fishermen to become legal experts and environmentalists. "So many guys in this business, they're so inundated, so beaten down by all these regulations that they stick their heads in the sand," said Sherman, who has spent much of his time studying the details of when and where he can work. "All we're doing is feeding people, and nobody wants to catch the last fish in the sea," said Sherman, who has had several close calls with death at sea. "I maintain that we're the true environmentalists." Source: Boston Globe |
| Beadwork Artist Gets Micro-Loan |
|
Four Bands Community Fund has made its first
micro-loans of the year to local beadwork artist Lena
Flying By.
Four Bands Community Fund's Revolving Loan Fund provided 20 micro-loans to artist/producers and entrepreneurs last year. Flying By received the first loan for 2003 to start a home-based business, "Bear Eagle Products." Flying By specializes in adult and children's moccasins, using unique designs to give each customer a one-of-a-kind piece of wearable art. Flying By is also an artist/producer member of Made On The Rez Mercantile, the marketing outlet of Four Bands now open in the old Eagle Butte Railroad Depot. Made On The Rez Mercantile members receive technical assistance in marketing, budgeting and other aspects of business start-up from Four Bands. Four Bands Community Fund was organized in 2000 to provide services to residents of the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, including personal finance training, CREATE (Cheyenne River Entrepreneurial Assistance Training & Education) business plan training, business incubation and access to credit and capital through its Revolving Loan Fund. For more information call (605) 964-3687 or go to Four Bands, at http://www.fourbands.org/ Source: My Two Beads Worth |
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