LIFE-NET NEWS

by Ret Z.

Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices

2003 June 11	No Profit; No Proceeds
Volume 7 Number 4	All-Volunteer

"Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal;  give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life."

Child's Play to Generate Electricity

An engineering professor at the University of Michigan's Flint campus has come up with an idea to collect the energy of children having fun to generate electricity for remote Third World schools. With an estimated 40% of the world's population without reliable access to electricity, Dr. Raj Pandian's idea to harness energy from playground equipment --teeter-totters, merry-go-rounds, swing sets and the like --is simple, inexpensive and badly needed. And it works.       Pandian has developed working models of his equipment in the Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory at U-M Flint. Mechatronics is not a misspelling: It's a contraction of the words mechanical and electronic. In this case, the mechanical part comes from the repetitive movement of the playground equipment and the electronics from the means by which energy is stored in batteries.      Pandian isn't suggesting that children should be put to work to power entire villages. He merely wants to collect the energy released during the normal boisterous activity of kids having fun and use it to support activities of the village school, often the center of life in isolated communities.       His playground power-generating idea is being patented, and he hopes to talk with humanitarian aid groups and other such organizations about sending working units overseas. During a typical day, several children taking turns and just playing as they do in any school yard should be able to generate about the same amount of power as is stored in 1,000 regular-sized AA batteries. That's enough to illuminate light bulbs, power radios, sewing machines and all sorts of things that will provide education and training, and improve the quality of life in rural areas.       Source: Detroit Free Press       Via:  Global Village News & Resources

IRS to Restrict Earned Income Credit

If the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) gets its way, within a few years many low-income families will have to provide exhaustive documentation before they can claim the Earned Income Credit (EIC). The IRS claims this "pre-certification" plan will reduce tax return errors. However, the requirements are so onerous that many eligible families may not claim the credit. Worse, the plan targets low-income families while ignoring the fact that other parts of the tax code are more often the sources of error.       The IRS already has systems in place to catch many kinds of errors. It examines a certain fraction of all tax returns to catch these errors routinely; in fact, the IRS already examines EIC returns at twice the rate of other returns.       The EIC is one of the most important income supports for working families. Families have used it to pay bills, put food on the table, even make a down payment on the American dream: homeownership. It provides $30 billion in tax relief to millions of low-income, working families every year.       The IRS will only accept a few kinds of documents to prove eligibility, and some of them, such as birth or marriage certificates, may be difficult or impossible to get, especially when the documented events happened outside the United States. In fact, the list of acceptable documents is more restrictive than for any other federal program that assists the poor.       Source:  TomPaine.com       More Info:  Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Unlikely Coalition Promotes Marriage

Marriage education is the centerpiece of the Bush administration's Healthy Marriage Initiative, a controversial social experiment that seeks to use federal welfare (TANF) funds to promote marriage and reduce divorce, particularly among the poor, whose children are five times as likely to live in poverty if raised in mother-only households. But family disintegration knows no economic boundaries, and states such as Oklahoma, which has become a national pro-marriage model, are already preaching a get-married, stay-married agenda to couples of every stripe.       Though at first blush the pro-marriage movement seems the agenda of the family-values crowd, a body of research from respected social scientists has given renewed zeal to those whose primary weapon had been a few selected verses of scripture. This research suggests that marriage confers undeniable benefits on children, couples and country. It has also drawn together an odd confluence of conservatives, sociologists, marriage educators, fathers' rights activists and divorce-law reformers who have found enough common ground to consider themselves a movement.       Cynics might call the Bush agenda brilliant politics, the marriage of liberal social science with a conservative pro-family (anti-gay) agenda. Even less jaundiced critics claim the research results are overstated and filtered through an ideological lens that is unrealistic, simplistic and narrow-minded. Several women's groups fear that promoting marriage will coerce some women into abusive marriages and discourage others from leaving them. Advocates for the poor think the failure to marry is more a consequence of poverty than a cause. Liberals believe that valuing marriage over other family structures denies the reality of millions of children who are being raised by single parents, extended families, gay and lesbian couples or movie stars. Libertarians wonder what the hell the government is doing in the marriage business anyway.       That the federal government might fund relationship skills courses that seek to educate couples in a variety of sexual styles--"gourmet sex, adventuresome sex, a quickie, self-care"--would seem to at least give the religious right pause. Only somehow, it doesn't.       "It's just not a liberal-conservative issue," says Dallas marriage therapist Kelly Simpson. "I see it as a necessity to help our culture raise healthy, happy, well-fed children. What's so controversial about that?"       Source:   Dallas Observer

UK Women 'Facing Pension Misery'

Almost a quarter of all single female pensioners in the UK live in poverty, a study has found. The report, by charity Age Concern and equal rights organisation the Fawcett Society, found that, on average, women receive far lower pensions than men. The study concluded that the pay gap which already exists between men and women during their working lives becomes a vast pension gulf in later life. And the report's authors blamed a large part of female pensioner poverty on the way the state pension system works.       The study found that some women have to live on a reduced income on retirement because they took time off work to bring up children and therefore did not make sufficient National Insurance contributions to qualify for the full state pension. In some cases, women opted for the reduced-rate 'married woman's stamp' National Insurance contributions in the 1960s and 1970s. In return for lower contributions, they waived their right to the basic state pension until their husband reached 65, when they would receive 60% of his pension.       The report concludes that the state pension system was "outdated" and "littered with obstacles for women trying to build up a pension in their own right".       "The current state pension system is not working for women as it is based on the old assumption of men as the breadwinners and women as stay-at-home carers," said Katherine Rake, director of the Fawcett Society.       Source:  BBC News

America: Defenders of Islam

America is the most important defender of peace-loving Muslims in the world. Consider what's happened over the last 18 months. Two of the most brutal regimes in modern times have been toppled. In Afghanistan, the Taliban had imposed a nightmarish version of Islamic law. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein ran the country like a Soviet gulag.       Most of the victims of these governments were Muslim: men, women and children who embrace the Koran as their holy book. Eighteen months ago, the approximately 45 million Muslims in these countries were living in fear. Today in Afghanistan, girls and women can attend school and worship with much greater freedom. In Iraq, Shi'a Muslims-- perhaps the most persecuted group--can hold Friday prayers, funeral processions and religious festivals without facing a government crackdown.       It wasn't the Arab League that came to their rescue. It was the US military, under the leadership of George W. Bush. As political and cultural critic Paul Berman writes in Terror and Liberalism: "No country on earth has fought so hard and consistently as the United States on behalf of Muslim populations."       The United States must oppose religious radicals who would manipulate a democratic process to destroy the foundation for democratic liberties. Clerics who reject the means to secure these liberties--free speech, freedom of association, equality under the law--should be stigmatized. Above all else, the emerging leaders in Afghanistan and Iraq must produce a legal system that reflects the highest ideals of their Islamic populations, while respecting the rights of ethnic and religious minorities.       A good place to begin is the area of religious freedom. As the Koran itself states, "there should be no compulsion in religion." Millions of Muslims worldwide uphold this value as essential to the faith.       It is no crusade against Islam to protect the rights of all those who claim Muhammad as their prophet.       Source: FoxNews.com       Via:  Heritage Foundation

Camden Girls Take Lesson in Filmmaking

Instead of living in New York City, where she co-hosted BET's hit entertainment show NYLA, 28-year-old Cathy Mae SitaRam, who competed in the Miss Universe pageant as Miss US Virgin Islands, settled in Camden. Instead of hanging out with the many celebrities she has met during her career in entertainment, she spends her spare time surrounded by schoolgirls at the YMCA. Instead of hiring an experienced crew to work on her film, she is using those same schoolgirls.       The project is called About Face, the story of a woman from the US Virgin Islands who comes to Camden to avenge the death of her little sister.       The girls helped with makeup, kept track of props, logged the director's favorite takes and even starred in the trailer, which was shot over the weekend. The finished product will be shown to Hollywood investors, SitaRam said.       "This is just to give them an idea of what the full length feature is going to be like." When the actual film is shot, SitaRam said, the girls will be part of it, too.       "Cathy is a jewel," said YMCA executive director Rick Edwards. "This was a self-esteem booster. Now they know that they can do it. They know that it's hard, but they can do it."       "A lot of the kids go to Creative Arts High School and they're interested in the entertainment industry," Edwards said. If SitaRam has her way, these students won't have to go to Los Angeles or New York City to follow their entertainment dreams. She hopes to open a film production company right here in Camden.       Source:  Courier-Post (Camden)

Fair Trade Not Free Trade

In the worldwide trade of commodities, coffee is second only to petroleum. Today the world coffee market is in crisis, threatening farmers with economic disaster ... and it's up to consumers to take action by choosing to buy only fairly traded coffee. Since the US imports a quarter of the world's supply of coffee, the growth of the Fair Trade movement here is a very hopeful sign.       Before 1989, coffee producers kept prices at sustainable levels by employing a quota system similar to OPEC's. The US, normally an opponent of cartels, supported this one, fearful of disgruntled coffee farmers joining the growing communist movements in Latin America. After the demise of the Soviet Union and the removal of this threat, the US withdrew its support, leading to the demise of the cartel and the subsequent plunge in prices. Unfortunately for Latin American coffee growers, the collapse coincided with Vietnam's decision to expand production. The result has been declining prices and a worldwide oversupply of coffee, exacerbated by export crop recommendations from the IMF. This decline in prices has caused 25 million coffee farmers and their families to face deep poverty and misery. In Central America and Mexico, two regions hardest hit by the continued freefall in coffee prices, many have been forced to sell their farms and leave their families to seek (sometimes) underpaid work in cities across the US.       Especially in this time of crisis, Fair Trade offers a living wage to over 800,000 producers and their dependants in more than 40 countries, allowing them to stay on their land. By receiving a fair price, Fair Trade producers can avoid cost-cutting practices that sacrifice quality. Accordingly, most Fair Trade certified coffee, tea and chocolate sold in the US is certified organic, and most Fair Trade certified coffee is "shade grown," a practice that maintains biodiversity, provides shelter for migratory birds and helps reduce global warming.       One of the goals of the Fair Trade movement is to increase awareness of the hidden human cost of most "bargains" and simultaneously stimulate demand for products produced with fair labor practices. By providing information about producers' history, culture and living conditions, Fair Trade organizations enhance cross-cultural understanding and respect between consumers and communities in the Global South. They also educate consumers and policy makers about inequities in the global trading system.       The benefits of Fair Trade extend far beyond just providing a stable price. For example, empowered by the economic stability provided by Fair Trade, members of the COSURCA coffee cooperative in Colombia successfully prevented the cultivation of more than 1,600 acres of coca and poppy.       Source, with Resource Links:  The Ultimate Field Guide to the US Economy

Life-Net News Extras

Commission Aims to Mend Holes in Youth Safety Net

A recent study by the Camden City Youth Services Commission found that 8- to 14-year-olds are free-falling through a gap in community services. The finding is not surprising to anyone. Camden is a city where people can get lost. Fortunately for Camden's youths, the commission and others in the community hold higher expectations.       One commission goal is to change the usual rite of passage for many city children. Many kids land in detention, according to Dr. Stella Horton, a 30-year city resident and head of the commission. Camden has a higher rate of secured confinement for juveniles than does Newark--15.5% compared to 8.7%.       Using a model developed at the University of Washington, the commission has approached this problem as if it were a medical condition. It has diagnosed the malady, identified risk factors and now are developing a plan to help Camden's youths develop a healthier lifestyle. It's a methodical approach not usually seen in community initiatives, and for that reason it could make a world of difference for city children.       The commission plans to use the data it's developed to pinpoint children's needs and guide the 40 or so community organizations it partners with to meet them. With the aid of a strategic plan, these organizations can be positioned to cover gaps in services and reduce the number of children who end up in detention.       That was the vision of former county prosecutor Lee Solomon, who first pulled together community leaders, including Horton, into a youth commission three years ago. If all goes according to plan, fewer Camden children will end up as a tragic statistic       Source:  Courier-Post (Camden)

India a Bellwether for World Water Woes

At one time water was considered an endlessly renewable resource, but this is no longer true as much of the world faces a serious water crisis. This is particularly evident in India, where lakes and wells are drying up and monsoon rains are late this year.       The Central Ground Water Authority says that in 286 districts, across 18 states, water levels have fallen more than 4 meters in 20 years. Mid-subcontinent cities such as New Delhi have saline water near the surface, whereas coastal Chennai and Mumbai have sea water intrusion in the water supply. Central Pollution Control Board scientist, R.C. Trivedi says, "Water demand in cities is galloping way ahead of supply, and since most urban areas don't have adequate systems for sewage, this seeps into the ground, polluting groundwater."       A United Nations Environmental Program spokesman says, "Many of the world's natural underground reservoirs, upon which two billion people depend for drinking water, are under increasing stress."       Because groundwater is cheap and easy to tap into, it's loss isn't only felt in India. Throughout the southwestern United States, groundwater is being removed annually faster than it's possible to replace from rainfall.       Source:  Times of India

Road Map to More War

By putting together the "road map to peace" and even talking about giving the Palestinians a state is telling the world that terrorism wins, that if you terrorize long enough, hard enough and lie enough, then ultimately you'll get the big dog, the United States to give in and believe that if we give you your own state you'll be a peaceful country.       Well that's not what history shows. In 1948 the Palestinians had what amounted to a Palestinian state. What happened? They went to war trying to destroy Israel. The attitude of Arabs toward Israel and the United States is one of sheer hostility, as a Pew Research poll reported in the International Herald Tribune reveals.       Reports the Tribune, "Animosity [to the US] is so high that solid majorities in five populations surveyed expressed confidence in Osama bin Laden to 'do the right thing' in world affairs." Incredibly, bin Laden was one of the three "leaders" most trusted by the nine Muslim populations surveyed, outranking even UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan. Bin Laden's confidence rating was matched only by Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.       The poll, conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, questioned more than 15,000 people in May. Muslims in Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority and Turkey were included in the massive poll.       As for the future of the US-sponsored "road map" to peace, the poll showed Muslims convinced that "the rights and needs of the Palestinian people" Palestinian state or no Palestinian state, "cannot be taken care of as long as the state of Israel exists." In other words, giving the Palestinians their own state carved out of part of Israel not only fails to insure Israel's security, it poses a serious threat to the continued existence of our sole friend and ally in the Middle East.       According to the poll, the conviction that no way can be found for Israel and the Palestinians to coexist is strongest in Morocco (90%), followed by Jordan (85%), in the Palestinian Authority itself (80%), Kuwait (72%), Lebanon (65%), Indonesia (58%) and Pakistan (57%).       See? Fully 80% of the population included in the Palestinian Authority--the people who will be the citizens of the Palestinian state--want Israel to vanish. They insist that there can be no peace as long as the country that is ready to give them their own state continues to exist.       Golda Mier put it this way: "When the Palestinians start loving their children more than they hate their enemies there will be peace." Not before then.       Source: Making Sense by Michael Reagan

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