LIFE-NET NEWS

by Ret Z.

Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices

2003 July 23	No Profit; No Proceeds
Volume 7 Number 7	All-Volunteer

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

America's Children: Indicators Plus and Minus

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2003 is the seventh annual report to the Nation on the condition of children in America. Nine contextual measures describe the changing population, family, and environmental context in which children are living, and 25 indicators depict the well-being of children in the areas of economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education. This year’s report has a special section featuring decennial census data 1990-2000.       The racial and ethnic diversity of America's children continues to increase. In 2000, 64% of US children were White, non-Hispanic; 15% were Black, non-Hispanic; 4% were Asian/Pacific Islander; and 1% were American Indian/Alaska Native. The proportion of Hispanic children has increased faster than that of any other racial and ethnic group, growing from 9% of the child population in 1980 to 16% in 2000.       After a steady, decades-long decline, the share of children with married parents has remained unchanged since 1996. In light of the large body of research linking family structure to many of the other indicators in the report, this is an important finding.

Trends Headed the Right Way

The child poverty rate, which has been falling since 1993, stayed steady overall but continued to fall for black children being raised by single moms. Of these children, 47% lived in poverty in 2001, down from 49% in 2000. The portion of children with health insurance remained at an all-time high of 88%. Deaths from firearm injuries among adolescents declined between 1994 and 2000, particularly among Black and Hispanic males. For example, from 1994 to 2000, the firearm homicide rate declined from 126 to 52 deaths per 100,000 Black males and from 49 to 22 deaths per 100,000 Hispanic males. Adolescent mortality overall declined throughout the 1990s, from 89 deaths per 100,000 in 1991 to an all-time low of 67 deaths per 100,000 in 2000. The infant mortality rate, which measures deaths in the first year of life, continued to fall, with 6.9 deaths for every 1,000 births in 2000. The death rates for children between ages 1 and 14 also dropped. Births to teenagers continued to fall, reaching an all-time low in 2001 of 25 births for every 1,000 girls ages 15 to 17. In the same age bracket, the birth rate among Black, non-Hispanic females dropped by nearly half between 1991 and 2001 (from 86 to 45 births per 1,000, respectively), completely reversing the increase from 1986 to 1991.

Trends Headed the Wrong Way

The portion of kids ages 6 to 18 who were overweight increased from 6% in the late 1970s to 15% in 1999-2000. Black girls and Mexican American boys were at particularly high risk of being overweight. The portion of babies born dangerously small, less than 5.5 pounds at birth, continued to rise and hit 7.7% in 2001. Experts attribute the increase to more older women having babies and more multiple births. Housing for more than one in three US households with kids was physically inadequate, crowded, or cost more than 30% of the household income. Fueled by rising housing costs, that rate rose from 30% in 1978 to 36% in 1995 and has been stable since. In 2000, 19% of children lived in crowded housing, up from 16% a decade earlier.

Source:  Associated Press       Source:  ChildStats.gov

Soy Deforestation

Deforestation in Brazilian rainforests has increased by 40% over last year, not to satiate the West's demand for hamburgers, according to a recent spate of articles, but to clear land to grow soy, the primary protein alternative for many vegetarians.       Demand for soy and soy products has been skyrocketing. The US is now the primary exporter of soy products, but Brazil is not far behind, and it is expected to overtake the US within the next year or so. But is it true that the growing movement towards meat-alternative soy products is accelerating deforestation?       In the wake of the Mad Cow epidemic in Europe, which was caused mainly by the use of ground-up animal bones in livestock feed, European farmers searched for a non-animal based protein-rich feed for livestock. Soy meal seemed a perfect alternative. However, at least 50% of the US soy crop is grown using agricultural giant Monsanto's genetically modified Roundup Ready soy. The European Union and Japan ban the sale of GM foods, so the farmers needed an alternative soy source.       Brazil's exports have been growing to meet this new European demand for non-genetically altered soy. The soy sector now comprises 6% of Brazil's GDP. Most soybeans are grown on the cerrados, or savannas, in the southern part of Brazil, but now the growing of soybeans is spreading to the forested North.       About 13% of the total worldwide soy harvest is either used directly as seed or processed by specific food industries which use the whole soybean (e.g. tofu, soy sauce, and other meat and dairy substitutes). An estimated 87% is exported to the European Union in the form of soy cakes, used for cattle, poultry, or pig feed.       While vegetarians can breathe a sigh of relief that the recent upsurge in deforestation is not due to the increase in demand for tofu, there is little solace in knowing that ancient rainforests are still being sacrificed on the altar of the Golden Arches--even if they are pure European non-genetically modified soy-fed Golden Arches.       Source:  Center for Popular Economics

Swaziland Shows Scope of AIDS Aid Challenge

"The amount has no real bearing on the scale of the epidemic. $15 billion over five years stretched across the continent and the Caribbean ends up being quite small amounts of money," said Mark Heywood, a spokesman for South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign, the country's largest AIDS lobby group. "What we need with the AIDS epidemic is a systematic approach, coming also from industrialized countries--not grand gestures."       The Swazi debacle shows how big the challenge will be. Swaziland is a small kingdom surrounded on three sides by South Africa. Largely agricultural and with a population of about 1 million, Swaziland now has the second highest AIDS prevalence rate in the world after Botswana, with an estimated 38% of people infected. UN estimates suggest one Swazi child in five under 15 will be orphaned by 2005, while life expectancy will fall to below 30 by 2010 if the spread of AIDS is not checked. Swazi officials concede the epidemic is spiraling out of control, threatening not only agricultural production as farm workers die but also the very underpinnings of society as more and more children are orphaned.       The difficulties are compounded by drought, which has left granaries all but bare. The country, middle-income by African standards, now grows less than half its annual required cereal supply, and as much as 20% of the population requires emergency food aid. Strategies to handle what amounts to the slow-motion collapse of Swazi society are hard to come by, no matter how well funded.       UNICEF has launched a program of "neighborhood care points" where vulnerable children--often AIDS orphans--can receive rations of a nutritionally enhanced corn-soy porridge and an hour or two of adult company. "The older ones are acting as parents for the younger ones, but it is not enough," said Dorothy Nxumalo, who oversees one center in Mlindazwe, which counts some 70 new orphans in a population of 6,000.       More corn-soy porridge would help, as would better medical care--all of which could be improved with US aid. But activists are concerned that the US legislation has not put any actual dollars in the AIDS pot and warn that Congress could finally approve an amount that falls far short of expectations.       Bush has asked for about $2 billion to fund the program in the first year, about $1 billion less than the law authorized. Commenting on the President's tour of the continent, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on development, said, "President Bush may not notice it, but he's walking to a continent of mass death where life expectancy is in its 30s and 40s. Millions of people are dying, and the US, apart from spin, has basically done nothing for years."       Source:   Reuters

Americorps At Risk

With up to 22,000 volunteer jobs on the block, AmeriCorps workers from around the country urged Congress on Tuesday to add $100 million to the agency's budget to preserve programs that help low-income children and families. Standing across from the Capitol, a Roman Catholic nun from New York, a former volunteer from Nebraska, a program director from Tennessee, and a Peace Corps volunteer- turned-legislator had stories to tell about the families they've counseled, the abused children they've mentored, the communities they've served.       The cuts, they said, will devastate them.       In Memphis, Michael Warr will have to drop 220 families from his home visitation program at the Porter-Leath Children's Center. Sister Mary Johnice Rzadkiewicz wondered who will take food to the homebound in Buffalo, NY, or give a helping hand to the homeless. And in Bridgeport, CT, Robert Francis will be forced to cut his Safe Neighborhood Partnership staff of 55 AmeriCorps volunteers down to 25, which he fears might be too few to run the program.       According to figures released by Americorps providers this week, states will lose an average of 54% of their volunteer workers if the additional money is not approved. The House Appropriations Committee defeated a move Monday to add $100 million to the program this year, but lawmakers hinted that the money might be restored during House and Senate conference negotiations on a disaster relief bill. The Senate included the AmeriCorps funding in its version of the disaster bill.       Some House members have been unhappy with the national service agency because of widespread mismanagement and the tendency to recruit thousands more volunteers than it can afford. President Bush endorsed the program and added money to his proposed 2004 budget to increase the number of volunteers.       Forty-three governors sent a letter to Bush this week saying the cuts will "damage, if not destroy" programs that states and communities rely on.       AmeriCorps volunteers receive small stipends for the service, along with a scholarship of almost $5,000 to use for college or to pay off student loans.       Source:  Associated Press       More Info:  Americorps

White-Collar Jobs Can Be and Are Exported

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader writes:       In the past four decades, many millions of manufacturing jobs in this country have been shipped overseas or to South America. This transfer was supposed to be part of the "win-win" process of free trade. But 27 straight years of growing trade deficits with the rest of the world makes one wonder who's winning.       Conventional economists and their Republican and Democratic converts try to cushion this job export machine by saying that the large majority of jobs in this country are white-collar, not blue-collar. The implication is that white-collar jobs are not as easy to export.       Well, welcome to the computerization age. US companies are rushing headlong to export computer programming work to countries like India, Malaysia and now China, where English-language proficiency and cheap labor cut costs by more than two-thirds. Payroll processing, airline passenger billing, insurance computer applications and new software design are only some of the labor that is done in foreign countries for US companies.       Information technology, for example, has been in a bit of a slump. So, when outsourcing is combined with massive layoffs in this country and the continuing inflow of lower wage computer technology workers under H-1B and L-1 work visas, it is not surprising to see the gloom besetting American technology workers. Unlike H-1B visas, which are supposed to receive prevailing wages (but often do not), the L-1 does not oblige employers to pay workers prevailing wages, and there is no cap on the number of these visas that can be awarded foreign workers.       When these concerns are raised to international economists, one of their replies is, "Don't you know what an extraordinary job machine the US economy is?" Well, it has lost 2.6 million jobs since February 2001. More importantly, at least one-third of our economy's full-time workers--nearly 50 million--do not earn a living wage.       Source:  TomPaine.com

At 'Gladiator School', A New Regimen

It's called the "Gladiator School," and some of the toughest, meanest inmates in New Jersey are housed there. Many pick fights just to pass the time. About half of the 1,350 young prisoners live in dormitory-style units, where arguments can become free-for-all brawls. The rowdiness at the institution, formally known as the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility, has led to lockdowns and injuries. But that's about to change with a new carrot- and-stick approach that gives inmates a chance to trade in their tempers for better accomodations.       At level one, inmates will be allowed two phone calls and one visit a week. They will be able to visit the canteen only once a month with a $50 limit. Inmates earn money for the canteen by working various jobs inside the prison. Inmates at level one will be assigned the lowest-paying jobs.       Television will be restricted to two hours a day in the level one recreation room. Personal TVs and radios--those that inmates can keep at their bunks--will not be allowed.       On the other end, at level four, inmates will sleep in an air-conditioned dorm, have unlimited use of the phone and television, and be allowed to receive two visits each week. Personal televisions and radios will be allowed, and lights will stay on an extra 45 minutes each night.       Level four also will offer higher-paying jobs and two monthly trips to the canteen, each with a $120 limit.       "They get better jobs and living quarters as they go ahead, and they go back if they become maladjusted," Robertshaw said. "It's the first time we have combined those elements into a cohesive plan."       Inmate Bates said that the troublemakers in the prison were outnumbered by those looking forward to the extra privileges to be earned by staying in line.       Source:  Philadelphia Inquirer

Life-Net News Extras

China Floods Leave 3.5 Million Homeless

More than 3.5 million people have been left homeless by floods ravaging China, the International Federation of Red Cross said on Tuesday as it launched an emergency appeal for help. "An enormous number of people are living under plastic sheeting or in tents on top of the very dykes whose rupture destroyed their homes and their fields," said Alisdair Henley, head of the Red Cross's delegation in Beijing.       "These people then have to go back and rebuild their lives and livelihoods--and they need all the help they can get."       A Red Cross assessment mission to the worst affected areas in eastern, central and southern China concluded that around 100 million people were affected in 16 provinces. Many of them have lost all their belongings and will be unable to return home for several weeks.       Hundreds of people have been killed, and the death toll rises daily. On Tuesday, 11 more perished when a section of an ancient city wall collapsed after heavy rain in eastern Shuzhou city in Anhui province. Sleeping migrant workers were crushed to death when a segment of wall 15 meters wide and seven meters high gave way, the Xinhua news agency said. Continuous rainstorms have battered Anhui, with more than a million people alone being evacuated from low-lying areas.       The worst of the flooding has been along the Huai River, flowing to the north of China's flood-prone Yangtze River. The Xinhua news agency said water levels began rising again Tuesday after heavy rainfall in its upper reaches and major tributaries, marking the arrival of a third flood crest since late June.       Thorir Gudmundsson, a Red Cross official who is in Anhui said, "Some people stay on the roof of their inundated houses and refuse to be evacuated. There is a danger because the houses can collapse."       Gudmundsson also said the onset of disease such as malaria was a key worry.       Source:  Hi Pakistan

Victims' Survivors Prosper; Soldiers' Suffer

Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh writes:       I think the vast differences in compensation between victims of the September 11 casualty and those who die serving the country in Uniform are profound. No one is really talking about it either, because you just don't criticize anything having to do with September 11.       Well, I just can't let the numbers pass by because it says something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of this country. If you lost a family member in the September 11 attack, you're going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million.       If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable. Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are the surviving spouse, you get $833 a month until you remarry. And there's a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a screeching halt.       Keep in mind that some of the people who are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it's not enough. Their deaths were tragic, but for most, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Soldiers put themselves in harm's way for all of us, and they and their families know the dangers.       We also learned that some of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11 families are getting. In addition to that, some of the families of those bombed in the embassies are now asking for compensation as well.       You see where this is going, don't you? Folks, this is part and parcel of over 50 years of entitlement politics in this country. It's just really sad. Every time a pay raise comes up for the military, they usually receive next to nothing of a raise. Now the green machine is in combat in the Middle East while their families have to survive on food stamps and live in low-rent housing.       Source:  ChristiansOfTheUnitedStates

Christians Out-Help Seculars in Minneapolis

Writer Douglas Stambler stands up for his God in a relevant way:       Christ is the only solution to poverty. Minneapolis is a great example of why anything else ultimately fails. For years, this bustling, midwestern metropolis defined itself as a place for blue-collar opportunity. It gave away low-rent apartments to laborers from the South, who paid attention to where the jobs were in the 1960s and early 70s. In fact, Minneapolis avoided the cyclical downturns of more popular cities like New York and Chicago, only because of its insistence that everyone who could work should be asked to work. And so it went, the Twin Cities became a place where everything seemed to go right, and it maintained that image right through the economic downturn in 2001. And still, it took about two more years for the reality of the current recession to hit home, because Minnesota earmarked billions of dollars for working families and provided a safety net for the unemployed.       But if three words could sum up what Minneapolis--the apple of Minnesota's eye--is encountering now, it would have to be said that "Only Christ Succeeds." State social service programs are failing; single mothers and their children are suddenly winding up homeless; and able-bodied men are giving up hope for something better than chronic life on the streets. And yet, as the secular solutions to poverty continue to fail, there are rays of hope still shining brightly in the Twin Cities. Three in particular, are worth mentioning here: They are The Union Gospel Mission in St. Paul. Mary Jo's Place in Minneapolis. The outreach ministry to the poor at The Gospel Light Baptist Church, also in Minneapolis.       All of these serve the poor in a Christ-centered manner. In St. Paul, the mission there offers two catered meals a day, excellent living arrangements, and ample opportunities for men to come to know Jesus Christ. This professionally-run facility seems to double as a community center, with volunteers singing the mission's praises for a high level of respect given to each and every man who stays there.       Mary Jo's Place in Minneapolis is a miracle where it's needed most. The day center feeds over 350 people daily, offers them clothing, and gives them a sense of welcome, unlike any large facility for the poor in all of Minneapolis. Mary Jo, who works daily at this multi-million dollar instrument of God, is a legend in her own right, and is currently raising money for a new orphanage nearby.       Finally, for men who want a roof over their heads and a church community, there is The Gospel Light Baptist Church. Small in size, but extra-large in heart, The Gospel Light Baptist Church recruits men from the streets to live in one of their transitional homes and learn Christian living principles.       The three rays of hope all are Christ-centered in their approach to poverty.       Source:  Douglas Stambler, Christian Writer

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