| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| 2003 August 13 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 7 Number 10 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Heat Bears Down on French Homeless |
|
France's homeless are bearing the brunt of the heat wave
scorching Europe because many people mistakenly believe
that those living in the street are more able to fend for
themselves in summer, according to France's paramedics
service, the SAMU. Several have died in the past few weeks
because of the high temperatures, Aurelie de Cacqueray,
the head of the SAMU's office that looks after the
destitute in Paris, told AFP on Monday.
"Summer is always a difficult time for the homeless because fewer people worry about them, even though the heat aggravates all their problems," de Cacqueray said. On Sunday, one man collapsed a short distance from the Catholic shelter in the north of the city where he had wanted to spend the night. His death was the result of heat stroke linked to high alcohol intake. A week earlier, the body of another homeless man was found in a vehicle in an abandoned worksite west of Paris, the victim of poor health, pneumonia and the heat. The man, Samir Gherab, had starred in a film last year about France's homeless. He had been on day leave from a psychiatric hospital that had been looking after him for several weeks. Ambulance statistics show that call-outs to help people in the street have risen markedly since the beginning of the heat wave a week ago but they do not differentiate between homeless people and other types of patients. The doctor at the SAMU office, Christine Laruelle, said that people living on the street, like some elderly people and others in socially isolated situations, tended to be at risk from severe dehydration when the mercury spiked. Several drank alcohol or coffee in a vain attempt to quench their thirst, and "some wear several layers of clothing out of fear that others will steal them, and because they aren't aware of the heat as much", she said. Many of the people who passed through her clinic had severe sunburn caused by sleeping in exposed places and infected blisters on their feet, Laruelle said. The parks and gardens in Paris offered respite to many of the homeless, especially because of the water taps they usually feature. But the absence during the traditional French vacation period of many of the concerned residents and volunteers who cared for the homeless and who actively sought them out was being felt, she said. "Those who usually give helping hands, who give a bottle of water to the local street person and who call us when he doesn't look so great, those are the people we're missing the most," Laruelle said. The SAMU pointed out that nearly a third of the 2,200 beds normally available in Paris to the homeless were closed during the summer break, forcing more out onto the baking sidewalks. Source: Agence France-Presse |
| Subsidize Vaccines For All, Panel Urges |
|
"It was uppermost in our minds to close the gap, to assure
there was no one in this country who lacked the means to
pay for vaccinations," said panel member Sara Rosenbaum of
George Washington University. The recommendation from the
Institute of Medicine urges that all private and government
medical insurance cover needed vaccinations, that the
government subsidize that coverage and provide vouchers so
people without insurance can get their shots.
"We offer a plan that both ensures access to vaccines for those in need and creates incentives for private investment in the vaccine industry that would sustain the development and manufacture of these products," said Frank Sloan, professor of health policy at Duke University, who chaired the panel that issued the report. A reduction in the number of companies producing vaccines has led to shortages in the last couple of years. Dr. Donald Young, president of the Health Insurance Association of America, said, "The proposal for a fully funded mandate for vaccinations is an interesting concept, worthy of further consideration. However, it seems at first blush to be a complicated approach to encouraging consumers to get the shots they need and supporting vaccine manufacturers in the development of new vaccines." He said he was bothered that federal funding might dry up over time, leaving a requirement that would drive up insurance costs. The CDC reported recently that just 75% of the nation's toddlers were vaccinated on schedule against nine diseases for which shots were required by federal law. There are pockets of the country, said the CDC, where far too few youngsters are up-to-date on their shots. Source: Associated Press |
| Hope for Hookers in the Philippines |
|
There are approximately 330,000 prostituted women in the
Philippines, according to the Coalition Against Trafficking
in Women - Asia Pacific (CATW-AP). More often than not,
the public perceives prostitution as simply an avenue for
spreading STDs.
Without the skills needed to get decent employment, and without alternatives, women are often compelled to resort to prostitution as a means of survival. In a study made by the Women's Education, Development, Production and Research Organization (WEDPRO), it was discovered that most of the women involved in prostitution experienced childhood sexual, physical, verbal and emotional abuse. Samaritana, a Quezon City-based NGO assisting women who are leaving prostitution, begins its help with "immersion nights:" At around 7pm, Samaritana participants --volunteers, counselors, students, youth groups, social workers, practically anyone interested in reaching out to women in prostitution--are assembled at a selected venue for an hour-long briefing on the organization's work, some of the issues and needs of its women friends, the assistance they will give, and the areas they will be walking through. After a light meal, the group is then split into small mixed teams and given their assigned areas. They hit the bars and streets for three hours, then come back for a short debriefing. "You have to go where the pick-up girls are," says Jonathan and Thelma Nambu, founders of Samaritana. "These are women who will never come to us unless we come to them. Samaritana desires to ease the social stigma most of these women experience." No theology here nor self-righteous sermons, just loving compassion hitting home. Realizing that prayers alone are not enough to sustain the women's transition from the streets to a renewed life, Samaritana's life-training program includes livelihood skills (fruit preserves, batik-making, handicrafts like handmade paper, cards, cross stitching, bookmark-making, jewelry), small business management (sari-sari stores), peer and individual counseling, health education, life skills, spiritual direction, and therapeutic activities such as retreats. According to advocacy coordinator Jenny Galvez, Samaritana initiates involvement in advocacy projects; conducts focus group discussions among women, forums and information campaigns with partner organizations; and lobbies for the passage of pertinent bills such as the Anti-Trafficking Bill and the Anti-Prostitution Bill, which seek to penalize persons involved in the system of prostitution--pimps, sex operators, customers, building owners/lessors, managers and profiteers. Samaritana and its various network partners and organizations aim for a society that views prostitution as the crime, and the women involved in it as victims who need help, understanding and support to enable them to leave their broken past behind and live decent lives. Source: Manila Times E-Mail: Samaritana |
| US Lists 'Clean Diamond' Eligible Traders |
|
Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC), Republic of Congo and Tanzania are among 58
participants eligible for trade in rough diamonds with the
United States in accordance with the Clean Diamond Trade
Act, the US Department of State announced on Monday.
It said that trade would be conducted in accordance with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). The KPCS has its origins in the decision by Southern African diamond-producing countries in 2000 to take action to stop the flow of conflict diamonds to the markets, while at the same time protecting the legitimate diamond industry. Since then, the initiative has grown and evolved to include more than 70 countries involved in the production, export and import, as well as trade in rough diamonds. According to Global Witness, a UK-based NGO working to highlight the links between the exploitation of natural resources and human rights abuses, the trade in conflict and illicit rough diamonds has funded and prolonged conflicts in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the DRC Congo, as well as funding international terrorism. The US Department of State said the list of participants would be updated periodically as additional entities meet the requirements of the Act. Source: UN Integrated Regional Information Networks More: Kimberley Process |
| Congress Mulls Market-Based Climate Stewardship |
|
In January this year, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe
Lieberman (D-CT) introduced the Climate Stewardship Act (S.
139). This historic bill takes the first steps toward
limiting heat-trapping gas emissions that are contributing
to global warming. Since then activists with the Union of
Concerned Scientists have sent thousands of letters to
their senators urging them to support the Climate
Stewardship Act.
The Climate Stewardship Act's market-based approach would harness American technological know-how to find the most cost-effective ways to cut our emissions of heat-trapping gases. Off-the-shelf reductions already available include producing more electricity from clean renewable sources, limiting carbon pollution from dirty coal-fired power plants, increasing the energy efficiency of our homes and factories, and making cars go further on a gallon of gas. By encouraging investment in these and other methods, the act would also ensure that American technology remains competitive as other countries move to reduce their own emissions. As the world's number one emitter of heat-trapping gases, the US should be a leader in the fight to curb global warming, instead of trailing behind the rest of the world. Our voluntary emission reduction measures have failed. In fact, US emissions are nearly 12% higher now than they were in 1990. The Climate Stewardship Act will be coming up for a vote in the US Senate this fall. The Union of Concerned Scientists would like to hear of your support for the bill. Source: Union of Concerned Scientists |
| West Bank Mini-Mall Relieves War-Weary |
|
Wajih Ibrahim reveled in the smorgasbord of games before
him: He shot miniature basketballs through a hoop, dashed
to a nearby video game, then darted to the foosball table.
"I've never been able to go to a place like this to have
fun," the boisterous 12-year-old Palestinian gushed during
a pause in his manic romp through the kiddie land of the
first Western-style shopping mall in the Palestinian
territories. "We used to play in the streets and throw
stones at soldiers--that was our only fun."
By American standards, the two-level Plaza shopping center that opened last month on the dusty edge of Ramallah's commercial district is modest, at best. By Palestinian measures, it is revolutionary--an oasis of civility and modernity in a desert of violence, economic devastation and psychological gloom. Only blocks away from where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's government compound lies in rubble and where Israeli tanks destroyed chunks of the city's business district last year, the mini-mall has become a symbol of hope for Palestinians worn down by nearly three years of war and deprivation. Intifada fighting has left almost 60% of the Palestinian population living below the poverty line, compared with 21% before the conflict, according to the World Bank. Real per capita income is down 41% and domestic investment is 90% below pre-uprising levels. In the West Bank, unemployment has more than doubled, from 17% before the violence to 40% now. By accepted business practices in most parts of the world, building the $10.2 million Plaza in this West Bank city 10 miles north of Jerusalem was an enormous risk--and it has been just as big an accomplishment. "If anything could go wrong, it did," said Sam S. Bahour, the project's Ohio-born general manager. Each time the conflict intensified, Bahour rewrote his business plan, scaled down his expectations, delayed his opening date and tried to overcome the latest setback. Some building materials were hauled by donkey to skirt military roadblocks--"primitive, Stone Age transportation," Bahour recounted. Mickey Mouse seesaws and pink carousel ponies were held up for months in Israeli ports because of security checks. And nearby apartments had to be rented for construction crews because military checkpoints, closures and curfews prevented them from commuting between the work site and their homes. Now, nearly three years behind schedule, Bahour has set the shopping center's grand opening for Oct. 1. Five of an expected 40 tenant businesses already have opened: the children's amusement area, a Western-style supermarket called Bravo, a candy shop, Mac Chain Burgers and Henny Penny fried chicken. Even though few stores are open yet, a cavernous air- conditioned building is still a novelty here, and many people come to gawk at the towering ceiling, delight in the artificially chilled air or try an escalator for the first time--an adventure that frequently leaves entire families huddled before the moving stairs, daring one another to be the first to step aboard. Source: Washington Post |
| Life-Net News Extras |
| A Sixteenth-Century Standard of Living |
|
The next time you complain about an inconvenience, think
about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the
1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the clean water, then all the sons and men, then the women and finally the children--last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Houses had thatched roofs, thick straw piled high, with no wood underneath. There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt: slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would start slipping outside. People cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for many days. Occasionally they could obtain pork. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat." England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. Source: "Ruthann" |
| Chicago to Give Prostitutes a Hand Up |
|
Brenda, a former prostitute of 25 years, felt safer
spending a night in jail where no pimps or customers could
harm her. When she was released, the guards would tell her
to "go home." But to Brenda--who says she has been shot
five times, raped, beaten and stabbed--that meant the cycle
of violence would begin again.
"I'd always say, `Can you tell me someplace where I can go spend the night?'" said Brenda, 46, who said she gave up prostitution and drugs six years ago. "I'd end up having to go back to the streets." The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, joined by a number of governmental and social services agencies, unveiled a proposal last Wednesday aimed at helping prostitutes. A pilot plan would place 15 women leaving jail for prostitution-related charges into housing for up to 24 months, offering them support services to keep them from returning to the streets. The project would especially affect five neighborhoods where 991 women were arrested for prostitution in 2002, officials said. "We have to start somewhere and we picked the [Shakespeare] District because that's where the most arrests are happening," said Samir Goswami, a senior policy analyst for the coalition, who said 21% of the city's prostitution arrests are made in that area. The pilot program--which the agencies hope to fund by collecting $166,000 in grants--would offer access to job training and help in locating low-cost apartments. The Heartland Alliance, a Chicago social service provider, would run the initiative, which is backed by Ald. Rey Colon and Manny Flores, the Cook County Sheriff's Office and the Mayor's Office on Domestic Violence. Officials said they recognize the pitfalls of spending funds on women who are breaking the law but point out that for many of the estimated 16,000 prostitutes in the city, especially those with felony convictions, there is no place else to turn. Lucretia, who spent 21 years as a prostitute and has a felony conviction, explained to community members at the Humboldt Park Vocational Center that getting clean is harder than it appears. "No one is trying to direct you to any means to find help, yet society says stop what you are doing," she said. "Then when we do try to get clean, we can't find a job because of our background." Brenda, who said she had dreams of becoming a singer before her alcoholic grandmother sent her to a pimp when she was 12, said the pilot program would give hope to women who often can't even fathom a better life. "No little girl makes a decision to be a prostitute when she grows up," Brenda said. "The responsibility to change has to come from inside of each woman, but she needs the tools to do it." Source: Chicago Tribune |
| DYFS May Have To Return Millions in Aid |
New Jersey has failed a federal audit of its embattled
child welfare system and may have to give back as much as
$10 million in US aid, according to officials familiar with
the review. Federal regulators have told the state that
the audit found the Division of Youth and Family Services
was performing badly in several critical areas of its
foster care system, state and federal sources said. The
problems included:
Susan Orr, associate commissioner of the US Children's Bureau within the Administration for Children and Families, said, "We give the states a chance to improve. Most states that do not pass (the first time), pass the second time." New Jersey didn't. Source: Newark Star-Ledger |
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