LIFE-NET NEWS

by Ret Z.

Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices

2004 March 10	No Profit; No Proceeds
Volume 7 Number 23	All-Volunteer

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

Labor Group Documents Ongoing Gender Inequality

With 1.208 billion women workers (versus 1.006 billion in 1993), women represent more than 40% of the world labor force, the International Labor Organization emphasizes in its report entitled, World Trends in Women's Employment, published for International Women's Day (March 8). "Never before have so many women been economically active. ... However, the gap between the sexes is not close to being eliminated in any region of the world. True equality in the work world remains out of reach."       Women are more affected by unemployment (6.4% vs. 6.1% for men), except in the Far East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Unemployment particularly affects the young. Some 35.8 million women in the world aged 15 to 24 are looking for work, about half the total of unemployed women (77.8 million).       "To be a woman and young may entail double discrimination," summarizes the ILO. "Young women have more trouble entering the job market and holding on to jobs during slowdown periods."       "While men have a higher chance of being employed at regular well-paid activities, women are hired more and more for peripheral work, less secure and less valued jobs, such as domestic and temporary work. These jobs are characterized by very low salaries, irregular revenues, little or no security of employment or revenue, and an absence of social protection." Thus, women constitute more of the "working poor", who earn less than a dollar a day: they represent 60% of this population, or 330 million people.       Source:  Le Monde       Translation:  Truthout

Plan Aims to Boost Foster Parenting

New Jersey hasn't had enough foster families for years, due to inadequate stipends, cumbersome regulations, and a system that pretty much ignored them once they signed up. But the plan to reform the state's child-welfare system is aimed at making the foster family experience easier and more rewarding.       "All over the country there are complaints about the lousy job their child welfare system is doing," said Adam Pertman, executive director of the New York-based Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. "New Jersey's have been more public."       Acting Human Services Commissioner James Davy went to the homes of two foster families last week, trying to improve the image of the troubled Division of Youth and Family Services. He asked for suggestions on how to improve the system that has driven foster families away -- some before they even took in a child.       A number of the suggestions made by the foster parents are already outlined in the state's proposed plan to reform DYFS. Many of those initiatives were also spelled out by the New Jersey Child Welfare Panel, the independent body put in place to oversee reform at DYFS as part of a lawsuit settlement with a children's rights group. The state plan calls for a significant boost in the monthly stipend foster families receive, improvements in training prior to getting a child, and streamlining the approval process for both foster care and the eventual adoption of the children.       A significant part of the plan is focused on providing better day-to-day support for foster families. Officials said in the plan that the recruitment process at DYFS was "haphazard and disorganized" and that once foster families were in the system, "we do not support them in any way."       Pertman said many of the problems stem from a lack of funding for resources to help foster families get proper care for children. He said that many of the children in the system have physical, mental or developmental problems, for which parents haven't received adequate education or training.       Davy told the foster families he met with that the state intended to hire resource workers who would be assigned to up to 35 families to provide specific support. Those services would include offering emergency respites for overwhelmed foster families and lining up baby-sitting for a needed night out.       Source:  Associated Press

Leveled Fields Kill Iraqi Harvests

In provinces such as Diyala and Tikrit, which have witnessed Iraqi resistance attacks, thousands of hectares of farmland and forest have been razed by the US occupation forces, who claim they have been used as hideouts for Iraqi resistance fighters. Hundreds of farmers have lost their income overnight. They are neither able to ask for compensation, nor have they been given a date by which they can replant their destroyed crops and resume work.       "They flattened our farmlands in front of our eyes," said an Iraqi farmer in Diyala. "We are unable to work and feed our families anymore. They allege that Iraqi fighters had been using our farms as hideouts; it is not true."       Arrests have also badly affected the rural population in Iraq. Thousands of rural workers believed to be involved in anti-US forces attacks are being kept in US custody. One Iraqi farmer in Diyala says people from his community have been arrested and imprisoned for unlimited periods of time. "Dozens of farmers in the area have been taken away from their homes. Their wives and children are lost and do not know what to do, especially since no charges are being made against the detainees and no one knows when they are going to be released," said one farmer. "We want to know if our people are really guilty or not, and how long they are going to be detained. That would let us determine how we are going to help their families."       While leveled farmlands have heavily restricted the flow of fruit and vegetables to the cities, active farms are also suffering serious obstacles preventing farmers from running their businesses efficiently. A potato grower near Baghdad has complained of harsh practices by US forces pursuing alleged Iraqi resistance fighters. "We often wake up to see our harvest of potatoes destroyed by US tanks. They have no hesitation about driving their heavy machines into planted farms.       "Normally we water during the night but we are unable to do that anymore, the coalition forces are all over the land during the night. You know that they might shoot anyone and then tell you afterwards that they are sorry."       Prices of agricultural products have reached unprecedented levels in Iraqi cities at a time of widespread unemployment and resource scarcity.       Source:   Al-Jazeera

Budget Cuts In American Indian Country

Copies of the Bureau of Indian Affairs "green book" were distributed last week to tribal leaders. The document details, for the first time since the budget was announced last month, the reductions in the BIA's social service, education, welfare, tribal, and other programs.       Overall, the budget seeks $2.25 billion for the BIA, a reduction of $52.0 million, or 2.3%. This is the first time since the mid-1980s that the agency serving more than 550 tribes and more than 1 million American Indians and Alaska Natives is looking at a cut.       Some of the more significant reductions occur in the tribal priority allocation (TPA) account. TPA funds are particularly important because they are used by tribes to carry out day-to-day government functions.       Under the TPA item, there is a $278,000 cut in human services, a $394,000 cut in education, a $334,000 cut in contract support costs, a $498,000 cut in forestry services, and a $748,000 cut in trust services. And while the overall TPA request is $4.9 million above the current level, it is offset by a nearly $11 million transfer to the Office of Special Trustee (OST) for appraisal services.       The slash in the human services account affects three major reservation-level programs: the Indian Child Welfare Act, welfare assistance, and the housing improvement program. The green book contains no justification of these cuts.       The education cut is achieved by slashing scholarships for Indian students at post-secondary institutions. The reduction means tribes will only be able to award 1,100 scholarships, down from 1,250 for the current year. The Bush administration has been reducing this item since it took office.       Despite receiving an "adequate" rating by the White House -- one of the better ratings for the BIA -- forestry services is the only natural resource program seeing a reduction in funds. The BIA, however, still says it will meet its goal of helping tribes harvest timber, manage forests and develop management plans.       The largest cut comes to the construction account. In 2005, replacement of BIA schools -- the worst in the nation, will be reduced by $61.0 million. Repair and improvement of other facilities will be cut by nearly $9 million.       Officials justify the drop by saying all the projects on the BIA's priority list have been funded through 2004. Fourteen new schools were recently added to the list.       The BIA's losses contrast with the gains at OST, which Congress created in 1994 to oversee trust reform. But tribal leaders say OST is going beyond Congress' intent by implementing reform.       Source:  Indianz

A Slice of Life and Death: AIDS Orphans

South Africa has around 750,000 AIDS orphans. The government has promised to provide free anti-AIDS drugs across the country but has yet to deliver.       Twelve-year old Lungha's mother died from AIDS. He suffered from tuberculosis but was never tested for AIDS. Around 60% of TB sufferers in rural South Africa are infected with HIV. "I can't walk to school from here because it's too far, I get out of breath," said Lungha, now dead.       Lindiwe's husband died two years ago from AIDS. She has HIV but has never received any anti-AIDS drugs. As well as her own five children, she looks after her two nephews, who were orphaned by AIDS five years ago. "Death is walking with me every day. I wake up at night sometimes and think this is it."       Lindiwe's daughter Nobuhle may also be infected with the virus. "When I run to the toilet my brothers tease me, saying, 'You've got AIDS.' I don't know what AIDS is, but I'm afraid of it. I know it's a killer."       Sister Hedwig has devoted her life to trying to help the AIDS orphans of Nkandla. She is a member of the German order, the Nardini Sisters, and is the convent's first social worker. Based in Nkandla hospital, she helps families with food parcels, medicines and by making sure that they are claiming disability allowances.       Gogo has lost children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren to the virus. She feels that not enough is being done to halt the pandemic and is angry that no one is prepared to talk about it. "No one dare say that four-letter word, AIDS. But the children are finished. They are finished."       Source:  BBC (popup slideshow)

An Attack On Violence in Camden Schools

Nationwide, there have been 40 school-related deaths this year, including the widely reported shootout death of a student in a Philadelphia school yard last month, according to Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services.       In South Jersey's largest district, Camden City schools, there have been 269 violent acts reported since September, according to officials. In an effort to curb violence, Camden police recently redeployed some of the 16 uniformed officers and four detectives assigned to the district under the "Cops in Schools" program. That doubles the number of officers at the city's two traditional high schools, which have the largest student populations.       Camden High and Woodrow Wilson now have four officers each who are assigned to help patrol. Acting Police Chief Edwin Figueroa said the extra officers were expected to remain as long as necessary. "We're going to be able to take charge of the situation."       But some say those measures are not enough. Dwaine J. Williams, former vice president of the Camden school board, said he believes that the increased police presence won't stem the violence. "You could send the National Guard in there, and you're still going to have incidents," Williams said. "It's going to do nothing."       School Superintendent Annette D. Knox has been working to reduce violent outbreaks in the 18,000-student district since September, when X-ray scanners were installed at Camden High and Woodrow Wilson. She requested the stepped-up police presence even before the latest acts.       Furthermore, four students accused of weapons and assault offenses were expelled last month, and action is pending against four others facing similar charges. Last year, only one student was expelled.       Knox said she also planned to unveil a comprehensive antiviolence program later this month.       Three city schools -- Camden High, East Camden Middle, and Bonsall Elementary -- are on the state's list of "persistently dangerous" schools.       At a recent meeting of some of the parents in North Camden, Benjamin Resto, 17, a Camden High student, complained, "They have knives, brass knuckles, and even with the metal detectors, a guy pulled a gun on me."       Source:  Philadelphia Inquirer

Insurance Giant Warns of Global Warming Risk

The world's second-largest reinsurer Swiss Re warns that the costs of global warming threaten to spiral out of control, forcing the human race into a catastrophe of its own making. In a report revealing how climate change is rising on the corporate agenda, Swiss Re said the economic costs of global warming threatened to double to $150 billion a year in 10 years, hitting insurers with $30 to $40 billion in claims, or the equivalent of one World Trade Center attack annually.       "There is a danger that human intervention will accelerate and intensify natural climate changes to such a point that it will become impossible to adapt our socio-economic systems in time," Swiss Re said in the report, which comes as a growing number of policy experts warn that the environment is emerging as the security threat of the 21st century, eclipsing terrorism.       Losses to insurers from environmental events have risen exponentially over the past 30 years and are expected to rise even more rapidly, said Swiss Re climate expert Pamela Heck. "Scientists tell us that certain extreme events are going to increase in intensity and frequency in the future," Heck told Reuters by telephone. "Climate change is very much in the mind of the insurance industry."       In the short- and medium-term, simply knowing that the planet is warming will allow society to adapt, for example, through infrastructure to cope with more-frequent floods or by instructing farmers to use drought-resistant cereals. In other cases, governments need to restrict risk-taking, such as approving housing developments in low-lying areas, and to improve catastrophe management capabilities.       In the long term, Swiss Re said, greenhouse gases widely thought to trigger global warming will need to be reduced, the use of fossil fuels cut, and new energy technologies developed. "The role of the insurance industry is through establishing risk-adequate tariffs," said Heck, "and to give the risk taker the opportunity to implement appropriate measures to reduce the chance of possible losses."       Source:  Reuters

Life-Net News Extras

South Camden Shut Out of Recovery Plan

Waterfront South Camden resident Barbara Pfeiffer writes, in part:       I moved to Camden 18 years ago, having been born and raised in Manhattan and after graduating from the University of Michigan and living and teaching in Tokyo and Honolulu.       It is in Camden where I find my global village. Americans of African, Hispanic, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Polish, Irish and German descent (to name a few), about 1,700 of us, all live in the Waterfront South neighborhood.       It's the same Waterfront South that the people managing the Camden Recovery Act want to exclude from "recovery." That is tragic, because South Camden Citizens in Action, Heart of Camden, the Church of the Sacred Heart, and Camden Churches Organized for People were responsible for the recovery money coming to Camden in the first place. Without these organizations calling attention to the problems here, recovery money wouldn't have been forthcoming.       How skewed things get. The very people from the Camden global village who need recovery money are being buried by the fat cats who want to bring a golf course to one side of Camden and have already brought cement-processing, trash-to-steam and sewage-treatment plants (to name but a few) to the other side of the city. They talk of Camden's now being a top site for industrial investment and of tearing down a prison that should remain as a symbol of what happens when government ignores the needs of the poor.       Many Camden residents, myself included, are all for bringing light industry, which provides jobs and tax revenue, to the city. What we don't want is more 18-wheeler truck traffic on our already burdened nine square miles.       Arijit De, executive director of the Camden Redevelopment Agency, recently came here to celebrate the tearing down of houses on Arlington Street, which should have been done 20 years ago. The smell from the sewage-treatment plant was ripe that day. On camera, he sniffed the air and asked, "How can people live here?"       My question is: How can anyone not live in the city of Camden? How can people not be a part of the solution for all the cities in the United States discriminated against by the suburban rich? How can people leave the cities as ghost towns and keep pushing into the countryside, leaving behind fallow land and contributing to ugly suburban sprawl?       Camden is the place to live -- in lovely 100-year-old renovated rowhouses, with cleansing trees lining the block, children of all colors playing on their front stoops, and, in the backyard, a water-treatment plant that does not smell, thanks to the miracles of modern science.       [Barbara has also spoken on Life-Net Radio, which will take you on a visit to the heart of the South Camden situation March 24.]       Source:  Philadelphia Inquirer

Antidote to Loneliness

Ninety-eight-year-old Mable wears the smile of a person who knows true happiness. "She must have very loving children and grandchildren," thought CBN journalists when they visited her at Xiangshan Nursing Home. Much to our surprise, however, Mabel's cheerful demeanor has nothing to do with motherhood. She had never been a mother.       As a young woman, Mable decided to devote herself to serving people in need. While her friends found spouses and settled down, Mable pursued a career in medicine and became one of the first doctors at Beijing Xiehe Hospital, the best medical institution in China. Consumed by her work, Mable never took time off to get married or have children. In fact, she never thought about stopping work until two years ago, when she suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning. Even at the age of 92 (yes, ninety-two), Mable made several trips to Tibet to help people.       From a conventional perspective, Mable is alone. No children or grandchildren come to visit her. Nobody shares her name or genes. No one resembles her in physical appearance or character. Yet Mable does not feel lonely. Bringing health and happiness to others has brought her profound joy and fulfillment. Service has given her the emotional support that a family usually provides.       Source:  CBN China

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