| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| 2004 March 24 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 7 Number 25 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Burundian Eco-Jewel Dwindling |
|
Burundi's beautiful Lake Gacamirinda is in danger of
disappearing. Philippe Njoni, governor of Kirundo province
where the lake is, says the factors causing it to dry up
include the drought of 1998-2001. He also cites "the
destruction downstream of the papyrus which had been growing
in the river and served as a kind of dyke to contain the
lake's waters. The papyrus has been replaced by crops" like
taro, banana and sorghum, which were planted haphazardly
around the lake by people fleeing food shortages in other
parts of the country.
A panel of environmental experts visited the region in January and issued a report that confirms Njoni's statements. It also notes that the papyrus-displacing crops are lowering the area's water table. More than half of the lake is said to have disappeared, an area measuring about 1.25 square km. Emmanuel Nshimirimana of the environmental group Biraturaba said, "Growing crops without prior study, the absence of rain in northern Burundi, swift evaporation in the region and frequent rockslides are factors which may contribute to the lake's total disappearance." According to the expert panel, the water-level drop has caused the temperature of the remaining water to rise, to the detriment of the plants and animals which live in what is left of the lake. "The change in the ecosystem introduced a new species of predatory bird which preys on fish," says Bonaventure Gakukwe, a rural engineering director. Lakeside residents are beginning to feel the effects. According to Vincent Nzisabira, president of the local water association, clean water is proving ever harder to get hold of. "People may easily have to walk four to six kilometers to fetch potable water, (as the rest of the lake) has become practically like mud." In Kirundo province, bordering on Rwanda and Tanzania, many of Burundi's streams and rivers get replenished. Kirundo also suffers periodic droughts. Provincial authorities are calling for national government to help save the lake -- and developing proposals of their own. Source: Inter Press Service |
| Stop Schooling, Start Educating |
|
Author and child psychiatrist Robert E. Kay, M.D., who
brought astounding angles on education to LNR, writes:
While "everyone" worries about education, we might also face the fact -- in the words of John Taylor Gatto, Teacher of the Year in both NYC and NY State -- that "schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet." That is, given parents, siblings, peers, mentors, bosses, books, newspapers, magazines, radios, the Internet, stores, libraries, museums, organizations, health-clubs, educational videos, art museums, churches, and the armed services plus on-the-job training, etc., why the opportunities for real, motivated, interest-driven and/or integrated learning are virtually endless. Not to mention that what we need in The Real World -- as opposed to The Credential World with its very-boring, fear- producing, and forgettable curricula -- are those basic thinking, learning, communicating, and cooperating skills that we were *born* with plus reading, writing, simple math and button pushing. The fancy stuff, on the other hand, is best learned on the job. In the meantime, those well-intended schools and colleges could, with drastic changes -- like abolishing homework and formal assessment for the first sixteen years -- become mind-expanding, non-demeaning, sociability-enhancing, i.e., interesting and effective educational enterprises. In a few years, this would almost inevitably make my job disappear. Source: Robert E. Kay, M.D. |
| Info-Net Links Arms of Women in Rural India |
|
In a quiet wing of the Office of the Municipal Counsellors
building in off-the-beaten-track Baduria, between Calcutta
and the Bangladeshi border, a group of eight young women are
watching their teacher use waxed thread to pluck hairs from
the eyebrows of a student volunteer.
Early this year, Sandhya Banerjee started teaching this beautician’s course based on skills she had acquired earlier in six months of training supported by the local government. This course, facilitated by Change Initiatives, is one in a series of new opportunities for poor women. The larger program was named after the autumn rice harvest festival, Nabanna. Nabanna’s novel information network enables Baduria women with relatively few opportunities for income and independence to create new spaces, both physical and virtual, in which to congregate and learn, as well as new social and technological networks through which to share information and skills. The net builds from a simple facility in the center of town, where computer training and networking workshops are conducted. ‘Candidates’ of this venture come here to learn and practice using computers to build up skills they require to put their emerging network online. The idea behind Nabanna is to help women learn to use media and ICT tools to communicate, i.e., document, organize, share, and use information. At the front line of the info-net are the candidates, all "poor" but with somewhat better educations, a thorough grasp of the Nabanna concept, and now better ICT skills. Each candidate reaches out to ten or so women in her neighborhood and shares information and ideas emerging from her experience of the Nabanna process. This becomes her information group. The network is animated in part by a regular tabloid newspaper, increasingly run by the women themselves, that has local features and excerpts from the participant’s diaries. For instance, it was an ad published gratis in the Nabanna tabloid, expressing Sandhya’s interest in conducting a beautician course, that got her in touch with various interested women from the Baduria community. Together they worked to initiate the course. Source: UNESCO New Delhi Relevant Link: Nabanna Project |
| Bill of Not-Rights |
|
Attributed to Georgia state representative Mitchell Kaye:
I. You do not have the right to a new car, big-screen TV or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything. II. You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the world is full of idiots and probably always will be. III. You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful; do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy. IV. You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes. V. You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care. VI. You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair. VII. You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big-screen color TV or a life of leisure. VIII. You don't have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful. IX. You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to pursue happiness -- which is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an overabundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights. X. This is an English-speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from. Source: E-mail via LNR speaker Jack Fisher ("The Poor, the Jews, and Blo-o-od, Mwu-hu-hu-ha-ha-haaaa!") |
| World Population Growth Rate Falling |
|
The growth rate of the world population has slowed down,
says a report by the US Census Bureau. It adds that there
were 74 million more people in 2002 -- well below the 87
million added in 1989-90.
The rate of growth peaked 40 years ago, when it stood at about 2.2% a year. The bureau partly attributes the drop to women having fewer children. It also projects a population decline in Africa because of the lower life expectancy due to HIV/AIDS. In 1990 women around the world gave birth to 3.3 children on average, the report says. By 2002, the average had dropped to 2.6 children -- slightly above the level needed to assure replacement of the population. The bureau's projections show the level of fertility for the world as a whole descending below replacement level by 2050. It forecasts there will be nearly 9.1 billion people by 2050, just under a 50% increase from the 6.2 billion in 2002. The report suggests that the proportion of people over the age of 65 will keep increasing, from 7% to 17% by 2050. And that by 2010, some African countries will experience falls in life expectancy at birth to around 30 years -- a level not seen since the early 20th century. Much of this trend is likely to result from AIDS, the report says. It adds that the trend could reverse if AIDS education programs expand in developing nations. It pointed to positive signs in Thailand, Senegal and Uganda, where the epidemic appears to have been stemmed. Source: BBC |
| Gay-Marriage Rights Contrasted with Civil Rights |
|
"I am tired of sitting at the back of the bus," said one
37-year-old California man who recently went to San
Francisco to "marry" his male partner.
"Rosa Parks didn't wait for the courts to tell her it was all right to ride in the front of the bus," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, explaining why he authorized the city to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Robert Oliver, a black resident of Chicago, excoriates the comparison: "When has a multitude of gays been kidnapped and made to be slaves for 400 years? When was it illegal to teach gays to read and write? When were there ever any gay Jim Crow laws? When were gays required to say 'sah' or 'ma'am' to straight people? When were there separated gay and straight water fountains? "In public buildings, when were there separate entrances for gays and straights, the gays going out the back? In theaters, have gays been forced to sit in the balcony while the straights sit on the main floor? When were there segregated lunch counters based on sexual preference? When was a gay required to give up their seat on a bus to a straight person? Who was the gay Rosa Parks? "Were gays at the bottom of the economic social structure for decades? Where were the poor gay ghettos?" Source: Concerned Women for America |
| US Firms Try to Block Cheap AIDS Drugs |
|
Questioning the WHO's approval process, known as
"pre-qualification", for generic drugs, the US department of
health and human services, under pressure from pharma-
giants, has now convened a conference in Botswana at the end
of the month. If the cheap drugs are discredited and the
more expensive brand-name drugs bought instead, the money
available for treatment will help fewer people and reduce
the WHO's hopes of getting three million people on treatment
by 2005.
"It is not quality and safety and efficacy [the American companies] are concerned about, but the protection of patents," said Rachel Cohen of Médecins sans Frontières in the US. When President Bush pledged billions for AIDS and hailed the plunge in drug prices in his State of the Union address last year, it was assumed that the US would be willing to buy generics to make the money go further. But Randall Tobias -- former chief executive of US drug giant Eli Lilly and the man appointed to head the president's AIDS strategy -- claims that generic drugs manufactured overseas may fall disastrously short of US-made drugs' consistency and quality. WHO officials involved in approving the generic drugs defend their system, pointing out that the drug regulatory agencies of France, Switzerland, Canada and South Africa participate in it. Source: Mail & Guardian (South Africa) |
| Snapshot of the Jobs Crisis |
|
In New Jersey, according to the AFL-CIO:
Since January 2001, there were added only 4,700 jobs, only 4.8% of the number needed to keep up with population growth. Sectors that traditionally provide good jobs with benefits, manufacturing and information services have cut 66,500 and 28,700 jobs respectively. In 2003, the US Department of Labor said at least 42 companies in the state slashed jobs from their payrolls due to trade. NAFTA cost the state 25,044 jobs. The new jobs don't pay as well as the industries that evaporated. In January, 242,273 residents were unemployed, 61.6% more than in January 2001. From 2000 to 2002, residents with employer-provided health care came to number 27,000 fewer. In 2002, 681,000 residents were poor -- 69,000 more than in 2000. Personal bankruptcies rose 10.0%, from 36,645 in 2000 to 40,310 in 2002. Source: Courier-Post |
| Miracles in East Timor |
|
On May 20, 2002, East Timor became the world's newest
nation -- and Asia's poorest. There, Sister Lourdes,
founder of the Institute of Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
concentrates on helping poor people become independent by
developing cottage industries, handicrafts, agriculture, and
spirituality. She tells of frequent miracles.
During the worst of the violence that followed the 1999 referendum in which 80% of East Timorese chose independence, an estimated 15,000 people fled Dili and sought refuge in the forest around her house in the mountains above the city. Sister Lourdes and the members of her Institute looked after all 15,000 of them. "God worked a miracle," says Sister Lourdes. "We did not have enough food for even 15 people, let alone 15,000. But each day I got up, I prayed, and then I started cooking rice -- and the barrel of rice never ran out for three weeks. The day it ran out was the day the international peacekeepers came." On that day, thousands of East Timorese were still being held by militia in camps in Indonesian-held West Timor. In the spring of 2001, Sister Lourdes went there to meet physical and spiritual needs and to try to persuade refugees to return home. Militia still controlled the camps. They wanted to kill her, she said. Each time she met with refugees, militia members, bare-chested and menacing, would ride their motorbikes right into the meeting. They would sit inches from her, revving their engines, trying to intimidate her. She decided to confront them. Not with fear, anger, or hatred, but with faith. "Will you come home?" she asked. "Will you come home to the Father's house -- to God?" As she shared the gospel with them, many of these militiamen -- thugs guilty of horrific crimes -- broke down in tears, converted to Christianity, and joined her in coaxing the refugees, the very ones they had been holding hostage, homeward. Source: Sojourners |
| Life-Net News Extra |
| Orange Farm Says No to Water Meters |
|
They came in the name of development to bring free and clean water by means of pre-paid meters. The decision to install the meters had already been made. They never consulted the residents.
Nowadays at night, people find that the meters have cut off their water. You cannot talk to a meter, so people are forced to devise other means to get water. They have to borrow from neighbors or walk further afield to get water. Those with small gardens can't water their vegetables, which then die. Johannesburg Water [JW] says the pre-payment water system gives people the first 6,000 liters per household per month for free, but this is not happening. In fact, when you purchase the tokens for water there is nothing on the purchase slips to indicate how many liters have been paid for. JW, a private company, part of the French transnational corporation Suez Lyonnaise, was given a contract to manage Johannesburg's water services. In 2001 they brought meters to Orange Farm -- for two main reasons: One, the privatization of the water service in Johannesburg. Two, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, enormously expensive, designed by the World Bank during the Apartheid years. In essence, the project puts billions of rands into the pockets of transnational corporations to build infrastructure that isn't even needed. A minimal water infrastructure was already in place. People were receiving water for their basic needs, although in certain areas water was only provided through communal standpipes. The constitutional right to water was thus being met. The residents of Orange Farm resisted the approach of JW and made local government aware that the community was not in agreement with pre-paid meters. The community organized itself into the Orange Farm Water Crisis committee and joined forces with similar organizations, in Gauteng. The crisis committee marched repeatedly on local government and presented memos spelling out their demands, including the free water promised by the ANC in the RDP and in the 1999 local government elections. Local government rejected these demands and divided the people, saying that installing the meters would create jobs. The people of Orange Farm see the meters as denying them their freedom and constitutional rights. They developed the slogan "Destroy the meters and enjoy free water". This has now become a slogan for the international movement advancing people's right to water. Source: Halifax Initiative |
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