| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| 2004 July 14 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 8 Number 9 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| From 'Jobless Recovery' to Jobs Boom |
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After months of trumpeting a "jobless recovery," the skeptics admit that America is having a jobs boom, with 1.4 million new jobs over nine straight months of payroll growth. Now the pessimists insist that the new jobs are no good. But if the jobs being created are not any good, what is?
Since January 2001, American incomes have risen by 7.5%. Wages have risen by 2.4%. The government projects 21 million good job opportunities over the 2002-2012 decade. The charge that low-quality service jobs -- often dubbed "McJobs" -- are proliferating implies that wages are declining and the new jobs are unfulfilling. Empirical data on American pay, incomes, and quality of life, however, make the case that American jobs are better today and improving yearly. Put simply, the modern workplace is empowering individuals to work for themselves, enjoy flexible hours, and pursue dreams rather than survival. Conventional definitions of employment are disintegrating. Highlights:
Source: Heritage Foundation |
| Toxic Toil in the Graveyard of Ships |
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Situated off the Arabian Sea coast on India's western flank, Alang is where the world's ships come to die. Everything that could be removed from a ship is sold at Alang: Shops and market stands offer diesel generators, lifejackets and kitchen sinks. The most prized items are the ships' bells, which are used in local Hindu temples. "We do not just break ships up, we recycle them," says Pravin Nagarsheth, president of the Iron Steel Scrap and Shipbreakers Association.
Shipbreaking is one of India's economic success stories, a £270 million business that provides steel for the country's booming industry and much-needed jobs. Its critics say Alang is a modern Indian version of Victorian Britain's dark satanic mills: an engine of industrial growth which provides poorly paying jobs to destitute people in inhumane conditions. Around the ships swarm 40,000 migrant workers, prepared to toil in the 190 "plots" that line the coast. The work is dangerous, backbreaking and by western standards cheap -- a 10-hour shift pays as little as £1. Mr Chauhan, 38, says he earns a little more as he is a "gas cutter", a person who slices ships with an oxyacetylene torch. Eight years of inhaling hot paint fumes have left him with persistent coughing and frequent bouts of breathlessness. "The doctors have told me that I have gases and poisons inside me." But competition for jobs is so intense, he says, that workers can lose their jobs for being ill. "If you fall sick and take leave, there will be no job for you when you come back." Almost all the workers come from northern India's poorest states, Orissa, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Most live in slums opposite the shipbreaking yards, with no toilets or electricity, yet they say it's better to work and die than to starve and die. Less than 12 miles along the coast from Alang, the ecological price is all too visible. In the village of Gopanath, three generations of fishermen are convinced that the black slick that coats the rocks is the reason for their declining catches. Source: Guardian (UK) |
| Council Votes for New Affordable Housing Rules |
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It wasn't exactly a love fest, but the NJ Council on Affordable Housing won compliments yesterday from some of its harshest critics when it unveiled a new version of rules governing the construction of housing for poor and middle-income families. The COAH voted unanimously yesterday in Trenton to introduce the new rules and begin a series of public hearings.
The rules play a key role in how housing of all types gets built in New Jersey, driving a 20-year wave of large-scale, dense development in once-rural areas. State Supreme Court decisions have ordered towns to provide a "fair share" of affordable housing, and builders have taken advantage of these decisions by forcing approvals of housing complexes that have small numbers of affordable units. Responding to critics like the state League of Municipalities, the COAH is moving toward a "growth share" system that will give towns more control over their destiny. Towns will be required to allow one unit of affordable housing built for every eight units of market-rate housing they approve or every 25 jobs created through commercial development. The old rules assigned every town a number of affordable units that it was obligated to permit, based largely on population. Builders already have sued the COAH for being five years late with the new rules and will almost certainly sue again once the rules are adopted. "Unconstitutional," they say. Advocates for the poor had criticized the COAH's original rule proposal last year -- Life-Net Radio was there -- saying it would reinforce segregation and get fewer affordable units built. Yesterday's proceedings didn't change the view of some, like Paul Chrysties of the Coalition for Affordable Housing and the Environment, who said, "This rule is still going to be sticking the poor in the cities. Don't fool yourself into thinking this is going to change anything." Several speakers praised the COAH for closing egregious loopholes used by towns to reduce their housing numbers. The Rev Bruce Davidson, director of the state's Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry, who also spoke on behalf of the state Council of Churches, said, "You have come up with a better plan. It is not a perfect plan, and many of us in the Anti-Poverty Network still have concerns. But we want you to know the changes are a step in the right direction." Source: Newark Star-Ledger |
| Asian Drug Race Could Make AIDS Resistant |
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Advocates for AIDS patients and health officials have long called for wider availability of lower cost generic anti-HIV drugs to treat the world's 38 million infected people. Many Asian manufacturers are rushing to introduce generic drugs in advance of regulations that could affect the sale of those drugs.
A leading AIDS organization is warning that the rush risks widespread misuse that could create epidemics from drug-resistant strains. The warning came in a report by Treat Asia, a network of clinics, hospitals and research institutions sponsored by the highly regarded American Foundation for AIDS Research in Manhattan. At least 27 Asian companies are manufacturing anti-HIV drugs, making them easier to get in Asia and elsewhere, the organization said. Yet anti-HIV drugs from only three companies meet the World Health Organization's quality standards; those from the other 24 companies have not been reviewed by the organization or have not met its standards. Anti-HIV drugs can vary in purity, potency, and the way chemicals are combined. Without adequate quality control and careful supervision of care, the authorities say, the medications may be ineffective or create imbalances that cause the virus to develop resistance. Most Asian countries have far too few doctors and health workers trained to prescribe the drugs properly and monitor their use for the continent's estimated 7.4 million infected people, the organization said. Dr Joep Lange, a Dutch scientist, president of the International AIDS Society, said, "We need to scale up training efforts quickly and develop a better mechanism for quality control of drugs." Source: Treat Asia |
| Successful Job-Training Agency Shut Down |
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Days after the New Work Center in Camden shut down, phones at the job-training agency were still ringing. The state of New Jersey was still faxing to the idled office its lists of people on welfare who need help.
Nobody should know better than state officials that the New Work Center, an arm of Respond Inc, is out of business. The McGreevey administration has short-sightedly, callously cut off its funding. The center served Camden's neediest, helping to find jobs for people who have been on welfare for several years. The low-paid staff had an impressive success rate. Even people in Trenton acknowledge that the agency was working. The official story: Federal welfare funding dried up. Reality: New Jersey still receives its $404 million annual federal block grant under TANF. In previous years, amid declining welfare caseloads, New Jersey had directed some of the leftover federal dollars to the New Work Center and other programs like it. In Camden's case, it worked out to $1 million per year or less. But the welfare caseload rose 5% last year, bringing a bigger demand for benefits and services. Officials have been using some of the grant for child-care services for low-income families not on welfare. Simply put, the McGreevey administration decided it had higher priorities for the money. So the hundreds of people who relied on the neighborhood-style services of the New Work Center lost out. State officials say two other job-training programs in Camden County -- the One-Stop Career Center (touted by Life-Net Radio) and the Supportive Assistance to Individuals and Families -- can pick up extra welfare recipients more efficiently. But those programs to date have had little if any client overlap with the New Work Center, which was helping more than 1,200 people per year. With all the private and public money pouring into Camden lately, and with a 16% increase in spending in the state's new budget, it's unconscionable that New Jersey cannot find the money to continue a program that helps the neediest get out of need and into work. Source: Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Bad for Cows, Bad for Humans |
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Meat production has increased by 500% since 1950. Most animals are raised on "factory farms" that are displacing sustainable family farms. Thousands of animals are crowded in unsanitary conditions, spending their entire lives indoors without sunlight or pasture. To prevent disease from these inhumane practices, antibiotics are added to feed, contributing to the worldwide growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria. A vast flow of manure adds pollution to rivers and streams.
Community opposition has prompted corporations to move their mega-farms to developing countries with looser environmental regulations. Because the time to ship meat from farm to store takes longer, industry "nukes" it by irradiation to prolong shelf-life despite evidence that irradiation is unsafe and dangerous.
Source: Worldwatch Institute |
| Credit Unions Go For Piece of Check Cashing Action |
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Credit unions are reaching out to people who lack
traditional checking accounts and rely on check cashing outlets to liquidate their paychecks or get money orders to pay their bills. "It's not a business to get rich on," says Jim Petaccio, who runs a check cashing shop in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. "For the most part, our customers are customers that the banks don't want." But to the nonprofit credit unions, which face legal restrictions that don't apply to banks, these customers are a growth opportunity.
Credit unions want to draw customers away from the burgeoning check cashing industry. Their pitch: Come to a credit union and you'll pay less for cashing checks and other basic financial services. Check cashers say the competition will make little difference to their business, which includes money orders, wire transfers, and bill-payment services. Many customers, including some with bank accounts, come to check cashers for the convenience, the longer hours, and the personal service, including multilingual tellers. There are hurdles. Federal and most state laws that authorize credit unions prohibit most credit unions from providing services like check cashing to nonmembers. But there's a bill pending in the US Senate, approved by the House in March, that would allow federally chartered credit unions to offer check cashing to anyone who would qualify for membership, even if they do not sign up. Source: Associated Press |
| Life-Net News Extras |
| Health-Insured Willing to Cover the Un- |
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The Journal of General Internal Medicine in its latest issue reports a descriptive study of health-insured people's willingness to allow some of their premiums to cover the uninsured. It involved 29 groups of citizens residing throughout Minnesota.
The groups participated in Choosing Healthplans All Together, a simulation in which participants choose whether and how extensively to cover health services in a hypothetical health plan constrained by limited resources. They made individual and group decisions and engaged in group dialogue concerning whether to allocate 2% of their premium to cover uninsured children in Minnesota, or 4% of their premium to cover uninsured children and adults. While discussing coverage for the uninsured, groups presented arguments about personal responsibility, community benefit, caring for the vulnerable, social impact, and perceptions of personal risk. All groups chose to insure children; 22 of 29 groups also insured adults. More individuals chose to cover the uninsured at the end of the exercise, after group deliberation, than before (66% vs 54%). Individual selections differed from group selections more often for the uninsured category than any other. Nevertheless, 89% of participants were willing to abide by the health plan developed by their group. Two thirds of us believe in including everyone in the insurance risk pool, and nine tenths of us would be willing to abide by the health plan supported by the two thirds majority. Isn’t that strong enough support to move forward with a program of universal health care coverage? Source: Physicians for a National Health Program |
| Corporate 'Personhood' Usurps People's Rights |
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In the early decades of our nation, corporations were tightly controlled entities that enjoyed severely limited privileges and no inherent “rights.” But during the Industrial Revolution, wealthy businessmen, especially railroad executives, succeeded in winning dramatic expansions of corporate privileges. By 1890, most long-standing restrictions had been removed, and the US Supreme Court had granted corporations the legal standing of natural persons, i.e. “corporate personhood.”
Soon the Court bestowed Bill of Rights protections upon them, but with virtually none of the responsibilities borne by human beings. The Supreme Court effectively had subordinated the rights of citizens to institutions with the power to undermine our personal liberties and democracy. A powerful resistance movement arose, which culminated in the Populist Party, the last third party in American politics to dramatically influence national debate. Although the Populists were defeated in the presidential elections of 1896, populist sentiment remained strong and corporate leaders felt the need to redirect this insurrection against corporate power. The regulatory system installed during the early 1900s was their solution to this problem. Initiated largely by big business, the regulatory system succeeded overwhelmingly in channeling Populist rebellion against the corporate power structure back into protest against separate “abuses.” The regulatory reforms placed the adjudication of these individual grievances in the hands of agencies dominated by the business entities they purported to control. The regulatory system remains today what a US attorney general reassured corporate leaders it would be at the turn of the century -— “a barrier between corporations and the people.” Perhaps we should tear down that barrier, rather than repeatedly entangle ourselves within it. Pursuing bureaucratic remedies such as environmental impact reports and e-mailing regulatory officials who came straight from the industry may be necessary tactics, but they fail utterly as an ongoing strategy. So long as we permit wealth —- both corporate and private -— to dominate political life, “democracy” will be a platitude from the mouths of demagogues rather than a reality. Source: TomPaine |
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