LIFE-NET NEWS
by Ret Z.
Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices
2005 September 21 No Profit; No Proceeds
Volume 9 Number 11 All-Volunteer

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

Forced Labor Worldwide
      At least 12.3 million people in the world today work in slave-like conditions -- and, in many cases, in actual slavery -- says a May 2005 report on forced labor by the International Labor Organization (ILO), a UN-affiliated group dedicated to labor rights around the world. Forced labor is "a social evil which has no place in the modern world," said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.
      One out of every 500 people on earth and one out of every 250 workers worldwide is a victim of forced labor, according to the ILO. The vast majority of forced labor today happens in the private sector. While 2.5 million people are still forced to work by state or "rebel military groups," 9.8 million are exploited by "private agents." Of these, an estimated 8 million are trapped in private sector industries.
      "There has been a greater realization," the report states, "that forced labor in its different forms can pervade all societies, and is by no means limited to a few pockets around the globe."
      According to the ILO, forced labor comprises two elements: The work is done involuntarily, and failure to perform brings a penalty. Examples of what is described as an nvoluntary activity could range from being born into slavery, to physical abduction and kidnapping, to lies about the type of work to be performed, to forced indebtedness or the withholding of identity documents, such as a green card. Examples of penalties range from physical or sexual violence to loss of rights, food or shelter, to deportation and denunciation to authorities.
      Of the 12.3 million victims, 9.5 million are in Asia and the Pacific region -- especially Myanmar where state-imposed forced labor is extensive. Latin America and the Caribbean nations account for about 1.3 million people, and the "transition countries" -- the nations that reverted from socialism back to capitalism -- account for 210,000. This number is artificially low, the report notes, as it does not account for human trafficking.
      European industrialized nations and the US are not immune: They account for 360,000 people engaged in forced labor, higher than the Middle East and North Africa (260,000) or the transition countries.
      The report breaks down the labor into different types. The vast majority, 64%, represents exploitation for private profit. Another 11% is private sexual exploitation, and 20% is compulsory state labor.
      Non-sexual forced labor is made up of 44% men and boys, and 56% women and girls. Sexual exploitation, on the other hand, is made up of 98% women and girls. The report estimates that children represent "between 40% and 50% of all victims of forced labor."
      While the report states that forced labor is a problem in every region of the globe, "the offense, even when recognized under national law, is very rarely punished." Punishments for those convicted of the practice is small compared with the gravity of the offense, and there is a very low level of awareness worldwide.
      Source: People's Weekly World

Bush Cuts Wages in Hurricane Disaster Area
      President Bush on September 9 unilaterally suspended the federal law requiring that workers on construction done with taxpayer dollars be paid at least the average rate that prevails in that region. Bush’s ruling covers most of the four-state area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It could easily be the biggest pay cut in US history.
      Bush claimed that he suspended the prevailing wage law, known as Davis-Bacon, in order to lower reconstruction costs. But there is no evidence that lowering wages will do that. In fact, wages are typically less than 25% of total construction costs.
      "The president’s proclamation doesn’t require contractors to offer lower prices," pointed out Tom Kiley, spokesperson for Rep. George Miller (D-CA). "They could just use it to pad their profits."
      People who lived in the area should get priority in hiring for reconstruction jobs, Kiley said. "It makes sense that the people who lost their livelihood should earn wages and have an opportunity to learn new skills."
      Prevailing rates for some unskilled categories are already as low as $6.50 an hour in parts of that region. Rates for pipe layers, said Kiley, are already as low as $9. These low wages constitute an emergency in themselves. Bush’s edict will allow contractors to set wage scales on federal projects even lower, further driving down the wages of the entire region.
      The Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO called Bush’s action “legalized looting” of the workers who will be cleaning up toxic sites and struggling to rebuild their communities. "They want to pay the poorest workers the lowest wages to do the most dangerous jobs. Once again this administration is looking out for corporations eager to profit from a national emergency," said a BCTD statement.
      The original purpose of Davis-Bacon was to keep unscrupulous contractors from using a federal contract to drive down wage rates. Before the law was passed in 1931, whenever there was a big federal project, contractors from outside an area would bid and win work based on substandard wages, explained Jack Love, business manager of Pipefitters Local 188 in Savannah GA. Rather than use the local labor force, “they’d load up laborers from low wage regions and bring them in to live in tents and squalor,” driving down the wages of entire regions.
      Source: People's Weekly World

Satellites Show the NOXious Side of China's Growth
      China's spectacular economic growth during the last decade has brought benefits and challenges. Global atmospheric mapping of nitrogen dioxide pollution performed by ERS-2's GOME and Envisat's SCIAMACHY reveals the world's largest amount of NO2 hanging above Beijing and northeast China. As part of the European Space Agency's Dragon Programme, European and Chinese researchers are using results returned from the Global Ozone Mapping Experiment (GOME) on ERS-2 and the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) on Envisat to monitor and forecast Chinese air quality.
      In this context, researchers at the University of Bremen, the Max-Planck Institute of Meteorology in Hamburg, and France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) have been studying the retrieval of nitrogen dioxide variability from space and modelling its global behavior. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is associated with nitrogen oxide (NO) in the atmosphere and the sum of the two is called NOX. This is released into the troposphere from power plants, heavy industry and road transport, along with biomass burning, lightning in the atmosphere, and microbial activity in the soil.
      The emission of nitrogen oxides has increased about six-fold since pre-industrial times. In cities more than a thousand times more NOX is present than in the pristine and remote marine boundary layer.
      Exposure to nitrogen dioxide in large quantities is known to cause lung damage and respiratory problems, although little is known about the consequences of long term exposure to elevated atmospheric amounts. The presence of this gas is a significant driver of the production of low-level ozone, which, within the troposphere (the lowest part of the atmosphere) is itself a harmful toxic pollutant, a major ingredient of photochemical smog.
      "While nitrogen dioxide vertical column concentrations above central and eastern Europe and parts of the East Coast of the US have been either static or exhibiting a small decrease, there is a clear and significant increase over China," explains John Burrows of the University of Bremen's Institute of Environmental Physics, SCIAMACHY's Principal Investigator. "What the combined data show are that nitrogen dioxide levels have risen by around 50% since 1996, and this behavior is continuing."
      The increase in nitrogen dioxide levels seen is an unfortunate side effect of economic success. China's industrial boom has made the country the world's largest consumer of copper, aluminium and cement and the second bigger importer of oil. Car ownership within the country has been doubling every few years.
      Source: European Space Agency

Housing Crunch Pushed as NJ Election Priority
      Advocates for the poor, business owners, unions, and banks have become unlikely allies in a campaign to persuade lawmakers to create and maintain 100,000 affordable housing units in New Jersey in the next decade. Homes for New Jersey, a nonprofit coalition of more than 200 organizations and individuals, launched its initiative less than two months before the gubernatorial and Assembly elections. The group is asking candidates to make affordable housing part of their platforms.
      "What has been brewing for years has now boiled over," said Tim Touhey, campaign chairman and director of the Fannie Mae New Jersey Partnership Office. "It's no longer just the impoverished, the vulnerable and the working poor. Middle-class New Jersey is also feeling the sting."
      The housing crunch in NJ affects buyers and renters. The median price of a home in NJ is $291,294, and the state has the highest median monthly housing costs, $1,847. The national average for a homeowner is $1,212, according to the American Community Survey released last month.
      Median home prices in Essex, Union, Morris, Warren and Sussex counties, for example, climbed to $379,700 during the first quarter of the year, nearly twice the national median price of $188,800, according to the National Association of Realtors. A study released last year by the National Low Income Housing Coalition said North Jersey is the third most expensive market in the country for renters, who need to earn $20.35 an hour to afford the $1,058 cost of a two-bedroom apartment. New Jersey's median rent, $877, trails only California's $914, the survey showed.
      "Fifteen years ago, advocates were espousing the need for affordable housing largely on humanitarian grounds," said former Gov. Jim Florio, also a coalition member. "Now we have folks who are part of this coalition ... who have come to understand there are hard-nosed economic dimensions to the crisis."
      Speakers emphasized that housing costs are placing companies that do business in NJ at a disadvantage. "Finding affordable housing for employees and keeping talent in New Jersey has become an issue," said Fred DeSanti, vice president for external affairs at Public Service Electric & Gas Co.
      The housing crunch disrupts the lives of children who become too anxiety-ridden to learn, the state teachers union president said. It preserves the dismal 31% rate of homeownership among black families, the president of the state NAACP said.
      Preliminary goals of the coalition include finding ways to help people stay in their current home; offering incentives for high-density, mixed-income housing developments; and replacing the homes of lower-income residents displaced by redevelopment. The committee said not all of the proposals required new funding, just a reallocation along with a leveraging of money from the private sector.
      Source:  Philadelphia Inquirer
      Source: Newark Star-Ledger

Israel 'A Champion in the World League of Poverty'
      More than one-fifth of Israeli families, and one-third of the country's children, were living below the poverty line in 2004. And the number of poor grew by 107,500, or 7.5%, to 1,534,300, from 1,426,800 in 2003, according to the annual poverty report released last month by the National Insurance Institute (NII). Of the poor households in 2004, 24.2% were elderly, 35.5% were unemployed or not participating in the job market; 35.3% counted one breadwinner; and 5% were supported by two or more working adults.
      "The economic growth of 2004 was accompanied by aggravation of the social situation in Israel. The economy got on the growth track, but families in the lowest three-tenths stayed behind, and their standard of living continued to deteriorate."
      The number of poor families grew 7.6% to 394,200 in 2004. The number of poor children grew 9.4% to 713,600, from 652,400 in 2003. Poverty has been steadily increasing among children, affecting 33.2% of Israeli children in 2004, up from 30.8% in 2003 and 22.8% in 1998, the NII said.
      The report noted that Israel led child poverty rates in 2004 among a selected group of Western countries, having surpassed the child poverty level in the US. The US was Israel's neck-to-neck rival in 2000, when Italy's child poverty rate was around 21% and Germany's around 11.5%.
      Employment did not save Israelis from poverty in 2004. 160,200 working families lived under the poverty line in 2004, up 14.4% from the 140,000 working poor households in 2003. Poverty expanded 14% among families with one breadwinner, 16.5% among households with two working adults, and 18.2% among wage-earners, the NII said. Fully 56.6% of full-time wage-earners supporting poor households earn between minimum wage and the average wage.
      Deputy Social Affairs Minister Avraham Ravitz called the situation an "intolerable lack of social justice," adding that "we had thought that the new economic plan would lead to improvement in the poverty situation," but instead "we are becoming champions in the world league of poverty."
      Ravitz called on the government to institute an enforceable Poverty Index, alongside a negative income-tax system, and said that the Finance Ministry must consult the NII on its policies. "We must not slip further."
      Source: Jerusalem Post

Discontent in Camden's Victor Lofts
      Adapted from a letter by Robert G. Mangano:
      As we all know, many New Jersey residents have a sour taste in their mouth regarding the abundance of state funds flowing into Camden. One of the bright spots of this gentrification has been the development of the Victor, a luxury residence on the waterfront.
      It took a lot of convincing for me to pioneer into Camden as a young professional with my wife. My thoughts were that the community and city would welcome us. My experiences, however, have been the opposite.
      I could talk about the brown water that came out of my faucet. I could talk about my six visits to the Parking Authority trying to get a sticker for a company-owned fleet vehicle. However, the straw that broke the camel's back was when my car and eight of my fellow residents' cars were towed on June 26.
      When we arrived home the evening before, we parked a half block up from the Victor. We did not see parking restrictions. The next morning, we noticed the street was empty of vehicles. I realized that this was the day of the San Juan Bautista Parade, and that our car had been towed.
      Picking up my car involved paying a Pennsauken-owned and -located towing company $258 cash. Why this money and revenue doesn't go to the City of Camden or a Camden-owned business is a mystery in itself.
      When picking up the form to get my car, I asked the officer "Who was in charge of posting parking restrictions for the parade?" He said the Victor had been told about the parade two weeks before. (I have a copy of this letter, which does not mention parking restrictions.) The officer said the Traffic Unit was in charge of posting parking restrictions.
      At this point, I contacted Freeholder Joseph Ripa's office. I contacted Marty Hahn, risk manager for the city. I then spoke to our building manager, who had just received a one-sentence fax from Hahn saying that they "looked into the matter and determined that that the issuance of tickets and the towing of vehicles by the Camden Police Department was appropriate."
      Whoever is responsible for putting parking-restriction signs up in a residential area dropped the ball. The city is required to provide 30 days written notice of all street closings to affected residents due to parades or special events. Signs are required to be posted on the parking meters. The responsibility and errors fall solely on the Camden Police Department, not the Victor residents or management.
      Through this incident and many others, I have seen the ill-managed offices that run the city. I am therefore forced to abandon this so-called community.
      Source:  Philadelphia Inquirer

#  LNN  #  Small  #  Hauls  #

  • "Vancouver has shown that if you want North Americans to live in high-density downtown environments, you're going to have to provide amenities like this," said Paul Levy, executive director of the Center City District and its economic-development arm, the Central Philadelphia Development Corp. If the city does not soon adopt a preventive plan, then retail, residential and casino developments will "wall off the public's access to the river." (Philadelphia Inquirer)

  • Condoms have become difficult to find in Ugandan cities, even for a price, and are unavailable in many rural areas. Reports indicate that in some areas, including those with large numbers of internally displaced persons, people desperate to prevent HIV infection have begun using garbage bags as condom substitutes. Similar condoms shortages and abstinence-only campaigns -- including those funded by the Bush Administration -- are reducing access to and undermining public confidence in condoms as a tool for prevention of both HIV and unintended pregnancy in other countries as well. (Center for Health and Gender Equity)

  • The summer of 2005 was the warmest on record for New Jersey, according to the state climatologist, Rutgers University Professor David Robinson. The average temperature across the state during the months of June, July and August was a tropical 75.6 degrees, 1 degree warmer than the previous record set during the summer of 1949. "It was the persistence of the warmth that made this summer so hot. It wasn't just August and July that were hot, but June, July and August, and it never cooled down much at night." (Burlington County Times)

  • Many failed welfare programs are found in Indian country, writes Tim Giago. "What happened in the aftermath of Katrina pointed out the weakness of a system that places welfare dollars at the top of lifting people out of poverty. Money to build businesses and homes, create jobs, and to raise the level of education in the schools and colleges on the Indian reservations is the answer, not more welfare dollars." (Native American Times)

Life-Net News Extras

Local Org Writes UN About Katrina Victims, Gets Answer
      The African-American Business & Residents Association in Brewerytown, Philadelphia, took New Orleans under its wing as it wrote to the United Nations. Here's an excerpt:
      We are writing to request an immediate investigation of the United States Government as a result of its failure to honor the United Nation’s “Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement” in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. We believe that the government’s failure to respond to the needs of the people is a part of a greater national policy that supports the displacement of African-Americans and the poor of other races, in major cities for economic gain.
      With respect to New Orleans and the Guiding Principles, we charge violations of:
  • Principle 1.1: Internally displaced persons … shall not be discriminated against in the enjoyment of any rights and freedoms on the ground that they are internally displaced.
  • Principle 2.1: These Principles shall be observed by all authorities, groups and persons.
  • Principle 3.1: National authorities have the primary duty and responsibility to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons within their jurisdiction.
  • Principle 4.1: These Principles shall be applied without discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion or belief, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, legal or social status, age, disability, property, birth, or on any other similar criteria.
  • Principle 4.2: Certain internally displaced persons, such as children, especially unaccompanied minors, expectant mothers, mothers with young children, female heads of household, persons with disabilities and elderly persons, shall be entitled to protection and assistance required by their condition and to treatment which takes into account their special needs.
  • Principle 5: All authorities and international actors shall respect and ensure respect for their obligations under international law, including human rights and humanitarian law, in all circumstances, so as to prevent and avoid conditions that might lead to displacement of persons.
  • Principle 7.2: The authorities undertaking such displacement shall ensure, to the greatest practicable extent, that proper accommodation is provided to the displaced persons, that such displacements are effected in satisfactory conditions of safety, nutrition, health and hygiene, and that members of the same family are not separated.
  • Principle 8: Displacement shall not be carried out in a manner that violates the rights to life, dignity, liberty and security of those affected.
  • Principle 9: States are under a particular obligation to protect against the displacement of indigenous peoples, minorities, peasants, pastoralists and other groups with a special dependency on and attachment to their lands.
  • Principle 10: Internally displaced persons shall be protected in particular against: (a) Genocide; (b) Murder.
  • Principle 11.1: Every human being has the right to dignity and physical, mental and moral integrity.
  • Principle 11.2: Internally displaced persons, …, shall be protected in particular against: (a) Rape, mutilation, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and other outrages upon personal dignity, such as acts of gender-specific violence, forced prostitution and any form of indecent assault; … and (c) Acts of violence intended to spread terror among internally displaced persons.
  • Principle 15: Internally displaced persons have: (a) The right to seek safety in another part of the country;
  • Principle 18.1: All internally displaced persons have the right to an adequate standard of living.
  • Principle 18.2: At the minimum, regardless of the circumstances, and without discrimination, competent authorities shall provide internally displaced persons with and ensure safe access to: (a) Essential food and potable water; (b) Basic shelter and housing; (c) Appropriate clothing; and (d) Essential medical services and sanitation.
  • Principle 19: All wounded and sick internally displaced persons as well as those with disabilities shall receive to the fullest extent practicable and with the least possible delay.
  • Principle 24.1: All humanitarian assistance shall be carried out in accordance with the principles of humanity and impartiality and without discrimination.
  • Principle 25.1: The primary duty and responsibility for providing humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons lies with national authorities.
      Although triggered ostensibly by a hurricane, we argue that displacement is actually occurring for reasons cited in Principle 6.2.a:
  • When it is based on policies of apartheid, "ethnic cleansing" or similar practices aimed at/or resulting in altering the ethnic, religious or racial composition of the affected population;
      The UN wrote back! AABRA writes:

      They agreed that:
  • Displaced residents are, by UN definitions, Internally Displaced Persons. This gives them certain rights.
  • The Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons do apply to these people.
  • International Law applies to them and their condition.
      This means that the US government had an obligation to prevent the displacement (likely by funding maintenance of the levies). The US government had an obligation to maintain the dignity of the victims. The US government has an obligation to return those people to their "homes" as soon as possible.
      The letter also stated that the UN has now brought the matter to the attention of the US government and that it will monitor the situation.
      Source:  African-American Business & Residents Association

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