LIFE-NET NEWS

by Ret Z.

Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices

2005 January 11	No Profit; No Proceeds
Volume 9 Number 19	All-Volunteer

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

They Fight Al Qaeda by Building Schools

Pointing to his computer screen, Maj. Gen. Timothy Ghormley sounds more like a Peace Corps volunteer showing off holiday photos than the shaven-headed US Marine entrusted with defeating Al Qaeda in East Africa. "That's what it's about right there," he says, stabbing his eyeglasses at the pictures of African children celebrating as water gushes from a new well. "Look at those kids. They're gonna remember this. In 25 years they'll say, 'I remember the West -- they were good.'"       In 2002, more than 1,500 US troops were sent to this former French colony in East Africa to hunt followers of Al Qaeda throughout the region. Now, under General Ghormley, their mission has evolved to preempt the broader growth of Islamic militancy among the area's largely Muslim population.       "We are trying to dry up the recruiting pool for Al Qaeda by showing people the way ahead. We are doing this one village, one person at a time," says Ghormley, commander of the joint task force based in Djibouti. "We're waging peace just as hard as we can."       Previously East Africa has hosted an array of Islamic militant groups. In 1998, Al Qaeda bombed the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing more than 220 people. The group has also tried to shoot down an Israeli airliner in Mombasa, Kenya, and sink oil tankers and US navy vessels in the Red Sea. Now many analysts worry that trouble is again brewing as rising poverty combines with the anti-Western ideologies of hard-line Islamic missionaries in a region already dogged by porous borders, plentiful weapons, and poor governance.       Unable to find or strike at any visible Al Qaeda members, US forces based in Camp Lemonier -- Djibouti's former French Foreign Legion base -- have instead begun to work to tackle the factors that might contribute to the growth of extremism in the future. Ghormley's men have so far built more than 30 schools and 25 clinics, as well as new wells and bridges. They are focusing particularly on the mainly Muslim areas close to the porous Somali border where poverty and dissatisfaction with pro-Western central governments might make many receptive to extremist teachings.       The Coalition's planners hope that by tackling localized dissatisfaction now, they can create long-term goodwill toward the US in the region. "A lot of times when we first show up there's a mixed reaction," says Sgt. Richard Crandall of the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion. "One place we went to they considered the US to be warmongers. But we built a school and when we left they said they considered us friends."       Source:  Christian Science Monitor

Three Decades of Resistance to War

By Robert M. Smith, staff coordinator, Brandywine Peace Community:       My first experiences with civil disobedience were during the late 1960s and the Vietnam War. Just as for many young, white Americans at the time, my first reckoning of violence and death was domestic racism and the war in Vietnam. Though I practiced civil disobedience, was arrested, and even went to jail in resistance of the war, at the time, I didn't fully appreciate its theory, organizing discipline, and the deeply spiritual roots it held.       I attended King's speech against the Vietnam War at New York's Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 (exactly one year before he was shot down in Memphis TN) and heard his call for nonviolent resistance to the war and what he termed "the giant triplets of American society: racism, materialism, and militarism." My activism, however, preceded a fuller understanding of what I was doing to end that awful war and its claim on a generation.       After the Vietnam War, there were still a few of us who believed that militarism and war held a deep and fundamental hold on the United States: our culture and perception of ourselves as supreme, our war-based economy at the expense of human needs and a justly caring order, and a chillingly risque attitude toward doomsday weaponry as a basis for security.       Moreover, we recognized that warmaking was ensconced in law, protected and legitimized by the weight of legal enforcement. Hence, we realized that just as King and his supporters had to violate segregationist laws in order to realize the human potential of freedom, that we would need to violate the laws that protect corporations that build weapons, missile silos, and military bases from the power of conscience and the light of peacemaking. To end the crime of war and seek peace, we would need to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience.       As a peacemaker over the last three decades, I have continued to practice civil disobedience, to be arrested repeatedly year in and year out, and to go to jail. Since its beginning in 1977, the Brandywine Peace Community, which I helped to found 28 years ago, has placed nonviolent civil disobedience at the very center of our peace-action campaigns, including our current campaign of nonviolent resistance to Lockheed Martin, the world's largest weapons corporation and the Iraq war's chief profiteer.       For each of the last 28 years (and long before King Day became a national holiday) we have begun our yearly calendar of demonstrations and nonviolent resistance with a Martin Luther King Day observance in order to walk in the historical steps of nonviolent civil disobedience and its continuing path of struggle for justice and peace.       Source: Philadelphia Inquirer       More: Brandywine Peace Community

Economic Strategy in Iraq

Highlights of a January 10 speech by the President of the US:       The Coalition Will Continue To Help Iraqis Rebuild Their Infrastructure And Economy.       Iraq's economy faces real challenges but the Coalition and Iraqi leaders have made significant progress in a number of areas. Iraq has a stable currency, an independent stock exchange, and an independent Central Bank. Iraqis have new investment laws welcoming foreign capital, tax and commercial laws encouraging private-sector growth, and a low-tariff trade regime opening the economy to the world. Unlike under Saddam Hussein, Iraq's new constitution guarantees protection of property rights.       Iraqi Leaders Are Also Making Tough Choices Necessary To Reform Their Economy.       Iraq is easing gasoline subsidies, which made fuel prices artificially low, creating incentives for black-market corruption and crime. Changing these subsidies is a necessary step on the path to reform. Gasoline subsidies, along with other subsidies, consume over half of Iraq's annual operating budget -- diverting critical resources from health, education, infrastructure, and security. Addressing these subsides will allow Iraqi leaders to better provide for their people and build a modern economy.       One Of The Biggest Challenges Is Restoring The Country's Oil And Electric Power Infrastructure.       These sectors were devastated by decades of neglect -- and since liberation, terrorists have targeted these areas for destruction. As a result, oil and power production are below pre-war levels. To help increase production, the Coalition is helping Iraqis better maintain their oil refineries, build oil supply and transportation capabilities, improve the capacity to generate power, and better protect their strategic infrastructure.       Despite the challenges they face, seven in 10 Iraqis say their lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve -- and their optimism is justified.       Source: White House

'The Most Productive Program' in Camden Seeks Help

Long before the state dedicated $175 million to revitalize Camden, Robert Dickerson sought to rebuild the troubled city one kid at a time. And he wonders why most of that state money is for things -- not young people. "I look at Haddon Avenue and see all the new sidewalks, and I say to myself, 'What happened to investing in people?'" he said. "They need to be spending money on the next generation of people, not just buildings."       Dickerson, an instructor in boxing and the Kyokushinkai style of karate, has invested two decades in the Unity Community Center, a spare storefront in the 1500 block of Mount Ephraim Avenue. The center describes its mission as saving children through "developmental and discipline programs." The UCC has produced police officers, nurses and teachers by using cultural activities and athletics to lure youngsters away from crime and social problems.       Martial arts are the core, and from there, members can progress into a range of performing arts, including African dance and drum, jazz ensemble, brass band, and drill team. Trophies in the window attest to the center's successes. But despite its accomplishments, the group -- like other grassroots organizations in the city -- has had difficulty finding funding.       "We feel the city would have had to spend millions to pay for what we've done, struggling for the last two decades to shape the youth into marvelous citizens," Dickerson said. He said his group had received $24,000 from the city in the last 23 years. He said his group survived on about $150,000 a year, mostly from performances.       Mayor Gwendolyn Faison said last month that she and Melvin "Randy" Primas, the city's chief operating officer, were trying to address the lack of funding. "I think they have the most productive program of any agency in the city," Faison said. "It grieves me that they haven't gotten the help they have needed in the past. They have proven themselves."       Dickerson is trying to expand into a larger facility on Haddon Avenue that a supporter donated to the group. "We are looking for ways to revitalize it, to make it state-of-the-art," he said. "We're looking for anyone willing to help us."       The center now attract students from Philadelphia and as far way as Newark NJ. "If these kids can do what they did out of a storefront," said Dickerson, "imagine what they can do with a larger building."       Source: Philadelphia Inquirer       More: Unity Community Center

UN Denies Building 'Substandard' Evictee Housing

The United Nations on Dec. 21 balked at claims by a Zimbabwean Cabinet minister that the world body had designed a substandard home to house victims of a clean-up blitz that left hundreds of thousands homeless. "I would like to take the opportunity to categorically refute suggestions that the UN has applied double standards to Africans and more specifically to Zimbabweans," said UN representative to Zimbabwe Agostinho Zacarias, reacting to a report in the state-run Herald that day, which quoted Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo as saying that a model of a home built for evictees was "substandard".       The paper said Chombo described the house as "below human dignity, saying the people who designed the structure were guided by a 'this-is-good-for-Africa attitude'."       "This structure is not permanent. We want permanent houses for our people," the minister said while visiting the Hopley transit camp on the southern fringes of the capital, where many people are still living in makeshift plastic shelters following Operation Murambatsvina.       Zacarias said the example was "not a UN model for the obvious reason that it was designed jointly by UN technicians together with technicians appointed by the ministry of local government". He said the design was the result of extended negotiations between the UN and the government of Zimbabwe. "It should more correctly be called a government of Zimbabwe-UN house."       The envoy said the sample was "infinitely superior to living under plastic sheeting, which continues to be the situation in which many families continue to find themselves in, months after Operation Murambatsvina".       Zacarias said the UN was ready to build homes for 2,500 families within three months under an initiative to provide shelter for victims of the government's demolition blitz.       Chombo's remarks came two weeks after UN relief aid coordinator Jan Egeland met President Robert Mugabe, where the long-time Zimbabwean leader snubbed a UN offer of tents for victims of Murambatsvina.       Source: Sapa-AFP

Bush Renews Law to Fight Human Trafficking

President Bush signed a bill yesterday to combat human trafficking, saying thousands of teenagers and young girls are brought to the US each year and "forced to submit to unspeakable evil." The bill renewed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the first comprehensive federal law for prosecution of traffickers. Both bills were authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ).       The Justice Department reported late last year that it had prosecuted 277 traffickers since 2001 and obtained convictions in every case. An estimated 75% of the prosecutions involved sex trafficking. The bill will provide $361 million over the next two years to combat trafficking.       Smith said the bill provides law enforcement officials with the necessary tools to "continue the liberation of the unfortunate women and children who are forced into these horrific, abusive conditions."       Smith worked with Republican Reps. Deborah Pryce of Ohio and James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin to write an amendment to the bill creating a $25 million grant program for local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute human trafficking.       Smith said human trafficking is not a criminal activity exclusive to foreign countries and said New Jersey has seen its share of such cases.       Oprah Winfrey lobbied Congress to pass the bill and sent a camera crew to film the signing ceremony and to interview Smith, his office said.       Source:  Associated Press       Bill:  H.R. 972

#  LNN  #  Small  #  Hauls  #

A small conference was held on January 6 in Washington DC about a big concern for tens of millions of American workers: time poverty, the loss of free time due to the omnivorous demands of their workplace obligations. The gathering, which met to press for public policies to give workers a better work/life balance, was organized by John de Graaf and Gretchen Burger, directors of a group called Take Back Your Time. Their proposals include national requirements for paid family leave, paid sick time, and paid vacation time, all of which are provided for in other industrialized nations more than in the US. (Common Dreams) To comply with state rules that require every municipality in New Jersey to offer its share of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families, the first of two new Vineland city ordinances requires that developers planning to construct new homes build one affordable housing unit for every seven market-value homes they put up. The state Council on Affordable Housing requires a ratio of one-to-eight. City Solicitor Rick Tonetta said the ordinance strongly encourages developers to build their designated affordable housing in the roughly one-mile-square Center City redevelopment area. The second ordinance requires developers building fewer than eight homes to pay a fee amounting to 1% of the equalized assessed value of the total development. (Vineland Daily Journal) Eric Longie, the first person ever from the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation in Fort Totten ND to receive a doctoral degree, said why he still lives on the reservation: He's comfortable there because of the culture and customs. He likes powwows, giveaways, and community meals. It is like a big family where he can visit easily with everyone in the community. "I guess I'm just a ‘rez boy.'" A friend of his, referring to his own alcoholism recovery, said, "I prayed the rosary and went to church, but that didn't work. What helped was the traditional ways." That's when he quit for good, the friend said. (Grand Forks Herald) In a review, released Monday, of emergency medical systems across the country, the American College of Emergency Physicians gave New Jersey an A-plus for quality of care, but only a C-plus for access to care. The report ranked NJ 49th among the states for the number of hospital emergency rooms and 38th for its lack of trauma centers. Overall, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut and the District of Columbia were rated best in emergency care, while the lowest grades went to Utah, Idaho and Arkansas. (Associated Press) The federal government is not living up to its obligation to help the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal says. "At the federal level, everything is getting cut," he told Arapaho leaders. Employment on the Wind River Indian Reservation is around 50%. Yet Freudenthal said Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funding is being cut, and basic health services are in short supply on the reservation. Richard Brannan, chairman of the Arapaho Business Council, said his biggest concern is the lack of funding and employees for the tribe's child protective services. (Billings Gazette) Male full-time workers in 2003 earned $800 less than their counterparts in 1970, after adjustment for inflation. Enter the second paycheck, and the family's combined income goes to $73,700 a year, a 75% increase from 1970. But extra earnings increase costs for transportation, child care and taxes. Additional higher costs of mortgages and health care simply erase the added earnings -- and then some. Harvard law professor and author Elizabeth Warren estimates today's two-income family actually has $1,500 less per year in discretionary spending. She says, "The modern single-earner family trying to keep up an average lifestyle faces a 72% drop in discretionary income compared with its one-income counterpart of a generation ago." (Seattle Times)

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