| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| February 22, 2006 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 9 Number 22 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Growing Hunger: The Struggle of Small Farmers |
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"Growing Hunger", an ongoing documentary project by writer/researcher Michael Courville and photographer Jennifer Tong, probes the contradictions of hunger and
poverty in an era of global food production and economic interdependence. The first phase of the project focuses on small farmers in Honduras after a decade of free market agricultural policy.
In the 1980s, Honduran debt mushroomed, and the nation fell to the mercy of foreign creditors. Under the guidance and monitoring of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Honduras implemented policies intended to decrease the national debt, stabilize the economy, and reduce public spending. The Honduran Ministry of Agriculture directed farmers to compete on world markets by cultivating new crops like cucumbers, jalapeño peppers, melons, oriental vegetables, and mangoes. With the pursuit of new export markets came a reduction in state support for small farmers. On June 11, 2005, the G8 countries agreed to forgive billions of dollars in debt to allow Honduras to compete more efficiently in world export markets and liberate national funds to reduce poverty. Meanwhile, in the US, CAFTA legislation hovered over the Senate as it discussed the benefits and limits of expanded free-market trade policies. The promise of free trade and increased agricultural export was heralded as the solution to persistent poverty in Honduras. The CAFTA debate, however, left small farmers out. Family food supplies are put at risk when small farmers have to invest land, labor, and resources in precarious export markets. Over the last decade, the struggle of those farmers to keep their families fed has deepened: Their meager business revenues have to cover the rising costs of fertilizer and seed; their limited personal incomes have to cope with buying imported foods in local markets. Most small farmers and rural dwellers around the world face an increasingly hostile economic environment. The emphasis on agricultural export erodes their ability to feed themselves and pushes them towards the volatility of expanding world markets. Small farmers describe a desire to be successful and secure within their own communities. They talk of a desire to feed their families and produce food for others at a fair price. It is not just a desire to feed oneself that is at stake, but a more fundamental right for self-determination and economic prosperity within their own rural communities. These farmers hope for a world where their nation is not at the disposal of large producers and agribusiness. They want a nation where the wellbeing of small farmers (the majority of the population) stands at the center of economic life and political planning. Source: Institute for Food and Development Policy More: Via Campesina |
| 'Devastation Tourists' in New Orleans |
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They might have been mourners in a hearse, so somber were the passengers in the small bus on Mirabeau Avenue. Theresa Sandifer shook her head sadly as the bus crawled along. House after ruined house was spray-painted with an "X" and numbers denoting how many people had been found there, dead or alive, after Hurricane Katrina. Sue Stein stifled a gasp at floodwater marks that grazed the roofs of a block of one-story homes. William Thompson glued his gaze to a trim beige house impaled by an oak tree.
No one spoke until the bus rounded a corner onto St Bernard Avenue, in the Gentilly area. The roof of a wood-frame house from the 1960s sat askew, as if it had been picked up and tossed down at all the wrong angles. The chimney was missing; the doors and windows were blown out. A plywood sign carried a message from a family who had left for good: "Goodbye, N'awlins, We'll Miss You," read Brad Dupuy, the guide on this city's newest bus excursion. The "devastation tour," as the three-hour outing is popularly known, brings visitors to some of this city's most heavily damaged areas, though it skips the almost obliterated Lower 9th Ward. Even in a city that loves to test the limits on tastefulness -- a city, after all, that made an industry out of cemetery tours -- the idea caused consternation when it was proposed in late December. A city councilwoman accused the Gray Line franchise of trying to profit from the miseries wrought by Katrina. Some worried that gawkers snapping photos of shattered homes would turn New Orleans into a theme park of destruction. Others chafed at the tour's brash title: "Hurricane Katrina: America's Worst Catastrophe!" But many New Orleanians welcomed the prospect of the public's seeing first-hand what happened. Survivors of the storm argued that newspaper pictures and television footage could not capture the magnitude of a disaster spread through 141 of the city's 181 square miles. The city's newspaper, the Times-Picayune, editorialized about the value of expeditions designed to be educational, not morbid or sensational: "It will keep this storm-ravaged region on the national radar." Source: LA Times |
| 'Make Poverty History' Missed the Point |
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Adapted from a piece by Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie:
We have made 2005 history -- "Africa's year", in the eyes of its political and celebrity champions in the west, as if every year were not Africa's to the 900 million people living in the continent and their millions of compatriots and family members overseas. Between Cape Town and Cairo, it was a year mostly of lows, though there were a few highs. Make Poverty History (MPH) was a campaign to raise aid and reduce debt. In this it succeeded. Expectations that more aid for Africa will do all the things the campaigners promise, and what previous aid has failed to achieve, represents the triumph of hope over experience. The big winners in 2005 were the big NGOs. In these aging societies, they've succeeded in establishing a covenant with a new generation of youthful supporters whom they hope will fund their work for the next few years. Far from striking a structural blow against poverty, the MPH campaign has shifted the balance of power northwards in favor of campaigners here (in the UK) speaking for Africa. Can you think of even one African voice or face that has communicated the aspirations, passions, concerns, and expectations of her or his fellow Africans over the last year? Making Africans invisible objects and recipients of the campaign -- to be wheeled onstage to give a brief smile and a wave when the time is right -- defeats the object of helping people liberate themselves from misery. When people see themselves represented only as helpless objects, they lose the will to take responsibility for their own destiny. The real story that MPH missed this year is the important role that migration and migrants play in tackling poverty. The World Bank in its "Global Economic Prospects 2006" indicates that a global increase of 3% in migration from developing to developed countries could yield a $356 billion increase in global income, dwarfing aid or foreign direct investment. The bank believes that official and unofficial remittances combined have a large and statistically significant effect on poverty in labor-sending countries. On average, a 10% increase in the share of remittances in a country’s GDP will lead to a 1.8% decline in the share of its people living on less than $1 per day. In other words, ordinary Africans have their own answers to poverty. While professing great concern about the plight of poor Africans, MPH campaigners find it difficult to bring themselves to work collaboratively with Africans right here on their doorsteps to tackle poverty in Africa. If we really care about poverty in Africa, then let's liberate ourselves from would-be saviors of the Bob Geldof variety. Let's have a new campaign for 2006: Make Migration Easier. Source: openDemocracy |
| When the Nest Egg Cracks |
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Things often go wrong at older ages. The report "When the Nest Egg Cracks" examines different types of negative events that strike at older ages. The observation period spans the years 1992-2002 for respondents age 51-61 at baseline, and the years 1993-2002 for those ages 70 and older.
Nearly one-half of adults 51-61 have health problems or frail parents or in-laws. Among people living in the community (not in nursing homes), medical conditions are nearly twice as common at 70+ as at 51-61. Over a 10-year period, more than three-quarters of adults 51-61 at baseline experience negative shocks, including widowhood, divorce, job layoffs, health problems, or the onset of frailty among parents or in-laws. More than two-thirds of adults 70+ experience at least one negative shock over a nine-year period. Negative shocks at older ages are especially common among those with limited education. The incidence of negative events rises when the analysis accounts for spousal shocks, which can threaten financial security as much as individual shocks. Job layoffs, divorce, and the onset of health-related work limitations sharply reduce household wealth for adults 51-61. Widowhood reduces wealth for married women, but not significantly so for men. Nursing home entry has important financial consequences for adults 70+, especially for women, even after controlling for demographic factors and baseline health conditions. Married women typically forfeit about $40,000, more than one-third of median baseline wealth, when they enter nursing homes. Single women forfeit about $20,000. For both age groups, blacks, Hispanics, and those who did not complete high school accumulate much less wealth by the end of the period than other adults. Long-term care costs can be staggering, especially for nursing home residents, and private and public insurance is limited. People must generally spend nearly all of their resources on long-term care services before they qualify for Medicaid, and Medicare covers few services. Private long-term care insurance remains rare. Although long-term care costs have not received as much attention as the financial problems facing Social Security and Medicare, they are likely to place enormous pressures on government and family budgets as the population ages and more people become frail. Innovative ways of financing long-term care must be developed. Source: When the Nest Egg Cracks |
| No Blood For Bling |
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Did someone die for your diamond? The cost of some of the rocks many people gave on Valentine's Day is far greater than what the givers saw on the price tags. We're talking
about "conflict diamonds", also known as "blood diamonds".
These days, most of the diamonds that find their way into our retail stores are clean, thanks to the Clean Diamond Trade Act of 2003. However, some conflict diamonds still slip through the cracks due to poor government oversight and unscrupulous jewelers. In some African countries, armed insurgents control the diamond-rich regions. Profits from the diamonds are used to fund these groups' terror tactics and gross human rights abuses against the local population. In addition, concerns have mounted over possible links between conflict diamonds and al-Qaeda. That alone should make you want to be careful about the diamonds you buy. The Kimberly Process Certification Scheme, introduced in 2003 in a joint government-industry initiative, is a voluntary system through which shipments of diamonds can be certified as conflict-free. In the US, the Clean Diamond Trade Act provides for enforcement of the Kimberly Process. But there are loopholes, so there is still cause for concern. Americans consume 65% of the world's diamonds. By taking the time to do some research and ask questions, you can have your diamonds and a clean conscience too:
Source: Mary Shaw |
| Golden Parachutes Funded by NJ Taxpayers |
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Private companies provide their workers with sick and vacation days so they can recuperate when they are ill or take time off periodically in order to return to work
refreshed. If the employees are lucky enough to stay healthy, or don't take their full vacations, they lose the time. But for New Jersey public employees, it's different.
For many of them -- especially highly paid ones in local government -- sick and vacation time adds up to a retirement bonanza.
These workers are allowed to collect cash for unused days when they finally pack it in at the office. The days accumulate over a career and are paid at the worker's final salary rate, not the rate prevailing when they were stockpiled. It's the result of years of deal-making between local officials and unions or between local officials and top administrators, much of it taking place behind closed doors. The kind of taxpayer-financed bonanza this process can generate is illustrated by the case of Theodore Preusch, who is stepping down as Upper Saddle River's chief of police to become its borough administrator. According to The Record of Hackensack, Mr Preusch is owed $295,000 for 539 sick and vacation days that he accrued during his 35 years with the police department. Three years ago, The Star-Ledger calculated that the accumulated sick and vacation time banked by local-government employees added up to a hit of almost $1.5 billion. For public officials to condone this practice, at a time when their constituents are backed up to the wall trying to pay the nation's highest per-capita property taxes, is indefensible. State government is generous, but not as generous. It caps unused sick time at $15,000. In 1998, then-Gov Christie Whitman, to her credit, called for an end to "taxpayer-funded golden parachutes" at the county, municipal and school-district level. "Let's limit the amount of accumulated sick leave that can be paid out to retirees by local governments," she said. "We just can't afford it anymore." If we couldn't afford it then, what are we doing eight years later with the system still in place? Source: Trenton Times |
| # LNN # Small # Hauls # |
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| Life-Net News Extra |
| Camden Woman Gets State Child-Services Post |
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A lifelong Camden City resident will oversee statewide investigations into child abuse for the Office of Child Services. Arburta Jones of Camden was named director of central operations for the Office of Child Services. Jones will supervise the child-abuse reporting hotline and the Institutional Abuse Investigations Unit.
Before the promotion, Jones was chief of staff for former New Jersey Child Advocate Kevin Ryan and spent 19 years as a caseworker and supervisor in the Camden office of the Division of Youth and Family Services. Ryan, who is now acting commissioner of the Department of Human Services, had high praise for Jones' abilities: "Arburta Jones has spent years making important judgments about children whose safety may be at risk and understands challenges we face to provide the support troubled families need most," Ryan said. "She brings a rich perspective on how best to operate our children's services." Along with investigating reports of abuse in schools, foster homes, and residential treatment centers, Jones will direct internal reviews of abuse-related deaths or critical injuries to children whose families are under DYFS supervision. Source: Courier-Post |
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