LIFE-NET NEWS

by Ret Z.

Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices

May 10, 2006	No Profit; No Proceeds
Volume 10 Number 1	All-Volunteer

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

'Devil's Drug' Disrupts, Destroys in Navajo Nation

A year after the nation's largest Indian reservation launched an attack on meth -- raising penalties, increasing training for police, and developing an interagency task force -- the highly addictive drug still ruins too many lives in Navajo country. Lynette Willie, a spokeswoman for the Navajo Department of Behavioral Health Services, calls the drug "a modern-day enemy to the Navajo people."       Police say there have been signs for several years of growing meth use on the reservation: more paranoia among people stopped for traffic violations, more meth paraphernalia littering the landscape, and tragic cases of meth-related violence and neglect. They say meth has become a bigger law-enforcement problem on the 300,000- member reservation than even alcohol, which has been devastating to Indians. Window Rock Sgt Wallace Billie said the number of meth-related calls the department receives has surpassed those involving alcohol.       Last year tribal lawmakers criminalized meth for the first time. Possession or sale of meth in the Navajo Nation is now punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine. Meth possession was already a federal offense, but federal authorities venture onto the reservation only in serious cases.       There is no word in the Navajo language for methamphetamine. The closest is one that means "eating your body." Navajo mother Isabel Whitehair has her own term: "the devil's drug".       "It takes your conscience away," she said. "It takes away your ability to know right from wrong."       Law-enforcement officials believe the meth is coming from Phoenix and Mexico; they say it is particularly hard to stop on the huge reservation, which covers 27,000 square miles in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah and is plagued by a shortage of police officers. FBI agents cannot blend in on the reservation as they do in a big city. Also, communities can be separated by hundreds of miles, and there is only one road to most homes, which means officers can usually be spotted well before they arrive.       The reservation's six jails have a total of only about 70 beds. Meth violators often are kicked out after eight to 12 hours to make way for more serious offenders, said Samson Cowboy, director of the Navajo Division of Public Safety.       There is no drug rehabilitation center on the reservation. The Navajos contract instead with cities on reservation borders. But a 72-bed, $10.2 million treatment center has been proposed for the reservation.       Willie said the Navajo Nation needs to know what it is up against: a powerful drug that is disrupting families on the reservation, a place already beset by poverty and nearly 40% unemployment. "We should be protecting the sacredness of human life," she said, "and that's the bottom line."       Source:  Associated Press

Supermayor vs. Activist on Cramer Hill Plan

Camden activist Carmen Ubarry-Rivera believes it's unconscionable that private property would be acquired, under threat of condemnation, on behalf of a private-sector redeveloper. She lives in the Cramer Hill section, though her house is not among those targeted.       Melvin "Randy" Primas, the city's state-appointed super mayor, says it's a last-ditch effort to bring new taxpayers to an impoverished city that is a burden to the state. Those uprooted, he adds, could choose similar new housing in exchange for the house they lost. "The statute says we are obligated only to give fair market value, and our obligation ends," he says, but homeowners in Cramer Hill whose houses are acquired can opt to get a similar house in the neighborhood without additional cost.       Promises, promises, Rivera says. The city redevelopment agency's pledge to provide alternative housing, she says, is not legally binding.       Primas agrees the relocation plan does not have legal force. It can't, he says, because it's too early in the process. Even the designation of much of Cramer Hill as "blighted" (the required first step in redevelopment), he notes, is tied up in court. Also, a "house-for-a-house policy must, and will be, worked out individually" because the affected homeowners would have different needs that require "flexibility."       What's unacceptable, says Rivera, 39, a mother of three, is for hardworking, law-abiding and loyal residents to be taken for granted by people who run the city's affairs but, like Primas, don't live there. "We are looked at as a bunch of incapable, undereducated, violent, desperate people who don't know what's good for us."       Rivera objects that the "blighted" label was slapped on Cramer Hill over community objections. Primas counters that 75% of the proposal by redeveloper Cherokee Camden LLC reflects community input.       Primas says he and Rivera have spoken. She holds no formal public position, but he says he reached out to her because she has become a significant community voice. He didn't change her mind.       Rivera says she was surprised when she went to see Primas and found a who's who of Camden's Latino politicians lined up with him. "I must say they were good," she recalls.       "They had an answer to every one of my questions, and I knew that I had to get out of there, because I knew this was just a tactic they use" to get vocal community leaders "to come to their side."       It isn't easy being a dissenter in Camden, she says. People are needy in the city and succumb to blandishments or threats.       Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Where to Relocate Out of Range of Climate Change

Michael Laird from Belgium: Given that there is a possibility/probability that sea levels will rise significantly, and that some parts of the world may become too hot while others could become too cold, where in the world will things be relatively safe? If I start thinking about moving my family to another country, in which direction should we be looking?       Umbra Fisk: With the entire planet to choose from, specificity may be impossible, but we can look at general guidelines. In terms of geographic location, it's true that climate refugees will not flee to Belgium. Low-lying coastal areas in general are at higher risk from rising sea levels, flooding, and tropical cyclones. Sea levels will rise anywhere from a conservative 60 centimeters to a disastrous six meters. Your dream home, unless it floats, won't be near the sea, below sea level, on a small island, or in a cyclone pathway.       We may see -- may already be seeing -- other "extreme weather events" like loads of rain or searing heat. The upshot of this, as you plan for the perfect relocation, is to stay away from areas prone to flooding or landslides. Nothing steep, no river banks. On the other hand, you do want to have a secure water supply. To avoid searing heat, the best I can tell you is find a house built to cope with hot weather. Not through air conditioning, because that will use increasingly expensive (and climate-warming) energy, but through design.       Over on the cold bits of the planet, warming means the end of permafrost in tundra areas, as well as the disappearance of seasonal ice. When permafrost warms, the ground it held up can collapse, and this is causing serious physical disturbance in Arctic settlements. So we can remove the Arctic from our home-hunting list, along with all those warm coastal areas.       What else? A few predicted outcomes aren't terribly specific as to where and when. It's hard to predict how disease will spread as animals and humans relocate, for instance. If you move to a rural area and choose to go survivalist, grow your own food, and so on, you may be OK as weather patterns shift -- or you may not. Here is where there is actual scientific debate. Will Europe become colder and wetter, along with hotter in the summer, or just one or the other? Will the entire US experience severe summer droughts, or just some regions? We don't know yet.       Given the primary importance of a well-established and funded public infrastructure, both in terms of preparation for change and response to crisis, I would stay in Europe. Also, this may sound crass, but recent experience has shown that the Number One rule is to avoid poverty. If you must be poor, be poor in a wealthy area. Better to be poor in Antwerp than in Angola, for instance. Area wealth will ensure that infrastructure is maintained in the face of disaster or shortages.       I think your ideal choice is a well-run, progressive urban area in Western Europe, located inland and near a well-managed river, where you live in an eco-groovy house with water catchment and a large food garden. Oh, and don't come to the US. Our wealth is a mirage at this point, we're deeply in debt, and the whole world has witnessed the pathetic response to our latest natural disaster.       Source: Grist Magazine

Utah Enacts Early Emancipation Option for Teens

Jennifer Broadbent is like most teens: She wants a cell phone, to study dance and theater, to make her own way in the world -- even if she has to do it all without her parents' help. That got easier for Jennifer and other teens on May 2. As she and three other so-called Lost Boys looked on, Utah Gov Jon Huntsman Jr signed a law that allows teens 16 or 17 to seek emancipation from their parents. With that status, the teens would be able to get housing, schooling and other services on their own.       The Lost Boys are boys and girls who have fled or been kicked out of their homes in a polygamous community in southern Utah. They became the poster children for what Attorney General Mark Shurtleff called a "heart-breaking problem facing all our homeless youth."       The new law allows teens, with help from a guardian ad litem or other adult, to petition a juvenile court judge for emancipated status. The teens must show they can live independently and manage their own affairs. The process requires that parents be notified and given a chance to respond.       If granted, the teens would have limited adult status that would enable them to sign leases, enroll in school, borrow money, or seek medical care. Child advocates estimate about a dozen youth a year will use the new law.       "This is not about taking children away from their parents," said Fowlke. "This about children who do not have parents who care for them."       Source: Salt Lake Tribune

Travelogue: Nepalese Detention Center

Adapted from a piece by Kanak Mani Dixit:       I was hauled off to jail by Kathmandu's royal regime with two dozen other protesters on April 8 for willfully (and with prior announcement) breaking the curfew order. This gave me a chance to see how a 'militarizing' autocratic state machine can steamroll some of the weakest members of society. I saw the underbelly of the monster that government can be.       There are three types of inmates in this makeshift detention center at the Duwakot armed police barracks outside Kathmandu. The relatively well-known human rights activists have little fear of violence once they are taken in. Then there are political activists both senior and junior who receive some protection from party affiliations and linkages. But here in Duwakot there is an entire category of true innocents.       Most of these young adults, some of them mere boys, are migrants who have left their families in faraway hills and plains, to work in menial jobs. They represent the rural poor of all ethnicities and castes, but they are united in their lack of influence anywhere in the state structure. This lack of agency is matched only by their absolute poverty.       These boys face trauma at several levels. First it's the chase on the streets, the attacks by batons and staffs, the abuse, and the bundling into trucks. Once in the holding center, they suffer a lack of toilet facilities. Then they're transported from one detention center to another with no explanations of any kind. They go more than a day without food, and what they're finally fed is of the lowest grade imaginable. There is fear that authorities in need of proving Maoist 'infiltration' of the democratic movement can with the flick of a pen declare you an insurgent and do away with your life and prospects.       Who will tell your family? Who will inform your employer? Who is the lawyer or activist to speak for you? Who is to defend you and charge the regime with wrongful imprisonment? Who will seek a writ of habeas corpus and demand release and reparation?       Some of the policemen can be fine, sensitive individuals. But they take orders from an insensitive state. When autocracy and militarization is combined with contempt, those without recourse suffer unseen and unheard.       Ramesh Basnet, 23, told me before he was taken away, "This turns out to be the kind of country I was born into. I love my country, but I hate the government. I have not picked up a stone. I have not burnt a tire in protest. Why am I here, and where will they take me?"       Source: The Hindu

Teens Take National Quiz on Pregnancy

On May 3, hundreds of thousands of teenagers took the National Day Quiz, sponsored by the National Campaign to End Teen Pregnancy. The Campaign works directly with teenagers to help them make healthy decisions about relationships and sexual activity. It tries to proliferate dialogue around pregnancy prevention by establishing relationships with the media and policy and faith groups.       Teen pregnancy dropped by 30% in the US between 1991 and 2002. Still, 34% of young women in the US become pregnant before the age of 20, resulting in 820,000 pregnancies each year. The US has the highest teen pregnancy rate among industrialized countries. Ending teen pregnancy is vital to ending poverty and strengthening families.       Cultural taboos around discussions of sex result in myths, silence, and anxiety, which in turn lead to an inability to understand the consequences of sexual activity. 70% of African-American and 78% of white teens said that one of the primary reasons teenage girls have children is a lack of communication with parents. Research shows that teenagers want their parents to talk to them about sex: Seven out of ten teens said that they were ready to talk about subjects their parents avoided, and 50% said they trusted their parents for information on pregnancy prevention. Teens who have a close emotional relationship with their parents have first sex at a later age than those who aren't as close with their parents.       The National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy gives teens an occasion to think about the pressures they face, the myths about sexual activity, and the decisions they'll make. The Day is a time for communities to consider how they can support teens in planning futures that exclude poverty.       Source: Call to Renewal       Quiz: National Day Quiz

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Among 33 industrialized nations, the US has a fatality rate for newborns that ranks near the bottom, tying Hungary, Malta, Poland, and Slovakia with a death rate of nearly 5 per 1,000 live births, according to a new report. The worst of the 33, Latvia, has a rate of 6 per 1,000; the best is Japan at 1.8; the worst of all the world is Liberia at 65. The US ranking is driven partly by racial and income healthcare disparities. Among US blacks, there are 9 per 1,000. Other deciding factors in the US could be costly health insurance, teen pregnancies, and obesity rates. (Associated Press) Having weathered the winter in tents and other temporary shelters, thousands of survivors of the October earthquake in Pakistan now need to rebuild lives and livelihoods. Many face the future without loved ones; thousands of families lost their sole breadwinner. CWS is now developing basic rehabilitation activities needed for the resettlement of people affected by the quake; assisting survivors in reconstructing houses, restoring livelihoods, recovering livestock, providing water, sanitation, health, and psychosocial assistance; and aiding local groups in recovery work. Some 1,000 laborers are employed and being trained in construction. CWS plans to help some 6,000 people move to more permanent housing. Some 24 villages will see renovated or repaired water systems, and more than 10,000 families will get direct help through a health and hygiene program. (Church World Service) The charter school movement began with the tantalizing promise that independently operated schools would outperform their traditional counterparts -- if they could only be exempted from state regulations while receiving public money. Today, with charter laws on the books in about 40 states and thousands of schools up and running, the problem has turned out to be too little state oversight, not too much. Even states with disastrously low-performing charter systems can point to a handful of outstanding schools. But several studies have shown that on the whole, charter schools perform no better than other public schools. Beyond that, some states have opened so many charter programs so quickly that they can barely count them, let alone monitor student performance. Where charters have clearly failed, the states often lack the political will, or even a process, for closing them. (New York Times) The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on April 4 which shows that the US approach to international AIDS prevention is essentially unworkable. The State Department requires that two-thirds of funding devoted to preventing sexual transmission of AIDS must be spent on programs that encourage abstinence and fidelity. The GAO report says that to comply with the requirement, US country programs have had to reduce funding for programs that meet the needs of sexually active youth, truckers, sex workers, and couples in which one partner is negative and the other is positive. (Global AIDS Alliance) Tino Rozzo, candidate for NJ Governor in 2005: I went to Italy recently and found out that country had an immigrant problem. When communism fell in Albania, many Albanians where left in dire poverty. They started immigrating to Italy as if it were America. The Italian government and the European communities defused this problem by investing in Albania. They helped build its economy and gave the Albanians a better lot in life. The Albanians are no longer immigrating. (Vineland Daily Journal)

Life-Net News Extras

A Few More Small Hauls

Camden City has filed notice with the Appellate Division of Superior Court that it is challenging Judge Michael J. Kassel's dismissal of the blight study for the Bergen Square redevelopment project. The study was a key component in the approval of the sweeping project, which would require vacating 470 homes, half of them owner-occupied, to make way for about 2,500 new homes. Kassel earlier dismissed the blight study for the Cramer Hill redevelopment plan. (Philadelphia Inquirer) Letter writer Marion Steininger of Voorhees NJ: "Illegal workers have broken the law. So have all their employers, yet they are rarely prosecuted. Few legal residents and citizens have ever boycotted or even complained to the landscapers, restaurants, builders, and many other businesses that employ illegal workers. The explanation is obvious: Their cheap labor keeps our costs down. "Consumers are guilty, employers are guilty and illegal workers are guilty. As usual, however, the rage is directed against the most vulnerable group. Shame on us all." (Courier-Post) The NJ Supreme Court has given Gov. Jon S. Corzine permission to "flat fund" the state's poorest districts in the upcoming school year. A court order released yesterday upheld Corzine's budget proposal that freezes state aid at $4.25 billion to the 31 districts covered by the Abbott v Burke school funding equity case. The court also sided with Corzine's call to raise local levies in eight Abbott districts that have property tax rates half the state average. In favor of the Abbott districts, the court gave them the right to appeal for more money and ordered the state to conduct audits and program evaluations. (Gannett)

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