| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| July 19, 2006 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 10 Number 5 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Black Brazilians Demand Racial Equity |
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Members of the Brazilian Black Movement staged a demonstration Friday at the Convention Centre of the Brazilian State of Bahia, venue of the just-ended second Conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora.
They demanded racial equity in their country and the adoption of a law on social quotas for students.
In a petition, the demonstrators said official data showed that four generations of blacks and persons of mixed race had the lowest school enrolment rate, the poorest salaries, and were denied access to health care services with housing conditions very poor compared to their White and Asian counterparts. Citing statistics from the Institute of Economic and Applied Research, the Black Movement, which groups several associations involved in the fight against racial discrimination, predicted that without a deliberate state policy it would take Blacks some 30 years to catch up with Whites in school enrolment in the country. It denounced the Brazilian academic system for allegedly encouraging social exclusion. Black lecturers account for fewer than 1% of teachers in the country's public universities, a paradox for a country with a 45.6% Black population. The Movement said a legislation on quotas "should be understood as the Brazilian State's coherent and responsible answer to the different international legal instruments it has adhered to." Source: PANA |
| Housing Authority to Cut Already-Deficient Services |
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The leaders of Camden's housing authority are expected to say at tonight's meeting that they can lay off 40% of the maintenance and clerical staff without eroding the quality
of life for 4,000 residents of public housing. "We anticipate no disruption in service to the residents," the authority wrote in a statement.
The residents of Ablett Village, one of the authority's largest and oldest complexes, have another view. They say services are already poor, and with more layoffs they can only get worse. "We had to go to court over the maintenance," said Juan Vargas, 24, who said leaking pipes created a hole in his kitchen ceiling. As Carmen Gonzalez, 58, fried pork chops in her kitchen on a hot summer day, she said the buildings in Ablett were so old and decrepit that "I wish they would just knock them down." Yvonne Medina said her ceiling was damaged by leaking pipes. Aida Gonzalez, 35, said her kitchen ceiling suffered water damage, too. She opened the oven door in Medina's apartment and pointed out the odor of gas from a pilot light that was out. Merari Rosario, 56, said a burst water pipe in the ceiling ruined a mattress in her bedroom. "If they lay off more workers, nothing is going to get done." While as many as 32 of the 70 maintenance and clerical workers face layoffs and cutbacks, no administrators are being let go. The authority said that all employees, including administrators, will be required to be laid off for 10 days without pay. The authority is also discussing ending health benefits for workers who are retiring after more than 20 years of service. "We're not accepting any furloughs," said Derek Wynne, a union official. "We're going to work. And we expect to be paid for the days we work." Administrators did agree to one cutback. Six members of the authority's staff had been scheduled to attend a four-day conference in Denver. After the Courier-Post raised questions about the timing of the trip, five authority workers stayed home, including Maria Marquez, executive director of the authority. Instead of spending $10,800, the authority spent $1,800 to send acting Chairwoman Deborah Keys. Source: Courier-Post |
| Bamboo a Material of Choice for Reconstruction |
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For a post-disaster rebuild, turn to bamboo to save tropical forests, writes the Indonesia team of the Mangrove Action Project (MAP). By using bamboo to construct buildings and furniture, the demand for sensitive hardwoods
decreases. Considered an invasive species in many environments, bamboo is a renewable resource that grows rapidly and can be reharvested in quick succession. Use of
renewable materials is especially important after disasters, when a vast amount of rebuilding must be done quickly.
MAP Indonesia first got involved with bamboo when in rural coastal areas seeking alternatives to the use of mangroves for construction materials. MAP-Indonesia has developed six community centers built with treated bamboo as well as furniture and handicraft industries as part of its alternative livelihood program for rural fisherfolk. Five MAP-Indonesia bamboo construction trainers were part of an earthquake resistant building workshop on June 28-29 in Tembi Village, Bantual Yogyakarta. The workshop was led by Jorg Staam, with 14 years of experience as a bamboo carpenter in Columbia. MAP-Indonesia is also constructing two bamboo treatment facilities, one in Tembi and one in the artisan village of Cebongan. This is part of a four-part program including developing a bamboo nursery/arboretum and production forest, a bamboo learning center, and a bamboo charcoal kiln for utilizing discarded bamboo from the local furniture industry. By promoting use of bamboo, which can be harvested sustainably up to 500 times before needing replanting, MAP-Indonesia is helping to take the pressure off of mangroves and tropical rainforests. Tens of thousands of bamboos have been planted by communities working with MAP since introduction of bamboo as a livelihood alternative that also plays a role in global climate control through carbon sequestration. Source: Mangrove Action Project News |
| NJ Urbanites Losing Access to Health Care |
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Adapted from a piece by assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing):
New Jersey's urban hospitals are under siege. Squeezed by skyrocketing costs, increases in the number of patients who don't have health insurance, and sharp declines in insurance reimbursements, these health-care institutions of last resort are becoming estranged from their host communities. Most alarmingly, more and more of these inner-city hospitals are being taken over by larger, more affluent health-care systems under the guise of improving delivery and efficiency. These takeovers too often serve to maximize profits at the expense of patient care. In some cases, the outside operators of these hospitals find it more advantageous to shut down inner-city operations and redirect clients to less-convenient suburban facilities. The fallout from such retrenchment and urban flight by hospitals is hardly surprising. Study after study indicates that minority and inner-city residents have the worst access to health care. The acquisition and closure of urban hospitals is causing consternation and anxiety about access to health care in Trenton and other NJ cities. Our state has a longstanding policy of subsidizing hospitals that care for the poor and uninsured. Last year alone, these subsidies exceeded $580 million. NJ hospitals also enjoy tax privileges and other benefits associated with nonprofit status. In exchange for these subsidies and benefits, hospitals are expected to fulfill their organizational missions to serve residents who have the most needs and the least means. Urban residents need ready access to quality health care. Their lives depend on it. The majority of these residents are at disproportionate risk of developing a variety of serious illnesses including heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and premature birth. The state should not be subsidizing takeover strategies that leave patients in the lurch. If the mission of these institutions has shifted to the taking of profits in the suburbs, it may be time for the Legislature to consider rescinding state subsidies and redirecting precious resources toward the care of the people left behind. Source: Courier-Post |
| Why the Climate Change Alarm Fails to Rouse |
Our government will spend billions this year to prevent global terrorism and essentially nothing to prevent global warming. Why are we less worried about global warming? Because the human brain evolved to respond to threats that have four features that terrorism has and global warming lacks.
Source: Los Angeles Times |
| Marriage Gap Accentuates Inequality |
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The widening gap between the haves and have-nots isn't just about money. It's also about who gets married and stays married, according to the National Marriage Project, based at Rutgers University. A study released last week shows that people with higher incomes and levels of education are the winners in marriage, while people who are less well-off and less educated are more likely to divorce or never marry at all.
Children raised in families headed by a single, divorced or never-married parent or cohabiting parents are more likely to be poor, to do less well in school, and to follow their own parents' patterns of divorce, said David Popenoe, a Rutgers sociologist and co-director of the project. Married people "do have many benefits, not only from the government but better health, longevity, more productivity and better outcomes for kids," said Popenoe. "I think the increasing divide between the married and non-married accentuates inequality in a very serious way." The pattern is a reversal of a trend throughout much of the 20th century, when marriage rates for college-educated women were lower than those for women with 12 or fewer years of education. That changed in the 1980s. "Originally men didn't want to marry women who were better educated than they were," said Popenoe. "Gradually, as more and more women became educated, that marriage gap diminished. It turns out educated women are those that men do want to marry. Men today do want women who can earn money." Successful families are self-perpetuating in that they raise kids who are themselves more likely to go to college, get good jobs, and marry. But this part of the population is having fewer children than Americans in general, experts say. The divorce rate is holding steady or slightly declining, but experts say that's because people with less education and income are less likely to get married in the first place. In 2000, 40% of mothers who were high school dropouts were living without husbands, compared to only 12% of mothers who held college degrees. One of the reasons that educated, higher-income couples don't divorce is that they are more likely to report feeling happy in their marriages. They tend to have the same backgrounds and to be less influenced by traditional gender roles at work and in the home, the report said. Source: Newark Star-Ledger |
| Marriage Gap Accentuates Inequality |
|
US first lady Laura Bush danced and played with
HIV-infected orphans on Friday, saying it was her wish to
see a generation of children free of AIDS. Bush visited the orphanage for children with HIV in the outskirts of St Petersburg, Russia, after arriving for the Group of Eight (G8) summit. She held the kids' hands and even joined them in a "chicken dance".
The Federal Pediatric AIDS Center houses about 40 abandoned children ranging from 1 to 8 years old. AIDS physicians say the orphanage -- which offers treatment and housing for infected orphans and expectant mothers, a rarity in Russia -- is a "center of excellence" where health workers from other regions are also trained in AIDS care. Russia has one of the fastest-growing HIV infection rates. UNAIDS puts the figure at around 900,000. Others say it could be above 1,000,000. After being slow to address the problem, the government has focused on AIDS awareness in the months leading up to the G8. The problem of infectious diseases was on the gathering's agenda. Bush told doctors she hoped to find out "what we can do to stop the transmission of AIDS to have a whole generation HIV-free, as well as be able to treat children so they can live a normal life." "We also need to reduce the stigma associated with HIV," Bush said. Many Russian parents abandon children with HIV because of social and economic pressure. Experts say better coordination of treatment and social acceptance also are needed to fight the epidemic. "These kids don't need medication -- that's not the issue," said Dr Yevgeny Voronin, chief physician of the center. "For the last 20 years, there's been no change in the attitudes toward these children." About 98.5% of HIV-positive mothers who receive treatment in time do not pass the disease on to their children, Voronin noted. "We've singled out the most important link: the transmission from mother to child," said Dr Aza Rakhmanova, who began diagnosing some of the first AIDS cases in Russia in 1987. Bush echoed the call for better testing of expectant mothers: "Part of the problem in the US and here and around the world is that a lot of mothers are not tested and so they don't know during their pregnancy to start on the anti-retroviral treatment, and they deliver babies with HIV." She said she hoped for better awareness worldwide: "I think we should have an international day of testing here and around the world." Source: Associated Press |
| # LNN # Small # Hauls # |
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| Life-Net News Extra |
| Farm Aid Coming to Camden |
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One year after hosting the Live 8 extravaganza, the Philadelphia area will play host to another charity concert event.
Farm Aid, a concert that raises money to benefit America's farmers, is coming to the Tweeter Center in Camden, scheduled for September 30.
Mark Smith, the campaign director of Farm Aid said that the whole Delaware Valley region was attractive to concert organizers because of the area's focus on locally produced food: "Philadelphia is one of the leaders of bringing locally produced food to urban consumers." Jackie Bonomo, the executive assistant for PASA, said, "If you buy local, you're supporting your family farmer. Money stays within the community, building the local economy instead of the long-distance economy." Consumers can benefit by buying fresher food, and farmers can "get feedback from the people they're growing for." "It's really hard to make it in farming these days," Bonomo said. "The cost of food is low for the quality we have. Farm Aid supports farmers that are in distress." Penn Political Science professor Mary Summers, who teaches a course on the politics of food, said the region is a great choice for the concert: "It's close enough to a lot of sources for local food, and yet in your average grocery store most food is brought in from California, Florida or even globally." According to Smith, one of the main things indeed that Farm Aid seeks to achieve is "to shine a spotlight on the positive stuff happening in the Philadelphia area." Source: Daily Pennsylvanian |
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