| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| July 18, 2007 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 11 Number 6 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| NJ to Get Tough on Greenhouse Gases |
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Al Gore was on hand as New Jersey Gov Jon Corzine signed legislation requiring the Garden State to achieve ambitious reductions in emissions of global-warming gases. New Jersey became the third state, behind California and Hawaii, to pass a comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction law.
"In order to inspire hope and build the enthusiasm necessary to get this crisis solved, it's great to be able to tell 'em in every country that yes, the national government is not doing the right thing yet, it's true, but you need to know that state governments are beginning to take the lead, cities are beginning to take the lead, and citizens of this country are beginning to take the lead," Gore told an enthusiastic crowd of lawmakers and environmental activists who had come to the Meadowlands sports complex to witness the July 6 bill signing. The legislation requires the state to reduce global warming gases to 1990 levels by 2020, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 2006 levels by 2050. NJ is the first state to set global warming targets so far into the future, activists said, and the first to require that energy imports adhere to state standards. Eight other states are considering similar legislation, according to Suzanne Leta Liou of Environment New Jersey. Others have started anti-global warming initiatives. Critics of the NJ law argued that it would hurt the state's energy industry and that the act contained no specific proposals to lower emissions. The measure nonetheless enjoyed widespread bipartisan support in the Legislature. Under the new law, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection will conduct an emissions inventory. Based on the results, it will devise a plan to monitor and reduce harmful emissions. "This is the strictest global warming law in the country for two reasons," said David Pringle, campaign director of the NJ Environmental Federation. "Because of the mandatory emissions reductions and because of a provision that says out-of-state power producers can't move power through New Jersey without meeting New Jersey standards." Source: Associated Press |
| Zimbabweans Risk All for a New Life |
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Dire political and economic conditions in Zimbabwe are forcing many Zimbabweans to flee across the border into South Africa in search of a better life. As a result,
people smuggling has become a profession, and life for hopeful Zimbabweans in South Africa has resulted in either deportation or destitution.
Most Zimbabweans cannot travel to South Africa via the official border crossing known as P2C. Instead they have to swim through the crocodile-infested Limpopo river, cut through razor wire, and walk across the bush for hours. The government cannot afford to issue its people with legitimate papers. This means that most Zimbabweans cannot travel out of Zimbabwe legally and human smuggling is rife. Moyo, one human trafficker, charges his fellow Zimbabweans $15 per crossing -- one and a half times the average monthly Zimbabwean wage. "I'm considering myself as somebody who assists people, those who are stranded, those who don't have passports, because there are so many Zimbabweans who want to go to South Africa." There are two immediate concerns for Zimbabweans escaping their country -- border guards on patrol and Goma Goma bandits looking for easy targets. While many parts of the crossing are supposed to be under strict army supervision, soldiers have rarely been seen on patrol. More worryingly, the Goma Gomas are also hidden from view, making a living by robbing those unfortunate enough to run into them. Zimbabweans who make it to South Africa live with the constant risk of deportation. In the border area alone, 500 Zimbabweans are picked up and sent back to Zimbabwe each day. Maggy Mathebula, the police commissioner and head of the border detention center, said, "You arrest the person today; we deport them the following day." Migrants who make it to South Africa often end up in one of Johannesburg's most rundown neighborhoods, which has one of the highest crime rates in the world. "I was sleeping here," says Lovemore, an illegal immigrant who has been in Johannesburg for 18 months. "There was no food, no water to wash your body." Though Lovemore has moved off the streets and into a shelter at a nearby church, he still doesn't have a job. Like the majority of Zimbabweans in South Africa, he lives under the constant threat of being picked up and deported at any moment. Source: Al-Jazeera |
| No Public Good from 'Cleansing' Pennsauken Mart |
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Adapted from a piece by Monica Yant Kinney:
I almost let this one slide, thinking I had run out of ways to slam the raw deal down at the Pennsauken Mart. But then I drove by the demolition site and started imagining the apartment complex that will rise from the rubble. Yes, an apartment complex. In the end, Camden County officials ruined the lives and livelihoods of 100 mom-and-pop merchants to build a freaking apartment complex. They have the nerve to call it Renaissance Walk. They prefer you think of it in more luxurious terms, as "an upscale rental community with outstanding amenities designed to attract young professionals" who will be thrilled to pay $2,000 a month to live next to not one but two highways in Pennsauken. So much for government's seizing private property only when necessary to serve "the public good," like building a school or a road. Renaissance Walk will boast an ndoor-outdoor pool. Sounds inviting, but if the masses can't splash, how is it for the public good? Six years after the Mart battle began, Camden County officials are still defending the debacle, which has cost nearly $30 million already. The original grand plan called for replacing the "blighted" Mart building with a convention center and minor-league hockey arena for a team owned by Democratic Party boss George Norcross. The greedy suits even tried to steamroll a church across the street, an act that landed them in court and on a celestial watch list. A subsequent proposal for 700 homes, a lake, a boathouse, an arts theater, shops, and eateries promised to turn the gritty intersection of Routes 73 and 130 into a South Jersey Xanadu. Amid mounting pressure to sign a deal, any deal, county officials finally sold out to rentals. "Sometimes, things don't necessarily go as planned," explained the Camden County Improvement Authority's executive director, Jeffrey Schwartz. "We feel this brand-new upscale community represents the highest and best use for the site." He might. But do the ends justify the means when the Mart merchants were guilty of nothing more than selling bargains to people who count their change? An eminent-domain opponent I know calls the practice "economic ethnic cleansing." I thought that was harsh, until Camden County officials used their power to rid Pennsauken of so-called undesirables. Dana Berliner, a lawyer at the libertarian Institute for Justice, said eminent-domain projects were often rooted in snobbery. "Every town wants upscale professionals, upscale retail, upscale lifestyle centers." "Of course they took a flea market. They don't want poor people, and they don't want businesses that serve poor people." The poor paid their taxes, but "upscale professionals" will pay more. Source: Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Lack of Health Infrastructure Afflicts Third World |
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While Western countries are pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge, discovering the potential of nanotechnology and other high-tech solutions to the
developed world's diseases, like diabetes, cancer and obesity, poor countries are struggling to combat health problems such as HIV, malaria, and TB. And it's not as simple as shipping medicines and supplies in bulk
quantities. Oxfam's Paying for People report, published in February, said that poor countries are suffering because they lack the infrastructure of a health service.
The WHO's 2006 World Health Report indicates that 4.25 million doctors, nurses, and health workers are needed across 57 countries. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, has 600,000 health workers; one million more are required. Without these key workers, it is questionable whether healthcare in poor countries can be improved. Oxfam spokesperson Nicky Wimble said, "There is money coming in for drugs now, but there's no commitment to long-term aid." Governments are unable to give healthcare workers job security, and doctors and nurses, where they do exist, are largely poorly paid, so people choose other careers. "They're either becoming taxi drivers or working for private businesses," Wimble says. This double brain-drain (one internal, one external as those who do train are tempted away by higher salaries and brighter futures in developed countries) means that even if drugs make it to poorer areas, there can be no one to administer them. "Drugs are sitting in cupboards. Or they're available in cities but people in rural areas don't have the bus fares to get to them." "Particularly in Africa, they're not equipped to face anything -- not HIV, let alone avian flu," says Dr Mohga Kamal-Yanni, an Oxfam senior health & HIV policy advisor. "If something like avian flu hit Africa with no health system, no health workers, and no money, it would spread. We can't contain it in Africa. The world would wake up and realize that, but in the meantime, it would have wiped out goodness knows how many millions of people." Kamal-Yanni is hopeful, however, that the situation will improve somewhat. She explained a scenario she feels is most likely to happen: "If the international community invests a little bit, things will be slightly better. More people with HIV will get treatment, as will people with TB and malaria. But non-communicable chronic diseases [like diabetes] will be ignored." Source: CNN |
| Hungry in Lousiana |
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Almost two years after Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of Louisianians still need help providing food for themselves and their families. Charitable food services are no longer seeing the massive lines that existed in the storm's aftermath, but demand remains at twice pre-storm levels. That has food banks across the state pleading for help.
The Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, which serves 23 South Louisiana parishes, estimates it will need 25 million pounds of food over the next 12 months. The organization handled 14 million pounds annually pre-Katrina. Demand remains high in part because of recent reductions in federal funding for nutrition programs, which state and food bank officials said dropped 35% this fiscal year. The US Department of Agriculture, which administers the money, said the cuts owe to the end of one-time emergency programs after Katrina. But federal funding for some non-emergency food and nutrition programs also was reduced due to population losses. The region's recovery is far from over. Federal officials need to examine the current need to evaluate whether additional measures are warranted. Other programs, such as food stamps, get federal funding based on enrollment. Thus Louisianians in need who are not enrolled should check their eligibility by contacting the state Social Services Department (888-524-3578). Groups serving meals should pass along enrollment information. Funding is not the only problem. Families can't have more than $3,000 in assets, including bank savings, to qualify for food stamps. But charities report that some families are being denied because they have higher bank balances due to insurance proceeds or Road Home grants to rebuild their homes. Federal and state officials need to make sure that efforts to rebuild are not counted against people who need help purchasing food. To donate money or food to the greater New Orleans food bank, call 504-734-1322. The group has a well-established reputation, and less than 3 cents per dollar go for administrative and fundraising costs, according to private services that rate charities. Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune |
| Micro-Insurance a Big Help for Mexico's Poor |
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Once just a safeguard for the middle and upper classes, insurance is finding its way to all sectors of Mexico. For the poorest, microinsurance policies -- often simple plans worth tiny sums of money -- are giving protection to those Mexicans who work in the informal economy, often don't have bank accounts, and never dreamed of the luxury of having a Plan B.
Asia and Africa have pioneered microinsurance coverage for everything from death to droughts. But a new government-sponsored plan to promote such micropolicies in Mexico -- with its sophisticated banking sector and second-largest population in Latin America -- could have a ripple effect in the region, experts say. The plan is the first of its kind in Mexico and will focus first on basic life insurance, and later target health and property. What began as a community-based and nonprofit effort is now moving to a commercial venture expected to grow quickly -- and could lead millions of Mexicans one step further away from poverty. "Microinsurance can change tremendously the financial stability of these people," says Alfredo Honsberg, the CEO of Seguros Azteca, which offers tiny policies that cost from 50 cents to $3 a week for clients who take out loans at Banco Azteca or buy products on credit at Elektra electronic stores, where branches of the bank are housed. "The financial impact [of a tragedy] can be devastating to a low-income family. Even kids cannot go to school because they have to work." Microinsurance has been inspired by microfinance, which became part of the global lexicon last year when its pioneer, Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to alleviate poverty. But unlike microcredit loans that have immediate benefits, microinsurance is a tougher sell. "They've never been exposed to any insurance in the past. These people don't have any bank relationship," says Daniel Garduno, the CEO of Seguros Banamex, which has offered life insurance to clients of Compartamos, Mexico's largest microfinance institution, since November 2006. That coverage, which has reached 640,000 clients, is worth $1,400. In a report looking at microinsurance in the world's 100 poorest nations, the Wisconsin-based Microinsurance Center monitoring group counted 246 microinsurers, not including government providers of social security, with 78 million people covered. Not all of the policies are addressing the needs of the populations they serve, however: Many are credit life plans that just pay off loans, not give money to the families of the deceased. Source: Christian Science Monitor |
| Rutgers' Influence Grows in Camden City |
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Rutgers-Camden [RU-C] casts a long shadow in the city it calls home. Students pile out of the RiverLink rail line at 3rd and Cooper streets every day. The RU-C Scarlet Raptors play baseball at Campbell's Field. Budding entrepreneurs collaborate at a Rutgers business incubator on Federal Street. Law students teach inner-city teenagers their rights in casual sessions on what they call "street law." Every year, business students volunteer to walk residents through their tax forms. Non-students make their way to the campus at night and on weekends for concerts at the Walter Gordon Theater. RU-C's mere presence has worked wonders to stabilize the Cooper Grant neighborhood.
As an institution with 5,400 students, plus faculty and support staff, Rutgers-Camden is the lead player in a growing collegiate population in the city that now includes extensions of Rowan University and Camden County College. All told, more than 8,000 students take classes in the city. "Rutgers has a big stake in the city. We're constantly evolving as land and funding becomes available," said Interim Provost Margaret Marsh, a 1967 graduate of the Camden campus. Marsh wants the city to flourish. "We're still climbing back from the dip in enrollment after Camden was named the most dangerous city in America in 2004," she said. "I'm happy to report applications are up this year." Persuading parents to send their children to RU-C got a lot easier when the waterfront began to look less like a bombed-out industrial site and more like a safe and fun destination. Infill is an important concept for the university. As private buildings become available, Rutgers buys and either restores, as it has done to many of the historic properties on Cooper Street, or land banks until it can amass a substantial parcel. Two blocks away, another RU-C property, historic Johnson Park, was recently restored to its early 1900s charm. Construction is under way on a $37 million RU-C law building at 5th and Penn, the school's first new construction in nearly 20 years. RU-C is about to embark on a new venture six blocks away in the 400 block of Broadway, its first classroom outside the neighborhood and its first collaboration with Cooper University Hospital and the city's powerful medical community. Called the Systems Biology Building, it will be built with $50 million in state money. Marsh likes the notion of students and faculty fanning out into the city to reach the new location. Another bonus is the availability of business incubator space at the Rutgers-Camden Technology Campus that can help scientists with successful outcomes transition into entrepreneurs. Source: Courier-Post |
| # LNN # Small # Hauls # |
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| The Child-Prostitution Capital of the Western Hemisphere |
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Child prostitution has proven to be a quick and easy way to make money all around the globe. After Thailand, Brazil is the second country with the highest number of children involved in prostitution. Not surprisingly, Brazil ranks third worldwide in AIDS cases.
Poverty is one of the causes. In some cases, poverty is so extreme that the parents themselves sell their own daughters. Many children go out onto the streets to work. They start selling sweets, lottery tickets, or newspapers and end up stealing and prostituting themselves. Although Brazil is the world's eighth largest industrial nation, according to the UN Development program, nearly half of its population lives in absolute poverty. Health care, sanitary facilities, and food resources are inadequate for most of the population, while education is a privilege of a select few. Given these conditions, the streets become a second home, where children spend most of their time while their parents (often just their single mother) are at work. Recent studies show that "street children" number around 10 million. After a time on the streets, some of these kids find prostitution financially attractive, a way to ensure their survival. The lack of strong laws and resources makes children easy targets. Take the case of the Yanomamis, a group of indigenous people living on Brazil's northern border. There, a constantly increasing number of illegal gold miners give food in exchange for sexual favors. Although this area (the home of the Yanomamis) is a reservation, the lack of state resources to protect the borders has permitted easy access for everyone. Child prostitution is not only patronized by Brazilians but also by "sex tourists". Brazil is one of the favored destinations of pedophile sex tourists from Europe and the US. A most common practice among these traveling perverts is to buy a girl for one or two weeks and go fishing. The government has taken some action. It spends $1.7 million on rehabilitating an estimated 10,000 children previously involved in prostitution within the Amazon area. It also set a phone service to report the sexual exploitation of children and sex tourism, in addition to creating public institutions to aid "street children". More is needed. Source: Latin Week |
| New Jersey's Legal Landmark |
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Prodded by a landmark US Supreme Court decision, Gideon v Wainwright, which said poor people were entitled to criminal defense lawyers even if they couldn't pay, New Jersey embarked on an experiment 40 years ago this month that led it to establish the first centralized, statewide Public Defender's Office.
Four decades later, the office has grown to 511 lawyers operating on a $90 million annual budget. Unlike public defenders in other states, who are generally funded on a countywide basis, the office here is part of state government and has a stable stream of support. The centralized structure allows lawyers to share research, staff, and legal strategies. And attorneys are paid on a par with county prosecutors, a move that has kept the turnover rate low and provided the office with a cadre of seasoned lawyers. The funding allows the Public Defender's Office to hire experts and use new technology to mount aggressive and creative defenses. Nowhere is that more apparent than in death penalty cases. Using jury consultants to help pick juries, psychiatrists, and other experts to put together a defense, its capital unit has handled close to 600 cases -- virtually every death penalty case brought in the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1982 -- and it has yet to see a client executed. Equally important, its lawyers have successfully argued cases that expanded the rights of the accused, convincing judges to confer benefits, not recognized by federal courts, on defendants in this state. That is particularly the case in search-and-seizure law. While being fearless in its pursuit of justice, the Public Defender's Office has been nearly as resolute in trying to recoup legal fees after bringing a case. Each year it gets back $4 million from income tax refunds, property tax rebates, or proceeds from the sale of real estate owned by people it defended. Often the work of the Public Defender's Office is unpopular, particularly in cases in which its clients have committed heinous crimes. Yet the office must be applauded for providing efficient and effective representation. In doing so, it has set a standard of which New Jerseyans can be proud. Source: Newark Star-Ledger |
| Stop AIDS '08 |
The 08 Stop AIDS platform on global AIDS has over 100 endorsements from local, national, and international NGOs and prestigious experts and community leaders. This is the community-supported platform that the next president of the United States will be urged to adopt:
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