| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| November 28, 2007 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 11 Number 15 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Deforestation Means Starvation in North Korea |
|
In some parts of the world, floods and famine are acts of God. In North Korea, they're acts of government.
For decades, dictator Kim Il Sung mobilized vast work teams to fell trees and turn the mountainsides into farmland, allowing rainwater to wreck roads, power lines, and agricultural fields. After Kim's death in 1994 -- just before a flood-linked famine gripped the nation -- his son and successor Kim Jong Il kept on scouring forest cover away until 2000, when he began encouraging reforestation. But the shift hasn't reversed the damage, and some analysts warn that another famine, close to the scale of the 1990s disaster that may have killed millions of people, may occur as soon as next year. "Next year's food situation is quite serious," said Kwon Tae Jin, a researcher at the Korea Rural Economic Institute in Seoul. The famine risk is greatest starting next spring, after the current harvest is used up, he said; North Korea's best hope may be for more food aid from abroad as a result of its agreement to begin dismantling its nuclear-weapons program. Floods in August and September left 600 people dead or missing by official count, and 270,000 homeless. "Corpses were dug out of the silt" still clutching vinyl-wrapped photos of the Kims, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. South Korea has similar rainfall but has largely avoided such calamities. Alexandre Y Mansourov, a Korea specialist at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, said in a study that the North's flooding "is a product of bad governance, economic mismanagement, poor agricultural policy and haphazard short-term survival strategies of the starving, desperate population." Source: Bloomberg |
| New Numbers on US Poverty and Hunger |
|
More than 35 million people in this country of some 294 million went hungry last year, 390,000 more than in 2005, according to the USDA's latest Household Food Security
report. Of the total, 12.63 million were children. Put another way, nearly one in five US children either went without enough food during the course of the year or had food but could never take future meals for granted. The report, released today, comes as Congress debates the 2007 Farm Bill, a five-year piece of legislation affecting everything from agricultural subsidies to nutritional programs for the poor.
Anti-hunger activists lamented the findings. "The US is the only industrialized nation that still allows hunger within its borders," said David Beckmann, president of the advocacy group Bread for the World. Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, warned the situation likely has worsened since the agriculture department surveyed the populace in December 2006. "As costs for food, energy, and housing continue to rise and wages stagnate or decline, households are finding themselves increasingly strapped. This may mean even worse numbers in 2007. We need to do more to make sure that households have access to healthy food by improving and expanding proven programs that help." The advocates highlighted the federal government's Food Stamp Program, which Beckmann called "the flagship nutrition safety net for Americans", as needing an upgrade. According to Beckmann and Weill, the relief is insufficient. "The average benefit of one dollar per meal per person is just not enough to buy adequate, nutritious food," said Beckmann. According to the food security report, the latest in a series begun in 1995, 10.4% of all US adults and 17.2% of all children suffered food insecurity in 2006. Of the 35.52 million food insecure US residents, 11.1 million lived in households marked by "very low food security". The figure rose from 10.8 million in 2005, consistent with other surveys showing worsening conditions among the poorest. Black and Hispanic households suffered the most, with food insecurity rates of 21.8% and 19.5% respectively. The latest findings chime with recent government reports showing poverty was largely unchanged five years after the US economy began clawing its way back from recession. Modest gains in household income have failed to lift significant numbers out of poverty, the US Census Bureau reported in August. The national poverty rate fell to 12.3% in 2006, down from 12.6% the year before, but remained well above the 11.3% mark recorded in 2000, the last year in which it dropped. Source: Inter Press Service |
| More Financial Services Needed by World's Poorest |
|
In some of the world's poorest countries less than half the
population has a bank account. In most of Africa only one
in five people has access to financial services, a new
World Bank (WB) report said on Nov 13. According to the report, "Finance for All? Policies and Pitfalls in Expanding Access," small and medium-sized companies in
developing countries were also constrained by the poor access to financial services. Only 15% of new investment by small firms is financed externally in the developing
world, compared with 30% among larger companies, the report said.
It called on governments and the private sector to broaden their strategies to expand financial services to all. "Reforms that promote access to financial services should be at the core of the development agenda," said Asli Demirguc-Kunt, senior research manager, finance and private sector, at the WB. "Better access to finance not only increases economic growth, but also helps fight poverty and reduces income gaps between rich and poor." WB research found that poor households and small companies, especially those in rural areas or in the informal sector, often could not access financial services because of the long distances needed to travel to reach a bank, difficulties in providing documentation, and high costs. For example, Spain has 96 bank branches per 100,000 people and 790 branches per 10,000 square kilometers, while Ethiopia has less than 1 branch per 100,000 people and Botswana has 1 branch per 10,000 square kilometers. Thorsten Beck, one of the report's authors, said governments should encourage innovation, including the use of cell phones or the Internet for banking, which would broaden access and reduce the cost of financial services. Competition could, for example, be increased by opening markets to foreign banks, often a very controversial issue, partly for political reasons, the report said. It said increased competition for large customers could drive local banks to focus more on providing profitable services to areas they may have neglected in the past. Beck said microfinance -- a mushrooming market that provides small loans to the poor who are unable to access financing elsewhere -- was one way of expanding financial services. Source: Reuters |
| Many Denominations, One Purpose in Camden |
|
Hundreds of people separated by faith are united as the group Camden Churches Organized for People. CCOP's mission is to solve problems that are common to Catholics,
Lutherans, Baptists, and Pentecostals alike.
It is not easy to know exactly how many Christian denominations there are in Camden, but anyone who walks around the city will see churches everywhere. CCOP was formed in 1985, when several churches decided to fight for security, improve their neighborhoods, and enhance harmony in the city. Action plans were set up to make parishioners commit to finding solutions by working on problems throughout the week, not just on Sunday. CCOP claims to be "an organization with an active and prophetic presence in the city." One of its core purposes is to work with congregations to strengthen family relations within their neighborhoods. The group also finds and trains leaders to do ecclesiastical work. CCOP is affiliated with the Pacific Institute for Community Organization, a national network of religious communities. In Camden, 25 churches participate. Religious leaders and secular community leaders collaborate on concrete goals, such as communicating with authorities about specific problems. That work starts with surveys and testimonies from victims. The most urgent problems are identified, and documents are submitted to authorities, who suggest strategies in person-to-person meetings. A meeting of this type took place Nov 13 at St Joseph Pro Cathedral in Camden. Nearly 500 people gathered to reiterate their concern to New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram and Camden Chief Operating Officer Theodore Davis about Camden's serious violence. The group also asked for coping strategies. Even though participants belong to their own groups, they were in the same place, united by the same goals, reciting the same prayers, singing the same songs, and speaking in one voice. This made for a promising meeting. Source: Courier-Post |
| Deadly Disease Combination on the Rise |
|
The prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) among people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa has reached crisis levels and will escalate further if decisive steps are not taken,
says a new report by the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research, a public-private initiative based in Washington. With more than 60% of HIV-positive people living in
sub-Saharan Africa, the region has proved fertile ground for TB: The compromised immune systems of AIDS patients are often unable to combat the disease.
In addition, failing health systems and insufficient knowledge, research, data collection, and funding are encouraging the spread of HIV-TB across sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world, notes the study. Half of new TB cases now occur among people in sub-Saharan Africa who have contracted the AIDS virus, while a third of the world's HIV-positive people are infected with TB. "The global threat of the HIV-TB co-epidemic is not hypothetical. It is here now; yet the science and coordination that are needed to stop this are utterly insufficient," said Veronica Miller, co-author of the report and director of the Forum. "HIV and TB programs and research funding have run through completely different funding and administrative streams. Because of this, opportunities for taking both diseases into account, instead of tackling either one of them, have been missed." Miller said that funding for new drugs and diagnostics to treat TB is very limited, "This despite these new tools (being) urgently needed, considering the effects that HIV has on the TB disease course and vice versa." "Action is needed now," she said, "especially for sub-Saharan Africa, where not only half of new cases are HIV co-infected, but where drug-resistant TB is in the rise." Tuberculosis bacteria can remain dormant in a patient, who is then unable to pass the disease on. TB becomes re-activated if a person's immune system is compromised, as occurs with HIV infection. "People who are HIV-negative and have dormant TB have a 10% (chance) of developing active TB during their lifetime," said Stephen Lawn, a medical researcher at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. "When HIV is in an advanced stage, this can be as high as 30%." Those HIV-positive persons who do develop TB face slim chances of survival: 90% of people living with HIV/AIDS die within months of contracting TB. Said Lawn, "Their immune systems are too weak to fight both HIV and TB." TB can usually be cured with a six-month course of antibiotics to which patients must rigorously adhere. Treatment can also be used to prevent the dormant bacteria from becoming active. Said Miller, "We need to take into account both diseases (HIV and TB) at every single opportunity." Source: Inter Press Service |
| High-Profile US Evangelicals Fight AIDS |
|
Kay Warren says five years ago she was a "white suburban mom with a minivan" helping her husband run one of the most influential evangelical churches in the US and barely aware
of the global AIDS crisis. Now she, a quintessential California blue-eyed blonde, says the fight against AIDS "is the passion, the call of my life." She admits that US
evangelicals have been "late to the party" on the AIDS issue and castigates the "sinful absence and puny efforts" of her community's past track record.
"I see more and more individual churches, pastors, and believers who are recognizing that this is what the Bible teaches and that there is nothing strange about it." Saddleback Church, in the affluent suburb of Lake Forest, attracts some 22,000 people to services each week. Pastor Rick Warren, author of the best-selling inspirational book "The Purpose Driven Life," is one of the most charismatic leaders of America's 60 million-member evangelical community. The Saddleback AIDS initiative is the most controversial in a recent raft of social issues embraced by US evangelicals, who have traditionally favored social conservatism. In January, a coalition of evangelicals and scientists joined forces on global warming, calling the protection of life on Earth "a profound moral imperative." Christians have also campaigned to end modern slavery and pushed for an end to the conflict in Darfur. The Saddleback approach to AIDS sidesteps the thorny issues of sexuality and condom use by focusing on the care and support of victims. The Warrens say the question should be not "How did you get sick?" but "What can I do? How can I help you?" The plan encourages churches around the world to use their grassroots networks to set up testing centers, unleash volunteers, reduce the stigma of being HIV-positive, and promote "God's standards of behavior." Saddleback has collected some unusual allies in the process, like invited speakers Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, both of whom support abortion rights. The Warrens say they are interested in saving lives and want to focus on common ground, not on differences. Some Saddleback members felt uneasy at being urged to care for AIDS sufferers. "They felt that our job was to speak to people's spiritual needs, that the church was about saving souls," said Warren. "I completely disagreed. This is historically at the heart of our Christian faith." Source: Reuters |
| A Desire to Learn Stifled by Hunger |
|
The hunger of the seemingly healthy and well-groomed students at Moruthane Secondary School (MSS), about 80km south of Lesotho's capital, Maseru, is at first not
apparent, but as the morning progresses they become listless, and their concentration lapses. Their teacher, Nigerian national Yemi Ajijedidun, 32, said, "They are not
bad students; they are bright, but they are hungry."
The learners, 14-16, are enthusiastic about their education. The rudimentary concrete-block classroom, which has a few desks but no electricity, is packed, which testifies to students' desire to learn. Lesotho's educators acknowledge that the greatest obstacle to learning is hunger. Mountainous Lesotho, surrounded entirely by South Africa, is experiencing one of its worst droughts in three decades: Just under a quarter of the population, or 400,000 people, are food insecure. "Drought has robbed the children's families of their crops this year. They come to school on empty stomachs. I honestly don't know where or when they are fed," said the school's principal Francis Adewale, 39, a Nigerian national. "These are the ones who nod off during class; they have no energy." Adewale recently convinced the community to help build a new school, as the old building was on the verge of collapse. The living quarters of the four teachers are about a kilometer away, but their daily commute on foot is nothing compared to their students' journey of up to 30km. "We build right on the road to make it easier for the pupils to catch buses. One thing we have not built is a kitchen, because we have no feeding scheme for the children. We have only 41 students, and this school is too small," said Adewale. "Our students are good students. They are hard workers; they are just hungry." The school allows a vendor to sell snacks. "It's just sausage rolls, potato chips and hot cakes -- some students pay up to R6 ($0.95) a day, the ones who have money -- but it's not nutritious," Ajijedidun said. The school's borehole dried up about two years ago. MSS, on the arid plains of southwestern Lesotho, is a textbook example of the troubles besetting rural schools in the wake of the food scarcity crisis this year. Government has prioritized food assistance at primary school level with feeding schemes for pupils studying in the southern lowlands, while the World Food Program (WFP) has initiated feeding schemes for primary school students in the mountainous north. Hassan Abdi, WFP's program officer, said, "We have experience distributing food, and the north is a difficult place in terms of accessibility. We are there until government can also distribute food to the primary schools." Feeding schemes for secondary students have not begun, although the need for food assistance among these students is recognized. An education department questionnaire sent to students at MSS, asking them to list their needs, had food as the common denominator in their replies. "Food," wrote one girl. "Food and shoes," wrote another girl, who noted that both of her parents had died. "Food and transport," wrote one boy. "Food and clothing," answered another. In all, 60% of the students cited food as their greatest need. "We have a lot of orphans in this school," said a teacher. "In fact, half the student body are double orphans -- their parents died of AIDS." Lesotho's declining food security has been linked to the country falling short of its education goals. More than half of the population live on $2 or less a day; poverty feeds into the society's sense of despair. "The mothers are not working. The fathers aren't working. The men are back from the mines, from South Africa, where the Basotho men have always found jobs, but now they have been retrenched," said Puleng Masiphole, who lives in a basic mud hut close to MSS. "Most men, you find them drinking morning 'til night. The local brew is very cheap. The men are not drunkards, they are just lost as to what else to do." Source: IRIN |
| # LNN # Small # Hauls # |
|
| Life-Net News Extras |
| Kentucky Students Aim to Influence State Lawmaking |
|
Two University of Kentucky students wanted to dedicate some of their time to the community, so they established a chapter of a national service organization with hopes of influencing legislation to improve citizen's lives this semester. Co-founders Jeff Steller, a mathematical economics junior, and Mallory Brown, a nutrition and food science senior, began working in the spring to get the chapter of RESULTS up and running. Members meet twice a month.
"I volunteer just because I care about people," Brown said. "We are all technically one big family, and we owe it to each other to take care of one another." The chapter exists to give students a chance to speak out and get active. It's also about giving students an opportunity to get involved in volunteering. "I think it's good when students get involved with their time, talents, and money," said Laura Hatfield, the Center for Community Outreach adviser and the assistant director of student involvement. "When students get involved, their passion gets heard." For the past three weeks, members have been discussing how they could actively support the State Children's Health Insurance Program bill through drafting letters and hosting a phone-a-thon. The state bill is intended to expand healthcare for families with children under the age of 19 without insurance, Steller said, but it has been losing support in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Members also decided to diversify the organization's outreach this semester by supporting the Farm Bill. Generally food stamps and welfare programs have been separate entities from the Farm Bill, but this bill combines them, Steller said. The chapter is also working to help improve Head Start, a national school readiness program. Head Start programs across the nation are in danger of collapsing, specifically in Kentucky where programs are at an all-time low and where children with the greatest need in rural counties are being neglected, Steller said. "Every single piece of legislation that gets passed directly affects your life," Steller said. "If you're not careful how the legislation is passed, it can have a big negative effect on you and the state." Source: Kentucky Kernel |
| Chávez's 'Socialist City' Rises |
|
Like most ambitious state projects in oil-rich Venezuela, the new city being built in thickly wooded mountains began as a whim of President Hugo Chávez's. Flying in his helicopter north of Caracas over forests filled with monkeys and tropical birds, the president suddenly had a eureka moment -- he would carve a self-sustaining, self-contained city from the wilderness. Chávez envisioned this as the first of several utopian cities, a bold plan reflecting both Venezuela's capacity for undertaking ambitious projects and the president's growing propensity for making all major decisions.
"What he wants to do is build a small model of what a future Venezuela could possibly look like," said Demetrio Boersner, a former diplomat and left-leaning historian who is critical of Chávez. "He wants undoubtedly to strengthen his influence on the poor people living in the poor quarters of town. He wants to reinforce the belief that many low-income Venezuelans have that he's on their side, that he's on the side of the underdog, on the side of the poor." The plans for what officials call the "socialist cities" envisioned by Chávez are grand, evoking new cities built in such divergent countries as Brazil and the old Soviet Union. Chávez is relying on Cuban engineering companies and technical advice from Belarus, a former Soviet republic that Carrizales, the housing minister, said has "much experience in agro-industrial cities." The city in the mountainous area of Camino de los Indios, to be called Caribia -- another suggestion by the president -- will be the first of several small cities and urbanization projects across the country. In Caribia, the idea is to build scores of four-story apartment blocks that will eventually house 100,000 people. There will also be parks and sports complexes, said Ramón Carrizales, minister of housing, as well as schools, hospitals, state-run factories, and small fields for crops. "We're looking to have a city with a different vision," Carrizales said. "A city that's self-sustainable, that respects the environment, that uses clean technologies, that is mostly for use by the people, with lots of walking paths, parks, sports areas, museums, and schools within walking distance." Government officials and engineers say the plan, at its root, is designed to help people. "This is a social housing project, for people with little money," explained Alfredo Tirado, an engineer overseeing part of the project, "so it's very accessible for those types of families." The government plans to move families from a Caracas neighborhood, Federico Quiroz, to Caribia. Federico Quiroz's cinder-block homes and narrow, winding streets are located in a steep, uneven swath of western Caracas that's prone to mudslides. "It's a good idea because there are many people here who need a place to live," said Clemente Delgado, 40, a father of three in Federico Quiroz. "We know it's dangerous here. For me, if they make the offer, I'll accept." Not everyone, though, is so enthused. "The majority of socialist cities that were built in socialist countries failed," said Maria Josefina Weitz, an urban planner in Caracas. "When you create something by ideological decree, it doesn't respond to the real needs of people. Cities have their own origin, develop on their own, and have their own dynamic." Source: Washington Post |
| Food Drive Makes Teacher Sleep on Roof |
|
Chris Kenton was one cold district social studies specialist. On November 16, the Harrington DE resident made good on a challenge he had issued to students at Lake Forest Central Elementary by sleeping on the roof of Lake Forest High School amid 37-degree temperatures after students were able to collect more than 2,500 canned goods for the Lake Forest food pantry.
"It was a challenge I issued to Central students," said Kenton. "I threw 2,500 out there thinking it was a pretty high number." Unfortunately for Kenton, the 678 students at Central were able to collect the cans in just under two weeks, leaving him to keep his word by sleeping on the 38-year-old roof. "Mr (Robert) Hart (the district’s grounds supervisor) assured me this was a newer part of the roof," said Kenton, who set up a blue tent, several layers of clothing, sleeping bags, an iPod, books, and hot chocolate on the section of the roof just above the side entrance near the auditorium. A ladder that allowed him to reach the roof was set up behind the school and tied to the building in case any pranksters attempted to leave him stranded. The canned food drive was a joint effort by Central’s Student Council and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. According to student council secretary and FCA member McKenzie Ivory, student council and FCA joined forces for the drive this year to make it bigger than previous years. Council representative and sixth-grade student Kori Johnson said the prospect of seeing Kenton sleeping on the roof was "extra incentive" for students to donate more cans "because they just want to see at least one of our faculty people sleeping on the roof." Sixth-grader Ridge Betts, who is also in FCA and student council, said he donated 131 cans to the drive himself just so he could see family friend Kenton sleep on the roof. Ivory said the school has held a drive every November to collect food for needy families for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Source: NewsZap |
| Most material here is adapted, not quoted. Views expressed do not |
| necessarily represent ours. Life-Net News biweekly newspage, Club |
| LIFENET online, the Web site www.lifenetradio.org, and |
| broadcast Life-Net Radio (where you can star!) together make |
| up Mr. Ret Z.'s private charitable enterprise. To get Life-Net e-mail |
| free, or to unsubscribe, just ask: lifenetradio@broadcast.net |
| + Iesous Khristos Theou Huios Soter + |