| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| January 16, 2008 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 11 Number 18 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Can the World Afford the Tata Nano? |
|
It's either the start of a people's revolution or a trigger for social and environmental headaches around the globe. The Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car, was unveiled in the Indian capital Thursday amid bright lights and blaring music.
Designed to put a stop to a family of four traveling on a single scooter, the new model from Tata Motors -- and more importantly its price tag of £1,277 -- should make motoring affordable for a new class of consumer in the developing world. But green activists predict trouble ahead for countries that already have inadequate infrastructures and soaring CO2 emissions. Tata spent five years making its budget model "people's car". The company's chairman, Ratan Tata, recalled the scene that had inspired him: "There was the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby," he said at the launch. "It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family." Many environmentalists believe the new vehicle, with a price tag half that of India's current cheapest car, will clog up already busy and broken roads and add pressure to a buckling infrastructure. They stress the need to develop efficient, modern, and affordable public transit, especially in cities such as Delhi, which has a new subway system but an overloaded and often deadly bus service. "My first reaction when someone says they need to buy a car is to say don't buy it," said Soumya Brata Rahut, a spokesman for Greenpeace India. "But people are buying cars, I cannot stop them. The revolution in small cars means there will be more and more." Tony Bosworth of Friends of the Earth UK said, "The Tata Nano makes motoring cheaper, and growing car sales in India will lead to big rises in carbon dioxide emissions. This is another blow to efforts to tackle global climate change. "But per-person emissions will still be much higher in the West. Our priority must be to increase efforts to cut our own emissions and to show the rest of the world how to develop a low-carbon economy". Though Tata talked of helping solve the transportation needs of rural Indians, it seems his vehicle actually targets the country's newly aspirational middle class, which has new buying power as a result of the country's economic growth of 9% per year. The overwhelming majority of India's population of 1.1 billion -- more than 800 million of whom survive on less than 50 pence a day -- will not be able to afford the car. The remaining minority is nevertheless a huge market that will probably be augmented by distribution of the car elsewhere in South Asia. Source: The Independent |
| SSD: Social Security Doldrums |
|
Each year, millions of people who are disabled from an accident or disease turn to the federal government for Social Security Disability (SSD) payments -- a benefit that every worker who is declared disabled is said to be eligible to receive. SSD is a 51-year-old government insurance program that every worker pays for through the FICA line-item on their pay stub.
"I always figured that I'd die in a fiery car wreck or something, never that I'd be disabled," says 33-year-old Scott Watson. Two years ago, a failed surgery left Watson with a spinal cord fracture that turned his life upside down, terminating his career as a broadcast engineer. Declared disabled by the state of Maryland, Watson was told he was "shoo-in" when he applied for SSD last year. Three months later he was turned down on the grounds, according to federal guidelines, that he wasn't disabled enough. Watson appealed and was denied again. He's one of 27,000 Maryland residents -- 68% of all those who applied -- to suffer such a fate. Overall, two out of every three people who apply for SSD are rejected by a government agency that critics say is out of date, underfunded, and incapable of serving the exploding number of disabled Americans. Waiting times for a hearing in some cities are more than three years. Linda Fullerton, an advocate for the disabled, said, "I have people all the time writing to me, saying they are suicidal." Fullerton's support website is home to one horror story after another. Emails to the site contain lines like, "Had to file bankruptcy to keep home," and, "Losing home with four children." At least 16,000 people fighting for SSD benefits died while awaiting a decision. The backlog of cases now stands at 750,000 -- up 150% since 2000. People wait an average of 520 days for a hearing. Jerry Rice calls an abandoned tool shed home. Rice, who suffers from mental illness, had been waiting for three years. "I'm not asking them to give me welfare," Rice said. "I'm just asking them to give me what they promised. Yeah, I deserve it." "It's a mess from the time you apply till the time you get a hearing," said attorney John Hogan, who has represented thousands of folks in Atlanta, "the furthest behind of any area of the country, it could take 2.5 years to get your hearing." That's because there are some 24,000 cases waiting to be heard and only about 15 local judges to handle them. "We have a lot of room for improvement," said Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue, who took over the disability program last year. He stepped up efforts to fix the system many call broken. "We're probably not gonna be able to drive back the backlog down at the rate that it went up. But we're sure as hell gonna try." That's little consolation to the likes of Watson, who has had to rely on his parents to survive. "You pay into a system that you think is gonna help you in your time of need, and it doesn't even acknowledge that you even have a problem." Source: CBS News |
| Poor Sanitation Seen Killing 5,000 Children a Day |
|
Five thousand children die every day globally because they do not have access to clean toilets, health experts said yesterday. Wealthy governments and donors could make a huge impact on global health by making sanitation a priority, representatives from a coalition of 60 health groups said. They estimated that 40% of the world's people do not have access to clean and safe toilets.
"It is about generating political will, and we also want to see a real mobilization around sanitation in the aid system," said Henry Northover of WaterAid, which founded the coalition End Water Poverty. "We want to see the G8 (group of industrialized nations) prioritize it this year." The experts said that such a prioritization would also go a long way toward meeting global targets aimed at sharply reducing world poverty by 2015. WaterAid says 1.8 million children are dying each year before their fifth birthday from diarrhea. "There is a global crisis in sanitation," said Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association. "Governments must take action now on this vital area of international development." Source: Reuters |
| Camden Dealer Tells of Drug Earnings |
|
The lead witness in an ongoing federal drug conspiracy trial finished his fourth day on the stand yesterday, providing a few more details about the violence that allowed him to control a massive illegal cocaine business for more than a decade. Raymond Morales talked about his desire to hold the reins of his business, both in controlling one street-corner drug market and in maintaining a rapport with his major wholesale customers.
Under both direct and cross examination, Morales told jurors he earned at least $1,000 for every kilogram of cocaine he channeled to drug dealers. In his busiest four- to six-month period, Morales said under cross-examination, he was moving 70 kg a month, or $420,000, in his wholesale business over six months. His street-corner cocaine operation, primarily targeting motorists and pedestrians on Atlantic Avenue, generated $7,500 a day. Morales said it wasn't all profit. He had to pay his managers, had to pass something along to enforcers, had an estimated $5,000 weekly bill for prostitutes, and was maintaining households for his wife and three girlfriends. When suppliers came in from New York, he had to wine and dine them. He had to pay rent on several "stash" houses where he kept cash or drugs. He said he was willing to give up that life as part of an agreement with the US Attorney. He expressed the hope that his cooperation would allow him to get out of prison before he dies. Source: Courier-Post |
| Africa's Doctor Drain Apparently Underestimated |
|
Many African countries now have more doctors and nurses working in richer countries abroad than they have at home, research shows. There has long been concern about the African medical exodus, but the Human Resources for Health study suggests the problem may be greater than assumed.
Several countries, including Mozambique and Angola, have more doctors in one single foreign country than at home. For every doctor in Liberia, there are two working abroad. The study is one of the first to count doctors who are born in Africa, not just those who are trained there. The use of training location as a research basis, the authors argue, seriously underestimates how much a country's health service is affected by the loss of people who want to become doctors. The report suggested that the loss of doctors often went hand-in-hand with civil strife, political instability, and economic stagnation. Angola, Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone all experienced civil war in the 1990s, and all had lost 40% of their doctors by 2000. Countries such as Kenya, which experienced economic stagnation in the late 20th century, and Zimbabwe, which saw political repression as well as economic problems, saw more than half of their doctors leave. At the same time, countries with greater stability and prosperity, such as Botswana, managed to keep many of their doctors, but so did very poor countries such as Niger. The researchers speculated that this could have to do with destitute countries not producing large numbers of would-be doctors with the financial capital or connections to leave. The UK is one of the few countries to have introduced a code preventing it from actively recruiting from sub-Saharan Africa. But there is little to stop health professionals from these countries applying for UK work permits. The charity ActionAid said the brain drain was "a huge threat" to Africa. ActionAid policy officer Nick Corby said, "One of the best way to keep health care professionals in the countries that need them is to pay them properly -- but currently health systems in many African countries are woefully underfunded. The UK government could do Africa a real service by upping aid levels for health systems." Source: BBC |
| Emails Reveal Starbucks' Anti-Unionization Espionage |
|
Starbucks managers monitored internet chat rooms and eavesdropped on party conversations in a covert campaign to identify employees agitating for union representation at the coffee chain, internal emails reveal. The correspondence has come to light after a long-running legal battle between the company and a union angry at being prevented from organizing among Starbucks' 150,000-strong army of "baristas" and other employees. The revelations come at a sensitive time, threatening to tarnish the chain's public image just as its pioneering chief executive, Howard Schultz, is trying to re-energize the company and bring customers back.
In one email exchange, managers sought information about a Halloween party attended by employees, and reported how two people at the party had had a discussion about union organizing. The conversation ended, one manager noted, because the two employees "were attracted to each other and this became the focus of their evening". Starbucks says it does not prevent employees from organizing into unions, they just don't want to. It has been fighting what it calls "disruptive" activity by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) since at least 2004, the emails make clear. One three-year-old message begins, "Below is a summary of the recent developments in New York City regarding our attempts to thwart a potential union situation." The correspondence -- leaked to The Wall Street Journal -- came to light just days after Schultz returned as CEO of the company he turned from a tiny Seattle business with just four stores into a global phenomenon. He has promised to put staff at the heart of a plan to revitalize the firm. In a letter to employees and customers posted on the Starbucks website after his appointment, Schultz wrote how he had "brought Starbucks to life" by hiring "an exceptionally engaged group of partners (employees) who shared our excitement about building a different kind of company. In doing this, we developed a culture based on treating each other, our customers and our coffee growers with respect and dignity." On Thursday, a company spokesman said Starbucks abides by all labor laws, such as those that ban a company from firing employees for union sympathies. He said Starbucks was confident it would prevail in its legal dispute with IWW supporters claiming wrongful dismissal. The dispute "focused on enforcement of Starbucks dress code and [union lapel] pin policies, and partner disciplinary actions", he said. "These documents have been presented out of context and in violation of a judge's orders." The emails show that managers monitored a Cornell University alumni discussion board to identify employees who had graduated from a labor program at the university. They discuss when identified "IWW supporters" are next up for an appraisal and whether they might be at risk of firing. Managers several times expressed concern that emails could turn up in a legal case, according to the WSJ. In one 2005 email, a manager wrote, "Not to sound too 007 here but I am going to ask that we delete these messages after reading and stick to verbal conversations as none of this is protected under attorney client privilege and is subject to full disclosure." Source: The Independent |
| Lakota Sioux Declare Sovereign Nation Status |
|
Lakota Sioux Indian representatives declared sovereign nation status on December 20 in Washington DC following a withdrawal from all previously signed treaties with the US government. The withdrawal, hand-delivered to Daniel Turner, Deputy Director of Public Liaison at the State Department, immediately and irrevocably ended all agreements between the Lakota Sioux Nation of Indians and the US government outlined in the 1851 and 1868 Treaties at Fort Laramie WY.
"This is an historic day for our Lakota people," declared Russell Means, Itacan of Lakota. "United States colonial rule is at its end!" "Today is a historic day, and our forefathers speak through us. Our forefathers made the treaties in good faith with the sacred Canupa and with the knowledge of the Great Spirit," said Garry Rowland from Wounded Knee. "They never honored the treaties, that's the reason we are here today." The four-member Lakota delegation traveled to Washington culminating years of internal discussion among treaty representatives of the various Lakota communities. Three of the delegates were part of the 1973 Wounded Knee takeover. "In order to stop the continuous taking of our resources -- people, land, water, and children -- we have no choice but to claim our own destiny," said Phyllis Young, a former indigenous representative to the UN. Property ownership in the five-state area of Lakota now takes center stage. Parts of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana have been illegally homesteaded for years despite knowledge of Lakota as predecessor sovereign [historic owner]. Young added, "The actions of Lakota are not intended to embarrass the United States but to simply save the lives of our people." Following the withdrawal at the State Department, the four Lakota Itacan representatives held meetings with foreign embassy officials in order to hasten their official return to the family of nations. Lakota's efforts gained traction as Bolivia, home to indigenous president Evo Morales, shared they are "very, very interested in the Lakota case," while Venezuela received the Lakota delegation with "respect and solidarity." Education, energy, and justice now take top priority in emerging Lakota. "Cultural immersion education is crucial as a next step to protect our language, culture, and sovereignty," said Means. "Energy independence using solar, wind, geothermal, and sugar beets enables Lakota to protect our freedom and provide electricity and heating to our people." The Lakota reservations are among the most impoverished areas in North America -- a shameful legacy of broken treaties and apartheid policies. Lakota has the highest death rate in the US, and Lakota men have the lowest life expectancy of any nation on earth, excluding AIDS, at approximately 44 years. Lakota infant mortality rate is five times the US average, and teen suicide rates 150% more than the average. 97% of Lakota people live below the poverty line, and unemployment hovers near 85%. Source: Lakota Freedom |
| # LNN # Small # Hauls # |
|
| Life-Net News Extras |
| 2007 the Warmest Year Ever on Land |
|
2007 was another sizzling year for the planet -- the warmest year ever recorded for the Earth's land areas, federal scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center reported yesterday, with an average temperature about 1.84 degrees above the long-term average. For the entire Earth's surface, including the oceans, scientists report that the global temperature was the fifth-warmest on record.
Highlights of 2007 included an intense heat wave that engulfed western and central Russia in May, the climate center reports. For the first time in 128 years, Moscow experienced sustained May temperatures of 86 degrees or higher. A scorching heat wave in southeastern Europe in June and July prompted record levels of electricity demand and more than 130 wildfires. Unusual Arctic warmth led to the lowest amount of sea ice ever recorded. In the USA, an August heat wave set more than 2,000 new daily high temperature records. Eight states experienced their warmest August on record. Overall, 2007 was the tenth-warmest year in the USA since records began in 1895, with an annual average temperature of 54.2 degrees, the climate center reported last week. According to the National Climatic Data Center, Earth's top ten warmest years since 1880 were, in descending order, 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2001, 1997, and 1999. Source: USA Today |
| Aboriginal Canadian Children Receive Books Voraciously |
|
Adapted from a piece by James Bartleman, former lieutenant-governor of Ontario:
There are unspoken assumptions that native people are "the other" in Canadian society and that their condition as a people is hopeless. Why else equate the number of aboriginal inmates in prison with the number of aboriginal students in colleges and universities? Grand Chief Stan Beardy and I have been impressed by the enthusiastic embrace of books in all 28 of the remote fly-in communities in Ontario that are part of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation. I will never forget one cold morning in February, 2004, arriving at Kingfisher Lake First Nation with the grand chief aboard a 12-ton transport truck with a load of donated books, part of a Canadian Forces convoy that had made its way over an ice road across hundreds of kilometers of frozen lakes and muskeg. It was 7am, the community was in darkness and the temperature was -40. When the headlights of our vehicle picked out virtually the entire student body and their parents, waiting patiently in the dark for their library books, I had mixed emotions. I was ashamed that in the 21st century in one of the world's wealthiest countries (a country that consistently ranked in the top five of the UN human development index), aboriginal children were still being deprived of the means to become literate and to know the joy of reading. But there was also pride -- pride as an aboriginal Canadian in seeing parents and children grab the boxes and rush with them into the library and hurriedly stack the books on the empty shelves, disproving the myth that native people were inherently uninterested in reading and education. I had a similar experience last year at Fort Severn First Nation, Ontario's most northerly community. The school had been condemned when it became infested with mold. The children were being taught in portables and had no books in their library. The Canadian Forces parachuted containers of books, generously donated by Ontarians, onto the ice of the frozen Severn River. It was bitterly cold, but the entire community was there to applaud as the parachutes opened and drifted down. The children could hardly wait to unpack the boxes and set up their first library. The lack of universal testing does not mean aboriginal children do not embrace reading and books when they are given the opportunity. I have been absolutely delighted to see, in my ongoing visits to schools throughout the area, children with their noses in books during recess and lining up to borrow books to take home. Source: Toronto Globe and Mail |
| Family Dollar Adapts to Challenging Economy |
|
Adapted from a piece by Kevin Depew:
I checked out the Family Dollar (FDO) call on January 8 just to get a sense of what the company is seeing with customers, and because the stock is down about 20% year-to-date. What's going on? Is this just more of the consumer-led recession re-pricing or something company-specific? According to FDO's customer research, their customers spent approximately 70% of their income last year on housing, food and energy. That's slightly higher than the national average, based on the BLS consumer survey reports. "Today these expenditures are most likely an even greater percentage of their wallet, resulting in our customers being severely strapped for cash, especially towards the end of the month," CEO Howard Levine said. The company says it saw this focus in its sales mix during the quarter. Sales of basic consumables like food and household chemicals performed as expected, while sales of more discretionary categories such as apparel, home and seasonal were softer than planned. And the result was, as we now know, lower than planned top line growth. FDO is doing what companies do when facing a "more challenging environment." It is focused on cutting costs. But there are other areas the company is working on, it said, most notably in shifting its strategy to focus on selling more consumables, devoting additional square footage to food. By the end of the year, FDO said, it should be set up to accept food stamps in 30% of its stores. Sweet! The company is handling a consumer-led recession by basically becoming a grocery store that caters to a low-income demographic. FDO is actually one of the lucky retailers and at some point could be a buy thanks to its cost cutting and merchandising flexibility. If only all retailers could do that. Source: Minyanville Financial Infotainment |
| 'Sanitation Costs a Lot, But It's Not a Luxury' |
|
For some in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, rainy seasons have spelt trouble -- at least from the point of view of sanitation. "During the rains, it was full of water," said Issaka Ilboudo of a pit latrine in the Pissy area's market, located on the outskirts of the city.
However, the situation has now improved with the installation of proper toilet facilities for which Ilboudo is the caretaker, collecting fees of about five cents from those who use the facilities. "Now, they've closed this," he said, in reference to the pit latrine. "We are happy, as it's clean." According to Oumar Ilboudo, a technician who deals with waste collection in the area of Boulmiougou, which oversees Pissy, toilets were installed at several local markets. "It was noted that in the markets and public areas, people defecated around stores, in places where people rested," he said. "We told ourselves that if people changed (behavior) outside, they would do the same thing at home." In a city where issues of waste management have largely been disregarded, this initiative forms part of a broader effort to improve sanitation and prevent liquid and solid waste from contaminating ground water. Officials put the overall cost of the project, which also focuses on drainage of rainwater, at about $19.5 million. "In urban areas, we did not consider sanitation as (a key part of) the basic infrastructure of a town; we put the emphasis on potable water, electricity, telephone services, main roads -- forgetting that everything that we built around this would necessarily require the removal of waste water and also of ... household refuse," said Arba Jules Ouédraogo, director of hygiene at the National Office of Water and Sanitation. "Sanitation is often considered at the end of the process of construction. If you take a household that is building its home, it's towards the end that they think of putting in a toilet -- one that does not meet any standard," he added. "In fact, most people do not have an acceptable sanitation device, but (rather) makeshift ... devices that cause a lot of pollution and illness." To encourage people to start using modern toilets, municipal authorities now exhibit the equipment needed for these facilities at the Boulmiougou town hall. According to Oumar Ilboudo, about 20 people enquire daily about the toilets, which cost about $2,000 each -- a substantial amount in this West African state, where 27.2% of people live on less than a dollar a day, according to the latest UN Human Development Report, and 71.8% of people on less than two dollars a day. Officials also have a pilot project for portable toilets, with plans to place them in outlying areas. One portable toilet costs about $1,700. According to Mahamoudou Cissé, who oversees efforts to keep the capital clean, planning for these outlying areas is crucial, as they are more affected by water and soil pollution because of the poverty of people living there. A program to build public fountains has also been set up, to discourage residents from digging wells in places where the chances of finding water are slim -- and where these holes then become pit toilets. And authorities have started to implement new regulations banning housing development in Ouagadougou without sanitation. Source: Inter Press Service |
| Low-Cost Heating Oil Ads Sway Some, Roil Others |
|
Former Democratic US Congressman Joseph Kennedy III has gotten a lot of attention, much of it negative, for his ads praising Venezuela for providing low-priced heating oil to Kennedy's company, Citizens Energy, which provides low-cost fuel to hard-hit low income Americans. Last year, when he ran the first ads lauding Venezuela and Citgo, the nationally owned oil company, Kennedy ran into a conservative buzzsaw: He was criticized for acts tantamount to treason for aiding and abetting an enemy of the Bush Administration, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, a big fan of Cuba's maximum leader Fidel Castro and a man who doesn't embody the best notions of democratic leadership.
Such hardline conservative feelings may be impossible to change. But ads running now that are similar to those that ran last year can evidently have an effect on the persuadable, as a new study seems to show. The study included 404 self-described Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, who were surveyed over the Internet by HCD Research Inc. What HCD found was that the ads with Kennedy do appear to win over some viewers who see Venezuela in a more positive light after viewing the ad than they did before. Of course, that is exactly the impact Venezuela means for the ads to have. For instance, when asked if they believed that Venezuela was an ally of the US, the percentage went from 10% who answered yes beforehand to 26% answering yes after seeing the ad. It's worth noting that the percentage who said no was 47% both before and after the ad. Asked if they thought Chavez was sincerely interested in helping low-income Americans, the percentage of those saying yes rose too, rising to 29% from 13%. Donald J Boudreaux, chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University, had this to say: Now, I admire charitable impulses. But Joe Kennedy's suggestion that the Chavez government is a noble philanthropist is absurd and insulting. That same government has nationalized the assets of major oil companies operating in Venezuela -- that is, it has stolen private property. And the property it has stolen, in this case, is precisely the sort that is necessary for extracting oil from the earth. So Chavez's generosity is being paid for with stolen resources. And Joe Kennedy's fronting for this dictator is shameful. While Chavez confiscates the property of corporations that risk their own assets in the complex and costly endeavor to find and extract oil, Joe Kennedy praises Chavez and blames high oil prices on these same oil companies. Of course, if private investors and companies were unwilling to risk resources exploring for oil, the price of oil would be astronomical, dwarfing today's prices as Everest dwarfs any mud clump. So more investment by private firms means prices lower than otherwise. Chavez's actions push in the opposite direction. His depredations ensure that private firms steer clear of Venezuela. Sure, Chavez can seize assets, such as oil rigs, already in place in Venezuela and then use these to dupe the likes of Joe Kennedy into assuming that Venezuela's dictator is a first-rate fellow. But with no further private investors coming to Venezuela -- and with its state-owned oil industry inevitably encumbered by corruption and sacrificed to Chavez's political needs -- the world's supply of oil will be lower than otherwise. The price will be higher than otherwise. And through it all, ordinary Venezuelans -- who are poorer than poor Americans -- are again robbed of the opportunity to live in a society that grows and prospers through enterprise. Source: The Swamp Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review |
| # More # Small # Hauls # |
|
| 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 + |