| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| April 2, 2008 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 11 Number 23 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Plague of Rats Threatens Millions with Famine |
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Millions of people in India face starvation after a
chilling local prophecy appears to have come true. The prophecy predicts that a plague of rats will overrun a region of the country every half century, and now thousands of tribal families in the state of Mizoram on the Burmese and Bangladesh borders are struggling to feed themselves after being overrun by hundreds of millions of rats.
It's a deadly natural phenomenon known as mautam. Every 48 years, a local species of bamboo flowers heavily, providing the region's rats with a feast of high-protein foliage. After the resultant booming rat population has ravaged the bamboo, it turns to local crops. "People do not have food for tomorrow," said J Rochunga of the Poithar village in Lawngtlai, one of the hardest hit areas of Mizoram. "We are afraid to plant anything because the rats consume everything." Survivors of the previous mautam, which heralded widespread famine in 1958, say they remember areas of paddy fields the size of four football pitches being devastated by rats overnight. Villagers forced to abandon their smallholdings and scavenge in the jungle are now reliving the nightmare. "My family could starve. How long can we forage to survive? We are walking longer into the forest each day to find anything edible," said Gulsogi, a 40-year-old widow from Bolisora, another Lawngtlai village. Government measures such as a bounty of one rupee per rat's tail -- an offer that fuelled the cull of some 221,636 rodents in 2006 -- have made little impact. Now, with at least 100,000 people already going hungry, aid workers say the situation will deteriorate as farmers refuse to sow next season's crop until the rats have been eradicated. Source: London Times |
| Spring Break Volunteers' Post-Katrina Update |
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Nearly three years after Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast, Rowan University students continue to return to New Orleans to help with the recovery efforts. More than 30 students from Rowan University in Glassboro NJ, including one from Gloucester County and two from Cumberland County, spent their spring break volunteering in New Orleans rather than
relaxing on a tropical beach.
DeMond Miller, an associate sociology professor at Rowan and a Louisiana native, said that, while progress has been made, there's still much to be done. Mechanical engineering professors Jennifer Kadlowec and Eric Constans also went on the trip. "I see some neighborhoods are coming back online," said Miller. "Some residents are returning, you're starting to see schools reopening, but yet it's far away from its former self." The students, whose majors ranged from engineering or education to accounting and political science, spent the week removing debris from homes, putting up fresh drywall, and beautifying yards. Grants for the effort were largely provided by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, said Miller, but the students each paid $125 for lodging and paid their own airfare. Students veered off the schedule and spent one day feeding some of the homeless people of New Orleans, said Miller. "The students went down there with one societal need in mind, but they recognized and fulfilled another." Fred Rohs, a senior mechanical engineering major from Vineland, was the project leader for this trip, which was his second. He described the progress over the past year as "little or none at all." "There's a couple houses that you see changed, but it's still very devastated," Rohs said. "The statistics they said are 50 to 60 percent still haven't returned. And you believe it. You go through the neighborhoods, and the houses are destroyed." Rohs said this trip made an emotional impact on students who heard some of the displaced residents speak about their experience. "It totally changed my perspective on New Orleans in general," said Lou DiBacco of Williamstown. "We see all these images of Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, and that's all fixed up. But driving by the communities that surround the city of New Orleans is really just sad. It's like a ghost town. There's still tons of work to be done." Source: Gloucester County Times |
| North Korea Food Crisis Worsening |
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North Korea is facing a chronic and worsening food crisis, according to an aid group which has experience working inside the secretive state. The Good Friends aid agency, based in South Korea, says rations have been cut severely, badly affecting even elite citizens in the capital,
Pyongyang.
Good Friends -- a Buddhist-affiliated group that takes food and other aid into North Korea -- says the crisis is most serious in rural areas. People in many parts of South Hwanghae province have been living without rations since November. Privileged medium- and lower-level officials based in Pyongyang were also said to have received no rations in March. They had already been cut by 60% in February. Earlier in March, Good Friends said it had received evidence that 15 North Koreans had been publicly executed for illegally crossing the Chinese border in search of food. The World Food Program has warned that almost a quarter of North Korea's 20 million people are suffering from a severe lack of food. Soaring international grain prices are making the situation much worse. Source: BBC |
| Housing Bust Stunting Remittance Growth |
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Wearing a hat emblazoned with a bald eagle and an American flag, Gerardo waited with some 30 other men in front of a 7-Eleven in Alexandria VA, hoping a builder or contractor would come by to offer a job. The Sunday morning cold was a minor inconvenience. Lack of papers and, more recently, lack of work were bigger worries. Sometimes they'll wait for days without job offers, said Gerardo, 32, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala.
Construction work pays best, but it's increasingly scarce. Said Gerardo, "We are now getting more jobs in painting and moving." The end of the housing boom has signaled a bust in construction jobs, a field in which about 28% of workers are foreign-born, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since some of these wages are sent back home to support families, already the effects are being felt abroad, especially in Latin America, whose nationals are heavily represented in construction. According to World Bank statistics, Latin America and the Caribbean in 2007 received $60 billion in remittances from nationals abroad. Since remittances now outstrip foreign development aid, they're seen as a potent anti-poverty tool, and the flow is slowing. Remittances to Latin America, which had doubled since 2002, grew just 6% in 2007, according to World Bank figures. Executives at a Queens money transfer firm have seen the same thing locally. They estimate that transfers have dropped 40%. "Because of the problems in construction, our clients are sending less money," said Linda Delgado of Delgado Travel in Queens NY. At the beginning of 2007, the typical transfer payment was about $250, Delgado said. By early 2008, the average amounts had decreased to between $180 and $200. "We are also seeing more small transactions -- $20, $30, $60," she said. "People are sending what they can." Source: NYU Livewire |
| Women's Lives 'Worse Than Ever' in Afghanistan |
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"Grinding poverty and the escalating war is driving an increasing number of Afghan families to sell their
daughters into forced marriages," says a recent article by Terri Judd in The Independent. "Girls as young as six are being married into a life of slavery and rape, often by multiple members of their new relatives. Banned from seeing their own parents or siblings, they are also prohibited from going to school. With little recognition of the illegality of the situation or any effective recourse, many of the victims are driven to self-immolation -- burning themselves to death -- or severe self-harm."
Judd's conclusion is based on "Afghan Women and Girls Seven Years On," a new study from the British organization Womankind. The report finds that 87% of Afghan females have been victims of violent abuse (half of it sexual) and that over 60% of marriages are forced. Despite a law banning forced marriages, 57% of brides are under the age of 16. The illiteracy rate among women is 88%, with just 5% of girls attending secondary school. One in nine women dies in childbirth, the highest in the world alongside Sierra Leone. More than one million widows have no rights, left to beg in the streets along with orphans. Afghanistan is the only country in the world with a higher suicide rate among women than men. The banned practice of offering money for a girl is still rampant, along with exchanging her as restitution for crime, debt, or dispute. The going price for a child bride is as much as three years salary for a laborer; many grooms take loans or swap their sisters instead, according to Partawmina Hashemee, the director of the Afghan Women Resource Center. Hashemee says that in Kabul, there has been greater recognition of women's rights since the fall of the Taliban. But the capital remains a dangerous environment. Female MPs, activists, and journalists still live under constant threat of death. Source: People's Voice |
| West Chester Students Show Simulated African Shanty |
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A hardy band of West Chester University students spent a day and part of a night, March 19, in a flimsy shack erected on campus to raise awareness of how poor people live in Africa. Rain pelted the makeshift shelter. A blue tarp roof did little to keep the inhabitants dry.
Brendon Johnson, a WCU senior and director of Aid to South Africa, explained how this shack was similiar to shacks in South Africa that he had visited: "I was in one shack that was no bigger than this one that 11 people lived in. An aunt was caring for 10 children left orphaned by AIDS." "This was all they had," he said motioning to a bed, a cooktop, and a chair. "And there would be a pile of clothing and one picture of something nice on the wall." A little note pinned to the students' wall read, "Winter temperatures often drop to the mid-30s. However, jackets, blankets and shoes are rarities." All day in the pouring rain, people paused at the shack to look at blown-up pictures of real shacks in real shanty towns in South Africa. Volunteers with Aid to South Africa urged passersby to attend an upcoming community fair to benefit two South African charities. Dan Moran, a junior from Levittown, had gone through the Honors College program that takes WCU students to South Africa on two-week service trips: "There were so many different emotions. Because of the poverty, you would think they would be depressed, but they weren't. I remember when we were on the bus, the kids and even adults would run to see us.” Source: West Chester Daily Local |
| When Laughter is the Only Medicine |
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It must have been a Zimbabwean -- grouchy and constipated from the unavailability of his breakfast pap thanks to the maize shortage -- who decided to rebrand the country's major assets. So the slogan for the Grain Marketing Board changed to "Not a Grain of Truth". The line for the country's milk supplier, Dairibord, became "We Milk the Nation"; the National Oil Company, "We Fuel Corruption".
Zimbabwe's crisis has created paradoxes such as poor billionaires, the fastest-shrinking economy outside a war zone, and other clichéd oddities. Its citizens have sharpened their great survival tool: humor. The result is megabytes-worth of jokes that do the email rounds. Whole websites are dedicated to Zimbabwean jokes, such as Nyambo.com ("nyambo" is Shona for jokes). Some of these are generic but with a fresh twist. The most biting are the religious, the social, and the economic aphorisms that question, poke fun at, and make sense of what being a Zimbabwean means. There's a striking facility with figures that harks back to the world-class education system President Robert Mugabe established in the early years. Other quips are in tragi-comic vein and are about Zimbabweans in the diaspora and how they have "fallen" -- the lawyers who are now care workers, and the London-based migrant who "conducted a tearful funeral oration for his father on the phone as he is an illegal resident who can't go to Zimbabwe and be allowed back into the UK". Faith is never far away, as shown in this parody of Psalm 23: "Mugabe is my shepherd, I shall not work. He maketh me to lie down on the park benches. He leadeth me besides the closed factories. He restoreth my faith in the MDC. He guideth me in the paths of unemployment. Even though I walk through the valley of the soup kitchen, I shall still be hungry ..." A postscript: "Guys, my take-home salary can't take me home. What am I to do?" Source: Mail & Guardian |
| Retail Clerks Could Revive the Labor Movement |
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Adapted from a piece by David Macaray:
Back when Wal-Mart had a "mere" 3,600 US stores, the AFL-CIO launched an aggressive organizing drive against the company. Yet, despite bringing all of its formidable resources to bear, the House of Labor could not convince the employees of a single store to join the union, further solidifying the giant retailer's worldwide reputation as being more or less "union proof." For the most part, what prevents Wal-Mart workers from signing union cards isn't ignorance, but fear -- the fear of losing their jobs, the fear that the company will close up shop and move to another location if they go union. At Wal-Mart it's understood that if the bosses catch you passing out union pamphlets, you're history. Employees are routinely warned of the evils of union representation and cautioned to report any union organizers lurking about. It's a Gestapo-like atmosphere. As grim as the future appears, though, it isn't hopeless. Indeed, there's a scenario by which Wal-Mart's employees not only organize themselves, but rise up and lead a renaissance of union activism and influence. The mantra you keep hearing these days is that the US has shifted from a manufacturing economy to a "service economy." Accordingly, the unions that have continued to prosper are the "service" unions, those whose workers are immune to having their jobs co-opted or sent overseas: teachers, nurses, pilots, actors, screenwriters, longshoremen. But there's another "service" category that is also immune to having its work shipped off to a foreign country. It's the retail clerks. Consider: If America's prestigious "big boy" unions have been laid low by the effects of globalization, is it not reasonable to suggest that labor's less glamorous but more secure "little brothers" step into the void? What would happen if Wal-Mart employees across the country simultaneously announced that they were going to seek union affiliation -- either by joining an existing union or forming one of their own -- and dared the company to try and stop them? Wouldn't such an attention-grabbing nationwide declaration prevent the company from resorting to its usual tactics of illegal threats and intimidation? With so much sunshine let in, any move they made would be subject to intense scrutiny. Moreover, with so many of its 4,000 stores involved, Wal-Mart wouldn't have the tactical option of shutting down those units that voted to go union. The fact that America's retail clerks can't be swallowed up or outsourced is a circumstance which, if played right, can be converted into enormous leverage. Wal-Mart's magnitude, high profile, and dependence upon a mega-sized workforce are the very components which, ironically, make it vulnerable to a well-orchestrated uprising. And when Wal-Mart workers show their strength, the retail clerks at Target, Starbucks, Home Depot, and elsewhere would also be empowered. Retail clerks, if mobilized, could be the ones to reinvigorate the labor movement. Crazier things have happened. Source: CounterPunch |
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| Life-Net News Extras |
| Poverty-Alleviating Debt Relief Offset by Rising Oil Costs |
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$100-a-barrel prices for oil have shaken the US and global economies. The impact is far more dire in the developing world.
High oil prices hit poor people in impoverished, heavily indebted countries hard as individuals and families must pay more to meet their personal energy needs and businesses must pay more to keep operating. They also batter the national economies of poor countries without oil resources; they must spend scarce foreign currency on increasingly expensive oil imports. There is growing evidence that impoverished nations are paying a large price -- both in financial terms and in social and ecological costs -- for the world’s addiction to oil. "In sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, the oil crisis is not a vexing cost crunch," wrote Abdoulaye Wade, president of the West African nation of Senegal, in a 2006 Washington Post column. "It is an unfolding catastrophe that could set back efforts to reduce poverty and promote economic development for years." In 2005, world leaders, under pressure from campaigners, announced a new deal to fight global poverty by agreeing to expand international debt relief -- promising more than $40 billion in debt cancellation to eligible poor nations. This debt relief -- while limited to a select number of countries that comply with International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic policies -- was made on the basis that it would free up financial space for poor countries to spend money on education, health care, environmental protection, and clean water. In many nations, debt relief works. But more than two years after the deal was struck, it is clear that soaring oil prices are undermining the benefits of debt cancellation in some countries, especially poor oil-importing nations. Take the case of Tanzania. The 2005 UK Africa Commission Report found that Tanzania increased funding for poverty reduction by 130% between 1999 and 2005, thanks in part to debt relief. In 2006, debt relief in 2006 freed up roughly $140 million in Tanzania, but this amount was less than half the 2002-2006 increase (from $190 million to $480 million) in annual oil import costs. A new public interest coalition has formed to end "oil aid." Its website EndOilAid.org describes "oil aid" as the government’s practice of diverting taxpayer money, intended for poverty alleviation, to instead subsidize the international oil industry. The groups argue that government and official bodies should not be supporting more oil development with tax dollars. "Foreign aid money needs to be shifted from fossil fuel subsidies to clean energy subsidies emphasizing energy efficiency and renewable power," says Elizabeth Bast, an international climate policy analyst at Friends of the Earth. Campaigners are also targeting the need for broader and deeper debt cancellation to help impoverished countries make the transition from fossil fuels to renewables. "A key way to transition away from dependence on oil is through debt cancellation," says Graham Saul, executive director, Climate Action Network Canada. "Countries need fiscal space in order to invest in the post-fossil fuel economy." Source: Multinational Monitor |
| IRS Outreach Helps New Jerseyans Get Stimulus Rebates |
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For the first time in many years, Barbara Panton filed her income tax return. The disabled Westville resident is among the roughly 500,000 New Jersey residents who are not required to file a tax return but did so this year in order to receive the federal rebate that is part of President Bush's economic stimulus package. "I don't understand it," Panton said of the tax forms. "I never have to do it."
Dozens of people like Panton -- recipients of Social Security and certain railroad retirement and veterans' benefits who normally don't have to file a return -- flocked to the IRS office in Cherry Hill on Saturday, where federal workers were at hand to help them with the paperwork. "They were very courteous," said Panton, who plans on using her rebate to pay bills. About 320 IRS offices nationwide were open that day to help taxpayers who are eligible for stimulus payments get the rebates. In New Jersey, IRS offices in Cherry Hill, Edison, Jersey City, Newark, Paramus, Parsippany, Paterson, and Trenton were open. Each had between two and seven workers to assist taxpayers. "We don't want any Americans to miss out on their economic stimulus payment," IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said in a written statement. "For millions of Americans, filing a tax return is not routine. Their income is either too low or not taxable. But this year, filing a 2007 tax return is the only way to receive an economic stimulus payment." For Thomas Young, getting help from IRS officials in Cherry Hill to file his tax return means he actually gets to keep the federal rebate. "This is better and cheaper," said the 85-year-old Pennsauken resident, whose income tax return usually only covers the accountant fee. Source: Courier-Post |
| Acute Respiratory Infection Kills in Papua Highlands |
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At least 23 people from four villages in Pegunungan Bintang regency, Papua, have died from acute respiratory infection since January, a local health official says. "This is not an extraordinary situation, and health workers have been providing medical care in the four villages," said Pegunungan Bintang Health Office head Darius Salamuk. The affected villages are Okteneng, Kaeb, Kokiabakon, and Bakonaib, all in Kiwirok district.
Salamuk said respiratory diseases were a major problem in Papua's central mountain areas. One reason for this, he said, is that people sleep near the fire in their honai (sticks-and-thatch) homes due to the cold weather, exposing them to smoke. "This is a common health condition suffered by most of the people in remote villages," said Salamuk. "Sufferers could be cured if they sought medical treatment immediately, but because they're beyond the reach of medical services, some of them cannot be saved." Medical workers must walk for days or use small planes to reach the remote villages. Salamuk said the team dispatched by the regency administration to provide medical attention to villagers had found a number of rudimentary problems. "The villagers lack clean water and good sanitation. Their housing conditions are poor, and they sleep by the fire in their honai to warm themselves at night. They also lack food that meets nutritional standards." These problems are compounded by the lack of medical care. "The villages are only served by an auxiliary community health clinic in Mipol village which takes at least six hours to reach on land from the four villages." Source: Jakarta Post |
| Recipients Call Attention to Inadequacy of Food Stamps |
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There's not a lot of sympathy at the federal level right now for social programs, the secretary of South Dakota's Department of Social Services told several Native Americans and others looking for answers about why their benefits aren't keeping up with food costs. Deb Bowman and three staff members met with a small group of Native American food-stamp recipients last Wednesday to hear their concerns about the Food Stamp program.
Bowman listened but said her hands are tied when it comes to increasing food-stamp allocations. She said that the decision makers who can raise food-stamp benefits are in Washington DC. Andrew Ironshell requested the meeting after hosting a series of Talking Circles throughout western South Dakota last year. The meeting was arranged by the Western South Dakota Native American Organizing Project. Hunger and economic hardships are taking a toll on people, and many are concerned about the availability of assistance, Ironshell said. "It's not restricted to Native Americans. It's all colors. With the economic situation in our country now, more and more people are maybe accessing services." The buying power of food-stamp benefits is shrinking as food prices climb, and it is the children and elderly who are suffering, people told Bowman. A loaf of bread that cost 96 cents two weeks ago, said Lynn Thunder Bull, is now up to $1.26. "Food stamps are not keeping up with the cost of living," said Dennis Grinnell, who depends on veteran's benefits. He said that when his benefits increased by $21, his food stamps went down $10. His next stop after last Wednesday's meeting, said Grinnell, was at the Community Action Program office for a "senior box" to help him get through the rest of the month. Bowman nodded in understanding but emphasized that the federal guidelines require cuts in food stamps when household income goes up. "That's just the bottom line," Bowman said. "We take the brunt of the punishment for a lot of the decisions that are made at the federal level." "These programs are supposed to be helping," said Thunder Bull, who has three children. "But they're digging us into a rut." Source: Rapid City Journal |
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