| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| April 16, 2008 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 11 Number 24 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Record-High Cereal Prices Mean More Food Riots |
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Food riots in developing countries will spread unless world leaders take major steps to reduce prices for the poor, the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned on Friday. World cereal production will rise, said FAO director-general Jacques Diouf, but record prices are unlikely to fall, forcing poorer countries' food import bills up 56% and pushing hungry people out into the streets.
"The reality is that people are dying already in the riots," he told a news conference. "They are dying because of their reaction to the situation, and if we don't take the necessary action, there is certainly the possibility that they might die of starvation. Naturally, people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react." More warnings about the impact of food price rises came from the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. It said the price of rice, a staple food for three billion people, will continue to rise, even beyond this year's 70% increase. Soaring food prices have made themselves felt in the pockets of Western consumers and made people think twice about the promotion of biofuels, production of which drives up the cost of food crops. They have hit much harder in countries where people live on as little as 50p a day. The FAO noted that food riots had broken out in several African countries, as well as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Haiti. Thailand and Pakistan have seen food scares, with military personnel sent to guard rice crops and transport depots. Food crises loom in 37 countries, the FAO said in its latest World Food Situation report. Increased food demand from richer consumers in the growing economies of China and India, the use of biofuels to combat global warming, global food stocks at 25-year lows, and market speculation are all blamed for pushing the price of wheat, maize, and rice to record highs. Source: The Scotsman |
| Gang Prevention Program to Expand Across NJ |
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Germir Pitts, a top-ranked senior at Camden High School, plans to go to college to pursue a career in engineering or business management. Given the negative influences in his neighborhood, that might not have been the case had he not become involved with the Boys and Girls Club seven years ago, he said. Some of his friends who stopped going, he
said, are dead or in jail.
Now, hundreds more children and teens in New Jersey will be given the opportunity to participate in activities at Boys and Girls Clubs through a national program that aims to keep them out of gangs. State Attorney General Anne Milgram on April 4 announced that the program, which has recruited 134 children who were identified as at-risk in Camden, Trenton, and Newark since January 1, will be expanded to include Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Plainfield, and Vineland. The program is part of a comprehensive plan for safe streets and neighborhoods announced by Gov Corzine last fall. Milgram noted that while violent crime is down in NJ for the first time in years, juvenile crime has increased every year since 2001. "We can't arrest our way out of the problem of violent street gangs and gun violence," she said. "That is why proven and evidence-based prevention programs aimed at keeping kids in school and in safe places like the Boys and Girls Club are so important." Source: Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Global North-South Gap Slowly Shrinking |
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Is the big North-South divide finally diminishing? It seems to be, though slowly. For the first time in decades, if not centuries, most of the so-called developing countries have seen their Gross Domestic Product (GDP, the sum of all incomes earned on their territory) grow faster during the last five years than that of the so-called rich countries.
While rich countries had an average growth of 3%, developing countries on average saw 7%. Even income per head was growing faster in the South than in the North between 2003 and 2007. For East Asia and South Asia this is nothing new, but for Latin America and Africa it is a reversal after at least two decades of stagnation or worse. All in all, says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in its latest Trade and Development Report, there has been a moderate reduction in the gap between developing and developed countries: "In 1980 the real per capita GDP of developed countries was 23 times higher than that of developing countries, but it narrowed to 18 times in 2007." East and South Asia are almost exclusively responsible for this. For Africa, Latin America, and the former communist countries, the relative gap is much wider today then in 1980. Nevertheless the last five years in the South show a generalized improvement. South-South relations play a growing role in the world's economy. India and China thrive because of their industrial and services success, but their boom drives up commodity prices and so benefits even quite weak economies in Africa and Latin America. South-South interaction makes globalization a tide that lifts almost all boats. So, with a lot of goodwill, you could say that global or international inequality is diminishing a little bit. On the other hand, there's a 'nationalization' or 'localization' of inequality. Inside most countries, income inequality is on the rise. The labor share, the part of national income going to labor, is diminishing year after year, while capital share is rising. Source: Inter Press Service |
| Cooper Hospital's Expansion and Its Side Effects |
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Cooper University Hospital is a noisy place these days. The blaring sirens of ambulances are accompanied by the banging and screeching of heavy equipment as workers create a $222 million patient pavilion in downtown Camden.
The health system is already Camden County's largest employer, with more than 5,000 workers, and the new tower is part of a $500 million plan to expand that considerable presence. Among the projects proposed or under way: the pavilion, with patient and operating rooms, lobby, and emergency room addition; an $80 million cancer center; a $50 million biomedical research building; and a $140 million medical school building. Most recently, officials announced a plan to relocate 400 Cooper staffers who now work in Cherry Hill to Camden. Cooper will buy a state office building in the city to house them. In order to keep those state jobs in the city, New Jersey will build a structure somewhere near the Transportation Center. Beyond buildings, the hospital's vision includes revitalizing the surrounding neighborhood, much as the University of Pennsylvania has done in West Philadelphia. "If it's done right, and I think it will be, I think it's going to transform Cooper Plaza," said Thomas Corcoran of the Cooper's Ferry Development Association, referring to the surrounding neighborhood. "It can have a huge impact on the city, on taxes, on spin-off development." Cooper is working to coordinate new and rehabbed housing, with incentives for employees to live there. It is building and maintaining parks. Its officials talk not of a hospital but a "health science campus" rooted in the city. The "eds and meds" -- the city's universities and hospitals -- got a $32.5 million share of the state's economic recovery act money. They have added $314 million of their own funds to new projects, according to a study released this month. Jobs for city residents are up by 31%, to 1,250, since 2002. The study said that Camden's unemployment rate has dropped from 16% to 9% in that time. "Government is not the answer to changing the area around Cooper," said hospital board chair George Norcross III. "Government is a partner, but private capital that comes from places like Cooper is what drives successful redevelopment." Source: Philadelphia Inquirer |
| USAID Commences Environmental Repairs in Haiti |
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Haiti's most vulnerable watersheds are the front lines of a US Agency for International Development-led battle to protect communities from killer floods and to buy time to introduce long-term changes needed to boost economic development and the standard of living in one of the world's most impoverished nations. With an $18.2 million
investment over three years, the agency will establish hardwood and fruit tree nurseries to regrow hillside forests, introduce new crops and efficient farming methods, and eventually encourage lifestyle changes that range from using more efficient charcoal stoves to voluntary family planning aimed at curbing a population growing beyond Haiti's farmers' ability to feed it.
Years of haphazard agricultural practices and poor land conservation have stripped forests and hillsides of the vegetation that blocks erosion and preserves aquifers. The denuded land exposes Haiti's population to lethal flash floods. "This project looks to the future as well as to Haiti's most immediate environmental issues," explained Julie Kunen, forestry advisor in USAID's Bureau of Latin America and the Caribbean, "so Haitians will have plenty of life-sustaining water when they need it and protection from water when they don't." Source: USAID |
| AYUDA Game to Benefit Needy Dominican School |
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Teachers and administrators in Mantua Twp NJ will show off their athletic skills while raising funds for an impoverished school in the Dominican Republic at a benefit basketball game on April 22, when the district will hold the AYUDA benefit game at Clearview Regional High School. More than 20 players from each of the three elementary schools in Mantua have already signed up. Some teachers have volunteered to be cheerleaders.
Since early 2006 under the guidance of three Centre City School teachers and Williamstown resident Phyllis Hoffman, students have participated in the AYUDA project: American Youth Unite for Dominican Aid. The acronym is also the Spanish word for "help", and the project raises money, collects supplies, and improves educational opportunities for children at the Salome Urena School. Thus far, funds raised from an October benefit in Philadelphia, a friendship bracelet fundraiser, and general donations have allowed for the purchase of uniforms and shoes for each child and many important school supplies. Teacher Suzanne Castro visited the Salome Urena School in November 2007, and Hoffman now lives in the Dominican Republic, so communication with the school takes place on a nearly daily basis. Centre City teacher and AYUDA advisor Wendy Baker said all profits from the basketball benefit will go to AYUDA to continue the pen pal connection, help Castro deliver more supplies, and possibly even bring a teacher from the Dominican Republic to Mantua. "Doesn't $1,000 seem like a great goal?" said Baker, adding that the district would eventually like to provide Salome Urena with a small library. Source: Gloucester County Times |
| Morocco 'Good Example' for Emerging Countries |
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Morocco is a "good example for emerging countries that took up the challenge of joining the global market and embracing globalization, while developing its economy," said Hatrinder Kohli, executive manager of the Forum of Emerging Markets, on April 7. In a statement on the fringes of the two-day meeting in Rabat, Morocco, the Indian expert said, "The Moroccan economy is doing well. His Majesty the King and the cabinet are looking forward."
Touching on the negative impact of the soaring prices of basic products, Kohli said that African countries, including Morocco, face a challenge of how to invest southern riches carefully. Echoing Kohli, the honorary governor of Banque de France and former International Monetary Fund director-general, Michel Camdessus, said Morocco has made, over the past 15 years, sustained efforts aiming to consolidate macroeconomic balances, production structures, and irrigation and agricultural development, which have enabled Morocco to face the international oil price hike. He underlined that "Morocco faces a shock which would have been difficult to overcome had these works not been achieved." Camdessus said the soaring oil prices will be a burden on the trade balance, which would be alleviated by good performances in the tourism and foreign investments sector. Regarding the soaring prices of food products, Camdessus said this situation should be handled by taking social measures, but also measures aiming to increase agricultural productivity because it is "a sustainable problem." In this respect, the international expert voiced his confidence in the measures taken by the Moroccan government to face the soaring prices of food products. For his part, former president of Tanzania, member of the Blair Commission for Africa, and Forum chairman Benjamin Mkapa said that "in order to take up the challenge of globalization, African countries should reinforce their regional integration to step up economic development and improve the well-being of African populations, while developing their cooperation with the rest of the world." Africa should take up globalization through "an institutionalized regional cooperation, which would have a positive impact on regional investments and foreign direct investments in Africa," he said at the opening ceremony. A regional integration would help African countries to protect themselves against economic crises and the changes that affect the world economy, he said, underlining that for this purpose, African countries should face some obstacles hindering their development, citing in this respect the unfair competitiveness and psychological and trade barriers. Source: Maghreb Arabe Presse |
| New Network to Simplify Access to Services |
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The People for People Foundation of Gloucester County NJ is in the process of expanding with a new program called Hands Across the County, a network of public and private charities, government agencies, food banks, businesses, service groups, and others that will provide a single entry point for those in need. The goal is to bring information and data about many different help providers in the county together through a Web site and database and to use this
information to pool each agency's resources and expertise to provide the maximum help possible for those in need.
"If a person in need who is normally self-sufficient is seeking help for the first time and not sure where to turn, their efforts can quickly become frustrating and confusing," said foundation president Bernadette Blackstock. "They are going from one organization to another and many times hitting a brick wall." "We hear mostly from the working poor who are living paycheck to paycheck, those who live on fixed incomes, or the disabled, who fall on hard times due to illness, accident, loss of job or other family crisis," said Blackstock. "With a softening economy, budget cuts in government aid, and a big drop in charitable giving, the need to help is growing but the ability to help is shrinking." She said the program has received a lot of encouragement and support from many different charities, county agencies, elected officials, and service groups who are urging the foundation to put it together as quickly as possible. Source: Gloucester County Times |
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| African Media Urged to Promote Progress Not Hatred |
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African media has been challenged to be a catalyst for development and integration and should take a cautionary lesson from the Rwandan media, which incited ethnic hatred before and during the 1994 genocide, resulting in the violent deaths of about 800,000 innocent people. "To avert a recurrence of events fueled by the media in Rwanda, journalists must have courage to say no to any ethnic, gender, or religious hatred or discrimination," said Roland Amoussouga, spokesman of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) when presenting a paper at the second East African Media Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, over the weekend.
"It was proved before the court that the media executives in their power of authority incited the killings of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus through their respective organs," he said. "What was disseminated through radio and newspapers were words which were like bullets in the gun." Genocide, crimes against humanity, and economic crimes such as corruption and bad governance thrive on secrecy, he said. "When the press plays an active role in justifying such crimes and inciting the perpetrators to commit them, the end result is more tragic as was the case in Rwanda." Amossouga stressed the need for an independent and free press that fulfils key public information functions and deters public perceptions that corruption, bad governance, and evil deeds are inevitable and that important people in societies are immune from investigation or corruption. "Weak institutions in many African countries have given rise to a culture of impunity, especially under dictatorships that will do anything to cling to power." Source: Hirondelle News Agency |
| County Tries to Rise Up from Bottom of 'Kids Count' Ranking |
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Cumberland County NJ is likely to receive some bad -- if unsurprising -- news when this year's Kids Count!, an annual report that evaluates how well children are doing on a county-by-county basis, is released soon.
Cumberland finished dead last overall in the 2007 report. No one locally expects much of a change in the 2008 version.
County government and volunteers, however, are nearly a year into a new effort that aims to change that picture. The Children First Initiative, launched last spring, is now the county's main drive on issues of education, health, public safety, and home life. County Freeholder Douglas Rainear, who put together the initiative, believes Cumberland is moving in the right direction. "Each and every day, we have to get up and put our shoulders to the wheel." His encouragement was for the staff of Children First, whose committee chairs recently presented their report to the Board of Freeholders. The next step for the initiative is organizing a conference for teenagers at Cumberland County College in June. It would be open to children in grades seven through 10. Annmarie Ruiz is team leader for the initiative's health committee. She wrapped up the group's findings. "Collectively, we have learned that child abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency, teen pregnancy, and school dropout rates are all interconnected issues and must be addressed in a continuum. We learned that to begin reducing the county's troubling teen pregnancy numbers, for example, that education -- both of the school-age children and their parents -- is at the core." Source: Vineland Daily Journal |
| Ajanta to Challenge Tata Nano with Electric Car |
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Competition for Tata's Nano has emerged in Gujarat. The new entrant in the small car sector is the Morbi-based world-famous clockmaker Ajanta group. The company is planning to manufacture an electric car at its unit at Samkhiyali in Kutch district and market it at a price lower than the Nano.
"The company is already manufacturing electric scooters and bikes under 'Oreva' brand," said Ajanta group director Jaysukh Patel. "Production of electric car is not difficult for us as the technology is almost similar and 70% of its parts can be produced in-house, giving us an edge over the vehicle's pricing." The R&D team was exploring the viability of the small car project under conditions in India, he said. Sources said the company has imported eight electric cars of different brands, and they were being tested and studied by the technical staff to see what modifications would be needed for the cars to operate in India. The Ajanta group is serious in its attempt to keep the basic price of the proposed car as low as Rs 85,000. At present, in the electric car segment only the Reva car is available in India. Another player in the small-car segment, the Rajkot-based Field Marshal group, is in negotiations with Australian company Farnow Technologies about a joint venture for a low-cost electric car. Source: India Times |
| IBM Executive Honored as Volunteer of the Year |
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Three years ago, Paul Izzo volunteered to put in a little time working for the United Way of Burlington County (UWBC). This year on April 4, the IBM executive from Marlton was presented the organization's Lawrence D Epstein Volunteer of the Year Award.
"I was really surprised. I really appreciate the award," Izzo said after being honored during the UWBC 2008 campaign celebration. Izzo received this year’s top honor for his tireless volunteer effort for the local chapter. "Paul has been an enthusiastic hands-on participant in numerous aspects of United Way," said state Senator Phil Haines (R-Springfield), who serves as chairman of the UWBC board. "Paul’s advocacy of the United Way to his workplace has led to over $140,000 worth of computer equipment from IBM Corp. Thanks to Paul, agencies that previously did not have the funding in their budget now have the latest technology and are able to enrich the lives of the children they serve." Izzo said the key is to find what your own company can offer to the effort. "You have to leverage the volunteerism and matching grants your company has to offer." "Giving back to the community feels so much better than I ever thought it would." Source: Burlington County Times |
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