| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| May 14, 2008 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 12 Number 1 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Atlantic City 30 Years After the First Casino Opened |
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The ads were titled "Help Yourself, Help Atlantic City, Help New Jersey," and they made a series of promises, if only voters would pull the "yes" lever to legalize casino gambling. Having casinos in Atlantic City would "balance taxes, create jobs, boost the economy, and cut down on street crime," the advertisements assured.
Thirty years after singer Steve Lawrence tossed the first dice onto a green felt table to kick off legalized gambling on Memorial Day 1978, there is no question that casinos have transformed Atlantic City into a $5 billion-a-year powerhouse. But many of the problems the gambling halls and their billions were intended to address remain. Casinos created tens of thousands of jobs, a flood of money for state coffers, and put New Jersey on the national map for vacation and gambling junkets. But they also created a sharper divide between the haves and have-nots. Before voters approved casino gambling in 1976, Atlantic City was a poor city struggling with crime, drugs, and lack of jobs. "I feel sorry for the people that have been here all their lives and went through 1976, thinking there would be change," said Merceda Gooding, a 40-year-old Atlantic City resident. "In 1976, they said they were going to do all this stuff to help the needs of the Atlantic City residents, and they've fallen short a lot. We don't even have a grocery store here." Gooding is completing her college degree in business administration and human resources. She wants a white-collar job at a casino but has found the work available to be much less attractive: "I wouldn't have a problem getting a job at a casino as long as it's a maid job or washing the tables." Tom Carver, executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, said casinos delivered on their economic promises but were never supposed to be saviors: "Casinos are not government. Casinos are not schools. Casinos are not anything other than (things that) provide jobs and public money, and they did that galore." On Nov 2, 1976, the day President Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, New Jersey voters approved casino gambling by a margin of 200,000 votes out of 2 million cast. Construction began. Casinos opened. More followed. But just two blocks away from the casinos was a different Atlantic City: a poor population living in substandard housing, feeling cut off and alienated from the glittering wealth just beyond their grasp. Sheila Thomas, 60, a lifelong resident and former casino cashier supervisor, said the casino boom has passed the average Atlantic City resident by: "We're the ones who put up with the drugs and the gunshots and the street crime out here every night." Tony Rodio, president of Resorts Atlantic City and the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort, said, "There's only so much the casino industry can do. I don't think there was a promise that they were going to be able to eradicate poverty and redevelop every single square foot of Atlantic City. But in the grand scheme of things, the casinos have delivered on the promises to Atlantic City that were made 30 years ago." In 1984, the state created the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, which required casinos to contribute an additional 1.25% of their revenues to economic development projects. So far, it has funded $2 billion worth of projects statewide, $1.5 billion of which are in Atlantic City. Source: Courier-Post |
| The Rise of the Rest |
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The world has shifted from anti-Americanism to post-Americanism. In 2006 and 2007, 124 countries, including 30 in Africa, grew their economies at over 4% a year. Over the last two decades, lands outside the industrialized West have been growing at rates that were once unthinkable. While there have been booms and busts, the overall trend has been unambiguously upward.
Antoine van Agtmael, the fund manager who coined the term "emerging markets," has identified the 25 companies most likely to be the world's next great multinationals. His list includes four companies each from Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan; three from India, two from China, and one each from Argentina, Chile, Malaysia, and South Africa. This is something much broader than the much-ballyhooed rise of China or even Asia. It is the rise of the rest -- the rest of the world. We are living through the third great power shift in modern history. The first was the rise of the Western world, around the 15th century. The second, in the closing years of the 19th century, was the rise of the US. During the subsequent Pax Americana, the global economy has accelerated. At the military and political level, we still live in a unipolar world, but along every other dimension, the distribution of power is moving away from American dominance. In terms of war and peace, economics and business, ideas and art, this will produce a landscape defined and directed from many places and by many peoples. The post-American world is naturally an unsettling prospect for Americans, but it should not be. This will not be a world defined by the decline of America but rather the rise of everyone else. It is the result of a series of positive trends that have been progressing over the last 20 years, trends that have created an international climate of unprecedented peace and prosperity. Yes, peace. A team of scholars at the University of Maryland has been tracking deaths caused by organized violence. Their data show that wars of all kinds have been declining since the mid-1980s and that we are now at the lowest levels of global violence since the 1950s. Looking at the evidence, Harvard's polymath professor Steven Pinker has ventured to speculate that we are probably living "in the most peaceful time of our species' existence." Why doesn't it feel that way? Part of the problem is that as violence has been ebbing, information has been exploding. The immediacy of media images and the intensity of the 24-hour news cycle combine to produce constant hype. Every weather disturbance is the "storm of the decade." Every bomb that explodes is BREAKING NEWS. Because the information revolution is so new, we reporters, writers, readers, and viewers are all just now figuring out how to put everything in context. Source: Phnom Penh Post |
| The Incredible Shrinking City |
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Youngstown OH has seen its population shrink by more than half over the past 40 years, leaving behind huge swaths of empty homes, streets, and neighborhoods. Now, in a radical move, the city -- which has suffered since the steel industry left town and jobs dried up -- is bulldozing abandoned buildings, tearing up blighted streets, and converting entire blocks into open green spaces. More than 1,000 structures have been demolished so far.
Under the initiative, dubbed Plan 2010, city officials are also monitoring thinly-populated blocks. When only one or two occupied homes remain, the city offers incentives -- up to $50,000 in grants -- for those home owners to move, so that the entire area can be razed. The cost of those grants is more than offset by the diminished need for garbage pick-ups and street lighting in deserted areas. "When I grew up in the 1950s, the city was at its peak," said Father Ed Noga, who heads St Patrick's on Youngstown's South Side. "There were kids everywhere, and everyone converged on downtown. You went to eat, to shop, and to go to the movies." Today, downtown is positively sleepy and even somewhat derelict. Residents have to drive out of town to shop for clothes or housewares. While foreclosures have long been a scourge in this city, they have recently skyrocketed along with the rest of the country, up 178% in February from a year ago. Until recently, Youngstown, with its population at just over 80,000, hoped to return to its boomtown roots. "We long pursued a policy of growth," said the city's energetic young mayor, Jay Williams. "We went after all these things that would make Youngstown a city of 150,000 again." There were some harebrained schemes. But now, Youngstown's infrastructure-paring strategy may yet become a model for other Rust-Belt cities that must recreate themselves after years of decline. Already, delegations from smaller, post-industrial cities have come to Youngstown to study the plan. Williams said, "We're one of the first cities of significant size in the United States to embrace shrinkage." Source: CNN |
| Iraq: Corruption Eats into Food Rations |
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Iraqis have already been living amidst unemployment and impoverishment. Now they face a cutting down of their monthly food ration -- much of it already eaten away by official corruption.
Iraqis survived the sanctions after the first Gulf War with the support of rations through the Public Distribution System (PDS). The aid was set up in 1995 as part of the UN's Oil-for-Food program. The sanctions were devastating nevertheless. Now, since the US invasion of 2003, the situation has grown worse. The rationing system has been crumbling under poor management and corruption. From the beginning of this year, the rations delivered were reduced from 10 items to five. "We used the PDS as counter-propaganda against Saddam Hussein's regime before the US occupation of Iraq began in 2003," said Fadhil Jawad, of the Dawa Party led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in Baghdad. "But then we found it necessary to maintain basic support for Iraqi people under occupation. We blamed Saddam for feeding Iraqis like animals with simple rations of food -- that we fail to provide now." "When the Americans came to occupy Iraq, they promised us a better life," said Ina'm Majeed, a teacher at a girls school in Fallujah. "After killing our sons and husbands, they are killing us by hunger now. The food ration that was once enough for our survival is now close to nothing, and the market prices are incredibly high. It is impossible for 80% of Iraqis now to buy the same items they used to get from the previous regime's food rations." Ina'm's husband was killed in a US air strike. A World Food Program (WFP) report in May 2006 found that just over four million people in Iraq were "food-insecure and in dire need of different kinds of humanitarian assistance." According to the UNHCR in April 2007, of the four million Iraqis who cannot regularly buy enough to eat, only 60% had access to PDS rations. The situation is worse today. "Do not blame Iraqis for calling the sanctions days 'the good old days' because they were definitely good compared to the dark days we are living under US occupation," said Abu Aymen, a 45-year-old lawyer with eight children, in Fallujah. "All Iraqis complained about life under Saddam's regime because it was bad, but it seems that all the good things, little as they were, have been taken away along with his statues." Haj Chiad, a PDS distribution agent in Fallujah, said that he now also distributes illness: "I used to deliver food, but now I distribute poison with it. It has happened many times during the past four years that the food given to us by the ministry of trade was either rotten or actually poisoned. We distributed rice and sugar from sacks that had been stored a long time in damp places, and tomato paste that was long past its expiry date before we received it." Source: Inter Press Service |
| 'Rwanda Project' Underway in Maple Shade |
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Though far apart geographically, Maple Shade NJ and Rwanda united through a program at the township's high school. Students and faculty got into the Rwanda Project on Friday, when Susan Ekufu made a presentation about genocide and the struggles in present-day Africa. Using a Power Point presentation, she also showed the students graphic evidence of the aftermath of the 1994 genocide.
The Rwanda Healing Project is the brainchild of Lily Yeh, a Philadelphia-based artist and social activist. She and her artists' cooperative, Barefoot Artists, have been doing neighborhood beautification and organization/empowerment projects throughout Philadelphia for many years. In recent years, the Barefoot Artists have taken their skills around the world and currently have projects in motion in numerous countries around the globe. In Rwanda, specifically, Yeh organized a youth art project that made mosaic structures and a memorial to the victims of the Rwanda genocide in the Rugerero Survivors' Village in Gisenyi, Rwanda. The memorial was designed and built at the site of a mass grave that exists near the village. The village itself was founded by people needing to find or form a new "family" for themselves. They are all sole survivors whose families who were murdered in the genocide. In addition to the art portion of the project, there are components dealing with oral and written self-expression, training in collecting potable water and in the science of water purification, as well as training in entrepreneurship, and the raw materials to get started in a business of pressing and selling sunflower oil. "In short, Yeh's project is multi-faceted and aims to bring healing to this particular community on many levels, both tangible and intangible," MSHS international relations teacher Mimi Cowperthwaite said. "Her motto is a quote from Mother Teresa: 'We can do no great things, only small things with great love.'" "Soon after the new year, I met with my club members, and, sure enough, they showed great excitement in choosing the Rwanda Healing Project as our humanitarian aid effort, connected with Unity Day 2008," Cowperthwaite said. "Since then, I've been corresponding back and forth with Yeh. She is thrilled to have a school-based group working to support her efforts in Rwanda." The International Club has a twofold purpose: To make international students comfortable in the school community. To invite other students to join an exploration of each others' varied cultures with an emphasis on community service. Components of the school-based fundraising effort include: An evening showing of the film "Hotel Rwanda." A school and community-wide sale of a student designed T-shirt (they are planning a design competition). Classroom to classroom collections during homeroom. A benefit concert and bazaar on the evening of Unity Day, June 6. Source: Maple Shade Progress |
| Wyclef Jean Joins PAHO to Get Haiti Vaccinated |
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Haiti's largest vaccination effort in history -- aimed at more than 5 million children and youths -- is being kicked off with a new public service announcement (PSA) featuring Haitian musician, producer, and writer Wyclef Jean, a founding member of the ALAS Foundation.
The PSA, produced by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in association with ALAS, is aimed at boosting participation in the upcoming campaign to vaccinate young Haitians against measles and rubella. In the announcement, Jean urges Haitian parents to take their children and adolescents to get vaccinated as "an act of love." The PSA promotes the campaign's second phase, which starts in June and targets young people ages 1 to 19 in urban areas. The first phase, launched last November, targeted young people in rural communities. With the Creole slogan of Ann Al Vaksinen ("Get Vaccinated"), Haitian health workers in the first phase of the campaign delivered vaccines to an estimated 2.3 million young people in rural areas and some urban schools. Children aged 1 to 4 received vitamin A supplements; school-aged children were given antiparasitics. In the second phase, health officials hope to reach an additional 1.8 million youths. The immunization campaign is aimed at advancing toward elimination of rubella and congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) in Haiti and consolidating the country's elimination of measles. The effort is expected to prevent more than 1,200 CRS cases over the next decade and is part of a larger effort by the countries of the Americas to eliminate both rubella and CRS regionwide by 2010. Source: Dominican Today |
| Early Start to Lives of Giving |
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With their dedication to monthly fundraising and community projects, Central Early Childhood Center, Deptford NJ, has raised more than $6,000 as well as collected food, clothing, and toys for local families in need. "We try to do something every month to teach the children about kindness and giving," said Principal Maria Gioffre. "And the teachers play such an important role in our success."
Students began the school year with two October drives. One for Pink Day when students wore pink and brought in spare change equaling $1,460.67 in the fight against breast cancer. The other for UNICEF, which brought in more than $550. In November, the classes collected more than $200 and enough food to feed 45 local families. In December, they collected eight extra-large bags of toys for Toys for Tots, and kindergartners decorated and personalized blankets for "Project Linus," which benefits children in local hospitals. "It's a huge undertaking for a population of this age and we've been amazed with the results," said Gioffre. The school holds approximately 625 students in pre-kindergarten through second grade. In January, the students collected hats and mittens. In February, they donated to the American Red Cross Heroes. In March, they held a Jump Rope for Heart event, one of the largest fund-raisers at $3,158.13. "In April, we had Crazy Hat Day for the Ronald McDonald House and our Math-a-thon is still ongoing for St Jude's so we don't know yet how much that will bring," said Gioffre. "On May 16, we'll also be holding a bicycle rodeo with our pre-K students and visiting police officers to benefit Patrolman Gary Wurst." Wurst is a Deptford police officer recovering from injuries suffered in a December motor vehicle accident. Gioffre said the students' involvement in these programs at such a young age only advances their education further: "We have a mission to teach the whole child." Source: Gloucester County Times |
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| Happiness Is ... Neither Children Nor Money |
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The scientific evidence shows people are very bad at predicting what will make them happy, said Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard professor of psychology and author of Stumbling On Happiness. Speaking at a Sydney conference organized by Buddhists and attended by 2,000 pursuers of happiness Thursday, he said people's happiness goes into steep decline after they have children and never recovers its old level until the children leave home.
As a source of pleasure, playing with one's offspring rates just above doing housework but below talking with friends, eating, or watching TV, research has shown. Yet people invest so much time and money in their children, and focus on the fleeting moments of joy rather than on the long periods of boredom and irritation, that most continue to believe children will bring them happiness, said Gilbert. As for money, it bought a lot of happiness at first and then less and less, studies have shown, until its continued accumulation did nothing for happiness and interfered with people finding other sources of joy. Gilbert said the brain is hard-wired to make people reproduce, not necessarily make them happy. But Richard Davidson, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the brain was "plastic" and could be changed by meditation -- which he called dedicated mental training -- to achieve greater happiness and compassion. Davidson is known for his studies of Buddhist monks, who were subjected to hours of MRI scans as they meditated deeply. Meditators "when they encounter suffering in the world will be propelled to act to relieve it," Professor Davidson said, "and we know from other research that giving to others makes people happy." Source: Brisbane Times |
| Immigration March Shows Waning Movement |
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Carlos Marin is frustrated. Frustrated that comprehensive immigration reform collapsed last year, frustrated that the push for legalization has waned, frustrated that more people didn't turn out for this year's pro-immigrant worker march. "It's too bad that we have millions of workers in this country and we don't give them a chance to have papers," said the 38-year-old who lives in West Grove PA. "We need to remind the candidates, and everyone, that they live in our community, they participate in our community, but they don't have the opportunity to integrate into the community. We still need reform."
Two years ago on May Day, a million people rallied from coast to coast, calling for immigrant rights and uniting against a now defunct bill that would have made it a felony to live illegally in the US. More than 600 converged in Kennett Square PA. Since then, comprehensive reform that would have legalized an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants failed. Immigration raids and deportations were stepped up. Presidential candidates have kept the immigration debate at arm's length. So this year's May Day marches didn't generate nearly the same fervor. Marin, who emigrated from Mexico in 1987, was one of fewer than 100 marchers who made their way through downtown Kennett Square on May 1, calling for justice and amnesty in both Spanish- and English-language chants. Since the massive rallies of 2006, the immigration debate has quieted as immigrant advocates, looking to the upcoming presidential election, have turned to tactics beyond hitting the streets. "We're promoting citizenship and registering people to vote because our power is shown not just on the streets, but in the ballot box," said Marissa Graciosa, campaign coordinator for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement based in Washington. "Marching is just one way of showing we're part of this country. We have our sights set on 2009." Source: Wilmington News Journal |
| Egyptian Civil Society Strangled by Laws |
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Politicians, UN officials, and key players in forming Egypt’s UN Development Report for 2008 praised the role of what is being called "the third pillar” of the Egyptian nation: civil society. Entitled "Egypt’s Social Contract: The Role of Civil Society," the report was launched Monday before an audience of press and civil society workers and activists.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, in a speech read by Minister of Social Solidarity Aly El-Moselhi, said, "It is true that we have been cutting out a great player in the development court. Our presence here now is one of the steps to the right path. The government has succeeded in a number of areas, which proves we are on the right path to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and implementing the new social contract programs." The Social Contract program was proposed in the 2005 Egypt Human Development report. It put forward plans for 55 programs to alleviate poverty in Egypt. Nazif pointed to the decrease in poverty from 24.3% to 19.7% from 1999 to 2005, as well as the drop in population density as examples of government achievements in alleviating Egypt’s social ills. He also congratulated civil society on its role: "This sector of society does not only help to lessen the pain of poor, but carries out a role that is needed right now. It plays an essential role as an active partner in the performance of public programs." Both Nazif and fellow mandarin Osman Mohamed Osman, minister of economic development, pointed to the gradual move towards decentralization, alluding to the retreat of government from certain social arenas and passing the mantle to vehicles of civil society: "The government must give up its economic and social responsibilities to allow for civil society to take a larger role in social services and commercial goods. This will be achieved by removing government monopolies." One of the aims of the development report is to dispel commonly held beliefs that civil society organizations often work as facades for external agendas with foreign funding. Co-author Heba Handoussa said, "We discovered that the amount that CSOs receive in foreign donations is [relatively] miniscule, about LE 300 million [$56 million], which is nothing compared to the revenues of 20,000 organizations. We also found that the organizations that receive funding are only about 5% of those 20,000." Despite a general mood of optimism for a new era of social liberalization to match its economic counterpart, there were those among the audience who remained unconvinced by the government’s "lip-service" conviction. CSOs in Egypt still have many legal constraints. Source: Daily News Egypt |
| Greater Woodbury Walk Raises Anti-Hunger Money |
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Adults, children, and dogs alike hit the streets on May 4 to raise money to help fight hunger with their participation in the 12th Annual Greater Woodbury CROP Walk. More than 150 people from over a dozen local congregations gathered at Mantua United Methodist Church for the 10K walk. The group was lucky to have bright, warm weather with a cool breeze as they walked to St Stephen's Lutheran Church, Woodbury.
"It's beautiful out today," said Rev Christine Regan of St Stephen's. "We really got lucky." Regan said the money raised by walk participants will go to fight hunger and aid development internationally through Church World Service (CWS). Additionally, CWS allows 25% of CROP Walk funds raised to be directed towards initiatives within the walkers' communities, in this case the Greater Woodbury Cooperative Ministries Food Pantry. "Last year, we raised over $20,000 in the general fund, so over $5,000 went to the pantry," Regan said. "Each year has grown, so we're hoping for an increase this year as well." Regan said that congregants of various denominations from Mantua, Woodbury Heights, Wenonah, Woodbury, and other surrounding communities joined the Sunday afternoon walk. Each person who walked asked donors to pledge money for them. Source: Gloucester County Times More: CROP Walk Online |
| CHEERmobile Brings Shopping to Shut-Ins |
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Dorothy Berrie cannot see well enough to sign checks, read labels or price tags on items, and certainly she cannot see to drive a car. On top of that, her family does not live near her. The octogenarian from Georgetown DE could be at the mercy of clerks and passersby at stores, expensive cab rides, or, at best, have to rely on friends and neighbors to run errands for her. Thanks to the CHEERmobile, though, she is not. Berrie is one of about 135 clients who use the CHEERmobile, a mini-market on wheels, to do her basic shopping.
The CHEERmobile was founded by CHEER Inc, a nonprofit dedicated to helping mature adults of Sussex County maintain a healthy lifestyle. For a one-time application fee of $10, any county resident who is disabled or 60 or older and unable to shop on his or her own can use the service. Clients are given a list of the more than 175 items on the oversized van, they choose what they want, and a CHEER employee delivers the items to their door. "They're fabulous. I've never had poor service," said Berrie. The driver sometimes picks up specialty items she requests, helps her fill out the order form, puts her milk away, and even helps her write the check to pay for her groceries. The CHEERmobile carries nonperishable staple grocery items like canned vegetables, flour, toothpaste, and toilet paper. Pet food and supplies are also stocked. Because of space and refrigeration requirements, milk and bread are the only perishable items stocked in the van. Berrie uses a meat delivery service for items she cannot buy through CHEER so she doesn't have to go out, she said. Still, even without a second service, there is enough staple food on the van to keep a person fed. CHEER volunteer program director Walls coordinates the routes the van takes and sets the prices and stock list for the program. Prices and items are updated once a month, she said. CHEER does not add a profit onto the products, just passes along the cost to the consumer. If many people request an item, she said, it eventually becomes part of the regular list. She also hires the drivers. The job requires a person with a certain amount of caring and compassion. She said that the two drivers she has often go above and beyond their job requirements. "We would want our moms and dads treated this way," said Walls, who would like to see more people using the service. She even waives the $10 fee at times to allow more people to join. Source: Wilmington News Journal |
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