| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| May 28, 2008 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 12 Number 2 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Vietnam War Still Kills in Laos |
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More explosives were dropped in Laos during the Vietnam War than in Europe during World War II, over two million tons, according to UN data. Many failed to explode, leaving the poverty-stricken country littered with countless de-facto landmines.
Most of these devices -- some 260 million, experts suggest -- are cluster munitions, tennis ball-sized bomblets, known here as "bombies", that were dropped in loads of 300 to 400 each to kill enemy troops over areas as large as several football fields. Up to a third of these failed to explode, often because their impact was cushioned by tree foilage and muddy rice fields. "When we stop in a town, people always bring us UXO (unexploded ordinance) they've found," said Laith Stevens, an Australian ex-military explosives expert. "We dispose of them in controlled detonations. After local people hear the boom, more come and bring us more bombs." Millions more of these explosives are scattered across Laos, where the most heavily bombed areas also tend to be the poorest, in part because farmers are scared their hoe or plough will hit a buried bomb. "UXO contamination does pretty bad things for this country," said Stevens. "If a hill was peppered with bombies, there is a really good chance that over time they've all migrated down into the rice field in the lowlands, making it impossible for the people to farm effectively and safely. "It keeps them poor. It makes it very hard for them to get by day by day." Poverty has fuelled a deadly trade: collecting war junk for scrap metal. For example, three men were killed and two wounded when they tried to empty an artillery shell of its explosives to sell the metal to Vietnamese traders for about 3,000 kip, or 35 US cents, per kilogram. "We took out the explosives, and suddenly it blew up," said injured survivor Thong Win. "I was on the ground. I looked at the others. One had been ripped in half. One was missing his legs. The third man's eyes were gone and his insides had come out." "The metal that munitions are made of is very high-quality steel," said Tim Horner of the UN Development Program, "and so the scrap dealers and their families like it and pay top dollar for it." He said that the scrap metal trade now causes most UXO casualties, estimated conservatively at 400 deaths and injuries per year. Children are most at risk from cluster bombs, said Horner, the chief UXO technical advisor to the Lao government. "Children find cluster munitions, and they play with them as toys," he said. "When they explode they are more often fatal than anti-personnel mines. They're not designed to take a leg off, they're designed to kill." Source: Agence France-Presse |
| Katrina, Rita, and the Houma |
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In the southeastern bayous of Louisiana, nearly half the members of the United Houma Nation were displaced by Katrina and Rita. "Our people suffered a lot," said Houma chief Brenda Dardar Robichaux, "and many people don't know that."
With 17,000 enrolled members, the Houma constitute the largest tribe in Louisiana. Over the centuries, they have found themselves moving farther down the bayou, historically pressed by the encroachment of European and American newcomers whose appetite for land pushed them on their southward migration and whose later discoveries of oil and gas made the Natives vulnerable to land grabs. Katrina, with its wind damage and broken levees, displaced about 4,000 Houma, according to the tribe. The surging water of Rita drove an equal number of tribal members from their homes. In the wake of the hurricanes, much of the state's attention and chaotic relief efforts centered on New Orleans, but problems along the bayou and in the heart of the Houma Nation were also severe and dramatic, if not as easily visible. "Have the Houma been overlooked?" said Paige Ashby, director of the governor's Office of Indian Affairs. "Definitely." Ashby, a Cherokee, acknowledged that the Houma hold a special place in the state because of their sizable population and the collective needs of many tribal members. "They are poor, uneducated, and they need a lot of assistance," she said. "A lot of them are elders and disabled populations." Based on a 2004 survey, Houma leaders estimated that 39% of members live in poverty and that 25% are unemployed, many because of disabilities. Meanwhile, the survey showed that 43% of Houma Indians have less than a high school education. To the Houma, the hurricanes underscored those problems and magnified the needs of tribal members whose plight has escaped the eyes of the public, even those who may have had a glimpse during the post-Katrina coverage. Before the hurricanes, the Houma already faced the grim reality of coastal erosion and a depleted commercial fishing industry that shrank their lands and sapped local jobs. While there is a movement to preserve the French dialect spoken by 40% of tribal members, some of those same Native speakers -- particularly the elders -- also possess limited English skills and less education, making it more difficult for them to recover from the storms. Language issues and lack of education have made the task of completing paperwork needed for recovery grants more daunting, said Ashby. Some Houma were accustomed to handing down property from one generation to the next with little or any documentation, she said, which makes it difficult to locate deeds and other proof of ownership that officials require. Source: Reznet News |
| Extinctions of Domestic Species Pose Major Threat |
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The extinction of animal species, as well as the reliance on a narrow range of crops, is a major threat to the planet’s development and security, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday in a statement to mark the International Day for Biological Diversity. "This Day serves as a reminder of the importance of the Earth’s biodiversity, and as a wake-up call about the devastating loss we are experiencing as irreplaceable species become extinct at an unprecedented rate."
About a fifth of domestic animal breeds are at risk of extinction, with an average of one lost each month. Out of the 7,000 species of plants that have been domesticated over the 10,000-year history of agriculture, only 30 account for the vast majority of food consumed every day. "Relying on so few species for sustenance is a losing strategy," the Secretary-General said. "Climate change is complicating the picture. "In a world where the population is projected to jump 50% by the year 2050, these trends can spell widespread hunger and malnutrition, creating conditions where poverty, disease and even conflict can metastasize." Source: United Nations |
| Prescription for Global Poverty |
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Adapted from a piece by Robert J. Samuelson:
The solution to being poor is getting rich. It's economic growth. We know this. The mystery is why all societies have not adopted the obvious remedies. Just recently, the 21-member Commission on Growth and Development -- including two Nobel-prize winning economists, former prime ministers of South Korea and Peru, and a former president of Mexico -- examined the puzzle. Since 1950, the panel found, 13 economies have grown at an average annual rate of 7% for at least 25 years. These were: Botswana, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Malta, Oman, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Some gains are astonishing. From 1960 to 2005, per capita income in South Korea rose from $1,100 to $13,200. Other societies started from such low levels that even rapid economic growth, combined with larger populations, left sizable poverty. In 2005, Indonesia's per capita income averaged just $900, up from $200 in 1966. Still, all these economies had advanced substantially. The panel identified five common elements of success:
One is: Globalization works. Countries don't get rich by staying isolated. Those that embrace trade and foreign investment acquire know-how and technologies, can buy advanced products abroad, and are forced to improve their competitiveness. A second is: Outside benevolence can't rescue countries from poverty. There is a role for foreign aid, technical assistance, and charity in relieving global poverty. But it is a small role. It can improve health, alleviate suffering from natural disasters or wars, and provide some types of skills. But it cannot single-handedly stimulate the policies and habits that foster self-sustaining growth. Source: Washington Post |
| Lower Income, Earlier Death |
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Throughout the 20th century, it was an American birthright that each generation would live longer than the last. But a pair of new reports affirm that the rising tide of American health is not lifting all boats, and that there are widening gaps in life expectancy based on the interwoven variables of income, race, sex, education, and geography.
The most startling evidence came last month in a government-sponsored study by Harvard researchers who found that life expectancy actually declined in a substantial number of counties from 1983 to 1999, particularly for women. Most of the counties with declines are in the Deep South, along the Mississippi River, and in Appalachia, as well as in the southern Plains and Texas. The study, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, concluded that the progress made in reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease, thanks to new drugs, procedures, and prevention, began to level off in those years. Those gains, as they shrank, were outpaced by rising mortality from lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes. Smoking, which peaked for women later than for men, is thought to be a major contributor, along with obesity and hypertension. The first of the two reports, released by the Congressional Budget Office, declared that the life expectancy gap is growing between rich and poor and between those with the highest and lowest educational attainment, even as it is narrowing between men and women and between blacks and whites. Pointing to the effects of smoking, obesity, and chronic disease, the budget analysts wrote that "in recent decades, socioeconomic status has become an even more important indicator of life expectancy, whether measured at birth or at age 65." The Harvard study showed that counties with declining or stagnant life expectancy were poorer than those with improving numbers. Recent cancer studies have found that the uninsured are more likely to fail to get a diagnosis until late stages of the disease. Research also shows that many of the behaviors that drive mortality -- unhealthy diet, smoking, poor management of chronic disease -- are more common among low-income Americans. Taken to their extreme, the numbers can be striking: A 2006 study found that Native American men in southwestern South Dakota could expect to live to 58, while Asian women in Bergen County in New Jersey had a life expectancy of 91. Source: New York Times |
| Conditions Worsening for Palestinian Workers |
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The situation for workers in the occupied Arab territories is deteriorating, with rates of working poverty rising, genuine employment declining, and individual frustration growing, according to the latest annual report on the issue from the UN International Labor Organization (ILO). The
report said that only one in three people of working age living in the occupied Arab territories, including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights, was employed for all or part of the time.
The report, based on missions to the region earlier this year, indicated that about half of all Palestinian households are dependent on food assistance from the international community, especially given the recent worldwide spike in the price of many basic foods. Last November, about 40% of Gazans and 19% of West Bankers were classed as living in extreme poverty -- a slight improvement over the previous year. The ILO report voices concern about the growing gap between the hopes and aims of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians and the reality on the ground. "With the devastation of military action, and the continuing fine net of restrictions on movement, there is no doubt that economic and social hardship is mounting in the occupied Arab territories," it says, adding that the problems are compounded by what it called the systematic disregard of Arab workers’ right to equality of opportunity and treatment in employment. Additionally, according to the ILO, institutions in the region that represent free and democratic employers and workers are facing interference in their right to organize. Source: United Nations |
| Testimony Heard on Water Service Shutoffs |
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The Truth Commission for Water Rights, an initiative of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, heard the experiences of Detroit and Highland Park MI residents in a daylong event of multimedia and firsthand presentations on May 3. Last year, water service was cut off to more than 40,000 Detroit residences, making those homes uninhabitable.
Testimony included the DVD movie The Water Front by Liz Green, which documents Highland Park residents' fight against water rates since they were increased by a state-appointed manager to "balance" a budget deficit. A disastrous human toll ensued: lost custody of children; lost homes to foreclosure when unpaid and unpayable water bills were transferred to property taxes; and even lost life itself from the stress of the struggle to live under such conditions. Personal testimony filled in more details. An Alger Street resident explained that water service was turned off to her entire neighborhood when some residents didn’t schedule appointments to have new automated, centrally monitored water meters installed. When organized residents protested to City Council, water was restored. Cynthia McKinney, a former Congress member and Green Party presidential candidate, summarized the deliberations of the Commission. She stressed that water rights are not only of local or state concern, but a national and international issue. She pointed out that 36 states faced "water wars," and that in her hometown of Atlanta, water rates were rising by 170%. McKinney had recently returned from Mexico City, where 10,000 women marched in the main plaza to block the privatization of electricity and oil, "moving from protest to resistance." She said, "The truth commission acknowledges that people in the city of Detroit have moved from protest to resistance to defend their right to water. The truth commission supports them." Source: Workers World |
| Mangrove Project an Anti-Hunger Model |
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Four young fishermen wade through a high tide to take back an impressive haul to their village, Hirgigo. "If it wasn't for the mangroves, there wouldn't be so many fish," says one, Ali Osman, pointing at a thick tree-line marking the border of desert and sea.
The forest of newly planted mangrove trees has given fish, crabs, and oysters vital shelter to feed and breed in an area where there were previously only arid mud flats. Led by US scientist and humanitarian Gordon Sato, the project has transformed the landscape in an area where there is not enough fresh water to support conventional agriculture. Leaves from the trees -- there are around a million mangroves in a 6-kilometer swathe from Hirgigo -- provide fodder for livestock. That means villagers no longer have to trek into distant highlands to feed their sheep and goats. In a further benefit of the decade-old "Manzanar" project's low-tech, self-sustaining cycle, ground fishmeal and dried mangrove seeds are also fed to protein-hungry animals. "I was given three sheep, now I have 15. I was a poor man, now I am rich," said Salih Mohamud, a 60-year-old father of four, contentedly watching his animals eat. Sato first came to Eritrea in the 1980s amid war and hunger. Wondering how agriculture could be stimulated on the barren coastline, Sato noted that mangroves would grow in thin bands along some sections of the shore. He and his team established that the mangroves were growing in areas where rain water was washing into the sea. The rain was providing nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron -- elements lacking in sea water. By burying mangrove seeds with pieces of iron and punctured bags of fertilizer rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, Sato's nascent project made mangroves flourish. Desertification was reversed, and the life of the community was transformed. "In a few short years, poverty should be eradicated in this village," said Sato to a newspaper. The majority of workers on the project, planting trees and collecting the leaves, are women, who draw a monthly salary of 600 nakfa ($40), for the first time in their lives. The Eritrean project has attracted attention abroad, picking up several development awards. Its proponents believe it can be a model for other poor nations with similar coastal geography -- such as Mauritania, Somalia, Peru, or Haiti. Source: Reuters |
| Co-Op Grows Crops for Public and Jobs for Refugees |
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Burlington County (NJ) officials marked the opening of a new community agriculture farm on May 14 at the county's Agricultural Center on Centerton Road, Moorestown. The Growing Home Co-op, a farming cooperative, leased 10 acres of the 68-acre farm from the county for community-supported agriculture. That means members of the public pay farmers before the growing season to grow crops for them. The participants then go to the farm to pick up their shares of the harvested crops.
In this case, the farmers are three legal refugees from Sudan. The co-op was developed to assist Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey's Immigration and Refugee Program. Lutheran Social Ministries, based in Trenton, provides jobs and housing to legal refugees and immigrants. "This cooperative originated to assist refugees who have agrarian skills to earn a sustainable living in agriculture," said co-op president Jody Veler. Veler said the farmers began harvesting crops last month. For an annual fee of $550, participants get weekly portions of fresh produce during a 25-week growing season. A variety of vegetables, including lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and peppers, are grown. "This is a partnership between the farmers and the community," Veler said. "They share the risks and the benefits of farming and support us in this venture." Veler said 71 people have signed up to participate this year. She is accepting up to 80 subscriptions, but hopes to accommodate even more next year. "I wanted to keep it smaller and tighter for the first year." Burlington County Freeholder Bill Haines, a longtime cranberry and blueberry farmer, said he is proud to see the start of community-supported agriculture at the Agriculture Center. "We believe that this is the way to introduce people to locally grown produce and encourage support for agriculture across the county." Source: Burlington County Times |
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| Wildlife Researchers Fear Effects of Border Fence |
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The debate over the fence the United States is building along its southern border has focused largely on the project's costs, feasibility, and how well it will curb illegal immigration. But one of its most lasting impacts may well be on the animals and vegetation that make this politically fraught landscape their home. Some wildlife researchers have grown so concerned about the consequences of bisecting hundreds of miles of rugged habitat that they have talked of engaging in civil disobedience to block the fence's construction.
The scientists cite examples such as the 70 remaining Sonoran pronghorns in Arizona's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, deerlike animals that are the fastest land mammals in North America. They are the only remaining population on US soil, and the five surveillance towers that the administration plans to build in the area will be in the middle of the pronghorns' range, producing noise and human activity that would disturb the sensitive species. On April 4, Benjamin Tuggle, a regional director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, told customs and border protection officials that an interagency team of scientists concluded in March that the construction would inhibit breeding and "may ultimately lead to the eventual extinction of the species." The Sonoran pronghorns are not alone: Rare species such as jaguars, ocelots, and long-nose bats are also likely to face problems with the new barriers, scientists said. In early April, the Bush administration waived more than 30 environmental and land-management laws to meet its deadline for building at least 360 miles of the border fence. Two advocacy groups, the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife, have gone to court to challenge the constitutionality of the authority that Congress gave the administration to set aside federally required environmental reviews. Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that despite the waivers, the agency has prepared draft environmental assessments or impact statements for much of the fence -- which will be composed of metal, concrete, or wire along different stretches -- and that officials will continue to explore ways to mitigate its effect on vulnerable wildlife. Source: Washington Post |
| Survey Exposes Hunger Crisis in West Timor |
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Against the backdrop of a rapidly worsening world food crisis, more than 91% of households in Indonesia's West Timor region are suffering hunger and alarming levels of malnutrition because of inadequate access to food, according to a new report issued by global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS). In four West Timor districts surveyed, CWS reports about 50% of infants and young children are moderately or severely underweight -- significantly higher than in African countries overall, where 21.9% of small children are underweight, according to a January report in The Lancet. CWS is urging immediate world attention to the West Timor situation.
In the face of a global food crisis that many say is primarily market-derived, West Timor is a microcosm of another man-made cause of food insecurity: climate change. Crops of family farmers in the region have suffered the devastating effects of global warming's unpredictable weather patterns for over a decade. "Due to continued poor food production from season to season and due to poverty, households just don't have adequate access to food in either quantity or nutritional quality," says CWS Deputy Director of Programs Maurice Bloem. "In the survey, among under-five age children, we found a very high prevalence of wasting and stunting -- signs of acute and chronic malnutrition." The survey found: 13.1% overall of under-five aged children are suffering acute malnutrition. 61.1% overall of children from birth to age 59 months are suffering chronic malnutrition. 80% of children three to 23 months are suffering iron deficiency anemia. More than half of West Timor's children from birth to 59 months are underweight. Bloem says the survey also found a high degree of infectious diseases, particularly diarrhea caused by poor hygiene, water and sanitation, and acute respiratory infection among small children, as a result of poor hygiene and low immune system. Source: Church World Service |
| Troubled Ancora Psych Hospital Slated for Changes |
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NJ Gov Jon Corzine was cautiously optimistic last Wednesday as he unveiled a system-wide restructuring plan of the troubled Ancora Psychiatric Hospital that aims to further reduce the hospital's population. The announcement came after a year of negative publicity surrounded the hospital stemming from accusations of drug use on the hospital grounds, allegations of assault, and the deaths of six patients in the last 12 months.
The plan, announced by Corzine and Commissioner of Human Services Jennifer Velez, aims to create two tracks of patient care in an effort to reduce patient numbers and concentrate hospital staff on those most in need of treatment. Extended care would serve patients in need of long-term treatment, while acute care would treat patients for short-term therapy. When coupled with alternative support systems, like group homes, the patient could then be integrated back into society. "Really, it is a better matching of resources and the abilities of the staff," said Velez. "There are people under our care who are very ill, but there are people under our care who can make it in society." Patients who could live a normal life, under varying levels of support, include those housed in the hospital on a clinically extended period pending future placement (CEPP). By law, the hospital has to address its significant CEPP population, patients who are currently confined to Ancora but are allegedly being held without cause. Some 59% of Ancora's patients have been labeled CEPP but remain in the hospital because few other options exist due to a lack of funding. Ancora's CEPP population has been the focus of a lawsuit brought against the hospital by New Jersey Protection and Advocacy Inc that alleges Ancora is warehousing the mentally ill. In the past year, the hospital has taken steps to reduce its population. Last Wednesday, Ancora's patient population numbered 656, down more than 100 patients from the 780 of one year ago. Corzine explained that overcrowding often leads to a lack of control and an unsafe environment for both the patients and the staff. On his third visit in 15 months, Corzine said that Ancora looks to have taken positive strides toward preventing future tragedies. "We are on a pathway to addressing a whole host of issues," said Corzine. "We are working step by step. This place was much more crowded than it is now, just visibly." Source: Gloucester County Times |
| ILO to Help Pakistan Tackle Child Labor Abuses |
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The UN International Labor Organization (ILO) has partnered with the European Commission (EC) for a five-year project to help Pakistan curb abusive child labor and take 10,000 children out of hazardous workplaces. The 545 million Pakistani rupee ($8.1 million) scheme will focus on children working in conditions ranging from exposure to chemicals and other harmful substances to long, tedious working hours.
The "Combating Abusive Child Labor II" program will be implemented by ILO in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Manpower, provincial labor departments, employers and workers organizations, local governments, NGOs, research institutions, and the media, among others. Donglin Li, the Director of ILO’s Pakistan office, underscored his agency’s commitment to curbing the worst forms of child labor by 2016 within the framework of the ILO Decent Work Agenda. Source: United Nations |
| Rapper Seeks to Revive Era of Conscious Hip-Hop |
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Jasiri X, who started rapping in 1990, says artistic culture "springs from our experiences and spiritual connection and is a tool for change." He sees it as a survival mechanism.
Jasiri uses his music to teach. He sees in it the possibility to make positive change. He works with youth in Pittsburgh and is one of the founders of 1HOOD, an organization "created to promote unity among young men, to strengthen and support each individual member’s programs, and to promote peace in local Pittsburgh neighborhoods." Jasiri started listening to hip-hop music in the late 1980s -- what’s known as the golden era, a time when many popular artists were socially conscious. It was hip-hop music that drove him to be politically active. He wants to connect with other conscious rappers and to usher in a new golden era, where content means something and reflects the conditions people are faced with. His newest protest song, "Enough is Enough," was written after the three cops that killed Sean Bell were acquitted. The song begins with media coverage of the acquittal, as the music builds with protests in the background and Jasiri chanting, "Enough is Enough." He yells, "We will not surrender!" followed by: In the war of cops and robbers, the cops are robbers
Jasiri says the problem with hip-hop now is that it has been taken over by corporations that use it to make profit, and that a lot of the musicians have to conform to a model that has no basis in reality. He says that while many mainstream artists speak of "keeping it real," the images shown in videos and the content of the lyrics reflect a lifestyle that many of the artists who tout it cannnot themselves afford to live.
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