| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| October 29, 2008 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 12 Number 11 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Widening Need Empties NJ Food Pantries |
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Tough economic times are making it hard for New Jersey food pantries to keep their shelves stocked. State officials said
NJ's food banks are reporting an increase of as much as 30% in the number of families seeking food assistance, while food
supplies are down by 19% from the same time last year. In some cases, they said, a few of the facilities simply closed after running out of supplies.
The situation is so bad that Gov Jon Corzine recently announced the early distribution of nearly $1 million to the state's six emergency food distribution centers to ease the shortages reported by the food pantries. Of those funds, $14,444 went to the Southern Regional Food Distribution Center (SRFDC) in Vineland, where executive director Tammy Morris said people requesting food are not just those on fixed incomes. "Now we see more working families coming in requesting food," she said. "It's not looking good." At the Community FoodBank of New Jersey in Egg Harbor Township, Director Evelyn Benton said her facility is serving more than the traditional clients. "We just had a guy in a suit and tie," Benton said. "He works for a furniture company on commission, and sales are down 45%. He's losing his house. He was mortified that he was here. "It's that level of person, the person who works, who, all of a sudden, that $25 (saved on food purchases) makes a difference." Benton and Morris said making the situation worse is that rising food prices means the SRFDC's money doesn't go as far as usual, and that some providers have gone out of business. For instance, Benton said a turkey that cost $10 to $12 a year ago now costs about $15, and the $10,000 spent on the product now buys about 350 fewer turkeys. The recently-released state funds are part of Corzine's hunger initiative and were originally scheduled for distribution later this month. Corzine also ordered the release of more money to help ease the food-shortage crisis. State Department of Agriculture Secretary Charles M Kuperus said his office is working with federal agriculture officials to make sure there's an adequate supply of donated food items to the food banks through the state Emergency Food Assistance Program. The EFAP distributes food donated by the federal Department of Agriculture through a network of 660 food pantries and other feeding operations. Source: Atlantic City Press |
| EU Says Stalin Planned Ukrainian Famine |
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The European Union has recognized the Holodomor -- the famine that hit Soviet Ukraine in 1932-1933 -- as a crime against humanity and the Ukrainian people. In a resolution that commemorates the 75th anniversary of the tragic events, EU parliamentarians said the famine was planned by Stalin's regime in order to force through the Soviet Union's policy of collectivization of agriculture against the will of the rural population in Ukraine. The EU strongly condemned the acts by Soviet authorities as "an appalling crime against the Ukrainian people, and against humanity," and expressed sympathy to those who suffered for the famine and their relatives.
The resolution stopped short of calling the events of 1932-1933 a genocide of the Ukrainian people. Officials in Kiev were insisting on such a naming. Moscow has strongly objected to Ukrainian and Western accounts of what happened. It has argued that many people of different nationalities suffered from the famine at the time. Source: Russia Today |
| Economic Downturn Ticks Up for Barter Sites |
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More Americans are bartering -- trading goods and services without exchanging money -- as a way to cope with tough economic times. There were some 142,000 listings in the barter section of Craigslist in July, or almost double the number posted during the same month last year, according to Craigslist spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best, who also said, "When the economy turns unfriendly, Craigslist users become far more creative to get their everyday tasks done."
Other Web sites that put Americans in touch with like-minded people who are willing to trade everything under the sun have also seen a boost in traffic. SwapThing, which lists almost 3.5 million "things" available for trade, reports its customers are bartering for different reasons than before: "I think a few years ago it was more for fun," said Jessica Hardwick, SwapThing founder and CEO. "But we've seen a real shift in the last year, and especially an increase in the last few months, where I think people are really doing it to get by." Some of the most popular items to trade for late this summer were school uniforms, which some parents found they could not afford to buy for their children, Hardwick said. Experts aren't surprised Americans are becoming more financially creative during an economic downturn. C Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, said, "Historically, when times get tough, you see a 50 percent-plus increase in bartering as a way for people to be able to buy things or get things and do it economically." A couple of years ago, many Americans had $500 to spend at the end of the month, but that money has evaporated because of rising prices, Beemer said. "It isn't a question of buying things, it's a question of buying nothing." Businesses have long recognized the benefits of bartering, and there are hundreds of barter networks set up across the country to fill their needs. They use barter credits as currency, so a plumber in need of a filling can fix a leaky pipe for one member of a network and then go to a participating dentist to trade credits for the filling. Barter exchanges must carefully document all trades, since barter income is taxable. According to the IRS, however, a barter exchange "does not include arrangements that provide solely for the informal exchange of similar services on a noncommercial basis." Source: CNN |
| E-Waste Industry Not So Clean |
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As the e-waste industry proliferates -- some 1,200 mostly tiny companies generated revenue of more than $3 billion last year -- it has also become enmeshed in questionable practices that undercut its environmentally friendly image. A recent probe by the US Government Accountability
Office (GAO) found 43 US companies that sought to sell e-waste for export to Asia, in apparent violation of the law.
In China and elsewhere, electronic gear commonly is stripped for reusable microchips, copper, and silver. Dangerous metals are dumped nearby, often close to farms or sources of drinking water. Since the early 1990s, an international agreement known as the Basel Convention has restricted trade in hazardous waste, but the US has failed to ratify the pact. As one limited US response to the Basel initiative, the EPA adopted civil rules that went into effect in January 2007 forbidding US companies from exporting monitors and televisions with cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) unless they have approval from the EPA and the receiving country. CRTs electronically project images on screens that are typically made of leaded glass. The gear contains mercury, cadmium, and other toxins that when released carelessly can cause neurological damage in children, among other harmful effects. The blood of children in rural Guiyu, China, a notorious e-waste scavenging site, contained lead at twice the acceptable level set by the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, according to a 2007 study conducted by Shantou University. Some computer recyclers confirm the GAO's findings that the e-waste business is rife with corner-cutting. "Ninety percent of electronics recyclers are cheaters," contends Robert Houghton, president of Redemtech, an e-waste processor in Columbus OH. "This industry has a tradition of no accountability." Thomas L Varkonyi, proprietor of Metal Recycling in El Paso TX, says that Houghton's assessment applies all around the country. Varkonyi's scrap shop does a brisk business in e-waste trucked to him by recyclers. He, in turn, ships monitors and motherboards a couple of miles south to Juárez, Mexico. There, Mexican workers -- "cheaper labor," he says -- pry the e-waste apart, plucking out valuable metals and components that can be sold to international buyers. Regulation of the unwanted toxins is far more lenient in Mexico. "If you wanted to break those rules," says Varkonyi, "it would be easy because you can pay off anyone [in Mexico]." Next year the volume of e-waste will probably surge. In February, US consumers must switch from analog to digital television service, a move that is expected to result in the mass junking of analog TVs. Source: Business Week |
| Energy Efficiency Generates Jobs in California |
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California's energy-efficiency measures have created some 1.5 million jobs and saved residents about $56 billion in energy
costs since 1972, according to a new study from the University of California at Berkeley. Overall, the study found that the state's efficiency measures freed up billions of dollars that consumers would otherwise have spent on electricity bills and instead injected the cash into other
areas of the economy that created more jobs.
"Energy efficiency is very good for real incomes, purchasing power, and job creation," said study author David Roland-Holst. What's more, as a result of early action on efficiency, the average Californian now uses about 40% less electricity than the average American. The study also found that California's current plan to tackle climate change would create over 400,000 new jobs and boost household incomes by up to $48 billion annually by 2020. Roland-Holst said, "If the country can follow California's example, it will have a dramatic effect on our future emissions and energy independence." Source: Grist |
| Caribbean Civil Society Unites on Haiti Debt Relief |
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The leading Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) of the Caribbean have joined their Haitian counterparts in calling for an unconditional write-off of Haitian foreign debt, which currently stands at some $1.7 billion USD.
The Trinidad Express newspaper reported that, in a demonstration of "solidarity with the people of Haiti, the Barbados-based Caribbean Policy Development Center (CPDC), the umbrella regional NGO, has issued an 'Open Letter' with a plea to finance ministers of wealthy nations, the directors of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank". Released by the CPDC on behalf of all affiliated members across the Caribbean region, the Caribbean Conference of Churches, Haiti, and Cuba, the letter stated that, because of the country's debt repayment, the living conditions of millions of Haitians have progressively deteriorated. Haiti, long recognized as the most poverty-stricken nation of the Caribbean and South American region, is required to spend approximately $60 million to $80 million annually just to service debt payments, a challenge that has led to crisis in governance. The recent widespread destruction from successive storms has further worsened the survival problems of the destitute population. The Express report added that both the Caribbean Community and the Organization of American states made separate appeals to the international community for emergency relief for reconstruction aid to Haiti, following on-the-spot assessments of the destruction from the hurricanes. Source: Caribbean Net News |
| 'The First Soup Kitchen in the Country to be This Green' |
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Bigger space, a new location, eco-friendly features, and recycled resources will make Cathedral Kitchen (CK) a soup kitchen of the 21st century. CK, a nonprofit corporation, has been feeding the poor of Camden in loaned space since 1976.
It is moving out of its current location in the gymnasium of the former Camden Catholic High School at Broadway and Federal Streets, and into its new location at 1514 Federal St, thanks to about $4 million in donations. The official transition will happen on Friday. "We have the old facility pretty organized," said Talarico, CK's hardworking executive director, in mid-October. "But right now to make 400 meals a night we're keeping things in donated refrigerators, then cooking them on a conventional oven, and preparing things on the tabletops in the dining area." The staff and volunteers have had limited resources and space in the past, but the new facility, which is two times larger than the existing site, will use space practically and efficiently, said David Schultz, co-founder of DAS Architects. The new site, with approximately 14,872 square feet of space, features a 2,500-square-foot commercial kitchen and dining room and will be able to seat nearly 300 diners at a time. Administrative offices, medical facilities to be operated by Project HOPE, showers, restrooms, and laundry facilities are also at the new site. When the kitchen's staff sat down with Schultz and Susan Davidson, co-founders of DAS Architects, one of the first plans for the building was to "go green." "From the beginning the owners wanted energy efficiency, so we used the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) as a guideline," Schultz said. "We wanted to receive a gold rating in energy efficiency." "We believe this is the first soup kitchen in the country to be this green," said Davidson. A mural, made by Camden County College art students with some help from the kitchen's patrons, will be installed in December, greeting visitors with its color and art. Other new features are sure to bring smiles of appreciation to the kitchen's guests. A roof hanging over the sidewalk may seem like a small feature compared to other big changes, but Talarico said it's the small things like that roof that will make a huge difference for those who come to the kitchen. "We've had people lining up outside for hours before we open, sometimes in the rain or snow." "We might start seeing more people, especially with the economy how it is right now," said Talarico. "We've already been seeing working people and families with children." Source: Courier-Post |
| UN Urges Indonesia to Stop Imprisoning Drug Users |
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The United Nations urged Indonesia on October 16 to treat drug abusers like patients, not criminals, saying the shift
could help prevent an explosion in HIV infections. The roughly 28,000 drug users jailed by Indonesia should be in clinics, not detention facilities, said Christian Kroll, the UN global coordinator for HIV/AIDS.
"People who injected drugs have a disease," Kroll told reporters in the capital, Jakarta. "People who have a disease don't belong in prison. They need to be treated." Indonesia, which has just 45 drug rehabilitation centers, urgently needs to expand its drug treatment capacity, Kroll said. The government has taken initial steps to decriminalize drug use, said Nafsiah Mboi, a senior National AIDS Commission official, while also warning that clinics would be overwhelmed if drug users were released at once. Up to 25% of convicted drug users in Indonesian prisons are believed to have HIV, the National AIDS Commission estimates. Indonesia has one of Asia's fastest-growing HIV rates, with up to 290,000 infections among 235 million people, fueled mainly by the use of injected drugs and prostitution. Source: Associated Press |
| Minner Announces Increased Low-Income Heat Aid |
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Governor Ruth Ann Minner of Delaware announced on October 16 an increase of nearly $11 million in federal funds over
two years for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The increase will allow the state to provide 16% more regular heating assistance to needy Delaware families.
"These additional funds are sorely needed, especially given the rising energy costs and downturn in the nation's economy," said Gov Minner. "This will also enable us to again provide assistance with summertime electric bills -- a benefit we could not afford to give this year due to helping with energy costs from the previous winter." The additional funds became available as a result of a Continuing Resolution signed into law late last month by President Bush, providing unprecedented increased funding to Delaware for energy assistance and weatherization services. The funding will rise from $6.5 million for 2008 to $17.3 million for 2009, bringing the average benefit amount to $550. "We also anticipate providing more crisis heating assistance through supplemental emergency energy funding," said Department of Health and Social Services Secretary Vincent Meconi. In addition, the funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program for 2009 was increased 56%, from $731,419 to $1,144,000, which will allow for the weatherization of 381 homes. Last year, the state was able to weatherize 243 homes. An additional $500,000 for weatherization from LIHEAP will allow for weatherizing an additional 166 homes over last year. Source: Office of the Governor |
| Romany Communities Under Pressure in Italy |
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Romany communities in Italy say they are increasingly becoming the target of attacks by local residents. It is claimed that the Italian government has shown a disregard for the families coming from central Europe looking for work. In some cases, the tension has resulted in violent clashes.
In April, after the alleged attempted abduction of an Italian child by a teenage member of the travellers' community, the Romany encampment near Naples was destroyed. Overnight, the 50 people living there in squalid conditions were forced to flee. "Their excavators come and got rid of everything," said one man. "They don’t care about us!" There are 700 camps like this in Italy, predominantly on the outskirts of Italy's largest cities. The Italian government has called the nomads a "security emergency", making the country's Romany community feel even less secure. The government has launched a mass fingerprinting program for the Romany population, estimated at 150,000. This step is aimed at helping the new government's crackdown on crime -- in particular, illegal immigration, which has more than doubled in the past year. Along with other measures, the government has promised to reduce the number of children begging for money on the streets of major Italian cities. Still, in spite of the official stance, some Italians tend to think that the issue is overstated. One local man said, "There is no problem. Only the media wants to exaggerate the situation. Only in Italy there seems to be a problem. In other countries -- no problem." But tensions are rising. The nomads say they harm no-one and keep to themselves. They fear they may be the next targets of angry Neapolitans -- angry at rising crime, angry at rivers of rubbish -- and that they will be the scapegoats. Source: Russia Today |
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| If Venezuela Had Emulated Alaska |
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Adapted from a piece by columnist Michael Rowan:
What would have happened if Venezuela had adopted the Alaska strategy for sowing its oil revenues into the population rather than into the state in the 1970s? Here's what:
When Chavez came to power ten years ago, Venezuela was absolutely ready to start over. If he had adopted the truly revolutionary strategy of Alaska, he, too, could have achieved virtually all the success described above. But what Chavez did was to compound the mistake of the past he said he so despised: he monopolized power and money in Venezuela. Monopolies are casinos ripe for plunder. Monopolies are breeding nests for national poverty, inequality, lawlessness, and failure. In 2006, presidential candidate Manuel Rosales proposed setting aside 20% of the oil revenues as a fund for capitalizing the enterprises of the poor and for direct distribution to the people. While the idea appealed to over 70% in surveys, Rosales was defeated in the election. On election night, claiming victory from the balcony of Miraflores, Chavez ripped up a poster image of Mi Negra -- the electronic card representing the population's ownership of 20% of the oil. Since 2006, Chavez has increased his monopoly over power and tons of new oil money, while the country's systems have all but collapsed. Is it too late to ask again Arturo Uslar Pietri's question: When is Venezuela going to sow its oil revenues into the nation? Source: El Universal |
| Afghan Girl Freed from Slavery in Seattle Area |
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Five Seattle-area immigrants from Afghanistan enslaved a teenage girl they brought to the US. Some forced her to do chores. One -- her 37-year-old husband -- beat and sexually assaulted her. All according to a federal indictment unsealed in mid-October.
The girl is from an impoverished single-parent home in Afghanistan, and she was informally adopted by another family there that forced her to marry at age 13 in 2005, according to Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the US attorney's office. The girl's husband is Mohammad Atahee, a friend of the adoptive family. US officials don't recognize the marriage. Atahee and three of the family's members were already living in the south Seattle suburbs when the girl's adoptive mother, Nasima Yousuf, 70, brought her to the US in 2006, as part of what prosecutors say was a plot to enslave her. Yousuf's husband, Mohammad, 84, had filed an immigration petition to bring the girl to the US, claiming his wife was her biological mother. Once in the country, the indictment said, the girl, identified only as JV1, was forced to live with Atahee, who beat her and sexually assaulted her. She was forced to spend at least three days a week at the Auburn home of Maruf Yousufi, 42, and his wife, Nahid, 29 -- caring for their children, doing laundry, cooking and cleaning. Maruf Yousufi is Mohammad Yousuf's son. The girl escaped after some good Samaritans helped her report Atahee to the police in January 2008 for sexual assault, prosecutors said. Since then, she's been at a safe house, but they won't say where. She had also called police in August 2006 to report her case, but Nahid Yousufi threatened her and persuaded her to recant the allegations, the indictment said. All five defendants are charged in US District Court with one count of conspiracy to engage in forced labor. The Yousufs also face a visa fraud charge for allegedly lying on immigration applications. All the defendants have legal status in the US, Langlie said. The girl, however, does not, because of the Yousufs' alleged lies on immigration applications. She could stay in the country by obtaining a visa for victims of human trafficking. Source: Associated Press |
| Taliban Kills Aid Worker for 'Spreading Christianity' |
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A spokesman for the Taliban has said that it ordered the killing of a British aid worker because she was "spreading Christianity". He said that the murder of 34-year-old Gayle Williams in Kabul was also justified as a response to the actions of NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Williams was on her way to work at the Christian NGO Serve Afghanistan when she was shot dead by two Taliban militants on October 20. The case is being investigated by the Afghan National Security Police. Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahed revealed they had been following Williams for a long time. "We found out that she was spreading Christianity among our people," he said. "For us this is proof that Ms Williams was inviting Afghans to Christianity. After proof had been given to the Taliban leadership that the aid worker was not innocent, they gave their approval to have her killed." "Although it is against Islam to kill women," he added, "we have seen NATO forces killing our women and burning our houses in places such as Kandahar and Helmand. If NATO has the right to kill our women, we have the right to kill foreign women. We've been pushed to kill Ms Williams." A spokesperson for Serve Afghanistan, Rina van der Ende, said her colleagues were devastated and in shock. "We won't see her working in her office again. It's all very unreal for us. She was very passionate about her work and loved challenges." Williams trained her Afghan colleagues in how to deal with people with disabilities and how to help integrate them into the community. Aware of the security risks involved, Williams had occasionally mentioned that she would like to be buried in Afghanistan. Van der Ende said that the aid worker had returned with a Serve team from Jalalabad a few days before she was murdered. "I'm not sure whether the Taliban had been trailing her," she said. "I know Ms Williams was here because of her work, even though Serve is known as a Christian organization." The two men, said to be between the ages of 20 and 30, stashed a backpack filled with the murder weapon and hand grenades at a water reservoir 500 meters from the police station, close to where Williams was shot. The pistol, which had been manufactured in Pakistan, had a silencer attached to it. "We are very sorry about what happened to Ms Williams," the police official said. "It’s wrong that a woman should be killed at her age." But he added that the aid worker should not have walked to work. "I advise all foreigners in Afghanistan to stay off the streets." Source: Russia Today |
| Rehab Helps Young Albertans |
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Hooked on crack cocaine and homeless since she was 13, Pamela wanted to finally go straight. If not for herself, than for the child that had been growing in her belly for 4 1/2 months.
"I can stay living here in the closet, and I can get clean on my own," the 22-year-old Calgarian said, crying, over the phone at the crack house. Intake workers came the next day from Aventa, Alberta's lone women-only addiction treatment center. Pamela wasn't clean. They put her through detox, got her weight back well above 100 pounds, and put her through Aventa's six-week program twice. She's stayed off crack and alcohol since and gets babysitting services to take care of her infant while she attends her follow-up sessions with another agency, said Mara Thorlavson, clinical director at Aventa. "This is not an unusual story," Thorlavson said of Pamela, whose real name cannot be used. Many of the young women Aventa treats are pregnant, and most will be hooked on tobacco, liquor, and drugs. While Aventa tries to limit the severity of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder the children are born with, the clients often have the development-hindering disorder themselves. The Alberta government on Friday announced the opening of eight new residential treatment beds for young women at Aventa, and five for males and seven for females at a center near Edmonton. Health Minister Ron Liepert said 20 new spaces may not sound like much, but the $1.5-million investment will help hundreds of young people. These are the first of 100 beds for addictions treatment promised last year by the Stelmach Tories in response to a task force on community safety. The province is on track to fund the rest by 2010, Justice Minister Alison Redford said. It's part of the government's renewed efforts to tackle the root causes of crime and keep teens and young adults out of the justice system. Said Redford, "We're doing a much better job than assuming everyone needs to go to jail." Source: Calgary Herald |
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