| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| February 18, 2009 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 12 Number 17 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Job Losses Threaten China with Social Unrest |
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About 20 million, or 15.3% of China's 130 million migrant workers -- the driving force behind the country's spectacular economic growth over the past three decades -- have recently lost their jobs as a result of the global economic crisis. Five million more could be jobless by the end of the year. So said Chen Xiwen, director of the
central rural work leading group of the State Council, on Monday. He was citing a pre-lunar new year survey of 150 rural villages.
The number is twice the government's earlier estimates. In December 2008, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said the figure would be 10 million. Chen said the sheer number of the unemployed poses a severe threat of unrest. He has already advised local officials that "the police should not be deployed as long as there are no extreme cases of violence like beatings, looting, or arson". Although it is still a week before the end of the lunar new year holiday, when migrant workers traditionally return to their home villages, swarms of rural workers are already worried about losing their jobs or are getting ready to look for work. Crowds were seen waiting at train stations in Sichuan, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Hubei -- traditional sources of migrant labor. The state's bleak outlook on migrant labor came just a day after the State Council, China's cabinet, warned that 2009 could be the "toughest year since the turn of the century for the countryside" -- where more than half of the population lives -- as the economic slowdown strains farming and the rural economy. "The first half of this year will be especially difficult for migrant workers ... We'll need to see how far global demand recovers in the first half of the year and how well the measures already taken by the central government work," Chen said. "The problem of migrant workers' unemployment should be solved quite quickly if those two factors combine well." Salaries of migrant workers contribute about 40% of rural families' income, which a World Bank study said reached $30 billion in 2005. The loss of this sizeable chunk of rural incomes casts doubt on government hopes that consumption-driven growth could one day curtail traditional over-reliance on exports. China may be entering a period where mass social unrest is inevitable, a report in the Xinhua News Agency's Outlook Weekly magazine warned on January 6. The report, based on interviews with three Xinhua journalists from Chongqing, Jiangsu, and Guangdong, said that more demonstrations were likely as people's living conditions deteriorated, and that they would likely be sparked by frustrated migrant workers or fresh graduates. Source: Asia Times |
| Bipartisan Group Releases Antipoverty Proposals |
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Capitol Hill may not be embracing bipartisanship, but some from America's churches are making strides in that direction. Christians from the right and the left have begun bridging political and religious differences to seek solutions to poverty.
Yesterday a new bipartisan group called the Poverty Forum released a series of specific proposals aimed at reducing domestic poverty and keeping recession-affected Americans from becoming poor. The group of 18 leaders -- headed by the Rev Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, and Michael Gerson, President Bush's former speechwriter and policy adviser -- has worked since November to develop concrete antipoverty policies they hope will gain widespread support. A liberal and a conservative expert were paired on each of seven key policy areas: family policy, healthcare, education, "making work work," asset building, crime and prisoner reentry, and the role of civil society. Rather than develop a comprehensive package, says Wallis, the group sought proposals that were "significant but doable". Several proposals relate to helping low-income people build their assets: One would create a financial services corps that would deliver financial education and counseling to low- and middle-income households. Another would expand and enhance the program of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs): matched savings accounts that reward monthly savings of families (through private and public matching) toward a specific high-return goal such as education, a small business, or a first home. The area of family policy includes an initiative to promote healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood, and one to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit by eliminating the marriage penalty. The forum says that the EITC -- a Republican idea expanded by President Clinton -- now moves more children out of poverty than any other government program. Several proposals aim to reduce recidivism by expanding employment opportunities for ex-inmates. "Prisoner reentry stuff doesn't get much attention but it's huge" for communities, Wallis says. "When you talk about 5,000 prisoners being released on the streets in the fall, people want to know, 'What are we going to do about that?' There's almost never a plan." Source: Christian Science Monitor |
| 22 Indians Lose Eyesight After Free Surgeries |
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At least 22 elderly people in northern India have lost vision in one or both of their eyes after undergoing free cataract surgery at a state-owned clinic, a government official said last Wednesday. Health Minister Anant Kumar Singh said initial reports suggested they may have gone blind from infections caused by contaminated eye drops used during surgery.
The case marks the second time in three months that mass blindness has been reported after free government surgeries in the impoverished state of Uttar Pradesh. Nine patients lost their eyesight in December after undergoing cataract surgery at a state-owned eye hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district. The latest affected group, most of them between 60 to 70 years old, complained of blurred vision, swelling, and itching in their eyes within days of surgery, said I S Srivastava, a senior health official in Uttar Pradesh. He said most also had difficulty seeing in their second eye and that it was possible that "all of them have lost their eyesight permanently". He said that all of the patients were sent to a government hospital in the northern city of Lucknow on the previous night, and that doctors at the state clinic have been ordered not to conduct any more surgeries until the inquiry is complete. The state's top elected official, Mayawati (who uses just one name), has suspended two doctors who carried out the surgeries. Health care in India is often dismal, with private facilities out of reach for most of the poor. Many are forced to go without health care or depend on public hospitals and clinics, which are frequently filthy, overcrowded, and lack full stocks of medicines. Source: The West Australian |
| Caring Kids Assemble Welcome Kits for Newborns |
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Just in time for Valentine's Day, some Haddonfield NJ fourth-graders sent a lot of love to new moms and their infants at two Camden health facilities last Wednesday. About 50 students at J Fithian Tatem Elementary School had spent several months collecting baby items for "Special Deliveries of Love." The 200 gift bags went to patients at Cooper University Hospital and at CAMcare Ob/Gyn, a health center that serves uninsured and underinsured residents. Perhaps best of all, the youngsters saw the results of their efforts when they boarded a bus last Wednesday to visit Cooper and deliver their Valentine-hued bags in person.
The students, in two classes, had collected so much that the goods wouldn't fit on their bus. The bright pink bags -- holding everything from diapers, wipes, and washcloths to onesies, rattles, and body wash -- followed behind in SUVs driven by parent volunteers. "I delivered both my kids at Cooper and realized that some of the mothers walk out of the hospital with nothing other than their babies," fourth-grade teacher Mary Hall said. Hall proposed the project after hearing about a similar endeavor in an educational leadership class she takes at West Chester University. Fourth-graders taught by Carol Paton also took part. In November, Hall created a "Special Deliveries" Web site, and the students learned how to edit it. Local businesses were solicited for funds and items beginning in December. In January, the students wrote speeches to present to their schoolmates in order to get more support. "We did a final count in both (fourth-grade) classrooms. WOW, we got a lot!" reads a Web site journal entry. "I like that the kids got involved and did the shopping themselves," said mother Carter Lee. "They were so enthusiastic." "We're getting stuff to other people that need it," said Lee's daughter, 10-year-old Emilee Maas. "It makes them be happy and makes us happy, too." "We're helping all the moms that can't really help themselves," said Kelly Piserchia, 10. "And the babies will have things to play with and they'll be warm." On the day before delivery, an assembly line of kids snaked around Hall's classroom filling each bag with a blanket, eight diapers, wipes, a bib or washcloth, a rattle, pajamas, and more. Paton's students packed their bags in a science lab across from their classroom. "It's exciting that these are kids doing it," said Cooper's clinical director of obstetrics Sue Sherman. "It really starts at that level." Source: Courier-Post |
| Fish-Dependent Nations Face Special Climate Threat |
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Climate change poses a grave threat to dozens of countries where people depend on fish for food, according to a new study that says catches are imperiled by coastal storms and damage to coral reefs. The WorldFish research center identified 33 countries as "highly vulnerable" to the
effects of climate change because of their heavy reliance on fisheries and limited alternative sources of protein.
Many of the group are among the world's poorest countries: Malawi, Guinea, Senegal, Uganda; Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam in Asia; and Peru and Colombia in South America. "Low-lying highly populated countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia will face major inundations of crop land with rising sea levels, and this will cause a loss of productive land and impact their economies badly," said the study's lead author Edward Allison. "As fish is central to many economies and diets, people in the tropics and subtropics will be affected as they have a limited ability to develop other sources of income and food in the face of such change. The damage will be greatly compounded unless governments and international institutions like the World Bank act now to include the fish sector in plans for helping the poor cope with climate change." Global fisheries provide more than 2.6 billion people with at least 20% of their average annual protein intake, the study says, citing UN data. The report, prepared by the Malaysia-based WorldFish and a number of universities and research groups, says climate change threatens to destroy coral reefs, push salt water into freshwater habitats, and generate more coastal storms. It says that the 33 "highly vulnerable" countries produce 20% of the world's fish exports and that they should be given priority in efforts to help them adapt to climate change. Two-thirds of the most vulnerable nations are in Africa, where fish accounts for more than half of the daily animal protein consumed and where fish production is highly sensitive to climate variations. In South Asia, the report said potential problems, including bleaching of coral reefs and changes in river flows as a result of reduced snowfalls, present a danger to freshwater habitats. Source: Agence France-Presse |
| Hard Times Drive More to Seek Basic Help Online |
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People who have lost their homes, jobs, or economic stability are turning to the Internet to broadcast their troubles and plead for help: "Please give me a chance. I'm looking for a job but to no avail," single mother
Rachael Kirk, 32, of Las Vegas wrote on Craigslist last month in an attempt to find housing for herself and her two children.
"I was recently laid off from my job, and I am job hunting, but I am finding I have very few 'interview-worthy' outfits," said a Craigslist posting by Mary Ann Hurst, 24, of Hillsborough NC. She's seeking professional attire. "We HATE asking for help but we don't have anywhere to go if we lose our house. ... If everyone gave $1 or $2 we could get caught up!!" wrote an eBay seller offering pictures of jellyfish drawn by her 4-year-old son for a minimum bid of $1 each. Craigslist doesn't have hard data on appeals for help, but the trend is clear, spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said. "In the last six months, we've seen a significant increase in postings on Craigslist where users are asking fellow members of the community for help in making it through these dismal economic times." EBay spokeswoman Evonne Gomez said the online auction company doesn't track such requests because users post millions of new listings every day. Scams are rare, Best said, but she cautioned people who want to help others to follow one primary rule: "Deal locally with Craigslist users you can meet in person," she said. "Virtually all scam attempts come from distant 'sellers' who try to entice people to wire money." Ross Mayfield, president of social-networking software seller Socialtext, said more people are using the Internet to share their stories because "cultural norms" have changed. Online communities that allow people to post for free also have increased. "Today, it's common behavior for people to express themselves on the Web, engage in communities, and seek support, even from strangers." Candy Hill, a senior vice president of Catholic Charities USA, said that her group's agencies around the country are seeing a "dramatic" increase in requests for food, housing, and financial assistance. "Why wouldn't somebody turn to the Internet?" she said. "They're desperate and they don't know where else to find help." Source: USA Today |
| UNEP Calls for Organic Green Revolution |
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The food crisis that spilled over from last year could take a turn for the worse in the next decade if there are no explicit answers to a rash of growing new problems, including declining agricultural production, a faltering distribution network, and a deteriorating environment worldwide. Changing the ways in which food is produced, handled, and disposed of across the globe -- from farm to store and from fridge to landfill -- could both feed the world's rising population and help the environmental services that are the foundation of agricultural productivity in the first place, says a new study titled, "The Environmental Food Crisis" released by the UN Environment Program (UNEP).
A crisis of this proportion raises major questions about industrial agriculture and how best to address the needs of the hungry, said Anuradha Mittal, an international expert on trade development and agriculture and the director of the US-based policy think tank Oakland Institute. "Unfortunately, the widespread hunger and poverty is being used to make the case for increasing agricultural production through technical solutions such as genetically engineered crops and chemical-based agriculture." UNEP's research demonstrates that organic small-scale agriculture can deliver the increased yields without the environmental and social damage that has resulted from the industrial model. A briefing paper by the Oakland Institute also confirms the success of the organic model, noting that on average in developed countries, organic systems produce 92% of the yield produced by conventional agriculture. In developing countries, organic systems fare even better, producing 80% more than conventional farms. In a study released last week, the Geneva-based UN Conference on Trade and Development said that despite the economic crisis, organic agriculture would continue to grow, presenting an opportunity for developing-country farmers including those in Africa. "We need a Green revolution in a Green Economy -- but one with a capital 'G'," says Under-Secretary-General and UNEP executive director Achim Steiner. "We need to deal with not only the way the world produces food but the way it is distributed, sold, and consumed, and we need a revolution that can boost yields by working with, rather than against, nature." Source: Inter Press Service |
| Much-Opposed Clinic Relocation Approved |
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A methadone clinic that has been a trouble spot in downtown Camden for decades will get a new home inside the Broadway Terminal of the South Jersey Port Corp (SJPC). SJPC, a quasi-state agency, voted 6-0 on January 27 to lease space within its secure marine terminal to Parkside Recovery Inc, a division of NHS, a private, nonprofit corporation. Based in Lafayette Hill PA, NHS operates 580 facilities in nine states.
The move has fostered opposition between mobilized residents of two city neighborhoods. Those living near the current clinic, which dispenses methadone to 700 addicts a day, are glad to see it go. Those living near the new site in Waterfront South picketed the port and lobbied hard to bar the move. The terminal is a gated compound near the Gloucester City border in a highly industrial area that buzzes round-the-clock with longshoremen, truckers, government inspectors, and SJPC employees. It is 18 blocks south of the clinic's current location at 400 Broadway. The clinic has operated in the shadow of Cooper Hospital for about 30 years. Now that the area is slated for housing, an elementary school, and a massive infusion of capital from the health and science sectors, officials determined that the clinic, sitting on a state-owned property, must go. Recently, the state sold the site to the Camden Redevelopment Authority for $775,000 with funds from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The university plans to build classrooms there for third- and fourth-year medical students who do their clinical training at Cooper. "It's been a long time coming," said John P Sheridan, president and CEO of Cooper Health System. "At least, the new site is further away from residents, and the port is better able to secure these services. A medical school helps Cooper remain an academic center, and it will give us a facility that will make medical education much better in South Jersey." Monsignor Michael Doyle, pastor of Sacred Heart Church at Broadway and Ferry and a South Camden activist for decades, called the move a "barbaric injustice" to a neighborhood already burdened with the Camden County Sewage Treatment plant and a trash-to-steam operation. "It would be hard to find another area in North America that has been trampled as much by powerful people, mostly men in white shirts, who care little about the poor," said Doyle. "A methadone clinic here will have a neon sign for the mind that says 'drugs sold here.'" Patrick Mulligan, assistant director of neighborhood charity and advocacy group Heart of Camden, said, "You're not doing the city any good to have one neighborhood claim its success depends on the death of another." The new clinic site will be 1,300 square feet larger than the current site. The extra room should eliminate some of the concerns expressed by residents that addicts would be spilling out onto the streets. The SJPC also will provide 40 parking spaces on the opposite side of Broadway -- which currently has several blocks of grass where a sparsely populated neighborhood was recently razed -- and space within the port for a mobile van. SJPC will bid the work out in March and hope to begin construction in April or May. By October, SJPC expects the old clinic to close and the new one to open, said Marlin Peterson, the newly named assistant executive director of SJPC. Source: Courier-Post |
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| Ecologists Warn of 'Water Stress', War |
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A swelling global population, changing diets, and mankind's expanding "water footprint" could be bringing an end to the era of cheap water. The warnings, in an annual report by the Pacific Institute in California, come as ecologists have begun adopting the term "peak ecological water" -- the point where, as in the concept of "peak oil", the world has to confront a natural limit on something once considered virtually infinite. According to Peter Gleick, the president of the Pacific Institute and a leading authority on global freshwater resources, the world is in danger of running out of "sustainably managed water".
Humans -- via agriculture, industry, and other demands -- use about half of the world's renewable and accessible fresh water. But even at those levels, billions of people live without the most basic water services, Gleick said. Experts urge -- as a key part of solving the problem -- an increase in the public's understanding of the individual water content of everyday items. A glass of orange juice, for example, needs 850 liters of fresh water to produce, according to the Pacific Institute and the Water Footprint Network, while the manufacture of a kilogram of microchips -- requiring constant cleaning to remove chemicals -- needs about 16,000 liters. A hamburger comes in at 2,400 liters of fresh water, depending on the origin and type of meat used. Water does get returned in various forms to the system, but not necessarily at a feasible location or suitable level of quality for re-use. There are concerns that water will increasingly be the cause of violence and even war. Dan Smith, the Secretary-General of the British-based peacebuilding organization International Alert, said, "Water is a basic condition for life. Its availability and quality is fundamental for all societies, especially in relation to agriculture and health. There are places," for example, West Africa, the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system, and within ten years, Peru, "where major changes in the rivers generate a significant risk of violent conflict. Good water management is part of peacebuilding." David Zhang, a geographer at the University of Hong Kong, produced a study published in the US National Academy of Sciences journal that analyzed 8,000 wars over 500 years and concluded that water shortage had played a far greater role as a catalyst than previously supposed. "We are on alert, because this gives us the indication that resource shortage is the main cause of war," he said. "Human beings will definitely have conflicts over this." A significant part of the problem is the huge and often deeply inefficient use of water by industry and agriculture. The World's Water report sounds a particularly strong note of alarm over the state of water usage and pollution in China, where rampant economic expansion has overtaxed freshwater resources and could even begin to threaten stability. UN calculations suggest that more than one third of the world's population is suffering from water shortages. By 2025, according to another UN estimate, two out of three people could be living under conditions of "water stress". Source: Times (UK) |
| Obama Opens Faith-Based Office, Expands Its Scope |
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President Obama on February 5 announced the creation of his faith-based outreach office, expanding its agenda beyond funding social programs to work on policies aimed at strengthening family life and reducing abortion. The move more fully formalizes the partnerships between the federal government and faith groups that first began under Clinton and were expanded by Bush. But where Bush used the faith office primarily for funding programs -- drawing criticism that he was mainly assisting his political supporters -- Obama said he wants to use the office for policy guidance, as well.
Obama's office leaves in place rules that allow faith-based groups receiving federal funding to hire only people of their own faith. White House aides said the hiring rules would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis when there are complaints and that the Justice Department will provide legal assistance. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Hilton Washington, Obama said the goal of the initiative "will not be to favor one religious group over another -- or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line our Founders wisely drew between church and state." The president created a 25-member advisory council and named 15 of its members, including several high-profile evangelicals and representatives from secular nonprofits, which largely had little association with Bush's faith-based initiative. The council members are to advise the faith office on policy but will not play a direct role in allocating federal grants. The office will be headed by Joshua DuBois, a 26-year-old Pentecostal who worked on religious issues for Obama's campaign. The office will be more involved in policy planning than it was during the Bush years, White House aides said. They said the top priorities for the office will be interfaith relations, strengthening the role of fathers in society, and reducing poverty. The office also will help develop policies aimed at reducing the number of abortions, though no specifics were offered. Obama kept in place much of the legal structure for the office created through executive orders by Bush. The 11 faith-based offices Bush established in different agencies and a faith liaison in the public outreach office will continue. Source: Washington Post |
| NGOs Must Provide Unrelenting Leadership on Climate Change |
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Global emissions of carbon dioxide must reach a peak in less than 10 years and then begin a rapid decline to nearly zero by 2050 to avoid catastrophic disruption to the world's climate, according to a new report. Emissions of carbon dioxide will actually need to "go negative" -- with more being absorbed than emitted -- during the second half of this century, according to the Worldwatch Institute's "State of the World 2009" report released in mid-January.
Civil society will have to provide unrelenting leadership if these reductions are to be achieved, experts say. The world community will meet in December of this year in Copenhagen to create a tough new climate treaty. However, governments lack courage on this issue and there are "powerful vested interests that are frightened of change", said Worldwatch president Christopher Flavin. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will have to play a "huge role" in ensuring there is a new and meaningful international agreement. "NGOs have an extremely important role in pressing governments to act," said Flavin. Global civil society, from billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person 'dot.causes', is providing much-needed leadership on major issues, said author, environmentalist, and entrepreneur Paul Hawken. "NGOs are the oxygen that society needs in order to grow and adapt to change." This leadership comes from the power of ideas that embody consistent, ethical values of restoring the environment and fostering social justice, said Hawken, who has spent over a decade researching civil society. Civil society is like nature itself, organizing from the bottom up, in every city, town, and culture. It is emerging to be an extraordinary and creative expression of people's needs worldwide. As a result, NGOs are often key players in creating international agreements, in writing policy, and in providing facts and information to policy makers and the public. For many years, NGOs were the only source of information about how to create a sustainable society, and academic institutions are still scrambling to keep up, Hawken said. Formal institutions like governments that provide social stability change very slowly -- which is a liability in times of rapid change. NGOs are nimble, open to change and new ideas. "However, they are only effective when their ideas are taken up by the larger body of society." A complex issue like climate change is hard to convey to people and requires personal interaction at a one-to-one or small group basis, said Hawken. Civil society at the neighborhood level is playing a crucial role in helping people understand the changes that are needed. Source: Inter Press Service |
| More People Empty Their Coin Jars for Dollars |
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Franklin County PA area banks and credit unions are seeing an increasing number of people cashing in their nickels and dimes for paper currency. For people who have been tossing loose change into a jar or piggy bank for years without touching the money, the change can add up to a pretty decent sum of cash.
Mark Bayer, vice president director of marketing at Orrstown Bank, said he spoke with about a dozen bank managers and all are reporting an increase in people cashing in loose change and rolled coins to area branches compared to previous years. Another coin that many bank members have been cashing in lately are presidential coin collections. "We don't track how many coins we have exchanged, so it's all anecdotal evidence," said Bayer, "but there was a really strong sense among the managers that there have been more coins." Patriot Federal Credit Union has also seen a spike in the amount of people looking to turn in coins for cash. Tom Iacona, director of marketing, said the credit union has seen the amount of requests for coin wrappers and usage of the bank's coin counting machine double within the past year. Iacona said the he could not comment on the amount of dollars in change that has been turned in at credit union offices for security purposes. There are no fees to bank or credit union members who exchange rolls of coins. Iacona said there is a 5% fee for coins that are sorted by the credit union's counting machine. The change exchange can make for interesting stories on how people save and transport their loose change. Iacona said one credit union member saved his coins in a cooler and brought the cooler to the credit union to be dumped into the counting machine. Area supermarkets are also seeing an increase in people using its Coinstar change machines, which count the change and issue a voucher that can be exchanged for either cash or groceries. Tracy Pawleski, spokeswoman for Giant Food Stores and Martin's Food Markets, said activity at the machines increased from 2007 to 2008. "But considering just about everyone is pinching pennies, we expect to see increased use." According to Coinstar's Web site, there are 10 machines in Franklin County, including three in Shippensburg and four in Chambersburg. The machines charge an 8.9% processing fee. Change has been a thriving business for Coinstar, which set a record for machine installations last year with 3,000 new machines up and running in the US, the UK, and Canada. In 2008, the machines processed $3 billion in coins through 78 million transactions in the three countries. In 2007 the machines processed $2.9 billion through 70 million transactions. Sarah Jones, spokesperson for Coinstar in Bellevue WA, said the company has not seen a correlation between the souring economy and people cashing in their coins. "What we've seen is that people will cash in their coins when their jars are full." Source: Chambersburg Public Opinion |
| Labor Minister Urges Inmates to Acquire Skills |
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Tshane inmates in Botswana have been encouraged to acquire skills that they could use to earn a living when their prison terms end. Addressing the prisoners during a short visit on Saturday, the Minister of Labor and Home Affairs, Peter Siele said although they were incarcerated for varying offences, they deserved to be taken care of and be treated in a humane manner. Siele told the inmates that while being treated as prisoners, they should not despair but rather should aim to acquire skills they could use to survive the conditions outside prison.
He said that President Lt Gen Seretse Khama Ian Khama had come up with a program that will enable ex-offenders to use the expertise when they return to society. He said this could help the ex-convicts to fit into the community, acknowledging that being welcome back after one had been sent to jail could be a challenge. Siele said the other reason the President initiated such a program was because the government had realized that the public needed to accept people who had served time in prison and to give them a chance to tap their talent outside the prison environment. Siele commended the inmates for taking advantage of the education programs available to them through institutions such as BOCODOL. "It is impressive that people are making use of these resources and end up being enrolled in the universities for requisite studies." The minister said he was pleased that Tshane inmates were still holding on to culture, as evidenced by the traditional group that kept the guests well entertained. He urged them to keep it up, adding that such was another form of talent they could use once they are outside the prison environment: "You could form your own traditional group and go on to win the awards." Source: Botswana Press Agency |
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