| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| July 1, 2009 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 13 Number 4 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Governor, Ag Chief Check on Camden-Area Food Bank |
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PENNSAUKEN, NJ New Jersey Gov Jon Corzine and State Secretary of Agriculture Douglas Fisher met with food bank leaders at the Food Bank of South Jersey (FBSJ) to discuss
continuing efforts to feed the state's 85,000-plus hungry residents. Under Corzine's Hunger Initiative funding, food banks are relying more on locally produced foods, like Jersey Fresh products, to help sustain the state's six food banks. Food bank leaders, like FBSJ executive director Valerie Brown Traore, said the demand for food is there,
and the supply for food is there, but the infrastructure needs a bit of readjustment.
"We're trying to keep up with the demand, obviously," said Traore, who pointed out that the FBSJ is seeing 42% more requests from feeding organizations than last year, and that their facility just doesn't have room for all the food coming in. "Infrastructure funds are critically important to us." Fisher, along with USDA Food and Nutrition Service Mid Atlantic Regional Administrator Yvette Jackson, sat with food bank leaders and discussed food bank accomplishments, as well as problems, and what new and continuing programs will be in place. Incoming federal stimulus money will benefit the food bank programs greatly. "It wasn't just talk," Jackson said. "We got a huge infusion of money." Corzine said he realizes these needs and earmarked $3 million of his Economic Recovery and Assistance Plan to help food banks. "The needs at this time are really quite substantial," Corzine said. "It's not just food. It's the ability for all of us to help each other." One of those food banks that could benefit from the stimulus money is Touch New Jersey, a food pantry with locations in Mount Ephraim and Camden. It gets its food from FBSJ, which is a nonprofit hunger relief organization. Director Debbie Realey said they serve more than 1,000 people per month. "We need more space." Right now, the pantry operates out of an old church building. Kristin Valente, program manager of the children and senior feeding programs at FBSJ, recognizes the special needs that food banks require, especially for those that can be most neglected. With funding, she pointed out, three programs in particular can be expanded: Kids Cafe, Kidz Pack, and Senior Brown Box. Source: Gloucester County Times |
| Companies to Spread Computing Power in Village Schools |
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JAKARTA, INDONESIA Two giant companies joined an effort to educate children in a project that will bring
computer literacy to children and teachers in villages across Indonesia. On June 24, Acer Indonesia and Microsoft Indonesia partnered up with nonprofit Books for Hope to launch a joint project that provides schools in villages with laptops and an interactive application that will enable multiple students to work on one computer at once.
Books for Hope Founder Grace Sai said that with this project, students in remote areas will be able to enjoy the same technology that students in schools in big cities enjoy. "Not all schools can afford one computer for one student," said Microsoft Business Development Manager Bonnie Mamanua, "and there are many that can't even afford to provide one computer for the whole school." A pilot project will commence this month in a vocational high school in Cirebon. "We chose the school because the teachers there are ready and committed (to be a part of this project)," said Grace, "and they have the will to improve the quality of education for their students." If the pilot project proves successful, the second phase of the project will see eight more schools in Padang, Bali, Yogyakarta, and other cities receive the same facilities. Said Bonnie, "We are seeking opportunity to provide the technology to more schools nationwide." Source: Jakarta Post |
| Green Jobs Training Grads Recognized |
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CAMDEN, NJ State and local officials today recognized 16 tri-county residents for completing a "green jobs"
training program in Camden. The 12-week program opened in April as part of Gov Jon Corzine's Energy Master Plan, which calls for $1 billion of public and private investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
With a $300,000 grant from the Conserve to Preserve Foundation of the New Jersey Resources Corp and about $1.7 million from the NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development, state officials hired staff to develop the curriculum and train unemployed and underemployed workers at sites in Camden, Trenton, Newark, and Somerset. More than 300 workers are expected to graduate from the four centers over the course of a year. Locally, the Green Jobs Training was held at the Camden-based Hispanic Family Center of Southern New Jersey. Coordinator Megan Barbano-Maxwell worked with county employment centers to recruit interested job candidates. Every weekday morning, certified energy auditors and analysts taught the students how to test a home for energy efficiency, air-seal buildings, inspect weatherization, and install insulation. Students also learned basic thermodynamics. In addition, the students went over life and job skills to help them become well-rounded job candidates, Barbano-Maxwell said. They attended workshops on financial management, computers, nutrition, environmental awareness, job safety, and labor unions. During their last week, they went into homes to test out their newly acquired technical skills as assistant building analysts and air sealers. Now that they've completed the training, the center will work with local heating and air conditioning companies, builders, public utilities, and developers to place them into paid internships. The state will commit additional money to reimburse the employers up to half of a minimum $15 hourly wage during their three- to six-month internship. Once those internships end, Barbano-Maxwell said, the hope is that the companies will hire their interns as regular staff members. If not, she said, the center will work with them to find other jobs. The center has already contacted 13 companies. Barbano-Maxwell said she believed more jobs would become available as government officials continue funding environmental projects through economic recovery efforts. Already, she said, many companies are looking to hire energy auditors as a result of various tax credits and incentives encouraging homeowners to become more energy-efficient. The center begins training a class of 20 on July 6. A third and final session will start in September. Source: Courier-Post |
| Male Workers Win Equal-Pay Claims |
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ENGLAND A "landmark" legal decision involving three councils in the northeast of England could pave the way for 12,000 men to take forward equal-pay claims. Financial settlements had earlier been agreed for women workers paid less than men doing similar work. The Employment Appeal Tribunal has now ruled that 300 other male workers were discriminated
against as they then remained on lower pay than the women. The councils involved were Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, and South Tyneside.
The men, who were working in jobs such as care assistants, caretakers, drivers, and leisure attendants, had lodged discrimination claims about bonuses paid to male workers in better paid jobs such as gardeners and refuse collectors. This was at the same time as women in low-paid jobs, who were also claiming that the bonuses were discriminatory. Whilst the women's case succeeded and they were offered financial settlements, the men were not. This left them in a worse financial situation than the women. The Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that the 300 men should have been offered the same back pay as the women. These claims are sometimes called piggy back claims as the men "piggy back" on the successful women's claims. Mr Justice Underhill said, "It would be surprising and unsatisfactory if the [Equal Pay] Act offered no remedy to men in a situation like the present. "The case where men and women do the same job but receive different rates of pay is the paradigm of the kind of situation which the Act was intended to prevent. How would it seem if the roles were reversed and the 'piggyback' claimants were not men but women?" Lawyers involved, from the Cloister Chambers, have described it as a landmark ruling which will have a bearing on many other cases and could cost councils hundreds of millions of pounds. Yvette Genn from Cloisters said, "This ruling is what thousands of male workers who have not received equal pay up and down the country have been waiting for. There is no doubt that many of the similar 12,000 cases in the system will now proceed and are likely to be successful." Source: BBC |
| Causes of Human Trafficking |
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BANGLADESH In its narrative of Bangladesh, the ninth annual Trafficking In Persons report (released in Washington DC on June 16) has
identified Bangladesh as a source and transit point.
Although it says that Bangladesh does not fully comply with
the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,
it recognizes the fact that it is making significant
efforts to do so. Bangladesh is on the "Tier 2 Watch
List," meaning that the country has weak practices for
combating human trafficking.
What causes trafficking in persons, particularly women and children, from Bangladesh?
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| Death Count Rises with Arizona Border Restrictions |
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TUCSON, AZ Illegal border crossers face a deadlier trek than ever across Arizona's desert. The risk of dying is 1.5 times higher today compared with five years ago and 17 times greater than in 1998, the Arizona Daily Star's border-death
database shows.
That's a significant increase considering that the initial spike of deaths in Arizona occurred in 2000-02. Through the first seven months of fiscal year 2009, there were 60 known deaths per 100,000 apprehensions in the area covered in the US Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. That's up from 39 known deaths per 100,000 apprehensions in 2004. The increased risk of death parallels the historic buildup of agents, fences, roads, and technology along the US-Mexico border, calling into question one of the Border Patrol's mantras that a "secure border is a safe border." Even with 3,300 agents, 210 miles of fences and vehicle barriers, and 40 agents assigned to the agency's search, rescue and trauma team, Borstar, illegal immigrants are still dying while trying to cross the Border Patrol's 262-mile-long Tucson Sector. Border county law enforcement, Mexican Consulate officials, Tohono O'odham tribal officials, and humanitarian groups say the buildup has caused illegal border crossers to walk longer distances in more treacherous terrain, increasing the likelihood that people will get hurt or fatigued and left behind to die. "We are pushing people into more deadly areas," said Kat Rodriguez, coordinating organizer for Coalición de Derechos Humanos, a Tucson-based group that tracks the deaths. "When enforcement goes up, death goes up. We've been saying that for years." Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada and Sgt David Noland, the Cochise County Sheriff's Office search and rescue coordinator, say body recoveries in their counties show that people are trekking through increasingly remote areas. The Border Patrol doesn't stop anyone from coming; it only shifts the locations where they cross, said Rev Robin Hoover, president of Tucson-based Humane Borders. His group's maps show that bodies are being found farther away from principal roads and water sources each year. "The presence of the Border Patrol makes the average migrant hungrier, thirstier, more tired, and sicker." Border Patrol officials point to their rescue efforts as evidence that their presence prevents deaths rather than causes them. "Our presence is greater; we are getting to these people sooner," said Robert Boatright, deputy chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. The agency rescued 160 people through mid-May, compared with 151 at the same time last year. He attributes the continued rise in deaths to better recovery methods and more thorough record-keeping. "When somebody loses a loved one, a lot of times we're getting better information back and going back and finding those." The agency concentrates its agents and rescue teams in the desert west of Sasabe, where most of the bodies are found, to move them out of the most dangerous areas, he said. "I'm not driving them to a more hazardous location," he said. "I'm driving them toward Nogales." Apprehension figures show a clear downward trend in the Tucson Sector, the busiest on the Southwest Border, with captures dropping 35% from 491,771 in 2004 to 317,696 in 2008. This year's numbers through April are down 31% from the same time in 2008. The Border Patrol points to the gradual decrease as evidence that fewer are crossing. That theory is backed by several other indicators of a slowdown, including Mexican census data that show fewer people leaving the country. Source: Arizona Daily Star |
| Former Congresswoman Arrested on Gaza-Bound Ship |
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MEDITERRANEAN SEA The former controversial Congresswoman from Georgia, Cynthia McKinney, has resurfaced -- on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea trying to deliver supplies to Gaza. Israeli forces arrested McKinney and other passengers on board a ship yesterday, according to a group called Free Gaza, which said on its Web site that McKinney and the others "have been illegally incarcerated for their solidarity work with Palestine."
The Israeli navy confronted the Spirit of Humanity, a "humanitarian aid" ship carrying passengers, including McKinney, Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, and aid workers, from Cyprus to Gaza. The Spirit, carrying medical and other aid, was in international waters when the warships surrounded the unarmed ship and started threatening to open fire. The ship also was carrying three tons of medical aid, children's toys, and rehabilitation and reconstruction kits for twenty family homes. "I am extremely angry," said McKinney while still aboard the Spirit. "We demand that the Israeli government call off their attack dogs. We are unarmed civilians aboard an unarmed boat delivering medical and reconstruction aid to other human beings in Gaza. Why in God's name would Israel want to attack us and threaten our safety and welfare? I call on President Obama and the international community to intervene now to prevent this situation from escalating with potentially drastic results to the civilians on board." After the arrest, she said, "President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that's exactly what we tried to do. We're asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey." The Israeli Consulate General of Israel in Atlanta accused McKinney and her fellow travelers of waging a "reckless political stunt." McKinney ran for president in 2008 as a Green. She was defeated for reelection to the House in 2006. She is the first African-American woman to have represented Georgia in the House. According to a just-released International Committee of the Red Cross report, the Palestinians living in Gaza are "trapped in despair." Thousands of Gazans whose homes had been destroyed during Israel's December-January massacre were found to be still without shelter despite pledges of almost $4.5 billion in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building materials into the Gaza Strip. The report also notes that hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their patients due to Israel's disruption of medical supplies. Source: Washington Post Sources: Free Gaza, Charles Barron |
| Russian NGOs Free to Not Rock the Boat |
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Adapted from a piece by Galina Stolyarova:
Russian legislators are set to loosen a notorious 2006 law that had hobbled the work of independent civil society groups in the country. Drafters of the new amendments, which were prompted by President Dmitry Medvedev, say they would reduce the pressure on Russia's nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by easing the registration process. Representatives of these groups, in turn, say the strict registration requirements in the 2006 law forced them to spend more time preparing paperwork to justify their existence and less time fulfilling their missions. Medvedev promised that the amendments would also make government inspections less frequent. The 2006 law has been widely criticized by lawmakers and government officials across Europe as a crackdown on human rights groups. Some called it a weapon with a telescopic sight, to be used selectively against the most critical groups. Through a new registration process, the 2006 law placed major bureaucratic obstacles in the way of the work and even existence of human rights groups. Human rights campaigners say the situation for NGOs in Russia is nearly catastrophic. The government has been steadily destroying independent pressure groups and replacing them with so-called GONGOs -- governmental "nongovernmental" organizations -- that protect people's rights only on paper. The denigrating term GONGO was coined by genuine human rights defenders, who often labor to make a clear distinction between themselves and the government clones. In Russia, where the business community learned its lesson from the Yukos affair long ago, few companies dare to fund pressure groups that challenge the authorities, whether the groups focus on the environment, media, or the rights of prisoners. Such groups survive on grants and stipends from international foundations. The only organizations to benefit from the changes would be cultural and educational groups funded exclusively by Russian sources. Under Russian legislation, the term "nongovernmental organization" is loose and can include anything from a human rights group to a poetry appreciation society. In most European countries, no special legislation regulates the work of NGOs, other than facilitating the tax regime of these organizations. But nor is there a European convention that prohibits government interference in the work of NGOs. So pressure for real change must come from within Russia, from a more active civil society. A handful of protesters huddling together in the wind outside a government building doesn't have much power. But when the streets are flooded with protesters, the demonstrations will be impossible for the authorities to ignore. Source: Transitions Online |
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| Residents Respond on Gloucester County Mass Transit Expansion |
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GLASSBORO, NJ As the CSX train chugged in between the Triad Apartments and the Rowan U campus, so rolled in the Delaware River Port Authority's fourth and final open house outlining the mass transit expansion project into Gloucester County. More than 100 people from across the area showed up despite rain to hear what the DRPA had to say on June 18 about a proposed 17-plus-mile light rail line from Camden to the borough and about a plan to dedicate some highway lanes to high-speed buses. As was the case in the previous informational sessions, there were those who can't wait for the service to begin and those who want never to hear the train trundling through their towns.
Wenonah's Christopher Burke sees the line as "a great thing for the businesses" that are in his town. He also finds a plus in that it would allow residents the ability to not only use a connection to the PATCO line to get to Philadelphia, but to points at the other end of the line where employment opportunities also exist. Burke's not buying the naysayers who believe crime would run rampant and the safety of the towns would decrease because of adding mass transit back to towns that once had it. "If you look at the River LINE in Burlington County, you'll get an answer to all those questions." Pete Speth, a Deptford resident with a Wenonah ZIP code, said light rail isn't a panacea for the problems facing New Jersey and the rest of the country. Instead of one line, Speth would have rather seen multiple rail lines down Interstate 295, routes 42 and 55 along with the line planned by PATCO and the Bus Rapid Transit Line to serve Deptford and Washington townships. Each of those would then be connected by a regular bus. Getting across the Delaware River was among the most touted virtues of the line. Sicklerville resident Ed Gracely plans on utilizing the Bus Rapid Transit lines running up and down two of the county's major arteries to get to his job in the city. Construction on those lines could begin in the next three years. He said traveling on dedicated bus lanes instead of on regular highways that are at the mercy of traffic jams would be a fine alternative to his current daily bus trip. Rowan Professor of Geography John Hasse said he's happy with the alignment for the train chosen by the DRPA. It was also the one praised by the New Jersey Office of Smart Growth. Hasse conducted a study for the DPRA as to which route would serve the region best. He says the current alignment ranks as most superior in terms of ridership as well as access and destinations. "Glassboro is sometimes not the most active place for young people to be." PATCO General Manager Robert Box said across the board, about 80% of those who filled out surveys at the three open houses found merit in the project. Source: Gloucester County Times |
| Ukraine Villagers Seek Ultimate Memorial for King of Pop |
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KIEV, UKRAINE Residents of a Ukrainian village want to rename it after the late pop superstar Michael Jackson, according to a lawmaker who represents the village. Oleg Kislitsyn, a deputy in the regional parliament, said today that villagers in Oktyabrskoye, located in the Zaporizhia region in the country's southeast, had approached him with a proposal to rename the village "Jackson".
"There are many fans of Michael Jackson there. They want to immortalize him," said Kislitsyn, adding that he was in favor of the proposal. "They want to create a house-museum and collect his records there. This is a depressed region; all the factories are closed. They hope this will attract tourists." Kislitsyn's advisers are meeting with villagers to discuss the proposal. The village's municipal council is to consider the plan in August. When asked what links existed between Oktyabrskoye and Jackson -- whose death in Los Angeles prompted a worldwide outpouring of grief -- Kislitsyn said the world was in the process of "globalization." "I am not a fan but I respect his work," he said. "He had an iron-clad will for victory." Oktyabrskoye is currently named after the October Revolution of 1917 which swept the communists to power in Russia. The name dates back to the Soviet era when Ukraine was under Moscow's control. Source: Agence France-Presse |
| 700 Faith Leaders Lobby for Transit Construction Jobs |
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Adapted from a piece by an advocacy group:
The Federal Transportation Bill might be moving in the right direction but is still missing the mark on many of our targets for transportation equity. We are taking action. On Thursday on Capitol Hill while the subcommittee was marking up the Federal Transportation Authorization, 700 pastors and faith-based leaders marched in and met with their Congressmen and women. They had ridden for hours in buses from all over the country to give their message, "Everybody In, Nobody Out", on three hot issues: transportation equity through workforce development, health care reform that lifts up a public option, and immigration reform that provides a real path to permanent resident status. Chairman Oberstar is determined to push the newly released Federal Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009 forward. This bill redefines the federal role and restructures federal surface transportation by terminating more than 75 programs and consolidating most funding into four core formula categories designed to bring our highway and bridge systems to a state of good repair; improve highway safety; develop new and improved capacity; and reduce congestion and greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality. While these four categories are helpful, they fail to mention one of the most important parts of transportation and infrastructure, which are the thousands of jobs that will be created through this investment. "Creating construction careers is one of the most important jobs of the transportation bill," says Dr Sarah Mullins, the co-chair of the Transportation Equity Network. "Our network believes that we can lift people out of poverty and create a 21st century public transportation system at the same time. We want to see 30% of the work hours reserved for low-income people, women and minorities and 1% of construction budgets directed toward job training." This "Missouri Model" is working on two MODOT projects today and we have strong hopes that chairman Oberstar will include it in his next version of the bill. In the meantime HR 2444, introduced by Representative Norton, mandates that 0.5% of highway funds be used for job training and support by state transportation departments. Source: Transportation Equity Network |
| France Passes New Law to Ban 'Gangs' |
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PARIS, FRANCE On Monday, the French legislature passed a radical new law making it illegal to be part of a "gang" if it's one that has been or may be violent. The move is part of a recent law-and-order initiative by President Nicolas Sarkozy that the French palace is tying to new forms of youth crime at a time of economic crisis. Earlier last month, France banned the wearing of masks during public protests.
The new antigang law says that anyone identified with a group, formal or informal, known by police to have committed criminal acts, or is intending to, may be subject to a three-year sentence or a 45,000 euro ($63,000) fine. Christian Estrosi, of Sarkozy's ruling center-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, spearheaded the new law, which passed late Monday night. Lawmakers on the left and a wide swath of French writers have attacked the law for crudity, for vagueness in defining what constitutes a gang, and for essentially criminalizing intent among persons associating with groups or gangs identified as culpable, even if they have not participated in illegal behavior. The new measure allows police to make arrests of known gangs, but also in cases of spontaneous outbreaks of violence where gangs or mobs form quickly. A compromise amendment to arrest only gangs already identified, or having a "structured" identity, was not adopted. But the new law does include measures for first-time offenders to enter community service programs. The proximate cause of the law dates to a March 10 incident in Saint Seine Denis, a Paris suburb, of gang rivalry, possibly over a girl. A knife-wielding crowd entered a high school in session and sought out and beat a student with iron bars. Eleven other students and staff were harmed in a general melee. In May, Sarkozy began to describe such behavior as part of a larger destructive social fallout of the economic crisis. "The worsening of youth unemployment ... creates further feelings of frustration and exclusion," he said May 28 at the Élysée Palace. "We have noticed in recent months the emergence of new forms of violence, which are profoundly traumatizing." He warned against "well-intentioned" lawmakers who do not understand criminal psychology, and of what he called naive "angelism" -- the idea that people are basically good. Michel Fize, a researcher at France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and expert on youth and gangs, describes the new measure as "essentially useless and potentially dangerous. ... The sentences are heavy, and [it criminalizes] simply belonging to a group. ... It's about the repression of intent." Fize adds that the criminal code in France already has measures to deal with issues of association among "delinquents." A former French official says the measure may fall by the wayside because France has scant monetary resources to implement far-reaching initiatives. Advocates say that even so, putting the law on the books is itself a warning and may give authorities new power to preempt crimes. Source: Christian Science Monitor |
| Bank Warns of Recession's Effect on World Poverty |
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WASHINGTON, DC The World Bank has warned that a dramatic decline in global growth has led to a significant drop in investment in developing countries and is helping to fuel increasing poverty there. The bank said the world economy would shrink by 2.9% in 2009 and that economic damage to developing countries "has been much deeper and broader than previous crises". It said the economies of developing countries, excluding China and India, would contract by 1.6% this year and that foreign direct investment in emerging nations would drop by 30% to $385 billion.
The bank's overall forecast for global growth to fall by 2.9% is a sharp reduction from its March prediction of a 1.7% contraction, which it said then would be the worst on record. The Washington-based multilateral lender said in its report that global trade is expected to plunge by 9.7% this year, while total gross domestic product for high-income countries contracts by 4.2%. Eastern Europe and central Asia have been hit hardest and the region's gross domestic product is expected to plunge by 4.7% this year, the bank said. It said growth there should recover next year to 1.6%. In the Middle East and North Africa, growth is expected to fall by half this year to 3.1%, while that of sub-Saharan Africa will drop to 1% from an annual average of 5.7% over the past three years. East Asia should post a 5% expansion, supported in part by China's stimulus-driven growth, the bank said. The bank said the global economy should start to grow again in late 2009, but "the expected recovery is projected to be much less vigorous than normal". The report said that banks' ability to finance investment and consumer spending would be hampered by the overhang of unpaid loans and devalued assets. "To break the cycle and revive lending and growth, bold policy measures, along with substantial international co-ordination, are needed." Source: Al Jazeera |
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