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CORRUPTION TAINTS ELECTION IN POOR NEIGHBORHOOD
Life-Net Radio star blows whistle in letter to Pennsylvania attorney general

By Ernst Ford

PHILADELPHIA (11/11/02)

[To:] Mr. Michael Fisher, Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania
16th Floor, Strawberry Square
Harrisburg, PA 17120

Dear Sir:

This letter is written to be sure that future elections in the 180th Legislative District are held in a fair and professional manner.

I, Ernst Ford, ran for State Representative in the district to reduce human suffering and poverty. As you may know, the district is one of the filthiest and poorest.

On election day, several of my certified poll watchers were thrown out of their polling places for questioning improprieties at their polling places.

At one polling place, I watched a committee man voting for a voter who he claimed could not see.

At the Mc Pherson Library 33rd Ward 18th Division, the election judge on the pretext that voters couldn’t speak the language was telling voters who to vote for.

Some voters required up to 3 minutes to understand the process.

A gentleman who is known as a convicted drug dealer, now committee-man sat on the registration table as voters came in to vote. He refused to provide his watcher’s certificate.

Some of the voting machines were in someone’s home.

If those improprieties happened in a Third World country, the said country would be told to redo the election.

I’m not asking for that because I would be seen as a sore loser besides, it would never happen; however, I’d like to see the degree of fraud at polling places reduced because the electoral process is the only avenue by which residents of the district can improve their plight.

Voter education as far as operating the vote machine is concerned should be done weeks prior to election-day; not on election day. If the turn out was heavy in the district, it would’ve been chaotic as far as spending time teaching voters how to vote because spending three minutes to teach voter who don’t understand the process how to vote just don’t make any sense in light of the millions of dollars spent to woo voters to the polls.

Elections should be fair, free from influence by ward leaders, committee people, drug dealers, election judges and others.

If we can’t hold elections in a fair and professional manner, we may as well nominate, appoint or select those we want in office.

Election- day improprieties are the sources of the lamentable conditions of the district.

It is truly a shame that elections cannot be conducted in a fair and professional manner in one of the poorest districts in the City of Philadelphia.

Sincerely,
Ernst Ford, former Green Party candidate for State Representative candidate.
Mrs. Margaret Tartaglione, Election Commissioner
The Committee of 70
Mr. Randy Robinson, Political Consultant
Mr. Leon A. Williams, Esq., Chairman of the Education Party
Mr. Tom Hutt, Chairman of the Green Party, Philadelphia Chapter
Mr. Michael Coard, Esq.
Mr. Daniel Brooks, City Paper
Mr. Linn Washington, Philadelphia Tribune
Mr. Henry De Bernardo, Publisher, Black Star Publications
Ms. Holly Irving, Al Dia Newspaper

You can find out more about Mr. Ford and see his picture at www.ernstford.org. Mr. Ford has starred in numerous Life-Net Radio episodes.

 

MASSIVE FAMINE STALKS ETHIOPIA
Prime minister calls it 'too ghastly to contemplate'

From BBC News

ETHIOPIA (11/11/02)--Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has warned that his country faces a famine worse than that of 1984 which killed nearly one million people and sparked a big international relief effort.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies renewed an appeal for aid, calling for $11m to alleviate drought suffering across Ethiopia, where much of the population already lives in abject poverty.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told the BBC that some six million people already needed food aid and the number facing starvation could rise to 15 million early in the new year if international donors did not come to the country's aid.

Mr Meles said it was "like living through a recurring nightmare".

"If [the 1984 famine] was a nightmare, then this will be too ghastly to contemplate," he said.

Disaster warning

The Ethiopian Government was already barely able to keep its people alive let alone supply adequate food, he said, and could not afford to buy in extra stocks itself.

He predicted that the number of people who could be hit as a result of the new drought might be three times the number affected during the earlier famine.

Bob Geldof, the driving force behind the 1984 relief effort Live Aid, said the new crisis suggested that famine relief programmes of recent decades were "untenable".

Out of sight

Mr Meles said he feared that people in developed countries might be lulled into thinking that the drought was a manageable problem because there were no pictures on TV screens of skeletal figures as there were in the 1980s.

Ethiopia still lacked the facilities to conserve rainwater, Mr Meles added.

During a visit to the village of Dir Fakar, 200 kilometres south of the capital Addis Ababa, BBC Today programme correspondent Mike Thomson saw vital watering holes reduced to dustbowls surrounded by fields of failed crops.

Some local people are already resigned to death from starvation, our correspondent says.

Georgia Shaver, the World Food Programme's director in Ethiopia, says that while up to 14 million people needed food aid across six countries in southern Africa, "in Ethiopia we could have the same number in just one country".

EU effort

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Geldof said that the new crisis in Ethiopia showed that current ideas about famine prevention did not work.

"Live Aid, if it did nothing else, put this at the very top of the political agenda... and yet we see 15 million people in one country alone. That's frankly untenable," he said.

"It means that all your nostrums hitherto haven't worked."

He criticised the European Union which, he said, was spending huge sums on agricultural subsidies at home which could be better spent in Ethiopia and other trouble spots.

Michael Curtis, a spokesman for the EU's commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, said the EU had contributed 60m euros - the equivalent of 100,000 tonnes of cereal - to Ethiopia to date in 2002 and planned to donate more.

He said the EU was also working alongside the Ethiopian Government and the United States to create irrigation systems.

Andrew Pendleton, who advises the charity Christian Aid on Ethiopia, pointed out that Ethiopia's ability to cope with the drought was hampered by its continuing foreign debt, which eats up at least 10% of the state's revenues.

"That is an enormous amount of money to take away from a country that is critically poor," he said.

See also the original article with photos and audio/video at BBC News.

 

AFGHAN STUDENTS FIND HOPE IN NEW SCHOOL DESKS AND CHAIRS

From CHURCH WORLD SERVICE

AFGHANISTAN (11/11/2002)--In a region where literacy rates are low and poverty is taken for granted, a school desk and a chair are signs of hope. It is a theme repeated again and again by students, teachers and school administrators in Hazarajat, located in central Afghanistan.

With its mountainous villages and striking vistas, Hazarajat is a stunning place, but it is plagued by political instability, food shortages, poor schools, and - during 20 years of war and upheaval - landmines.

Schools have had a particularly hard time of it: Neglected during the Taliban era, Hazarajat's schools are rebuilding and rebounding slowly, which is why the community of Ghorband welcomed a shipment of more than 1,000 school desks and chairs from CWS.

Local CWS partner, the Ghazni Rural Support Program, is administering the CWS program to provide some 50,000 students in seven rural communities with school desks and chairs. Desks and chairs for teachers are also being provided. (The actual number of student chairs and desks is 25,000, since Afghan schools normally teach in two shifts.)

The project may seem basic. But as Din Mohammad, the school principal in Ghorband, explained recently, the connection between a desk, a chair, and learning is no small matter.

"When students were sitting on the ground, they weren't so eager to come to school," said Din Mohammad. In fact, he said, since the arrival of the chairs and desks, some 150 more students have attended school, and there has even been talk of town elders wanting to attend.

Afghanistan is also trying to overcome the dispiriting legacy of educational discrimination against girls and women, since neither could attend school during the Taliban era - though many learned on their own in clandestine settings.

Disparities are still evident: Some 400 girls attend high school in Ghorband, compared to 1,754 boys. But the girls display far more eagerness and enthusiasm than the boys: It's as if they know they have to make up for lost time, and they are grateful for anything - like the chairs and desks - that makes their learning easier and more productive.

"It's helped us a lot," said Nafeesa, 14, who hopes to become a doctor and who says the improvements have made her studies of mathematics more pleasurable.

Din Mohammad agrees, saying that in addition to supplies, schools are in need of repair. "The foundation of Afghanistan's reconstruction will be education," he said. "Without it, the country can't progress."

Please visit CHURCH WORLD SERVICE to find out more about this and other important programs. Contributions may be sent to CHURCH WORLD SERVICE, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515. Credit card contributions may be made by calling 1-800-297-1516.

 

U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE NOTIFIES CONGRESS ADMINISTRATION INTENDS TO INITIATE FREE TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH SUB-SAHARAN NATIONS

From the U.S. Trade Representative

WASHINGTON (11/05/2002)--United States Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick yesterday formally notified Congressional leaders of the Administration's intent to initiate negotiations for a free trade agreement with the nations of the South African Customs Union: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. The negotiations will be initiated on or after 90 days from yesterday.

"The Administration is committed to bringing back trade agreements that open markets to benefit our farmers, workers, businesses, and families. With the Congress' continued help, we can move promptly to advance America's trade interests," wrote Zoellick in a letter. "We are responding to Congress' direction, as expressed in the African Growth and Opportunity Act, to initiate negotiations with interested beneficiary countries to serve as the catalyst for increasing free trade between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa and for increasing private sector investment in the region."

A free trade agreement with SACU would deepen U.S. economic and political ties to sub-Saharan Africa and lend momentum to development efforts for the region. SACU is the largest U.S. export market in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for approximately $3.1 billion in exports in 2001. Total two-way trade between the United States and SACU was approximately $7.9 billion in 2001.

As part of the Administration's ongoing consultative relationship with Congress, Zoellick sent letters to the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. In October, Zoellick provided Congress with the formal notification for the Administration's intent to enter into free trade negotiations with Morocco and five nations of Central America. In addition, Zoellick also notified Congress of the U.S. goals and objectives for completing ongoing free trade negotiations with Singapore and Chile and for the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

You may now read Mr. Zoellick's letter to Sens. Byrd and Hastert yourself and make your own assessment of the deal.

 

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