For A Change articles from April 2001

For A Change archives from April 2001

It's not your genes' fault.
April 1, 2001... Perhaps a little humility is in order. Two teams of scientists have succeeded in mapping the 30,000 or so genes that make up the human genome--and they tell us that we have only 50 per cent more genes than the earthworm. Mapping the human...

Living a craft: Hugh Williams looks at what crafts and craftspeople can bring to an increasingly wired-up society. And we meet two leading exponents of their crafts.
April 1, 2001... What is craft? And in what way does the work of the craftsperson differ from that of the artisan or the fine artist? Essentially craft is about making--and making with one's own hands. Cabinet and wooden clock maker David Bowerman describes...

Good for a thousand years: veteran potter David Leach believes art is about transcendental values...
April 1, 2001... When David Leach examines a pot fresh out of the kiln, he looks for one thing above all else: does it convey life? Ninety in May, Leach has been making pots for 71 years: and he certainly conveys life himself. He may be diffident about his...

Silver couple: as Jan and Anneke van_Nouhuys from the Netherlands approach their silver wedding they tall Kenneth Noble about the highs and lows of Jan's calling to be a silversmith.
April 1, 2001... Jan van Nouhuys is one of the Netherlands' leading silver artists, with his work displayed in London's Victoria and Albert Museum, but if he and his wife Anneke had listened to their accountant's advice 15 years ago there would almost certainly...

Worshipping at a different altar: Tony Reynolds was a high flier until a change of motive led his career into a seeming backwater...
April 1, 2001... Tony Reynolds joined the Canadian federal civil service later than most of his colleagues because of a decade in unpaid voluntary work. He soon made up for lost time. `Within a few years,' he says, `the taxes I was paying outstripped the salary...

Rescue to families: (Elaine Banks and "Family Groups").
April 1, 2001... `There are many people today who feel they are failures and need friendship, encouragement, love, care and the will to keep going.' This was one of the reasons why Elaine Banks became the coordinator of `Family Groups' in the Birkenhead area of...

Golden thread of music: (music organization Concordia and Gillian Humphreys).
April 1, 2001... Concordia--a Latin word meaning `of one heart or mind'--is a perfect name for a foundation that aims at `building bridges through music and the arts'. Concordia was founded in 1994 by the international soprano Gillian Humphreys, with...

Dissident for our times: Russian essayist and philosopher Grigory Pomerants found his voice in a Soviet prison camp.
April 1, 2001... Periods of national crisis have a way of producing prophetic voices who speak with special sharpness and clarity. In Russia today, such a voice is Grigory Pomerants, one of the country's most original thinkers since the early 1960s. Now...

From Walkerswood to the world: since we last wrote about Walkerswood, Jamaica, in 1994, its cottage industry has burgeoned into a company with a 2 million (pounds) turnover ...
April 1, 2001... The shopper in New York, London or Johannesburg who picks a brightly-labelled bottle of Walkerswood jerk sauce off the supermarket shelf has little idea of the story which lies behind it. Walkerswood sauces and seasonings are produced by a...

Brighter world of Bamboula (restaurant in London).
April 1, 2001... When I arrive at Bamboula, London's pioneering Caribbean restaurant, manager Paulette Pryce is deep in conference with chef Obrie Blasse. This gives me time to admire the decor. The idea, Pryce explains later, is that someone looking in on a...

Between Eden and Armageddon: the future of world religions, violence and peacemaking.
April 1, 2001... Since the early 1980s the developing field of conflict resolution has drawn together people of many outlooks who recognize that working for a more peaceful and just world cannot and should not be left to governments. Such groups have gained...

Australians follow journey of healing to southern Africa.
April 1, 2001... In Johannesburg in February the Chair of the South African Human Rights Commission, Dr Barney Pityana, met a group of Australians. He had heard that last year nearly a million took part in walks for reconciliation between Aboriginal and...

Leicester renounces anti-Semitism.
April 1, 2001... How far back should modern day societies go in renouncing the evils in their past? At the end of January, as Britain observed its first national Holocaust Memorial Day, the City Council of Leicester unanimously renounced the anti-semitism...

Creators of peace.
April 1, 2001... After the colour, hustle and bustle of Mumbai, India, the tranquil setting of the Asia Plateau MRA conference centre, 260km south-east in the Deccan hills, was appropriate for a workshop on `Everyone a peacemaker'. It was organized by...

Cincinnati's open house (where Jewish-Arab reconciliation can take place).
April 1, 2001... The Open House centre for Jewish-Arab reconciliation in Ramie, Israel, was established 10 years ago to help heal the deep emotional wounds and distrust among Jews and Arabs. The house was originally the home of a Palestianian family, then of a...

Walking to the beat: (rhythm and life).
April 1, 2001... I am not a soccer fan, but one thing that gets me excited at a big match is when, seemingly spontaneously, the strains of You'll never walk alone or some other anthem swell from the vast crowd. There's something powerful about large numbers of...

Where peace begins.
April 1, 2001... During my years with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), I witnessed massacres and genocides, the growing wave of torture and rapes, the displacement of civilian populations, and also extreme poverty, sickness and hunger. ...