For A Change articles from April 2005

For A Change archives from April 2005

Jones by name.(Ear To The Ground)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... When the South African rugby team took the field against Wales at the end of last year, they must have been bemused to learn that no less than six of the opposition were called Jones. It was highly confusing for the commentators as well. ...

Revival in the pits.(Ear To The Ground)(religious revival centenary)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Wales is currently celebrating the centenary of the great religious revival of 1904-5 which started in Loughor, near Swansea, and swept through the country. Its most prominent leader was Evan Roberts, a 26-year-old former miner and blacksmith....

Poetry in architecture.(Ear To The Ground)(Wales Millennium Centre)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The 106-million [pounds sterling] Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, which opened at the end of last year, is home to seven resident companies, including the Welsh National Opera. The protruding dome of the front facade is dominated by...

Mobile-free zone.(Ear To The Ground)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... A sizeable chunk of Wales's economy depends on tourism. How we market our attractions is a constant source of interest and debate. One of the Welsh Tourist Board's latest posters declares, over a stunning view of Snowdonia, 'AREA OF...

Wales forever!(Ear To The Ground)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... St David's Day is celebrated by Welsh people the world over. Last year President Bush sent a message of goodwill, highlighting Wales's 'innumerable contributions to America's history'. Eleven US presidents came of Welsh ancestry, he continued,...

Start small.(Ear To The Ground)(changing the world)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... 'Do the little things' is one of the few sayings that have been handed down from St David, who died in 589. His words were echoed by another Welshman, Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his Christmas address. He warned about becoming...

Let's make poverty history.(Editorial)
April 1, 2005... Two great windows of opportunity will swing open this year in the fight against world poverty, surely one of the most pressing moral issues of our age. Poverty kills 6,000 children each week--the equivalent of a tsunami a month. In July,...

Let's hear it for St Anns! Mary Lean visits an innercity area of Nottingham, England, and meets the residents who are determined to rescue it from guns, drugs and crime.(Lead Story)
April 1, 2005... On the way into the Chase Neighbourhood Centre in St Anns, Nottingham, there are two police notices. They ask for people to come forward with information on the drive-by shooting of 14-year-old Danielle Beccan last October and the stabbing of...

Return to Afghanistan: my grey land: Shabibi Shah has been longing to return home for 22 years: the reality was a shock.(First Person)(Cover Story)
April 1, 2005... When I decided to go back to Afghanistan last November, I was excited but frightened at the same time. I had left 22 years ago, as a refugee, crossing the mountains to Pakistan by truck, donkey and foot with my three children, and eventually...

Teame Mebrahtu: refugee with lessons for the world's teachers: Stan Hazell talks to Teame Mebrahtu--a refugee who has devoted his life to education.(Profile)(Interview)
April 1, 2005... As Ethiopian Mig jets flew overhead during Eritrea's liberation war, freedom fighters and teachers gathered beneath the branches of a 200 year-old tree to attend workshops led by one of Eritrea's leading educationists--Teame Mebrahtu. He had...

Stress test.(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2005... RECENTLY I developed a low technology monitor for measuring what I call the A/G factor (Anxiety/Guilt). It is a series of five questions, each with a score of 0 to 20. When I ask myself the following questions, what degree of anxiety or guilt...

Post-war Germany.(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2005... Indeed I am appalled by the reference in your February/March issue to babies in postwar Berlin 'born as a result of rape by the Allies and the Russians'. Stalin's order was that all German women were to be raped (a footnote in...

Are we ready to listen to all Ukrainians? Jose Carlos Leon Vargas was in Ukraine during the 'Orange Revolution' in December. What he saw got him thinking.(Photo Essay)
April 1, 2005... Ukraine's diversity constitutes its richness, but it has also lain behind continuous struggles throughout the centuries. The presidential elections last December demonstrated the strength of the linguistic and ethnic divisions in this...

Defusing the debt threat: Bill Peters, one of the founders of the Jubilee 2000 campaign for debt remission, reviews a new book on the international debt crisis.(I.O.U.: The Debt Threat and Why We Must Defuse It)(Book Review)
April 1, 2005... I.O.U. THE DEBT THREAT AND WHY WE MUST DEFUSE IT NOREENA HERTZ Fourth Estate, 2004 ISBN 0007-178990 Despite Osama bin Laden, WMD, the Iraq War, etc, the rich-poor gap remains the major source of insecurity in our globalizing world. It...

What is the biggest gamble you've ever taken?(Since You Ask)
April 1, 2005... MY SEVEN-year-old son became really worried by the time I had won seven old pence on a machine in a seaside arcade, many years ago. 'Stop it, Mum!' he yelled, pulling me away. I did. But a rather bigger gamble had come years before when I...

Beijing's student volunteers.(People Making A Difference)(Love Heart Association)
April 1, 2005... LI HUANGHAUNG is a third year mathematics major at Beijing University and President of its 400-strong group of volunteers, the Love Heart Association. Every week dozens of its members give time to a range of voluntary activities, from teaching...

From turtles to cosmetics.(People Making A Difference)(Cosmeticos Naturales de Mazunte)
April 1, 2005... THE TOWN of Mazunte on the Pacific Coast of Mexico's Oaxaca state is a small piece of paradise, where people and nature cohabit in a harmonious equilibrium. The area is famous for the Olive Ridley Turtles which return there every year to breed....

After the suicide bomb.(People Making A Difference)(Nasiriyah, Iraq)
April 1, 2005... ON 12 Nov 2003 a lorry loaded with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber blasted the Nasiriyah outpost of the Italian contingent in Iraq. Seventeen military personnel and two civilians were killed. Local dignitaries in Iraq immediately...

Everybody's business: social entrepreneurs aren't just in it for the bottom line--or out of a desire to 'do good'. Pamela Hartigan sees them as the architects of a new social economy.(Essay)
April 1, 2005... A social entrepreneur is what you get when you combine Richard Branson and Mother Teresa--a hybrid between business and social value creation. Most governments, agencies and institutions are stuck in that fragmented world which divides the...

The second battle of Pilleth: Juliet Boobbyer tells the story of the restoration of a church on the site of an historic battle between the Welsh and English.(Healing History)(St. Mary's Church)
April 1, 2005... On a hillside, standing sentinel over one of the most beautiful valleys on the Welsh Marches, stands the ancient and weather-beaten church of St Mary's, Pilleth. This is border country with a long and turbulent history. Everyone knows that...

Pandemonium in court.(A Different Beat)(Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili's testimony)
April 1, 2005... From the Caucasus, long associated with conflict, comes a remarkable story of forgiveness. Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili of the Evangelical Baptist Church, the largest Protestant denomination in Georgia, has taken a bold step towards furthering...

Engage others: step two to remaking the world.(Reflections)
April 1, 2005... THIS IS a radical agenda. When I write about 'remaking the world', I do so in the context of my belief that there is a Divine intention behind creation, both loving and dynamic. Remaking the world is about embracing that original vision and the...

Ukraine--a forerunner for Russia?(Column)
April 1, 2005... In 988, Prince Vladimir of Kiev, the paramount Russian city at the time, had himself and his subjects baptized in the Greek Orthodox Christian faith. That faith remains the national religion of the Russians today, surviving the sacking of Kiev...