For A Change articles from August 2002

For A Change archives from August 2002

Active rest duty. (Ear to the Ground).
August 1, 2002... Kenya is due to go to the polls in presidential elections in the coming year. Plans were put in place, last May, to televise all parliamentary sessions and President's Question Time. The wheels came off the idea when KBC, the national...

Elephant charge. (Ear to the Ground).
August 1, 2002... Kenya has Africa's largest concentration of elephants, which are experiencing resurgence. Trekking with a local guide in an area known as Elephant Valley, we witnessed a herd of 50 crossing the valley wall. Our guide led us on the trail of six...

Tree planting. (Ear to the Ground).
August 1, 2002... Kenya's worst flooding in 20 years left 50 dead and thousands homeless. Most of the deaths were caused by mudslides, due to the deforestation of vast swathes of native bush. Illegal logging not only threatens hill-dwelling farmers but also the...

Mechanics' ingenuity. (Ear to the Ground).
August 1, 2002... With no car fitness tests, entering a vehicle is a leap of faith. Kenyan mechanics are ingenious, as I have discovered driving an elderly Japanese import over 3,000 kilometres during my time here. During one unscheduled stop, a passing mechanic...

Inequality. (Ear to the Ground).
August 1, 2002... More than a third of Kenyans live below the $1 a day poverty line, according to The Kenyan Human Development Report. Its findings also suggest that 10 per cent of the population control over 40 per cent of the nation's income. The report cites...

Kenya's gift. (Ear to the Ground).
August 1, 2002... Whether it's in the smiles of the children or the generosity of the poor, Kenya has an air of hope which enriches the heart and intoxicates the mind. I doubt that many other people can dance and sing with the gusto and verve I have witnessed...

Following the steps of history. (In My View).
August 1, 2002... Today people criticize or, at best, take for granted the existence of the European Union. It has somehow slipped out of our memory that it was an unprecedented, phenomenal event when, so soon after World War II, enemies became friends. For...

The power of silence: in a restless world, silence can be the source of healing and creativity. (Lead Story).
August 1, 2002... `Your poetry is very deep, where does it come from?' a lady asked me at the end of an international conference, where I had been invited to present my work. `From silence,' I replied before pausing to think. Later on, while reflecting on...

I feed on silences.
August 1, 2002... I feed on silences I feed on silences On the rarefied hours Of the evening When the night Little by little Swallows the day With an embrace First tender Then dominant Those silences That...

I went out into the rain.
August 1, 2002... I went out into the rain I felt only with the rain I could share my pain, so... I went out into the rain And cried with pain Water in the skies Water in my eyes Half way up the mountain A burnt...

What's Emily to us? What can a play about a reclusive American poet tell us about ourselves? Quite a lot, if the experience of its creators is anything to go by. Edie Campbell and Jack Lynch talk to Mary Lean. (Renewal Arts).
August 1, 2002... People who talk to Edie Campbell after watching her one-woman show about Emily Dickinson, the 19th century American poet, often comment on how brave her portrayal is. They don't know the half of it. The play tells the story of Campbell's...

Out of the poverty trap. (People: making a difference).
August 1, 2002... In the last 10 years there has been mounting action in Brazil to lift young people out of the poverty trap and enable them to receive a university education. As in many countries, people of colour in Brazil are disproportionately...

Straight from the streets. (People: making a difference).
August 1, 2002... Three years ago Danny Leaosavaii and Andy Murnane were living in a garage. Today they are running a business empire. As New Zealand's 60 Minutes TV programme reported, `Life started out tough in South Auckland for Danny Leaosavaii and Andy...

Power to the village. (People: making a difference).
August 1, 2002... The village of Kami high in the Bolivian Andes now has its own power supply once again thanks to the initiative of a local priest and a group of Italian engineers. The Italian Salesian father Serafino Chiesa was assigned to the village of...

A passion for the human family: retirement hasn't slowed the pace of Cornelio Sommaruga, former President of the International Committee of the Red Cross. (Profile).
August 1, 2002... `Gruss Gott' is the hearty greeting that you hear as Cornelio Sommaruga, former President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), hurries in. Tall and broad, the physical presence is imposing, but what strikes you most is the...

Children of Gaza working for peace. (First Person).
August 1, 2002... On a hot summer day of 1997, I was sitting in my office thinking about the daily activities of the youth project in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, where I worked as a volunteer. Suddenly I received a call from my friend inviting...

Afghan refugees gain learning for life. (Update).
August 1, 2002... As Afghan refugees stream back into their homeland, following the overthrow of the Taliban regime last year, a critical issue for the nation's reconstruction is education. `Afghanistan's education system is in a state of total collapse,'...

Africa arises. (Newsdesk).
August 1, 2002... It was billed as a milestone on the road to a new Africa. An all-Africa conference, organized by MRA/Initiatives of Change (IC) in Nairobi, Kenya, drew groups from 16 African countries and eight other nations, from 31 May to 3 June. ...

Steps in faith: Hugh Nowell has made a vocation of rising to the unexpected. (Turning Point).
August 1, 2002... When Hugh Nowell left Oxford with a chemistry degree in 1949, acting and publishing were the last things on his mind. He planned to spend a gap year in Switzerland, and then take up a career in industry. He already had an inkling, however,...

Letter.
August 1, 2002... I was intrigued by the opinion that `India was thought to be the only country in the world which has never persecuted the Jews' (For A Change, April-May 2002). In Australia I am unaware of any ghettos or pogroms involving these gifted...

When the past becomes present. (Healing History).
August 1, 2002... `Suddenly history has become a real picture,' I heard from my fellow participants in the Lorraine-Europe 2002 conference, which took place in May in the east of France. Organized by Antenne Lorraine-Trois Frontieres, a programme of...

Food for the soul: James Hore-Ruthven discovers that `Celebrating life' by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks contains far more to engage the heart and mind than its size might suggest. (Bookmark).
August 1, 2002... As one who tries to take time each day in quiet reflection, I know of few better ways of starting than by reading a chapter of Celebrating life--finding happiness in unexpected places by Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the...

One of journalism's finest hours. (Webbsite).
August 1, 2002... Gail Collins holds no public office or top corporate post, but ranks as one of America's most influential figures. As the first woman editor of the New York Times editorial page, she is a trailblazer. It's not surprising, then, that after a...

What is truth? (Reflections).
August 1, 2002... I had one of those moments, on a Sunday morning a few weeks ago, when no answer felt like an adequate response to the question asked of me. Through the receiving line came a church member who asked, `What is truth?' Taken aback for a moment, I...

A year after the day that changed America forever. (Guest Column).
August 1, 2002... A year after 11 September, Americans have a persistent sense of foreboding that other outrageous terrorist attacks are coming. The directors of the FBI, the CIA, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense seem to compete in the issuance...