For A Change articles from August 2004

For A Change archives from August 2004

Good luck Athens!(Ear To The Ground)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... As the Olympic Games prepare to return to their home city of Athens, Sydney warmly recalls its turn as host four years ago. We remember the marvellous Ghanaian swimmer dubbed Eric the Eel, and the way the last of the marathon runners received...

The Jewish judge.(Ear To The Ground)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... In his recently published book, Tampering with Asylum, Father Frank Brennan, of the Jesuit Social Justice Centre in Sydney, recalls how he was inspired by the 'resolute hope' shown by detained asylum seekers. He regularly visited one group of...

Coming together.(Ear To The Ground)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Though seemingly geographically remote from Middle Eastern upheavals, Arabic is Sydney's second language and bridges of understanding need to be constantly built and walked across. Recently an initiative called Journey of Promise united 30...

Open minds-open doors-open hearts.(Ear To The Ground)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... George Negus, a well-known Australian journalist, has just launched his book, The World from Islam. In it he writes of a mosque in Jumeira Beach, Dubai, which runs an 'Open Doors, Open Minds', project to bridge the gap between Islam and the...

Valuable?(Ear To The Ground)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... In Australia the debate has raged about the moral philosophy behind public education, with the Prime Minister calling it 'values neutral'. The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen disagrees, '"Values"... is a typical 20th century coinage...

Keeping faith.(On The Ground)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Sydney MP and Minister for Health in the Australian Parliament, Tony Abbott, spoke recently of the challenge of living a life of faith in politics. 'It means giving others the benefit of the doubt; seeing the good in opponents; hiding one's own...

We must all look to our wrongs.(From The Editor's Desk)(Book Review)
August 1, 2004... Anyone in the West who has the arrogance to think that Muslims don't understand the concept of forgiveness should read a new booklet produced by a British Imam and 19 co-religionists. Why Terror--is there no alternative? *, compiled by...

Where community spirit takes wing; Mary Lean visits Bergh Apton, an English village which shows what communities can do when they get going.(Lead Story)(Cover Story)
August 1, 2004... The Countryside Agency, statutory 'watchdog and champion' of England's rural areas, has been devoting a lot of mental energy recently to developing ways of measuring 'community vibrancy'. Perhaps its researchers should spend a weekend, as I...

A passion for Wales & the world: when Carl Clowes applied for a job as a doctor in North Wales, he could not have foreseen that it would lead him to launching the UK's first cooperative village--or becoming Honorary Consul for Lesotho.(Profile)
August 1, 2004... As a young family doctor in the small Welsh village of Llanaelhaearn, Carl Iwan Clowes discovered early that health entails more than medicine. 'People came in with a history--of poor housing, low incomes and job insecurity. These all have an...

Do or die in Wythenshawe.(People: making a difference)
August 1, 2004... WHEN GREG DAVIS heard that the Methodist Chapel in Manchester he had attended since childhood was facing closure he had no hesitation in taking it on. 'It was a do or die situation,' he says, and do he certainly did. It was deemed unsustainable...

Keeping kids company.(People: making a difference)
August 1, 2004... 'WHAT'S UNIQUE about Kids Company,' founder Camila Batmanghelidjh tells me, 'is that it recognizes the reality of lone children. You can be a child living with a family member and still be completely alone.' This conviction is what drove her to...

Australia continues her journey of healing; John Bond describes the struggle that lies behind a new memorial in Canberra to Australia's indigenous 'stolen' generations.(Healing History)
August 1, 2004... It is hard for a country to admit its mistakes. It is harder to proclaim those mistakes in a place visited by hundreds of thousands of people each year. The Australian Government has done both these things. It has created a national...

The US: freedom begins at home: if America is to advance the cause of democracy worldwide, she will have to work harder at applying democratic values universally.(Essay)
August 1, 2004... The American public's farewell to Ronald Reagan, who died on 5 June, was surprisingly emotional and prolonged. This reflected more than nostalgia for an era of good feeling; more than affection for our most popular president in 50 years; and...

Dental fire sparks new approach: Paul Williams tells the story of an Indian dentist who saw his surgery razed to the ground.(Turning Point)
August 1, 2004... MODERN DENTISTRY is virtually painless, claims Bangalore dentist Ravindra Rao. 'So long as the dentist is the kind to whom the patient matters,' he adds. Eyes twinkling with his characteristic humour, he cites a colleague who displayed a board...

Do talk to strangers: Will Jenkins looks at an initiative designed to break down barriers between ordinary Americans and bring communities together.(Living Issues)
August 1, 2004... Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa once told members of the US Congress that the most effective way to heal the divisions and wounds of history is to provide opportunities for people of all backgrounds to tell their stories. This process is...

Capitalizing on values: is it possible for a successful business to remain truly ethical? Steven Greisdorf finds some practical advice in a recent book that promotes an alternative capitalism.(Book Review)
August 1, 2004... THERE IS NO QUESTION that today's corporate environment is challenging. Managing the expectations of stakeholders--from customers to suppliers, from the community to the investor--is a juggling act. Pleasing all of the people all of the time is...

How-or why-do you make space for God?(Since You Ask)
August 1, 2004... MY FRIENDS smother a chuckle when I tell them I'm sure God is a golfer. Otherwise I would not feel he is with me on the golf course so often: even when I miss a simple putt! My mother was a professional actress who established her own...

Winds of change blow in the Solomons.(News Desk)
August 1, 2004... FEW CONFERENCES hear from a businessman who has paid back 290,000 [pounds sterling] in cheated taxes, or see victims of brutal ethnic conflict forgive each other. Perhaps this is why an Initiatives of Change conference in the Solomon Islands in...

Young people make tomorrow their business.
August 1, 2004... LAST JUNE'S Youth Forum on Ethical Leadership saw more than 40 students from across the UK and beyond gather together at the University of London. The focus of the conference was corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the business...

The park the bus-stand built.
August 1, 2004... 'What is love?' The question was greeted with a stunned silence from our group sitting on the floor of a large wooden house in the mountains of Taiwan. M Scott Peck defines love in his book, The Road Less Travelled, as 'the will to extend one's...

The path to heroism.(Reflections)
August 1, 2004... TWO YEARS AGO I walked my very first labyrinth at an Episcopal church in Portland, Oregon. Found across religious traditions worldwide, the labyrinth typically takes the form of a large circular pattern on the ground for tracing on foot. It...

Who will break the chain of hate?(Guest Column)
August 1, 2004... A chain of revenge and counter-revenge starting from unhealed hurts is the story inside every conflict. The chain becomes bloodier with every act of 'paying them back in their own coin'. Some current conflicts threaten to spiral out of control....