For A Change articles from December 2004

For A Change archives from December 2004

Downscaling.(Ear To The Ground)
December 1, 2004... I like to look at the big picture before jumping into something. So for several months before I came to work on For A Change, I had a map of the world on my computer desktop, with London circled in red. The distance from Mexico City could be...

Close to my roots.(Ear To The Ground)
December 1, 2004... In this city a Mexican Jewish person can find the perfect way to celebrate Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) and Mexican Independence Day, which coincided this year. The 300-year-old Bevis Marks Synagogue, near Liverpool Street Station, continued...

Invasion.(Ear To The Ground)
December 1, 2004... We're not in a minority here: over 200 languages are spoken and more than 30 per cent of London's population came here during the last three generations. We are welcome as long as we accept London's conditions--the weather, high prices, the...

Attention!(Ear To The Ground)(women rights)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... I have always admired British women: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, Margaret Thatcher, the Bronte sisters, and Virginia Woolf. Her book, A Room of One's Own, discusses why it is important for women to have their independence. Now, more than...

Keep right.(Ear To The Ground)
December 1, 2004... When my father asked me what I liked most about London, I replied, 'I love the fact that people in a hurry take the left side of the escalator and the others the right side': a shock for someone from a disorganized and spontaneous culture like...

No soft option.(From The Editor's Desk)(Editorial)
December 1, 2004... A change of job gives you an opportunity to reflect on life--as does a New Year. So, as I have just ceased to be an editor of For A Change, I find myself looking back to the time of its birth in 1987. It was a very different world from...

How far has equality come since Brown? Fifty years after a schoolgirl's bid for equal education launched the Civil Rights struggle in the US, Hannibal B Johnson takes stock.(50 Years Of The Civil Rights)
December 1, 2004... Words often beguile. Witness the United States' Declaration of Independence and its assertion that 'all men are created equal'. Its 'all' did not mean all; its 'men' did not mean 'humanity' or 'people' in the inclusive, universal sense. 'All...

Diversity a matchless plus: when racial segregration came under attack in the 1950s, Bob Webb defended it in his columns and editorials. But he came to see things differently.(50 Years Of The Rights Struggles)
December 1, 2004... DARK-SKINNED Salvadoran-born Ingris Reyes, 22, had been a legal resident of Alexandria, Virginia for 17 years when she received the emotional jolt of her lifetime. Reyes and her five brothers and sisters had known discrimination--in the...

1.2 billion relatives in China: a friendly child gives Tom Duncan the courage to climb China's contemporary Great Wall.(First Person)
December 1, 2004... China has a contemporary Great Wall. It lies between the industrial mega-cities and the rural poor. It lies between families living in their communities, and the young people who must leave for limited jobs in factories far away. The living...

Loans on a knife-edge.(People: making a difference)
December 1, 2004... THE MICRO Loan Foundation (MLF) has come a long way since it started out two years ago 'with just a man and a bicycle,' says founder and trustee Peter Ryan. The London-based charity works in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. It...

Eco-savvy village shows the way.(People: making a difference)(Andhra Pradesh, India)
December 1, 2004... PUNUKULA -- a small, predominantly tribal, village in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP), India--declared itself pesticide-free in 2003, even for crops which are notorious for their high pesticide consumption. Village farmers claim that their...

Born-again crops give hope to Zimbabwean farmers: Ian Robertson and his colleagues have found a way to free staple crops from viruses, with dramatic results for their growers.(Farming)
December 1, 2004... An Edinburgh-born scientist is helping to transform the lives and prospects of small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe, despite the appalling collapse of the country's agricultural base. This year, Zimbabwean farmers have planted only about a third...

The truth at any cost: Phyllis Cameron-Johnson tells Paul Williams how paying a train fare, meeting Navajo visitors to her school and a canoeing accident shaped her life.(Turning Point)(Interview)(Biography)
December 1, 2004... PHYLLIS CAMERON-JOHNSON'S children's book, Return of the Indian Spirit, richly illustrated by her late husband Bill, is infused with her love of the Native American people. She can trace this passion, and the faith and values which have guided...

The book that chose me: an ancient book about war gives Dalia Braverman practical hints on living today.(Book Mark)(The Art of War)(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... I TOOK THE last sips of my Evian water, paid my bill and left the restaurant. I wanted to walk: I've always loved Madrid in autumn. I went up a small road crossing La Gran Via (high street), looking at the shoe and other shops. Suddenly I...

Still learning from Mother Earth: William Commanda, an aboriginal North American chief, survived cancer and alcoholism to pioneer the idea of a 'Circle of Nations'.(Profile)
December 1, 2004... He teaches people how to make birchbark canoes; his sage advice is sought by world leaders; he has travelled the globe talking to schoolchildren and statesmen; he is equally at home in a luxury hotel or a canvas tent. But, at 91, his...

Discover the other: tolerance is not enough to bridge the world's differences, writes Mike Lowe. We need to engage.(Essay)
December 1, 2004... Shortly after arriving in the Solomon Islands in the Fifties a tall pale American was asked by a startled local what village he came from. (In Melanesian culture, one's village is closely linked to cultural and tribal identity--it's a bit like...

Muslim-Christian dialogues.(News Desk)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... FIFTEEN hundred people have taken part in a series of three community dialogues between Muslims and Christians in Sydney, Australia, over the last year. The dialogues, in Greystanes, Cromer and Castle Hills, were organized by Initiatives of...

Solomon Islands police seminar.(News Desk)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... FOLLOWING A 'Winds of Change' conference in the Solomon Islands last June (see FAC Aug/Sept 2004) members of the Royal Solomon Islands Police held a workshop in September. Opening it, Assistant Police Commissioner Johnson Siapu called for 'a...

Forum for a better world.(News Desk)(European Social Forum 2004)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Jose-Carlos Leon Vargas (right) welcomes a visitor to the Initiatives of Change/ For A Change stall at the 2004 European Social Forum at Alexandra Palace in London recently. Some 20,000 people visited the three-day forum in which over 200...

Scholarships after riots.(News Desk)(Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat, India)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... IN 2002, Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat saw around 2,000 Muslims killed. The spark was the burning of a train carriage in which, it was reported, 50 Hindus perished. Since then it has begun to emerge that the ruling pro-Hindu party in Gujarat...

Scrap farming subsidies, say business leaders.(News Desk)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... A GROUP of senior business executives has come out strongly in favour of abolishing agricultural subsidies in rich nations. The Caux Round Table (CRT) group welcomes the recent decision 'to seek an end to national subsidization of agricultural...

What have you gained from losing?(Since You Ask)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... I WANTED a more interesting job. I got it, and more money as well. But I also found myself confronted by heavy expectations, which I had not foreseen. I found that I could not cope with them. I gave up this big work and got a smaller one. I...

Why Lola is growing up rich.(A Different Beat)(combating racism)(Column)
December 1, 2004... When my wife, Erica, and I lived in London we had staying with us for a time two Zimbabweans: Dexter, who was very black, and Alec, who was white and blond. Our daughter, Juliet, then about four, asked, 'Do you know how I tell the difference...

A serious guide to remaking the world.(Reflections)(change yourself)
December 1, 2004... SOME YEARS AGO my daughter, then aged five, announced with satisfaction that her primary school class had decided to save the world. We all get that call at some point, usually before the age of 26. Perhaps you thought you would feed the...

If every child were my child.(Guest Column)(racial reconciliation)(Column)
December 1, 2004... Last June, Andrew, our youngest son, graduated from high school. The end of our 20-year involvement with the public schools in Richmond, Virginia, coincided with the 50th anniversary of the historic Supreme Court ruling on segregation. But a...