For A Change articles from December 2005

For A Change archives from December 2005

Canadian birthdays.(EAR TO THE GROUND)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Over the last year the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan have been celebrating their 100th birthdays. They cover a vast territory from the North American prairies to the Rocky Mountains and from the border with the USA to the...

Nordic roots.(EAR TO THE GROUND)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... I live in central Alberta, a magnificent tapestry of grain fields, lakes, forests and snow-covered mountains. Alberta's capital, Edmonton, with its large population of Ukrainian and Polish immigrants, recently hosted the World Masters...

Boomtime.(EAR TO THE GROUND)
December 1, 2005... The oil industry is booming. Fourteen thousand new wells were drilled in Alberta in 2004: the total for 2005 is expected to exceed 22,000. The activity is so intense that motels are full, trucks and rigs are everywhere and it is almost...

Neighbours.(EAR TO THE GROUND)
December 1, 2005... Albertans find it impossible to ignore our intimate relationship with the United States, its people, its industries and its trade policies. We export raw materials to them, while into our chilly winter flow fruit and vegetables from their...

Tomorrow country.(EAR TO THE GROUND)(Alberta)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Those searching for the 'Old West', with its cowboys, Indians, red-jacketed Mounties and buffalo, will still find it reflected in country community gatherings: rodeos, barn dances, and colourful Aboriginal pow-wows. But they will also find...

Life as a gift.(FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK)
December 1, 2005... In my youth I didn't always feel that life was a gift. In fact, even after finding a faith, the saying, 'Life is a gift', has been problematic for me. Recently I had the privilege of living in Cambodia. There, with the legacy of the Pol...

Batting for India's disabled: Pamela Jenner discovered a Valley for the Disabled hidden away in the rural heartlands of Tamil Nadu.
December 1, 2005... THE SIGN OUTSIDE Amar Seva Sangam bears the words 'Live to serve'. Inside the entrance a group of lads are playing cricket. Hardly unusual, you might think, in India--a country obsessed with the sport. But take a closer look and you will see...

Bogolan blossoms among young offenders: Kader Keita tells Andrea Cabrera Luna and Jose Carlos Leon Vargas there are no confines for the arts.(RENEWAL ARTS)
December 1, 2005... 'I AM NOT handicapped, either in the mind, or in the heart," says the Malian artist, Kader Keita, who over the last eight years has been helping young and old people to develop artistic passions. Having had polio as a child, the artist is...

Rajendra Gandhi: rubber soul: Mumbai businessman Rajendra Gandhi has made recycling a matter of moral principle.(profile)
December 1, 2005... LIKE MANY IN India, Rajendra Gandhi looks forward to the clay when his country might stage Formula 1 motor racing. He has a special interest, for his company would be in the market to recycle the worn tyres. 'Creating wealth out of waste',...

Nomads find a home in the arts.(people making a difference)(New Generation)
December 1, 2005... NEW GENERATION, a group of artists who have created an open forum where people can exchange artistic skills, gathers daily in Vauxhall Community Centre, in London. They consider themselves nomads: they do not have a fixed performance space, and...

Mapuche first, then Chilean.(Maria Romero Cheuquepil)
December 1, 2005... 'THANK YOU Ngunechen (God) for what we have, for who we are. We are proud of being Mapuche, people of the Earth,' says Maria Romero Cheuquepil before the first meeting of the university year. She is President of the Association of Students and...

Ubuntu-'I am because you are'.(Uganda Rural Development and Training Institute)
December 1, 2005... THE LITTLE town of Kagadi-Kibaale is not only the oldest conflict zone in Uganda, but also the place where Mwalimu Musheshe visualized the 'Uganda Rural Development and Training (URDT) Institute'. Musheshe is no stranger to conflict...

Radio--where the pictures are better: Denis Nowlan speaks for the medium which leads you by the ear.(essay)
December 1, 2005... I CAN REMEMBER the day, when I was just tall enough to see the top of the kitchen table, that my father patiently assembled a crystal radio set: a shoebox, the tube out of a toilet roll, wound with copper wire, a few bakelite knobs and the...

Return to Cootamundra: healing? For me that's impossible, Val Linow told John Bond.(turning point)
December 1, 2005... IT WAS May 2000. The national Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation had invited all Australians to show their support for reconciliation by joining a walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. And Val Linow was furious Val is one of the...

Advent.(christmas new year)(Poem)
December 1, 2005... ADVENT There is light even in the shortest days of this dark year. Even though the smoke of the burning buildings dims it; even though the tears of the grieving families blind us; even...

New Year new wavelength.(christmas new year)(recharging spiritual batteries)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... I was at a New Year's Eve party in the block where I live and quickly had to fetch my 35-year-old, leather-bound, battery-operated radio to catch the chimes of Big Ben to see the New Year in. The resident next to me noticed I hadn't pulled out...

Correction.(christmas new year)(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2005... In the last issue we wrongly described Sasha Kopyl, from the Ukraine, as 'she'. We would like to apologize to Mr Kopyl for this error.

The women who are turning Tlaucingo around: why are the men returning to a small, impoverished town in Mexico?(building community)
December 1, 2005... WHEN ADRIANA PAOLA Palacios Luna graduated from university, there was a big celebration in Tlaucingo, a small town in the south west of Puebla province, Mexico. Palacios' family--including her mother, sisters, uncle, aunt and cousins--came with...

What foreign country inspires you most?(since you ask)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... CHINA INSPIRES me most. I am CEO of HQ Sustainable Maritime Industries, a company listed in the United States. Our main product is a fish called tilapia, produced by cooperative aquaculture farmers in China. The oceans are largely...

Crisis of civilization in Europe: Philip Boobbyer discusses two books which challenge the secularism of modern Europe.(BOOKMARK)
December 1, 2005... GEORGE WEIGEL's fascinating and contentious book, The Cube and the Cathedral, looks at history from the point of view of theology. Subtitled Europe. America and politics without God, it has much to say to anyone who cares about the future of...

Sorry is the hardest word.(A DIFFERENT BEAT)
December 1, 2005... THE BRITISH Prime Minister, Tony Blair, apologizes to those wrongly imprisoned for the 1974 Guildford bombings and is roundly attacked for doing so. The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, refuses to apologize for the way the government...

Where giants dare to tread.(REFLECTIONS)(leadership)
December 1, 2005... 'IN POLITICS,' remarked former Japanese Prime Minister, Yasuhiro Nakasone, during a speech in London some years back, 'one inch ahead, it is pitch dark.' Stepping into the unknown is always scary. There are many pitfalls--and you are on...

Repairing the levees of trust.(GUEST COLUMN)(Hurricane Katrina aftermath)(Column)
December 1, 2005... IT WILL TAKE more than steel and concrete to repair the festering wounds revealed by Hurricane Katrina's onslaught on New Orleans. The ferocious power of wind and water combined to expose the reality of a community--and a nation--deeply divided...