For A Change articles from February 1999

For A Change archives from February 1999

Private lives can affect public duties.
February 1, 1999... If a politician or other public figure cheats on his or her spouse, there is a certain amount of finger-wagging but apparently little surprise among the British public. So common have revelations of sexual misconduct become that all but the...

Making the most of the new millenium: as the countdown clocks tick their way towards the year 2000, Mary Lean looks at plans to mark a global rite of passage.
February 1, 1999... The people of Fiji are so keen to be first to enter the third Millennium that they have adopted Daylight Saving, so as to pip New Zealand to the post. After all there are tourist dollars in the tick of the clock that takes us into the 21st...

Clean slate for the year 2000?
February 1, 1999... The Chairman of the Clean Slate Campaign, Edward Peters, is quite precise about the date on which the idea struck him--15 March 1998. But if the concept of a campaign came as a bolt from the blue, the process which gave birth to it had been...

Christians atone for the Crusades: for the last three years, western Christians have been retracing the steps of the first Crusaders - with a message of peace and repentance.
February 1, 1999... What began as the dream of a young American carpenter has grown to encompass over 1,100 people from more than 25 countries in a bold bid to heal the wounds of history. In the late 1980s the carpenter, who had worked in the Middle East for...

Jubilee 2000 gathers momentum.
February 1, 1999... In this new feature, we shall report on developments since our publication of a major story. In December, the International Development Minister in the new German government, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul stated that the demands of the Jubilee...

Discovering inner freedom: Philip Boobbyer, a lecturer in modern European history at the University of Kent, puts cleaning one's slate in a wider philosophical context.
February 1, 1999... A sense of inner freedom is often the exception rather than the norm in life. Yet could it be permanent? Life can be like a car with dirt in its engine, that is not running at full capacity. Even apparently successful people have holdbacks...

Breakthrough in the war against corruption: Michael Smith meets the man behind an international move to outlaw bribery.
February 1, 1999... It could be hailed as a major breakthrough in the worldwide war against grand corruption in international business. Industrialized countries representing over 60 per cent of the world's export trade have ratified a convention to outlaw...

Racial equality, Mississippi-style: William Winter, one of the architects of (Bill) Clinton's new initiative on race, grew up on a farm on the edge of the Mississippi Delta.
February 1, 1999... William Winter, one of the architects of Clinton's new initiative on race, grew up on a farm on the edge of the Mississippi Delta. What turned him into a reformer? He talks to Robert Webb. In the Mississippi where William Winter grew up,...

Breaking out of race-based politics: Robert Corcoran, National Coordinator of the Hope in the Cities (HIC) coalition based in Richmond, Virginia, reports on the third annual Metropolitan Richmond Day.
February 1, 1999... Robert Corcoran, National Coordinator of the Hope in the Cities (HIC) coalition based in Richmond, Virginia, reports on the third annual Metropolitan Richmond Day, where HIC activists from across the USA gathered: Minorities played a...

Quest for full employment.
February 1, 1999... `Full employment, myth or reality' was the theme of the annual conference of The Industrial Pioneer newspaper, held at Tirley Garth, the MRA centre in the north of England last November. The conference was part of `a long-term strategy' to...

Wake-up call: Cricket White describes how near-disaster pitched her into working with Hope in the Cities.
February 1, 1999... At 8 o'clock one night in July 1995, Dr Carney called. She asked if she could come over to our house to talk about the results of the MRI scan my husband Ralph had had on his head two hours earlier. The next 20 minutes raced by as we...

In sickness and in health: when her husband and her daughter became seriously ill, Harriet Cameron's world was turned upside down.
February 1, 1999... My life has been fulfilling, rewarding and happy. I assumed this was normal and would always be the case. Then nearly five years ago my husband was suddenly struck by a strange virus that affected his mind and ability to concentrate. Some two...

Letter to a fellow-sufferer: Lorna Laird writes an open letter to a friend who has just been diagnosed with depression.
February 1, 1999... Yes, you have been diagnosed as having depression, and you have been prescribed an antidepressant drug. I understand, for I have been there myself. Depression is an illness, and it affects every part of your being: body, mind and spirit....

When the Pope says sorry: Italian journalist Luigi Accatolli has documented 94 occasions when the Pope has apologized publicly for different aspects of his Church's history.
February 1, 1999... Italian journalist Luigi Accatolli has documented 94 occasions when the Pope has apologized publicly for different aspects of his Church's history. Laurie Vogel takes his message to heart. As I left church one Sunday, I was handed a leaflet...

Spiritual forces in international politics.
February 1, 1999... Spiritual Forces in International Politics by RC Mowat New Cherwell Press, Oxford, UK, 1998 [pounds sterling] 9.99. ISBN: 1 900312 25 5 Robin Mowat's book provides a rich resource for students and professionals who study history and...

No time like now to forgive.
February 1, 1999... A French friend of mine used to sing a song expressing his love for Britain, with occasional wry comments. Describing the size and variety of English breakfasts he would say, `No wonder we call ours un petit dejeuner.' He would also object...

Not for the faint-hearted.
February 1, 1999... TWO and-a-half years in the making and 3,500 pages, long, the report of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)is a weighty affair, like the conscience of the nation whose recent, bloody past it documents. The weeks...