For A Change articles from February 2005

For A Change archives from February 2005

Reality TV.(Ear To The Ground)(moose attack)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Imagine the shock of the Lindeman family, gathered around their TV for a quiet evening's viewing, when a moose crashed through their French windows, cannoned into the sofa, sent it and them shooting across the room, and charged on towards the...

Out of stillness.(Ear To The Ground)(Dag Hammarskjold)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Every year thousands of people visit the house on the south coast of Sweden which belonged to Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish diplomat and Secretary General of the UN from 1953 until 1961, when he died in a plane crash during a diplomatic mission to...

Good neighbours?(Ear To The Ground)(Sweden, Denmark, Norway)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... The southern part of Sweden, with its open farmland and deciduous woods, has a special identity. Years of Danish rule are noticeable in the style of the churches and houses. They even have their own flag, a combination of Danish and Swedish....

Sami parliament.(Ear To The Ground)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... The Swedish Government has given the go-ahead for the planning of a new parliament building in Kiruna for the indigenous Sami people. The Chairman of the Sami Government, Lars-Anders Baer, commented, 'This is an important step. To have our own...

It's a fine thing!(Ear To The Ground)
February 1, 2005... Earlier this autumn, a certain Mr Nylander in Sweden was astonished to receive a parking ticket from England. It demanded a 90 [pounds sterling] fine, on the grounds that he had parked illegally in Warwick. All well and good, except that he had...

One billion children.(From The Editor's Desk)
February 1, 2005... Tens of thousands of children were killed by the tsunami that devastated south-east Asia on 26 December. The tragedy appalled the world and stimulated a huge relief effort. The plight of the tsunami victims grabbed attention because it was...

What hope for a clean Africa? Amina Dikedi tells Mary Lean about the people who give her hope for Africa.(Interview)(Cover Story)
February 1, 2005... Sub Saharan Africa might seem a daunting prospect for anyone who wants to bring change from within. But Amina Dikedi and her colleagues in the Clean Africa Campaign (CAC) are not easy to daunt. They are determined to play a part in shaping a...

Vision for Africa: Junaid Moosa took part in the latest Clean Africa Campaign leadership training programme in S Africa.(South Africa)(Cover Story)
February 1, 2005... WHEN HAS an eight-day conference left me so satisfied, stimulated, enriched and challenged? Thirty people, from eight African countries, took part in the programme near Pretoria, South Africa. They provided a melting pot of nationalities,...

Break-dancing for opportunity.(People Making A Difference)(Connected 2, Huddersfield, England)
February 1, 2005... WHOEVER WOULD have thought that break-dance, hip-hop and disc-jockeying could become the core of an anti-poverty strategy? Connected 2 (C2), an innovative cooperative in Huddersfield, England, has made them just that. Last year it won the West...

An exile's choice.(Yama Torabi)(Interview)
February 1, 2005... YAMA TORABI has a dream: to create a research unit in his native Afghanistan which will prepare young Afghans for work in politics, public administration and the social sciences. Torabi (28) left Kabul in 1992, when he was 16, and fled with...

Children of the catastrophe: French photojournalist Isabelle Merminod visited Belarus to meet victims of the Chernobyl disaster who were not born when it took place.(Photo Essay)
February 1, 2005... Belarus, which became independent in 1991, is such a new country. But at the same time it is so old, not least because of its experiences as a Soviet ex-republic. After the 1986 catastrophe at Chernobyl, near Ukraine's border with Belarus, 70...

Freed from the dungeon of hate: Helena de von Arnim from Colombia, believed that being abused as a child had condemned her to a lifetime of hate.(Turning Point)
February 1, 2005... TWENTY YEARS ago I was invited to see a film about the life of Irene Laure, a French socialist who suffered during World War II, found the grace to forgive, and worked for post-war reconciliation and reconstruction. As I sat in the dark...

How do you recharge your batteries?(Since You Ask)
February 1, 2005... ON 12 September 2001, I tried to work at my desk as normal but found that I couldn't. I started to shake all over with the searing images of the day before in my mind. So I drove out of my city of Boston and started walking into the forest. I...

Ela Koloshi: 'that bullet was meant for me': when refugees poured in to Albania during the war in Kosovo, they set Ela Koloshi on the road to forgiving. She talks to Bob Webb.(Profile)(Interview)
February 1, 2005... Her dad is sitting alone in a coffee house in Kruje, Albania, when suddenly a stranger appears and demands $20,000 from him by noon the next day. 'I don't have it,' he says. The stranger then puts a bullet on the table and warns: 'This may...

The parasites who leech billions from the poor: Phil Evans exposes the scandal of international price cartels.(Essay)
February 1, 2005... International price cartels cost developing countries at least $10-24 billion per year. That's more than the Gross Domestic Product of Tanzania in 2002. International price cartels are global conspiracies of companies to rig markets and keep...

Show without shocking.(News Desk)(Ouest France, newspaper with ethics)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... OUEST FRANCE, France's leading circulation daily, can attribute its success to its ethical policy, maintains Didier Pillet, its Editor-in-Chief. Pillet was addressing a recent conference of the International Communications Forum in Le Touquet,...

Samoans challenge corruption.(News Desk)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... THE PRIME Minister of Samoa, Tullaepa Sailele Malielegaol, opened an international lofC conference in Samoa in October. He spoke of his government's efforts 'to bring integrity to the business of government'. 'We have been guided by the...

Listening to the Muslim mind: as a Christian married to a Muslim, Lorraine Khan finds inspiration in the books and life of Charis Waddy.(Book Mark)(Obituary)
February 1, 2005... The recent death of the writer and scholar, Charis Waddy, led me back to her books and their influence on my life and the life of my husband. Born in Australia and brought up in Jerusalem, Charis Waddy was the first woman to graduate from...

Russian religions meet.(News Desk)(Europe Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... REPRESENTATIVES OF Russia's Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist communities took part in a conference on religious tolerance at the Europe Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in November. It was initiated by Anatoly Krasikov, a...

Development dialogue.(News Desk)(Brief Article)(Panel Discussion)
February 1, 2005... THE THIRD of a series of 'high level encounters' between the World Council of Churches (WCC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank took place in Geneva last October. It was moderated by Cornelio Sommaruga, President of...

Reconciliation triangle.(News Desk)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... PEOPLE REPRESENTING the three corners of the Atlantic slave trade triangle gathered recently on the dockside in Liverpool, where many of the slave ships were built. The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Frank Roderick, presented reconciliation...

See you after the duration.(A Different Beat)
February 1, 2005... There is one group of Brits, admittedly dwindling in number, who find widespread anti-Americanism particularly sad. Dwindling not because of a reduced love for the United States but because they are now mostly in their seventies. Some of them...

Start with yourself: step one to remaking the world.(Reflections)
February 1, 2005... DAG HAMMARSKJOLD, the late UN Secretary General, once wrote, 'I don't know Who--or What--put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer "Yes" to Someone--or Something--and from...

Peacemakers must walk the talk.(Column)
February 1, 2005... As I write this, one of the largest demonstrations of participatory democracy in a century is unfolding in Ukraine. We do not know whether the country is on the brink of democracy or civil war. It is a tense, dangerous, extraordinary time, and...