For A Change articles from February 2006

For A Change archives from February 2006

Ear to the ground.
February 1, 2006... 2010 and all that When South Africa won the right to host 2010's Soccer World Cup, all colours and creeds celebrated. But after the honeymoon, the deluge of reality.... New stadiums have to be built, others upgraded and transport...

Mozart and the desert.(240 billion tons of fertile soil loss)(Editorial)
February 1, 2006... I looked up '2006 year of' on the internet and discovered that, according to various authorities, this is the Year of Deserts and Desertification, of Rembrandt (born in 1606) and of Mozart (born in 1756). It is also the European Year of...

Inner and outer journey of a lifetime: young people are flocking to Asia for leadership training. Laura Trevelyan went too.(LEAD STORY)
February 1, 2006... * WHEN I AGREED to help run a leadership training programme called Action for Life, everything in me wanted to get out of doing what I knew in my guts I should do. It was one of the most difficult things I have done and easily one of the best....

Reaching the heart of the superpower: Will Jenkins travels across the US with an international team of young people.
February 1, 2006... * WHAT KIND OF America do you want? It seems everyone in the world has an opinion. But how can idealistic hopes translate into concrete actions? Last autumn, ten people from seven countries came to America to find out. ACTION (for a...

Julia Varley: helping women to find their voice: actress Julia Varley uses theatre to empower. She talks to Andrea Cabrera Luna.(profile)
February 1, 2006... * JULIA VARLEY LOOKS at the audience in silence. She fills the space with her presence as she walks across the stage in the dark. This is a path she has walked several times: and yet it remains new every time she walks it. Did she choose...

Keeping peace alive.(people making a difference)(teenage peace organization)(Organization overview)
February 1, 2006... SHEHNAZ CASSIM, Joey Hasson and Junaid Moosa are sitting on the same couch and are jumping in on each other in their eagerness to tell me about Keeping Peace Alive (KPA). They each have their own idea of what it is and they find that amusing....

Baghdad eyes.(Abir Abid Faisal Al-Sahlani)
February 1, 2006... ABIR ABID Faisal Al-Sahlani was forced into exile from Iraq when she was just one year old. She studied and lived as a refugee in Yemen, Syria, Bulgaria and Sweden. During all those years, she dreamed of going back home. Because he voiced...

Fair Trade pioneer.(new job oppurtunities)
February 1, 2006... ALDO PIERSANTI'S parents, Lisa and Lino, were among the countless Italians who emigrated to Northern Europe after World War II to escape poverty. They returned to Italy when he was a teenager, settling in Ladispoli, just north of Rome. At that...

Joseph Wong: at loggerheads with the corrupt: having laid down his guns, Joseph Wong is working for a corruption-free logging industry in the Solomon Islands. John Bond tells his story.(profile)
February 1, 2006... * JOSEPH WONG WAS practically born into the logging industry. A Chinese-Malaysian from the island of Sarawak, he grew up in a community heavily involved in the industry and, as soon as he reached adulthood, that became his occupation. ...

A world away from "us" and "them": Edward Peters accompanies Rajmohan and Usha Gandhi on a speaking tour of Britain.(BUILDING COMMUNITY)
February 1, 2006... A LEARNED PROFESSOR happy to say 'I don't know' when asked a question to which he has no answer--this may be a rare species. A Hindu serving as a bridge between Muslims and Christians may be rarer still. The British had an opportunity to...

Clean Africa campaign comes to Ghana.
February 1, 2006... 'GOD IS COLOUR blind and character conscious. Man is character blind and colour conscious.' The opening words of a speech in 1963 by Peter Howard, then leader of Moral Re-Armament, entitled 'Africa's Hour'. For many, Africa is a place of...

Letter from France.(riots)(Brief article)
February 1, 2006... WE WERE ALL shaken by the riots that took place in France last autumn. We were aware of the frustrations and hatred in the hearts of many young people who feel rejected by French society. But we never imagined that this could result in such...

Beyond her wildest dreams: Elsa Vogel tells Paul Williams why those who have suffered have so much to give.(turning point)
February 1, 2006... 'WHAT CAN stir us so deeply that, despite the pain, we are prepared to make changes in our lives and to create new initiatives?' asks Elsa Vogel. 'When this happens it can have repercussions beyond our wildest dreams.' Now living with her...

A matter of conscience: Peter Thwaites reads a book charting the change of heart which led to the end of the Soviet Union.(Conscience, Dissent and Reform in Soviet Russia)(Book review)
February 1, 2006... THE AMERICAN political scientist and former presidential adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski described Alexander Yakovlev, the co-architect of Gorbachev's reforms, as 'a man of conscience'. Yaklovlev, who died in October, is one of 55 figures from the...

We're all responsible.(To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility)(Book review)
February 1, 2006... CHIEF RABBI Sir Jonathan Sacks' new book is called To Heal a Fractured World (Schocken, 2005). The subtitle--The ethics of responsibility--attracted me, as it cuts across the culture of the West which holds 'my rights', consumerism and 'the...

And now for the good news.(A DIFFERENT BEAT)(positive side of current events)(Viewpoint essay)
February 1, 2006... 'GOD IS WORKING his purpose out as year succeeds to year. God is working his purpose out and the time is drawing near. Nearer and nearer draws the time, the time that shall surely be, when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the...

The end of the beginning.(REFLECTIONS)(afterlife)(Viewpoint essay)
February 1, 2006... DEATH IS A divine democratic experience. We all have our turn. There are no exceptions. This is good and bad. Up until last year, if I thought about it at all, I would consider it a bad thing. Although I am a full-blooded paid-up...

Can we make poverty history?(GUEST COLUMN)
February 1, 2006... WE LIVE IN an unjust world. Every three seconds a child dies of poverty: that's 19,000 a day. In Zambia a child born in 2005 is less likely to reach the age 40 than a child born in Britain in 1840. Meanwhile, three people in the world own more...