For A Change articles from June 1997

For A Change archives from June 1997

Time to write off the developing world's debt.
June 1, 1997... It hardly features in Western politics, even during election debates. Yet it affects the lives of more people on the planet than almost any other issue. Over a billion people in the developing countries suffer from the burden of debt repayments...

First nations put healing first: do Canada's aboriginal people hold the key to national unity?
June 1, 1997... Do Canada's aboriginal people hold the key to national unity? Keith Newman examines a controversial report which calls for a new relationship between First Nations and settlers and describes efforts to bring about healing. In the summer of...

Maori: children lead the way: over the last two decades the Maori people of New Zealand have found new confidence through a movement which runs `language nests' for pre-school children.
June 1, 1997... Over the last two decades the Maori people of New Zealand have found new confidence through a movement which runs `language nests' for pre-school children. Mary Lean visited the headquarters of the Kohanga Reo Trust in Wellington to discover...

Making democracy work.
June 1, 1997... Across-party group of Ukrainian Members of Parliament visited Britain in February for ten days on `Making democracy work', organized by MRA's Foundations for Freedom programme. During their stay, the MPs met members of the British government...

Garbage collectors move mountains.
June 1, 1997... At age 12, Samiya's future seemed bleak. She was filthy with swollen, nearly-blind eyes. Her family home was a garbage dump in Cairo. Today, at the age of 24, Samiya is receiving an education and is employed, using computers and even the...

Rebirth at the manor.
June 1, 1997... `I am a young woman and I just left school. I can see no prospect of getting a job,' wrote a disillusioned youth to a local newsletter in Upper Manor, an inner-city area of Sheffield, England. `Young people... roam the streets with nothing to...

Streams in the desert.
June 1, 1997... Retired Canadian medical doctor Jim Carlisle awoke one December morning in his home in St Thomas with an unexpected thought--the plight of Mexican Mennonite migrant workers stranded for the winter in Aylmer, Ontario. At an MRA conference...

Linking farmers across the globe: what does `one world' mean to a farmer?
June 1, 1997... What does `one world' mean to a farmer? Pat Evans tells Paul Williams about his life's work? Earlier this year, at the age of 75, Pat Evans was in India linking up with farming friends made over many years. He cannot remember whether this...

Writing for seven generations hence: Native American journalist Gordon Regguinti believes the media has an important role to play in community relations.
June 1, 1997... `Freedom of the press is a dangerous thing.' The words trembled from the lips of a middle-aged First Nations man as he addressed a room full of Native journalists near the close of a recent communications conference in Kamloops, British...

When should the media stir up the mud?
June 1, 1997... Is the role of the press to reflect, or to change, society? Is it a good sign, or a bad one, that the public distrusts journalists? Is newspaper publishing a business or a service? Is there room for more reporting of ` good news'? And what,...

Twilight of the Khmer Rouge?
June 1, 1997... The Khmer Rouge perpetrated one of the most drastic political experiments in human history. In an attempt to return Cambodia to `Year Zero', and to create a society cleansed of all foreign and feudal influence, they exterminated more than one...

Eyes that altered my path: Liberian peace-worker Samuel Doe describes how an encounter with a starving child changed the course of his life.
June 1, 1997... Growing up in a densely populated slum in Monrovia, Liberia's capital, I had a dream for my life. One day I would become a banker. I dreamed that I would have an end to suffering, to poverty and to all the stigma I felt as a slumdweller among...

Politics of hope.
June 1, 1997... The Politics of Hope by Jonathan Sacks Jonathan Cape, 1997, [pounds sterling] 15.99 `There is no such thing as society', declared Margaret Thatcher in 1987. `There are individual men and women, and there are families.' She might have...

Invisible allies.
June 1, 1997... Invisible Allies by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn The Harvill Press, 1997, [pounds sterling] 9.99 For 200 years the role of the Russian writer in opposition to the ruling autocracy has been proverbial. In the 1960s and '70s, a remarkable...

There's more to Hong Kong than golden eggs: as Hong Kong returns to China, she has more than business acumen to offer.
June 1, 1997... As Hong Kong returns to China, she has more than business acumen to offer, maintains Leung Siu-Wai--while James Hore-Ruthven (right) offers a British perspective. Once upon a time, a wealthy lord lost a fight against an intruder who was...

Dazzling achievement.
June 1, 1997... It was poignant, as an Englishman, to arrive in Hong Kong on the day that, in Beijing, they were celebrating `100 days until Hong Kong reverts to the motherland'. I walked through the bustling streets, looking at the glittering...

Meeting the past in Alabama.
June 1, 1997... The images are stark. Bronze German shepherd dogs, menacing as they strain their leashes, bare their teeth at you; a boy and girl try to escape from a water cannon; other children are glimpsed through prison bars. In one corner three ministers...

Pointers for peacemakers.
June 1, 1997... Peacemaking--as in conflict resolution; --as in creating pools of peace within the home and the community; --as in embracing wholeness in our fragmented world. * Everyone can be a peacemaker. It is a calling and privilege anyone...

Save the family to save civilization.
June 1, 1997... There is a great debate today about moral and spiritual values in our national life. In the past we could take for granted a huge capital of moral and spiritual culture, in both education and public life. Today a gulf has opened up between...

Independent but still in bondage.
June 1, 1997... Countries which achieved independence after World War II are approaching the 50th year of their nationhood as the 20th century draws to a close. It is time to consider how far we have come along the road to genuine good government without...