For A Change articles from June 1998

For A Change archives from June 1998

Marriage takes work as well as romance.
June 1, 1998... The British still believe in marriage, it seems. Despite the impression one may get from the mass media, 85 per cent of people get married, and surveys show that most believe adultery to be wrong. Yet 40 per cent of British marriages fail....

Bringing down the curtain: what happens when people with a common cause disagree about the way forward? ... the experience of MRA in Briatin, which has recently sold the Westminster Theatre.
June 1, 1998... It was the free sandwiches that drew Christine Channer to the Westminster Theatre that evening. As a struggling young dancer immediately after the war, any chance of food was welcome. But what she saw on the stage changed the course of her...

Among MRA's growing initiatives in and from Britain are:.
June 1, 1998... Agenda For Reconcilation Each year since 1991, MRA's annual conference at Caux in Switzerland has devoted a session to supporting those engaged in peace-building initiatives. Coordination comes from Britain and other countries involved in...

More than a firefighter: New Zealand's Race Relations Conciliator, Rajen Prasad, has thrived amid cultural diversity from an early age.
June 1, 1998... New Zealand's Race Relations Conciliator, Rajen Prasad, has thrived amid cultural diversity from an early age. Joanna Grigg discovers that he is Rajen Prasad, the Race Relations Conciliator for New Zealand, is a positive man, an optimist...

Clean up act.
June 1, 1998... When Nigerian teacher Yomi Ogunye went to ask his school principal for unpaid leave of absence for three weeks, the principal asked him, `Why don't you just go and come back like any other teacher?' Ogunye explained that he did not want to add...

Chernobyl's children.
June 1, 1998... Twelve years after the world's worst nuclear disaster struck Chernobyl, in the former Soviet Union, the people of nearby Belarus still suffer from the consequences. The country received over 70 per cent of the fall-out from the accident. `There...

Breaking barriers.
June 1, 1998... When 17 young people from the city of Pune in India decided to do something for the world, their first idea was to plant trees in Bhopkel, a village 15 kilometres from the city. `Everyone was charged up and enthusiasm was in the air,' says...

Getting to grips with race: President Clinton has put race relations high on his political agenda.
June 1, 1998... President Clinton has put race relations high on his political agenda. The following article by Carolyn Barta, reprinted with permission of `The Dallas Morning News' (16 February), looks at an initiative which already has an impressive track...

Seeds of civilization: thousands of years ago, some of the earth's peoples developed societies which poured forth, displacing other peoples.
June 1, 1998... Thousands of years ago, some of the earth's peoples developed societies which poured forth, displacing other peoples. Bryan Hamlin discovers that their success had more to do with beans than with brains. I recently had my mind stretched by...

Decision in Jabalpur.
June 1, 1998... As a junior officer serving in India during World War II, Finlay Moir did not expect the army chaplain to take him up on the offer of a bed in his tent. But it was to lead to `one of the most important experiences' of his life. Moir had...

Anger in `Cool Britannia'.
June 1, 1998... Businessmen and jobless teenagers were among the diverse group of 100 who attended a weekend conference on `Regenerating the spirit of community' in Cheshire in March. It was held at Tirley Garth, the MRA centre, under the auspices of Hope in...

Business and ethics.
June 1, 1998... The belief that `he who does not work does not eat' does not allow us to reject those that are incapable of living without the help of others, stated the Mayor of Rzeszow opening a conference for businesspeople in the southeast Polish market...

Fewer murders.
June 1, 1998... Notary public Heyde Duran (centre of picture) talks with leaders of the Altos de Cazuca settlement on a mountainside to the south of Bogota, Colombia. The settlement of 40,000 was notorious for its high murder rate--five per week. The number of...

Is there an economist in the house? While many struggle with how to survive on too little money, a growing number face the opposite problem: what to do with unprecedented spending power.
June 1, 1998... While many struggle with how to survive on too little money, a growing number face the opposite problem: what to do with unprecedented spending power. Richard Griffiths asks himself some hard questions about how he should use his cash. Our...

Slug wars.
June 1, 1998... `Slugs and snails like delphiniums more than any other plant,' said the presenter of a TV gardening programme brightly. As I recalled the stunted remains of one of my prized delphiniums, I could only groan in agreement. Snails are...

Dogged dialogue for one America.
June 1, 1998... An honest conversation about race. Some people say that is an oxymoron. It is certainly darned difficult, as anybody who has persevered must have discovered. But, according to a recent study by The Center For Living Democracy, even before the...

Looking beyond them and us.
June 1, 1998... It was during a visit to the United States that I became aware of an increasingly common phenomenon: the categorization of people and places. In the alleyways of bygone days, people and trades would mingle, but American towns have discrete...

Where faiths meet.
June 1, 1998... Recently I read Nous avons tant de choses a nous dire(*) (We have so much to say to each other), a book by a French Catholic priest, Fr Christian Delorme, and a young teacher of Moroccan descent, Rachid Benzine, who lives in the Paris area....