For A Change articles from October 2003

For A Change archives from October 2003

Ear to the ground.(France's international influence)
October 1, 2003... Friendship beyond boundaries When Cameroon soccer player Marc Vivien-Foe died suddenly in the course of the semi-final of the Confederations' Cup last July, a few days before the final between France and Cameroon, there were tears on both...

Building the global community.(From The Editors' Desk)(Editorial)
October 1, 2003... The late British comedian and broadcaster Harry Secombe achieved a hit with the song, 'If I ruled the world': If I ruled the world, ev'ry man would be as free as a bird, Ev'ry voice would be a voice to be heard... If only it were that...

Globalization ... as if people really mattered: can big business and activists agree on fighting poverty?(Lead Story)(globalization conference at Caux Initiatives for Business)(Cover Story)
October 1, 2003... As Jose Maria Figueres, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, drives to his office in Geneva, he sees the cows grazing in the fields by the road. Each cow benefits from over US$2 a day in agricultural subsidies. The...

Paying the price of peace: John Bond hears from Africans who are risking their lives to end conflict.(Agenda For Reconciliation)(Agenda for Reconciliation)
October 1, 2003... Peace carries a high price, and peace-making is difficult and dangerous. That was clear from the experience of many participants in a conference on peace-building initiatives, organized by Agenda for Reconciliation at Caux in August. Among...

Dialogue in their site.(People Making a Difference)(www.turning-point.ca)
October 1, 2003... Www.turning-point.ca is worth visiting. You will find vigorous, frank, constructive discussion between indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians. The site owes its existence to a Toronto woman's decision to explore her family's history. ...

Defeating silence.(People Making A Difference)(Virgilio Tognato's quest to communicate)
October 1, 2003... Nineteen-year-old Virgilio Tognato from Thiene in northern Italy has just published his first book: no mean achievement for someone who at the age of nine was thought to have an IQ of nil. Virgilio was born with a nasty malformation of his...

Refugee thinks big.(People Making A Difference)(Ahmed Hussen Egal receives the Nelson Mandela Award from Stockholm City Council)
October 1, 2003... Ahmed Hussen Egal arrived in Sweden from Somalia 16 years ago with only the clothes on his back. Last June he received the Nelson Mandela Award from Stockholm City Council for his work in helping other immigrants into jobs. One ninth of...

After intervention, what next? Rajmohan Gandhi looks at the challenges facing a world where sovereignty is no longer seen as an absolute.(FAC Essay)
October 1, 2003... A peace dove perched on his shoulder and a halo suspended over him, Uncle Sam declaims from a book on ethics. Such is the illustration for the opening article in the summer 2003 issue of the American journal, Foreign Affairs. In large, bold...

Weatherman joins bid to save the Sayadhri Ranges: Joanna Grigg meets a New Zealand climatologist who, not content just to predict weather patterns, is promoting a bid to save a precious part of India's natural heritage.(Profile)
October 1, 2003... An aura round the moon means it will rain soon: everyone has some words of wisdom about the weather. Alan Porteous has more than most, given his job as an agricultural climatologist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... From Jerry Barrett, Chico, California I do not like Mike Lowe's article, 'Truth, Lies and Freedom' (FAC June/July 2003) and his critical, and in my mind, paranoid, view of the news reporting by the coalition forces in the Iraq liberation....

Green shoots of cooperation in a multifaith world: living with other faiths is about being at home in your own religion and learning to be a guest in others.(Interfaith Partnership)
October 1, 2003... It may not be too much to say that whether this century turns out to be less bloodstained than the last will depend on whether the world's main religions are to clash or cooperate. Will they contribute to the problem or help to provide the...

Marriage--a risk worth taking: Kenneth Noble reads a book that dares to suggest that marriage is better than cohabiting.(Bookmark)('Married: a fine predicament)(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... Anne Roiphe has written a brave book. Married, a fine predicament * challenges a commitment-phobic generation to reconsider the value of marriage. Freedom of choice, she argues, is not the same as a better choice. 'Monogamy has its price. But...

New voice of old Europe.(Newsdesk)(Forum for Young Politicians at Initiatives of Change in Caux)
October 1, 2003... For the third year running, the summer at Caux began with a conference run by young people, mostly from former Soviet Bloc countries, with a smaller number from West Europe and North America. They were joined for part of the Conference by some...

ILO chief calls for a shift in priorities.(Newsdesk)(Juan Somavia, the Director General of the International Labour Organization )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Juan Somavia, the Director General of the International Labour Organization in Geneva, condemned the 'win at all costs mentality' as shown by TV screens constantly showing the latest share prices. There were other figures, he went on, that...

Palestinians and Israelis call for Peace.(Newsdesk)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... A leading Palestinian intellectual spoke of the start of a people's movement for peace in Israel and Palestine. Professor Sari Nusseibeh, the President of the Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, said that many of his people dreamed of going back...

Conflict resolution needs everyone.(Newsdesk)(using conflict resolution in Sri Lanka)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Astrid Heiberg, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oslo and a former cabinet minister in Norway spoke of her experience of mediating between the the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan Government. Six rounds of negotiations had...

Red Cross banks on humanity's good side.(Newsdesk)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... 'Human security' demands a dual approach of 'striving to abolish war itself' linked with 'practical measures to alleviate the sufferings of the victims' said Angelo Gnaedinger, the Director General of the International Committee of the Red...

Only connect.(Webbsite)(growth of anti-globalization website)
October 1, 2003... On a recent trip to Lviv, Ukraine, I stayed in a hotel just across the street from an Internet cafe. Also close was a McDonald's. But the cars and McDonald's had more than proximity in common. They symbolized globalization. Internet cafes...

Becoming myself.(Reflections)
October 1, 2003... We were made for relationship, for intimacy with one another. We were made for love, to give and receive. Each person is infinitely valuable. 'God didn't make no rubbish,' in the words of a young black gang member. We are of worth. Others...

Collapse of civilizations.(Guest Column)
October 1, 2003... The fashionable understanding of global issues is dominated by the concept of the 'clash of civilizations'. Recently this concept has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many have been lured by this simplistic analysis. Others have...