For A Change articles from October 2006

For A Change archives from October 2006

Ear to the ground.(Caux, Switzerland and the importance of inner change)
October 1, 2006... Incomer Hildi Zeller has only been living in the village of Caux in Switzerland for 60 years now, so she's not too surprised that someone said to her the other day: 'You're not from here.' She came in 1946 with a small army of fellow...

Sixty years young.(FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK)(Initiatives of Change's 60th anniversary)
October 1, 2006... I first went to Caux, the Initiatives of Change (IofC) conference centre in Switzerland, as a starry-eyed drama student in 1992. It changed my life, setting me on the road to faith and opening my eyes to a world in need in which, I discovered,...

Art power: whether you're a clown, a singer, an actor or simply a member of the audience, you have an impact on the world, Mary Lean discovers.(RENEWAL ARTS)(Cover story)
October 1, 2006... DARREN RAYMOND knows what a powerful effect the arts can have on people's lives. While serving a sentence in Brixton Prison, London, in 2003, he went along to a drama class. 'I found myself playing silly games, and wondered what I had put...

No time to dance the tango: Themon Djaksam joins Africans from across the continent to address the issues of corruption and good governance.(AFRICAN DIALOGUE)(Conference notes)
October 1, 2006... PEOPLE FROM 24 AFRICAN countries converged on Caux in August to attend 'An Honest Dialogue for a Clean and Just Africa'. The conference brought together 463 delegates from 70 countries in every corner of the globe: from Alaska to the Cape...

Integrity and integration: Ibrahima Fall, UN Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region in Africa, talks to Themon Djaksam about the themes of the conference.(AFRICAN DIALOGUE)(Conference news)(Interview)
October 1, 2006... What is the most important question for this African conference on corruption and good governance? It is a theme whose time has come, because with the end of a bi-polar world and the triumph of liberalism, there is no longer the...

For those who know what but don't know how: Andrea Cabrera talks to the organisers and participants of the Tools for Change conference at Caux.
October 1, 2006... Just before the Tools for Change conference started in Caux this summer, Lebanon was going through one of the most difficult periods of its history. Although some of the Lebanese travelling to the conference managed to get to Beirut airport...

Market leaders in trust and integrity: Michael Smith takes part in a conference that brings together business professionals, farmers and journalists seeking ethics at work.(GLOBAL ECONOMY)(Conference news)
October 1, 2006... AN EAST AFRICAN trainee teacher describes how he was cheated out of his income. As part of his degree, he taught in a private school for 26 hours--but was only paid $12, about a quarter of what he was owed. There was no written contract and he...

Everyone a leader: what is it like to organise a Caux conference? Justin Walford finds out.(SERVICE RESPONSIBILITY & LEADERSHIP)
October 1, 2006... FOR THE PAST SIX years the Caux summer has begun with a conference led by a young team from Eastern Europe. In the vacuum left in the wake of communism, young people from the former Soviet Bloc decided that the concepts of service and...

In a world out of balance.(newsdesk)
October 1, 2006... A Global Indigenous Dialogue (GID) on the theme, 'Understanding our Roots: from healing to harmony' marked the United Nations International Day of Indigenous Peoples in Caux. Lewis Cardinal, an Aboriginal Relations Consultant from the...

Official opening.(newsdesk)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Valentine Sendanyoye-Rugwabiza (left), Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organisation, and Ambassador Mohammed Sahnoun, special advisor to the UN Secretary General, took part in a panel discussion on the opening day of the summer's...

Mishkat al-Moumin: paying the price for human rights: Mishkat al-Moumin fought for human rights under Saddam Hussein, and survived assassination attempts as Minister of the Environment in Iraq's interim government. She talks to Bob Webb.(Profile)
October 1, 2006... The morning of August 24, 2004, was like any other in the Baghdad summer: hot, sunny and dry. Dr Mishkat al-Moumin was reviewing her paperwork in the back seat of her chauffered automobile en route to her office as Minister of the Environment...

Water for a thirsty land: Kenyan lawyer Joseph Karanja tells how he found spring water on his land, which will soon be marketed nationwide.(first person)
October 1, 2006... WORLDWIDE 1.3 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, according to the UN. Thirty-one countries face chronic water shortages, and by 2025 nearly 50 countries will face shortages affecting 2.8 billion people. With population...

Rethinking lazy stereotypes: teaching English in China was an eye-opener for Rob Neal.(first person)
October 1, 2006... SOME DROOL OVER its economic growth. Others are more concerned with law and order or environmental issues. Everyone agrees it is in a state of flux, increasing in influence and impossible to ignore. China is hot news in the West. Intrigued, I...

Wilberforce's great change.(A DIFFERENT BEAT)(William Wilberforce)
October 1, 2006... I WAS ONCE asked to give the opening prayer for the Oregon senate. The senators duly bowed their heads. As I spoke astonished heads were slowly raised. It was the English accent that did it, plus an invocation unlike others they were used to. I...

Meeting place of two great longings.(REFLECTIONS)(love through prayers)(Poem)
October 1, 2006... I'M PART OF A GROUP OF VOLUNTEERS who visit asylum seekers in detention. We sometimes get touching letters from them, expressing what our visits mean. One man wrote to the person who was visiting him, 'You are to me what an oasis is to an...

Stranger in one's own land.(GUEST COLUMN)(conflict resolution and mediation)(Column)
October 1, 2006... A SOUTHERN IRISH Catholic, I married a man from Northern Ireland whose family had been Protestant British settlers, and went to live there in the seventies. My husband's family business was blown up three times, once by loyalists and twice by...