[alternet-l] AlterNet News #78

[Adrian Harris]

THE ALTERNET NEWS - ISSUE # 78

This issue:

HOT SITES/
FRUIT NOT GOLD!/
WIRED AFRICA/
WEB DESIGN COURSE/
CHILD COFFEE SLAVES/
ONLINE VOLUNTEERS/
SAVE HAYLE BEACH/
NEW PUBLIC MONEY/
BUDDHIST SCIENCE/
FINANCING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/
QUOTE/UNQUOTE/
DIARY/

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including a web link if possible, to actnow at gn.apc.org. Items may need to
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HOT SITES
The Peace News site now has a set of 'tools and resources' for organising
and taking action, for nonviolent peace and antimilitarist activists and
campaigners. The tools include how to: improve gender relations in activist
groups; build tree houses; organise mass nonviolent direct action; and
develop strategies for abolishing war. Handy!

--> www.peacenews.info/tools/index.php

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FRUIT NOT GOLD!
Residents of the town of Tambogrande in Peru have rejected the lure of gold
in favour of fruit orchards. Beneath some of Peru's richest farmland lies
mineral deposits that could be worth $1 billion to a Canadian mining company.

Mining would mean demolition of homes and an open-pit mine close to the
central square. Tambogrande Mayor Alfredo Rengifo wanted to avoid conflict,
and discovered a rarely used municipal law that allows a referendum on
issues of local importance.

The result was clear - about 98% of the town's voters said that the
company, Manhattan Minerals, was not welcome.

People weren't swayed by offers to pay top prices for land and new, modern
housing.

"Why would I want a new house?" asked Alejandro Silupu Riofrio, 35, a shop
owner whose home has crumbling mud walls. "We're fine with this one."

The referendum was the first of its kind in a country with a poor record on
democracy, and Peru's Minister of Energy and Mines refuses to accept the
result. Lawrence M. Glaser, chairman and chief executive of Manhattan
Minerals, claimed the referendum was ploy by anti-globalization activists.

But the locals are standing firm. "If they don't respect these results, we
will have to rely on the power that comes from the whole world knowing that
these are our wishes," said Hugo Abramonte Ato, a retired schoolteacher.

Their resistance has inspired others around the country to take up the
tactic of using democratic referendums against unpopular development projects.

More:

A Life Worth More Than Gold:
--> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18830-2002Jun8.html

Tambogrande Referendum Has Domino Effect in Peru:
--> http://www.americaspolicy.org/citizen-action/focus/0207tambogrande.html

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WIRED AFRICA
SchoolNetAfrica is a African-run nonprofit organization bringing
educational technology to schools.

"Now is the time that we have to invest in the future to prepare our kids
to play a role globally" said Heba Ramzy, the steering committee member for
Egypt. 


Ramzy said that SNA also wants to build a "Knowledgewarehouse" of online
content that would include websites developed by students and online
curriculum. 

Access to computers and connectivity is one of the major challenges, Ramzy
said, and SNA is researching different models of funding to see what is
appropriate for African countries.

The exact number of schools that have access to technology resources in
Africa varies dramatically by country. 

About one-third of schools in South Africa have computers and/or Internet
access, but less than 5 percent of schools in Ghana and Uganda have
technology access, and they lead other African countries. 

Mohamed Abdallah, a 16-year-old from Alexandria, Egypt, built a website
about blood last year. 

"I didn't know anything when I started," he said. "You're working with
international partners and doing something useful and fun."

More:
--> www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,54045,00.html

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WEB DESIGN COURSE
Learn Web design using Dreamweaver MX at GreenNet! The course is intended
for those with some computer experience & includes practical hands-on
project work. By the end of the course you will; understand the principles
of the World Wide Web; have a practical understanding of how to build,
update and publish a web site using Dreamweaver; understand the key
principles of web design & site promotion. 

Course Times: 

Web design 10.30-17.30
Web design using Dreamweaver 29th and 30th of July (Monday and Tuesday)
19th and 20th August (Monday and Tuesday)
16th and 17th August (Monday and Tuesday) 

--> www.gn.apc.org/training/web.html#dream

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CHILD COFFEE SLAVES
The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 250 million
working children. Especially in agricultural communities, children often
must work in order to help their families survive.

Children in agriculture face many risks. Long hours, hot temperatures,
overexposure to sun, dangerous chemicals and snakebites are a constant threat.
Worse still is widespread child slavery and bonded child labor. Journalist
Sumana Chatterjee reports that "Chocolate isn’t the only American staple
tainted by slavery...on some farms, young slaves harvest coffee beans as
well as the cacao pods that yield cocoa beans."
"As with cocoa, there’s no way to tell whether a shipment of coffee beans
contains beans picked by slaves or those picked by paid workers," claims
Chatterjee.

The solution to the child labor issue may lie with a broad social and
economic agenda to improve industry practice. Better access to school,
health care and decent housing is essential for children, and better wages
and prices would help make this possible.

Tea and Coffee Trade Journal report:
--> www.teaandcoffee.net/0102/special.htm

Coffee: Fair Trade Coffee Campaign
--> www.globalexchange.org/economy/coffee/

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ONLINE VOLUNTEERS
NetAid uses the power of the Internet to connect people for positive
change.


NetAid brings online volunteers and organizations together through the
largest online volunteering database in the world.

Volunteers share their time and expertise to help organizations that
address issues and conditions in the developing world. Because they work
online, volunteers can work from home whenever their have spare time.

Real life examples show the diversity of the project:

*A volunteer in Germany translates documents for an organization serving
youth in Africa.
*A man in Nigeria writes articles and a case study for an organization in
the U.S. addressing poverty in West Africa.
*A woman in the United Kingdom concerned about children and poverty creates
a web site for an organization in Sri Lanka.

More:
--> www.netaid.org/ov/index_html

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SAVE HAYLE BEACH
Hayle Beach attracts thousands of tourists each year, but local campaigners
claim that thousands of tonnes of sand has been removed from the beach and
foreshore and sold.

The beach and dunes represent a rich and diverse habitat, but maybe not for
long...

More:
--> www.soshayle.fsnet.co.uk

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NEW PUBLIC MONEY
The New Money Amendment to the 2002 Finance Bill proposes A new method of
funding capital expenditure in the UK.

It challenges the government to investigate experimental new forms of
public credit/money creation for public services.

The basic idea is that the Bank of England can create credit to be used
exclusively to finance specific public investment in projects, schools,
hospitals or transport,

This People's Credit for the People's Purposes would be an alternative
approach to partnerships with the private sector (like PPP and PFI)

The proposal has emerged from "The Forum for Sustainable Currencies" which
has been meeting at the House of Lords for the last few months.

--> www.intraforum.net/money/forum/actions/new_money.htm

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BUDDHIST SCIENCE
The Dalai Lama attended a recent Science and the Mind conference exploring
areas of contact between Tibetan Buddhism and modern science. 

"Truly great advances of any kind are about making leaps ... that explode
on you seemingly from nowhere," said Allan Snyder, keynote speaker at the
conference.

Tibetan practices often proved valid when science finally developed
technology sophisticated enough to test them.

"It does indicate that there are a lot of things that we know nothing about
in Western science," said Max Bennett one of the world's top neurologists.

And the stakes for the West are high.

"We know by the year about 2020, the greatest disabling phenomenon for the
health of the human race will be depression," Bennett said.

Jack Pettigrew, a renowned Australian physiologist, believes the Tibetans
may have a solution. "If you go to Dharamsala...What strikes you
immediately is the happy, smiling faces of the Tibetans, who don't have
much, have been terribly deprived, and yet they are happy. Well, why are
they happy? They work at it!" 


Pettigrew believes that "the future is that we bring these worlds together."

--> www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,53820,00.html

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FINANCING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
A Professor of Economics and a development worker with 26 years of
experience have published an e-book proposing a new paradigm to overcome
the poverty gap.

The book claims that most official aid has failed, and as a result "900
million people living under conditions that are worse than the lives of pet
animals in the rich world".

Their practical solution for peace and security is a 'Big Push' for the
elimination of poverty within a generation. The 'Big Push' will cost the
rich countries only $460 billion p.a. for five years.

Peter D. O'Neill, Editor THIRD WORLD : EEC Features TV Radio & Research
Agency, wrote: "This little book is dangerous and rates the Nobel Prize."

Copies of 'Financing Economic Development and Human Security: A New
Paradigm', by Rahman and Andreu, are available by e-mail. A 1-10 e-copies'
license cost euros 4.60.  For higher number licenses, other currencies and
how to pay please mail kautilyachanakya at yahoo.co.in

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QUOTE/UNQUOTE

"The best time to plant a tree... was twenty years ago. The second best
time, is today."

Chinese saying

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DIARY DATES

ONGOING EVENTS:

Free yoga classes - Tuesdays from 5:30-7:00 at 62 fieldgate st. E-mail:
radicalyoga at clara.co.uk

Radical Dairy Social Centre, 47 Kynaston Road, Stoke Newington, London N16.
Tel: 020 7249 6996
Events 16/06 - 22/06
Sunday: 2.00pm DJ's + Food[BBQ]+ Drink 
Monday: 3.30pm - 5.00pm Yoga, 7.00pm Cafe, 8.00pm Political Discussion Group
Tuesday: 7.30pm Meeting of the Social Centres Network
Wednesday: 4.00pm Aromatherapy Massages, 8.00pm Women's Caff and cabaret 
Thursday: 8.00pm Radical Dairy meeting
Friday: 8.00pm Cafe + Acoustic Music [Bring instruments]
Saturday: Social   

Walk in Peace for Peace
Every first Sunday of the month. Meet at Speakers’ Corner (by Park Café),
Hyde Park 10.45am for 11am. The walk will take about an hour.
If you arrive a bit late don’t worry, you’ll see the Walk on ‘Broad Walk’
going south from Speakers’ Corner.
Enquiries: Clare Brunt 020 8755 0353

The Campaign for Co-operative Socialism Campaign meet at The Global Cafe in
London's Golden Square every Wednesday from 11-1:
--> www.cooperative-socialism.org/

JUNE

24th to 28th:

Big Green Gathering
--> www.big-green-gathering.com/

27th:
Close Campsfield (refugee) Detention Centre, Kidlington, Oxford. 12-2pm.
--> www.CloseCampsfield.org.uk

AUGUST:

6th & 9th:
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Days: Christian CND will be doing something on the
nearest Sunday, other events to be arranged. 0191 4137972

8th to 11th:
Welsh Green Gathering.
--> www.big-green-gathering.com/wgg/WGG2.html

10th to 11th:
Eden Festival, Arrowe Park, Wirral. Free Indie / Rock festival with an
environmental theme. --> www.edenfestival.org.uk/



15th:
Real Nappy Network North East launch event. Campaigning to encourage the use
of 'Real' nappies. 6-8pm, Newcastle Healthy City Project, 14 Great North
Rd. More
info from Anne Pedlar 0191 2854519.
--> www.wen.org.uk/nappies/nappies.htm

22nd to 26th:
Northern Green Gathering. West Yorkshire. 
--> www.ngg.org.uk/

29th, 30th & 31st:
Eastern Green Gathering 
Near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk


More Diary Dates on GreenNet:

--> webboard.gn.apc.org:8086/default/

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The AlterNet News is edited by Adrian Harris and Joanne Doyle for GreenNet:

---> www.gn.apc.org

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