[alternet-l] The Alternet News - ISSUE #87

[Joanne Doyle]

THE ALTERNET NEWS - ISSUE # 87

This issue:

HOT SITES/
NUCLEAR POWER PLANS/
FAIRTRADE FACTS/
DEMOCRATISING COMMUNICATION/
INTERNET HACKERS/
GRASSROOTS ACTIVISTS CENSORED?/
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM INITIATIVE/
GENDER INITIATIVES/
QUOTE/UNQUOTE/
JOBS/
DIARY/

*****************************************************************

Please don't send news to the AlterNet address. Send items for inclusion,
including a web link if possible, to actnow at gn.apc.org. Items may need to
be edited. Plain text e-mail is preferred.

Back issues are on-line at:
---> http://www.gn.apc.org/news/alternet/index.asp

*****************************************************************

HOT SITES

Women in Black (WiB) website has just been launched. WiB is a world-wide
network of women committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to
injustice, war, militarism and other forms of violence.

-->www.womeninblack.org.uk/

GHGonline is a new website devoted to greenhouse gas related science.
The site contains not only greenhouse gas related news, but also up to date
links to the abstracts of hundreds of greenhouse gas related scientific
papers.

-->www.GHGonline.org

MULTIKULTI is a London Advice Services Alliance website offering
information on immigration and asylum, welfare benefits, employment,
housing, health and debt, in a range of community languages. Information
in Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, French, Gujerati, Somali, Spanish
and Turkish can be found at:

--> www.multikulti.org.uk

STUDENT STOP WAR is a new website, set-up to provide students in the anti-war
movement with the opportunity to participate and contribute to the national
movement more actively and democratically than they can currently.

--> www.studentstopwar.org.uk

*****************************************************************

NUCLEAR POWER PLANS

The European Commission is in discussions with Russia to provide financial
help for the
completion of a nuclear reactor of the same type that caused the 1986
Chernobyl disaster, according to a document obtained this week by Friends
of the Earth. (1) The unfinished Kursk-5 reactor, situated 300km south of
Moscow, has been listed for possible funding under the Euratom Loans
scheme, which the European Commission is proposing to significantly expand.

The Euratom Loans scheme, introduced in 1977 to further promote nuclear
power in line with the Euratom Treaty, allows the European Commission to
facilitate loans for the development of nuclear projects, subject to Member
States agreeing an overall limit.

More:
--> www.foeeurope.org/press/2003/MJ_23_Jan_another_Chernobyl.htm

*****************************************************************

FAIRTRADE FACTS

A recent article in the Observer newspaper, entitled:
"Oxfam bows to market and scraps Fairtrade brand"
had confusing and incorrect claims says Fairtrade.
I contacted Fairtrade to find out more, here is their response to the
Observer article:

"Last Sunday's article was incorrect to claim that Oxfam has abandoned its
commitment to Fairtrade (Oxfam bows to market and scraps Fairtrade brand
19/1). Oxfam continues to promote and sell Fairtrade products through its
shops and continues to support the Fairtrade movement, working closely with
producers, suppliers and allies.

The decision taken by Oxfam more than a year ago was to stop selling its
own
brand Fair Trade goods. The consolidation of specialised companies like
Traidcraft and Cafedirect, who were better placed to deal with the
complexity of the market, meant that Oxfam could focus on supporting
Fairtrade through its campaign work while continuing to sell Fairtrade
products on the High Street.

The Oxfam brand is quite different from the FAIRTRADE Mark, which is
awarded by the Fairtrade Foundation to products that meet internationally
recognised standards of Fairtrade. The FAIRTRADE Mark continues to go from
strength to strength, with sales of Fairtrade foods more than doubling in
the last three years.

This is hardly indicative of the kind of public indifference reported in
your piece. On the contrary, growing consumer demand for Fairtrade foods
has led to them being available in most major supermarkets. In the last six
months the Co-op announced their plan to change all their own brand
chocolate to Fairtrade, while sales of Fairtrade bananas at Sainsburys
alone have reached one million a week.

Surely that's a good news story!

Harriet Lamb,
Executive Director, Fairtrade Foundation

Barbara Stocking
Director, Oxfam"

Read the Observer article here:
--> www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,877781,00.html

*****************************************************************

DEMOCRATISING COMMUNICATION

The World Social Forum is now over. APC was one of nearly 5,000
organisations from 121 countries that attended. APC report on the debates,
panels and workshops that focus on the use of Internet and ICTs for
social justice and development:

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, 01/26/2003 -- "Put simply, civil society is being
marginalized from the World Summit on the Information Society process
while the private sector is getting further and further in," said Sasha
Costanza-Chock, a communications activist from the University of
Pennsylvania, and one of the thirty or so people, many representing
communications organizations and present at two meetings of the CRIS
Campaign (Communication Rights for the Information Society) at the World
Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

More here:
--> www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=9236


Global Media: "It's Time to Create a Fifth Power"

PORTO ALEGRE, Brasil, 01/27/2003 -- "Media for a long time was the
resource of the citizenry, known as the fourth power, the power to
oppose decisions of the government that would have harmful effects on
people. The fourth power no longer has this power," says Ignacio
Ramonet, editor of Le Monde Diplomatique and communications professor at
the University of Paris. Now, rather than protecting the people, the
"fourth power is now exploiting and oppressing them" for commercial
gain, he said. "How can we tackle this when the protector of the people
has transformed into its enemy?"

What is currently happening in Venezuela is a good case study in which
a peoples' president is being opposed by the media. "Free elections
wiped out the opposition, now the media has become the opposition power,
it is leading the campaign against (President Hugo) Chávez," said
Ramonet. "It has become an ideological power which is trying to contain
the power of the people." - IPS

Full report:
--> www.ipsnews.net/fsm2003/27.01.2003/nota26.shtml

Fighting for the Microphone: Alternatives to The Globalization of Media

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, 01/26/2003 -- An international forum on new
directions in the ''democratization of media'' found a cause celébre in
the questionable role of multinational broadcasters in the ongoing
crisis in Venezuela, and found consensus in the idea that a democratic
society without democratization of access to mass communications is a
contradiction in terms and practical impossibility.

Find out more:
-->
www.ciranda.net/publique/cgi/public/cgilua.exe/web/templates/htm/2I/view.htm?user=reader&infoid=715&editionsectionid=21

*****************************************************************

INTERNET HACKERS

A Chinese computer hacker group is suspected to be
behind a virus that wreaked havoc last weekend.
Police have found a website the Chinese hacker group allegedly used to
publicise an internet attack program last October and say a variant of this
program could have been used in the latest attack.
Police are stepping up efforts to track down the origin of the so-called
SQL Slammer worm, which caused the most damaging attack on the Internet in
18 months.

Security advisers said the worm was designed to infiltrate networks very
rapidly and that it would continue to do so until servers had sufficient
patches. The worm, which crippled tens of thousands computers worldwide and
congested the network for countless others, even disabling Bank of America
cash machines, took advantage of a vulnerability in some Microsoft Corp
software that had been discovered in July. As the worm infected one
computer, it was programmed to seek other victims by sending out thousands
of probes a second, saturating many Internet data pipelines.

Unlike most viruses and worms, it spread directly through network
connections and did not need e-mail as a carrier. Thus, only network
administrators who run the servers, not end users, could do anything to
remedy the situation. According to Keynote Systems, which measures
Internet reliability and speed, network congestion increased download times at
the largest US web sites by an average of 50 per cent, and some sites were
completely unavailable at times.

Full report:
--> www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/28/1043534058663.html

*****************************************************************

GRASSROOTS ACTIVISTS CENSORED?

Paul Mobbs, a GreenNet user and Free Range activist, is asking for support to
lobby over an unjust prohibition caused by Friends of the Earth
of grassroots activists in Wales. The appeal letter states:

"For months, members of an organisation -- which for legal reasons I will
call "The Committee" -- in Wales have been organising a tour of Wales to
promote virtual networking as part of grassroots campaigning in Wales.
This used a mobile Linux-based training system (see
http://www.fraw.org.uk/cltc/) to demonstrate the potential of electronic
networking at 10 workshops, in ten different venues across Wales over two
weeks. In the end, we only managed to do the first in Pontypridd before
Friends of the Earth blocked the tour.

"There had been some problems with Friends of the Earth in relation to
another organisation -- which I must call "The Company" -- we were
associated with which Friends of the Earth are taking legal action against
for infringement of their trademark rights. However, it appears that
Friends of the Earth's solicitors, because they can't be bothered to have
an open dialogue, regard these organisations as the same entity. On the
first day of the tour, Monday 27th January, we received a warning of legal
action over the commencement of the tour. We declined to accept their
terms as we did not consider the name of "The Committee" was in any way
infringing Friends of the Earth's trademark rights. On Tuesday 28th, we
received an injunction preventing the use of a name, or 'anything
colorably similar'. At that stage, we had to abandon the whole two week
tour.

"I am asking for people to lobby Friends of the Earth to stop this
senseless legal action."

General information:
--> www.fraw.org.uk/mobbsey/index.html

Detailed statement:
--> www.fraw.org.uk/mobbsey/statement.html

*****************************************************************

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM INITIATIVE

The National Geographic Society's Sustainable Tourism Initiative is a website
dedicated to the increase and dissemination of knowledge about sustainable
tourism and destination stewardship. The Society started this program
because of the increasing importance of tourism impacts, positive and
negative, on destinations around the world.

Some final year students at Leeds Metropolitan University are helping with
the website with the aim of building a broad-based database of relevant
experts to advise and comment on occasional matters that the N.G.S. 
Sustainable
Tourism Initiative expects to address.
"In most cases, this might amount to no more than a vote once or twice a
year on a survey. In a few instances, we may invite you to join in
something a bit heftier, such as commenting on proposed research or
participation on a virtual panel."

If you are knowledgeable about sustainable tourism issues and would be
interested in being listed in their database, please email:
j.nightingale at lmu.ac.uk

Further information here:
--> www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/sustainable/

*****************************************************************

GENDER INITIATIVES

The Gender Strategies Working Group are calling for greater participation
in the run up to the second preparatory meeting for the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS).
The WSIS NGO Gender Strategies Working Group (WN-GSWG) considers this a
most opportune time for women to begin sharing and discussing lobbying
points and strategies for the Summit.

The online discussion is already underway, you can join here:
--> www.apcwomen.org/wsis/index_list.shtml

Further information:
--> www.apcwomen.org/wsis/


***NEW Apc-Africa-Women Newsletter***

Pula is a new newsletter of the Association for Progressive
Communications Africa Women (APC-Africa-Women). Pula
aims to promote and profile the work and activities
of women's Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) initiatives in Africa and to act as a
communicative tool to link women to each other and to
initiatives and opportunities.

The development of Pula by APC-Africa-Women (AAW) is
in response to the growing need for a forum to
encourage the cross-fertilization of ideas, stories
and strategies around the use of the Internet by
women in Africa.

They would like contributions to the newsletter in English
and French and are planning to include articles in
Portuguese in the future.

More:
-->www.apcafricawomen.org

You can subscribe online here:
--> www.apcafricawomen.org/pula.htm

*****************************************************************

QUOTE/UNQUOTE

"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to
promote
peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much
that
one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them
have
it."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

****************************************************************

JOBS

EDINBURGH
World Development Movement (WDM) Scotland has been awarded funding for a 1
year, half-time position to help develop their Active Global Citizens
project. "Project Development Officer" - £21,182 pro rata. The World
Development Movement (WDM) is a leading campaigning organisations, winning
change for the world's poorest people. They are looking for a creative and
organised worker to join the staff in their Edinburgh office in developing
a new adult education programme bringing global issues to people in Scotland.
Full details at their website. Closing date for applications is 14th
February. Interviews will be held in Edinburgh on 24th February.

Full details:
--> www.wdmscotland.org.uk/

MANCHESTER
Electronic Immigration Network (EIN) is a voluntary sector organisation
specialising in the provision of information on immigration and refugee law
via the Internet. EIN are seeking a Director who will be responsible for
the development and delivery of EIN services, which includes providing the
necessary vision and leadership for EIN and creating a strategy to achieve
that vision. At least 3 years experience in senior management is required.
Based in Machester. Salary: £32,600 per annum (pro rata) plus 6% pension
contribution.
Closing date for applications: 17th January 2003. Interviews scheduled for
week of 10th March 2003.
For an information pack contact the office via email: admin at ein.org.uk
or phone: 0845 458 4151

More information about EIN here:
--> www.ein.org.uk

More Jobs on GreenNet:
--> www.gn.apc.org/jobs.html

*****************************************************************

DIARY DATES

FEBRUARY:

Turkish Buffet and Social Evening-In aid of Islington Homeless
Thursday 13th February - 8pm
Gem Restaurant, 265 Upper Street, London N1 2UQ
(Nearest Tube ­ Highbury & Islington)
Turkish Buffet and Social Evening
Vegetarians welcome
Tickets £10
For further details:
Tel: 020 8600 9169, or email: islingtonhomelessnessforum at yahoo.co.uk

NATIONAL DEMO
Saturday 15th February 2003, London
Assemble 12 noon at Embankment, London (nearest tube Embankment) to march
at 12:30pm [Resources].
If the UK goes to war we will call a national demonstration IMMEDIATELY;
demonstrate at 6pm in your town centre
(London: Trafalgar Square).

Resources and further information:

--> www.stopwar.org.uk/

***
London 21 Sustainability Network.
Skill share on involving the community in your local project
Tuesday 25 February, 6.00 pm
A free event of the London 21 Sustainability Network

How to keep people motivated and active, and develop the participants'
ownership of the project?

How to involve the wider community and communicate sustainability?
- including reaching out to specific target groups

The evening will be an opportunity to learn about participatory methods,
hear about other community projects working on local sustainability, share
experiences and keep up-to-date with resources and opportunities in
London.

Venue: London 21 office
Groundwork buzzer-2nd Floor 12-20 Baron Street, N1 9LL (Angel Tube)
Please register as places are limited for this free event. Simply send
your contact details and items for the agenda to Vinciane on 0207 239 1392 or
email: vinciane at london21.org.

***
BODHI GARDEN DHARMA CENTRE
7A Ship Street Gardens, Brighton
General enquiries: bodhigarden at btopenworld.com, or Richard: 07796 331167

Friday 21st Feb 7.30 - 9pm: 'Peace, Dharma and the global situation'. Talk
on Engaged Buddhism and the work of Joanna Macy. £free/donation. Info
07796 331167.

Saturday 22nd Feb 10am - 4pm: 'The Great Turning'. Day workshop
based on the work of Joanna Macy. Bring veg lunch to share. £Donation.
Info 07796 331167.

Sunday 23rd Feb:
Either 10am - 4.30pm: Day retreat and Dharma teaching led by
Dharmasala-based Tibetan monk Tenzin Josh (the inspiration for the
Bodhi Garden!) Bring veg lunch to share and a cushion. £Donation. Info
07796 331167.

Or 10am - 4pm: 'Open Dharma Day'. Meditation sessions (sitting &
walking, unguided) plus taped Dharma teachings from different teachers.
Door open only at certain times - drop in or stay for the day, your
choice. If coming/staying for lunch, please bring veggie food to share.

***
ICAR (the Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK) is
organising a series of seminars on refugee communities in the UK.
The seminars will take place in the Menzies Room at the Institute of
Commonwealth Studies, 28 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DS.

11 February
Working with refugee communities - the realities of community
development

25 February
The mobilisation and participation of refugee communities in
post-conflict reconstruction.

MARCH:

4 March
Ethiopian and Tamil communities in the UK: the experience of exile

11 March
New identities in the diaspora: Somalis and Kurds in London, comparative
issues

18 March
Bosnian refugees in the UK: questioning community

For more information please telephone Beth Crosland on 020 7848 2731 or
email: beth.crosland at kcl.ac.uk.

***
ASIAN WOMEN'S MOVEMENT CONFERENCE
Friday 7th March/Saturday 8th March /Sunday 9th March
Dreams, Questions and Struggles, Sapne Sawal aur Larai, - 25 years of
the Asian Womens Movement, a conference by and about Asian women On:

What is our history?
Where do we stand today?
What does feminism mean to us?
What kind of a future do we want?

and, or on Saturday 8th March
Celebrate International Women's Day with poetry, songs and music from
Razia Aziz, Kulwinder, Seni, DJ Ritu and many others.

For more details (eg Transport, Crèche, Stalls, Programme) on both events,
phone: 0207 424 9535, or email:londec at hotmail.com

***
DESIGN FOR LIFE: PERMACULTURE, BIOMIMICRY AND SUSTAINABLE LIVING
March 9-28, 2003 at Schumacher College, Devon, UK
With Max Lindegger, Morag Gamble & Janine Benyus. Drawing on their
experiences working at Crystal Waters Permaculture Village, Max and Morag
will discuss how we can, in a participatory and holistic way, design
human-scale settlements and food systems based on permaculture principles
that promote a healthy environment and create opportunities for meaningful
work.

For more information, please contact the Administrator, Schumacher College,
The Old Postern, Dartington, Devon TQ9 6EA, Tel: 01803 865 934
Email: admin at schumachercollege.org.uk
-->www.schumachercollege.org.uk

***
QUESTIONNING SECURITY TERRORISM IN A GLOBALISED WORLD
Thursday March 6, 6pm for 6.30pm
Venue: Demos, The Mezzanine, Elizabeth House, 39 York Road, London SE1 7YY
(Elizabeth House is adjacent to Waterloo Station and buses 76, 77, 211,
341, 381 and 507 pass the door).

Resurgence & Demos jointly invite you to an evening of conversation with
John Gray Professor of European Thought at the LSE, author of "Straw Dogs
Thoughts on Humans & Other Animals" &
Caroline Lucas, Green Party Member of the European Parliament
With Satish Kumar, Editor of Resurgence & Director of Programmes at the
Schumacher College

Admission: £5.00 with wine
Enquires and bookings on: 01237 441293, or email: peterlang at resurgence.org

***
Capitalwoman 2003 conference, the London conference for women
Saturday 8th March
Venue: the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in SW1,
It is hosted by Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron and Diane Abbott MP. For details
or to register, contact 020 7983 4302 or
email: capitalwoman at london.gov.uk.

***
DESIGNED BY NATURE
Friday March 28, 6.15pm for 6.45pm
Venue: The Princes Foundation, 19 22 Charlotte Road, Old Street, London
EC2A 3SG (Exit 3 from Old Street Station, wheelchair accessible)

Resurgence Magazine & The Temenos Academy jointly present
With: Janine Benyus, Life sciences writer and author of "Biomimicry
Innovation Inspired by Nature", Rupert Sheldrake, Author of "Dogs that know
when their owners are coming home - and other unexplained powers of
animals", and Satish Kumar, Editor of Resurgence & Director of Programmes
at the Schumacher College.

Admission: £5.00 with wine
Enquires and bookings on: 01237 441293, or email: peterlang at resurgence.org

More Diary Dates on GreenNet:
--> www.gn.apc.org/calendar/calindex.shtml

Please add your events to the calendar here:
--> www.gn.apc.org/calendar/add.shtml

*****************************************************************
The AlterNet News is edited by Joanne Doyle for GreenNet:
---> www.gn.apc.org

Please note that opinions expressed in AlterNet are those of the
contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the GreenNet
Collective.
To subscribe or unsubscribe see:

http://news.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/alternet-l
For more information on this service and how to use it, contact
joanne at gn.apc.org

****************************************************

Alternet-l mailing list
Alternet-l at gn.apc.org

http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/alternet-l