[alternet-l] THE ALTERNET NEWS - ISSUE # 95
Joanne Doyle
joanne at gn.apc.org
Thu Jul 10 17:57:57 BST 2003
THE ALTERNET NEWS - ISSUE # 95
This issue:
HOT SITES/
APC GUIDE TO WSIS/
UK ID CARDS/
MORE ON GM/
OPEN SOURCE AFRICA/
TOXIC FREE EUROPE/
GLOBAL WARMING ALERT/
MUSIC LICENSING BILL/
MEDIA FUND VICTORY/
MEDIA FELLOWS/
QUOTE/UNQUOTE/
JOBS/
DIARY/
********************************************************************
The AlterNet News is the GreenNet e-newsletter that carries brief news
items, campaign updates, a diary of key forthcoming events and
announcements. News comes from our contacts all over the web, but most of
the AlterNet News will come from the GreenNet community.
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:
--> www.gn.apc.org/news/alternet/index.html
****************************************************************
HOT SITES
Women Living Under Muslim Laws, an international Network that provides
information, solidarity and support for all women whose lives are shaped,
conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam, has
just launched their new site. The new site is designed in collaboration
with GreenNet using a content management system 'ActionApps'.
The site is content-rich, including news, calls to action and publications,
all thematically and regionally categorised and searchable. The ActionApps
system displays items in all three languages: english, arabic and french.
-->www.wluml.org
The e-Parliament climate and energy website has introduced a new energy
section to their website, designed by Adrian Harris at GreenNet.
The new section alerts the visitor to the policy instruments and technology
that has already been proven to work, they
encourage a dialogue through a simple bulletin board about how to improve
climate and energy policies
--> www.e-parl.net/energy
BRIDGE have redesigned the Siyanda website, now on-line at:
--> www.siyanda.org/
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APC GUIDE TO WSIS
"The upcoming World Summit on the Information Society is a great learning
opportunity for civil society organisations that are new to the ICT policy
process to begin to articulate positions and gain valuable experience in
lobbying that can be taken back to their home countries.
The APC guide "FAQ about Conducting a National WSIS Process" outlines the
steps to take and key components in organising a national consultation
around ICT policy. The "question & answer" format homes in on some of the
key questions we have heard people ask about how to organise. The primary
target audience is people that are active in using or promoting the use of
ICTs in their work, but who have not necessarily
been involved in national level policy processes previously.
"We find this is true of many ICT oriented organisations who tend to be
hands on, providing training, support, and content," said APC Executive
Director, Anriette Esterhuysen. "Working at the policy level can be quite
intimidating. Our goal is to provide encouragement and support so that ICT
CSOs can build the confidence to raise their voices in policy discussions."
Download the FAQ on conducting a national WSIS consultation:
--> http://rights.apc.org/nationalfaq_wsis_v1.pdf
Read more about it:
--> www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=12828
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UK ID CARDS
"DAVID BLUNKETT has decided that everybody in Britain over the age of 16 will
have to buy an identity card at nearly £40 each, a leaked cabinet document
reveals.
The move will spark outrage from Britain's civil liberties lobby, which has
long campaigned against ID cards. It is also likely to provoke anger among
voters, who will object to being forced to pay for a new arm of state
control.
The home secretary has rejected voluntary entitlement cards and instead will
require all citizens to have identity cards. Each card will contain biometric
data, such as an image of a person's iris or fingerprint, so police and other
authorities can confirm the holder's identity."
Blunkett has asserted that: "The consultation exercise showed strong public
support for a card scheme and a preference for the term "identity card"
rather than "entitlement card"."
The Times article is online at:
--> www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-736390,00.html
Privacy International had earlier this month, in a news piece
entitled: "UK Government to Ignore ID Card Opposition", reported that "the
UK Government has revealed that the 5,000 anti-Entitlement Card email
submissions sent via the Stand.org.uk website were to be "counted in the
same way as other inspired samples or surveys of opinion which by their
nature cannot be representative of the population as a whole".
Further information and useful links at their website:
--> www.privacyinternational.org/
*****************************************************************
MORE ON GM
The European Parliament have lifted an outright ban on GM foods. The new
legislation allows GM products only if they are clearly labelled.
This strict labelling regime may have been a compromise to ward off a trade
war with the US but it is nevertheless welcomed by environmental groups,
such as FoE.
The new legislation means that GM animal feed will now have to be labelled
for the first time, along with thousands of other products which contain GM
soya and GM maize-derived foods.
FoE did caution that "although the new legislation is a step in the right
direction, they remain concerned that:
- The threshold for GM contamination is too high. MEPs compromised with
Ministers and agreed on 0.9%. Current testing techniques can reliably
detect GM s low as 0.1%;
- The contamination of food and crops by unlicensed GM material will be
allowed for 3 years;
- Member states may, rather than shall, take action to prevent
contamination of neighbouring farms.
Friends of the Earth is also calling for strict liability to make biotech
companies liable for any contamination or environmental problems."
Read the press release in full here:
--> www.foe.org.uk/resource/press_releases/meps_back_tougher_gm_label.html
Friends of the Earth has produced a map which sets out the presence of the
five wild plant species most likely to cross-pollinate with oilseed rape if
it is grown in Britain:
-->
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2003/07/09/national_map_osr_relatives.pdf
The Guardian reports online at:
--> www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,989766,00.html
Thanks to those who got in touch with news about events and information
around the GM debate, following piece on GM nation in the last Alternet News.
Genewatch have a list of local meetings that will allow people to get
directly involved. The list on our site contains over 75 meetings compared
with the half dozen or so on the official site:
--> www.genewatch.org/Debate/Debate_Meetings.htm
The Genewatch site also contains a series of 'core issue papers' that are
available to download online, including:
GM Crops: Environmental Saviour or New Form of Pollution?
GM Crops and Food: Good for Your Health?
GM Food: Your Right to Choose?
GM Crops: Bringing Hope to the Starving?
Can GM and Non-GM Farming Co-exist in the UK?
Who Should Pay if Things Go Wrong with GM Crops and Food?
GM Research: Who Decides?
GM Animals: Do The Ends Justify The Means?
--> www.genewatch.org
*****************************************************************
OPEN SOURCE AFRICA
The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA, working
alongside the APC, has completed their 3 year action plan and a briefing on
the state of FOSS in Africa.
"The APC Addis Workshop on ICT Policy and Civil Society sparked the
formation of the foundation with the workshop working group on
Information Security and Applications Development unanimously resolving
to convert itself into an interim civil society task force to champion
free and open source software. The foundation came into being during a
preparatory conference for the World Summit on the Information Society
in February 2003 and now support for FOSSFA is being debated in the
British Houses of Parliament."
Find out more about FOSSFA and read the action plan:
--> www.wougnet.org/ICTpolicy/opensource.html#FOSSFA
FOSSFA in UK Parliamentary debate:
-->
www.publications.parliament.uk/cgi-bin/ukparl_hl?DB=ukparl&STEMMER=en&WORDS=fossfa+&COLOUR=Red&STYLE=s&URL=/pa/ld199697/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds03/text/30618w02.htm#30618w02_wqn8
Can Open Source Technologies Transform African Information
Infra-structures? A troupe of African techies tell it how it is...
--> www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=9965
See September diary dates below for details of an Open source UK event.
Read the latest Cooperative Systems bulletin for an easy to digest
comparison between Windows and Linux -
The big match: Windows v. Linux:
--> www.coopsys.net/downloads/jun2003.htm#b5
*****************************************************************
TOXIC FREE EUROPE
Last week the Women's Environmental Network helped organise a 'European
toxic-free future' conference.
"The conference, Working Towards a Toxic Free Future, brought together 100
participants from more than 40 groups in 20 countries, at Soesterberg, in
the Netherlands, last weekend (27-28 June).
The European Commission is consulting now on plans for much tighter
regulation of chemicals. People and civil society groups were urged to
respond now to the internet consultation on draft legislation to counter
intense lobbying from the chemicals industry and the United States against
it. Speaker after speaker detailed the scale of human pollution from
man-made chemicals and the health effects evident in wildlife and,
increasingly, in people.
Marie Kranendonk, President of the conference organisers, Women in Europe
for a Common Future (WECF), said: “Children have the right to be born
chemical free. We cannot accept that they are the guinea pigs of the
chemical industry. Europeans have a choice now: economic interests versus
the protection of the health of people, particularly the most vulnerable
group the new generation.”
Up to 20,000 children born in the Netherlands each year show the effects of
the ‘body burden’ of chemicals their mothers were exposed to: breathing
difficulties, blood and immune disorders, learning difficulties and
congenital defects.
There are an estimated 100,000 synthetic chemicals in the environment,
about 30,000 in every day items and up to 700 contaminants have been
detected in humans. Current regulation is totally inadequate to deal with
the pattern of multiple daily exposure to toxic chemicals from products all
around us: furniture, electronic goods, cosmetics and even food."
Full story:
--> www.wen.org.uk/general_pages/Newsitems/pr_toxicfreefuture.htm
You can respond to the European Commission internet consultation on its
chemicals policy either directly at:
--> http://europa.eu.int/yourvoice/forms/dispatch.jsp?form=253&lang=EN
or by using the ready-prepared green coalition response at:
--> www.chemicalreaction.org
*****************************************************************
GLOBAL WARMING ALERT
Last week the World Meteorological Organisation announced that "record
extremes in weather and climate events continue to occur around the
world. Recent scientific assessments indicate that, as the global
temperatures continue to warm due to climate change, the number and
intensity of extreme events might increase."
"Recent scientific assessments indicate that, as the global temperatures
continue to warm due to climate change, the number and intensity of extreme
events might increase," the WMO said, giving a series of examples.
The examples were from around the world, including the UK, where
last month was also the hottest in England and Wales since 1976, with
average temperatures of 16C. The WMO said: "These record extreme events
(high temperatures, low temperatures and high rainfall amounts and
droughts) all go into calculating the monthly and annual averages,
which, for temperatures, have been gradually increasing over the past
100 years. New record extreme events occur every year somewhere in the
globe, but in recent years the number of such extremes have been
increasing".
Read the full report here:
--> www.wmo.ch/web/Press/Press695.doc
*****************************************************************
MUSIC LICENSING BILL
An update from our call to action in Issue 92 of The Alternet News
(www.gn.apc.org/news/alternet/092%2008-05-03.html#a7_), the music licensing
bill, although defeated 10 times, has gone through as the House of Lords
finally backed down.
The bill, designed to liberalise drinking hours to create a more
family-friendly drinking culture, also legislates that small venues such as
pubs require entertainment licences for live music. Although the bill has
some positive aspects, the main fear was that thousands of smaller pubs,
bars and restaurants would lose the right to host even solo acoustic
performance on any regular basis.
--> www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,991269,00.html
The Musician's Union reports:
'Musicians are surely justified in believing that the Government are making
them a scapegoat for problems that have nothing to do with live music. They
are also justified in wondering how the Government believe that introducing
entertainment licensing controls on live performances where none previously
applied, or have not applied for a very long time, will benefit live music
at the grass roots.'
Read their update here, including information on 'What has lobbying and the
MU campaign achieved?':
--> www.musiciansunion.org.uk/articles/latest_news.shtml
*****************************************************************
MEDIA FUND VICTORY
The House of Lords agreed last night (8 July 2003) to amend the
Communications Bill to allow Ofcom's grant funding powers to be extended in
the future to cover digital Community Television services in addition to
Community Radio.
The decision was taken in response to amendments drafted by the Community
Media Association. Speaking on behalf of the Government, Lord Evans said:
"We are prepared to accept the intention behind these amendments and have
therefore tabled government amendments which will allow access radio grants
to be extended by order to cover local digital television services."
Lord Evans indicated that the intention was to support not-for-profit groups:
"We think it is unlikely that grants would be given to for-profit
organisations, but do not believe that we should absolutely rule it out in
advance."
The CMA welcomed the concession. Steve Buckley, CMA Director, said:
"This is a significant change which provides the basis for a cross-media
approach to investment in Community Radio and Television. It falls short of
the strategic approach to Community Media which we have called for, but it
is certainly a step in the right direction and it will give reassurance and
encouragement to Community TV. Government now needs to ensure that Ofcom is
provided with the resources to invest in Community Media at a level
sufficient to really make a difference."
Full text of the debate at:
-->
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds03/text/30708-31.htm
Community Media Association website:
--> www.commedia.org.uk
*****************************************************************
MEDIA FELLOWS
The Common Ground Media Fellows Program is organised by SFCG is an
international non-profit conflict-resolution organization devoted to
transforming the way the people and institutions deal with conflict - away
from adversarial approaches, toward cooperative
solutions.
Common Ground Media Fellows are journalists, both print and electronic,
who are interested in reporting on public and private controversies in
ways that highlight the ambiguities (the "shades of gray") inherent in
such situations, the values each side shares with the other, as well as
the positions on which they disagree. Writers with a special interest
in how cooperative resolutions are achieved also are eligible.
Common Ground Media Fellows receive small stipends ($300-$1000,
depending on author/producer's experience and reach of the prospective
publisher or broadcast outlet) for published or broadcast pieces that
bring to the fore fresh perspectives on polarizing issues or on the
concept of common ground.
An application to become a Common Ground Fellow must include:
1. Two samples of your work that have been published or broadcast.
2. A brief (150-200 words) synopsis of an article or segment you intend
to write or produce as a Common Ground Fellow
3. A letter from a publication or broadcast outlet expressing interest
in the article or segment.
Applications to be a Common Ground Media Fellow are accepted at any time
of the year.
Further information at their website:
--> www.sfcg.org
or via email: gkulick at .sfcg.org
****************************************************************
JOBS
GreenNet is looking for a part-time primary support person to work
alongside our existing support/web administration team. You will be
experienced with a variety of email programmes, web browsers and dial-up,
on Windows and Mac operating systems. Knowledge of web-hosting, FTP clients
and basic Linux is essential; preference will be given to those with a more
advanced Linux background. Closing date for applications is 25th July 2003.
Interviews will take place on Thursday 31st July. Salary £21000 pro rata.
Visit the website for a fuller job specification:
--> www.gn.apc.org/GNjob.html
or email GreenNet support:
--> support at gn.apc.org
*****************************************************************
QUOTE/UNQUOTE
Look at your eyes they are small but they see enormous things.
- A.N.
*****************************************************************
DIARY DATES
JULY
*Justice Not Vengeance: A New Network*
Thurs 17th July
Attend the launch meeting of Justice Not Vengeance
(JNV), a new initiative from two co-founders of ARROW (Active Resistance to
the Roots of War), David Polden and Milan Rai.
Venue: Quaker International Centre, 1-3 Byng Place,
London WC1E 7JH
Open to all.
*SUMMER CARNIVAL PARTY IN AID OF TRIBAL PEOPLES*
Featuring: The London School of Samba's official Rainha da Bateria competition
Live samba, DJ Marcus, and other guest appearances
Friday 18 July 2003, 7pm to 1am
Venue: Porchester Hall, 45 Porchester Road, Bayswater, London W2
Cost: £10 advance; £10 on the door before 10pm; £12 after 10pm
Call 020 7687 8700 or buy tickets securely online from:
--> www.survival-international.org/summercarnivalparty.htm
*DEALING WITH DISASTER*
HAVE YOUR SAY AND JOIN SPECIALISTS IN THE DEBATE
Running from 7 July to 7 August, the debate will discuss the critical
questions of how poor communities throughout the world - bearing the brunt
of floods, famine and drought - can stop crises from becoming catastrophes.
The online debate will look at:
· The best way to respond: is it the prevailing top-down strategy, run by
governments and many agencies?
· How can disaster management be integrated with development?
· How can community organisations work effectively together with government?
For further details of how to join in, visit:
--> www.christianaid.org.uk/storm
*Resurgence Summer Programme*
31st July - 3rd August
If you like the Magazine you will love this mix of informed discussions,
stimulating talks, great music and the many creative, relaxing and
enjoyable activities.
Book early to avoid disappointment.
Programme information and links to booking form here:
--> www.greenandaway.freeserve.co.uk/resurg03.htm
SEPTEMBER
*AktiviX - weekend Linux workshop for campaigners*
20th - 21st September 2003 in Lancaster.
Why do people campaigning on peace, social justice, environmental or animal
rights issues use Microsoft? One of the richest corporations in the world, a
major backer of Dubya Bush, and a symbol of capitalism gone haywire.
Particularly, why do they use Microsoft when an openly developed alternative
is available. GNU/Linux - developed co-operatively throughout the world is
here. Many people are wary about trying out GNU/Linux and all the programmes
available. This is our chance to experiment and try out installing and
running Linux; to share experiences and enthusiasm.
Everybody involved in campaigning for a better world is welcome - whatever
your level of confidence with computers.
More information here:
--> www.seedsforchange.org.uk/aktiv.html
NOVEMBER
*Beyond Recycling 2003*
A one-day conference organsied by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.
Exchanging practical approaches for municipal waste prevention organised
and hosted by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Waste Minimisation Programme.
Date: 4 November 2003
Venue: Bowood Golf and Country Club, Wiltshire
Further details:
--> www.beyondrecycling.net
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://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/alternet-l
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