[alternet-l] THE ALTERNET NEWS - ISSUE 119

Fri Apr 29 17:23:39 BST 2005

THE ALTERNET NEWS - ISSUE 119
April 29th 2005

This issue:

MONEY TALKS/
DIRTY DEALINGS/
HUMAN RIOTS/
EVERY LITTLE HELPS/
BIOWASTE OF TIME/
CLEAR AS MUD/
WEAPONS OF MASS/
PEACE OF THE ACTION/
AGE OF AQUARIUS/
RATZ!/

QUOTE/UNQUOTE/
JOBS/
DIARY/

HOT SITES:

Poison Apple - beneath the stylish outer casings, Apple's beautifully
designed iPods and PCs contain toxic chemicals such as lead and mercury
that can cause birth defects and disabilities. Join the efforts to stop 
the
growing mountain of harmful electronic waste from poisoning our families
and communities, and encourage consumer electronics manufacturers and 
brand
owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products.
Click here to send a message to Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer Inc,
urging him to recycle his iWaste:
http://action.computertakeback.com/action/index.asp?step=2&item=10201
Art Not Oil is an annual event aimed at encouraging artists to create work
that explores the damage that companies such as BP are doing to the 
planet,
and the role art can play in counteracting that damage. Art Not Oil 2005
will begin as a virtual gallery at www.artnotoil.org.uk, progressing to a
physical space at some point during the year.
Despite the fact that education is key to ending extreme poverty, over 100
million children around the world are not in school. Action Week (April 
24-
30) is a worldwide effort to remind world leaders of their promise that
every child should have an education. This year's campaign, 'Send My 
Friend
to School', has the worldwide goal of sending 1 million 'friends' to world
leaders. Participants will make life-size and smaller-scale cutouts of
friends to send as petitions to the G-8 Summit. See http://www.netaid.org
for more details.

MONEY TALKS - PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES LISTEN

A report from a panel of experts released recently suggests that if aid
donors could be persuaded to promise to buy 200 million doses of any new
malaria vaccine for $15 a time, pharmaceutical companies would have the
incentive to develop one, and people in poorer countries would get the
chance of proper protection from the deadly disease at a bargain cost. It
has been argued that this approach could work for many diseases afflicting
poor countries and potentially save millions of lives.

http://www.cgdev.org

DIRTY DEALINGS

At a ChevronTexaco shareholder meeting in California this week, Amazonian
community leaders, celebrities, and activists will confront company
officials, focusing attention anew on Texaco's messy legacy in Ecuador.
Twenty years of oil exploration in the nation left much of the western 
edge
of the Amazon rainforest in ecological ruin, and many villagers with
unusually high rates of illness. Though Texaco fled Ecuador in 1992, its
joint venture with the nation's state oil company left behind 600 unlined
open sludge pits, compromised or destroyed 2.5 million acres of 
rainforest,
and released an estimated 20 billion gallons of wastewater directly into
waterways. ChevronTexaco insists it dealt with the contamination in 1995
when it paid $40 million in cleanup costs to the Ecuadorian government. 
But
locals and environmentalists estimate that a thorough cleanup could cost 
as
much as $6 billion.

The Independent

HUMAN RIOTS

Thousands of farmers are rioting in a village in eastern China this month,
taking a stand against encroachment of the country's fast-growing
industries onto their land, and the pollution and health problems that
result. Villagers set up roadblocks to interfere with deliveries to and
from the 13 chemical plants in the area that have been built on what used
to be cropland. When some 3,000 police were sent to remove the roadblocks
and restore production at the plants, villagers rioted, smashing buses,
overturning cars, and attacking the police. Farmers and other locals say
the factories - which produce fertilizers, pesticides, and dyes - damage
their crops, foul their water, and periodically release clouds of stinging
gas, causing birth defects and stillborn babies. Said one villager, "I'm
afraid my children won't live to reach my age. I want my land back, I want
my food back, and I want my water back."

The Guardian

EVERY LITTLE HELPS

Tesco announced its annual profits this month, results which have 
doubtless
satisfied the many shareholders of this supermarket giant. ActionAid
reports that these ever-increasing margins are resulting not from those of
us at the top of the supermarket 'food chain', but from the shoddy
treatment of casual women labourers on South African farms - whose pay and
working conditions are being squeezed below poverty thresholds.

http://www.oneworld.net/link/gotoarticle/addhit/109247/66/21543

BIOWASTE OF TIME

A coalition of 6 organisations, bringing together European environmental
protection groups, social integration interests, Waste Managers, Local
Authorities and Industry, supported by acknowledged experts in the field,
have expressed their deep concern about the apparent intention of the
European Commission's DG Environment to abandon an independent Directive 
on
Biowaste. After five years, several advanced Commission working papers,
numerous stakeholder meetings and at least seven different institutional
calls for legislation, nothing has yet been delivered.
 "The Commission's idea of focusing only on Compost Product Standards for
this waste stream is insufficient. Standards without complementary
strategic legislation on biowaste would not generate the critical mass
needed to drive change, or give the legal certainty to address the current
financial risks for both the private and public sectors, declared a
coalition spokesperson.

www.assurre.org

CLEAR AS MUD

A chemical widely used in the making of clear plastic products, including
baby bottles, food storage containers, and even dental fillings, is the
subject of debate between those who insist it is safe, (namely those with
vested interests in the plastic industry) and those who say it's not,
(namely the rest of the thinking world). Many scientists have found
evidence that bisphenol A, or BPA, is harmful, even in the small doses
leached from plastic into food during heating or exposure to acidic food
products or strong detergents, because it can mimic sex hormones. A new
paper in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives surveys 115 studies
on BPA and reports that 94 of them show harmful effects. In a strange 
twist
of fate, researchers Frederick vom Saal and Claude Hughes found that all 
11
industry-funded studies conclude BPA is harmless, while 90 percent of the
104 government- or university-funded studies conclude otherwise.
California's legislature is considering a ban on BPA in childrens' 
products
- if successful, it would be the first ban on the chemical in the world.

 USA Today

WEAPONS OF MASS

A local resident has submitted a formal complaint to Central Scotland
Police following an incident earlier this month when a 48-tonne nuclear
weapons convoy used Stirlingshire roads on which safety-related weight
restrictions apply, risking the collapse of a bridge or carriageway. Three
nuclear warhead carriers travelled on either the B822, which has a 
13-tonne
restriction, or, as is more probable, on the B8075 on which the permitted
weight is 7.5 tonnes. The convoy was spotted by Nukewatch monitors - a
Nukewatch spokesperson said:

'This particular piece of law breaking by the Ministry of Defence is quite
astounding in its arrogance and disdain for public safety. The normal 
route
these convoys take is the A811 through the western edge of Stirling. While
this route is far from safe for the transport of plutonium and high
explosive, in that the road is narrow and passes close to two primary
schools and businesses employing many hundreds of people, at least it does
not have these weight restrictions which have been imposed for a reason.
What recklessness inspired them to take this route?'

http://www.nuclearinfo.org

PEACE OF THE ACTION

The remaining rebel group in Burundi has announced it would join the peace
process ahead of elections scheduled for later this month. In the Congo,
one militia group announced an end to
its armed struggle, while another sent the last of its conscripts to hand
in their weapons. Meanwhile, Ivorians are waiting to see if their 
president
will accept mediator Thabo Mbeki's ruling that the main opposition
candidate should be allowed to stand in elections later this year.

http://www.reliefweb.int

AGE OF AQUARIUS

Only 2 percent of the world's water is fresh, and with the World 
Commission
on Water for the 21st Century projecting a 50% increase in demand in the
next 30 years, food and drinking-water shortages, droughts, devastated
agriculture, disease, and even armed conflict over water may be on the
horizon. Indeed, over the last five years, stocks in the water sector have
leapt 113%, with a 24% jump just last year. Companies involved in the $400
billion-a-year global water business - delivery and storage of water,
construction and maintenance of infrastructure like wastewater-treatment
facilities and desalination plants - have seen their portfolios boom in
recent years. 'Water will emerge as the next growth commodity', says 
hedge-
fund manager John Romero.

 The Wall Street Journal

RATZ!

The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new pope has disappointed
progressive Catholic groups who fear that Ratzinger, like his predecessor,
will maintain the church's strict orthodoxy on issues such as
contraception, celibacy, abortion, homosexuality and women's leadership.
Many people, having spoken out on the need for the next pope to hail from
Latin America (where 45% of Catholics communities are based) are angry at
the decision to elect another Western pope.

http://www.ips.org

QUOTE/UNQUOTE

"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized 
there
was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an
afterlife."
- The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, Douglas Adams.

JOBS

Water & Sanitation Technical Advisor, Liberia
Concern Worldwide
Salary: Paid salary, flights, accommodation, living allowance, life &
health insurance, pension
Location: Monrovia, with travel to the field, Liberia
Closing Date: 12.05.2005
http://www.oneworld.net/job/view/11091

Assistant Country Director - Systems, Burundi.
Concern Worldwide
Salary: Paid salary ( 31,784+), flights, accommodation, living allowance,
life & health insurance, pension
Location: Bujumbura, Burundi
Closing Date: 12.05.2005
http://www.oneworld.net/job/view/11090

Country Programme Manager
Oxfam Great Britain
Salary: £28,460 - £36,670 p.a. gross
Location: Scotland, UK
 Closing Date: 10.05.2005
http://www.oneworld.net/job/view/11086

Regional Education Advisor South Central Asia Region
Save the Children UK
Salary: £27,471
Location: Khatmandu, Nepal
Closing Date: 06.05.2005
http://www.oneworld.net/job/view/11081

Personal Assistant to the Chief Executive
Plan International UK
Salary: £18,110- £23,134 pa depending on skills and experience
Location: London NW1, UK
Closing Date: 18.04.2005
http://www.oneworld.net/job/view/11078

HIV Programme Development Officer
CAFOD
Salary: £27,251 to 29,901 p.a.
Location: Brixton, London, UK
Closing Date: 22.04.2005
http://www.oneworld.net/job/view/11073

EVENTS

Cancel the ExCel Arms Fair! Musical protest: Sat 7 May, 2pm-4.30pm
Outside the ExCel Centre, next to Custom House Docklands Light
Railway Station. Information about local opposition to ExCel Arms
Fair is available from East London Against the Arms Fair c/o C.I.U.
Durning Hall, Earlham Grove, London E7 9AB.

Soldiers or Scientists? Questions about national security are uppermost in
many of our minds - especially in the wake of various terrorist attacks
across the world and the war in Iraq.
Join our panel as they address questions on this subject, putting the
complex worlds of the military sector, science, engineering and technology
under the microscope. David Dickson, Director of SciDevNet, will chair 
this
event, and Dr Chris Langley and Malcolm Savidge MP will speak.
The Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albemarle Street,
London W1S 4BS, Wednesday 11 May 2005, 7.00 - 8.30 pm.- is not a Word 
Document.

http://www.rigb.org/rimain/calendar/detail.jsp?&id=172

Irshad Manji, the controversial best-selling author of 'The
Trouble with Islam...' will be speaking in London on Thursday 12 May
2005, hosted by the Lesbian & Gay Christian Movement and other
organisations. The theme of Ms Manji's talk in London will be "Faith +
Politics + Human Rights" and will follow from the issues raised in her
book, which she describes as follows:
"'The Trouble with Islam...' is an open letter from me, a Muslim voice of
reform, to concerned citizens worldwide - Muslim and otherwise. It's about
why my faith community needs to come to terms with the diversity of ideas,
beliefs and people in our universe, and why non-Muslims have a pivotal 
role
in helping us get there."
http://www.wluml.org

The London Sustainability Weeks are set to be a bigger success than ever -
as of yesterday over 300 events are confirmed as taking place during the
two weeks of June 5th - 19th. The launch day, June 5th, will be kicking 
off
with two big events - the Camden Green Fair in Regents Park and the 
GLA-run
London Green Lifestyle Festival in Greenwich Park. More details on these
events very soon.

See SchNEWS events at http://www.schnews.org.uk/pap/yourarea.htm

Add diary dates at http://www.gn.apc.org/calendar/calindex.shtml and
http://www.networkforpeace.org.uk/events.htm (diary dates collected by NfP
are passed on to Peace News for their diary page. In order to get a diary
listing in PN, groups can email nfp at gn.apc.org with details).

This edition of AlterNet is edited by Lucie Evans for GreenNet.

Send your news and hot sites to actnow at gn.apc.org

Please note that opinions expressed in Alternet News do not
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