Perspectives on Social Issues
(December 2004)
Environmental Justice Partnership between Village in India and Wisconsin Interfaith Group
"WICEC (Wisconsin Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign) is starting a brand-new venture
in environmental justice. We have entered into a partnership with a poor community in India. The idea is very basic. Each one of us sets aside $5 a month (or $50 a year) to offset the greenhouse gas emissions from the cars we drive. This money goes to Aliguda village in Central India where the people there plant Pongamia pinnata trees. As the trees grow, they sequester carbon. The almond-like seeds from this tree are crushed in a mill to produce oil, which can be used as a substitute for petroleum. The payment by the international community for environmental services meets the terms of the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol....
Aliguda village consists of 26 families belonging to an indigenous community called Gonds. Though living in poverty, the villagers are well organized as a social group with women at the center. Seed money of $1,000 will help to generate an income flow of approximately $20,000 over a period of ten years. In other words, each dollar contributed helps the women of Aliguda to earn $20. Last year, the women planted 3,000 pongamia trees on village common land and have plans to plant 10,000 more this year. The oil is used to generate electricity, pump up ground water and run farm equipment, with the leftover oilcake replacing chemical fertilizer on the fields."
"Ethical Energy," Wisconsin Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign, Autumn 2004.
Water Increasingly a Commodity for Corporate Profits
"Water is the most essential commodity for all life on earth and increasingly, it is for sale. Both in the United States and around the world, water is being privatized by for-profit corporations. Fortune magazine called water 'the oil of the 21st century,' and for good reason. While water consumption is doubling every twenty years, its availability continues to decline due to depletion, pollution, diversion, and other factors. The World Bank predicts that two-thirds of the world's population will run short of adequate water in the next twenty years. Historically, water has been seen as a public good, rather than a commodity, and most utilities have been publicly owned.
In 2002, the United Nations declared water to be a human right. But with the cost of maintaining and repairing aging infrastructures estimated at a trillion dollars, municipal governments often see privatization as a way to make ends meet. Instead of enacting policies to conserve and protect water supplies, governments are being pressured to sell their systems to transnational corporations, for whom increasing scarcity means greater potential profit. Corporations typically promise greater economic efficiency, stabilized rates, reduced public debt, and improved budgetary management. Yet privatization has frequently resulted in rising prices, water quality problems, deteriorating service, and loss of local control."
"Water Barons: Thirsty for Profits" The Other Side, Oct 2004.
Building a Peaceforce in Sri Lanka
"Working against the backdrop of a ceasefire that hasn't yet healed old wounds, the Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) Sri Lanka team ended its first year in a network of activities to promote peace on the island nation. On the individual level, NP members work with mothers seeking the return of their children who have been abducted and forced to soldier for combatants, and work at the same time to halt the practice of child soldier recruitment. NP team members also accompany civilians who ask for help in making abuse complaints against the Sri Lankan army. In schools in the south, NP members help to form Peace Youth Clubs.
On the community level, NP members work with peace committees on response strategies to communal conflicts. Team members also investigate and contain rumors that emerge in divided communities. The NP contingent and Sarvodaya (a network of Sri Lankan NGOs and the Ghandian movement) are exploring a large-scale Sri Lankan Rapid Deployment Peaceforce. The NP unit also is talking with the Sri Lankan Red Cross about adding a peace training and conflict resolution component to the Red Cross' program."
"Eventful First Year in Sri Lanka," Rumors of Peace, Nonviolent Peaceforce, Fall 2004.
School Uniform Project Supports Life-Saving Jobs
"A New York State Religion-Labor Coalition initiative, which began with a 'sweatfree' committee in the Buffalo diocese and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, has led to the purchase of Catholic school uniform shirts and blouses by four schools from a women's sewing cooperative in Thailand. With very little work available for women other than Thailand's infamous sex industry, these jobs are 'life-saving' both for the workers and their families.
We started small and now are looking to expand the Buffalo pilot project to the other seven dioceses of the state,' said Elisa Meredith, Coordinator of the Coalition's Sweatfree Schools Campaign. 'There are 277,000 students enrolled in Catholic schools in the state. 'If even a small percentage of schools come on board, this is a big enough market to provide hundreds of living wage jobs for the women of the cooperative,' she continued. The Coalition's essential partner in the project is Handcrafting Justice (formerly Global Women's Exchange), a not-for-profit, fair trade initiative of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd."
"New York Catholic School Uniform Project Supports Life-Saving Jobs in Thailand," Faith Works, Interfaith Worker Justice, Nov 2004.
U.S. Prison Population Increasing
"The total population of citizens incarcerated, paroled, or on probation in the United States reached a new high in 2003, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. More than 3 percent of U.S. adults were part of the correctional population sometime during 2003, despite a decade of decreases in violent crime, property crime, and gun-related crime. The increasing prison population results from 'political policies promulgated by politicians who are doing what they think the public wants,' Harmon Wray, executive director of the National Association of Sentencing Advocates, told Sojourners. 'Unfortunately, the only options the public sees are either highly punitive or just slaps on the wrist. There's not enough middle ground. Accountability, restitution, treatment -- those are what the public really wants when presented with alternatives [to incarceration].'
- 4.8 million. The total number of people on probation or parole in the United States in 2003; up from 3.8 million in 1995.
- 2 million. The total number of men and women in all U.S. prisons and jails at mid-year 2003.
- 130,700. The increase in the total adult correctional population from 2002 to 2003.
- 4 percent. The average annual increase in jail populations since 1995.
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics bulletin (July 2004)"
"Less Crime, More Time," Between the Lines, Sojourners Magazine, Oct 2004.
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Gratitude to the Institute for Peace and Justice
for use of their Pope Paul VIth graphic. |
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