Perspectives on Social Issues
(February 2005)
Excessive U.S. Measures Belie Push for Democracy
"The war on terror has opened a wide breach in the ramparts of immunities that protect 
people from the strong arm of the state. The shock of Sept. 11 was so great that the country turned a blind eye as thousands of immigrants and Arab- and Muslim-Americans were swept up in mass arrests, Afghan fighters were declared detainees without the protections of the Geneva Conventions, and uncounted Iraqis were roused from their sleep to be imprisoned in hellholes like Abu Ghraib. Experts argued that the excessive measures approved by the government would not result in improved intelligence, but the administration plunged ahead. Still, the political elites, including the opposition Democrats, refuse to hold the president's men accountable. It is left to the courts and nongovernmental organizations like Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Human Rights Watch to be defenders of human dignity.
It is ironic that as the administration works to extend democracy to the Middle East, it has swept aside the very protections against government abuse of power that are most essential to our system of democratic government. If we do not hold the president's appointees accountable, how will we preserve our freedoms for future generations? How will we restore our national honor before the world?"
"From Terror to Torture." Editorial, America, Jan 31, 2005.
Dance Therapy Helping Sex Trafficking Survivors
"Dance therapy is helping survivors of sex trafficking in India to heal from the mental and physical violence they have experienced. In Calcutta's [Kolkata's] large red-light district, thousands of girls -- most under the age of 15 -- have been sold into prostitution and are prey to customers and pimps in league with organized crime. They also suffer from high rates of AIDS. A lucky few find new homes in shelters such as those run by Sanlaap, a Calcutta [Kolkata] -based women and children's rights group. 'Trafficking victimizes 200,000 people in the region, and 3 million globally, each year.' according to anti-trafficking expert Ruchira Gupta.
On a recent visit to the United States, survivors Bina Dalui and Thulan Sarkar, wearing traditional ghungroo belled anklets, joined Sanlaap's therapist in a dance called 'In Search of Peace,' during which Dalui sang a verse of 'We Shall Overcome' in Bengali. Many of the girls at Sanlaap join a national Indian dance troupe, which leads workshops on children's rights, trafficking, and women and violence."
"Body Language,'" Between the Lines, Sojourners, Feb 2005.
Tackling E-Waste
"Faced with a mounting disposal problem for discarded electronics, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill aimed at reducing the amount of electronic waste entering state landfills. Earlier [in 2004], Maine passed a stronger law making electronics manufacturers responsible for recycling their products. Beginning January 1, 2005, consumers in California will pay between $6 and $10 in state fees when they purchase a computer monitor or television. The state will use the money to pay recyclers who re-process the equipment at the end of its life.
E-waste is the fastest growing component of U.S. municipal waste streams. By 2006, an estimated 163,000 computers and televisions will become obsolete every day in the United States, amounting to almost 3,513 tons of waste. Electronics are laden with toxic substances, including brominated fire retardants, cadmium, lead, and mercury. The United States ships 50 to 80 percent of its e-waste to the developing world, where regulations are lax, and workers and the environment are often exposed to toxins....
The advocacy group Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and computer maker Hewlett Packard criticize the law, saying it lets manufacturers off the hook. Both groups support legislation adopted in Maine in April 2004, which goes into effect in 2006, making manufacturers responsible for recycling. If electronics manufacturers have to recycle their own products, lawmakers and advocates hope companies will design their equipment to be easily recycled or find ways to eliminate the use of toxic chemicals altogether."
"States Tackle E-Waste," Indicators, YES! A Journal of Positive Futures, Winter 2005.
SOA Watch Honored by Spanish Foundation
"SOA Watch, the peace organization that has sought for 14 years to close down a notorious U.S. Army school for Latin American military officers, has been awarded the 21st International Alfonso Comin Foundation human rights award. In a December ceremony in Barcelona, Spain, Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois accepted the award on behalf of SOA Watch, which he founded in 1990 after graduates of the School of the Americas were linked to the assassinations of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador....
The private foundation cited SOA Watch for its efforts to change U.S. foreign policy and to close down the school, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Earlier recipients of the Comin award include Nelson Mandela, who was honored while imprisoned in South Africa for opposing apartheid, and Jesuit Ignacio Ellacuria, the rector of EI Salvador's University of Central America who was assassinated a short time later along with five other priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in 1989....
Bourgeois said he accepted the award 'on behalf of the scores of activists who have gone to prison to shut this school down as well as the thousands who make up the movement.' '1 felt I was standing in a sacred place,' he said, 'where Ignacio Ellacuria had accepted the award just 10 days before he was assassinated by SOA graduates.'"
"Spanish Group Honors SOA Watch," National Catholic Reporter, Jan 14, 2005.
Collaborative Effort to Make Hunger History
"All the national anti-hunger organizations have together developed A Blueprint to End Hunger. It outlines a strategy to cut U.S. hunger and food insecurity in half by 2010 and end hunger by 2015. The Blueprint is clear about the link between hunger and poverty; when families earn a decent income, they don't go hungry. But the Blueprint also stresses that our nation has made progress against hunger by improving and strengthening the federal food assistance programs.
Bread for the World is now joining together with America's Second Harvest: The Nation's Food Bank Network, church bodies, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, and others in a campaign to Make Hunger History. It will mobilize leadership at the grassroots, local and national levels. The campaign will urge Congress and President Bush to approve legislation that will launch a national effort to cut U.S. hunger and food insecurity in half by 2010. The legislation will also strengthen grassroots groups across the country that want to improve the reach and effectiveness of the federal food assistance programs."
"Make Hunger History" by Bob Dole and Leon Panetta, Bread, Bread for the World Newsletter, Jan 2005.
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Gratitude to the Institute for Peace and Justice
for use of their Pope Paul VIth graphic. |
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