Here are a few recently submitted items.
Oh, and I didn't mention that it was just the 4 year birthday of the New
Civilization Network, the 13th. So, happy birthday NCN!
- Flemming
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This one is from John Helion Tibayan <john@globalvisions.org> about a large
piece of land in New Mexico that seems rather perfect for establishing
communities on. Plenty of natural resources, a self-organizing community
orientation, a low price, and more. Ask John for more details if you have
any interest in it, if you're looking for land for establishing a
community, or you're just looking for a sustainable place to live.
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SPIRIT MESA
A Proposed Global Cultural Art & Media Village
Art, Entertainment & Education For a Better World
There is a special place 30 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico,
which is located atop a mesa, overlooking two rivers, with views of
distant mountains in all directions. Thirty-three square miles of
the mesa is owned by a visionary man who has been selling the land
to independent landowners who want to be part of a spiritual,
holistic and eco-friendly community. Though he has been quietly
selling the property for over 15 years the land now stands on the
brink of a new and exciting chapter of growth.
After hearing about the land, we became inspired to join in the
planning and development of the mesa. We plan to acquire 100-200
acres for our project called Spirit Mesa where we will build a
holistic Inn and spa, conference center/event space, 500 seat
theatre, and an art and media village. The village would include
restaurants, cafes, artist galleries, retail stores, business
offices and production space for visionary art and media companies.
Our Internet company, Global Visions, will build it's center within
the village and focus its attention on spiritual and humanitarian
Internet broadcasting, online stores and Internet marketing. The
entire Spirit Mesa project would be built in harmony with the
environment and with the other visionaries who are building their
dreams on the mesa. We also want to locate the village next to a
large community park with an amphitheater which can be used for
community events and art and music festivals.
One of the most powerful aspects of this project will be the
ability to broadcast to a global audience the spiritual and
humanitarian events, lectures, festivals, concerts and conferences
taking place in the art and media village and the community.
Flemming Funch, Founder and Director of New Civilization Network
and Spirit Mesa Advisory Board member, is also interested in
establishing an experimental New Civilization Community on the Mesa
and invites interested New Civilization members to participate.
HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE:
Email me a one page summary of your project and I will publish it
on the Spirit Mesa website as one of the many spiritual and
humanitarian projects that support the Spirit Mesa Global Cultural
Village and positive media.
We invite your creative input and participation. For more
information contact:
John Helion Tibayan
P.O. Box 3397
Santa Monica, CA 90408
Phone/fax: 310-828-0130
Email: john@globalvisions.org
Web: http://spiritmesa.com
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The following item was submitted by Helen and Peter Evans <haven@jetlink.net>
http://www.freewwwpage.com/religion/~onecenter/html.html
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12 MYTHS ABOUT WORLD HUNGER
>Today nearly 800 million people around the world experience hunger. But no
one needs to go hungry. There is enough food for all. One of the greatest
obstacles to ending hunger is the way we think about it. Only by freeing
ourselves from the grip of widely held myths can we grasp the roots of
hunger and see what we can do to end it.
>
>Here are the 12 mythsâ of the title.
>
>Myth 1: Not enough food to go round
>
>Reality: Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the world's food supply.
Enough wheat, rice and other grains are produced to provide every human
being with 3,500 calories per day. That doesnât even count many other
commonly eaten foods - vegetables, beans, nuts, root crops, fruits,
grass-fed meats, and fish. Enough food is available to provide at least 4.3
pounds of food per person a day worldwide: 2 1/2 pounds of grain, beans and
nuts, about a pound of fruits and vegetables, and nearly another pound of
meat, milk and eggs - enough to make most people fat! The problem is that
many people are too poor to buy readily available food. Even most "hungry
countries" have enough food for all their people right now. Many are net
exporters of food and other agricultural products.
>
>Myth 2: Nature's to blame for famine
>
>Reality: It is too easy to blame nature. Human-made forces are making
people increasingly vulnerable to nature's vagaries. Food is always
available for those who can afford it - starvation during hard times hits
only the poorest. Millions live on the brink of disaster in south Asia,
Africa and elsewhere, because they are deprived of land by a powerful few,
trapped in the unremitting grip of debt, or miserably paid. Natural events
rarely explain deaths; they are simply the final push over the brink. Human
institutions and policies determine who eats and who starves during hard
times. Likewise, in America, many homeless people die from the cold every
winter, yet ultimate responsibility does not lie with the weather. The real
culprits are an economy that fails to offer everyone opportunities, and a
society that rates economic efficiency above compassion.
>
>Myth 3: Too many people
>
>Reality: Birth rates are falling rapidly worldwide as remaining regions of
the Third World begin the demographic transition - when birth rates drop in
response to a decline in death rates. Although rapid population growth
remains a serious concern in many countries, nowhere does population
density explain hunger. For every Bangladesh, a densely populated and
hungry country, we find a Nigeria, Brazil or Bolivia, where abundant food
resources coexist with hunger. Costa Rica, with only half of Honduras's
cropped acres per person, boasts a life expectancy - one indicator of
nutrition - 11 years longer than that of Honduras, and close to that of
developed countries.
>
>Rapid population growth is not the root cause of hunger. Like hunger
itself, it results from underlying inequities that deprive people,
especially poor women, of economic opportunity and security. Rapid
population growth and hunger are endemic to societies where land ownership,
jobs, education, health care, and old-age security are beyond the reach of
most people. Conditions in Third World societies with dramatically
successful early and rapid reductions of population growth - China, Sri
Lanka, Colombia, Cuba and the Indian state of Kerala - prove that the lives
of the poor, especially poor women, must improve before they can choose to
have fewer children.
>
>Myth 4: The environment versus more food?
>
>Reality: We should be alarmed that an environmental crisis is undercutting
our food-production resources, but a trade-off between our environment and
the world's need for food is not inevitable. Efforts to feed the hungry are
not causing the environmental crisis. Large corporations are mainly
responsible for deforestation, creating and profiting from
developed-country consumer demand for tropical hardwoods and exotic or
out-of-season food items.
>
>Most pesticides used in the Third World are applied to export-crops, which
play little role in feeding the hungry, while in the US they are used to
give a blemish-free cosmetic appearance to produce, with no improvement in
nutritional value.
>
>Alternatives exist now and many more are possible. The success of organic
farmers in the US gives a glimpse of the possibilities. Cuba's recent
success in overcoming a food crisis through self-reliance and sustainable,
virtually pesticide-free agriculture is another good example. Indeed,
environmentally sound agricultural alternatives can be more productive than
environmentally destructive ones.
>
>Myth 5: The green revolution is the answer
>
>Reality: The production advances of the Green Revolution are no myth.
Thanks to the new seeds, millions of tons more grain a year are being
harvested. But focusing narrowly on increasing production cannot alleviate
hunger because it fails to alter the tightly concentrated distribution of
economic power that determines who can buy the additional food. That is why
in several of the biggest Green Revolution successes - India, Mexico, and
the Philippines - grain production, and in some cases exports, have climbed
while hunger has persisted and the long-term productive capacity of the
soil has been degraded. Now we must fight the prospect of a New Green
Revolutionâ based on biotechnology, which threatens further to accentuate
inequality.
>
>Myth 6: We need large farms
>
>Reality: Large landowners who control most of the best land often leave
much of it idle. Unjust farming systems leave farmland in the hands of the
most inefficient producers. By contrast, small farmers typically achieve at
least four to five times greater output per acre, in part because they work
their land more intensively and use integrated, and often more sustainable,
production systems. Without secure tenure, the many millions of tenant
farmers in the Third World have little incentive to invest in land
improvements, to rotate crops, or to leave land fallow for the sake of
long-term soil fertility. Future food production is undermined. On the
other hand, redistribution of land can favour production. Comprehensive
land reform has markedly increased production in countries as diverse as
Japan, Zimbabwe, and Taiwan. A World Bank study of northeast Brazil
estimates that redistributing farmland into smaller holdings would raise
output an astonishing 80 percent.
>
>Myth 7: The free market can end hunger
>
>Reality: Unfortunately, such a "market-is-good, government-is-bad" formula
can never help address the causes of hunger. Such a dogmatic stance
misleads us that a society can opt for one or the other, when in fact every
economy on earth combines the market and government in allocating resources
and distributing goods. The market's marvellous efficiencies can only work
to eliminate hunger, however, when purchasing power is widely dispersed. So
all those who believe in the usefulness of the market and the necessity of
ending hunger must concentrate on promoting not the market, but the
consumers! In this task, government has a vital role to play in countering
the tendency towards economic concentration, through genuine tax, credit,
and land reforms, to disperse buying power towards the poor. Recent trends
towards privatization and deregulation are most definitely not the answer.
>
>Myth 8: Free trade is the answer
>
>Reality: The trade promotion formula has proved an abject failure at
alleviating hunger. In most Third World countries exports have boomed while
hunger has continued unabated or actually worsened. While soybean exports
boomed in Brazil - to feed Japanese and European livestock - hunger spread
from one-third to two-thirds of the population. Where the majority of
people have been made too poor to buy the food grown on their own countryâs
soil, those who control productive resources will, not surprisingly, orient
their production to more lucrative markets abroad. Export-crop production
squeezes out basic food production. Pro-trade policies like NAFTA (North
Atlantic Free Trade Agreement) and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade) pit working people in different countries against each other in a
race to the bottom, where the basis of competition is who will work for
less, without adequate health coverage or minimum environmental standards.
Mexico and the US are cases in point: since NAFTA, the US has had a net
loss of 250,000 jobs, while Mexico has lost 2 million, and hunger is on the
rise in both countries.
>
>Myth 9: Too hungry to fight for their rights
>
>Reality: Bombarded with images of poor people as weak and hungry, we lose
sight of the obvious: for those with few resources, mere survival requires
tremendous effort. If the poor were truly passive, few of them could even
survive. Around the world, from the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, to the
farmersâ movement in India, wherever people are suffering needlessly,
movements for change are under way. People will feed themselves, if allowed
to do so. It is not our job to set things rightâ for others. Our
responsibility is to remove the obstacles in their paths, obstacles often
created by large corporations and US Government, World Bank, and IMF policies.
>
>Myth 10: More US aid will help the hungry
>
>Reality: Most US aid works directly against the hungry. Foreign aid can
only reinforce, not change, the status quo. Where governments answer only
to elites, US aid not only fails to reach hungry people, but shores up the
very forces working against them. US aid is used to impose free trade and
free market policies, to promote exports at the expense of food production,
and to provide the armaments that repressive governments use to stay in
power. Even emergency or humanitarian aid, which makes up only 5 percent
of the total, often ends up enriching American grain companies while
failing to reach the hungry, and it can dangerously undercut local food
production in the recipient country. It would be better to the foreign aid
budget for unconditional debt relief, as it is the foreign debt burden that
forces most Third World countries to cut back on basic health, education
and anti-poverty programmes.
>
>Myth 11: We benefit from their poverty
>
>Reality: The biggest threat to the wellbeing of the vast majority of
Americans is not the advancement but the continued deprivation of the
hungry. Low wages - both abroad and in inner cities at home - may mean
cheaper bananas, shirts, computers and fast food for most Americans, but in
other ways we pay heavily for hunger and poverty. Enforced poverty in the
Third World jeopardizes US jobs, wages and working conditions as
corporations seek cheaper labour abroad. In a global economy, what American
workers have achieved in employment, wage levels and working conditions can
be protected only when working people in every country are freed from
economic desperation.
>
>Here at home, policies like welfare reform throw more people into the job
market than can be absorbed - at below minimum wage levels in the case of
workfareâ - which puts downward pressure on the wages of those on higher
rungs of the employment ladder. The growing numbers of working poorâ are
those who have part- or full-time low-wage jobs yet cannot afford adequate
nutrition or housing for their families. Educating ourselves about the
common interests most Americans share with the poor in the Third World and
at home allows us to be compassionate without sliding into pity. In working
to clear the way for the poor to free themselves from economic oppression,
we free ourselves as well.
>
>Myth 12: Curtail freedom to end hunger
>
>Reality: There is no theoretical or practical reason why freedom, taken to
mean civil liberties, should be incompatible with ending hunger. Surveying
the globe, we see no correlation between hunger and civil liberties.
However, one narrow definition of freedom - the right to unlimited
accumulation of wealth-producing property and the right to use that
property however one sees fit - is in fundamental conflict with ending
hunger. By contrast, a definition of freedom more consistent with our
nation's dominant founding vision holds that economic security for all is
the guarantor of our liberty. Such an understanding of freedom is essential
to ending hunger.
>
>World Hunger: 12 Myths. 2nd Edition, by Frances Moore LappŽ, Joseph
Collins and Peter Rosset, with Luis Esparza (fully revised and updated),
Grove/Atlantic and Food First Books, October 1998. Reproduced from
Backgrounder Report Summer 1998. Food First, 398 60th Street, Oakland,
California 94618, USA; Tel:1-800-274-7826. E-mail: foodfirst@igc.org, URL:
www.foodfirst.org
>
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The following was submitted by Gene Albinder <genesa@best.com>
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CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
>FYI - the following info provided by PeaceBuilder Clifford Rose, Mauritius,
>
>Some useful internet resources : University of Minnesota, Human Rights
>Library : http://www.umn.edu/humanrts ; Human Rights Internet :
>http://www.hri.ca ; UNESCO : http://www.education.enesco.org ; UN High
>Commissioner for Human Rights : http://.unhchr.ch
>
>Simplified Version of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
>
>The aim of the Convention is to set standards for the defence of children
>against the neglect and abuse they face to varying degrees in all countries
>every day. It is careful to allow for the different cultural, political and
>material realities among states. The most important consideration is the
>best interest of the child. The rights set out in the Convention can be
>broadly grouped in three sections:
>
>Provision: the right to possess, receive or have access to certain things or
>services (e.g. a name and a nationality, health care, education, rest and
>play and care for disabled and orphans).
>
>Protection: the right to be shielded from harmful acts and practices (e.g.
>separation from parents, engagement in warfare, commercial or sexual
>exploitation and physical and mental abuse).
>
>Participation: The child's right to be heard on decisions affecting his or
>her life. As abilities progress, the child should have increasing
>opportunities to take part in the activities of society, as a preparation
>for adult life (e.g. freedom of speech and opinion, culture, religion and
>language.
>
>Preamble
>
>The Preamble sets the tone in which the 54 articles of the Convention will
>be interpreted. The major UN texts which precede it and which have a direct
>bearing on children are mentioned, as is the importance of the family for
>the family for the harmonious development of the child, the importance of
>special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before
>as well as after birth, and the importance of the traditions and cultural
>values of each people for the child's development.
>
>Article 1: Definition of the child
>
>Every human being below 1 8 years unless majority is attained earlier
>according to the law applicable to the child.
>
>Article 2: Non discrimination
>
>All rights must be granted to each child without exception. The State must
>pro the child without exception. The State must protect the child against
>all forms discriminations.
>
>Article 3: Best interests of the child
>
>In all actions concerning children, the best interest of the child shall be
>the maj consideration.
>
>Article 4: Implementation of rights
>
>The obligation on the State to ensure that the rights in the Convention are
>implemented.
>
>Article 5: Parents, family, community rights and responsibilities
>
>States are to respect the parents and family in their child rearing
>function.
>
>Article 6: Life, survival and development
>
>The right of the child to life and the state's obligation to ensure the
>child's sur and development.
>
>Article 7: Name and nationality
>
>The right from birth to a name, to acquire a nationality and to know and be
>cai for by his or her parents.
>
>Article 8: Preservation of identity
>
>The obligation of the State to assist the child in reestablishing identity
>if this h been illegally withdrawn.
>
>Article 9: Non-separation from parents
>
>The right of the child to retain contact with his parents in cases of
>separation. separation is the result of detention, imprisonment or death the
>State shall pro the information to the child or parents about the
>whereabouts of the missing f member.
>
>Article 10: Family reunification
>
>requests to leave or enter country for family reunification shall be dealt
>with ir human manner. A child has the right to maintain regular contacts
>with both p~ when these live in different States.
>
>Article 11: Illicit transfer and non-return of children
>
>The State shall combat child kidnapping by a partner or third party.
>
>Article 12: Expression of opinion
>
>The right of the child to express his or her opinion and to have this taken
>into consideration.
>
>Article 13: Freedom of expression and information
>
>The right to seek, receive and impart information in various forms,
>including art, print, writing.
>
>Article 14: Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
>
>States are to be respect the rights and duties of parents to provide
>direction to the child in the exercise of this right in accordance with the
>child's evolving capacities.
>
>Article 15: Freedom of association
>
>The child's right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly.
>
>Article 16: Privacy, honour, reputation
>
>No child shall be subjected to interference with privacy, family, home or
>correspondence.
>
>Article 17: Access to information and media
>
>The child shall have access to information from a diversity of sources; due
>attentio shall be paid to minorities and guidelines to protect children from
>harmful material shall be encouraged.
>
>Article 18: Parental responsibility
>
>Both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing of the child
>and assistance shall be given to them in the performance of the parental
>responsibilitie~
>
>Article 19: Abuse and neglect (while in family or care)
>
>States have the obligation to protect children from all forms of abuse.
>Social programmes and support services shall be made available.
>
>Article 20: Alternative care for children in the absence of parents
>
>The entitlement of the child to alternative care with national laws and the
>obligatic on the State to pay due regard to continuity in the child's
>religious, cultural, linguistic or ethnic background in the provision of
>alternative care.
>
>Article 21: Adoption
>
>States are to ensure that only authorised bodies carry out adoption.
>Inter-country adoption may be considered if national solutions have been
>exhausted.
>
>Article 22: Refugee children
>
>Special protection is to be given to refugee children.
>
>States shall cooperate with international agencies to this end and also to
>reunite
>
>children separated from the families.
>
>Article 23: Disabled children
>
>The right to benefit from special care and education for a fuller life in
>society.
>
>Article 24: Health care
>
>Access to preventive and curative health care services as well as the
>gradual abolition of traditional practices harmful to the child.
>
>
>Article 25: Periodic review
>
>The child who is placed for care, protection or treatment has the right to
>hav placement reviewed on a regular basis.
>
>
>Article 26: Social security
>
>The child's right to social security
>
>
>Article 27: Standard of living
>
>Parental responsibility to provide adequate living conditions for the
>child's development even when one of the parents is living in a country
>other than child's place of residence.
>
>
>Article 28: Education
>
>The right to free primary education, the availability of vocational
>educating, need for measures to reduce the drop-out rates.
>
>
>Article 29: Aims of education
>
>Education should foster the development of the child's personality and taler
>preparation for a responsible adult life, respect for human rights as well
>as cultural and national values of the child's country and that of others.
>
>
>Article 30: Children of minorities and indigenous children
>
>The right of the child belonging to a minority or indigenous group to enjoy
>l culture, to practise his or her own language.
>
>
>Article 31: Play and recreation
>
>The right of the child to play, recreational activities and to participate
>in cui artistic life.
>
>
>Article 32: Economic exploitation
>
>The right of the child to protection against harmful forms of work and agair
>exploitation.
>
>
>Article 33: Narcotic and psychotic substances
>
>Protection of the child from their illicit use and the utilisation of the
>child ir production and distribution.
>
>
>Article 34: Sexual exploitation
>
>Protection of the child from sexual exploitation including prostitution and
>t children in pornographic materials.
>
>
>Article 35: Abduction, sale and traffic
>
>State obligation to prevent the abduction, sale of or traffic in children.
>
>
>Article 36: Other forms of exploitation
>
>
>Article 37: Torture, capital punishment, deprivation of liberty
>
>Obligation of the State vis-a-vis children in detention.
>
>Article 38: Armed conflicts
>
>Children under 1 5 years are not to take a direct part in hostilities. No
>recruitment of children under 15.
>
>Article 39: Recovery and reintegration
>
>State obligations for the reeducation and social reintegration of child
>victims of exploitation, torture or armed conflicts.
>
>Article 40: Juvenile justice
>
>Treatment of child accused of infringing the penal law shall promote the
>child's sense of dignity.
>
>Article 41: Rights of the child in other instruments
>
>Article 42: Dissemination of the Convention
>
>The state's duty to make the convention known to adults and children.
>
>Article 43-54: Implementation
>
>These paragraphs provide for a Committee on the Rights of the Child to
>oversee implementation of the Convention.
>
>The titles of articles are for ease of reference only. They do not form part
>of the adopted text.
>
>(Courtesy of UNICEF - UK)
>
o o
/ \------------------ Flemming A. Funch -------------------/ \
/ * \ New Civilization Network / Synchronicity Networks / * \
/ * * \ ffunch@newciv.org / * * \
o-------o----------- http://www.worldtrans.org/ -----------o-------o
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