Teaching tools for problem solving

The following essay about Fremont Open Plan teacher emeritus Merlys Bosch won a First Place in the 1999 "Real Women" Creative Writing Competition sponsored by American Association of University of Women, Stanislaus County Commission for Women, and League of American Pen Women.

A Teacher of Justice

By KIMBERLY HUMKE

Peter Johansen High School

Merlys was the most wonderful teacher. The moment you entered her classroom, a warmth embraced you like a mother would embrace her long lost children. Everlasting and unconditional happiness could always be found in room 19. We always learned more than the three "R's" though. Merlys taught us about justice, equality, and kindness. I can't recall one time with Merlys that she allowed a single put down or interruption. The moment someone would interrupt another or a put down was being made, Merlys would always have a good way of stopping it. "You're walking on someone's words right now," or, "Park it here and I'm taking the keys," and the all time favorite, "You're plucking all my feathers out," were just some of the clever phrases Merlys used.

Whenever someone had a problem to be brought up, Merlys always had the best way of dealing with it. She taught us about how to decipher what was right and what was wrong by helping mediate the discussions ourselves. Merlys always encouraged everyone she met to be problem solvers, not problem makers. Merlys would always kindly point out to the class how looking at both sides of a problem is an absolute must, and when we failed to do so, she would make us aware of that, in hoping that we might someday be able to realize that without reminder.

By JAMES COSTELLO

Come rain or shine, gear up to join in the Seventh Annual Modesto CROP WALK, on Sunday, May 2nd. The event begins and ends at the Grace Lutheran Church, on the corner of Orangeburg and Enslen Avenues (between McHenry and College). There is a rally at 1:30 p.m. with the walk starting at 2:00 p.m. There will be a three mile route and a five mile route.

Organized by an interfaith committee of local churches, synagogues, volunteers, and with the help of Inter-Faith Ministries, the CROP WALK has set a goal of recruiting 200 walkers, each raising at least $75.00 for a total of $15,000, to help stop hunger here in our community and around the world through self-help development initiatives. Twenty-five percent of the funds raised here in Modesto will go to the Emergency Food Pantry of Inter-Faith Ministries.

Last year, slightly over a hundred walkers raised more than $6,000.

The Modesto CROP WALK is one of some 2,000 CROP WALKS taking place around the country this year. These interfaith, community events are sponsored by Church World Service, the relief, development, and refugee assistance arm of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

During the current Kosovo crisis Church World Service has provided tents, blankets, mattresses and bedding.

When you CROPWALK, you:

• Support long-term development in more than 70 countries
• Assist in disaster and famine relief
• Help meet the special needs of refugees
• Share more than $3,000,000 annually to support local hunger fighting efforts across the U.S.
• Get some exercise, too!

ACTION: For information and sponsor envelopes, contact Jim Costello, 537-7818; costello@ainet.com

Measure B would extend for another five years the one-eighth of a penny library sales tax - a tax we are already paying, and which amounts to just 12 1/2 cents on every $100 purchase. It's estimated that Measure B will raise over $25 million over the next five years, with they money dedicated exclusively to our local libraries.

ACTION: For more information, or to volunteer, call the Yes on Measure B campaign at 578-4721.

Teatro Mestizo offers drama and music

From the MODESTO JUNIOR COLLEGE

To add to Cinco de Mayo festivities , El Teatro Mestizo will present a Chicano classic drama and an evening of enchanting pre-Hispanic Mexican music. On April 29 and 30 and May 1, the community-based Chicano theater group will enact Luis Valdez's "La Carpa de los Rascuachis" (The Tent of the Underdogs) at the Cabaret West Theater on Modesto Junior College's West Campus at 8:00 p.m.

Directed by MJC Spanish Professor Marcos Contreras, the play follows the deeds and misfortunes of Jesus Pelado Rascuachi, a poor Mexican farmworker lured across the border by corrupt customs officials operating in collusion with immigration agents and labor contractors. To improve life for himself and his family, Jesus follows the migrating circuit through major agricultural and industrial cities. At the end of his frustrating journey, he succumbs to the drudgery, but leaves behind a family determined to avoid the debilitating life that brought him a premature death. His children, however, are seduced by other problems.

The play unfolds through metaphoric and realistic figures, slapstick, dance, and ballads. General admission is $7, students and children under twelve, $5. Tickets may be purchased at the door or by calling 575-6186.

The Teatro is also presenting the Mexico City-based, internationally acclaimed musical group TRIBU on May 6 and 7. With 12 CDs and concerts in France, Japan, and both the United States and South America, TRIBU offers unforgettable mystical interpretations of indigenous pre-Columbian Mexican music. TRIBU will perform at the Modesto Junior College Auditorium on May 6 and at the West Side Theatre (1331 Main St.) in Newman on May 7, at 8:00 p.m. Tickets at the door are $8, and for children under 12, $5.

By TINA ARNOPOLE DRISKILL

Bike patrol officers will be "cop"eting and kids of all ages will be racing in a Junior Criterium during Stanislaus County's Third Annual Bike to Work Festivities beginning Thursday, May 20 with Bike to Work Day and culminating with the Family Cycling Festival Saturday, May 22.

Bicyclists throughout the area are encouraged to participate in the escorted bike commute into downtown Modesto for Bike to Work Day on May 20. Cyclists will be escorted by officers of the Modesto Police Department Bicycle Patrol from the following locations:

All routes will conclude at the Stanislaus County Court House lawn on I street in downtown Modesto at 9 a.m., where a continental breakfast and free goodie bags will await all riders. Registration forms and information is available from local bicycle shops and other businesses located at route pickup stops, or by calling 558-7830, or 529-9303. All bicycle commuters are welcome and encouraged, but not required, to register. Bicyclists may arrive independently of the escorted commute and take part in the breakfast.

The Family Cycling Festival, on Saturday May 22, also in downtown Modesto, will feature the Junior Criterium series of races for kids of all age groups. The races, organized and sponsored by Robert Leabold, owner of Velo Promo, will include events for everything from tricycles to full sized bikes. Other events will include a "Cop"etition between the bike patrol officers from various local jurisdictions, Safe Moves City bicycle and pedestrian safety obstacle course, MPD bicycle obstacle course, Effective Cycling for Adults, bicycle repair clinics, demonstrations, best decorated bike contest and more.

ACTION: Those interested may register, volunteer to help with events, or sponsor booths pertaining to improving air quality through bicycling or alternative transportation by calling 578-6708. The celebration is organized by the Stanislaus Area Association of Governments.

Union of Concerned Scientists offer new consumer environmental guide

From UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS

"In a world of info-glut, we are constantly assaulted by often contradictory claims about many of the items we buy and use. Here is a sensible book that, instead of making us feel guilty, challenges us to think and provides guidelines to help us make ecologically wise choices." — David Suzuki, Host of "The Nature of Things"

Paper of plastic? Bus or car? Old house or new? Cloth diapers or disposables? Some choices have a huge impact on the environment; others are of negligible importance. To those who care about our quality of life and what is happening to the earth, this is a vastly important issue. The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices from Union of Concerned Scientists helps inform consumers about everyday decisions that significantly affect the environment. For example, a few major decisions-such as the choice of a house or vehicle-have such a disproportionately large affect on the environment that minor environmental infractions shrink by comparison.

The book identifies the four most significant consumer-related environmental problems, the seven most harmful consumer activities, eleven priority actions, and seven rules for responsible consumption. It also discusses the relative roles of government policy and individual consumer action.

THE GREAT GREEN WEB GAME

There is new educational game ("The Great Green Web Game") on the UCS web site at www.ucsusa.org/game. You can see some of the information from the book and test your environmental savvy. If you like the game, please tell your friends about it.

By BARBARA ENITI

Local gardeners will agree that the cold weather and late frosts have made it very difficult to predict when flowers and crops will bloom and mature. Even so, by May first we dare to expect peas, strawberries, and many delicious spring greens to be overwhelming us at the Modesto Garden Project.

Those of you unfamiliar with our garden will be interested to learn that we shun pesticides and synthetic chemical fertilizers, and depend on the natural goodness of our own locally made compost to energize our plants, while birds, ladybugs and toads help keep harmful insects under control. We rotate crops to keep from establishing host-specific pests and at the same time to rejuvenate soils with the planting of legumes after soil-depleting crops.

Do you care about all this? Come see our garden and admire the vigor of the plants. We are demonstrating that chemicals are not needed to grow healthy crops. Why do we care? We want to protect our soil, water, air, and most especially our bodies, from the ill effects of these poisonous products.

The Modesto Garden Project is a multi-faceted program. We train disadvantaged people in this bio-intensive gardening method, believing that this is a life skill as well as a career move. The produce which grows during this training is made available to the general public through the sale of shares in the Garden. Shareholders may choose any one of a number of options: to pick their own produce, to have our staff pick and bag the produce, for the shareholder to pick up; or to have us pick and deliver to their home or office. Prices vary according to the amount desired, ranging from $3 to $22 per week depending on the options chosen.

ACTION: Visit the Garden Project at 1500 Robertson Road at Sutter (down the dirt driveway into the field) in west Modesto. It is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Phone to discuss deliveries at 604-6011.

From the Great Valley Center

The Central Valley of California can be seen from space as a satellite circles the earth. One of a few places on earth where climate, soil and water combine to create a superbly rich agricultural economy, the Valley is also the home to a large and growing urban population.

Sponsored by the Great Valley Center, a conference May 26 and 27 in Sacramento is designed to highlight the importance of the Central Valley to the entire state.

Workshops focus on community efforts to balance economics, protection of property rights, and good land use planning for effective conservation of agricultural land including:

- 21st Century Opportunity: Agriculture and the Environment
- Smart Growth: New options for the Built Environment
- Farmworkers: Multi-faceted Issues
- A Bird's Eye View of Central Valley Wetlands, Wildlife and Beautiful Places (by Gary Zahm of Kesterson fame)
- University Comes to the Valley
- Infill: What Does It Look Like and What Makes it Work?
- Growth, Prosperity, and Air Quality, Can We Have it All?
- CALFED and Collaboration (Water issues)

ACTION: Registration is $155 by May 4, $155 or $185. For more information, contact Mary Stabelfeld, Coordinator, phone or fax 209-668-6246 or email stabel@inreach.com

By DON MCMILLAN

Richard Register, advocate and theorist for transforming our cities to harmonize with ecological reality, will appear at the Sierra Club Yokuts Group program, Friday, May 21, in Electronics Room 100, east campus of Modesto Junior College. Doors open at 7:00 pm with local environmental updates at 7:15 and the program at 7:30. The following is a profile of this singular ecoclogical city activist.

Looking at cities, Richard Register remarks on the sharp contrasts. On one hand, cities continue to bite away at agricultural and other open country driven by insatiable hunger to sprawl. Yet "Cities are fascinating," he said. "They're cultural hubs.

"This paradoxical view, mindful of the "ecological debacle" of our present cities but open to possibilities for transformation, prompts Register to action. He travels the world, photographing the cities he finds most appealing. He sketches his ideas for how presently wasteful cities could progress towards an ideal of cultural and ecological integration. He writes articles rife with ideas for how to transform existing cities from sprawl. He edits books (see review of Village Wisdom/Future Cities, CONNECTIONS, Nov. 97) and his own organization's Ecocity Builder Bulletin, all dedicated to liberating open space from sprawl.

Register points out the irony of this work of his. It has never led to a job. He relies on a trickle of contributions from individuals and businesses that appreciate his vision. Part of achieving the dream of ecologically harmonious cities involves providing incentives for people who want to build them. "Right now all the incentives go to the automobile," he said, adding a list of jobs from medical to automotive body work in which the task is at least partly fixing damage caused by automobiles. "You need to make a living.

"To rein in the growth through which cities' have doubled in area while adding only 50 percent to their populations, Register sees the need to build taller buildings. He believes that by bringing natural communities closer and integrating them with the built environment, large buildings can be stimulating places in which people and cultures can grow. Before embarking on his quest to transform cities, he was a sculptor. Auto-dependent cities tend to push outward, needing space for the autos to maneuver and park. By building in vertical dimensions, people could restore a patchwork of agriculture and biological diversity close enough to access on foot. A three-dimensional city would also open to them views of the surrounding countryside.

Writes Register, "Imagine ... nature sweeping back into the metropolis, small, tall cities popping up like stages for our descendants to strut and fret upon in full view of plants, animals and crystal sunsets. Those cities would be building up soils, not 'using it up,' (and) supporting biodiversity" ("Roll Back Sprawl, Rebuild Civilization" Ecocity Builder Bulletin, March, '99).

The search for healthier proportions between city and open country led Register to work for a time on architect Paolo Soleri's urban laboratory, Arcosanti, slowly embodying Soleri's vision of harmonized architecture and ecology on an Arizona rimrock. Soleri's ideas that the pedestrian-oriented city will make possible a further step in human evolution resonates in Register's own views. Through cities designed for "much more conservative use of energy and space," human cultures could end their age long struggle against the natural communities that surround them. Register wants to see non-violent transformation. Along with Soleri, he cites among his guiding lights Mohatma Gandhi. "Things have to be done non-violently," he said.

Traditionally, environmentalists have addressed problems such as automobiles' fuel consumption and air pollution through pushing for mandated higher fuel efficiency. Register questions this emphasis, believing that advances in fuel efficiency "make suburbia more sprawling." He explains that when vehicles consume less fuel, drivers tend to think less of the miles they drive. Their willingness to drive longer distances created more demand for sprawling development. Register lists "collateral damage" of increased fuel efficiency as "destroying millions of acres a year ... destroying of landscape." However, such increases in efficiency would "be nice if you were building an ecological city."

Recently Register has been exploring possibilities of a tool for rolling back sprawl which did not originate with his Ecocity Builders, the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR). In such transfers, landowners sell rights to develop, agreeing to keep their land perpetually open. A recent exchange near Lake Tahoe involving a TDR generated particular interest among Ecocity Builders. In a swap Register has styled a Double TDR, 60 scattered homes were removed in exchange for permission to build denser projects with a smaller footprint. Prior to the restoration and development projects, "rains and snows would ... rush off immediately," washing debris into the lake. With the houses and their driveways removed, precipitation "soaks into the humus," on down to the water table and "without any silt into the lake."

This transaction models ones Register envisions for rolling back sprawl. Developers link removal of asphalt and auto-dependent structures with building of compact structures located to take advantage of transit. In such a future, cooperative relationships could replace the traditional antagonism between builders and environmental preservationists.

ACTION: Register's visit offers a convenient opportunity for local people to learn more of the work of Ecocity Builders. Ecocity Builders membership is at $25/year or $50 or $100 respectively for Sustaining and Patron memberships. Members receive Ecocity Builder Bulletins and updates on Ecocity Builder activities and initiatives. Write 1678 Shattuck Ave. #66, Berkeley CA 94709, or email ecocity@apc.org

Prayer

This is my prayer--
for God to hear
the cries of many
        --To stay the hand of violence,
        to send angels to hold back,
        delay and
        bar the way of those
who would do harm to others,
who strike in anger,
who justify their soul
        less impulses
by blaming life or family,
misfortune, war
        or devils of their own
        devising
or God.

I pray that
those who would
see brother, mother
        son and daughter
        as
nothing
human, nothing
worthy of respect,
        will put down the hand,
        lay down the weapon.

I ask that
those who raise
        the hand of violence
        would instead
look into their victims' eyes
        and feel their terror, pain
and degradation
as their own,
        a prospect so abhorrent
that
        they would forever see
each human spirit as an extension
of their own and that spirit
        an extension of
the mind
        of God.

I say this prayer
        ask God
        starting now
stay
the hand
of violence.

                    — Sheila D. Landre 4/7/99

By DAN ONORATO

People around the world are organizing together to make the millennium an historic turning point toward a better world for all. One such movement is Jubilee 2000, a global effort to address the dangerously growing chasm between rich and poor. Specifically, Jubilee 2000 aims to get wealthy nations to cancel the unpayable debt of the world's most impoverished countries. The immediate goal is to gather millions of signatures on a worldwide petition that will be delivered to the leaders of wealthy nations in June. Y2K computer problems shrink in importance before the challenge and vision of J2K.

As Thomas Ambrogi writes in the March 26 issue of the National Catholic Reporter, from which I take most of this information, the J2K campaign is a coalition of "unprecedented international breadth and vitality. The campaign has its roots in communities of faith, but it includes secular groups of every political stripe, all sharing the moral commitment to a debt-free fresh start for the world's poorest nations."

Martin Dent, an English political scientist at the University of Kiel, first came up with the idea of linking the debt crisis to the biblical concept of Jubilee and the millennium. After talking with finance ministers and bank presidents around the globe, he started the first Jubilee 2000 office in London in April 1996. Now the coalition has organizing offices in 60 countries on all five continents. Last November the first international conference of Jubilee 2000 was held in Rome, with 38 national J2K campaigns and 12 international organizations represented.

The participants agreed to coordinate a Global Chain Reaction to get 22 million signatures—the biggest petition in history—to be delivered as part of an international event at this summer's Economic Summit of the G8 countries on June 19 in Cologne, Germany.

Strong calls to cancel Third World debt have been issued by all world church bodies, including the Vatican, the U.S. Catholic Conference and numerous national bishops' conferences, the recent Lambeth Conference, and the World Council of Churches Assembly in Zimbabwe.

An office in Washington, DC, was opened early in 1998 to coordinate the U.S. campaign. It distributes an excellent education packet to be used in organizing religious and community groups. (See ACTION at the end of this article for further information.)

Leviticus 25's proclamation of a "Jubilee" year calls for a comprehensive erasure of certain obligations to take place on every "Sabbath's Sabbath." The ram's horn call to Jubilee is an urgent mandate for overcoming the systemic structures of injustice and poverty. It is intended to bring a new beginning for all, to restore justice and equality, and to protect and nurture the land. Slaves shall be redeemed and set free, and each community member shall be released from all debts. Deuteronomy 15 also spells out the Sabbath and Jubilee codes, especially in the call for all creditors to release what they have lent to their neighbors.

While the J2K platform addresses the debt of all impoverished countries, the campaign believes that, as a minimum, debt relief should be offered to the 40 nations the World Bank identifies as "heavily indebted poor countries." Five specific points need to be highlighted.

• First, the call is to canceling debt—not just reducing or rescheduling debt service.

• Second, only unpayable debts are being considered.

• Third, debt cancellation must not be conditioned on the drastic policy reforms currently demanded by "structural adjustment" programs, which perpetuate poverty and environmental degradation.

• Fourth, there must be acknowledgment that both lenders and borrowers are responsible and that joint creative action is needed to recover resources stolen by corrupt regimes.

• Finally, the debt cancellation must benefit ordinary people and be on terms agreed to in a transparent and participatory process that will break the cycle of future debt.

Heavy indebtedness is one of the main causes of the widening gap between rich and poor nations. Impoverished nations are economically trapped into making unending and compounding interest payments on their debts. They must divert large amounts of scarce resources from health care, education, food security, and other basic needs. Any real economic development becomes impossible. In the process, ordinary people—not the wealthy—get hurt the most.

According to United Nations statistics, overall global debt of all developing countries was $567 billion in 1980 and $1.4 trillion in 1992. In that same 12-year period, total foreign debt payments from Third World countries amounted to $1.6 trillion. This means that, having already paid back three times over the $567 billion they had borrowed, they were not less in debt. On the contrary, in 1992 they owed 250 percent more than they owed in 1980.

If we translate these numbers into the consequences they wreak on people, living and yet to be born, outrage and concerted, compassionate action are the only humane response. The world international lending system is set up to make the poor poorer. Addressing this glaring inequity, then, is not a matter of charity. It's a call to justice.

The forty most heavily indebted countries, thirty-three of which are in Africa, owe about $213 billion in foreign debts. Many of these African nations spend four times more servicing debt each year than they do on health care and education for their citizens. Moreover, it's estimated that for every dollar given in development aid, three dollars come back to rich countries in debt-service payment.

Conditions placed on getting multimillion dollar loans explain why countries call themselves "impoverished" rather than "poor." "Poor" suggests an inherent flaw in the society or people, whereas "impoverished" conveys that someone or something is causing their poverty. A major part of the cause is the rules set down by the principle international lending institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. To get loans, borrowing countries have to agree to a drastic program of economic "liberalization."

This array of monetary, budgetary, market, and trade reforms is known as "Structural Adjustment Policies." Details vary in each country, but the main policies pursue a similar pattern. They reduce the state's role in the economy, lower barriers to imports, remove restrictions on foreign investment, raise taxes, eliminate subsidies for food staples and for local industries, reduce spending for social welfare, cut wages, devalue the currency, and emphasize production for export rather than for local consumption.

Neo-liberal ideology is based on freeing the economy from government control, supposedly because a relatively unregulated free market brings growth that trickles down to benefit everyone. But the rapid introduction of such programs is traumatic to peoples already bent under the crushing burden of foreign debt, as the history of every impoverished country has clearly shown.

In reality the uplifting trickle is more like a destructive tsunami, at least for ordinary people. When state-owned enterprises such as transport, electricity, and communication are sold to private companies, many low-wage workers lose their jobs. When the national currency is devalued to make exports cheaper on the world market, when unlimited foreign investment is encouraged, and when tariffs and import quotas are lowered, local producers rapidly lose control of their own economy. Abolishing subsidies for local industries, raising interest rates, and restricting credit puts many small enterprises out of business and bankrupts many small farmers. When agricultural production systems that formerly provided a country's basic food needs get changed into creating export cash crops to bring in hard foreign currency, hunger and malnutrition become widespread.

UNICEF regularly documents how the cost of such policies is borne disproportionately by the poor and their children. As former president of Tanzania Julius Nyerere has cried out, "Must we starve our children to pay our debts?"

Jubilee 2000 challenges us all to confront this outrage and help reduce worldwide economic injustice. This movement is not a pipe dream. In next month's Connections I will explain how world leaders are starting to pay attention. Precedents are being created. There is reason for hope. But to make hope real, we must act.

ACTION:

• Order the J2K Education Packet by sending $5 to the Jubilee 2000/USA Campaign, 222 E. capitol St. NE, Washington DC 20003. Phone: 202-783-3566; Fax: 202-546-4468; Email: coord@j2000usa.org. This packet contains resources, organizing ideas, networking contacts, and the Global Chain Reaction Petition. For latest information, log on to www.j2000usa.org.

• Circulate the Jubilee 2000 Petition, gathering signatures at work, your place of worship, at school, or at service clubs or community groups you participate in. A copy is included in the packet, or you can pick one up at the Peace/Life Center at 731 13th St. during business hours (529-5750).

• Form a small study and support group in your congregation. The education packet contains lots of suggestions for religious and community organizing.

• Contact policymakers. Our letters are important to create political visibility for the issue. Some specific suggestions:

By PHYLLIS ROWLAND

I had an amazing experience in the Philippines on the Jimmy Carter Work Project [of Habitat for Humanity (H4H)] March 20-27 . As you may know this was strictly a volunteer effect. In other words, everyone paid their own way, or had assistance from friends, family, churches, or fund raisers.

The trip began March 18, flying from Sea Tac to Manila via Taipei (18 hours). Several thousand volunteers were divided to various sites on various islands/regions. The next day I joined 250 other volunteers who were sent to General Santos City, on the southernmost island of Mindanao, a one and half hour flight away from Manila.

That Sunday evening the local H4H affiliate presented a program full of welcomes, songs, and dances. It was a very long day, given the distances and time zones traveled, but we were definitely made to feel appreciated.

The site already has 500 completed homes, thanks to a very active local affiliate, and many of us were given tours by very proud homeowners, all of whom helped to build their houses (a requirement). While the families previously lived in makeshift houses, they are not unemployed; they must meet income requirements in order to repay the interest-free loan they receive.

The first shift was due to arrive on the site every morning at 7, and after 2 days we finally got the time thing down. Devotions came first - prayer and song. (Habitat is a Christian-based organization, but Christianity is not a requirement to either volunteer or receive assistance.)

As we arrived that Monday morning, before us stood the foundations and building materials for 50 houses. By the time many of us left for the last time Thursday afternoon, there were 50 actual houses there, most with gardens already started. It truly was incredible to see. I can only hope that all houses were completely finished on Friday, the last day for the international volunteers. Most of the families were planning to move in that very weekend.

The houses are constructed of cement block, with 2 doors and 4 windows (great for cross ventilation), a CR (comfort room, consisting solely of a toilet and enough room for a bucket bath), a counter for sink/cooking, and corrugated tin roofs. They will have electricity and enough land for gardens and play area. These are very small homes by American standards, only 320 sq. ft., but you won't hear them complaining. For most, this may be the first real house they've lived in. They do a wonderful job dividing the space into living, sleeping and cooking areas using furniture and curtains.

Each house had many more local volunteers than international, as well as at least one paid mason. The homeowners/partners were in charge and had experience. We had 15 workers on our house. One of the other international volunteers on my house was a 71 year old Holocaust survivor who worked harder than many of the younger volunteers! He, like many of the others, has a background in construction.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter came to GenSan Thursday morning . I was enlisted as a photographer.

As a gift to the family, I left many pictures with them and also have some of the older homes. As my hostess said, "We may not have much, but if we have happiness in our homes, what more do we need?" How many Americans can say that about their lives?

I've never worked so hard in my life, mixing cement, shoveling rocks, spoonfed mortar into crevices, digging weeds from future gardens, picking up trash, varnishing crossbeams. And I felt I should have done more.

Each night we were treated to great meals and a cultural show including 12 local dances. Some of the international volunteers got into the act with Korean and Japanese songs, etc.

I encourage each of you to look up a local affiliate of Habitat and get involved in improving the lives of those less fortunate. There are also opportunities to go to other countries on smaller-scale builds, under "Global Village".

To return in a year or two would be wonderful, to see this small area and to see what new homes have sprung up since. Quite a large piece of land belongs to Habitat there in GenSan; the affiliate has plans for many more houses. Surrounded by Dole bananas with mountains in the background, it's quite a nice area, a very peaceful setting.

ACTION: Habitat for Humanity, Stanislaus is at 230l-B Woodland Ave., Modesto, and can be reached at 575-4585; by e-mail at habstan@ainet.com.; or http://www.habitat.org.

Phyllis Rowland is a graduate of Modesto's Grace Davis High School. Excerpted by Myrtle Osner.

By TINA ARNOPOLE DRISKILL

In the United States, once tried and convicted of an 'aggravated felony' felony, a person serves prison time and then is released to make a fresh start upon completing their criminal sentence. Not so for immigrants who fall under the Immigration Reform Act of 1996, says Ruben Antonio Villalobos, staff attorney with the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This act "dramatically increased the list of 'aggravated felonies,'...crimes that subject a non-citizen to mandatory deportation." This list now includes "several non-violent crimes, such as receipt of stolen property, minor drug offenses, fraud and tax evasion."

"Furthermore," says Villalobos, "the law severely restricts the avenues for challenging deportation. If a person faces deportation for the commission of an aggravated felony, no regard is given to whether the immigrant entered this country legally, to the mitigating factors of the underlying crime, or to the equities of the case, such as the immigrant's family responsibilities, work history or ties to the community.

The law also requires the detention of all immigrants subject to deportation for criminal convictions. This translates to the prisoner being released directly from prison into the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to be detained until all arrangements have been completed for deportation. This process can take anywhere from a few days to several months, depending on whether the immigrant chooses to challenge the deportation. Since Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, North Korea, Somalia, Cuba and several other countries are not issuing the travel documents necessary to repatriate deported immigrants with criminal convictions in the United States, "the mandatory detention rules equate to a life sentence, according to Villalobos. The result is the incarceration of deportable immigrants from these countries by the INS with no release date, even though they have served the full time for their underlying criminal conviction.

Villalobos points out that many of the more than 150 indefinite detainees (those without release dates) being held in the city jail in Las Vegas, Nevada under contract with the INS, many are from Modesto, Sacramento, Fresno and other Central Valley communities. Further, "most of these detainees have spent more time in the custody of the INS than they served completing their criminal sentences in the California prison system.

More than 2000 immigrants are being indefinitely detained nationwide by the INS under conditions far worse than those provided under state prison systems, where they have access to libraries, drug treatment programs, counseling, GED classes and vocational certification programs. INS detainees are often held in local jails designed for short-term pre-trial defendants, who are not provided with the long term services mentioned previously. The conditions are aggravated by the fact that they are often too far from family and home to receive visitors or secure legal counsel.

"Perhaps the cruelest difference between state time and INS detention," claims Villalobos, "is that unlike the average state prisoner, the INS detainee has no idea when, if ever, his term of incarceration will end." Many of those awaiting deportation have spent between one and three years in the custody of the INS.

In August of 1998, United States District Judge Frank Damrell issued an order in the case of Tam v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which freed an immigrant in Sacramento who had been in INS custody for nearly four years. In his opinion, Judge Damrell noted:

"Once it becomes evident that the deportation is not realizable in the future, the continued detention of the alien loses its raison d'être. If there is nowhere to send the alien, then indefinite detention is no longer a temporary measure in the process of deportation; it is permanent confinement...This result shocks the conscience."

Although Tam v. INS has resulted in the release of a handful of detainees and more attorneys throughout the country are filing petitions to secure the release of others, the current petitions only apply to individual cases.

"As noted by Judge Damrell, Villalobos said, "the indefinite detention of an immigrant who cannot be deported violates the United States Constitution. Furthermore, this form of arbitrary detention violates human rights treaties and international law. Most of these indefinite detainees came to this country as refugees, escaping persecution and human rights violations in their countries of origin. In an era when Congress and the President are quick to condemn China and other countries for human rights violations, the United States must look within its own borders to remedy this grave injustice."

-- Ruben Villalobos, an Modesto High School and Peace Camp alumnus who has recently passed the California State Bar, was Stanislaus Connection's advertising representative during one summer vacation.

--From Physicians for a National Health Program

Some of the nation's largest managed care companies have started looking south in search of greater profits, according to a study in a recent New England Journal of Medicine. Unfortunately, say the authors, they're bringing their problems with them — like "cherry picking" healthy patients, increased bureaucracy, and reduced access to health care for vulnerable patients.

In contrast to the United States, most Latin American countries have social security systems that include health care benefits. They also have free public hospitals and clinics, and, while spending far less on health care per capita than the U.S., have achieved important successes, such as improving infant mortality and life expectancy.

"Two factors are leading to the rise of managed care in Latin America," according to Dr. Howard Waitzkin, co-author of The Exportation of Managed Care to Latin America and a Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico.

"First, the World Bank is pressuring governments to turn health care — and their multi-billion-dollar social security pension funds — over to the private sector, regardless of the consequences. Secondly, there is growing economic inequality in the region. With an expanding upper-middle class eager for more services, but governments forced to cut back on public spending as a condition of new loans by the International Monetary Fund, managed care executives are seeing dollar signs."

The study focuses on the growth of managed care in four countries: Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador. In Chile, for-profit HMOs started under Pinochet's dictatorship are now partially owned by Aetna. CIGNA is also involved in managed care in Chile, as well as Brazil, Argentina, and Ecuador.

HMOs in the region seem to be emulating the "bad" side of managed care over the "good" aspects, the article finds. By and large, the Latin American ventures are for-profit, physicians receive financial incentives to reduce services, and there is little emphasis on preventive health care. HMO co-payments and bureaucratic confusion have created barriers to care, increasing the strain on public hospitals and clinics. Administrative and promotional costs are rising, diverting funds from clinical services.

Chile has the longest history of for-profit, publicly-subsidized managed care in the region - and some big problems. Every year, about 24 percent of the patients in Chile's HMOs receive services in public clinics and hospitals because they cannot afford their HMO's co-payments.