Submitted by TOM HAMPSON. Excerpted by MYRTLE OSNER

Information and a petition urging that Jubilee 2000 be supported have be published in previous issues of Stanislaus Connections.

Although it is obvious that as individuals we cannot do very much about the massive debt burden that Third World countries are carrying, we can support and urge that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund revise their policies for repayment of massive loans that were made in the past.

Bread for the World, Church World Service, and a number of US religious denominations have pointed out that forgiving debts for the poorest countries of the world should be a moral issue in the richest country in the world, the United States. Religious leaders have urged that debts should be at least partially forgiven for these poorest countries.

While it is easy to say that these countries should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, the facts are that thirty-five of the world’s most debt-burdened countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. African countries in particular have no hope of ever paying debts off. Many of the loans were made with our (the US) complicity to terrible despots who squandered the money or built totally unrealistic structures that did not fit the country’s need in any way.

"Every child in Africa is born with a financial burden which a lifetime’s work cannot repay. The debt is a new form of slavery as vicious as the slave trade." (All-Africa Council of Churches). While democracy has been blossoming around the world, some new governments have inherited these debts, very little of which reached the people who really needed them.

In fact, some of the loans have been repaid several times over in interest payments.

Half of Africa’s population live without access to basic health care or a safe water source. In Tanzania the government spends nine times more on foreign debt payments than on health care (Oxfam). Malnutrition accounts for half of all deaths in pre-school children.

In this country, everyone has a chance to restructure their debts and often to have some of them forgiven by the process of bankruptcy. The people of Third World countries have no such option. You may be surprised to learn debt cancellation has happened before, but in cases that you will see were very selective:

The US offered Poland $2.5 billion in debt relief in 1991. After Desert Storm, the US canceled $7 billion Egypt owed; later, canceled $635 million of Jordan’s military debts (Bread for the World).

The International Monetary Fund (IFM) and the World Bank, while governed by rich nations, most profoundly influence poor countries. Their "structural adjustments" to the economy have been catastrophic to the poor. In particular, they have required countries to reduce government spending, which cuts food and fuel subsidies, social service programs, health care and education, and subsidized credits to farmers, thereby cutting the amount of food available. Add to that the devastating floods in Central America and you have a recipe for even more poverty.

Finally, and we here in the US need to remember this part of the equation, debt-induced poverty causes unsustainable exploitation of resources, damaging the environment more than we can outline here

ACTION: Call the White House comment line: 202-456-1111. Write your Senators and Representatives in Congress. (Please see related articles).

By INDIRA CLARK

"Britain is to write off all debts owed by the world's most impoverished countries, Gordon Brown announced this week," reported The Guardian Weekly just before Christmas. The British Chancellor wanted to "kick-start" the international drive to get much needed financial help flowing to 41 countries. The UK Treasury said that the initiative would be more than a billion dollars (12/23/99).

On January 11, another British news source, BBC On-line, reported that the United Kingdom would cancel the debt owed by 60 countries.

It also reported Brown's announcement that the UK would no longer offer aid to countries to buy British weapons. Why forgive these countries' debt just to have them run it up again with armament purchases, he stated (BBC).

The Jubilee 2000 campaign was credited, in the BBC piece, with influencing this debt forgiveness.

Critics claim the decisions are insignificant as the debt of the countries combined is small, by Western standards, and the amount of arms sold to these countries is also small.

The UK received interest payments of about $70 million last year from highly indebted poor countries, with most of the debt owed to the Export Credit Guarantee Department, which foots the bill when poor countries default on payments to British companies (Guardian). Indeed, many loans have been made to poor countries in our post-colonial era with government backing.

Even much of the foreign aid that the UK, US, and other First World countries "give" to poorer countries comes with strings attached. It's more like a coupon redeemable for only certain items from designated stores. In the case of US foreign aid, often most of an aid package is stipulated for purchases of weapons Made in the USA. There are precious few coupons for education or other goods and services which benefit the average citizen of the receiving country. In reality, US credit ,as well as "foreign aid," is often aid to US companies - call it Think Globally, Act Locally or call it corporate welfare.

While $1 billion dollars may seem, by Western standards, like a small amount for 60 countries to owe the UK, this debt relief will mean a great deal to the poor of the countries involved.

Hopefully other wealthy countries, who have been reaping huge profits from poor countries' debt, will follow the UK's example in canceling indebtedness..

The British weapons manufacturers will, of course, still sell to all comers, but the government will not be providing subsidies to poor countries any longer.

And we - the US - outsell all the other countries of the world COMBINED in the international weapons market.

--Thanks to Kathleen Shaw for forwarding The Guardian Weekly article.

Stand up and be counted! Join the Jubilee 2000 National Mobilization

From Jubilee 2000

Citizen action groups, students, people of faith, and others who care about justice for impoverished countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia will gather on the Mall in Washington, D.C. on Sunday April 9, 2000.

Be part of a massive, public witness — Demand that the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the U.S. Congress ACT NOW for debt cancellation for the world’s poorest countries!

There will be morning religious services for those interested, followed by a Human Chain at 1 p.m. Nationally-known speakers and entertainers are being invited to attend.

Stay for the Monday, Lobby Day. Meet with your representative and senators and request their commitment to debt cancellation.

Sponsored by the Jubilee 2000/USA campaign, a coalition of national environmental, religious, and social justice groups calling for lifting the crushing burden of debt, through fair and accountable process, by the end of the year 2000.

ACTION: For more information contact Jubilee 2000/USA at 222 East Capitol Street, N.E., Washington, D.C., 20003; tel. (202) 783-3566 email: coord@j2000usa.org; http://www.j2000usa.org. Check the website for up-to-date action alerts!

"Teaching Tolerance" as an experiential workshop

From Modesto Junior College press release

The news of hate crimes and discrimination lately has prompted Modesto Junior College to take action. A new class entitled "Teaching Tolerance" is being offered for the Spring Semester. It’s still available as a "late-start" beginning Wednesday, February 2, 2000.

You can register by attending the class on a space available basis. It’s in Founders Hall 227 Wednesdays from 2:10 to 4 pm from February 2 to March 29. The class carries one unit of credit.

The class will feature a series of speakers including representatives from local government, NAACP , and a survivor of the Holocaust. Designed to heighten the students’ awareness of the lack of tolerance, and the limitations and challenges to our society as a result, it will be facilitated by Dan Boyd.

"As a campus community, we have an obligation to respond to societal needs in preparing our students for the future," commented Dan Boyd. "This class will delve into the issues of intolerance, and seek to teach understanding, acceptance and tolerance of others’ differences."

ACTION: Modesto Junior College’s schedule and forms are online, or call 575-6498.

By SHELLY SCRIBNER

The "Just Kids" homeless project which has been at the Modesto Inn for about 10 years has moved to the Tropics Motel on McHenry Ave in Modesto. Homeless families who are helped by Community Temporary Shelter to find housing, jobs, and childcare now reside at this motel.

On Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30, children staying at the motel are invited to come to Room 222 for the "Just Kids" program where they can make crafts, play games, read, listen to music and work on the computer. Volunteers are always needed.

From The Humanitarian Times

1. U.S. COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES’ "WORLD REFUGEE SURVEY 1999" (Wash. DC: Immigration and Refugee Services of America). The most authoritative annual report compiling data on refugees, internally displaced and refugee-like trans-migrants. Each edition combines a country-by-country review of events and refugee conditions along with global data tables and topical essays.

2. JONATHAN MANN’s "HEALTH and HUMAN RIGHTS" (co-edited with Sofia Gruskin, M Grodin, G Annas 1999 NY: Routledge). The late Jonathon Mann was an inspiring teacher and leader, author of two global surveys on HIV/AIDS and director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights. Many of the 30 chapters discuss the Universal Declaration Human Rights, conflict, torture, Nazi medical experimentation, war crimes, the Red Cross, Physicians for Human Rights, and MSF. Female genital mutilation, disabled people, and informed consent in health research are touched on. Mann writes, "the evolving HIV/AIDS pandemic has shown a consistent pattern of discrimination, marginalization, stigmatization and lack of respect for the human rights and dignity of individuals." One chapter articulates a method for the human rights impact assessment of health policies. Mann’s final chapter brilliantly establishes a framework for the respective roles of human rights, ethics, public health and medicine. "It is clear that we do not yet know all about the universe of human suffering... (As) bioethical pioneers at the frontier of human history, we affirm that the past does not inexorably determine the future."

3. COURT ROBINSON’S DEFINITIVE "TERMS OF REFUGE" ABOUT INDOCHINESE refugee flows and international aid and asylum responses (1998 Zed Books). Robinson masterfully captures the many strands of forced migration, lately forgotten, that, for a period, riveted the world’s attention on Southeast Asia: "over the last 20 years more than 3 million people left their homes in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, many with their lives in obvious peril and others fleeing fear, hunger and uncertainty; they ran the gamut from generals and ministers to farmers and fishermen. They left on foot, on large freighters and small fishing boats, by oxcart and airplane, swimming rivers and stealing through jungles. While describing overall operations, and power politics, Robinson also captures the experiences of individuals caught in state-less asylum, with no place to go.

4. GEORGE SOROS’ "THE CRISIS OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM" (1998 NY: Public Affairs) More than any other major philanthropist, Soros’s investments, public celebrity persona, and foundation giving converge to jointly influence the things he cares about: the transition from authoritarian regimes to free "open" societies. Soros calls for reform of the intl. financial system to reduce effects of boom/bust cycles on populations, particularly drawing on the recent finance crises in E Asian and Russia. Soros argues for tempering pure capitalism with morality, participatory democracy and arrangements for preserving peace and law.

5. "CREATING PEACE IN SRI LANKA: CIVIL WAR and RECONCILIATION" edited by Robert Rotberg (1999 Wash. DC: Brookings Inst. Press): The roots, history and consequences of the 16-year conflict, which has displaced 100,000s and killed 60,000, that began when Tamils were disenfranchised after independence from England in 1948.

6. "CRIMES OF WAR: WHAT THE PUBLIC SHOULD KNOW" BY THE CRIMES OF WAR Project, 1999, edited by Guttman and Rieff (NY: WW Norton); many contributions by varied and experienced war correspondents to explain the principles and histories of different complex emergencies, from crimes against cultural property, to landmines, to medical experiments on POWs, to death squads, to Kuwaiti oil wells, to refoulement.

7. AMARTYA SEN’S "DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM" (1999 NY: KNOPF) is based on a series of lectures given at the World Bank by Sen, last year’s Nobel prize-winner and expert on the economics of famine vulnerability. Likely to become a classic, this text summarizes many of Sen’s general views about the importance of individual freedom as a goal of economic development, while criticizing much of development/ aid practice that views freedom as a luxury that comes later.

8. "THE END OF THE REFUGEE CYCLE: REFUGEE REPATRIATION and RECONSTRUCTION" by Richard Black and Khalid Koser (1999 Oxford: Berghahn Books) looks at mass migrations home (repatriation) in the 1990s, based primarily on country case studies including Bosnia, Angola, and Cambodia. The contributors tease out refugees’ differing perceptions /constructions of "home" (some nationalist, some related to areas of high productivity or fertility) that have meaning for refugees. The authors recognize many of the key issues involved in repatriation, including the importance of complex social networks as the basis for identifying and pursuing livelihood in the course of reintegration.

9. FRED CUNY’S "FAMINE, CONFLICT and RESPONSE, A BASIC GUIDE" (with Rick Hill and Pat Reed 1999 W Hartford, Conn: Kumarian Press). Cuny summarizes years of ground - breaking insights into how to run a relief operation, often cautioning on how to support local structures, not undermine them; after a food crisis, intl. organizations often maintain food delivery supply chains that "continue to exist for years as a competitor to economic activity in the recovering society." The authors note: "a well-planned counter-famine measure may also build on a local capacity in a way that creates new social mechanisms to deal with the pressures of increased population or environmental degradation that contributes to recurrent famine."

10. "ALL OF US" - SELECTIONS FROM THE EARTH TIMES" (1999 NY: Earth Times Books). Collects 90 brief articles, stories and essays from 1990s editions of The Earth Times news monthly that debate trends in developing countries, with common references to the stories of real people. The Earth Times is available in print and on the internet (www.Earthtimes.org).

The Humanitarian Times is a non-profit project begun in 1998 in order to provide basic information on intl aid and disasters to disadvantaged areas of the world and to help build bridges among aid organizations. To subscribe email: HTimes@msn.com

A special Black History Month production of Living Voices’ "The Right to Dream" will be presented at the State Theatre, J Street in Modesto, Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. The interactive multi-media performance involves an overview of the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of a composite on-stage character along with on screen historical scenes.

Loyko, an exciting Russian gypsy trio, will take the stage Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. in an extraordinary evening of gypsy vocals, humor and master musicianship. This is an exciting and rare cultural experience for any Modesto venue.

The Kids’ State second family production will be "Rapunzel and the Witch". The spellbinding fairy tale play will be presented by the California Theatre Center Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m.

Other State Theatre special presentations this month include the Music of Verdi performed by the State Theatre Orchestra on Feb. 2, New Riders of the Purple Sage on Feb. 12, show stopper Tommy Castro on Feb. 19 and chamber music by the Camaraderie Quintet on Feb. 20, all scheduled for 8 p.m.

ACTION: For reservations and information on these and other State offerings call 52-SHOWS.

By MYRTLE OSNER

Choir members from more than a dozen congregations in Stanislaus County are intensely preparing new music to sing at the Habitat for Humanity concert on Sunday March 5 at 4 p.m.

For several years, the concert, held at First United Methodist Church in Modesto, has been a "sell-out". Actually, you don’t buy a ticket: there's a freewill offering which goes entirely to Habitat for Humanity, Stanislaus.

You are invited to come to the church at 16th and I Streets for a unique experience. The many choirs are learning new music and want to share it with others outside their own churches. Each choir perform its own favorite numbers for the assembled crowd. Then the choirs join together to perform music which each choir has been practicing all fall and spring. The mass choir is awesome to hear.

Director for this year’s concert is Carol McMillan, who has directed the choir at College Avenue Congregational Church , Modesto, for 25 years. New this year is an ecumenical youth choir, which is rehearsing with the choir director at First Methodist Church. A committee of local choir directors has chosen the music which all the participating choirs are singing together. That makes it a truly ecumenical effort, in keeping with the Habitat support, which always has been ecumenical..

Habitat for Humanity, Stanislaus is a part of an international organization. In its first ten years the local affiliate has built 13 houses in Stanislaus County, has acquired the land to build seven more, and is currently working in partnership with twenty Habitat families.

Families are screened for need and ability to pay back the cost. They give their own "sweat equity," helping to build the first home they have ever owned. Crews of volunteers help put the house up.

Many families are waiting for houses that they can afford. Modesto has a dearth of affordable housing. Local housing costs continue to rise, while decent, affordable housing is fills up quickly.

Habitat for Humanity is looking for new Board members willing to give time to ensuring that the spirit and mission of Habitat continue on into the future. There is also a need for volunteers to help build the houses, and for skilled workers to supervise the work.

ACTION: Attend the concert. To contact the local Habitat for Humanity office, call (209) 575-4585, or e mail habstan@ainet.com, or write them at 2301 Woodland Ave., Modesto, Ca 95351.