Make Poverty History urges more climate change action from Aust Govt

from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A leading aid organisation says Australia's current climate change policies will do little to slow rising sea levels, and it has suggested that Australia may have to take in "climate change refugees".

The Make Poverty History group today released a report card on Australia's response to climate change at an event in Melbourne.

It warns the Federal Government's pursuit of an emissions trading scheme is important, but only part of the solution.

The group's James Ensor says Australia must cut emissions to 60 per cent of 1990 levels within 12 years.

"And by doing so, over time the rapidly developing countries such as China, India and Brazil will have to make commitments around emissions reduction,"

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Today is Make Poverty History Day in Burlington

from The Burlington Post

Since 1993, each Oct. 17 has been observed as International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

With a recent proclamation from Mayor Cam Jackson, the day will now be recognized in Burlington as Make Poverty History Day.

The national Make Poverty History campaign was launched in 2005 as part of a global call to action against poverty.

The campaign and its Burlington chapter are calling for more and better international aid, cancellation of debt to the world's poorest countries, fair trade practices and an end to child poverty in Canada. Residents can join the more than 245,000 Canadians who have endorsed the campaign by visiting www.makepovertyhistory.ca.

For information on the Burlington chapter, e-mail John Versluis at burlingtonmph@cogeco.ca.

Group wants to make local poverty history; Number of city's working poor continues to rise

from The Brantford Expositor

Anja Karadeglija

Over the coming months, local poverty activists will be getting a boost from a superstar-powered global campaign which branded millions with white plastic bracelets and influenced the most powerful men in the world.

Make Poverty History is coming to Brantford, but the target is not Third World debt, unfair trade rules or astronomic AIDS rates in Africa, the traditional purview of the organization.

Instead, Make Poverty History Canada will be tackling poverty in Brantford.

In March, the national organization decided to set up a lobbying campaign to bring Canadian poverty to the table in the next federal election. It is a little unusual, allows coordinator Dennis Howlett, but not unprecedented. Make Poverty History campaigns in other countries have also tackled the issues of the domestic poor.

priority ridings

From its inception in 2005, Howlett's organization has included Canadian poverty on its agenda.
When the activist campaign was established, the group was looking for areas where it could have the most influence.

"We were looking for priority ridings," said Howlett. "That is, ridings where the last election was decided by a margin of 10 per cent or less."

In 2006, Liberal Lloyd St. Amand beat Conservative Phil McColeman by 582 votes, less then one per cent of the total number of voters.

"We have around 900 supporters in Brantford, so we have more than 100 per cent of the margin in our supporters," Howlett explained.

So the city became one of the 50 ridings targeted for action at all candidates' meetings and other events. Two Make Poverty History Brant meetings were held recently.

JoAnne Dubois, a member of the organization, said that they are in the planning stages now, both in terms of strategy and events, but have many ambitions.

"We want to interview the election candidates on poverty issues," she said. "We're looking at forming a social justice coalition."

Dubois, who works at both the community legal clinic and the Sexual Assault Centre of Brant, said poverty in Brantford is often hidden, but pervasive.

low-income residents

A 2005 report found that, within the city of Brantford, 20.3 per cent of families and 43.6 per cent of singles had incomes that placed them below the low-income cut off, the closest thing Canada has to a poverty line.

Because 40 per cent of Brantford residents don't have a high school diploma, it very difficult for them to find work, Dubois explains.

"Even temp agencies want people with their high school diploma. And that is putting a lot of people on welfare."

Even those working full time, at minimum wage, still fall under the low-income cut off. To meet the line, a wage for someone working 40 hours a week would have to be $10 an hour - $2 more then the current minimum wage.

"If you look at the food bank, growing numbers of people who are accessing it are working families," Dubois says.

Someone on a disability pension would have even less - about $950 a month - to survive on, Dubois explains.

"You're often forced into poverty if you become disabled. You can go from having a full time job, a home, everything, to barely eating," she says.

Welfare pays even less and, while the amount is geared to housing costs, moving through the waiting list for affordable housing in Brantford can take years, Dubois says.

As the summer goes on, Make Poverty History Brant will start developing a strategy and deciding which aspects of poverty to focus on. That should be decided in time for the provincial election on Oct.10, which Howlett considers a "dry run" for the group's work in the federal election.

Monks and nuns take their fight against poverty to Westminster

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by Tania Branigan

Even New Labour MPs may know enough of Marx to recall that he described religion as the opium of the people.

If so, they were in for a shock yesterday. The 1,000 monks, nuns and friars who descended on Westminster were more of an adrenaline shot for the body politic.

The brothers and sisters from Anglican and Roman Catholic orders were lobbying their MPs - in humble but determined manner - to support the Make Poverty History campaign.

Usually security officers put out crash barriers when a mass delegation of activists heads for parliament. Yesterday the fluorescent-jacketed staff were busy loading them back on to lorries as the campaigners streamed towards the Commons.
The visit, organised by the Catholic aid agency Cafod, came as Jack Straw used a speech in Washington to urge the US to support British plans to alleviate Africa's plight.

The event could easily have been dominated by empty piety and self-righteousness.

But parliamentarians were swiftly deflated by sharp questions and sharper facts: a woman dies in childbirth every minute; 150 million children are malnourished; 1.1 billion people have no safe water.

"We must not be satisfied with answers that are words, words and more words," Sister Pat Robb - who initiated the visit - had warned her fellow campaigners.

"The fact that so many people in this world live in abject poverty is a scandal. The fact that it's so often caused by us in the west, as we use limited natural resources and labour to maintain our unsustainable lifestyle, is totally unacceptable."

In his brown, cowled habit, girded by a simple rope belt, Brother Michael O'Kane would not have looked out of place in Westminster Hall when it was first built in the 11th century.

But while the Franciscan friar's clothing might reinforce stereotypes of unworldly churchmen, he explained that he does not always wear the robe; it tends to be tricky when nursing, or playing football with refugee children.

These campaigners have worked with Aids victims, street sleepers, malnourished families and drug addicts, in inner cities here and slums around the world.

Yesterday's lobbying was, to them, the logical development of this practical service. "Poverty is more than looking at skinny babies and helping to feed people, " said Sister Ursula Sharpe.

"It is bigger than that: it's about trade and debt."

Sister Pat, of the Congregation of Jesus, had short shrift for anyone who believed that religion and politics did not mix.

"Jesus was political," she said tartly. "He turned the moneylenders out of the temple."

Nor did she accept that the Catholic church might have contributed to Africa's problems.

"People always want to bring up Aids and condoms, but people go on the streets because they haven't got food. Let's get to the root of the problem: removing poverty," she said.

Whether or not one agrees, it is hard to argue with the fact that the church provides 40% of healthcare in some developing countries.

Christianity and Marxism have rarely been on friendly terms, but the activists might concede the philosopher was half right about religion. He also dubbed it "the heart of a heartless world".

Nuns Team Up in Parliament Poverty Protest

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Two nuns from Wiltshire will join up with around 1,000 members of religious orders and take part in a protest at Parliament today when they will be calling on MPs to “Make Poverty History”.

Sister Concepta from St Teresa’s Convent in Corsham and Sister Mary from St Michael’s Convent in Swindon are taking part in the special event organised by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD).

Sister Concepta said: ”This year is an unprecedented opportunity to end the needless poverty and hunger, and the human despair this brings. Many of us have worked in developing countries and seen the suffering of our brothers and sisters.

“The Gospels demand we take action against poverty. We are travelling to London to speak out on behalf of the 1.3 billion people worldwide living on less than a dollar a day. We will not stand by and let our politicians get away with this any longer.”

The event will be the first time religious orders have come together for a mass lobby of Parliament. Their message “to Make Poverty History” will be the first one heard by the newly elected Parliament as MPs return to work after the General Election.

CAFOD is a leading member of the Make Poverty History campaign, a coalition of 400 hundred British organisations calling for trade justice, debt cancellation and more and better aid.

CAFOD director Chris Bain said: “The numbers of religious men and women travelling from around the UK to make a stand for Make Poverty History is humbling. They are in a unique position to highlight the moral imperative of rich governments to make poverty history through trade justice, debt cancellation and more effective aid.

“Already nearly six million people have died of poverty this year and 30,000 children are dying every day. This year we can make a difference.”

Carmelites, Dominicans, Benedictines and Jesuits are just a few of the Orders who will form a procession from the Methodist Central Hall to the Houses of Parliament.

They have special access to the Great Hall to meet their individual MPs. The event will close with a service at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey.

Make Poverty History Campaign

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On Monday May 16 in the Scottish Parliament, Bob Geldof condemned the world's wealthiest nations as a "complete and utter disgrace" for going back on their promises. The Make Poverty History campaign is gathering pace ahead of the G8 summit.

The statistics tell a shocking story. Nearly half the world's population lives in poverty. Thirty thousand children die every day because they are poor and average life expectancy in Africa is getting shorter, not longer. Clearly the G8 has a lot of work to do.

At the Gleneagles summit in July, the leaders of the world's richest countries will promise to reduce poverty, debt and disease. But there are many who are saying we have heard it all before. They are part of a growing campaign to put pressure on the politicians to do more than just talk.

Make Poverty History has brought together over 400 organisations and enlisted the help of an array of celebrities who've made trade justice and debt relief ultra hip. The campaign will culminate in a mass rally in Edinburgh just before the summit.

Mary Cullen from Make Poverty History said: "Poverty is in a sense man made, and so we make these rule, we can unmake the rules, we can change it so we do believe it is possible as Nelson Mandela said to make poverty history along with apartheid and along with slavery."

But will celebrities and demos really make a difference? Charlotte Ebba is an asylum seeker from the Ivory Coast living in Glasgow. She does not think the campaign will change the way the West treats Africa.

She said: "If they want to make poverty history, they can do it by giving the resources, doing fair trades, let African people decide about how and where to send the resources."

Scottish entrepreneur Tom Hunter was initially sceptical too but he now believes the campaign could succeed. He said: "All it needs is the will. If this was happening in Scotland, you know, 30,000 people a day - it's half of Ayr today, half of Kilmarnock tomorrow. If these things were happening in our backyard, our politicians would do something about it today."

The campaign's white wristbands have become a bit of a fashion statement for young people, but the serious message does seem to have got through. The organisers expect upwards of 100,000 people will go on the march, many of them won't have demonstrated before. They hope the strength of feeling will make the politicians take notice.