Ginger Trade Helps Recovery

from All Africa

International Trade Centre (Geneva)

NEWS

By Trade Forum Team

Sierra Leone's export development authorities are working to revitalize the ginger industry, a route out of poverty after years of war. This story is based on an interview with Abu Bakkar Kebbay, from the export development agency of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

"The civil war between 1990 and 2001 created at least 1 million refugees and largely destroyed our services. The United Nations declared us safe in 2002 but some people still don't know that the war has ended and business people remember the atrocities they saw," says Abu Bakkar Kebbay. "As a result, few people come to Sierra Leone to do business. We are still suffering from this image of a country at war."

To help reintegrate returning refugees and internally displaced farmers, the new Government sought to revitalize sectors in which Sierra Leone had been successful before the war. Spices are one such sector, as they provide many opportunities to create jobs for large numbers of people, thus helping to reduce poverty.

Spices also have high export potential. When the Government of Sierra Leone looked to stimulate the economy, it focused on encouraging new business ventures and export opportunities with high growth potential. Within this context, it identified the development of the spice sector in general, and ginger production and exports in particular, as a priority of its economic development strategy to create jobs and generate income for displaced farmers.

Jobs and income

Selling superior-quality ginger to European markets is one such export opportunity. Its appeal is that it can bring revenues to the poorest groups and provide jobs, particularly for women.

The Government had attempted to revive ginger exports a few years earlier, but abandoned the project because of the war. A once-flourishing export business, Sierra Leone's ginger trade had dried up due to competition from Asian countries, which grew a variety of ginger more prized in the West.

In 2002, as part of an assistance package from China, the Sierra Leone Export Development and Investment Corporation (SLEDIC) obtained 53 tonnes of Chinese seed ginger. SLEDIC distributed it to chiefdoms in the ginger-producing areas of Moyambo and Kambia, with training and field demonstrations. But bad agricultural practices and inexperience with the improved variety meant that the harvest was relatively poor.

In October 2003 the Ministry of Trade approached ITC to help develop ginger exports. ITC developed a programme to provide work and income for more than 9,000 subsistence farmers, especially women, who account for over 60% of Sierra Leone's agricultural labour.

An international expert made a preliminary assessment of the supply and demand conditions. He proposed exporting processed ginger to Europe in the second year of production, with better methods and technology. Peeling, drying and processing ginger increases its value by about 90% and provides work for more women on the farms.

Unexpected demand, mobile phones and bikes

ITC held a technical workshop on post-harvest treatment of ginger, and provided advice on demand, trends and market promotion.

It arranged for two Sierra Leonean officials (an agricultural extension coordinator and an export development specialist) to visit India, the largest producer and exporter of high-quality ginger.

In Sierra Leone, people use local ginger in beverages rather than to spice food. With its strong aroma and flavour, it is valued for its reputed benefits in reducing blood pressure. The Sierra Leonean officials found export possibilities for their local variety of ginger — cultivated in more than five times the present acreage of the improved variety — in the Indian essential oils market.

The $100,000 project included providing motorbikes, bicycles and mobile phones to agronomists and extension workers. The phones and bikes made data collection, dissemination and project monitoring and evaluation, much easier and timely, particularly in the rainy season.

With training and information workshops in the ginger-growing areas, farmers were achieving yields up fourfold by the end of the third year, meaning they could repay their initial seed allocation to their chiefdoms.

First ginger exports in 22 years

After three years of cultivation, Sierra Leone was able to prepare four trial exports in 2006: two tonnes of the Chinese variety and two of the local variety — the first ginger exports since 1984. Buyers included importers in a total of 11 countries, including Germany, India, the Netherlands, Nigeria, South Africa and the United Kingdom. In 2007 it plans to export 80 tonnes of dried ginger, which requires the processing of 320 tonnes of fresh ginger.

Tests indicate that the ginger is of good quality, free of aflatoxins, and meets the European Spice Association standards. ITC financed this quality assurance test, which will help obtain higher revenues for exporters.

So far, the project has created 150 new jobs for processors and 30 new jobs for foremen, loaders, transporters and others. It has also generated income for the Government through port charges.

Currently, ginger cultivation is limited by the availability of seeds. The export development agency therefore plans to secure at least 50 tonnes of seeds by the middle of 2007 to further scale up the project.

Learning exchanges

The training ITC offers in the ginger project takes place in the context of technical cooperation among developing countries whereby linkages are created between farmers/experts in India, Kenya, Uganda and Sierra Leone.

The cooperation between Kenya and Sierra Leone, for example, has the potential to increase intra-African trade.

For more information, contact Ramin Granfar, ITC Trade Promotion Officer. This article draws on reports by ITC consultants C.K. George and Roger Clarke. Interview by Prema de Sousa and Peter Hulm.

Poverty rate down but fewer have health insurance

from Reuters

By Joanne Morrison

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. poverty rate fell for the first time this decade but more people are living without health insurance and the bulk of the nation's poor are children, government data released on Tuesday showed.

The national poverty rate in 2006 was down to 12.3 percent from 12.6 percent a year earlier, the Census Bureau's report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States said. Children represent 35 percent of those living in poverty and make up a fourth of the total U.S. population.

The national median income, now $48,200, rose for the second straight year as the United States entered an economic slowdown but it was mainly because more Americans within each household have jobs.


Some 36.5 million Americans, or 12.3 percent of the population, lived below the poverty line, defined as having an annual income of about $10,000 for an individual or $20,000 for a family of four.

The latest data come at a key time as the economy has slowed and with just more than a year left in the presidential campaign.

"These statistics show what most Americans know: tens of millions of our fellow citizens are completely left out of the economic progress enjoyed by the individuals and corporations on the very top," said Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards.

Even with two years of increases, household income levels still are down from a 1999 peak and the poverty rate remains one percentage point above the 2000 level.

Individuals actually are earning less with earnings per worker falling for the third year in a row.

"It's welcome news that poverty is down and household income is up but there is too much evidence in this report that the growing economy is not reaching middle- and low-income households the way it ought to be at this stage," said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

The data showed fewer people living in the United States in 2006 were covered by health insurance than in 2005, mainly because businesses cut back on such benefits. The number of uninsured increased to 47 million from 44.8 million.

"One of the most dismal pieces in this is that we are supposed to be in a good economy," said Sister Carol Keehan, who heads up the Catholic Health Association, a non-profit association of the Nation's Catholic hospitals. "When you watch the number of employed rise it does tell me we need to make some significant changes in how health care is provided."

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton said the figures point out a societal problem.

"When I began the fight for universal coverage almost 15 years ago, there were 37 million people uninsured," she said in a statement. "It was an outrage then and with 10 million more people uninsured today, it is an even deeper outrage today."

According to the Census report, the percentage of people covered by employment-based health insurance fell to 59.7 percent, from 60.2 percent in 2005.

"When millions of hard-working men and women do not have health insurance themselves and cannot cover their children, it raises serious clinical, economic and moral concerns about how we as a nation will meet the needs of our people," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a Princeton, New Jersey-based think tank focusing on health-care issues.

These Census data are collected from 50 states and the District of Columbia based on a sample of about 100,000 addresses and do not take into account whether or not those surveyed are U.S. citizens or not.

Poverty by state

from Yahoo News



By The Associated Press Tue Aug 28, 4:55 PM ET

The nation's poverty rate declined from 2005 to 2006, but it is still up for the decade, according to figures released Tuesday by the Census Bureau. The figures listed for each state are percentages.
___
State 2000 2006
Ala. 16.1 16.6
Alaska 9.4 10.9
Ariz. 13.9 14.2
Ark. 15.8 17.3
Calif. 14.2 13.1
Colo. 9.3 12.0
Conn. 7.9 8.3
Del. 9.2 11.1
D.C. 20.2 19.6
Fla. 12.5 12.6
Ga. 13.0 14.7
Hawaii 10.7 9.3
Idaho 11.8 12.6

Ill. 10.7 12.3
Ind. 9.5 12.7
Iowa 9.1 11.0
Kan. 9.9 12.4
Ky. 15.8 17.0
La. 19.6 19.0
Maine 10.9 12.9
Md. 8.5 7.8
Mass. 9.3 9.9
Mich. 10.5 13.5
Minn. 7.9 9.8
Miss. 19.9 21.1
Mo. 11.7 13.6
Mont. 14.6 13.6
Neb. 9.7 11.5
Nev. 10.5 10.3
N.H. 6.5 8.0
N.J. 8.5 8.7
N.M. 18.4 18.5
N.Y. 14.6 14.2
N.C. 12.3 14.7
N.D. 11.9 11.4
Ohio 10.6 13.3
Okla. 14.7 17.0
Ore. 11.6 13.3
Pa. 11.0 12.1
R.I. 11.9 11.1
S.C. 14.1 15.7
S.D. 13.2 13.6
Tenn. 13.5 16.2
Texas 15.4 16.9
Utah 9.4 10.6
Vt. 9.4 10.3
Va. 9.6 9.6
Wash. 10.6 11.8
W.Va. 17.9 17.3
Wis. 8.7 11.0
Wyo. 11.4 9.4
Nation 11.3 12.3

Poverty by city

from Yahoo News



By The Associated Press Tue Aug 28, 5:05 PM ET

Listed are the cities of 65,000 or more people with the highest and lowest poverty rates for 2006. Figures listed by the cities are percentages.
___
Highest
City Poverty Rate
Brownsville, Texas 40.6
College Station, Texas 37.3
Camden, N.J. 35.6
Edinburg, Texas 35.4
Bloomington, Ind. 34.7
Flint, Mich. 34.1
Kalamazoo, Mich. 33.4
Florence-Graham, Calif. 33.0
Gary city, Ind. 32.8
Muncie city, Ind. 32.6


Lowest
City Poverty Rate
Highlands Ranch, Colo. 1.4
Allen, Texas 2.2
Pleasanton, Calif. 2.7
Newton, Mass. 3.0
Naperville, Ill. 3.1
Chino Hills, Calif. 3.2
Troy, Mich. 3.2
Danbury, Conn. 3.5
Centennial, Colo. 3.7
O'Fallon, Mo. 3.7

Number and Percentage of Americans who are Uninsured Climbs AgainGAIN

from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities

Poverty Edges Down but Remains Higher, and Median Income for Working-Age Households Remains Lower, than When Recession Hit Bottom in 2001

New Census data show that in 2006, both the number and the percentage of Americans who are uninsured hit their highest levels since 1999, the first year for which comparable data are available, with 2.2 million more Americans — and 600,000 more children — joining the ranks of the uninsured in 2006.

Today’s figures also show that while the overall poverty rate declined slightly (from 12.6 percent to 12.3 percent) between 2005 and 2006, the decline was largely concentrated among the elderly. The poverty rates for children and for working age adults remained statistically unchanged as compared to 2005, and well above their levels in 2001, when the last recession hit bottom


Similarly, while median income rose modestly (by 0.7 percent, or $356) for households in general, this merely brought median income back to where it stood in the 2001 recession year. In addition, median income for working-age households — those headed by someone under 65 — remained more than $1,300 below where it stood when the recession hit bottom.

Center executive director Robert Greenstein noted that, “Five years into an economic recovery, the country has yet to make progress in reducing poverty, raising the typical working-age family’s income, or stemming the rise in the ranks of the uninsured, compared even to where we were in the last recession. The new figures on median income and poverty are the latest evidence that the economic growth of the past few years has been very uneven, with the gains being concentrated among those who already are the most well off. Too many middle- and low-income families are not sharing in the gains.”

Percentage and Number of Uninsured Remain High

The percentage of Americans who lack health insurance stood at 15.8 percent in 2006, up from 15.3 percent in 2005. The number of people who are uninsured rose by 2.2 million in 2006, to 47 million, the highest level on record (with comparable data going back to 1999).

Both the number and the percentage of Americans who were uninsured were substantially higher last year than in the recession year of 2001. That year, 39.8 million people — 14.1 percent of Americans — were uninsured. Since 2001, the percentage of Americans without insurance has trended upward and now equals a record high.

Of particular note, both the number and the percentage of children who are uninsured increased for the second straight year in 2006 — to 8.7 million, or 11.7 percent, of all children. (In 2005, the comparable figures were 8.0 million and 10.9 percent of children; in 2004, the figures were 7.7 million and 10.5 percent.)

Between 1998, when the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) started, and 2004, the number and percentage of uninsured children fell consistently, despite the erosion of employer-based coverage during that period, as more low-income children were enrolled in SCHIP and Medicaid. This progress halted in 2005, however. Over the past two years, the number and percentage of children who lack health insurance has risen; 1 million more children were uninsured in 2006 than in 2004. This occurred because progress in enrolling children in SCHIP and Medicaid stopped while employer-based coverage of children continued to decline.

Progress in enrolling children in SCHIP and Medicaid halted as SCHIP funding became scarcer. In addition, starting in 2006, a new federal documentation requirement has resulted in delay or denial of Medicaid coverage for tens of thousands of low-income citizen children whose parents lack ready access to the child’s birth certificate or passport.

In short, the new Census data show that progress in reducing the number of uninsured children has stalled since 2004 and that ground has been lost. Robert Greenstein, the Center’s executive director, observed that the new data heighten the importance of legislation now moving through Congress to strengthen children’s health insurance coverage.

“According to Congressional Budget Office estimates,” Greenstein said, “the bills the Senate and House approved in July would shrink the number of uninsured children by 3 to 4 million by 2012.[1] But the President has vowed to veto both bills. In addition, the Administration announced a harsh new policy on August 17 that would reduce the number of children insured by SCHIP over the next few years by as many as several hundred thousand. The increases in the numbers of uninsured children reported today should prompt the President to rethink his hard-line positions.”

It is also notable that the share of full-time workers without health insurance rose to 17.9 percent — more than 1 in 6 full-time workers now lacked health insurance in 2006.

Poverty and Non-Elderly Income Remain Worse than When Recovery Began

Overall, the percentage of Americans in poverty declined to 12.3 percent in 2006, from 12.6 percent in 2005 but the progress was largely concentrated among the elderly. Some 36.5 million Americans were poor in 2006, a level statistically unchanged from 2005.

The poverty rate among the elderly declined from 10.1 percent in 2005 to 9.4 percent in 2006. The poverty rates for children (17.4 percent in 2006) and for adults aged 18 – 64 (10.8 percent in 2006) were statistically unchanged from the 2005 levels, as were the numbers of children and working-age adults who were poor. It is both surprising and disappointing that in the fifth full year of the recovery, there was not strong improvement in poverty among children and adults — two groups whose poverty rates are more affected by the health of the economy than is the poverty rate among the elderly.

The overall poverty rate, the child poverty rate, and the poverty rate among working-age adults all remain above their levels in 2001 when the last recession hit bottom, and even farther above the levels in 2000, before the recession hit. In further evidence that real progress has been made among the elderly, the poverty rate for this group is now below its levels in 2001.

The new Census data also show that while median household income rose 0.7 percent in 2006, this merely returned it to its 2001 level. In addition, the incomes of non-elderly households have yet to return to where they stood during the 2001 recession year. Median income for non-elderly households — the group most affected by the economy — rose by 1.3 percent, or $725, in 2006, but remained $1,336 below the 2001 level, and $2,375 below the level in 2000.[2] The increase in median income for working-age households in 2006 comes after five consecutive years of decline.

The findings that poverty remains higher, and median income for working-age households lower, than in 2001 when the last recession hit bottom, are the latest evidence that the current economic recovery has been exceptionally uneven and that an unusually small share of the gains has reached low- and middle-income families. Data recently issued by the Commerce Department illuminate this trend. They show that a smaller share of the income gains from the current recovery are going to workers’ wages and salaries, and a larger share are going to corporate profits, than in any other recovery since World War II.[3] [4]

Income Inequality

The Census data show that the share of income going to the 5 percent of households with the highest incomes — 22.3 percent in 2006 — has never been higher. And, the Census Bureau's index of income inequality, called the Gini index, also stood at its highest point on record and has increased significantly since 2002 (although not since 2005).

Researchers concur that the official Census data are not the best measure of trends in income inequality. The Census data fail to capture a substantial amount of income at the top of the income scale, in part because the Census Bureau records income only up to certain specified levels. For example, earnings above $999,999 are not counted; if an individual has a job paying $5 million, his or her earnings are recorded by Census as $999,999. In addition, the Census data leave out all capital gains income, which flows disproportionately to the most affluent households.[5]

It is likely that the Census data released today understate recent growth in inequality because, as noted, they do not fully capture the growing concentration of income at the top of the income scale. For instance, between 2004 and 2005, as well, the Census Bureau’s Gini coefficient rose by a statistically insignificant amount. Yet research by economists Thomas Piketty and Emannuel Saez, using data that capture income changes at the top of the income spectrum and are available through 2005, shows that income inequality grew markedly that year. The Piketty and Saez research, based largely on Internal Revenue Service data that reflect actual incomes at the top of the income scale, shows that the top one percent of households received nearly half — 49 percent — of the overall increase in U.S. household income that occurred in 2005. (In addition, the top one percent received 19.3 percent of all income in 2005, which tied with 2000 for the largest share since 1929.[6])

Poverty Results Disappointing Compared with Previous Recoveries

The first four years of the current economic recovery were marked by declines in median income for working-age households, and an increase in the poverty rate in every year of the recovery except one (2005).

The poverty increased during the early years of the current recovery is not unique; poverty often rises and median income often continues falling in the first year or two after a recession ends. But it has taken much longer during the current recovery than during most other recoveries for improvements in poverty to occur. 2006 marked the first time on record that, five years after the recession ended, the poverty rate still had not returned to its level during the recession. Moreover, between 2001 and 2006, median household income grew at the slowest rate on record for the first five years of a recovery. (These comparisons exclude recoveries that lasted less than five years.)

The 2001 recession was a shallower recession compared than some previous recessions, but the continued deterioration in poverty and income lasted longer than in prior recoveries. The 1990s recession also was relatively shallow. After that downturn, poverty and income continued to worsen for two years after the economy began to recover. Ultimately, the 1990s proved to be a decade where real progress was made in reducing poverty and lifting the living standards of the middle class, because low- and middle-income households shared in the economic growth that took place. To date, growth in this recovery has been more tilted toward the top, a warning sign that the progress made in the 1990s may very well not be replicated in this decade.

End Notes:

[1] The Senate bill would, by 2012, reduce the number of uninsured children by 3.2 million and prevent 800,000 children now covered through SCHIP from losing coverage as a result of federal funding shortfalls. The House bill would reduce the number of uninsured children by 4.2 million, plus prevent the 800,000 insured children from losing coverage.

[2] This reflects the change in median income after adjusting for inflation. All income figures in this analysis are provided in 2006 inflation-adjusted dollars.

[3] Aviva Aron-Dine and Isaac Shapiro, “Share of National Income Going to Wages and Salaries at Record Low in 2006: Share of Income Going to Corporate Profits at Record High,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, revised March 29, 2007, www.cbpp.org/8-31-06inc.htm.

[4] Some have argued that wages and salaries have grown slowly in the current recovery only because the cost of other forms of employee compensation, such as employer-provided health care benefits, have grown rapidly. The Commerce Department data show, however, that while total employee compensation has grown somewhat more rapidly than wages and salaries, total compensation itself has grown more slowly than in the average recovery since World War II.

[5] In addition to leaving out these income sources for the wealthiest Americans, the basic Census data also miss some sources of income for lower-income households. The Census do not capture all cash welfare payments for the poorest Americans, although the number of dollars missed has declined in recent years as the amount of cash welfare assistance has shrunk. The Census data also do not count as income such items as Earned Income Tax Credit payments and food stamp benefits.

[6] Aviva Aron-Dine, “New Data Show Income Concentration Jumped Again in 2005,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, March 29, 2007, www.cbpp.org/3-29-07inc.htm.

Zoellick Adopts Wall Street Tools to End World Bank Loan Slump

from Bloomberg

By Christopher Swann

World Bank President Robert Zoellick is bringing a touch of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to rescue the poverty-fighting agency's slumping business.

The former Goldman vice chairman has concluded, after two months on the job, that the group must behave more like a Wall Street investment firm to halt a worldwide slide in lending. At stake is the bank's survival in a rising sea of private capital.

At Zoellick's direction, the agency is pushing sophisticated products such as loans that hedge against the risk of a commodity-price collapse or a surge in interest rates. His pitch is emerging as a hard sell against criticism he runs a slow-moving bureaucracy.

``Wall Street has pioneered many of the concepts and tools; the World Bank can help apply them as a package of development solutions for problems and clients that are not priorities for Wall Street,'' Zoellick said in an e-mail. ``The bank needs to be faster, better and cheaper without compromising standards. I think we can do that.''

To lure back customers, Zoellick, 54, wants the bank to offer products that countries with poorer credit profiles can't get in the private market.

He cites as an example hurricane insurance that allowed a group of Caribbean island nations to pool risk and cut premiums by 40 percent. He's trying to revive interest in financial instruments known as swaps that can protect countries from abrupt shifts in the value of their currencies. The bank is trying to be creative, too, in offering loans that would be activated in the event of a natural disaster.

Bankers' Hours

Zoellick also figured World Bank officials needed to start acting more like Wall Street bankers. He began holding daily meetings with top managers at 8:30 a.m., a start time that required some support staff to arrive at the office at 7:15 a.m. to prepare briefing papers. Zoellick's predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz, met with top managers once a week.

The World Bank, which has a $2 billion annual budget and 13,000 employees, was established 63 years ago to offer poor countries low-interest loans and grants.

For decades, the bank was the main source of capital for developing nations to build power plants, dams, roads and shipping terminals.

Now, demand is dwindling as countries such as China and Mexico burnish their credit ratings and borrow in capital markets. The bank's biggest borrowers have repaid $26 billion more than they took out in new loans during the past five years.

Finance Primers

Zoellick has dispatched bank staffers to world capitals to explain the new risk-reducing products to public officials who aren't well versed in complex finance.

The World Bank's multilingual trading floor, where traders manage a $65 billion portfolio, has been expanded recently and drawn alumni from investment banks including Goldman and UBS Securities LLC, as well as from central banks.

``There is a potential for this new approach to reinvigorate the bank's financial-services business,'' World Bank Treasurer Ken Lay said in an interview in Washington. ``By offering access to the latest risk-management tools to our clients, we can also reduce systemic risk over the next few decades.''

One doubt that emerging-market officials have raised with Zoellick's strategy is the prospect of losing out on gains should markets move sharply in their favor. Bank officials say products that lower risk are worth the price.

The World Bank has a long way to go to revive the appeal of its loans, skeptics say.

Bureaucracy Hurdles

Bureaucracy has turned customers away. On average, a borrower must fulfill 38 conditions to get a loan, ranging from privatization of industries to liberalization of trade, according to a study by Eurodad, a Brussels-based aid group.

``The problem isn't usually the lack of whiz-bang products but rather that there are too many conditions attached to loans,'' said Elizabeth Stuart, a World Bank expert in Washington at the aid group Oxfam International.

Only four countries have taken out protection against declines in their currencies -- Bulgaria, Colombia, Morocco and Mexico. None have taken advantage of the bank's ability to protect against commodity risk. Only protection against rising interest rates has proved popular.

``Countries like ours are certainly more likely to make use of the bank if they learn from Wall Street,'' Maria Agudelo, Colombia's former vice minister of finance, said in an interview. ``They need to adapt and modernize.''

Private Capital Grows

Another reason for the scarcity of customers is the loss of its biggest advantage: rock-bottom interest rates, said Adam Lerrick, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

In 1999, the average World Bank rate on a loan was 12 percentage points cheaper than a country could borrow from international investors, Lerrick said. The difference has fallen to less than 2 percentage points, he said, because risk is receding in countries once stigmatized as unworthy of investment.

Without a new approach, the indicators aren't positive for the World Bank's survival. Net private flows to developing countries rose to $646 billion in 2006, up from $169 billion in 2002.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Swann in Washington at cswann1@bloomberg.net

Eastern Indonesia forum searches for solution to poverty

from The Jakarta Post

Panca Nugraha, The Jakarta Post, Mataram

Representatives of the Eastern Indonesia (KTI) Forum are meeting in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, to discuss ways of dealing with poverty and other issues in their region.

"There is a kind of imbalance in the implementation of development programs between the western and eastern parts of Indonesia, but the real problem lies primarily with us (representatives of the KTI Forum) as we have not been able to fully tap all our own existing potential," Marwah Daud Ibrahim, chairperson of the forum, told reporters.

"Besides requiring a different approach in the implementation of the decentralization development scheme in eastern Indonesia, each region has its own specific characteristics, which affect development itself," she said.

The third KTI Forum is being attended by representatives of regional administrations, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and legislative councils from 12 provinces in Eastern Indonesia, as well as international donor institutions, including the World Bank and Asia Foundation.

The forum is expected to end up with a recommendation to the central government for consideration when adopting any new policy, she said.

Meanwhile, State Minister of National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta underlined at the gathering the importance of giving authority to the community as holders of the reins in any decision and the utilization of natural resources for alleviating poverty in their regions.

In his keynote speech at the opening of the meeting, read by Prasetyo Widjojo, deputy chairman of the poverty and manpower section at the National Development Planning Agency, Paskah said that poverty alleviation based on community empowerment was successful if the community themselves managed to identify existing natural resources in their regions.

The success could also be marked by their ability to assess alternatives to settling poverty problems and taking proper action, he said.

"However, the authority entrusted to the community will not be effective without any process of empowerment ... so that in the autonomy era, the role of regional administrations as the facilitators of the community is badly needed," he said.

Paskah said that despite various regulations on the implementation of regional autonomy, decentralization and participative development had not been fully backed up with adequate education and training courses for state officials who were capable of hearing, understanding and serving the public.

He cited as an example development planning documents, which should have been compiled with the involvement of the local people, were frequently compiled merely through a consultative process and with a top-down spirit.

"The aspirations of the people, which should have been given emphasis, are usually used simply as a kind of footnote," he said.

The government through the national community empowerment program would strive to invite the participation of the public through the improvement of various regulations on development planning in both the central and regional levels, he said.

Poverty fuels obesity rates, study finds

from The El Paso Times

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times

The study on obesity by Trust for America's Health found that lack of physical activity and poverty added to the high rates.

The five poorest states were all in the top 10 when it came to obesity rates. An exception to that rule was the District of Columbia and New Mexico. Both had high poverty rates, but also one of the lower obesity rates among adults.

Poverty can lead to less safe neighborhoods, which deter children from playing. It can lead to fewer grocery stores offering fruits and vegetables, and it can lead to greater reliance on fast food, officials said.


This year's report, for the first time, looked at rates of overweight children ages 10 to 17. The District of Columbia had the highest percentage -- 22.8 percent. Utah had the lowest -- 8.5 percent.

Texas and New Mexico children are worse off than adults in each state. Texas adults ranked 12th in the country and New Mexico adults ranks 42nd, while Texas children, ranked 6th and New Mexico children ranked 10th.

Don Disney, the facilitator of health and physical education for the El Paso Independent School District, said a recent district-wide fitness assessment program called Fitnessgram found that children became less active and gained weight when they moved from elementary school to middle school.

"Inactivity and poor nutrition can be held at bay during elementary school years" but not forever, Disney said.

"We really need parents to encourage physical activity. Be active for at least one hour a day. Do things together as a family. Cut down television time. Cut fast food down to once a week. Make portions smaller. Keep sodas and junk food out of the house. Those are things that make parenting tough," he said.

Not surprisingly, the obesity rates and the lack of physical activity can be linked, according to the new study.

In Texas, where 26.3 percent of adults are obese, 27.4 percent of adults report that they do not participate in any physical activity. In New Mexico, with 22 percent of adults obese, 22.4 percent of adults don't participate in physical activity. The national average is 22 percent.

Meanwhile, Minnesotans led the way when it came to exercise. An estimated 15.4 percent of the state's residents did not engage an any physical exercise -- the best rate in the nation. Still, the state ranked 28th overall when it came to the percentage of obese adults.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131.

The Associated Press contributedto this story.



F as in Fat
State-by-state adult obesity rankings
(1 is highest)
(Data is from 2004 to 2006)
Individuals with a body mass index (a calculation based on weight and height ratios) of 30 or higher are considered obese.

1: Mississippi
2: West Virginia
3: Alabama
4: Louisiana
5: South Carolina and Tennessee
7: Kentucky
8: Arkansas
9: Indiana, Michigan and Oklahoma
12: Missouri and Texas
14: Georgia
15: Ohio
16: Alaska
17: North Carolina
18: Nebraska
19: North Dakota
20: Iowa and South Dakota
22: Wisconsin
23: Pennsylvania and Virginia
25: Illinois and Maryland
27: Kansas
28: Minnesota
29: Delaware
30: Oregon
31: Idaho and Washington
33: Maine
34: Florida
35: Wyoming
36: California
37: Nevada
38: New Hampshire and New York
40: D.C. and New Jersey
42: New Mexico
43: Arizona
44: Utah
45: Montana
46: Rhode Island
47: Connecticut and Hawaii
49: Vermont
50: Massachusetts
51: Colorado

--------------------------
State-by-state overweight youths ages 10-17 rankings
Children with a body mass index at or above the 95th percentile for their age are considered overweight.

1: D.C.
2: West Virginia
3: Kentucky
4: Tennessee
5: North Carolina
6: Texas
7: South Carolina
8: Mississippi
9: Louisiana
10: New Mexico
11: Alabama
12: Arkansas and Georgia
14: Illinois
15: Indiana and Missouri
17: Oklahoma
18: New York
19: Delaware
20: Michigan
21: Florida
22: Ohio
23: Oregon
24: Kansas
25: Virginia
26: New Jersey
27: Massachusetts
28: Wisconsin
29: Hawaii, Maryland and Pennsylvania
32: California
33: New Hampshire
34: Maine
35: Iowa
36: Nevada
37: Connecticut
38: Arizona
39: North Dakota and South Dakota
41: Nebraska and Rhode Island
43: Vermont
44: Alaska and Montana
46: Washington
47: Idaho and Minnesota
49: Colorado
50: Wyoming
51: Utah.

Source: Trust for America's Health.

Experts Say Poverty Down, Income Up

from Cybercast News Service

By Monisha Bansal
CNSNews.com Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday is scheduled to release figures on income, poverty rates, and health insurance coverage in America. Policy experts anticipate the numbers will show progress.

Douglas Besharov, a scholar in social welfare studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI), said at a briefing in Washington, D.C., on Monday the report will almost certainly show a reduction in measured poverty.

"Year-to-year changes in the poverty rate are usually correlated with changes in the unemployment rate," he noted. "In 2006, unemployment fell from 5.1 percent to 4.6 percent."


Besharov added that unemployment for single mothers also fell last year. "These numbers suggest the official poverty count will have also declined in 2006," he said.

Besharov noted that while 40 years ago nearly a quarter of the elderly were below the poverty line, "material poverty among the elderly has been [almost] eliminated," though "child poverty has risen."

Sharon Parrott, director of welfare reform and income support policy at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said: "It is pretty well known that of all the kinds of poverty we have, that is where we've had the most progress."

But, she added, "despite Medicare, there are high out-of-pocket medical expenses." When those are accounted for, Parrott said, "poverty for the elderly goes up significantly."

Besharov also noted that "income dispersion continues to grow with those at the top doing vastly better than the rest."

"For the top 60 percent, their incomes are rising," he said, but those at the bottom "seem to be stuck."

Joe Antos, a scholar for healthcare and retirement policy at AEI, noted that the number of uninsured is likely to be higher in Tuesday's report.

"The bureau reports that there were about 45 million people - 15.3 percent of the population - who are uninsured," Antos said, referring to data from 2005. "It's reasonable to think that the numbers that we're going to see [Tuesday] will be at least somewhat higher than that.

"That has at least been the trend for at least the last 10 to 15 years," he noted. "The next president will almost certainly address the issue of the uninsured, although ... there is no guarantee that action will actually be taken."

Antos added that the report will have "important numbers, but certainly polarizing numbers and [is] generally misunderstood."

"There is considerable diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, age, income, employment status, and all sorts of other characteristics," he said. "A third of the uninsured live in higher-income households. They don't buy it because it doesn't appear to be a good deal."

Antos also said, "Despite all the talk we hear about children's health insurance, dependent children are less likely to be uninsured than young adults and generally are less likely to be uninsured than any other group other than people over 65 who have Medicare."

But Parrott said people should be cautious about the report.

"There's likely to be some grand statements about how this shows that the policies of the Bush administration and the tax cuts and the economy are all doing a wonderful job to help average Americans," she said. "I think those statements may be overblown."

Calling the analysis "too simplistic," she said, "We are in the fifth full year of the recovery and economic growth if we look back to 2006. Simply to return to the levels attained during the last recession - that is, to the level in 2001 - the poverty rate will need to drop from 12.6 percent in 2005 to 11.7 percent.

"This would require an unusually large one-year decline," she noted.

"So far this recovery has been pretty slow in helping low and moderate income families and so while we'll see some improvement, I think we're likely to look not great compared to where we were in 2001," Parrott said.

Education official: Poverty is No. 1 issue

from the Wichita Eagle

BY JILLIAN COHAN
The Wichita Eagle

The visitors in the back of the classroom looked on Tuesday afternoon while Marshall Middle School math teacher Robert Schrader ran his students through an algebraic equation.

"Remember substitution?" he asked the class.

Students nodded at his explanation of variables and inverse operations, a few sneaking glances toward the back of the room.


When the lesson was over, the taller of the visitors, Wichita schools superintendent Winston Brooks, introduced himself and the women at his side: State Board of Education member Carol Rupe and the state's new education commissioner, Alexa Posny.

"She's sort of Mr. Brooks' principal," Rupe told the class.

Posny heads the state Department of Education, which oversees regulations such as teacher licensure and assessments of student academic performance. She visited several Wichita schools Tuesday.

A redhead not much bigger than some of the eighth-grade girls in the class, Posny wore a crimson suit and a leather backpack that added to the impression that she was back in school for the day.

"I'm impressed with how much they remember from the summer," she told Brooks as the middle-school tour continued.

When a reporter asked her later what she had expected to see in Wichita schools, Posny replied that she'd hoped to witness "great schools, great educators and great leadership."

Wichita schools are more urban than many in the state, she said, but in spite of the poverty and diversity of student needs in the city's schools, "we know they can learn."

"It may not show up in all the test scores, but the (achievement) gap is being reduced," she said.

Later, at a presentation to the Wichita school board, Posny described coming revisions to federal No Child Left Behind legislation and laid out her priorities, including:

• That all students graduating from Kansas schools meet or exceed high academic standards and are prepared for the next step in their lives, whether it's entering the work force or going to college.

• Addressing the teacher shortage looming as Baby Boomer teachers retire and young people often choose other careers or choose to teach for only a few years.

• Working to improve conditions in urban school districts such as Wichita, which don't generally benefit from the state's school-finance formulas.

"To me, the No. 1 issue is poverty," Posny said. "We're talking about kids in inter-generational poverty. It is a societal issue, it's not just education. That is part and parcel of what we're trying to deal with. In education we're good, but I don't know how much we can change society. And yet we're preparing the future members of society. That's why the urban issues are so important."
Reach Jillian Cohan at 316-268-6524 or jcohan@wichitaeagle.com.

Housing crisis adds to poverty picture

from the San Diego Tribune

Groups convene to find solutions

By Michael Stetz
STAFF WRITER

SAN DIEGO – The people who fight poverty get a few days in the sun. They're holding their national convention in downtown San Diego, starting today.

But clouds may be on the horizon, they fear.

Nationally, more people are losing their homes because of the subprime mortgage meltdown. Wages have been flat. We feel fortunate to pay 3 bucks for a gallon of gas.

A growing number of middle-class people are anxious, they say.

“Poverty is a hot issue,” said Donald Mathis, president of the Community Action Partnership, which represents hundreds of poverty-fighting agencies nationwide.

More than 1,000 people will attend the convention at the Manchester Grand Hyatt through Friday. They run such programs as Head Start, and literacy and job training services.

“They really are the saints of their communities,” Mathis said.

Mathis points to a recent poll showing more angst among Americans when it comes to poverty.

In a poll taken in June by the Zogby research firm, 55 percent of those responding said they were “very concerned” about poverty. The poll found 58 percent believed poverty was the single-most-important or a top priority facing the nation's leaders.

The spate of home foreclosures is particularly alarming, Mathis said. Many people feel vulnerable. Poverty is sometimes hidden, invisible. This is not. This could happen to someone down the street, he said.

For July, the national distressed property rate was one filing for every 693 households, almost twice as much a year ago, when it was one of every 1,245, according to RealtyTrak. The numbers include defaults, foreclosures and bank repossessions.

“People of means are worried about falling into poverty,” Mathis said.

While San Diego has seen an increase this year in home foreclosures – 2,896 for the first six months, more than six times the 445 foreclosed during the same period last year – they have been concentrated in several newly developed communities, such as eastern Chula Vista, where buyers used risky financing two or three years ago, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

This week, the Census Bureau will release its 2006 poverty figures, and it should again cause debate.

Poverty fighters question the formula used to calculate the rate, which is based on food costs.

For instance, for a family of four to be considered impoverished, it has to earn less than $20,444. Critics say that's far too low. Housing alone would eat up much of that cost.

Nationwide, 38 million people lived under the poverty line in 2005 – about 13 percent of the population, according to the census. In 2000, the national poverty rate was 12 percent.

Some argue that the poverty situation needs to be put in a proper perspective. For instance, nearly three quarters of American households considered impoverished own a car, and 31 percent own two or more cars, according to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Ninety-seven percent have a color TV. Eighty percent have air-conditioning.

San Diego County – which is no place to be poor, considering the high housing costs – has its share of the impoverished. But the county fares better than most.

According to the Census Bureau, 8 percent of county families lived below the federally set poverty level in 2005. That is 1 percentage point less than in 2000.

“We've had a good economy,” said Rene Santiago, the project director for the San Diego Community Action Project.

Staff writers Dean Calbreath, Roger Showley and Lori Weisberg contributed to this report.

Michael Stetz: (619) 293-1720; michael.stetz@uniontrib.com

Mother's 'miracle' woman in poverty

from Times of India

DANOGRAM (SOUTH DINAJPUR)/ KOLKATA: On Sunday, when the world celebrated Mother Teresa’s 97th birth anniversary, Monica Besra kissed a framed photograph of the Mother — as she does every day — and walked out to the fields. If she missed a day’s work, her kids would go hungry.

The 40-year-old Santhal woman, whose miraculous cure by Mother Teresa paved the way for the Mother’s beatification, ekes out a meagre existence as a daily labourer. The fame that followed her in the run-up to Mother Teresa’s beatification — she was even taken to the Vatican — now seems like a cruel dream. Besra believes she was cured of a tumour on September 5, 1998 (Mother Teresa’s first death anniversary) after a medallion blessed by the Mother was placed on her abdomen.


In December 2002, Pope John Paul II officially attributed the miracle of Besra’s healing to Mother Teresa, hastening the process of her beatification — just a step away from sainthood. Even today, when Besra talks of the Mother, tears well up in her eyes. Her only regret is that she has been forgotten by the very people who promised to take care of her.

"I thought my life would change. But I still have to struggle to make ends meet. I cannot provide two meals a day to my children," she says. In her misery, Besra finds solace in Mother Teresa. "I still have dreams of the Mother. I see her walking in front of me, leading the way. I wish I had met her, just once," she says.

"It was Mother’s blessings that cured me and saved my family. What would have happened of my children if I had died?" She looks around her hut, and in a tone barely audible, says, "I was assured of a lot of help by the church, but they gave me nothing. My children go hungry for days."

In fact, when TOI approached her on Sunday morning, she reacted angrily: "What more have I to tell you? You know everything. "Giving us an interview would have disturbed her daily routine. It was the mention of Mother Teresa that calmed her and she let us in. Only two photographs adorned the bare walls — one of the Mother and another of Jesus. Besra had converted to Christianity after the 'miracle'

Jackson: Better Schools Key To Fighting Poverty

from Yahoo News

The new rankings of America's poorest cities will be released on Tuesday, a list that Cleveland has been at the top of in recent years.

Mayor Frank Jackson talked to NewsChannel5's Paul Kiska about getting a handle on the city's poverty crisis.

With factory jobs moving on and poverty rates over 30 percent, Jackson knows the numbers and the people behind them.


"Even if we're ranked 50th instead of first, it doesn't matter if you're the one in poverty," said Jackson.

The mayor said improving schools is a big step in the right direction. Good schools lead to higher education, which leads to better jobs.

Jackson believes keeping and attracting new business starts with regionalism.

"And allow companies to move in the region with no harm and have revenue sharing," he said.

But the mayor strongly believes a new medical mart could do more than bring more convention business to Cleveland; it could also spark companies to actually make medical devices in Cleveland, and that means new manufacturing jobs.

"That will help with spin off manufacturing and it should be done in this city and this region," Jackson said.

A coalition of local hospitals wants to train workers for 4,000 openings in health care, including lab technicians and nurses.

Jackson pointed out that 80 percent of people who work in Cleveland and earn their living at jobs in Cleveland live outside the city.

The mayor envisions a 24-hour city with new apartments and condos, attracting more people to live downtown.

Poverty warning as food prices rise

from IC Wales

Western Mail

OLDER people are continuing to find themselves in hardship and poverty despitelast month’s drop in the level of inflation, the Universal Beneficent Society said.

The charity is also concerned by the knock-on effects of Britain’s recent floods that may result in higher food prices this winter.

It said it fears older people will suffer from rising prices on basic foods.

Michael McGrath, manager of UBS, said, “As a charity which supports the UK’s poorest older people, we are concerned about two things.

“Firstly, rising inflation during the past year has left our older population with less money in real terms, leaving them unable to make ends meet and having to penny-pinch just in order to buy the basics.

“Secondly, as floods here at home and a scorching summer in the Mediterranean have played havoc with crops, these food supplies look likely to cost more.

“A 2.7% increase in the basic state pension combined with these factors means that the poorest older people look set to struggle on for the foreseeable future.”

UBS provides lifelong financial support and friendship for older people living on low incomes.

The coffee may be hot and sweet … but do you know if it is fair?

from The Herald

SIMON BAIN and ALAN MacDERMID

IF protesters at a world trade conference ever stop for coffee, the chances are it won't be a Starbucks.

In 35 years - less than 10 in the UK - it has come from nowhere to join McDonald's and Coca-Cola as an icon of global dominance.

Now the company is trying to counter its negative image by setting a £200,000 fund-raising target for its work supporting coffee-growing communities in Ethiopia.


Its 530 stores throughout the UK are highlighting East African coffees and the farmers who grow them, and its 8000 staff have been encouraged to get involved in its project with the development charity, Care.

Over the next three years, 1500 families, equating to around 6300 people, will benefit from a community development project in the rural region of West Harrarghe, Ethiopia.

The project will ensure the more efficient use of water from a local spring, establishing safe sources of drinking water for families and their livestock, as well as helping farmers to irrigate their fields, which in turn will enable them to increase their crop yields and earn a higher income by selling the surplus harvests.

It works out at less than £380 per store, giving rise to accusations that it was little more than a PR gesture.

Starbucks pointed out, though, it has worked with Care for 15 years, giving more than £1.5m to coffee growing regions including Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia and Ethiopia.

Projects have included health and nutrition, community development, water and sanitation, biodiversity conservation, supporting farming communities, and women and children's protection.

Geoffrey Dennis, chief executive of Care International UK, said: "Together with Starbucks, we will be able to make a real difference to the lives of coffee-growing communities in this region of Ethiopia, which is subject to chronic food shortages as a result of droughts, among other factors."

The tribute is in stark contrast to the criticisms from campaigners such as Ethical Consumer magazine, which says the chain has become "a byword for globalisation", with fair trade coffee taking only a tiny proportion of its sales, because "when you're operating at that scale, your soul goes out of the door".

Among competitors, Gordon Richardson, the chief executive of growing Scottish coffee and music chain Beanscene, has complained that Starbucks will saturate the market-place and likened it to "an episode from the Simpsons where every shop in the block is Starbucks". The chain earlier this year promised to open stores in London at the rate of one a fortnight, adding to more than 200 in the capital, so that Londoners are "never more than five minutes away from a Starbucks".

In Scotland, where there are 39 stores, no targets have been set, according to Phil Broad, managing director of Starbucks Coffee Company UK.

He told The Herald: "We open one store at a time, we don't want to be seen as coming in and taking over Scotland."

Mr Broad said Starbucks, founded in Seattle in 1971 and in the UK since 1996, had always worked with coffee growers. "Every partner is involved," he said.

Employees had raised £28,000 last month in a fundraising challenge in the Lake District, with two Scottish teams taking part.

The chain is also in its fourth year of its "coffee house challenge" in partnership with the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, which in Glasgow for instance disburses £20,000 for worthy community projects.

On the Ethiopian project, Mr Broad said: "We are truly excited to be building on our 15-year relationship with Care, one of the top three development agencies in the world, and are dedicated to furthering Starbucks UK's commitment to making a difference to coffee growing communities."

Other competitors set Starbucks' latest initiative against the small proportion of Fairtrade branded coffee in its sales. Mr Broad said it comprised 6% of sales, but he pointed out that they buy 14% of Fairtrade coffee.

Some coffee shop chains are now 100% Fairtrade, others offer it as an option.

David Williamson, managing director of Glasgow-based importers Matthew Algie, and also a partner in the Tinderbox cafe chain, said: "It is a public relations gesture, but the main thing is that Starbucks do a lot for coffee growers.

"They encourage farmers to grow high-quality coffee.

"Where they fall short is that they only buy a small proportion of their coffee through Fairtrade. If they moved that up even to 7% it would make a huge difference."

However, Mr Broad said: "It is not just about fair trade but about looking after coffee farmers. We have an open book policy with our farmers and our practices are independently verified, with socially responsible coffee buying guidelines to ensure sustainability of production."


How the chains compare (percentage of coffee sales)
# Pret A Manger 100% Fairtrade
# Marks and Spencer 100% Fairtrade
# AMT (rail and airport outlets) 100% Fairtrade
# Starbucks Fairtrade makes up 6% of sales
# Costa optional (now has its own Fairtrade brand)
# Caffé Nero Has a separate "fair" purchasing policy.

# Tinderbox 100% Fairtrade

Mwanza to Host EA Trade Fair

from All Africa

NEWS
27 August 2007
Posted to the web 27 August 2007

By Moses Matthew
Nairobi

The Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) is organising the Second Mwanza East Africa Trade Fair from August 31 to September 10.

The trade fair targets consumers and producers of industrial products, services, machinery and technology.

TCCIA Mwanza region executive officer Hassan Karambi last week told The EastAfrican the show is expected to draw participants from the East African region.


He said it will serve as a venue to explore and make use of new trade and investments opportunities not only in the region, but also the greater Comesa and SADC regions.

"It is a place to exchange experiences, present new developments and find partners not just within East and Central Africa but also globally," Mr Karambi said. He said the organisers were planning to host more than 300,000 visitors.

The TCCIA is dedicated to establishing the East African business partnership through organising and managing regional and specialised trade fairs, solo exhibitions, product and market research.

It is also involved in prospect development, trade missions, buyer and seller meetings and contact marketing programmes.

According to Mr Karambi, the Mwanza fair has established itself as a shop window for Tanzanian products as well as those from the East and Central African regions.

Mwanza city's strategic location is supported by the services of Tanzania's central railway line and the ports on Lake Victoria.

At the same time, Mwanza airport is limited to countries such as Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Congo.

Inside a Jumble of Poverty, Texans Build a Future

from The New York Times

By ERIK ECKHOLM

RIO GRANDE, Tex. — Along muddy roads invisible from the highway, some families crowd into battered trailers patched with plywood. Others jam into self-constructed dwellings that seem designed by Dr. Seuss — wood and tarpaper shacks attached to half-finished concrete-block rooms, wires and hoses snaking in.

The counties of South Texas are among the nation’s poorest, and their jumbled subdivisions, known as colonias, home to 400,000 Hispanic-Americans, can certainly look the part. Since the 1950s, developers have carved small lots from mesquite woodlands and floodplains, selling them to workers with the promises that utilities, sewers and paved roads would follow. They rarely did, and for decades the colonias were seen as hopeless slums.

But now a different picture is emerging. After years of protests by residents, belated regulation by the state, and an influx of aid from government and private groups, more than two-thirds of the colonia dwellers in six border counties finally have access to water lines, safe sewage disposal or both, compared with a small minority just 15 years ago, according to a report by the state in December.

Through frugality and hard work, in a process known as incremental building that is rare in the United States but common in the Third World, families are transforming hovels into homes, one wall and window at a time.

While the jerry-built shacks may look crude, they are often the works in progress of determined parents willing to spend decades to create a heart for their extended families. Many start with used trailers and upgrade as their finances improve. Their determination perhaps explains why the colonias, despite infrastructure gaps and lack of amenities like parks and street lights, are not suffused with the bleak resignation evident in the most blighted urban centers or parts of the deep south.

Delfino and Martina Martinez bought their lot three years ago on Las Lomas colonia near here for $19,800, paying 18 percent annual interest to the seller. They and their three children crammed into a battered “Holiday Rambler” trailer. As the family struggled along on his construction jobs and food stamps, Mr. Martinez, 49, built two concrete bedrooms. Next will come a kitchen, living room and bathroom.

“People see the colonias as a bunch of run-down places where all these Hispanics live in squalor,” Jorge Vanegas, director of the Center for Housing and Urban Development at Texas A&M University, said. But they are abuzz with ambition, and with recent government aid, he said, “we’ve seen progress on many fronts,” although new, underserved colonias “keep popping up in new areas.”

Belying another stereotype, a large majority of residents are long-term, legal residents or citizens, data show. Original buyers were often migrant workers, but now more residents work at minimum-wage retail jobs, in construction or in housecleaning.

As the infrastructure of the colonias (pronounced coe-LONE-yas) improves, however, the soaring price of land makes quality housing harder for workers to afford.

The Martinez family, with an annual income of about $15,000, worries about its $200 monthly payments to the seller. The family paid $700 last year for a septic tank — before that, they went to a relative’s house to use the bathroom — and several hundreds more for water and electrical hookups. To put a roof on their new bedrooms, they obtained a $2,500, two-year loan from the Community Resource Group, a nonprofit organization based in Arkansas that has helped thousands of colonia residents secure proper deeds and now offers small home-improvement loans.

On a recent evening, as a dozen chickens roamed, a fat pig grunted and the radio played lively Mexican music, Mr. Martinez was digging up the hard ground behind the bedrooms with pick and shovel, getting dirt fill for the slope where he will build the new rooms.

“We have faith our life will be better,” Mr. Martinez said, “as long as our health is O.K.”

The history of the colonias is filled with broken promises to buyers and contracts that left many vulnerable to losing everything when they missed payments. Titles were not handed over until land was paid for, and sometimes deeds were not officially recorded.

But protests by residents and groups like the United Farm Workers of America, as well as rising Hispanic political power, drew state attention. Since 1989, laws have tightened development standards. The state appointed ombudsmen to ensure that buyers got the required services.

In 1995, the Texas Legislature required developers of new colonias to install electricity, water lines and sewage pipes or septic tanks.

Federal and state grants have also helped bring utilities and paved streets to older colonias, though the task is far from complete. The 2006 state analysis of six counties found that the continuing lack of infrastructure and proper drainage in 442 colonias with 62,675 residents “exposes the population and surrounding communities to increased threats of infectious diseases and public health hazards.”

Some early residents used colonia homes as a springboard to moving on, but many have shown determination to sink roots in this region, where lax zoning standards permit them to live in houses as they build them. The results are not always pretty or safe, but for many, they offer a chance they could not pursue elsewhere.

“In our culture, once you have property, you belong, and even if it’s a shack, you stay,” said Blanca Suarez, the Starr County ombudswoman for the state’s Colonia Initiatives Program.

Despite their hard work, most residents remain poor, with longstanding problems like low high school graduation rates. Nearly all the children are covered by Medicaid, but Texas provides little health coverage to adults.

Elia Estrada, 35, is suffering the consequences. Ms. Estrada, her husband, a construction worker, and their three children have been living in a one-bedroom structure while she and several relatives help finish a house at Proyecto Azteca in San Juan, Hidalgo County. Families put in 550 hours of “sweat equity,” and then they can buy one of the 800-square-foot, three-bedroom homes for $30,000 on a 20-year no-interest mortgage. The houses are attractive and meet all codes.

“We’ll have our own bedrooms,” she enthused, taking a break from painting windows.

“But I’m sick a lot these days,” she added. She found a doctor who would see her for just $35 and discovered she has high blood pressure and diabetes. But she cannot afford treatment.

The oldest colonias tend to have the nicest houses, in part because families bought plots for $500 and have had decades to complete construction. In newer settlements like the eight-year-old Abraham colonia, also in Hidalgo County, empty lots now cost upwards of $20,000 and many residents are still at the early stages of making a house.

Alma Avila, 33, her husband and four children live in a yellow trailer in Abraham with missing window panes that they cover with plywood. The satellite dish is, she said with a laugh, “just for decoration.”

But Ms. Avila and her husband are taking the long view. They bought their plot five years ago for $14,000, on a 15-year loan.

“Once we finish paying for the lot, we’ll have money to start thinking about a house,” she said. “I hope this trailer will last 10 more years.”

Ms. Avila has already planted saplings and flowers.

“I want to live here forever,” she said. “Someday I can sit under those trees.”

Cleveland Braces For Census' Latest Poverty Rankings

from News 5 Net

CLEVELAND -- Almost hidden within the city that last year ranked as the nation's most impoverished is a village of 1,400 people, where incomes of $100,000 or more are common and homes are occasionally placed on the market for millions.

The three mile-long, half mile-wide Bratenahl is incorporated, with its own mayor and police force. So, it's demographic data aren't included in the Census Bureau's poverty rankings for big cities, which for two of the past three years, including last year, pegged Cleveland as number one nationally in poverty rankings among large cities.

The next annual poverty ranking -- part of the Bureau's American Community Survey -- is due Tuesday, when Cleveland will find out if it will take another hit to an already tarnished national image.

The Census has previously estimated the Cleveland population at about 415,000 in 2005, down from the estimated 478,000 on 2000, with 32.4 percent living below the poverty line.

But just a short distance from some of the city's urban blight are Bratenahl's gated mansions, some built 100 years ago by Cleveland industry and shipping magnates. Mixed in near the Lake Erie shoreline are more modern high-rise condos and newly built cluster homes.

Joggers or dog walkers move safely past the ritzy structures and less costly but usually well kept single-family homes and cottages. They can take a breather to gaze at docked yachts.

Bratenahl's mayor, John Licastro, 57, a longtime villager, said residents are keenly aware that despite its apparent wealth, the village's link to Cleveland urban woes is indisputable.

"You cannot separate the fortunes and future of Bratenahl from Cleveland," Licastro said. "Do we have high poverty? No. Do we have a high crime rate? Thank goodness, no."

So what's the connection?

"We have probably at this point have more available homes in Bratenahl than we've had in the last few years," he said. "As Cleveland has lost jobs and businesses, a lot of the people who perhaps would own those companies or become executives might have considered locating to Bratenahl."

Powerful people who make their big incomes in Cleveland make their homes in the village named after Charles Bratenahl, a land owner from the 1800s.

"We have attorneys from a lot of major law firms downtown, and well over a dozen judges," Licastro said. "We have a lot of physicians living here because of our proximity to the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals."

In 1905, some of the Cleveland elite who had built homes outside of the city by Lake Erie formed the independent village to avoid being annexed as Cleveland expanded. That separation over the years became an enclave and an unquestioned fact of Cleveland life.

A 29-year Cleveland City Council member, Mike Polensek, whose ward is near Bratenahl, sees important connections between the village and the impoverished city. Although Bratenahl has its own police, Cleveland provides it with fire protection and emergency medical services.

One of the newest Bratenahl residents is Eugene Sanders, the recently hired chief executive officer of the Cleveland public schools. Bratenahl is within the Cleveland school district, although, residents tend to send their children to private or parochial schools, Licastro said.

The location and connections beg the question: Can Bratenahl ever be an actual Cleveland neighborhood?

"That will never happen," Polensek said. "People in Bratenahl will fight that."

A sense of safety and the need to run their own village are crucial to residents, Licastro said.

A recent civic push to tie Cleveland to its more well-off suburbs through regionalism, a recognition of shared interests, depends on Cleveland showing it can start solving its own problems, Polensek said.

Because it's population is so small, Bratenahl probably wouldn't have much of an effect on Cleveland's poverty ranking if it were to become part of the city, said Nicole Bouchet, an American Community Survey statistician.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson isn't much concerned with how Cleveland may be ranked in the poverty survey results to be disclosed Tuesday.

"Let me put this way. We have some questions about the methodology," he said, pointing out that Cleveland ranked 12th in poverty two years ago. "They have us going from 1-to-12-to-1. It's really irrelevant to us. The fact remains there is poverty. We're working on strategies both economically and educationally to address that."

Social stigma forces mom to sell off baby

from Yahoo News

By HT

Out of sheer desperation, fear of being a social outcast and concern over the future of her newborn baby, a poverty-stricken HIV-positive mother in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh reportedly took the decision to sell off her baby. The mother Tania (name changed) had delivered a baby girl some two weeks back at a government hospital in Jagdalpur, about 280 km from the state capital.

Later, she was seen putting her baby on sale at a market place in Kondagaon area, where she resides. The district administration swung into action when the matter was brought to their notice. After preventing her from selling her baby, she was assured of all possible medical treatment. According to chief medical officer R.P. Pandey, Tania was seen at the market seeking prospective buyers for her baby.

V.R. Raman, Director, State Health Resource Centre, told the Hindustan Times that the woman may have taken the decision to sell her baby to ward off the social stigma and seek a better future for her child. She may be driven by economic misery too, he felt. "If the mother develops such bizarre perceptions about selling her newborn baby, it might also be because of the poor counselling given to her," opined Raman.

Legally, every confirmed AIDS patient is to be given proper counselling, he informed. "But for obvious reasons, people were hesitant to adopt the baby after a test conducted in the government hospital confirmed that both mother and child are HIV-positive," said Pandey. The district administration and health officials do not have much detail about her family but when the woman's family was contacted, they refused to comment on the issue. "She is not home and better speaks to her when she returns," a male relative had retorted.

The Bastar collector G.S. Mishra said the issue has been brought to his notice and he has directed the administration to find out more facts on it so as to ensure proper treatment to both mother and infant. The tribal-dominated Chhattisgarh state, according to state health department, is likely to emerge as among the high AIDS prevalence regions in the country due to its backwardness and geographical vulnerability. It shares borders with high prevalence states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.

John Young: Minoring in poverty at Baylor

from the Waco Tribune Herald

Deprivation 101. Hasn’t every college student taken it? Stretching the soda crackers. Sustaining one pair of jeans through sophomore year.

If you’ve gone to college, you know poverty. Right?

That’s not the poverty Harlan Beckley and Rosemary Townsend are talking about.

They want students to know of deprivation that isn’t a reality show, or the kind where you can call “time out,” rush home for the weekend and return to the desert island with clean underwear and a week’s groceries.


They want students to know the poverty that defines whole neighborhoods and whole generations. It’s the kind of poverty which, more than Americans would like to believe, helps define this land of opportunity.

“By most measures,” said Beckley, “this country is among the poorest developed nations in the world.” That means that while much of this country is developed and thriving, too much of it is third-world.

Beckley teaches religion at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. With a substantial gift from a businessman named Tom Shepherd, he and fellow faculty members developed something called the Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability.

With its own underwriter, Baylor University wants to do something just like it.

The Shepherd Program is about making poverty a concentration — akin to a minor — for students pursuing any number of majors. Even fashion design, for instance. Townsend, Baylor’s director of business affairs, imagines a fashion major who studies how garments are made overseas in sweat shops and at what humanitarian cost.

The key is not only studying poverty in the abstract but actually putting the hip waders on — interning in local or international efforts focused on poverty-related issues: hunger, health care, job training, inner-city education.

Beckley said one student at Washington and Lee who majored in literature directed his poverty concentration on Willliam Faulkner and his depiction of poor whites in his novels.

Several schools are collaborating with and emulating Washington and Lee. Most have student bodies marked by privilege and are only blocks away from gripping poverty.

Baylor has named two faculty directors to launch in the 2008-’09 school year. In the meantime, it will be scouting out internship opportunities and funds to build around a $150,000 gift from Richard P. Cancelmo Jr. of Bridgeway Capital Management of Houston. Cancelmo also is underwriting a program at Rice.

Regardless of one’s major, the goal of the Shepherd Program is to understand poverty and feel empowered to do something about it.

Beckley calls the Shepherd approach a “nascent movement in higher education.”

At Washington and Lee, a stunning one-fifth of the students, from business majors to kinesiology majors, are taking Poverty 101, the gateway course to an academic journey that includes internships and an independent-study “capstone course” focused on a specific emphasis and solutions to what each student sees.

This is a program that turns the phrase “book learning” on its head. The book is being written, or is yet to be written, on the mean streets and blind allies of hopelessness.

Many students raised in landscaped corridors of plenty cannot imagine why a system like ours cannot serve everyone.

The concept behind the Shepherd Program is to impress on even starving college students that what they know as deprivation isn’t even the half of it.

John Young’s column appears Thursday and Sunday. E-mail: jyoung@wacotrib.com. Carlos Sanchez’s column will return soon.

“By most measures this country is among the poorest developed nations in the world” — Harlan Beckley