From bright_crow at mindspring.com Mon Aug 1 09:16:05 2005 From: bright_crow at mindspring.com (Mike Shell) Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 09:16:05 -0400 (GMT-04:00) Subject: [saymaListserv] Eighth Month Update: SEYMpeace.org Message-ID: <29804830.1122902165468.JavaMail.root@wamui-valley.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Friends, Please visit the updated Peace & Social Concerns website for SEYM. I've linked to a significant BELIEFS column by Peter Steinfels in Saturday's NEW YORK TIMES: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/national/30beliefs.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&oref=login Thanks, Mike From bright_crow at mindspring.com Thu Aug 4 09:02:18 2005 From: bright_crow at mindspring.com (Mike Shell) Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 09:02:18 -0400 (GMT-04:00) Subject: [saymaListserv] Jacksonville Mayor cuts $15, 000 grant to LGBT youth program Message-ID: <11754477.1123160538414.JavaMail.root@wamui-billy.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Friends, One of the most remarkable things about Jacksonville, FL, is that it has a strong program for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered young people under age 24: JASMYN (Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network) http://www.jasmyn.org/about.htm Among other things, JASMYN runs a Safety Net Program which "helps homeless and disadvantaged young adults get off the streets, into safe places to live, and find jobs? We also sponsor a food pantry and give bus tokens to these youth to help them to appointments." Until recently, the City of Jacksonville was giving this program an annual grant of $15,000. JASMYN was able to raise more funds from other sources using the cache of City funding support. Now Mayor Peyton has proposed cutting that $15,000, as part of trying to fix serious budget shortfalls--but that is "hardly a drop in the $12.8 million bucket of the Public Service Grant program." Please take a look at JASMYN's Action Item, which I have posted on SEYM's Peace & Social Concerns website: http://seympeace.org/JASMYNcover.htm Friends may not feel it appropriate to intervene by petitioning in local political and budgetary matters elsewhere in the country, but I would ask you to share the information with your contacts in the Southeast, especially in North Florida...and, of course, to hold JASMYN, Mayor Peyton and the City of Jacksonville in the Light. Blessed Be, Michael From freepolazzo at comcast.net Thu Aug 4 15:20:25 2005 From: freepolazzo at comcast.net (free polazzo) Date: Thu, 04 Aug 2005 15:20:25 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] Fwd: FOCUS | Military Targets Peace Corps to Fill Recruiting Gap Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20050804151830.0350f098@mail.comcast.net> Hi Friends, As many of you served or know people who served in the Peace Corps, this news may be important to you. Free >FOCUS | Military Targets Peace Corps to Fill Recruiting Gap >http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080405Y.shtml > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >You are subscribed as: freepolazzo at comcast.net >Click to REMOVE -> mailto:leave-236187-440149X at news.truthout.org > >Go directly to our home page: http://www.truthout.org >Click to SUBSCRIBE -> http://truthout.org/subscribe.htm >Our Privacy Policy -> http://truthout.org/privacypolicy.htm From moriah at preferred.com Fri Aug 5 21:26:19 2005 From: moriah at preferred.com (Mary Calhoun) Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 21:26:19 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] Fw: Earth Activist Training Message-ID: <042001c59a30$b0012560$6464a2c6@abc> From: Nancy Whitt Subject: Earth Activist Training Dear friends, colleagues, editors, and co-conspirators, Please help us get the word out about upcoming Earth Activist Trainings. Below is our short announcement. We'd be grateful if you'd post it on your e-lists, announce it on radio, publish in calendars, send to interested friends, and so on. Wherever is suitable, and suits your fancy. A reminder that about 40% of our students attend on worktrade/scholarship, and we're always interested in strong scholarship candidates: folks who are now working to help others become more sustainable, and who'll share the concepts and techniques we can teach 'em. Scholarship deadline is Nov 12. I'd be glad to snail-mail you printed flyers, too. Just ask. Thanks so much, and see you at the compost pile of life ;) Mer EAT coordinator ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Learn to create the world you want to live in! Starhawk and Erik Ohlsen, with Penny Livingston-Stark, teach Earth Activist Training: a two-week intensive that synergizes permaculture, effective activism, nature awareness, and spirituality. Next EAT session January 7-21, 2006. Location: Northern California. Cost: $1100-$1600 sliding scale, worktrade and loans available. And new this year: "Honoring the Land: Building WITH Nature," a hands-on workshop with Starhawk and Ethan Castro, September 27-October 1, 2005. For more information, visit www.earthactivisttraining.org. Questions? mer at starhawk.org or voicemail 707-583-2300, ext 119. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jhminshall at comcast.net Sat Aug 6 13:55:32 2005 From: jhminshall at comcast.net (Janet Minshall) Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 13:55:32 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] Fwd: Socially Responsible Investing and Investing to help the World's Poor(relevant to Friends testimonies on Equality, Peace and Community) Message-ID: Dear Atlanta Meeting and SAYMA Friends: I have recently sent out references to Friends I know who are interested in investing in socially responsible companies and in what corporations are doing to help provide economic development to the poorest of the poor. I have received the link to a web site where you can find articles and data on socially responsible investing in countries outside the US. You can sign up at the web site to receive free weekly updates. I plan to keep in touch with them so if you don't want the updates don't sign up and just call me (770-949-0879) or write to me by e-mail to find out about anything new and interesting which becomes available in the US. The web site is: http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/article1762.html Two more brief references concerning socially responsible investing (SRI) as well as corporate social responsibility appear in the Summer 2005 issue of Business Ethics. The first is an evaluation of five of the most successful SRI mutual funds. I often recommend Ariel and Ariel Appreciation to anyone interested in socially responsible investing. John Roberts, African American founder of the Ariel Funds, founded Ariel Capital Management in 1983. According to the Business Ethics evaluation, Ariel Appreciation has produced the highest average returns of any of The Business Week top rated funds over the past three to five years years. Ariel Appreciation, a mid-cap value fund, has returned 12.9% per year on average over a very difficult 5 yr. period for investors. The other mutual fund mentioned in the evaluation was the Ariel fund which focuses on small cap value stocks. It has had excellent returns as well. but small cap stocks are not expected to do as well as mid-caps over the next few years. John Roberts uses some of the profits of the investment firm to fund a socially responsible community school called "Ariel Community Academy" which, among other things, is known for its emphasis on financial literacy. The other articles of interest in the Summer 2005 issue of Business Ethics are, first a discussion of how to provide economic development for the world's 4 billion poorest people called, by development organizations, the BOP or Bottom of the Pyramid poor of the world. The first is a description of a corporate effort begun by the partnership of a Kenyan pyrethrum farmer, SC Johnson Corporation (annual revenues of 6.5 billion), and Stuart Hart of Cornell University's Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell's S.C. Johnson funded Graduate School of Management. That project is helping subsistance farmers learn about and implement new irrigation methods which dramatically increase crop yields. For many years now it has been evident that funding microdevelopment projects such as those developed by the Quaker organization, Right Sharing of World Resources, is the most successful means yet to help the poorest of the poor. The second article I refer you to is a discussion of Grameen Telecom, a BOP development project of the Grameen Bank. Grameen Telecom, on funds provided by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, loaned money to a large group of credit worthy women so that they could buy cell phones with solar rechargers and become cell phone entrepreneurs in each of their villages. The program has been so successful that there are now 100,000 "telephone ladies" who make $4,000 to $5,000 of revenue per phone per year. After high taxes and repayment of loans plus a very small percentage to the bank, each "telephone lady" clears $1500 to $2000 per year in rural Bangladeshi villages where the average income is $300 per year. Janet Minshall From timinathens at yahoo.com Wed Aug 10 23:44:05 2005 From: timinathens at yahoo.com (Tim Johnson) Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 20:44:05 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [saymaListserv] Welcome Darius and friends home on Sunday!!! Message-ID: <20050811034405.19011.qmail@web40522.mail.yahoo.com> There will be a Welcome Back to Georgia celebration in Atlanta at 10:30 a.m. and a Welcome Home celebration at Clarke Middle School at 2:15 pm. The clip below is from the web site -- be sure to visit it at www.dariusgoeswest.com and click on "Tales from the Road" and "Photo Gallery" for some wonderful, inspiring, tear-and-laughter-generating stories and pictures. And if you can, please come celebrate and thank these guys for their wonderful spirits and journey. WELCOME BACK TO GEORGIA CELEBRATION A celebration in Atlanta, sponsored by: Children's Wish Foundation International, Mobility Designs, Full EFX Auto Techniques, Charter Communications, Quantum Rehab, The Bremen Junior Woman's Club, Verizon Wireless, Auto Color of Atlanta, Motorcars of Georgia, and Stanley Konceptions If you're a Darius Goes West fan who lives in the Atlanta area, you're invited to attend a welcome home celebration on Sunday, August 14 at 10:30 AM at Motorcars of Georgia, 7865 Roswell Road. There is a press conference scheduled inside at 10:00 AM for the media only, so please don't interrupt. Darius and the crew will be departing Atlanta at 11:30 AM for a brief visit to the Falcons headquarters in Flowery Branch before returning to Athens. WELCOME HOME, DARIUS A celebration in Athens, sponsored by Charter Communications. If you live in the Athens area, come greet Darius and the crew as they arrive home in Athens on Sunday, August 14 at 2:15 PM. The location for this celebration is Clarke Middle School, 1235 Baxter Street. Charter Communications will provide a giant cake and bottled water. We'll be giving away more Whowillcare.net bracelets and Darius Goes West flags. Bring a lawn chair, your friends and family and lots of enthusiasm! Love & truth, agape & satyagraha, Tim Tim Johnson, e-mail: timinathens at yahoo.com "Love is a verb." -- Stephen Covey --------------------------------- Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From GlennReinhart at aol.com Fri Aug 12 16:10:11 2005 From: GlennReinhart at aol.com (GlennReinhart at aol.com) Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 16:10:11 EDT Subject: [saymaListserv] Quakers in the News - week ended 8/5/2005 Message-ID: <213.6bf882f.302e5c23@aol.com> Dear Friends, Please feel free to click on any blue underlined title to read an abstract, and the full text of these stories. As always, you may visit http://quakersinthenews.blogspot.com to see or comment on a chronological archive of news stories this year. The most widely reported story this week with 6 instances in mid market news journals in the US: War/Nuclear Non-proliferation/WW II//Quakers mark anniversary of bombing /Athens Banner-Herald/Athens/GA/USA/1-Aug-05 An explanation of the concept behind Quakers in the News is at: Friends Journal/contents/August 2005 The remaining stories are the 'snapshot' of the face of Quakerism this week: Category/Article Title/Source/City/Area/Region/Date/Wire Service War/WW II/Nuclear Non-proliferation/Ceremony to honor atomic bomb victims /Patriot-News/Harrisburg/PA/USA/5-Aug-05 War/Nuclear Non-proliferation/WW II//Quakers mark anniversary of bombing /Athens Banner-Herald/Athens/GA/USA/1-Aug-05 War/Non-violence/Lester, Kate/Fort Thomas women want to help veterans/Fort Thomas Recorder/Fort Thomas/KY/USA/3-Aug-05 War/Iraq/Grandmothers for Peace/Editor's Note/Western Howard County View/Ellicott City/MD/USA/4-Aug-05 War/Iraq///The Terrorism Case that Wasn't/The NewStandard/Syracuse/NY/USA/4-Aug-05 Religious Faith///Jerusalem Lives/Burlington Hawk Eye/Burlington/IA/USA/1-Aug-05 Recorded Minister/Clendineng, Bill//Clendineng joins Plainfield Friends as pastor/Mooresville / Decatur Times/Mooresville/IN/USA/3-Aug-05 Raised-a-Quaker/Strict///Family offers Inn?s mementos for display in new town hall/Mooresville / Decatur Times/Mooresville/IN/USA/3-Aug-05 Quaker History/War/VietNam/Humanitarian Assistance/Recalling rescue out of Saigon/Philadelphia Inquirer/Philadelphia/PA/USA/2-Aug-05 Quaker History/Religious Diversity/Temperance/Established in 1844: America's Oldest Catholic Newspaper In .../Pittsburgh Catholic/Pittsburgh/PA/USA/4-Aug-05 Quaker History/Religious Diversity/Dissent//Fergus Cullen: Discovering NH's plentiful drive-by history/The Union Leader/Seabrook/NH/USA/2-Aug-05 Quaker History/Real Estate Development/Preservation, progress on view on Nantucket tour/Boston Globe/Boston/MA/USA/4-Aug-05 Quaker History/Quaker Trail//Ball State project on Wayne Co. history now available/Palladium-Item/Richmond/IN/USA/2-Aug-05 Quaker History/Quaker Schools//West Grove building once held school/Avon Grove Sun/Avon Grove/PA/USA/3-Aug-05 Quaker History/Free Quakers//'Angel of Purity' will stay in Phila. /Philadelphia Inquirer/Philadelphia/PA/USA/4-Aug-05 Quaker History/Business/Banking//Superbrands case studies: Barclays/Design Bulletin/London/England/UK/2-Aug-05 Quaker History/Brotherhood/Peace/Hard Work/One reunion, two mysteries/Loudoun Times-Mirror/Loudon/VA/USA/2-Aug-05 Penitence////Snyder: Accountability key for people who commit crimes/Waldo Village Soup/Waldo/ME/USA/3-Aug-05 Outreach/Meetinghouse//Newport residents invited to Night Out/Newport Daily News/Newport/RI/USA/2-Aug-05 Obituary////Doyle Eugene Heston/Fairfield Daily Ledger/Fairfield/IA/USA/1-Aug-05 Meetinghouse/Architecture//?A great old house?/Lansdale Reporter/Lansdale/PA/USA/5-Aug-05 Humanitarian Assistance//First Friends to send medical, construction teams to Kadavu, Fiji/Canton Repository/Canton/OH/USA/30-Jul-05 Business/Simplicity///Volunteers delve into history of Mendenhall loom /Jamestown News/Jamestown/NC/USA/3-Aug-05 Business/Johns Hopkins/Carey, James/The Mount, in disrepair, goes for $502,500/Baltimore Sun/Baltimore/MD/USA/4-Aug-05 Business/Cooperation/Meetinghouse/Plans move ahead for food co-op/The Republican/Boston/MA/USA/3-Aug-05 Business////Book Review--Profitable Socially Responsible Investing?: An ... /SocialFunds.com/Brattleboro/VT/USA/4-Aug-05 FCNL/Politics and Economics/War/Iraq/Ask for vote for US withdrawal from Iraq /Maryknoll Magazine/Maryknoll/NY/USA/1-Aug-05 AFSC/Youth/Militarism//Forming a conscience/Kansas City Star/Kansas City/MO/USA/3-Aug-05 AFSC/War/WW II/Nuclear Non-proliferation/Bombing anniversary to be marked at vigils/North Adams Transcript/North Adams/MA/USA/3-Aug-05 AFSC/War/Iraq/Boots/Green St. garage future debated/Ithaca Journal/Ithaca/NY/USA/5-Aug-05 AFSC/Protest/Free Speech/Few clues about cops' spy operations/Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago/IL/USA/5-Aug-05 AFSC/Politics and Economics/Arnie Alpert: CAFTA?s passage not an exercise in democracy/The Union Leader/Concord/NH/USA/2-Aug-05 AFSC/Non-violence//OP-ED: Uncle Sam wants you: the identity stripping of American .../Philadelphia Center City Weekly Press/Philadelphia/PA/USA/4-Aug-05 AFSC/Crime and Punishment/Penology//Visits at jail will go to video/New Brunswick Home News Tribune/New Brunswick/NJ/USA/2-Aug-05 AFSC/Church-State//ACLU says FBI documents confirm protesters investigated as .../Wyoming News/Casper/WY/USA/3-Aug-05 to Unsubsribe, please reply. -- If a civil word or two will render a man happy, he must be a wretch indeed who will not give them to him. Such a disposition is like lighting another man's candle by one's own, which loses none of its brilliancy by what the other gains. - William Penn, English religious leader and colonist (1644 - 1718) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bright_crow at mindspring.com Wed Aug 17 11:22:59 2005 From: bright_crow at mindspring.com (Mike Shell) Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 11:22:59 -0400 (GMT-04:00) Subject: [saymaListserv] Fw: Iraq: Urge Congress to Support Cindy Sheehan - FCNL Message-ID: <22429541.1124292180050.JavaMail.root@mswamui-cedar.atl.sa.earthlink.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bright_crow at mindspring.com Thu Aug 18 08:08:40 2005 From: bright_crow at mindspring.com (Mike Shell) Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 08:08:40 -0400 (GMT-04:00) Subject: [saymaListserv] FWD: "The Unfeeling President," by E.L. Doctorow Message-ID: <25963524.1124366921009.JavaMail.root@mswamui-chipeau.atl.sa.earthlink.net> THE EAST HAMPTON STAR, 9/9/04 http://www.easthamptonstar.com/20040909/col5.htm GUESTWORDS: By E.L. Doctorow The Unfeeling President I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear. But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man. He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the 1,000 dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be. They come to his desk not as youngsters with mothers and fathers or wives and children who will suffer to the end of their days a terribly torn fabric of familial relationships and the inconsolable remembrance of aborted life . . . they come to his desk as a political liability, which is why the press is not permitted to photograph the arrival of their coffins from Iraq. How then can he mourn? To mourn is to express regret and he regrets nothing. He does not regret that his reason for going to war was, as he knew, unsubstantiated by the facts. He does not regret that his bungled plan for the war's aftermath has made of his mission-accomplished a disaster. He does not regret that, rather than controlling terrorism, his war in Iraq has licensed it. So he never mourns for the dead and crippled youngsters who have fought this war of his choice. He wanted to go to war and he did. He had not the mind to perceive the costs of war, or to listen to those who knew those costs. He did not understand that you do not go to war when it is one of the options but when it is the only option; you go not because you want to but because you have to. Yet this president knew it would be difficult for Americans not to cheer the overthrow of a foreign dictator. He knew that much. This president and his supporters would seem to have a mind for only one thing -- to take power, to remain in power, and to use that power for the sake of themselves and their friends. A war will do that as well as anything. You become a wartime leader. The country gets behind you. Dissent becomes inappropriate. And so he does not drop to his knees, he is not contrite, he does not sit in the church with the grieving parents and wives and children. He is the president who does not feel. He does not feel for the families of the dead, he does not feel for the 35 million of us who live in poverty, he does not feel for the 40 percent who cannot afford health insurance, he does not feel for the miners whose lungs are turning black or for the working people he has deprived of the chance to work overtime at time-and-a-half to pay their bills - it is amazing for how many people in this country this president does not feel. But he will dissemble feeling. He will say in all sincerity he is relieving the wealthiest 1 percent of the population of their tax burden for the sake of the rest of us, and that he is polluting the air we breathe for the sake of our economy, and that he is decreasing the quality of air in coal mines to save the coal miners' jobs, and that he is depriving workers of their time-and-a-half benefits for overtime because this is actually a way to honor them by raising them into the professional class. And this litany of lies he will versify with reverences for God and the flag and democracy, when just what he and his party are doing to our democracy is choking the life out of it. But there is one more terribly sad thing about all of this. I remember the millions of people here and around the world who marched against the war. It was extraordinary, that spontaneous aroused oversoul of alarm and protest that transcended national borders. Why did it happen? After all, this was not the only war anyone had ever seen coming. There are little wars all over he world most of the time. But the cry of protest was the appalled understanding of millions of people that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of mankind. It was their perception that the classic archetype of democracy was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic republic in history was turning its back on the future, using its extraordinary power and standing not to advance the ideal of a concordance of civilizations but to endorse the kind of tribal combat that originated with the Neanderthals, a people, now extinct, who could imagine ensuring their survival by no other means than pre-emptive war. The president we get is the country we get. With each president the nation is conformed spiritually. He is the artificer of our malleable national soul. He proposes not only the laws but the kinds of lawlessness that govern our lives and invoke our responses. The people he appoints are cast in his image. The trouble they get into and get us into, is his characteristic trouble. Finally, the media amplify his character into our moral weather report. He becomes the face of our sky, the conditions that prevail. How can we sustain ourselves as the United States of America given the stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for ourselves. The novelist E.L. Doctorow has a house in Sag Harbor. From bright_crow at mindspring.com Fri Aug 19 08:19:54 2005 From: bright_crow at mindspring.com (Mike Shell) Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 08:19:54 -0400 (GMT-04:00) Subject: [saymaListserv] FW: New Counter-Recruiting Flyer from Quaker House Message-ID: <31515838.1124453995240.JavaMail.root@mswamui-backed.atl.sa.earthlink.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jhminshall at comcast.net Thu Aug 25 13:48:25 2005 From: jhminshall at comcast.net (Janet Minshall) Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 13:48:25 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] Fwd: TQE#121 Message-ID: > NOTE: I recommend reading this letter on the web, where it has better > formatting and where responses to it are also shown: >http://tqe.quaker.org/2005/TQE121-EN-Globalization.html > > THE QUAKER ECONOMIST #121 > > Globalization and the World's Poor > > Do we have a realistic view of world poverty? > > by Janet Minshall > > Dear Friends, > > Globalization and its proponents are widely mistrusted and their > achievements denied and denounced. Some vocal representatives of the labor > movement have said that any production done outside the US or Europe which > is provided at lower than US or European wages amounts to exploitation. > Similarly they say any places and conditions of employment which do not meet > the standards of those in the US and Western Europe are sweatshops. Further, > anyone who works in production in countries outside of the US or Western > Europe is said to be at risk for being kidnapped and forcibly enslaved. > > All of these conclusions are false. > > The clear implication of these messages is that we consumers in the US > should feel guilty about buying anything made in other countries by > "foreigners," and that we should demand that no one else in the world be > permitted to do the work of US, European and multinational corporations but > the highly paid middle-class workers who have done that work in the past. > Those of you who actually research the issue of globalization will find > that such misrepresentations are egregiously self-serving on behalf of the > US and Western European labor unions and grossly unfair to workers and the > poor in the rest of the world. > > The reality is that the overall effects of globalization are primarily > positive. Globalization is actually achieving a major economic goal in the > world which Quakers have long sought, i.e. rapidly bringing the poor out of > poverty in those countries which are in process of globalizing. > > Nevertheless, there have been abuses of globalization. The situation is > quite similar to the first burst of industrialization, when people flocked > from the countryside to the new factories and mines of 17th century Britain. > These new industrial workers felt that they had improved their lives - farm > life was difficult and prone to disaster - but the fact remains that they > were then exploited by the owners of the new factories. Beautiful townships > were devastated by factory construction, and by air and water pollution. > > Entire livelihoods vanished almost overnight. Urban slums expanded rapidly, > without public health or indeed any civic services or regulation. Only > gradually, over a period of a century or more, were the excesses of rapid > industrialization ameliorated. We can expect similar developments with > globalization, though the evidence so far suggests to me that the negative > consequences will be (a) mild compared to what happened during the early > centuries of the industrial revolution, and (b) insignificant in comparison > to the worldwide decrease in poverty. > > THE HARD EVIDENCE > > Economic analyses indicate that the globalization which took place in the > early part of the twentieth century was actually more rapid than what is > occurring at present. Because the process is now old enough to examine > thoroughly, there are many good articles and books available on the actual > effects of globalization on the peoples of the world. While some are slanted > to support particular political agendas, many are written objectively by > people from a wide variety of cultures and countries. > > For example, there is Martin Wolf's book, Why Globalization Works, published > by Yale University Press, 2004. Martin Wolf is The Associate Editor and > Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times of London. Another good > book from a slightly different perspective is In Defense of Globalization by > Jagdish Bhagwati, also published in 2004. Bhagwati is University Professor > at Columbia University and Andre Meyer Senior Fellow in International > Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a former Special > Advisor to the United Nations on Globalization. > > Contrary to what you may read in anti-globalization leaflets and press > releases, between 1980 and 2000 75% of the world's population achieved an > enormous increase in both average incomes and living standards due to the > effects of globalization. Summarized from Wolf's book in the chapter "Why > The Critics Are Wrong", p. 143, "never before have so many people, or so > large a proportion of the world's population, enjoyed such large rises in > their standard of living - India produced an approximately 100% increase in > real GDP per head and China nearly a 400% increase in real GDP per head. > This is an enormous improvement, experienced by some two billion people. > > Meanwhile, GDP per head in high income countries (with only 15% of the > world's population) rose by 2.1% between 1975 and 2000, and by only 1.7% per > year between 1990 and 2001. > > A much shorter piece appeared in the Nov/Dec 2004 issue of Foreign Affairs > which helps, along with the data cited above, to explain some of the intense > reactions against globalization by the middle class around the world > (including many Quakers). The article is "Globalization's Missing Middle" by > Geoffrey Garrett. He, too, describes the net positive effect of > globalization on the poor of the world and admits that the rich also > benefit, but his primary focus is the fact that "middle income countries > have not done nearly as well under globalized markets as either richer or > poorer countries..." > > He explains - as I too explained in a 2001 article in "Friendly Women" that > was reprinted as TQE #23 - that the middle class workers in many countries > like the US don't have the technical and scientific education necessary to > compete for the higher wage jobs which have developed over the past twenty > years or so. The relatively poorly trained and educated workers in the US, > and Europe are vainly trying to force employers to keep those higher wage > jobs at home, rather than outsource them to better educated and less > expensive workers in China, India and elsewhere. > > THE ROLE OF LABOR > > To his credit, John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, recognized the > problem years ago. He funded programs to upgrade the education and skills of > layed-off workers. However, many of those who might today benefit from such > an upgrade think they are somehow entitled to their previous jobs for the > rest of their working lives without any further training. > > Friends frequently express concern for truth, simplicity, equality and > peace, all venerable Quaker testimonies. In keeping with those testimonies, > Friends are required to search continuously for ways of understanding the > realities of the world which put them on the side of the poor and the > oppressed. Some middle class labor movement representatives have succeeded > in convincing Friends that the workers in the US and European labor > movements are the poor and oppressed and that we Friends should take sides > with them against those who are truly poor in other countries. > > Companies that outsource generally pay significantly better wages, provide > better benefits and combat sexual, class and cultural / tribal / caste > discrimination more effectively than local employers in the countries where > they send their work. These are effects that Friends want to support. > > SHALL WE DUMB DOWN OR TECH UP? > > As many of us have learned, it is the disaffected middle class which has the > time and the resources to organize politically. Rather than organizing > against the poor of the world, middle class people and those in middle > income countries need to put their energy into innovation and change. > > Rather than "dumbing down" and trying to retain repetitive manufacturing and > service jobs, they need to "tech up" their educational and training programs > to acquire and keep the newer jobs being developed. Summarizing from > Geoffrey Garrett's article in Foreign Affairs (cited above), organizing in > middle income countries should focus on deep reforms in infrastructure and > institutions such as "government, banking and law to transform economies > that stifle innovation into ones that foster it with strong property-rights > regimes, effective financial systems and good governance." > > A CALL FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS TO PUT ITS OWN HOUSE IN ORDER > > First and most importantly, we need to better educate and train our workers. > To accomplish necessary institutional change in the US, after exposing the > hypocrisy of Bush's "No Child Left Behind" policy, we need to replace the > Republican's misdirected and ineffective efforts with significant and > substantial upgrades to our educational system. Our workers need to be > prepared for the jobs on the cutting edge of innovation and change rather > than being dragged along behind the economy kicking and screaming. > > The efforts of crusaders like New York's Attorney General, Elliott Spitzer, > who is calling major corporations and industries to account by cleaning up > both their boards and their books needs wider support and encouragement. > > Examining the process for casting and counting ballots in this country is > equally important and deserves our involvement. > > Finally, the McCain-Feingold initiative to reform campaign financing doesn't > go far enough. We need to build a fire wall between our elected > representatives and the corporate and other special interests who have > apparently become their primary constituency. All of these efforts are more > important for the survival and well-being of workers and their jobs in the > US than uselessly shaking our fists at the process of globalization and > outsourcing. > > WE CANNOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS > > We, as Friends, cannot have it both ways. We have constantly demanded a > higher income and a better standard of living for the poor for many, many > years. Well, now we have both in developing countries that have globalized. > To help our own we have to get tougher both on government and labor and > insist that our educational system, especially our resources for college > preparation, our community colleges and technical schools, be dramatically > upgraded so that the middle and working class young people in the US can > compete on "a level playing field" with the middle and working class workers > in countries such as China and India. We need to upgrade our preparatory > programs and then see to it that those prepared for the new job market can > actually get into the graduate programs that they may then wish to enter. > > The question has been asked, "to increase the incomes of the poor in the > rest of the world, are we willing to have less and buy less?" > > Well? Are we? > > Sincerely your Friend, > > Janet Minshall > From moriah at preferred.com Fri Aug 26 09:03:02 2005 From: moriah at preferred.com (Mary Calhoun) Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 09:03:02 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] viaYMaa>> Fw: FGC Gathering Job Open Message-ID: <01e501c5aa42$60619ae0$6464a2c6@abc> Received at the SAYMA office; also available in MS Word format (attachment removed). ^o^ \_/ Mary AdminAsst at sayma.org 276-628-5852 POB 2191, Abingdon VA 24212-2191 *k ---------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: Ellen Helmuth Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 4:35 PM Subject: Notice to YM Newsletters Dear Friends, Copied below and attached please find copy of a notice that could be posted in your yearly meeting newsletters. Dear Friend, You could help both FGC and any members of your yearly meeting who may be interested in applying for this job by running the following notice (or an abbreviated version) in the next issue of your yearly meeting newsletter. Conference Coordinator, Friends General Conferene for Annual Gathering of Friends. Works with several committees, many volunteers, and university staff, requiring some weekend work, travel. Manages $1 million budget; supervises two regular plus seasonal staff. Administers complex operations and logistics, solves problems, manages crises, consulting extensively with volunteer leadership. Should be active in Friends' meeting. Send resume to General Secretary, FGC, 1216 Arch Street, 2B, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, or . Deadline 1/20/06. Thank you so much for any help you can give. In the Spirit, Bruce Birchard General Secretary -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From moriah at preferred.com Fri Aug 26 09:31:58 2005 From: moriah at preferred.com (Mary Calhoun) Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 09:31:58 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] IMP^o^ 190 Rep Mtg ...mailbox near you! Message-ID: <046c01c5aa67$d60173e0$6464a2c6@abc> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IMP ^o^ Bulletin 190 Coming to a mailbox near you! Rep Meeting registration packets for -- ........................................................................................ --September 10, 2005, hosted by Nashville (TN) FM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <|> Registration packets have been mailed to the f/Friends listed below for the September 10 Fall Rep Meeting in Nashville, TN. (Main session: 9:00 am Central; will begin with 1/2 hour worship) <|> Please register by August 31, 2005; you may register by mail, phone, or email. The person to register with is: <|> Penelope Wright 1106 Caldwell Lane, Nashville TN 37204 615-298-1385 pennywright at earthlink.net <|> Please see IMP^o^191 to find out what information to supply by email or phone in order to register. <|> You'll need to see a packet even if you register electronically (it contains directions, map, agenda, and other important information). If you aren't on the list below, please contact -- -- one of the people listed (2 people can register on one form) -- the SAYMA office AdminAsst at sayma.org 276-628-5852 or visit... -- www.sayma.org <|> If you could use help to arrange "green" travel (car-pooling) to Rep Mtg, please contact Bill Reynolds, cisland at aol.com <|> If you should have been among the names below, and aren't, please let the SAYMA office know. Packets have been sent to f/Friends listed in the office as -- -- clerks/contacts for their meetings/worship groups -- SAYMA representatives from meetings & worship groups -- clerks & members of SAYMA committees -- SAYMA Clerks and Treasurer -- SAYMA's representatives to wider Quaker organizations -- SAYMA archivist & web manager, & SAF editors -- SAYF Admin Asst <|> If you're named below and don't need to be, please let the office know that too! <|> Mailed to, in meeting order... Free Polazzo . . . . . Anneewakee Gary Briggs . . . . . Asheville Barbara Esther . . . . . Asheville Margaret Farmer . . . . . Asheville Joy Gosset . . . . . Asheville Adrienne Labotka . . . . . Asheville Steve Livingston . . . . . Asheville Robin Wells . . . . . Asheville J Pulliam & C Watkins . . . . . Athens Susan Cozzens . . . . . Atlanta Chris Duke . . . . . Atlanta Beth Ensign . . . . . Atlanta Carol Gray . . . . . Atlanta Karen Morris . . . . . Atlanta Ronald Nuse . . . . . Atlanta Martha Tate . . . . . Atlanta Roy Taylor III . . . . . Atlanta Perry Treadwell . . . . . Atlanta Ceal Wutka . . . . . Atlanta Mark Wutka . . . . . Atlanta Tom Brawner . . . . . Auburn Therese Hildebrand . . . . . Berea Carol Lamm . . . . . Berea Tim Lamm . . . . . Berea Beth Myers . . . . . Berea Connie LaMonte . . . . . Birmingham Judy Prince . . . . . Birmingham Nancy Whitt . . . . . Birmingham Gail Fannon . . . . . Boone John Geary . . . . . Boone Melissa Meyer . . . . . Boone Lee Scott . . . . . Brevard Joan Williams . . . . . Brevard Jane Goldthwait . . . . . Celo Joyce Johnson . . . . . Celo Bob McGahey . . . . . Celo Marmon Thompson . . . . . Celo Ray Lewis . . . . . Charleston Steve Mininger . . . . . Charleston Charles Schade . . . . . Charleston Becky Ingle . . . . . Chattanooga Larry Ingle . . . . . Chattanooga Ellen Johnson . . . . . Chattanooga Chuck Jones . . . . . Chattanooga Bill* Reynolds . . . . . Chattanooga Peggy Bonnington . . . . . Clarksville Nancy Winfrey . . . . . Clemson Sallie Prugh . . . . . Columbia Harry Rogers . . . . . Columbia Julia Sibley-Jones . . . . . Columbia Annie Black . . . . . Cookeville Hazel Hall . . . . . Cookeville Deanna Nipp . . . . . Cookeville Gladys Draudt . . . . . Crossville Dennis Gregg . . . . . Crossville Tom Beeson . . . . . Foxfire Errol Hess . . . . . Foxfire Bob Keiter . . . . . Foxfire Edie Patrick . . . . . Foxfire Christopher Berg . . . . . Greenville Scott Henderson . . . . . Greenville Judy Guerry . . . . . Huntsville Susan Phelan . . . . . Huntsville David Ciscel . . . . . Memphis Kristi Estes . . . . . Memphis Larry Jordan . . . . . Memphis Ron McDonald . . . . . Memphis Robert Pugh . . . . . Memphis Wib Smith . . . . . Murfreesboro Dick & Maaret Houghton . . . . . Nashville Jim McKeever . . . . . Nashville John Potter . . . . . Nashville Geoffrey Pratt . . . . . Nashville Joyce Rouse . . . . . Nashville Christina VanRegenmorter . . . . . Nashville Penelope Wright . . . . . Nashville Kim Carlyle . . . . . New Moon Susan Carlyle . . . . . New Moon Nan Johnson . . . . . Oxford Bill O'Connell . . . . . Royal Sara Rose . . . . . Royal Douglas Price . . . . . Sevier County Lyn Hutchinson . . . . . Sewanee Tony Bing . . . . . Swannanoa Bob Welsh . . . . . Swannanoa Pat Willever . . . . . Swannanoa Bettina Wolff . . . . . Swannanoa Sharon Annis . . . . . West Knoxville Jim Hamill . . . . . West Knoxville Kendall Ivie . . . . . West Knoxville Missy Ivie . . . . . West Knoxville Ernest Lee . . . . . West Knoxville Hannah MacDermott . . . . . West Knoxville Turtle MacDermott . . . . . West Knoxville Kathleen Mavournin . . . . . West Knoxville Carol Nickle . . . . . West Knoxville Sharon Phelps . . . . . West Knoxville ~~~~ end ^o^~~~~ postdate 082305 ~~~~ _____________________________ IMP ^o^ ... "Information Made Present" is a bulletin service of the SAYMA office to provide practical details to our geographically-challenged Yearly Meeting via our list-server: semi-official information, bulletins that you can print, post, announce, publish, or pass around. Please address questions, corrections, and additions to AdminAsst at sayma.org, or 276-628-5852 (machine; in-person Tu/Th 5-7:30p). Thank you! ^o^ ----------------------------------------------------- To receive IMP^o^ bulletins, subscribe to the list server, sayma at kitenet.net. You can subscribe on the web at http://kitenet.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sayma. ------------------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From moriah at preferred.com Fri Aug 26 09:50:16 2005 From: moriah at preferred.com (Mary Calhoun) Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 09:50:16 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] IMP^o^ 192 RM childcare contact ! Message-ID: <046d01c5aa67$d715a300$6464a2c6@abc> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IMP ^o^ Bulletin 192 If you need childcare for Fall Rep Mtg... ... please read below! ......................................................................... new contact person... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (from the Administrative Assistant) <|> Please pass this information on to anyone who might be in need of childcare when they attend Fall Representative Meeting (Sept 10 in Nashville). <|> The contact person has changed; please ignore the childcare name and contact information in the printed registration packet. Instead... <|> ...contact -- -- Penelope Wright -- 615-298-1385 -- pennywright at earthlink.net <|> Childcare will be very limited; please contact Penelope right away if you need it. ~~~~~~ end ^o^ ~~~~~~ 1stpost 082605 ~~~~~~ _______________________________________ IMP ^o^ ... "Information Made Present" is a bulletin service of the SAYMA office to provide practical details to our geographically-challenged Yearly Meeting via our list-server: semi-official information, bulletins that you can print, post, announce, publish, or pass around. Please address questions, corrections and additions to AdminAsst at sayma.org, 276-628-5852 (machine; in-person Tu/Th 5-7:30p), or SAYMA Admin Asst, PO Box 2191, Abingdon, VA 24212-2191. Thank you! ^o^ ----------------------------------------------------- To receive IMP^o^ bulletins, subscribe to the list server, sayma at kitenet.net. You can subscribe on the web at http://kitenet.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sayma. ------------------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From moriah at preferred.com Fri Aug 26 11:43:17 2005 From: moriah at preferred.com (Mary Calhoun) Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 11:43:17 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] IMP^o^ 191 Rep Meeting "e-registration" Message-ID: <046e01c5aa67$d7acb2e0$6464a2c6@abc> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IMP ^o^ Bulletin 191 Information needed to register electronically for Fall Rep Meeting ... ........................................................................................ but you still need to see a registration packet! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <|> You can register by e-mail or phone for the Fall Rep Meeting scheduled for September 10 in Nashville, TN (Main session -- 9 :00 am Central time, beginning with ½ hour worship.) <|> Please register by August 31, 2005. Everyone needs to be registered in advance, to help the lunch-planners. The person to register with is: <|> Penelope Wright 1106 Caldwell Lane, Nashville TN 37204 615-298-1385 pennywright at earthlink.net <|> You will need to see a registration packet even if you register by email or phone. It contains maps, directions, agenda, and other important information. <|> If you don't have a packet, please -- -- check IMP^o^ 190, to see if one was mailed to you, or ... -- contact a person who was listed in IMP^o^190, or ... -- contact your meeting clerk, or ... -- visit www.sayma.org to download and print the materials, or ... -- contact the SAYMA office at 276-628-5852, AdminAsst at sayma.org <|> Meanwhile, IMP^o^ bulletin 190 will give you partial information. <|> Info needed for Rep Meeting registration: 1. If you need childcare please notify Penelope Wright right away. Childcare is very limited. (Contact info above) 2. First & last names, gender (M/F), and address. 3. Purpose for attending: (a) Rep Meeting, M&N, Yearly Mtg Planning, other (b) child; please give name(s), age(s) and special needs of child(ren) requiring care. 4. Meeting or Worship Group name 5. Your contact info: area code + phone number (& e-mail address if you have one). If giving both, please indicate the preferred means of communication 6. Hospitality needed (place to sleep & light breakfast provided by local f/Friend): (a) Please indicate people who can share a room... (b) ...& those who can share a bed. (c) Friday night for (#) ____ people. Expected time of arrival: ______ (d) Saturday night for (#) ____ people. Expected time of arrival: ____ (e) Please say who is arriving when, if the folks above are not traveling together. (f) Any special needs? (Vegetarian, vegan, special diet, house without stairs, hills, wood smoke, pets, or a child-proof house, etc. ...?) 7. If you ask for hospitality, and your request hasn't been acknowledged by Sept 6, you can contact Penelope Wright (615-298-1385, pennywright at earthlink.net) if you want reassurance. 8. Cancellation: after registering, if you are unable to attend for any reason, please notify Penelope as soon as possible at 615-298-1385, pennywright at earthlink.net. ~~~~ end ^o^ ~~~~ postdate 082605 ~~~~ ________________________________ IMP ^o^... "Information Made Present" is a bulletin service of the SAYMA office to provide practical details to our geographically-challenged Yearly Meeting via our list-server: semi-official information, bulletins that you can print, post, announce, publish, or pass around. Please address questions, corrections and additions to adminAsst at sayma.org, or 276-628-5852 (machine; in-person Tu/Th 5-7:30p). Thank you! ^o^ ----------------------------------------------------- To receive IMP^o^ bulletins, subscribe to the free list server, sayma at kitenet.net. You can subscribe on the web at http://kitenet.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sayma. ------------------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From moriah at preferred.com Fri Aug 26 13:40:53 2005 From: moriah at preferred.com (Mary Calhoun) Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 13:40:53 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] IMP^o^ 193 "green" travel to Rep Mtg Message-ID: <046f01c5aa67$d86cf5a0$6464a2c6@abc> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IMP ^o^ Bulletin 193 For help with Earth-Friendly Travel to... ...Fall Rep Meeting in Nashville ------------------------------------------------------ contact Bill Reynolds ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (a standing offer from Bill Reynolds, Chattanooga FM, member of SAYMA Ecological Concerns Network) <|> For f/Friends who don't already have a ride-share organized, and could use a hand finding one, Bill Reynolds has volunteered to help organize car-pooling to the September 10 Rep Meeting in Knoxville. <|> If you're looking for riders, please let him know -- a) how many spaces are available in the vehicle b) where it will be leaving from c) when it will be departing d) general route planned e) when it will arrive at Rep Meeting f) when it will be returning <|> If you're seeking to 'hitch a ride,' please let him know -- a) how many you are b) where you will be leaving from c) when you need to depart d) where you could meet a ride e) when you need to arrive at Rep Meeting f) when you need to return home <|> Bill Reynolds' contact info -- cisland at aol.com, 423-624-6821, 3529 Dell Trail, Chattanooga TN 37411 ~~~~ end ^o^ ~~~~ postdate 082605 ~~~~ _______________________________________ IMP ^o^ ... "Information Made Present" is a bulletin service of the SAYMA office to provide practical details to our geographically-challenged Yearly Meeting via our list-server: semi-official information, bulletins that you can print, post, announce, publish, or pass around. Please address questions, corrections and additions to AdminAsst at sayma.org, 276-628-5852 (machine), or SAYMA Admin. Asst., PO Box 2191, Abingdon, VA 24212-2191. Thank you! ^o^ ----------------------------------------------------- To receive IMP^o^ bulletins, subscribe to the list server, sayma at kitenet.net. You can subscribe on the web at http://kitenet.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sayma. ------------------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jhminshall at comcast.net Sat Aug 27 14:19:18 2005 From: jhminshall at comcast.net (Janet Minshall) Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 14:19:18 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] Fwd: Re: Regarding Quaker Social Concerns for the World's Poor) Message-ID: This letter is a response to SAYMA Friend Nancy Winfrey who wrote to me about the article I sent out called "Globalization and The World's Poor", which was published as TQE (The Quaker Economist) #121. Janet Hi Nancy, Thanks for your thoughtful response. I really think you are not aware of solid political economic research on the effects of globalization as published by the men I cite in the article. The two books I recommended, In Defense of Globalization by Jagdish Bhagwati, and Why Globalization Works by Martin Wolf, both deal with the concern you raise about corporations, but in different ways. Martin Wolf addresses it in his chapter 12, "Corporations: Predatory or Beneficial". Bhagwati, whose book more directly responds to anti-globalization sentiment and misinformation, addresses the issue in his chapter 11, "Cowed By Corporations". They each provide their version of economic history and show through their research that globalization, as carried out by multinational corporations, has benefitted the poor dramatically. They do not claim that it was the intention of the multinationals to benefit the poor, but they did benefit the poor nonetheless. Therefore I believe that the two authors effectively respond to your concern about "the corporate entity itself" being inherently flawed. If you read the rest of each of these books, I think you will find that Wolf and Baghwati also respond effectively to your concerns about growth. As I state in a letter which appears in the August issue of Friends Journal in response to another letter from SAYMA's Errol Hess, it isn't simply a question of, as Errol put it, "a notion of growth" upon which our economy is based, but rather it is a history of more than 700 years of growth upon which our civilization is based. Continuing from my letter: "Growth from clans to city-states moved us to develop the rule of law, property ownership, improved transportation, and improved communications. The growth of City States to Nation States and then to a world economy resulted from the ascendance of reason, science and technology, and the innovations they have produced." (My partner, Free, suggests that you might wish to see the film "The Corporation", a documentary produced by the Canadian Broadcasting System. http://www.thecorporation.com. Best Regards, Janet Dear Janet, Sorry to take so long to get back to you, but I needed to reflect on your reply so I could answer it in Friendly fashion. First, let me say that I am looking forward to many face to face interesting discussions, if and when you and Free can join Clemson WG. I don't learn much from people who simply agree with me!.... -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bright_crow at mindspring.com Tue Aug 30 15:17:05 2005 From: bright_crow at mindspring.com (Mike Shell) Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 15:17:05 -0400 (GMT-04:00) Subject: [saymaListserv] Fw: Re: some info poss for website Message-ID: <12627365.1125429426274.JavaMail.root@mswamui-thinleaf.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Friends, Please share the information which follows regarding John Calvi's new QUIT: Quaker Initiative to End Torture. Thanks, Mike -----Forwarded Message----- From: Michael Shell Sent: Aug 30, 2005 3:14 PM To: jcdahm at msn.com Subject: Re: some info poss for website John, I have added this link to the peace and social concerns website of Southeastern Yearly Meeting, on three separate pages: 1) Home page, under "What's NEW?" http://seympeace.org/#NEW 2) The page on war concerns: http://seympeace.org/war.html 3) The page on civil liberties concerns, under News Updates: http://seympeace.org/civlib.html#CIVLIBNEWS Thanks for sharing this, Mike >>> "jc dahm" 08/29/05 5:03 PM >>> Dear Friends, Here is our brand new website! http://home.ix.netcom.com/~quit We will have updates about the coming Quaker Conference on Torture. There are also resources for learning, understanding, and action. Please share this website with many people. We need your help to share this website, to receive donations, and help spread word of this new initiative including the conference. Our thanks to Blake Arnall of San Francisco for creating this website. And our thanks to so many of you who hold this effort in your hearts and prayers. Thank you from the planning committee, John Calvi John Calvi P.O. Box 301 Putney, VT 05346 > Tel: 802-387-4789 www.johncalvi.com From bright_crow at mindspring.com Wed Aug 31 10:07:54 2005 From: bright_crow at mindspring.com (Mike Shell) Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 10:07:54 -0400 (GMT-04:00) Subject: [saymaListserv] Fwd: People-Borrowing Message-ID: <28584776.1125497274441.JavaMail.root@mswamui-valley.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Interesting.... Mike Library that lets you take out people who are left on the shelf By David Rennie in Brussels http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/25/wdutch25.xml From kcarlyle at main.nc.us Wed Aug 31 10:17:09 2005 From: kcarlyle at main.nc.us (Kim Carlyle) Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 10:17:09 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] SAF -- call for submissions Message-ID: <00d701c5ae36$c7af7940$946dc0d1@yourfulkl1oh2q> Hello Friends, It's that time again. You have but 30 days to prepare and submit your own wonderful and unique written items to share with the SAYMA community. As always, we will accept original articles, letters to the editor, poetry, book/movie reviews, comments, gripes, humor, vegetarian recipes, cartoons, news from your meetings, news from wider Quaker organizations, and political action alerts. (But don't let these categories limit you.) Send to SAFeditor at SAYMA.org by 10/01/2005. Thank you. Peace on Earth, Peace with Earth, Susan & Kim Carlyle, Southern Appalachian Friend editors -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jewen at bellsouth.net Thu Aug 25 19:47:25 2005 From: jewen at bellsouth.net (Julia Ewen) Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 19:47:25 -0400 Subject: [saymaListserv] Re: [afmdiscussion] Fwd: TQE#121 References: Message-ID: <002c01c5a9cf$584fdb00$6101a8c0@amd1gig> This is a great article, but I still have some questions: > > Nevertheless, there have been abuses of globalization. The situation is > > quite similar to the first burst of industrialization...We can expect similar developments with > > globalization, though the evidence so far suggests to me that the negative > > consequences will be (a) mild compared to what happened during the early > > centuries of the industrial revolution, and (b) insignificant in comparison > > to the worldwide decrease in poverty. I'm sure the author doesn't mean to imply that abuses are okay because the ultimate end may turn out well in a generation or two (or does he?). That abuses were tolerated and even encouraged by the political system during the Industrial Revolution does not IMHO justify political and social policies of toleration now. How can we identify and rectify the abuses now? > > Contrary to what you may read in anti-globalization leaflets and press > > releases, between 1980 and 2000 75% of the world's population achieved an > > enormous increase in both average incomes and living standards due to the > > effects of globalization. Summarized from Wolf's book in the chapter "Why > > The Critics Are Wrong", p. 143, "never before have so many people, or so > > large a proportion of the world's population, enjoyed such large rises in > > their standard of living - India produced an approximately 100% increase in > > real GDP per head and China nearly a 400% increase in real GDP per head. > > This is an enormous improvement, experienced by some two billion people. > > > > Meanwhile, GDP per head in high income countries (with only 15% of the > > world's population) rose by 2.1% between 1975 and 2000, and by only 1.7% per > > year between 1990 and 2001. So growth has been at a virtual standstill in the high income countries. Is the inference here that the economic "pie" is not expandable--that any gains by poor countries must be paid for by stagnation or decline in "rich" countries"? This is not a good scenario. Stagnation leads to decline and decline leads to "death" of any organism or system. If one part of the system stagnates, declines and dies, it will ultimately take the rest of the system down also. It is not in the long term interest of the "poor" countries that the rich countries should stagnate, because it will utlimately affect the poor countries negatively. > > A much shorter piece appeared in the Nov/Dec 2004 issue of Foreign Affairs > > which helps, along with the data cited above, to explain some of the intense > > reactions against globalization by the middle class around the world > > (including many Quakers). The article is "Globalization's Missing Middle" by > > Geoffrey Garrett. He, too, describes the net positive effect of > > globalization on the poor of the world and admits that the rich also > > benefit, but his primary focus is the fact that "middle income countries > > have not done nearly as well under globalized markets as either richer or > > poorer countries..." It is always middle income folks who face loss in the process of change. People who already have nothing can't get worse off, and so have a high chance of benefitting from change. Rich people have enough capital to cushion the disruptive effects of change, and so are in a better position to take the gamble that change will ultimatey benefit them. It is the middle income folks who have the dilemma of risking what they have and tumbling back to the bottom. That is why the middle class has generally been a conservative force in politics. It is why countries like the US and the UK have been relatively stable over the long run, and why countries in Latin America have not. The existence of a huge, majority, middle class has provided the stable political climate in which corporations have now gotten into a position to globalize from a stable economic home base. Sadly the corporations now out of greed are sabotaging that very base. And the middle class is being depicted here as lazy and undeserving of enjoying the rewards that their fathers/mothers and grandfathers/grandmothers worked and struggled for. This is not true. There are plenty of middle class displaced workers who will tell you that the 'retraining" was for service jobs that paid half or less of the indistrial wages they had been earning and that most of the time the training had to be paid for by the displaced worker out of unemployment benefits--which have been steadily cut back by this administration. How do you take advantage of retraining when your unemployment benefits don't even cover your family's basic housing and food expenses? How do you take time away from job-hunting if you do manage to find the cash? Or how do you give up the low paying job that is paying the difference between your lost wages and the unemployment check? And when the check runs out, where are you getting the cash for retraining? And where do you get the money to "tech up" your children so they won't have the same fate waiting for them? The Middle Class has been exhorted by Washington and Corporate America that it is their patriotic duty to feed the economy by not only spending what they earn but what they have not yet earned. And having done their patriotic duty, they are now being vilified for their "self-indulgence", "abuse of credit" and "excessive consumption of world resources"! What is the Establishment's answer to Middle Class distress? The importation of cheap foreign goods, reintinsified advertising and extension of even more credit to people who already are in trouble financially. "We won't pay you a living wage if we give you the 'charity' of not taking your job offshore, and you should show your appreciation by going into great mountains of debt buying all the stuff that we are producing overseas. We will tell you that you will protect your job by doing this, but your demand for all these cheap goods will in fact take your job overseas to somebody who will do it cheaper. We'll fire now you if you don't take less money and we'll fire you later on if you do. And guess what? The economists say this is GOOD for you! So kwicherwhinin' !" The wonder isn't that the labor movement is making anti-globalism noises. The wonder is that it is not up in arms and throwing strikes every week! The laboring class has become middle class. That is what has everybody confused. Middle Class folks aren't supposed to have to strike for their rights. They are supposed to HAVE their rights...but that doesn't really apply any more, does it? > > Friends are required to search continuously for ways of understanding the > > realities of the world which put them on the side of the poor and the > > oppressed. Some middle class labor movement representatives have succeeded > > in convincing Friends that the workers in the US and European labor > > movements are the poor and oppressed and that we Friends should take sides > > with them against those who are truly poor in other countries. Going way back to mid 16th century and early 17th century English and American Friends, our origins were not in the homeless or working poor but in what sociologists call the "middling" class. These were folks who did not necessarily own land or other property in signficant amounts, but owned "some", and were not highly educated but had a viable trade. They had enough that they had a little ways to fall to be considered poor. Most Quakers were not from the class that had enough wealth to be insulated from the effects of change. The reforms in which they became engaged were at first born of their own experience--prison reform arose from their own incarcerations for example. Slavery reform was driven by Friends who experienced the cheap labor of slaves as unfair competition, since they did not own large tracts of land requiring slave labor (due to Quaker custom of passing on property in equal portions to all their children instead of handing it intact to the eldest son)... Our heritage as a Society is linked more to the interests of the Middle Class than it is to either the rich or the poor. OUGHT we to be concerned for the poor? Of course. Historically have we been, at the cost of our own interests? I think not. Are we in fact in favor of world without a Middle Class? Are we willing to selfdestruct on principle? How would such a world look? Shall we all become poor? or will we find ourselves buying the Robertson Gospel of the Church of the Prosperous Elect? We set out to good and historically have ended up doing "very well indeed"... > > Companies that outsource generally pay significantly better wages, provide > > better benefits and combat sexual, class and cultural / tribal / caste > > discrimination more effectively than local employers in the countries where > > they send their work. These are effects that Friends want to support. That certainly seemed to be the case in the 70's when I lived in Upper Volta (now Burkino Fasso). I'm not against improving the standard of living in poor countries. I just don't think that it needs to be a the price of the destruction of the American Middle Class. >> > Rather than "dumbing down" and trying to retain repetitive manufacturing and > > service jobs, they need to "tech up" their educational and training programs > > to acquire and keep the newer jobs being developed. Summarizing from > > Geoffrey Garrett's article in Foreign Affairs (cited above), organizing in > > middle income countries should focus on deep reforms in infrastructure and > > institutions such as "government, banking and law to transform economies > > that stifle innovation into ones that foster it with strong property-rights > > regimes, effective financial systems and good governance." Okay. So the state and federal governments in response have cut down on scholarship and loan money and raised the price of technical and scientific college educations at state universities until it costs as much to go to college as it does to buy a luxury car, or even the equivalent of a mortgage payment, and the students are supposed to then work for the same wages as a somebody in Bangalore, where the cost of education, housing, food and transportation are also a heck of a lot less than they are here? But of course if they "dumb down" and go after the low paid service jobs, they find they are "overqualified" and are passed over in favor of recent immigrants from South America who have not "teched" up, and instead of fueling the consumer machine here, they are sending their wages home to help people "tech up" to take on the tech jobs that the college student trained for, and can't find now.... Ask a Georgia college senior about the difference in cost between his/her freshman year at U of GA and what it costs now, and how much of it gets covered by grants and loans now...You might have to hunt around in South Georgia to find him/her, because he/she just didn't go back this year. He/she is working at a low wage job to try and raise tuition money...if they are lucky... > > We, as Friends, cannot have it both ways. We have constantly demanded a > > higher income and a better standard of living for the poor for many, many > > years. Well, now we have both in developing countries that have globalized. > > To help our own we have to get tougher both on government and labor and > > insist that our educational system, especially our resources for college > > preparation, our community colleges and technical schools, be dramatically > > upgraded so that the middle and working class young people in the US can > > compete on "a level playing field" with the middle and working class workers > > in countries such as China and India. We need to upgrade our preparatory > > programs and then see to it that those prepared for the new job market can > > actually get into the graduate programs that they may then wish to enter. That's great...of course when the Middle Class is gone, who is going to pay for all these programs?? The poor don't have to pay. They have no income beyond survival level. The rich increasingly are not paying. They are just collecting the profits being siphoned out of the working class. The working class is being asked to pay the costs of its own displacement with less and less cash. Those who benefit the most (the rich) should be asked to pay the most tax...but it is the Middle Class that pays and pays and pays. > > The question has been asked, "to increase the incomes of the poor in the > > rest of the world, are we willing to have less and buy less?" The incomes of the poor depend upon the Middle Class buying more and more and more. If demand for cheap goods declines, then so do the fortunes of the countries that are enjoying the benefits of exported jobs. By destroying the Middle Class, the corporations will be destroying the engine that is actually driving the system. What will take its place? Will it be something like China's amalgamation of capitalism and communism where the government is the chief stockholder? Will it be something like the South American system where an oligarchy faces off against the poor? Or will we just settle for a government that can make the trains run on time, and everybody is pretty much on his own? Any way you slice it, I don't see the lion lying down with the lamb, except to consume him as loin chops...There must be a better way through this mess... Julia