AID News for Jan 19 2004

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AID News for Mon Jan 19 2004

AID News for Mon Jan 19, 2004
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AID News for Mon Jan 19, 2004
Good morning everybody
Today's Headlines
1) Activists Mount Global Challenge to Dow
2) AID receives four star rating
3) Events
4) Interesting Headlines
Today's News
1) Activitists Mount Global Challenge to Dow.
Press Statement
16 January, 2004, Bhopal - More than 25 representatives from various
organizations, including 11 international delegates from USA and
South Africa, met in Bhopal from January 14-16, 2004 to devise
collective strategies to fight for justice in Bhopal and hold Dow
Chemical accountable for its toxic legacies around the
world. Corporate accountability activists and global supporters of
the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal announced plans to
mobilize public pressure against Dow Chemical in the lead-up to and
following the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster. The
organizations resolved to support the demands of Bhopal survivors
for disbursement of compensation funds to
survivors, provision of drinking water to the bastis affected by
contaminated water, setting up of livelihood generation schemes and
pinning legal liability on Dow Chemical for Bhopal.
``This is just the beginning of a globally coordinated fight to
expose the toxic skeletons in Dow Chemical's closet and make the
company address its pending liabilities among the millions of people
poisoned by Dow's factories, products or its subsidiaries like Union
Carbide,'' said Satinath Sarangi of the International Campaign for
Justice in Bhopal.
For complete press release check out :
http://www.bhopal.net/article.php?pid=73
-- Contributed by Tarun Jain <ta...@riseup.net>
2) AID receives four star rating.
Charity Navigator, a web portal, which helps people decide which
charitable organization people should donate to, has rated AID with
69.52 over a 0 to 70 scale. The score is calculated by adding up the
Org efficiency (39.52) and Org Capacity (30.00).
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/7135.htm
-- Contributed by Sridhar Sailappan
3) Events
a) Bhopal Gas Tragedy Awareness by AID Boulder
AID-Boulder is organizing a 3-day Bhopal Gas Tragedy Awareness Event
starting 9th Feb. We are going to exhibit the photos by Raghu Rai
and Collage by Maude Dorr on all three days starting 9th Feb.
Ryan Bodanyi's (student campaigner for ICJB) will be delivering a
speech on Feb 10th and we will screen the documentary ``Bhopal
Legacy'' by Nadeem Uddin the same day.
On the final day, Feb 11th we shall scree Mahesh Mathai's ``Bhopal
Express'' followed by a Q&A session.
For more information on the event, check out
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~aid/bhopal.html
-- Vijay Harikrishna <vijay_ha...@hotmail.com>
b) World Social Forum.
There World social forum (WSF) was held in Mumbai in the last
week. Here is an excellent coverage for the same
http://www.ipsnews.net/focus/tv_mumbai/ips_news.asp
-- Contributed by Uma Asher <uxa...@psu.edu>
4) Interesting Headlines
a) Other side of Shining India.
Praful Bidwai highlights the other side of the recent spate of
newspaper ads that declare ``India is Shining'' because the economy
has never looked brighter.
Excerpt:
India now lags behind Bangladesh in primary education
access. India's rank in the U.N. Human Development Index has fallen
from 124 to 127. There has been a decline in public spending and
capital investment. Growth distribution has been hideously
skewed. According to U.N. statistics, 47 percent of Indian children
under five are underweight. A quarter of the population is
undernourished. And 35 percent live below one dollar a day. India
now spends less per capita on health than it did half a century
ago. Public health services are near collapse, even as corporate
hospitals boom.... Thanks to greater military spending, there are
severe cutbacks in state funding for schools.... India's military
spending has doubled in the last 6 years -- the highest such
increase since independence.
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=21863
-- Contributed by Uma Asher <uxa...@psu.edu>
b) Martin Luther King Jr.
Address to Civil Rights Marchers in Washington DC.
http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_167.html
-- Contributed by Karthikeyan Swaminathan <skni...@yahoo.com>
c) Rich ideas for the poor!
In search of India's inventors
It is an Enfield motorcycle with a difference. By removing the back
wheel and replacing it with a spiked cylinder, it doubles as a
tractor.
A bike becomes a tractor. It was devised and built by Mansukhbhai,
of Gujarat, who could not afford to buy a tractor, and thought of
this dual use for his diesel motorbike.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3403289.stm
-- Contributed by Priya Ranjan <a_p...@aidindia.org>
Thats all for today
Sid
Make a difference this holiday season. Visit
http://www.OneForIndia.org
where every One counts

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