The Public Library Manifesto
Why libraries matter, and how we can save them.
Uniting in the Face Of Unnatural Disasters
Source: Inter Press News
“In my opinion, there is no such thing as a natural disaster,” says Sylvia Richardson, a volunteer broadcaster, mother of two, assistant librarian, and the new vice president of the North American region of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).
“Poor people are forced to live in conditions that make them vulnerable. The real question is, why do we have this idea that poverty is ‘natural’?” she asked.
Born in El Salvador and now living in Canada, Richardson was speaking at the first-ever Caribbean Conference of Community Radios held in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the site of what the U.N. has called “the worst disaster in decades”.
Haiti: Just When You Think It Can’t Get Any Worse
Amidst the world-historic levels of death and suffering from last January’s earthquake, Haitians have at least been spared the scale of government violence that has marked much of their nation’s past. This may change under Michel Martelly, the incoming president.
Vermonters Restore Universality to Health Care Bill
Members of the grassroots Healthcare Is a Human Right campaign and the VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project cheered on Tuesday, May 3, as the joint house senate committee voted to accept a reconciled version of the universal healthcare bill, H.202, which removed a provision excluding undocumented workers from health care coverage. Observers credit Vermonters’ unhesitating and unflinching demand that “universal means everyone” for turning a political hot potato into a victory.
“This is a huge victory for our state, and it only happened because of the thousands of Vermonters who have been working together to make their voices heard and demand their human rights,” said Peg Franzen, President of the Vermont Workers’ Center, which launched the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign in 2008 to change what is politically possible in healthcare reform. “Everyone has a human right to healthcare, simply by virtue of being human. That’s what universal healthcare is all about,” said Franzen.
Egypt’s Arab Spring Pushes Forth
Source: In These Times
From the military crackdown in Libya to the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, the events of the past week shook up the so-called Muslim world. And they sadly overshadowed a bigger story unfolding in the region, one with far more resonance than boilerplate narratives of counterterrorism and never-ending conflict. Interspersed with the bombast of gun battles was the steady rhythm of May Day amidst the “Arab Spring.”
As the weather warms, the Western media lens has drifted onto hotter and bloodier clashes in the Middle East and North Africa. But the May Day protests in Cairo revealed that the coalescence of labor and human rights are at the crux of the unfolding revolution and continues to serve as a barometer for monitoring the progress, or precariousness, of the transition to democracy.
Everybody In, Nobody Out: Rallying For Universal Healthcare in Vermont
For three years a grassroots movement for universal healthcare has been building in Vermont. On May 1, 2011 thousands rallied for health care as a human right in Montpelier, the state's capital.