For A Change back issues from April 2004:
Breathtaking.(EAR TO THE GROUND)(Bogota airport)(Brief Article)
Apr 01, 2004; ... It's not only the altitude of 2,700 metres which takes your breath away when you arrive at Bogota airport. The sight of this city of seven million inhabitants is impressive, as it sprawls out onto the savanna in three directions and is held in line by mountains in the other. ...
Warmth and war.(EAR TO THE GROUND)(treatment given to guests and history of Colombia)(Brief Article)
Apr 01, 2004; ... The welcome one gets from friends could not be warmer. The way they offer to take you wherever you want to go, by car or on foot, is typical--even if, as an individualistic European, you would sometimes rather go by yourself! People are very courteous. When you approach a bank ...
Tough approach.(EAR TO THE GROUND)(Alvaro Uribe)(Brief Article)
Apr 01, 2004; ... The previous government's attempt to negotiate with the guerrillas led to interesting televised debates but to no ceasefire whatsoever. After this, the nation overwhelmingly elected Alvaro Uribe, who has set out, with US help, to defeat the guerrillas by military means (and by trying to ...
Traffic.(EAR TO THE GROUND)
Apr 01, 2004; ... One feature of life in Bogota is pico y placa, ('rush hour and number plate'). The final figures on your number plate decide which two days of the week you are not allowed to drive between ...
Love of country.(EAR TO THE GROUND)(Foundations for Freedom)(Brief Article)
Apr 01, 2004; ... In January, 40 people, half of them under 25, took part in a weekend course run by Foundations for Freedom in a lovely retreat centre in the mountains outside Bogota. Many more wanted to take part. The course helps people identify the changes ...
Welcome to the EU!(FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK)(European Union)
Apr 01, 2004; ... On 1 May, the European Union will have 75 million new inhabitants--and ten new member nations, bringing its total to 25. The 'rich man's club' is opening its doors to its less wealthy neighbours--amid muttering from many of those already ensconced in its comfortable armchairs. ...
The art of survival: Kenneth Noble looks at the importance of maintaining the Earth's biodiversity and, first, meets two daring artists who aim to let nature speak for herself.(Olly Williams, Suzi Winstanley)(Interview)(Cover Story)
Apr 01, 2004; ... A large, rather austere studio off Ladbroke Grove, London. White walls, exposed metal girders and a large extractor fall below the roof-lights which are the only source of outside light. A few chairs and a sofa. Yet wildlife painters Olly Williams and Suzi Winstanley seem faintly ...
Our hand in the future: what can be done to avert mass extinction on a scale not seen since the age of the dinosaurs.
Apr 01, 2004; ... Last summer I saw an extraordinary sight. A dunnock, a bird about the size of a sparrow, was feeding a young cuckoo which was about eight times as big as itself. European cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other species. Each female cuckoo has evolved to exploit a particular species, ...
Why should they be good citizens? James Wood teaches a subject which challenges both schools and society at large.(EDUCATION)
Apr 01, 2004; ... Since September 2000, Citizenship has been a compulsory subject in English and Welsh secondary schools. Its aim is to develop young people as fully-fledged members of all the communities to which they belong, from their school to the global village; to help them make sense of the world and ...
The F-word.(PEOPLE MAKING A DIFFERENCE)
Apr 01, 2004; ... THE F-WORD: Images of Forgiveness, a powerful and moving exhibition which ran in London in January, gave voice to 26 people from around the world who had experienced tragedy or atrocities. Their photographs, by Brian Moody, were accompanied by interviews by Marina Cantacuzino. ...
Restoring a Bosnian jewel.(PEOPLE MAKING A DIFFERENCE)(Donald Reeves)(Banja Luka mosque)
Apr 01, 2004; ... WHEN DONALD REEVES retired as Vicar of St James Church, Piccadilly in London in 1998, his mind turned to Europe. 'I still had some energy, and a lot of conviction, left,' he says. 'I began asking myself about the state of Europe's soul.' This thought led him to Bosnia and ...
Lesson from the dying.(PEOPLE MAKING A DIFFERENCE)(Leslie Davies)(Interview)
Apr 01, 2004; ... WHEN CANADIAN volunteer Leslie Davies set out to make a difference to the lives of the poor in Calcutta, she was surprised at the difference they made in her own. A former high school teacher in Calgary, Alberta, Davies now works as a human rights advocate in southern Mexico. In ...
Pride, perjury and the psalms: twenty-three years in Parliament, nine months in the Cabinet, seven months in prison--Jonathan Aitken talks to Mary Lean.(PROFILE)(Interview)
Apr 01, 2004; ... For a British national newspaper to print an extract from a new book on the Psalms* is unusual, to say the least. All the more so, when the book is by someone who has waged an acrimonious libel battle against the paper--and when the interview accompanying the extract is largely ...
Workers' butterfly aims to start a whirlwind: how can enterprises better serve the wider community? David Erdal has a radical solution.(BUSINESS)
Apr 01, 2004; ... 'Corporate social responsibility' has become a business mantra. But how to make it practical? It is one thing to pay decent wages, support local charities, or clean up the environment. But businessman David Erdal has a more radical solution. He advocates making all the employees the owners ...
My biggest mistake.(SINCE YOU ASK)(Letter to the Editor)
Apr 01, 2004 ... I WAS 14, and had been fostered on and off since birth. My mother visited me regularly and paid for my upkeep. But since I was 11 my foster mother had indicated many times that she'd be glad to see me go--she blew hot and cold. I recall standing in her kitchen; she had a ...
Ethics and the journalist: what does it take to make a responsible journalist.(ESSAY)
Apr 01, 2004; ... Bob Lowery, an award-winning journalist based in Thompson, Manitoba, once remarked to me: 'If God could trust us with success, we'd have changed the world long ago.' As a fellow journalist, that set me thinking. Dealing with failure is fairly straightforward. You hurt for a while; and then ...
Hope in Liverpool.(NEWS DESK)
Apr 01, 2004; ... IT WAS A weekend of hope as representatives from communities from around the UK got together in February to discuss initiatives being undertaken to bring opportunities to deprived areas. The occasion was the Hope in the Cities National Consultation, which this year took place in ...
Encouraging good governance.(NEWS DESK)(IC Centre for Governance)(Brief Article)
Apr 01, 2004 ... IF ONE WERE to total up the collective number of years of experience among the audience present, a new Indian centre for governance was launched amidst several centuries of work in that field. The IC Centre for Governance was inaugurated in December in New Delhi, although it will function ...
IC web insights.(NEWS DESK)
Apr 01, 2004 ... A SERIES OF signed commentaries has become a weekly feature on the international website of Initiatives of Change. Writing after a visit to Lebanon, Indian academic and author, Rajmohan Gandhi, said how impressed he was by Beirut, which 'provides a most impressive demonstration ...
Call for good governance in Switzerland.(NEWS DESK)(Cornelio Sommaruga)(Brief Article)
Apr 01, 2004 ... CORNELIO SOMMARUGA, President of the Caux Foundation, spoke at two public meetings in Geneva in January on 'Switzerland after the federal elections; the world after the war in Iraq'. International civil servants, diplomats, retired ambassadors, young and old were present, and ...
Beyond hunting, shooting and fishing: the once dilettante scion of a Scottish business family tells Paul Williams of the revolution that God brought to his life.(TURNING POINT)
Apr 01, 2004; ... DAVID HOWDEN HUME, who was born into a well-to-do business family in Scotland, pinpoints the major turning point in his life to an evening out at university. In the early 1950s, Hume spent his period of national service as a junior officer in a cavalry regiment. This was ...
The power of music: English musician Kathleen Johnson Dodds talks to Ann Rignall about song-writing, India and Renewal Arts.(RENEWAL ARTS)
Apr 01, 2004; ... Kathleen Johnson Dodds has always loved music. Even as a small girl she used to make up tunes. However, when she came to leave school in Hertfordshire, England, the idea of a musical career had never occurred to her. 'I was smothered with suggestions from teachers and parents and I felt ...
Narrowing the gap between ideals and interests.(CAUX CONFERENCE 2004)
Apr 01, 2004 ... A series of international conferences will take place from 8 July-19 August 2004 at the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux, Switzerland PROGRAMME 8-14 July: Service, Responsibility, Leadership: enabling individuals and communities. 16-21 ...
Cracking coconuts for God.(DATELINE ASIA)(Lee Jaeku)
Apr 01, 2004; ... On a recent visit to Bangalore I met a South Korean martial arts teacher with an extraordinary story to tell. When Lee Jaeku was five he started training in Tae Kwon Do. Now over six feet tall, he towers above his students, who address him as Master Lee. His passion for Tae Kwon Do and his ...
Too busy not to listen.(REFLECTIONS)
Apr 01, 2004; ... THERE IS SO much talk today--sound-bites, TV, radio, mobiles, internet chat. Do we take time to listen, even to think? We sometimes comment 'I hear you', but do I listen to what is behind the words--the pain or the joy, the fear or the hope, the desperation or the cry for help? ...
Romania deserves better than medical terrorism.(medical profession corruption)(Column)
Apr 01, 2004; ... Over the last 14 years, 160 British health professionals have made 267 visits to Romania under the auspices of Medical Support in Romania, a charity which provides equipment and training. Bemused by this, a young Romanian asked me why such numbers want to go to Romania, when young ...