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"David D. Piney" <d.piney@victoria.tc.ca> · Mon, 23 Dec 2002 18:19:10 -0800

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From: "David D. Piney" <d.piney@victoria.tc.ca>
Subject: Africa's apocalypse; UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator
  said, within five years 30% of the people in Africa could die.
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<div align="center">Whom can we trust, the
collective human conscience or self-serving elitists? 
&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Democracy or
Mediaopoly?&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
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archives at, 
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On CBC's The National's feature on Africa on Friday evening, Carolyn
McAskie, UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that within five
years, 30% of the people in Africa could die, and the world is not
responding to this growing catastrophic crisis. Stephen Lewis spoke
briefly on the program using the words, &quot;bloody-minded
indifference&quot; about the world's lack of response to this critical
situation and to the 11 million orphans. He said, &quot;Sometimes I feel
unhinged.&quot; 
He will be interviewed again on CBC Newsworld on Saturday, Dec. 21 at
11pm and Sunday Dec. 22 at 11am, 2pm and 7pm on World View. 
 
© ©CARE 2002/Tanja Lubbers 
_____ 
On Topic with Stephen Lewis 
World Vision Today Magazine: Summer 2002 
Stephen Lewis Q&amp;A 
<a href="http://www.worldvision.org/worldvision/wvususfo.nsf/stable/forum_stephenlewis"; eudora="autourl">http://www.worldvision.org/worldvision/wvususfo.nsf/stable/forum_stephenlewis 
</a>&quot;AIDS is already the single greatest health crisis
that has faced humankind,&quot; says international AIDS expert Stephen
Lewis. &quot;If it hasn't overtaken every comparable plague in the past,
it will overtake it in the future.&quot; 
Poverty's hold on Africa means that HIV/AIDS wipes out entire families
much more quickly than in the United States. Already weakened by food
shortages or poor nutrition, a lack of access to clean water, and without
money for medicine, parents who contract HIV/AIDS have little hope of
extending their lives long enough to care for their young children.
 
Stephen Lewis, special envoy to the United Nations for HIV/AIDS in
Africa, discusses these complex issues in this interview with World
Vision Today. Stephen is a passionate advocate for children. He served as
deputy executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
from 1995-1999. Throughout his long career as a humanitarian and
diplomat, he has championed many causes around the world, particularly
related to Africa and HIV/AIDS. 
Today, Stephen works closely with African leaders to ensure progress on
the objectives outlined at last year's African summit on HIV/AIDS in
Abuja, Nigeria: to halt the epidemic's further spread, reduce
mother-to-child HIV transmission, provide care and treatment, deliver
scientific breakthroughs, and to protect the vulnerable—especially
orphans. 
We know that sub-Saharan Africa is currently the AIDS &quot;hot
zone.&quot; Why is the disease spreading so vigorously? 
You have a combination of things: poverty, denial, stigma, gender
oppression, transportation routes, migration, and civil conflict. The
levels of poverty are so great that people's immune systems are
tremendously fragile and susceptible to disease; there isn't the capacity
to resist. 
AIDS spread dramatically through heterosexual transmission in sub-Saharan
Africa. Transportation routes moved truck drivers and others from one
country to another, which allowed the pandemic to spread as travelers
contracted HIV and carried it home. Conflict, too, is a vehicle for the
spread of HIV/AIDS, through the sexual violence that occurs in refugee
camps and among the internally displaced. 
There is also terrible oppression of women who aren't able to refuse
sexual contact, and with that the reality that sexuality is difficult to
speak of. The stigma and denial are so intense that the pandemic can take
root and spread rapidly, and no one will acknowledge and talk about it
the way people talked about AIDS' spread through the homosexual and
drug-using communities in the Western world. Put all these factors
together, and it has been just a cauldron of self-immolation around the
pandemic. 
You say that culturally women can't refuse sex. Is that playing out in
higher numbers of infected women? 
Yes. In sub-Saharan Africa, women now constitute 55 percent of the
infected, and the HIV/AIDS prevalence levels among women are regularly
higher than men. In a number of communities in Botswana, the prevalence
rate for women between 25 and 29 has reached 51.2 percent—one out of
every two women in that age-range has effectively been served a death
warrant. 
How has AIDS affected families, communities, and entire nations in
sub-Saharan Africa? 
It has devastated family structures. Because mothers, fathers,
uncles, and aunts are dead, grandmothers look after four, five, six, 10,
12 youngsters. There's an increasing phenomenon of child-headed
households where [children] look after siblings with almost no shelter,
no clothing, no food, and no money to pay for school. If ever there was a
campaign needed in sub-Saharan Africa, it's to abolish school fees,
because children who are orphaned by AIDS can't pay for tuition, books,
or uniforms. They don't have a childhood left, let alone a family.
 
There isn't a sector of the social and economic infrastructure in these
countries still intact. In the education sector, teachers are dying in
large numbers, and students are removed from school to look after their
ill parents. The health system is affected because there simply aren't
the medical facilities to look after people; there aren't drugs to treat
opportunistic infections, and there certainly aren't antiretroviral drugs
[which work against the HIV infection] to treat full-blown AIDS. The
agricultural sector is devastated because they can't till the land, they
can't grow food, so people are hungry. President Olusegun Obasanjo [of
Nigeria] said that parts of Africa are fighting against extinction. He's
using apocalyptic language because in countries where the prevalence rate
is more than 20 percent, you often feel as though you're standing in a
graveyard. 
If this is Africa's apocalypse, why isn't more being done for the
suffering? Can we prolong a mother or father's life through
antiretroviral drugs? 
The drug companies have brought prices way down, but they're still
out of reach of the vast majority of people afflicted with the disease.
Of the 28 million people infected, only an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 are
being treated. There is a tremendous effort to find the money to
subsidize the cost or to provide the drugs free. Antiretrovirals are not
the cure, but they can prolong life. Even more important, they actually
encourage prevention, because if people have hope of life going on, they
will get themselves tested. 
What about behavior? Is it changing? 
Sexual behavior is changing. Family Health International, which does
a lot of work in Kenya, says that the decline in HIV infection rates is
found largely in communities where prevention work is being done around
[the topics of] abstinence, fidelity, condoms, early marriage, and
multiple partners. 
What can nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) like World Vision do
right now? 
There is so much valuable and hopeful work at the community level.
NGOs like World Vision that have a good reputation for doing things on
the ground can form partnerships with these community-based organizations
to provide care, prevention, orphan care, counseling. Another thing that
has to be done by NGOs, including those in the faith-based community, is
to speak out with alarm when they see delinquency—delinquency among
governments where the pandemic is rampant, or in the response of the
donor community. All voices have to be added to indict those who are
moving too slowly, perpetuating denial, or refusing to get involved. The
faith community has a big constituency; it cares deeply; and it knows
that this thing can be defeated. 
What's the most important thing Americans can do to respond to
AIDS? 
The most important thing is to become involved with an organization
engaged in fighting the pandemic. Give them support when they put
pressure on Congress or the president for more money. Support their work
in the developing world. Give financially. Simply get involved, even if
it's attending meetings, writing letters, making phone calls, stamping
envelopes, sending e-mails. It's more important than giving a few
dollars—it's actually embracing the issue as part of one's life, because
there has never been an issue like AIDS. You simply can't write off an
entire continent of between 600 and 700 million people. 
__ 
 
 
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Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2002 10:45:33 -0800
To: "The Collective Human Conscience":;
From: "David D. Piney" <d.piney@victoria.tc.ca>
Subject: Wow; PM ready to ban corporate political contributions by
  February. 
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<div align="center">Whom can we trust, the
collective human conscience or self-serving elitists? 
&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Democracy or
Mediaopoly?&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
Explore and download the
archives at, 
&nbsp;
<a href="http://victoria.tc.ca/~d.piney"; eudora="autourl">http://victoria.tc.ca/~d.piney</a> 
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&nbsp; 
PM ready to ban corporate contributions 
Last Updated Sat, 21 Dec 2002 8:48:03 
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has hinted in the past he'd ban
corporate donations to political parties, now senior officials say
legislation doing just that might be coming as early as February.
 
 
The idea is splitting the Liberal caucus. &quot;I can't believe the prime
minister really wants to do this because his entire life has been
supported by small and medium businessmen and women,&quot; said Ontario
Liberal MP Dennis Mills. 
&nbsp; 
Sources have told CBC News the money would be replaced with government
subsidies, taking away any suggestion that corporations are buying
influence. 
The Liberals have been accused over and over of handing out grants and
contracts to companies that donate to the Liberal party. 
 
&nbsp; 
Still, the president of the party is skeptical. 
&quot;I'm not certain whether Canadians will be very happy about being
asked to donate in a mandatory sense to all the political parties,&quot;
said Stephen LeDrew. 
The prime minister has been taking a number of unusually bold steps in
the past few months: ratifying the Kyoto Accord, moving towards the
decriminalization of marijuana, and examining the issue of same-sex
marriages. 
In an interview with Radio-Canada earlier this week, he said he feels he
has more freedom. 
&quot;In a sense, I'm in a better position because I don't have any more
worries about my political future,&quot; he said. 
The prime minister doesn't seem worried about a potential caucus revolt
over campaign financing reform. Senior officials say it's likely he'll
insist on a confidence vote on the legislation, thereby challenging any
dissident MPs to toe the line or risk triggering an election. 
 
Written by CBC News Online staff 
&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
 
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From ???@??? Fri Dec 20 19:41:41 2002
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From: "David D. Piney" <d.piney@victoria.tc.ca>
Subject: Nixon and Faisal 
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<div align="center">Whom can we trust, the
collective human conscience or self-serving elitists? 
&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Democracy or
Mediaopoly?&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
Explore and download the
archives at, 
&nbsp;
<a href="http://victoria.tc.ca/~d.piney"; eudora="autourl">http://victoria.tc.ca/~d.piney</a> 
 
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Nixon and Faisal 
WASHINGTON People who don't
know the Middle East sometimes wonder why Arabs mistrust the United
States. Perhaps an old story - from another time when people were worried
about war and oil prices - will explain some of what motivates the Arabs
now. .In January 1974, President Richard Nixon's back was to the wall.
Watergate was only the most prominent of his troubles. The continuation
of the OPEC oil embargo, and the economic consequences of that situation,
were a major frustration and embarrassment. Nixon and Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger were looking impotent before the world and before the
American people. .In late December 1973, there had been a meeting of Arab
oil ministers in Kuwait at which they had reached a decision that lifting
of the oil embargo should be accomplished in stages directly linked to
commensurate steps toward &quot;full implementation of United Nations
Security Council Resolution 242,&quot; which called for Israeli
withdrawal from Palestinian lands in exchange for full Arab acceptance of
Israel. .Kissinger was furious, seeing this as another instance of
intolerable Arab &quot;blackmail.&quot; A month of nasty bickering
ensued, with Kissinger growing increasingly intemperate. .Despite efforts
by all the Arab leaders to find a compromise solution that would placate
Kissinger, the Saudis, Egyptians and Kuwaitis remained in agreement on
one crucial point of principle: No linkage to Resolution 242 meant no
lifting of the embargo. The U.S. president had repeatedly promised full
implementation of the resolution, and his secretary of state should be
expected to honor that commitment. .On Jan. 25, Nixon sent another in a
series of personal letters to King Faisal, in which he made this crucial
statement: &quot;In earlier messages to Your Majesty I have said that
events have proven the wisdom of your counsel over the years. My
Government is now embarked upon and committed to a course of action that
can, I am convinced, bring a just and durable peace to the Middle East.
The first fruits of that commitment are reflected in the agreement on the
disengagement of forces signed last Friday, under which Israel forces
will withdraw into Sinai as a first step toward a final settlement in
accordance with Security Council Resolutions 338 and 242.&quot; .On Jan.
28, as the CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia, I received an urgent
privacy-channel message from Kissinger explaining in confidence that
Nixon was becoming desperate. Would it be possible, Kissinger asked with
extravagant politesse, to obtain King Faisal's permission for the
president to announce to the American people in his State of the Union
address two days later that the oil embargo would soon be lifted? .I met
that night with two of King Faisal's sons, Saud, now foreign minister,
and Turki, newly appointed ambassador to Britain. After lengthy
consultation with their father, they agreed that I could convey King
Faisal's approval on two conditions. .First, Nixon would be welcome to
announce in his speech that he had received assurances from
&quot;friendly leaders&quot; in the Middle East that an urgent meeting
would be called to discuss lifting of the embargo. .Second, the
president's announcement should include unequivocal linkage to full
implementation of a Middle East peace settlement based on Resolution 242.
The explicit enjoinder conveyed by King Faisal was that Nixon should
employ in his State of the Union speech precisely the same phraseology
that he had used in his personal letter to Faisal just three days before:
that the recent disengagement in Sinai was only the &quot;first
step&quot; toward full implementation of resolutions 242 and 338. .I
conveyed the Saudis' insistence that the key words &quot;first step&quot;
be included in the speech. This specific prearranged signal would confirm
and validate the public commitment of the president of the United States
to follow through on his repeated private promises to King Faisal to put
the full energies of the U.S. government behind the achievement of a just
and lasting peace for the Palestinians. .I clearly recall an observation
made that evening by Prince Turki, a young man of 27 at the time. He
remarked that by asking the U.S. president to employ the same words that
he himself had just written in a personal letter to a fellow head of
state, we could be confident that no one, not even Henry Kissinger, would
dare to portray the request as an unreasonable &quot;demand&quot; on the
part of the Saudi king. .Two days later, Nixon declared the following
before a joint session of Congress: &quot;Let me begin by reporting a new
development which I know will be welcome news to every American. As you
know, we have committed ourselves to an active role in helping to achieve
a just and durable peace in the Middle East, on the basis of full
implementation of Security Council resolutions 242 and 338. The first
step in the process is the disengagement of Egyptian and Israeli forces
which is now taking place.&quot; .&quot;Because of this hopeful
development,&quot; Nixon continued, &quot;I can announce tonight that I
have been assured, through my personal contacts with friendly leaders in
the Middle Eastern area, that an urgent meeting will be called in the
immediate future to discuss the lifting of the oil embargo. This is an
encouraging sign. However, it should be clearly understood by our friends
in the Middle East that the United States will not be coerced on this
issue.&quot; .It seemed that Nixon, with Kissinger at his elbow, could
not bring himself to honor the true spirit of the agreement. That last
sentence, containing a veiled but unmistakable threat, probably reflected
the resentment that Kissinger felt at having been outmaneuvered.
Certainly in Arab eyes, Nixon's choice of those words seemed to deprive
the statement of sincerity and credibility. After all, this tough talk
was coming from a frightened and insecure man who had been begging King
Faisal for help just 48 hours earlier. .The writer, a CIA officer for 26
years, was the agency's chief of station in Saudi Arabia from 1970 to
1977. He contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.
 
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From: "David D. Piney" <d.piney@victoria.tc.ca>
Subject: Some good news for a change. Europe's commitment to Kyoto
  apparent in their massive effort to harness the wind.
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collective human conscience or self-serving elitists? 
&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Democracy or
Mediaopoly?&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
Explore and download the
archives at, 
&nbsp;
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&nbsp; 
Converting wind energy into big business 
Marlise Simons The New York
Times Monday, December 9, 2002 
LELYSTAD, Netherlands When the
telephone rings in this Dutchman's car, chances are that it is a windmill
calling. A windmill? .&quot;It's telling me there's a problem, maybe it
has stopped,&quot; said Herre van der Meulen, a technician at Nuon, a
Dutch utility. .He searches through his laptop, checks the disturbance
and sends a telephone signal back to the computer aboard the windmill.
Moments later, the blades are spinning again, yielding electricity.
.&quot;Usually I can fix most problems from a distance,&quot; he said.
That he can do his job from afar is a good thing - soon technicians may
have little choice. Across windswept Northern Europe, hundreds of
high-powered turbines are being planned or are already under construction
offshore, beyond the easy reach of engineers. .&quot;Going offshore is
the new trend, and it's huge,&quot; said Bruce Douglas of the European
Wind Energy Association, an industry group based in Brussels. &quot;The
demonstration projects out at sea have been a success. Now people are
going for full-scale marine wind parks. Some are close to land, some are
so far you can't see them.&quot; .In the business, the talk is of a
veritable rush offshore. Power companies are staking out suitable tracts
of sandbanks, reefs and shallow open waters from the shores of Ireland to
the Baltic Sea. They are joining with offshore oil and gas companies,
including giants like Shell, that have the capability to drill and rig up
the 100-ton towers at sea. .Engineers say that wind parks at sea have two
main advantages: The wind blows harder and more steadily than on land,
and there are no residents protesting that great wind parks are marring
the landscape. On the Dutch coast near Lelystad, 28 windmills stand in a
perfect lineup near the shore, anchored in about six meters (20 feet) of
water. The swoosh of the wind going over the blades is barely audible,
even drowned out by the squawking of the sea gulls. .&quot;It's new, it's
clean, it's high tech,&quot; said Henk Kouwenhoven, a manager of Nuon,
who watched the towers go up in 1996. &quot;The offshore potential is
enormous. Here we never run out of wind. It blows 90 percent of the time.
The main issue is making it cost-efficient.&quot; .Wind power is already
big business. Europe's wind-driven energy has been growing at 40 percent
a year. With a capacity of more than 20,000 megawatts installed on land,
it now represents three-fourths of the world's total wind-power output.
Europe hopes to raise this to 60,000 megawatts in the next six years.
Much of that growth is expected to come from sea-based turbines.
.&quot;It's going so fast now because there is a race to go offshore,
with manufacturers and utilities competing for the jobs,&quot; said Corin
Millais of the European Wind Energy Association. &quot;Companies are now
talking of wind fields, like oil reserves or coal reserves, waiting to be
tapped. The beauty of it is that it is inexhaustible.&quot; .Advocates
see the move offshore as an impressive rite of passage in the history of
an ancient technology. For centuries, tapping the wind was the domain of
the miller, his family and his hand-set sails. .Even modern wind energy
had humble beginnings in Europe. In the 1970s, it was started by
grass-roots groups of often politically motivated investors putting up
one or two private windmills in an orchard or a field. There are still
thousands of private owners in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. But
wind power is no longer a cottage industry, and the windmills of today
are not the charming, stubby kind that once pumped much of this country
dry and became a national emblem. These are the modern variety, called
turbines, that are becoming sleeker, taller and more powerful by the
year. .&quot;The largest turbines now produce 250 times more electricity
than the ones built 20 years ago,&quot; Millais said. Today wind provides
an estimated 28 million Europeans with electricity, he said, about half
of them in Germany, Europe's largest producer. .The European Union has
been pushing to develop alternatives to fossil fuels, which are widely
believed to contribute to global warming. It wants 22 percent of its
electricity - and 12 percent of all energy - to come from renewable
sources by 2010, to meet its commitment under the Kyoto treaty to reduce
greenhouse gases. In the United States, wind energy has stalled at about
one-fifth of Europe's capacity. Here, wind projects have been encouraged
with incentives like tax credits and guaranteed rates, and the emphasis
is now shifting offshore. About 100 sea-based turbines are already
operating. This year, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Ireland and the
Netherlands have all earmarked large offshore sites and issued licenses.
Some of the projects are scheduled to be ready next year. .The new
endeavors are not without problems or critics. Environmental groups are
divided. Some defend the wind turbines as a renewable source of
pollution-free energy, while others fear the offshore turbines will
disturb fishing and spawning grounds and endanger birds that migrate at
night. In Britain and Norway, the military has objected to some
designated coastal sites, saying wind parks can produce false radar
echoes and disturb telecommunications. There are other hurdles as well.
Offshore turbines may be more productive, but building costs are 50
percent higher than on land and maintenance is difficult in a region
where winters bring Atlantic gales. .&quot;When waves are up and your
boat sways back and forth, it's unsafe to try and get onto the landing
platform,&quot; said van der Meulen, who monitors about 200 windmills,
including some at sea. &quot;You can do maintenance work really only in
the summer.&quot; .Then there is the price. Industry spokesmen contend
that, strictly speaking, the price of wind-driven energy is already close
to being competitive with other sources. They argue that traditional
fossil fuels and nuclear energy get enormous hidden or indirect
subsidies, to the tune of billions of dollars a year. For example, in
some European countries, governments pay for the insurance of nuclear
power plants. .While no one expects wind to become more important than
traditional power sources, enthusiasts are undeterred, and the growth of
wind-powered turbines is likely to continue. Denmark uses wind to produce
18 percent of its electricity, the world's highest per capita
consumption. Britain intends to catch up. .The British government has
designated 12 offshore turbine sites. Brian Wilson, the energy minister,
said studies had shown there is enough wind to provide electricity for
the whole country. He said he expected the global market for offshore
energy to be worth $12 billion by 2007. Most of that, he said, will be in
Europe. &quot;I don't see anything stopping offshore electricity
now,&quot; said Kouwenhoven, of Nuon, which has teamed up with Royal
Dutch Shell in a joint venture. &quot;Shell knows the offshore business,
we know the wind business. It's just a matter of moving ahead.&quot;
 
<div align="center">******** 
US use of Renewable Energy Took a Big Fall in 2001 
</div>
By Matthew L. Wald 
Friday, 6 December, 2002 
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 -- Consumption of energy from renewable sources, like
the sun, the wind and biological fuels, fell sharply in 2001, the
Department of Energy has reported. 
The department attributed much of the decline to a drought that cut
generation of hydroelectric power by 23 percent. Such variations are
natural. But in a report last month, the department's Energy Information
Administration also said solar equipment was being retired faster than
new equipment was being built. 
&quot;Back in the late 70's and early 80's, we had very, very large
support programs,&quot; said Fred Mayes, who handles data on renewable
energy at the energy information agency. 
Those programs, begun after the loss of oil from Iran pushed the price to
almost $40 a barrel, expired in the 1980's, and &quot;things went into
the tank,&quot; Mr. Mayes said. Equipment from the boom years is wearing
out, and the base of installed equipment is shrinking, he said. 
This is true even though shipments of new equipment have risen in the
last few years, analysts say. The number of solar collectors, which
gather the sun's heat for uses like warming swimming pools, has increased
sharply in the last few years, including 34 percent in 2001 alone, the
department said. 
A spokesman for the solar industry, Scott Sklar, agreed with that
assessment. But by the Energy Department's estimate, the total amount of
solar energy gathered has fallen three years in a row. 
The use of photovoltaic cells, which generate electricity with sunlight,
is also growing. Domestic installations were up 80 percent last year, the
department reported. 
Biomass, including burning of wood or similar renewable products to
produce energy and the use of alcohol fuels, declined nearly 2 percent.
The use of wind power grew more than 3 percent. 
Over all, consumption of renewable energy fell 12 percent to what the
department said was the lowest level in more than 12 years, accounting
for only 6 percent of the energy consumed in the country. 
Of the renewables, biomass accounted for 50.4 percent of the total and
hydroelectric for 41.9 percent. The remainder was from the sun, the wind
and geothermal sources. 
Many environmentalists say solar and wind power have the greatest
potential for growth and for displacing fuels that cause pollution and
are suspected of causing changes in the world's climate. 
The solar total is still very small; 36.3 megawatts of capacity were
added in 2001. At that rate it would take 30 years to add the capacity of
one large nuclear plant. 
For the first time since records have been kept, exports of solar cells
declined in 2001. That occurred, Mr. Mayes said, because the companies
that build the cells expanded production capacity in other countries.
 
Solar cells are still too costly to compete with conventional power, but
experts say they are increasingly used to supply small amounts of power
in places where connecting to the grid would be costly. 
Mr. Mayes said he was surprised to find solar cells and batteries being
used on the Strip in Las Vegas to provide power to light bus shelters.
Although the area has electricity, installing solar cells was cheaper
than digging up the sidewalks to put in power lines, he said. 
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.) 
© : t r u t h o u t 2002 
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Subject: Classroom segregation between girls and boys the way of the
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<div align="center">Whom can we trust, the
collective human conscience or self-serving elitists? 
&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Democracy or
Mediaopoly?&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
Explore and download the
archives at, 
&nbsp;
<a href="http://victoria.tc.ca/~d.piney"; eudora="autourl">http://victoria.tc.ca/~d.piney</a> 
 
 
</div>
School gives high marks for
single-sex classes 
Last Updated Sun, 24 Nov 2002 23:35:39
 
MONTREAL - Socializing at lunch is permitted, but boys and girls at a
Montreal high school must be taught in separate classrooms because of a
policy that seems to be paying off with higher grades. 
James Lyng High School introduced single-sex classrooms five years ago,
and school officials think the arrangement has helped improve academic
performances. 
 
<table border=0>
<tr><td width=162>Wayne
Commeford</td></tr>
</table>
The number of students passing provincial exams has jumped 15 per cent
since the program began, according to Principal Wayne Commeford. 
The dropout rate is down almost 10 per cent, he says, and the number of
students continuing their educations after high school has almost
doubled. 
He says single-sex classrooms probably aren't the only reason for the
encouraging numbers, but he believes separating boys and girls is at
least helping students focus on their studies. 
&quot;(The goal is) to offset the very entrenched perspectives each, both
males and females, have of their roles in society as teenagers and how
limiting that is for both of them in many cases, and especially when
they're each in other's presence,&quot; says Commeford. 
 
<table border=0>
<tr><td width=162>Sharing a
lunchbreak</td></tr>
</table>
Critics say separating boys from girls doesn't reflect reality and that
classrooms should welcome a range of abilities and interests. 
But some students at the school credit the program with helping improve
their grades. 
&quot;My marks have been a lot higher lately than they were previous
years because of girls being in the classroom. But I like it. I do,&quot;
says student Jason Bernie. 
Another student says mixed classes can discourage girls from being
assertive. 
&quot;When you're in a class with guys, they tend to be louder and they
speak over you. So you don't talk at all. You don't have an opinion. The
girls don't have an opinion when they're mixed,&quot; says Lisa Bruna.
 
Teacher Klara Bourne said boys tend to take a more aggressive and
risk-taking approach to learning. Girls, in front of boys, are a lot more
self-conscious, she says. 
&quot;Once you remove that reality from the classroom, the girls are
ready to take risks.&quot; 
Written by CBC News Online
staff
 
H e a d l i n e s :
C a n a d a 
 
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