INTERNATIONAL
GENERAL
“Q&A-”NGOs Are Here to Stay“; Aprille Muscara interviews Sam Worthington, president and CEO of InterAction. Interpress Service (IPS). July 27, 2010. – InterAction is the largest alliance of U.S.-based NGOs, with over 190 members. Its head, Sam Worthington, spoke recently with IPS about the role of NGOs in Haiti, the U.S. and throughout the world.
AUSTRALIA
“Push for private schools to reveal all income.” By Heath Gilmore. Sydney Morning Herald. July 29, 2010. THE wealthiest private schools in Australia should disclose income generated from trusts and donations as well as what assets and capital they have on an updated My School website, a leading union has demanded. Angelo Gavrielatos, the Australian Education Union president, said he wanted the website to publish all current and potential income available to both public and private schools, including private donations and property and financial investments. He said the total resources at a school’s disposal should be known to the wider public, despite a push against publishing this information by the private education sector. The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority is investigating the addition of the financial data to the updated My School website and a range of other proposals, including the measurement of a school’s ability to add value to a child’s learning. The independent auditing company Deloitte is working with state jurisdictions to make the financial data available, examining government funding, school fees, charges and other sources of revenue. ”This is a key issue, that the public knows the total resources available to a school, including income, capital and assets,” said Mr Gavrielatos, a member of the My School website working party, established by the then education minister, and now Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.
CATHOLIC ABUSE SCANDAL
“Bishops urged to challenge Vatican over response to sex abuse; Victim support campaigner says Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales must ‘name truth of past failures’.” By Riazat Butt. Guardian (UK). July 27, 2010. Catholic bishops in England and Wales must challenge the Vatican over its handling of clerical sex abuse if they are to be a “real force for change and justice”, according to a leading human rights campaigner. Colm O’Gorman, executive director of Amnesty International Ireland and founder of the victim support group One in Four, said it was up to the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales to “name the truth of past failures and wilful negligence” in the Vatican’s response to survivors of abuse and paedophile priests. He made the comments as the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission, set up by the church in England and Wales 2008, published its annual report. It said the Vatican and the British government had “singled out” the NCSC for its approach to child protection but that there was no room for complacency. It also said there would be more attention on those who had been affected by abuse. “Recent events concerning inquiry reports in Ireland and allegations in Europe have caused distress to many. This has further emphasised the need to improve the way we respond to survivors.”
Related story:
“Pittsburgh Diocese is sued after abuse accuser’s suicide.” Boston Globe/ Associated Press. July 30, 2010.
CHILE
“Chile Rejects Church Call to Pardon Officials.” By Alexei Barrioneuvo. New York Times. July 25, 2010. Sebastián Piñera, Chile’s president, abruptly rejected calls on Sunday from the Roman Catholic Church to pardon dozens of imprisoned military officials convicted of human rights violations during the era known as Chile’s dirty war. Mr. Piñera, Chile’s first right-wing leader since the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet ended two decades ago, had promised during his campaign last year to crack down on crime and have a “zero tolerance” policy toward criminal offenders. On Sunday he put an end to months of mounting pressure from the Catholic Church and some in the country’s right-wing establishment to make a grand healing gesture to the country by issuing sweeping pardons. “While we value the debate generated by these proposals, we cannot ignore that they continue to produce a climate of tension and division in Chilean society that many times reopens the old wounds and bitterness of the past,” Mr. Piñera said in a televised address from the presidential palace in Santiago. Standing up to Chile’s Catholic Church was seen as a bold move, considering the church’s well-acknowledged role in challenging the military dictatorship of General Pinochet and in harboring many human rights victims and people sought by the military. But the church’s reputation has been tarnished recently by revelations of sexual abuse by priests in Chile.
HAITI
“HAITI: Patchwork of Aid Groups Coming into Focus.” By Aprille Muscara. Interpress Service (IPS). July 26, 2010. – Half a year ago, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from around the globe flocked to Haiti to help pick up the pieces after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake shattered the fragile Caribbean nation. Many have since left, but hundreds remain, as does the logistical challenge of their coordination. At the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Summit at the beginning of this month, outgoing CARICOM Chair and Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerritt criticised the NGOs in Haiti for lacking a “level of order” and “basically doing what they want”. Ed Joseph, director of the NGO Coordination Support Office (CSO) at the U.N. Logistics Base in Port-Au-Prince, dismisses these kinds of assertions. “The claim that there exists a lack of coordination is a very mundane criticism, a sort of tiresome cliché that doesn’t hold up to investigation,” Joseph told IPS. While it is agreed that coordination is important – in order, for example, to prevent the duplication of services and to help ensure no one falls through the cracks – as Skerritt’s comments reveal, the question of whether coordination exists remains disputed, despite what Joseph calls “practical and demonstrable results”. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) report launched Jul. 15 on the response to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti noted this “perception of a coordination deficit” at the outset of relief efforts, but stated that since then, “huge” advances had been made to strengthen coordination between aid groups.
UK
“Private university approved by Government.” By Mary Bowers. Times of London. July 26 2010. The first institution in 34 years to be given “private university” status has been approved by the Government, as the Universities Minister called for more private universities to open. The law and accountancy college BPP, whose head office is in West London, has been given “university college” status. David Willetts has said he wants more private institutions to ease pressure on the growing number of students fighting for a place in higher education establishments.
“More expensive schools are less ‘charitable’ with bursaries, finds study.” By Nicola Woolcock. Times of London. July 26 2010. Independent schools that charge lower fees are more generous with bursaries than their well-off rivals, research suggests today. A report published by the Sutton Trust, a charity that tries to address educational inequality, found that, while schools charging higher fees offered more in the way of remissions, they gave a smaller proportion of these in the form of bursaries, which are used to attract or subsidise low-income families. Faith schools also gave a smaller proportion of their spending on bursaries. The study coincides with pressure from the Charity Commission that has forced many fee-charging schools to spend more money on bursaries for children from poor backgrounds, rather than on scholarships for bright pupils. The commission wants schools to prove their public benefit, to justify their continued receipt of charitable tax breaks worth about £100 million a year. The study, by the Institute for Education Policy Research at Staffordshire University, analysed the websites and accounts of 348 schools. It found that the more prestigious schools, some of which charge about £30,000-a-year per pupil, tended to devote a lower proportion of their income to subsidising fees. Using The Times league table, researchers found that a school ranked between 1 and 70 spent an average 4.3 per cent of its income on financial aid, compared with 7.2 per cent for one listed between 211 and 280.
Related story:
“Richest schools give least of their income to bursaries; Top private schools devote less than 5% of their fees income to helping poor children get a place there.” Guardian (UK). July 26, 2010.
“Gap between the health of rich and poor widest since records began; The economic downturn has had an adverse effect on people’s health.” By David Rose. Times of London. July 23 2010. The gap between the health of the rich and the poor is greater now than at any time since records began, a study shows today. Government initiatives over the past few decades have done little or nothing to close the gap between the life expectancy of poor people compared with those who are wealthy. A review of deaths between 1921 and 2007 shows that inequality between the rich and poor areas of the country is increasing, especially in relation to deaths before the age of 65. Writing in the British Medical Journal today, researchers from the University of Sheffield and Bristol say: “The last time in the long economic record that inequalities were almost as high was in the lead-up to the economic crash of 1929 and the economic depression of the 1930s.” People in the most deprived areas are much more likely to die younger than those in the richest, and things are no better than during the economic depression of the 1930s, the study found. They warned that things could become even worse, with the economic downturn of the past couple of years impacting on the health of Britain’s poorest.
“One by one, the quangos are abolished. But at what cost?” By Nigel Morris. Independent (UK). July 27, 2010. David Cameron vowed in opposition to rein in Britain’s quango state in an attack on a bloated public sector. His threatened cull of taxpayer-funded organisations yesterday became reality for thousands of workers as the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, announced that half of the “arms-length bodies” run by his department were to be abolished. The move to scrap such quangos as the Health Protection Agency provoked anger among nurses and doctors’ organisations, which warned that public wellbeing would suffer as a result. Across Whitehall, Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, was facing a backlash from the arts community as he brought the curtain down on the UK Film Council. To date, the Government has axed at least 80 quangos and warned many others that they faced mergers or deep cuts. In many cases their work will be transferred to Whitehall departments. Many more are to suffer the same fate as ministers desperately hunt for savings of at least 25 per cent in their departmental budgets. One senior government source said last night: “There will be further announcements. We believe that plenty of low-hanging fruit remains.”
Related story:
“Cull of quangos to save £180m in health sector; Health Protection Agency among high profile casualities in shakeup aiming to cut bureaucracy.” Guardian (UK). July 26, 2010.
“Charity backed by ministers broke rules on political links.” By David Brown. Times of London. July 27 2010. Four senior Cabinet members are advisers of a campaign criticised last night for breaching charity rules that ban political activity. The Atlantic Bridge has been ordered to “cease its activities” in promoting the “special relationship” between Britain and the United States because of its close links to the Conservative Party. The group was founded in 1997 by Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary. A list of fellow members of its advisory council includes George Osborne, the Chancellor; William Hague, the Foreign Secretary; and Michael Gove, the Education Secretary. The ministers Chris Grayling and Lord Astor of Hever and the Tory MPs John Whittingdale and Eleanor Laing are also listed alongside five Republican congressmen. Baroness Thatcher, the charity’s patron, endowed it with a medal and an annual lecture in her name. An 11-month investigation by the Charities Commission has found that The Atlantic Bridge Education & Research Scheme was “promoting a political policy which is closely associated with the Conservative Party”. The commission said that the charity had placed considerable emphasis on the “special relationship”, as exemplified during the period when Baroness Thatcher and President Reagan were in office. It said that promoting the viewpoints of the two former leaders would not generally be accepted by members of the public as being uncontroversial so could “not be accepted as advancing education under charity law.”
“A saintly Benedict needs to make the Church look beyond its walls; Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain in September has the potential to cause problems for the security services and the Catholic Church with some kind of arrest stunt or other confrontation.” By Ruth Gledhill. Times of London. July 28 2010. While the clamour for justice for victims of paedophile priests and for equality for women grows in the outside world, there remains within the walls of the Vatican a State in considerable denial. When the Berlusconi-owned conservative magazine Panorama ran an exposé last week of the alleged nightclub frolics of priests of the Rome diocese, the response from the Vatican was that this was nothing more than a sensationalist summer story intended to wake up Italians as they snoozed under their beach umbrellas. The response was an indication of how out of touch the Holy See still is with the problems of perception the Roman Catholic Church and this Pope face in the wider world. And it presents a potential crisis for Britain and the Church as preparations continue for Benedict XVI’s four-day visit in September.
“‘Rich, thick kids’ achieve much more than poor clever ones, says Gove; Education secretary tells MPs he had to act fast on academies because of huge gap in attainment.” By Jessica Shepherd. Guardian (UK). July 28, 2010. Inequality in Britain is so entrenched that “rich, thick kids” achieve more than their “poor, clever” peers even before they start school, the education secretary said today. Michael Gove told MPs on the cross-party Commons education committee that a “yawning gap” had formed between the attainment of poor children and their richer peers. Gove has come under criticism for using parliamentary procedures usually reserved for national emergencies to rush through his academies bill. The bill, which became law today, will pave the way for hundreds more schools to opt out of local authority control and become academies. Gove told MPs he had needed to act fast because the attainment gap was “a problem we can’t work on quickly enough”. “We are falling behind … other countries are moving faster ahead,” he said. “Rich, thick kids do better than poor, clever children before they go to school. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of our society, the situation is getting worse.” The academies legislation will allow parents, teachers and charities to set up their own Swedish-style “free schools”.
Related story:
“Blow for academies policy as only 153 schools apply.” Independent (UK). July 30, 2010.
“Michael Gove’s academy plan under fire as scale of demand emerges; Only 153 schools apply to become academies – despite education secretary’s claims that more than 1,000 had done so.” Guardian (UK). July 29, 2010.
“Michael Gove accused of exaggerating interest in free schools; Education secretary under fire after it emerges there have been just 62 applications for free schools, less than a tenth of the number he said had shown interest.” The Observer/Guardian (UK). August 1, 2010.
“Does the Big Society exist? Yes (but only in Windsor); Tanya Gold searching for David Cameron in London.” By Tanya Gold. Times of London. July 31 2010. The Prime Minister wants us all to pitch in and make a difference, but how? With difficulty. What are you doing this weekend? Are you joining the Big Society? Or, despite the Big Babble, do you even know what it is? Is it a Big Con designed to plug Big Cuts, or a Big Wheeze, to free us from the tyranny of Big Government? I watch the Big Speech that launched it, seeking enlightenment. “The Big Society,” the Prime Minister said, “is about a huge culture change where people in their everyday lives . … don’t always turn to officials, local authorities or central government for answers to the problems they face.” More detail, mostly anecdotal, has leaked out about how we can empower ourselves. Citizens, including Toby Young, the author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, might establish libraries, schools and bus routes. A random man has painted some benches and asked for nothing in return. It seems that Britain might become a paradise of communal living, full of women planting flowers on roundabouts. If we can live on nothing, the Big Society seems to suggest, we can live on love. We can fill the potholes with love. So how do we join it?
“Squeezed universities restrict gap years due to growing demand; Top universities will no longer hold places for 12 months, as competition for spots leaves 200,000 without a place to study.” By Jack Grimston. Times of London. August 1, 2010. Some universities will hold a place only for those with a definitive gap year action plan (sto)Some universities will hold a place only for those with a definitive gap year action plan (STO) Leading universities are vetoing gap years or capping the numbers of students they allow to take a year off to avoid worsening a squeeze on places in 2011. At some institutions, including Bath and St Andrews, school-leavers applying for some subjects are being told they cannot expect to have a place held open for them for 12 months. Exeter has imposed a 10% cap on candidates permitted to defer entry because they do not want to fill too many places in advance. For many teenagers intending to go to university, travelling around the world, working to save for their studies or volunteering for a year has become a rite of passage. Many universities have now decided, however, that it is unfair on other applicants if places are kept open at a time of unprecedented competition for entry, with a further surge expected in 2011.
