Good News!

by Polly Mann, WAMM

Local Columnist Features Peacemakers
In May, Nick Coleman, columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, interviewed two well-known genuine peacemakers (as opposed to the so-called "peacemakers" who wear uniforms and carry guns). He found the peacemakers demonstrating outside the St. Paul Xcel Energy Center while George W. Bush was inside presenting his administration's energy policies. The peacemakers, WAMM member Marilyn Anderson and Marilyn Jones of Grandmothers for Peace, spoke to Coleman of their many years in the peace movement and the disastrous energy policies of the present administration.

Educational Project Seeks to Thwart Child Prostitution
In a pilot project, the British Starfish Initiative (funded by Parliament) will soon be sending three shipping containers to India, specifically to Malawi, Nagpur, and Assam. Each container holds one computer with six screens-enough to equip a classroom for local girls and young women. Seventy-six-year-old Helen Taylor-Thompson, a direct descendant of David Livingstone, proposed the program in response to the educational needs of one million children worldwide who are lured and forced each year into prostitution. In Malawi only 42 percent of the women are literate, in Assam 43 percent, and in Nagpur just over 50 percent.

German Chancellor Agrees to Shut Down Nuclear Plants
On June 11, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and leading energy companies formally signed an agreement to shut down Germany's nineteen nuclear power plants, making Germany the world's largest industrialized nation to willingly forgo the technology. The shutdown must be approved by the cabinet and parliament, where Schroeder's Social Democrats hold the majority in coalition with the environmentalist Greens.

Hindu Businessmen Expose McDonalds
Three Hindu businessmen who accused McDonalds of secretly using beef in their French fries were recently vindicated when the company admitted that it has lied to the public for ten years.