Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g1185bu09610; Fri, 1 Feb 2002 03:05:37 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 03:05:37 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <002f01c1aaf6$9c1b5c00$c5fd5018@vc.shawcable.net> Errors-To: alcrsb@langate.gsu.edu Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "A. Schofield/S.Smythe" <andrewsc@interchange.ubc.ca> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:1925] Re: State of the Union Address X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 1837 Lines: 34 Janet Isserlis wrote: Also wondering what, if any, > comparable governmental things might be going on in Canada and > elsewhere? I could go on and on but in a nutshell the provincial government has adopted welfare to work legislation a la USA, closed all the women's centres, ended the hot lunch programs for inner city schools, (as well as inner city funding) cut funding to retraining programs for people in rural and declining resource-based communities, cut daycare programs and resources for childcare workers, tore up existing teacher, health care, and social service worker contracts and basically any other program or policy that constituted publicly funded social safety nets for families, particularly lone parent families, families with young children and low income families. Business and the media hail this as important "first steps" in creating a much more investment friendly climate. Who is coming in to fill the void left by all the fired public service workers but US based companies who will run our welfare system and "provide services" in our hospitals. All this is going to have a dire impact on women, and if there are any literacy programs left, they will become very different kinds of programs-much more linked to helping women find really bad jobs and to teaching them to "parent" their children "properly". There are, I think, intricate links between these very draconian privatization policies and the war on terrorism; the feeling here is one of bewilderment and confusion. Everything is happening so fast, no one has time to mount an effective opposition. But that is the strategy I suppose. Where to from here...I think we will need to look to the experiences of Africa, Asia and Latin America who have lived through this to get a sense of how to respond at the local level. Kind regards, Suzanne
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