The Democracy Center On-Line
Volume 44 - June 14, 2002
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK EVENTS!!
AND OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
1) Sacramento Book Event - June 20th
2) San Francisco Book Event - June 26th
3) The Democracy Center on Bill Moyers - June 28th
4) The Democracy Center to Testify Before SF Board of Supervisors
5) New Report On Budgets And Human Rights
6) "Volunteer Bolivia"
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Dear Readers,
This issue of our newsletter is a series of announcements, including
of two Northern California events (in Sacramento and San Francisco)
for our new book, "The Democracy Owners' Manual". We hope
that if you live nearby that you'll come and join us! The book is selling
well, thanks to
many of you, enough to require a second printing after less than three
months. Please also read the announcements below which are of interest.
Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK EVENTS!
Sacramento - Thursday, June 20 at Noon
The Avid Reader, L Street
(Directly across the street from the State Capitol)
San Francisco - Wednesday, June 26 at 6pm
Consumers Union, 1535 Mission St.
(Between 11th and Van Ness, 1 block to Van Ness Muni,
4 blocks to Civic Center BART)
If you live in Northern California we hope that you will join many
old friends and new ones for one of these two events celebrating the
release
of our new book, "The Democracy Owners' Manual". I'll be giving
a brief talk about the book and about The Democracy Center's international
advocacy work, including our campaign on Bechtel vs. Bolivia. Books
will also be available for anyone who doesn't have a copy and wants
to buy one. It will be great to see you all!
THE DEMOCRACY CENTER ON BILL MOYERS - June 28 at 9pm on PBS
The Bolivian water revolt will be the featured story on the June 28th
broadcast of Bill Moyers' new Friday evening program "Now",
including the
story of how The Democracy Center outed the Bechtel Corporation as the
owner of the Bolivian water company (PBS filmed me in my office in Bolivia
for the story). The program is always subject to last minute scheduling
changes but check your local TV guide that week and tune in if you are
interested.
DEMOCRACY CENTER TESTIMONY ON BECHTEL VS. BOLIVIA BEFORE THE SAN FRANCISCO
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
San Francisco City Hall, Room 263 - June 26, 11:30 am
Public Citizen, the International Forum on Globalization and other
activist groups in California are sponsoring a resolution before the
San
Francisco Board of Supervisors calling on Bechtel to drop its $25 million
legal action against Bolivia. At the groups' request, I'll be testifying
before a Board committee, telling the story of what really happened
during the water revolt and refuting the misleading information Bechtel
has given
to the Board. More information on the case is available at:
http://www.democracyctr.org
NEW DEMOCRACY CENTER REPORT ON BUDGETS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
One of the areas of political participation that The Democracy Center
has been involved in for many years is helping citizens to become advocates
on
public budget issues. In 1994 The Democracy Center founded the California
Budget Project, to provide the public with information on budget issues
in California and for the last four years we have been actively involved
in spreading this kind of public budget advocacy all over the world.
Last January, The Democracy Center was part of an international Ford
Foundation-sponsored conference in Mexico where advocates from Asia,
Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the US came together to look at how
to use public budgets as a tool to advance human rights such as the
right to food, housing, health, etc. The Democracy Center produced a
major report based on that conference - "Promises to Keep: Using
Public Budgets as a Tool to Advance Economic, Social and Cultural Human
Rights". For those interested, the report, including a brief summary,
is now on-line at:
http://www.internationalbudget.org/themes/ESC/index.htm
"VOLUNTEER BOLIVIA"
Lastly, as summer begins in the northern hemisphere, this is the time
of year in which we start to get many requests from people worldwide
wanting
to know how they might travel to Bolivia for a brief stint of learning
Spanish and doing some useful volunteer work. Friends of ours in Bolivia
have now started a small nonprofit organiztion to help people do exactly
that - "Volunteer Bolivia". For a modest charge the group
sets up
volunteers with housing, language school, volunteer placement, travel,
and seminars on local culture and issues. Funds raised from the program
are
used to support local environmental education projects. If you are interested,
you can find out more at:
http://www.volunteerbolivia.org/volunteer_bolivia/html/index2.htm
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THE DEMOCRACY CENTER ON-LINE is an electronic publication of The Democracy Center, distributed on an occasional basis to more than 1800 nonprofit organizations, policy makers, journalists and others, throughout the US and worldwide. Please consider forwarding it along to those who might be interested. People can request to be added to the distribution list by sending an e-mail note to mailto: info@democracyctr.org. Newspapers and periodicals interested in reprinting or excerpting material in the newsletter should contact The Democracy Center at "info@democracyctr.org". Suggestions and comments are welcome. Past issues are available on The Democracy Center Web site.
THE DEMOCRACY CENTER
SAN FRANCISCO: P.O. Box 22157 San Francisco, CA 94122
BOLIVIA:
Casilla 5283, Cochabamba, Bolivia
TEL: (415) 564-4767
FAX: (978) 383-1269
WEB: http://www.democracyctr.org
E-MAIL: info@democracyctr.org