Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 January 2003 — Page 4

PAGE A4

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2003

Critics bash Bush's delay of African trip

By EMAD MEKAY Spatial to the NNPA WASl HNtiTt )N (I PS) - President George VV. Bush's decision to delay a widely anticipated trip to Africa has prompted accusations from experts that Washington is growing callous to the world’s development problems. The White Mouse announced that it was canceling the Jan. 1017 trip, which would have been Bush’s first official visit to Africa its president. The announcement is a snub to people struggling with the continent’s heavy burdens — including 11IV/ AIDS, debt and civil wars — many of them fueled by U.S.-backed policies, said Africa Action in a statement. The decision is “wholly unjustified and insensitive to those dying on the frontlines in the war on

AIDS, a war more just and important than any war on Iraq, and one which George Bush refuses to acknowledge,’’ said Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, an Africa advc>cacy group in Wash-

ington.

Bill Fletcher Jr.,

president of Washing-ton-based TransAfrica F< >nun, said the decision maintains Bush’s policy of giving Africa’s poor

the cold-shoulder. “The Bush adminis-

tration has consistently demonstrated that Africa is a low priority, if a priority at all," he said. “From the minute they

Citing unnamed “domestic and international considerations,” the White House said the trip would be put off until

later in 2003.

A U.S. official reportedly said

the president would

The Bush have to stay home to administration follow developments has consistently on the explosive condemonstrated hontation with Iraq

„ and to track his do-

that Africa is a mestic agenda afte r

low priority, if a month's resigna-

priority at all. tion of Mississippi's

From the minute Trent Lott as Senate

they took over, majority leader. R . Bush had been ex-

pected to visit Senegal,

administration Nigeria Kenya, South

took over, the Bush ad- made it clear that Africa and Mauritius, ministration made it Africa wasn't On his itinerary was clear that Africa wasn’t even on their t * ie secon d annual even on their radar , » trade and develop-

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the United States and sub-Sa-haran nations, developed under the controversial African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), passed by U.S. lawmakers in 2000. “Once again, Africa is not a priority for this White House and the Republican rulers on Capitol Hill,” Booker said. “They think they’ve addressed enough Black issues with the replacement of Lott and they callously dump Africa again.” Africa activists increasingly believe that the administration is interested only in Africa’s oil and in using its territory for Washington’s self-styled “war on terror.” They charge that the administration positions the United States as a world leader while making decisions that disregard the development of Africa. “The U.S. government continues shamelessly to limit funding for AIDS programs in Africa and supports the pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to enforce patent laws against poor countries seeking access to affordable medicines,” Booker said. More than 3 million people died of AIDS in 2002 worldwide, 80 percent of them in Africa.

COMMENTMY SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATE ACCOUNTS

Why Social Security is a better deal that privatization [or women and their families Information for this article was provided by the National Women’s Law Center and is reprinted from The Legislator, the magazine of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. Social Security faces a long-term challenge, but it is not broken. It can pay promised benefits in full for 40 years with no changes; even after 2041, payroll taxes will cover 73 percent of promised benefits. We must and can address that long-term shortfall with adjustments that strengthen Social Security and its uniquely valuable features. Diverting revenue out of Social Security and into private accounts, as President Bush has proposed, would double the size of the shortfall, require deep cuts in guaranteed benefits, and jeopardize the financial security of generations of women and their families.

• Retirement benefits for as long as you live This guarantee of lifetime in1 come for retired workers and their survivors is especially important for women who tend to live longer, spend more years alone, and have less assets than men.

• Guaranteed, predictable retirement benefits Social Security’s defined benefit doesn’t fluctuate with the stock market and provides the foundation of women’s retirement security. This will be even more important in the future as employers move away from traditional pensions to 40l(k)s.

• Annual cost-of-living adjustments Social Security protections against inflation are especially important to women because they live longer than men.

• Progressive benefit formida Social Security provides a higher percentage of pre-retire-ment income for women who have worked for low wages and taken time out for care giving.

• Disability and survivor benefits for families Equivalent to a $400,000 life and $200,000 disability policy for an average wage earner and family, these benefits are especially important to minorities because of their higher rates of premature death and disability.

• Risk of outliving your account balance Lifetime savings can be drained by a long life, health costs, bad luck or misjudgment. Converting an account to an annuity consumes 10-15 percent of its value (women may pay more) and lifetime income will depend on how the market is doing when the annuity is purchased.

• Risk that returns may go up-or down Everyone should try to save for retirement. But investing has risks; some market downturns last for years. Investment fees cut deeply into returns: a fee of 1 percent per year would consume 20 percent of an account over 40 years. And small accounts are often charged higher fees than large accounts.

• Inflation erodes purchasing power Almost no private annuities offer COLAs. Inflation of 2.5 percent per year would cut the value of a 65-year-old’s annuity payment by 40 percent by the time she’s 85.

• Those who have less, get less Private accounts depend on how much an individual can put in and returns, minus costs. The system won’t compensate for women’s lower lifetime earnings.

• No assurances of family

insurance benefits

No plan to privatize has yet specified how these benefits would be maintained; workers would not have enough in an account to protect themselves and ‘ their families if their careers were cut short and many of those who need it most could not afford to

buy comparable private insur-

ance.

• Automatic benefits for spouses/surviving Spousal benefits are available to both sexes, but 99 percent of those who depend on them are women. Divorced spouses and divorced widows married 10 years receive benefits automatically, without reducing benefits for the worker or next spouse.

• Spousal protections unclear Would workers be able to spend all of their account or leave whatever was left to someone other than your spouse? At divorce, spouses would have to struggle over the division of limited account assets; women’s experience with the division of other pension assets suggests many will not receive an equitable share.

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Mayor lo hoslcilyMLK celebration Mayor Bart Peterson will join with City-County Council members, city-county employees and Indianapolis residents to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday at a city observance. The civil rights leader was born on January 15, 1929. The observance will be Jan. 15 from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in Public Assembly Room 230 in the City-County Building. A national holiday will be observed Jan. 20. Speakers and performers will include: • Keynote speech by Dr. Bobby Fong, president, Butler University. • Indianapolis Police Department & Marion County Sheriffs Department Color Guard. • International School of Indiana Children’s Choir. • A recitation of Dr. King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech by Alisha Jones, fifth grade student at IPS School 68). • Rev. James L. Tyson, pastor of New Beginning Ministries & Chaplain Philip Bacon, Indianapolis Police Department. •Local musicians Denise R. Clark, Terrie Daniel, Douglas S. James, Aaron Porter and Robert White. CORRECTION

In the Jan. 3 issue of The Recorder, it was incorrectly stated that Rev. Charles Williams stepped down as president of Indiana Black Expo. Williams remains Expo president.