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Life & Times Transcript
06/08/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Low-paid soldiers are an easy target for payday lenders, but they risk more than just a paycheck. Major General Mike Lehnert>> If a Marine is shown to be fiscally irresponsible, their ability to be able to get a security clearance is going to be much less and, at that point, it is now part of his career dead-end for him. Val Zavala>> And then, it's a simple device that could change the lives of thousands of women. Why a local group is sending solar stoves to Darfur. It's all coming up next on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> Would you believe that some lenders charge more than four hundred percent for a short-term loan? And not just to you and me, but to our troops, enlisted personnel, American soldiers. It's become a real problem on our military bases. Sam Louie has the story. Sam Louie>> Camp Pendleton, home to the largest Marine Corps Base in the world. It stretches twenty miles between San Clemente and Oceanside where Marines train for combat. But there are dangers for these troops that many are not trained for. It has nothing to do with fighting a war. Instead, it's a battle against the temptation to take out a payday loan. Major General Mike Lehnert says Marines are getting sucked into a vortex of spiraling debt from payday lenders. Major General Mike Lehnert>> The highest density of payday lenders that we see are in California and the highest density within California are around Camp Pendleton, specifically Oceanside, California. Sam Louie>> The payday lenders offer an easy way for people to take out a low short-term loan with limited paperwork, but their fees can be extremely high. In California, the maximum annual percentage rate allowed is close to four hundred sixty percent. In Oceanside alone, there are sixty-eight payday lenders. Military officials feel they're aimed primarily at young soldiers with limited financial literacy. Major General Mike Lehnert>> That is a group of parasitic bottom-feeders that are taking advantage of a vulnerable population whose business is to defend our nation's freedoms, and it is a shameful thing. Sam Louie>> Payday lending sprouted in the 1980s with bank deregulation which allowed banks to move away from giving out small loans. In its place came the payday lenders. Here in California, there are close to twenty-five hundred payday loan stores. In comparison, that's more than the total number of McDonalds and Burger King restaurants in the state. The lure of quick cash is often too hard to pass up. The military estimates that twenty percent of active duty personnel were payday borrowers last year. They're also three times more likely to go to a payday lender than civilians. Sergeant Antonio Jordan is a former payday lender customer. Sergeant Antonio Jordan>> Basically, I found out about it just driving down the road. It said $255 instant cash. I really didn't know much about it at the time, so I just figured, okay, they might help me out for this pay period. Sam Louie>> For taking a $255 loan, Sergeant Jordan had to pay back three hundred dollars at the end of two weeks. That fee was forty-five dollars. What he didn't realize was how much the APR was. Sergeant Antonio Jordan>> The first time I got one, I did not really pay attention. I was like, yeah, okay, sign on the dotted line, sign the paperwork. Then when I came back, I'm like what? Is this even real? Four hundred fifty-nine percent interest? What? How can you pay that? Sam Louie>> That's right. Four hundred fifty-nine percent based on a complicated formula that few people can understand. For Sergeant Jordan, a family man with a wife and three kids, the debt grew as he continued to borrow from different payday lenders. Sergeant Antonio Jordan>> You got this debt with these payday lenders and then you got car payments, you got to put groceries in your refrigerator, you know, you got the insurance to pay on your car and other expenses that you have. So, yes, it kind of gets in the way. Sam Louie>> Eventually, Sergeant Jordan was carrying four loans with a balance of twelve hundred dollars. He realized he needed help and went to his commanding officer. Sergeant Antonio Jordan>> Bad news don't get better with time, so basically what I did was step up and told him what the situation was. Sam Louie>> His debt was eventually paid off by the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society, but there are thousands of others afraid to come forward. Pride is partly to blame, but so is the risk of a Marine losing his security clearance. Major General Mike Lehnert>> If a Marine is shown to be fiscally irresponsible, their ability to be able to get a security clearance is going to be much less and, at that point, it is now part of his career dead-end for him. Steve Graves>> Here's Camp Pendleton, an outline of it, and the little yellow squares are all the payday lenders that are in this neighborhood. Sam Louie>> Geography professor, Steve Graves at Cal State Northridge, decided to investigate. He studied payday lenders in twenty states covering more than fifteen thousand zip codes. Steve Graves>> The first thing I found was that the military bases indeed were targeted by the payday lending industry. Sam Louie>> That's because military personnel make great customers. Steve Graves>> They have a steady job. Their employer is a well known entity. They don't get paid much, so they are living check to check and they are likely to have unexpected expenses. Sam Louie>> Graves says payday lenders also make customers feel comfortable. Steve Graves>> They do a really good job of marketing to the people and make them feel friendly and as if there's no shame at all in taking out a loan, so they do a good job. Sam Louie>> But the industry disagrees that it targets the military or any other sector of society. Natasha Fooman is with Advance America, the largest payday lender in the United States. Natasha Fooman>> Well, the military is an extremely small percentage of our customers. Basically, it's about two to four percent of our entire business. Sam Louie>> Fooman says the growth of payday lenders, now at twenty-two thousand nationwide, is proof that customers appreciate their product. Natasha Fooman>> Many banks are not in the business of loaning money for this short amount of period as a payday loan. Sam Louie>> But she does acknowledge that debt can be an issue for some customers. Natasha Fooman>> We have a very small percentage of people that can abuse any form of product, whether it be a payday loan or a credit card or a mortgage. Sam Louie>> Another practice that critics find troubling is what's known as a rollover, basically borrowing from a different payday lender to pay off an earlier loan. Major General Mike Lehnert>> We'll see individuals who will go to six or eight or ten payday lenders over a space of a week and continue to try to roll these loans over. Sam Louie>> But California privacy laws prevent loan stores from checking on a customer's rollover status. It's one of a number of changes the military is asking the state to make. Military officials would also like to see the APR in California slashed from four hundred fifty-nine percent to thirty-six percent. Some states have banned payday lenders outright and others have significantly lowered the maximum APR. Natasha Fooman>> It would be difficult to operate that way in the state of California. Major General Mike Lehnert>> Most people would acknowledge that a thirty-six percent return on your investment is a pretty good rate of return. Sam Louie>> How this controversial issue is resolved remains to be seen, but Professor Graves feels we're likely to repeat history unless there's more reform. Steve Graves>> Our great-grandparents and our grandparents used to have payday lenders. They were called salary lenders back at the turn of the century. They became such a problem and a flashpoint for urban unrest. So many people were heavily in debt with no way of getting out that state legislature and the United States Congress stepped in and said this is illegal. Sam Louie>> In the meantime, the military is now warning its soldiers about another survival skill they need. That's how to budget their paychecks and live within their means. I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> How can people here actually help protect women who are being raped more than a half a world away? Well, a group of synagogues got together and came up with a way to help protect the victims of the genocide in Sudan. The violence in Darfur has killed half a million citizens. Another two million people have fled to refugee camps, women and children living in dire conditions with little food or medicine. They're forced to leave the relative safety of the camps and venture out to gather scarce but valuable firewood and that is when the attacks happen. Janice Kamenir-Reznik>> The women that are being raped are women twelve years old and older. These are female children who are being raped, together with their mothers and grandmothers. Val Zavala>> Janice Kamenir-Reznik is with Jewish World Watch. She helped found the coalition to end gang rape in Darfur, and how are they doing it? With these: simple heating devices called solar cookers. Janine Blessing>> It's like when you had a cereal box game as a kid. You know, Tab A, Slot A. The most high-tech element was this clothespin and you -- Val Zavala>> -- put that under there to hold it. Janine Blessing>> Yes. You put your rice in your water and put the lid on. Val Zavala>> It has to be a black pot. Janine Blessing>> It has to be a black pot to absorb the heat. Set it in a bag. Val Zavala>> Yes, believe it or not, these cookers are preventing the rape of scores of women in the Iridemi refugee camp. At the camp, firewood is used not just for cooking, but to sell to others. It's a valuable commodity that women will risk their lives for. Janice Kamenir-Reznik>> After a lot of conversation and negotiation and discussion, we came up with the notion of trying to convert an entire camp. Janine Blessing>> To cook some rice, it usually takes an hour to an hour and a half. Val Zavala>> Your basic recipe? Janine Blessing>> Rice and water and open up the bag. Val Zavala>> So it's really hot in there. Janine Blessing>> It's very hot. You'll see that I have a glove. You could not touch this without oven mitts. Here is your pot, okay? And there's your rice. Val Zavala>> Suad Mansour was born in Darfur. She works with international organizations in the field of women's development. She has visited the refugee camps and has heard the stories of the rapes. Suad Mansour>> One of them at the time, I personally witnessed it. Nine women went outside to collect firewood and they get raped. Val Zavala>> All of them? Suad Mansour>> Yes. Val Zavala>> And they managed to make it back to the camp? Suad Mansour>> For two days, women didn't come back to their homes and their relatives start looking for them. At the end, they found them in a soldier's camp and, after they raped them, they kept them and told them that, from today, you have to be our wives. Janice Kamenir-Reznik>> Most of our western solutions like advocacy for the women or rape crisis counseling to try to bring birth control into the camp, those were just not practical solutions for the situation. We just can't go into those camps and provide those kinds of western kinds of solutions. The society and the culture is very different. Val Zavala>> Now have you seen these stoves that they're sending over there? Have you seen them in use? Suad Mansour>> I saw them today here and the demonstration of it. Really it was so great an opportunity for them and I think that they not only reduce the incidents of rape, but also create a new opportunity for women maybe involved in other issues that empower them, so I really appreciate the idea. Janine Blessing>> The feedback from the women in the Iridemi camp is it frees them up to do many other things. It eliminates the danger of fire for their children. It gets rid of the smoke and fire which is so dangerous. Val Zavala>> Of course, it's really clean. Janine Blessing>> Which is really dirty. Then they can cook it by putting that in there instead of tending fires and tending cooking. They walk away and come back and it's done. Val Zavala>> And when they're finished? Janine Blessing>> And when they're finished -- Val Zavala>> -- it just folds right up. Janine Blessing>> It folds right up. Val Zavala>> That is so simple. Janine Blessing>> You can take it home. Janice Kamenir-Reznik>> Imagine in these very hot climates the women having to sit in front of these hot burning fires to cook their food and breathing in all the fumes and the danger of that. Also, when you're cooking with wood, you have to be there all the time and make sure it doesn't burn, whereas with solar cooking, it's slow cooking and they don't have to be there governing it the whole time and stirring it. You leave it alone which frees you up to give you a lot more time to go earn money or to otherwise be resourceful and do other things with your time. Val Zavala>> So the government doesn't acknowledge these rapes? Suad Mansour>> The government discourages anyone not to talk about rape and, if you talk about rape, you get arrested. Val Zavala>> Is that true? Suad Mansour>> That is true and that is why people are afraid and women are afraid to talk they raped, but most of them keep silent. Janice Kamenir-Reznik>> Systematically, when they do go out of the refugee camps, they are raped by the janjaweed who are the militia. They're called "evil men on horseback" like modern-day Cossacks, the militia of the Khartoum government who destroyed these peoples' lives, raped the women, branded them. Val Zavala>> Branded them? Janice Kamenir-Reznik>> Branded them. So after they are raped, they are cut on their thigh and it's a stigma, for them to be stigmatized. Val Zavala>> The coalition to end gang rape in Darfur has already sent three hundred fifty stoves to Iridemi refugee camp in Chad. Their goal is to send ten thousand more so that every household can have two. The cost? About fifteen dollars each, including the shipping. Janine Blessing>> You can do two things. You can send them a stove -- Val Zavala>> -- okay. Janine Blessing>> And that's wonderful. That's going to save a life. Val Zavala> Ready-made like this? Janine Blessing>> Right. But what's mainly being done is we are sending them the materials. Val Zavala>> Oh, I see. Then they cut the pattern? Janine Blessing>> They cut the pattern. They use a glue and apply the reflective surface and then they train other people in the camp in how to use it. Val Zavala>> Oh, that's great. Is it cheaper to send the raw materials? Janine Blessing>> Oh, yeah. Val Zavala>> So you think it will work? Suad Mansour>> Yeah, it work and I have experience about it before because, at the time I was in Sudan, I worked for organizations that introduced this stove for displaced women. Me, personally, I have been given one stove and I teach women in the camp how to use it. Val Zavala>> You yourself? Suad Mansour>> Myself. Val Zavala>> And do they like them? Suad Mansour>> Yes, they like them because they reduce -- not only protect them, but also in terms of money because even if they reduce thirty percent of the use of firewood, that saves money for them. Janice Kamenir-Reznik>> We are going to propose to take this solution much bigger than Jewish World Watch, to World Bank and to the United Nations and to all of the very large relief organizations that need to be attending to the health and safety of the women. Val Zavala>> If you'd like more information on the project, go to their website at jewishworldwatch.org. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week is the latest animated feature from Pixar Studios and Disney. "Cars" stars the voice of Paul Newman. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com, and Ella Taylor of the L.A. Weekly. Henry, start us on "Cars", please. Henry Sheehan>> Well, you know, we've had just one cinematic disaster (laughter) after another this summer, so finally John Lasseter and Joe Ranft, the late Joe Ranft, who co-directed this film and the people at Pixar have come to the rescue with "Cars". Very briefly, it's about an arrogant young racing car -- all the characters in this movie are cars -- who gets lost in the Arizona desert and ends up at a small town where he learns how to be humble and then he can go back and be a championship racer because he has the right attitude. Very simple, basic stuff. What the Pixar people do, as always, is they go very deep into character. I know you go deep into character (laughter) in these computer-generated images, but that's what they do. It's very funny, very charming, a wonderful film as always with Pixar for people of all ages. Larry Mantle>> Ella, do you agree? Ella Taylor>> I found it very funny and charming. I also found it visually quite stunning not so much of the car racing scenes, but of this town that they go to that is very down at heel but being renovated back to its glory days of neon which is very derived, I think, from Miyazaki films and just beautiful. I found it a little bit strange to have this folksy narrative attached to all this high-tech and the huge amount of product placement that there is in the film, but overall it works very well. Larry Mantle>> Our second film this week is "A Prairie Home Companion". Robert Altman directs the movie which is taken from Garrison Keillor's very popular public radio program. Keillor stars in the movie, as well as many other actors from Hollywood. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Ella, what did you think of "A Prairie Home Companion"? Ella Taylor>> Well, for a film that's essentially about death and endings, it's actually a rollicking good time. It's a very warm, genial film about the show of Prairie Home Companion with some of its usual cast and then a whole bunch of stars added, with the kicker being that this is the very last show because Tommie Lee Jones plays a business mogul who's coming in to shut the whole place down. It's very shot through with intimations of mortality, but its message appears to be, you know, just go out and have a good time. Meryl Streep is really wonderful as this old country music singer who's the mother of Lindsay Lohan who's also very, very terrific as her suicidal daughter. It's not a work of art, but it's just a very warm, enjoyable film and to me it felt like a refuge from the very horrible world outside (laughter) that we're going through right now. Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Henry? Henry Sheehan>> Well, I thought this was a very weak film. I didn't think any of the jokes were funny, with the exception of a wonderful deliberately vulgar number done by Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly which is just terrific. I didn't think it came up. I don't think it's really shot through with intimations. I mean, people actually die. People are going off the air. People talk about death constantly and Virginia Madsen plays a very mysterious woman who's dressed completely differently from everybody else and it soon becomes clear that she's fulfilling an intervention in the proceedings. You know, the characters are more contrivances, outright contrivances. I thought the performances were very uneven. I didn't think Lohan was very good. You know, there are some good, strong, vivid caricatures here and there, but that's all they are, I thought. I really never thought it cohered into the portrait of anything like the privileged world that it kept telling you it was about. Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, we have the drama, "The King", starring Gael Garcia Bernal and William Hurt. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Henry, what did you think of "The King"? Henry Sheehan>> Well, this movie starts out like it's going to be, I think, a fairly successful melodrama. Gael Garcia Bernal opens the film getting mustered honorably out of the Navy and he makes his way towards a small -- no, not towards a small southern town -- towards Corpus Christi, Texas or one of its suburbs where William Hurt is a pastor. It turns out that William Hurt, years ago, had fathered Gael Garcia Bernal in an illicit relationship and he since then converted to full-time Christianity and became a minister. It looks like the movies is going to be about their reconciliation complicated by the fact that Gael Garcia Bernal's character has fallen in love with his half-sister, not knowing it at first but continuing the romance after he does discover this information. Somehow the film just takes on too much baggage, too much melodramatic activity, which James Marsh, the director, can't sustain with what tries and strains to be a naturalistic approach. Larry Mantle>> Ella? Ella Taylor>> Well, this is a film by a documentary filmmaker and I think perhaps, conscious of that fact, he's gone, as Henry said, into far too much melodrama especially in the second half of the film. I see what he's trying to do is really a meditation on fundamentalism and an absolutist frame of mind that tends to repeat itself and increase in evil as it goes along. But it becomes so over-loaded with melodrama that it feels like an episode of "The Young and the Restless", plus killing (laughter) after a while. Eventually, I just had to resist the urge to giggle. Generally speaking, I didn't see what other people see in William Hurt. To me, he usually stands around looking expressionless, but here he's really, really good as the minister. Larry Mantle>> That wraps up another edition of FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC for our critics, Ella Taylor of the L.A. Weekly and Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com. Thanks for being with us. We invite you to join us next week at this same time for the next FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val Zavala>> KPCC public radio broadcasts the hour version of FilmWeek Friday mornings at eleven. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, we'll see you tomorrow. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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