Friday, January 31, 2014

TWO HUNDRED MILLION LIVING CREATURES GROUND UP ALIVE IN THE U.S.A. - SAVAGES !

 
 
A U.S. animal rights group is calling on the nation's largest grocery story chains to post warnings on egg cartons that unwanted male chicks are ground up alive, after videotaping the common industry practice at an Iowa egg hatchery.
 

In letters sent to the companies this week, Chicago-based Mercy for Animals says its undercover videotape at Hy-Line North America's hatchery in Spencer, Iowa, "exposes one of the industry's best-kept secrets — that the egg industry tears male chicks' bodies apart in grinding machines while they are still alive."

The group wants the chains to include a label on egg cartons that says, "Warning: Male chicks are ground up alive by the egg industry." The letters were sent to 50 chains, including Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, Safeway, Harris Teeter and Trader Joe's.

"The violence that you will see is standard and acceptable within the egg industry, and consumers have a right to know about this cruelty so that they can make informed and compassionate purchasing decisions," wrote Mercy for Animals' executive director, Nathan Runkle.

A spokesman for United Egg Producers, a trade group for U.S. egg farmers, called the proposal "almost a joke." Spokesman Mitch Head said Mercy for Animals had no credible authority, as well as questionable motives. "This is a group which espouses no egg consumption by anyone — so that is clearly their motive." The video does in fact end with a call for people to adopt a vegan diet, which eliminates all animal products — meat, eggs or dairy.

Hy-Line said in a statement it has started an investigation "of the entire situation," adding that it would have helped their investigation "had we been aware of the potential violation immediately after it occurred."

The video, shot with a hidden camera and microphone by a Mercy for Animals employee who got a job at the plant in May and June, shows a Hy-Line worker sorting through a conveyor belt of chirping chicks, flipping some of them into a chute like a poker dealer flips cards.

These chicks, which a narrator says are males, are then shown being dropped alive into a grinding machine.

In other parts of the video, a chick is shown dying on the factory floor amid a heap of eggshells after falling through a sorting machine. Another chick, also still alive, is seen lying on the floor after getting scalded by a wash cycle, according to the video narrator.

Hy-Line said the video "appears to show an inappropriate action and violation of our animal welfare policies," referring to chicks on the factory floor.

But the company also noted that "instantaneous euthanasia" — a reference to killing of male chicks by the grinder — is a standard practice supported by the animal veterinary and scientific community.

According to Mercy for Animals, male chicks are of no use to the industry because they can't lay eggs and don't grow large or quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat. That results in the killing of 200 million male chicks a year.

The United Egg Producers confirmed that figure and the practice behind it.

"There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens," said spokesman Head. "If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we're happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need."

Using a grinder, Head said, "is the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks."

There is no federal law that ensures the humane euthanasia of animals on farms or hatcheries, according to Jonathan Lovvorn, vice-president and chief counsel of the Humane Society of the United States.

Hy-Line says on its website that its Iowa facility produces 33.4 million chicks. Based on that figure, Mercy for Animals estimates a similar number of male chicks are killed at the facility each year. Hy-Line did not comment on that estimate.

Runkle, of Mercy for Animals, said most people would be shocked to learn that 200 million chicks are killed a year.

"Is this justifiable just for cheap eggs?" he said.

As to more humane alternatives to disposing of male chicks, Runkle said the whole system is inherently flawed.

"The entire industrial hatchery system subjects these birds to stress, fear and pain from the first day," he said.

Male chicks ground up alive at egg hatcheries! 200 million male chicks butchered annually by U.S. egg producers.
 
This happens in Canada too! Check out CBC's article on the issue here:
 

Thursday, January 30, 2014

IS FUKUSHIMA KILLING MILLIONS OF STARFISH ON THE WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA ?

 
 
THE CANARY IN THE COAL MINE
 
 
Seastar.jpg
 
A sea star shows signs of deadly disease that is affecting marine animals from Alaska to California.  Photograph by: Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre

Our coastline is losing sea stars by the millions due to what is suspected to be a deadly virus.

The mysterious illness has the potential to wipe out all the sea stars along the west coast of North America, said Paula Romagosa, a marine biologist and curator at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in Sidney.

"Events like this have happened before but on a much smaller scale. We've never seen one of this magnitude."

The die-off of sea stars was first detected in August in small pockets in Howe Sound, off West Vancouver and in Indian Arm.

Since then, the extensive die-off has been reported along the shoreline from Alaska to California.

Laurie Corbeil of Nanaimo noticed something was happening in the ocean close to her home near the Nanaimo Yacht Club.

"I've been watching the starfish and a large sea star for a week or two," she said in an email. "I notice that these are losing their limbs and turning to white goo."

She went down to the beach at low tide and couldn't find any sea stars — "only white blotches where they used to be."

Different species are being hit in different areas. From here to Alaska, it's the sun star that is dying off. They are reddish on top, covered with brushlike spines and have eight to 14 arms.

From Victoria south to California, the five-armed, purple starfish is mostly affected.

The loss of the species is troubling because sea stars are omnivores and will eat anything, including smaller sea stars.

"Everything in the food chain below them is going to be affected — all the bivalves," Romagosa said.

"There could potentially be an overpopulation of those species, and overpopulation usually leads to mass mortality from bacterial infections.

"Nature has control," Romagosa said.

The virus has not yet been identified, but it's under study at Vancouver Aquarium and some California universities.

"We're diving as much as possible, trying to document it," Romagosa said.

Adults are affected more than juveniles, "but in general, it's affecting everyone," she said.

Some populations are completely wiped out, including one near the Seattle Aquarium.

"You can see where the sea stars have died and there's nothing left," Romagosa said.

It could take decades for the species to recover, Romagosa said.

"It all depends if it continues on, if the populations are completely wiped out, or if the juveniles manage to get past it," she said.

The virus affects the animals in different ways. A sea star at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre showed it was unwell by developing a bald spot.

"It just remained a bald spot for a few weeks," she said. "There were no changes to behaviour, no change in eating habits. Then, all of a sudden, it turned into several bald spots."

The sea star was removed from ocean water and placed in quarantine.

"Within five days or so, the sea star got really, really skinny. You could see the webbing between the legs. Then it couldn't hold onto the walls anymore."

Others look completely healthy except for their guts coming out in strings.

There is speculation that the die-off could be due to water-borne radiation originating from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Romagosa said that doesn't sound likely because the first place it was seen was in a remote area of Indian Arm and not the west coast.

"It could be chemicals that are released into the water from pulp mills or factories. The most possible option is a viral infection."

There's little marine biologists can do than let the die-off run its course, she said. "There's no way of stopping it that we've found so far."

Sandra McCulloch / Times Colonist
December 10, 2013 09:41 PM

smcculloch@timescolonist.com

© Copyright Times Colonist

 

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

GOD IS MISUSED IN FANATICAL RELIGIOUS PRACTICES - LEV TAHOR

 
The weak, the ignorant, the naive, the mentally inadequate, the emotionally damaged, and those who fear being alone, rejected, are easily lured into cults. Repetitious brainwashing holds them captive. They are told that the leaders are messengers of God, and they believe it. The cult leaders live in the clouds and their disciples follow blindly and obey - often at great cost.
 
Phyllis Carter
 
http://adclick.g.doubleclick.net/aclk%3Fsa%3DL%26ai%3DB90fTiurpUsOODM-ZlQfFs4DgBsXC_pIEAAAAEAEgADgAWKWpi8VFYMnGqYvApNgPggEXY2EtcHViLTAzMTYwMTAwNjkwNzg3MDiyARd3d3cubW9udHJlYWxnYXpldHRlLmNvbboBCWdmcF9pbWFnZcgBCdoBX2h0dHA6Ly93d3cubW9udHJlYWxnYXpldHRlLmNvbS9saWZlL1F1ZWJlYytwb2xpY2Urc2VhcmNoK09udGFyaW8raG9tZXMrVGFob3IvOTQ0Njc0OC9zdG9yeS5odG1sqQIgGgqiwPutPsACAuACAOoCJDMwODEvbW9udHJlYWxnYXpldHRlLmNvbS9saWZlLy9zdG9yefgCgdIekAOkA5gDpAOoAwHQBJBO4AQBoAYg%26num%3D0%26sig%3DAOD64_1jONjGWsA61rHLivGYdKbPd8sElg%26client%3Dca-pub-0316010069078708%26adurl%3Dhttp://www.canada.com
 
Quebec police search Ontario homes of Lev Tahor
 
 
Quebec police executed a search warrant Wednesday at apartments rented by members of the Lev Tahor sect just north of Chatham, Ont.

Legal counsel for the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect told The Canadian Press that investigators arrived at the residences in the evening, searching for computers and electronics in connection to an ongoing criminal investigation.

The Sûreté du Québec confirmed its detectives led the raid alongside Ontario Provincial Police, but would not comment on the matter as the investigation is ongoing. The SQ's investigation into Lev Tahor began in 2013 after concerns were raised about the well-being of children in the sect.

Members of Lev Tahor moved to Chatham-Kent in November, citing pressures from the Quebec education system as the reason for leaving.

An Ontario judge will decide on Feb. 3 whether the children will remain in Chatham-Kent, or be sent back to Quebec to be placed in foster care.

Child welfare authorities in Chatham are now asking the court to enforce an order subsequently made in Quebec that would see 14 children placed in foster care. The order is being appealed in Quebec.

The community denies any mistreatment of the children and says they were already planning to move out of Quebec.

The Lev Tahor, which means "pure heart," came to Canada from Israel in 2005 after their spiritual leader, Rabbi Shlomo Elbarnes, was granted refugee status here.

MALALA YOUSAFZAI - A BRIGHT LIGHT IN A DARK WORLD

 
FACEBOOK
January 29. 2014
 
Phyllis Carter  posted to  Malala Yousafzai
Malala represents the hope of the world. In history, from time to time, we see a bright light appearing out of the darkness. Malala is one such light in our time. And as we have heard about Jesus, there are jealous, greedy people who want her dead.
 
 
Photo
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

SING A SEEGER FOR JUSTICE

 
 
 
Have you noticed
That protest marches are now marred by violence?
 
Have you noticed the noise, the chaos?
 
The death !
 
Have you forgotten the songs?
 
Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
 
If You Had A Hammer,
Would you hammer out
A lilting cry for justice?
 
WE SHALL OVERCOME
If we remember the message:
 
Next time you go out into the streets
To demand justice,
Remember Pete Seeger:
 
Sing, Sing a Song !
Sing it loud, Sing it long,
 
The word is the sword of justice;
The music is the spoonful of sugar
That helps the medicine go down.
 
Sing a Seeger for Justice.
 
 
Phyllis Carter
 
 
 
 

PETE SEEGER - HE BROUGHT US INSPIRATION AND JOY - HE WILL BE SORELY MISSED

 
 
But his courage and his music will live in our hearts.
 
Sing Pete Seeger's songs and remember justice.
 
 

Seeger's grandson, Kitama Cahill-Jackson​ said his grandfather died at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he'd been for six days. "He was chopping wood 10 days ago," he said.

Seeger — with his a lanky frame, banjo and full white beard — was an iconic figure in folk music. He performed with the great minstrel Woody Guthrie in his younger days and marched with Occupy Wall Street protesters in his 90s, leaning on two canes. He wrote or co-wrote If I Had a Hammer, Turn, Turn, TurnWhere Have All the Flowers Gone and Kisses Sweeter Than Wine. He lent his voice against Hitler and nuclear power. A cheerful warrior, he typically delivered his broadsides with an affable air and his banjo strapped on.

"Be wary of great leaders," he told The Associated Press two days after a 2011 Manhattan Occupy march. "Hope that there are many, many small leaders."

With The Weavers, a quartet organized in 1948, Seeger helped set the stage for a national folk revival. The group — Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman — churned out hit recordings of Goodnight IreneTzena, Tzena and On Top of Old Smokey.

Seeger also was credited with popularizing We Shall Overcome, which he printed in his publication People's Song, in 1948. He later said his only contribution to the anthem of the civil rights movement was changing the second word from "will" to "shall," which he said "opens up the mouth better."

SEEGER

Legendary American folk musician Pete Seeger sings the popular Cuban song La Guantanamera, with verses dedicated to Cuban hero Jose Mati in 1999. (Reuters)

"Every kid who ever sat around a campfire singing an old song is indebted in some way to Pete Seeger," Arlo Guthrie once said.

His musical career was always braided tightly with his political activism, in which he advocated for causes ranging from civil rights to the cleanup of his beloved Hudson River. Seeger said he left the Communist Party around 1950 and later renounced it. But the association dogged him for years.

He was kept off commercial television for more than a decade after tangling with the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955. Repeatedly pressed by the committee to reveal whether he had sung for Communists, Seeger responded sharply: "I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent this implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, or I might be a vegetarian, make me any less of an American."

He was charged with contempt of Congress, but the sentence was overturned on appeal.

Seeger called the 1950s, years when he was denied broadcast exposure, the high point of his career. He was on the road touring college campuses, spreading the music he, Guthrie, Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter and others had created or preserved.

"The most important job I did was go from college to college to college to college, one after the other, usually small ones," he told The Associated Press in 2006. "And I showed the kids there's a lot of great music in this country they never played on the radio."

His scheduled return to commercial network television on the highly rated Smothers Brothers variety show in 1967 was hailed as a nail in the coffin of the blacklist. But CBS cut out his Vietnam protest song, Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, and Seeger accused the network of censorship.

He finally got to sing it five months later in a stirring return appearance, although one station, in Detroit, cut the song's last stanza: "Now every time I read the papers/That old feelin' comes on/We're waist deep in the Big Muddy/And the big fool says to push on."

Seeger's output included dozens of albums and single records for adults and children.

He also was the author or co-author of American Favourite BalladsThe Bells of RhymneyHow to Play the Five-String BanjoHenscratches and FlyspecksThe Incompleat FolksingerThe Foolish Frog and AbiyoyoCarry It On, Everybody Says Freedom and Where Have All the Flowers Gone.

He appeared in the movies To Hear My Banjo Play in 1946 and Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon in 1970. A reunion concert of the original Weavers in 1980 was filmed as a documentary titled Wasn't That a Time.

People Seeger

Pete Seeger received a Distinguished Service award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters at the age of 92. (Joe Giblin/File/The Associated Press)

By the 1990s, no longer a party member but still styling himself a communist with a small C, Seeger was heaped with national honours.

Official Washington sang along — the audience must sing, was the rule at a Seeger concert — when it lionized him at the Kennedy Centre in 1994. Then president Bill Clinton hailed him as "an inconvenient artist who dared to sing things as he saw them."

Seeger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as an early influence. Ten years later, Bruce Springsteen honoured him with We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, a rollicking reinterpretation of songs sung by Seeger. While pleased with the album, Seeger said he wished it was "more serious." A 2009 concert at Madison Square Garden to mark Seeger's 90th birthday featured Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder and Emmylou Harris among the performers.

Seeger was a 2014 Grammy Awards nominee in the Best Spoken Word category, which was won by Stephen Colbert.

Seeger's sometimes ambivalent relationship with rock was most famously on display when Dylan "went electric" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

Witnesses say Seeger became furious backstage as the amped-up band played, though just how furious is debated. Seeger dismissed the legendary tale that he looked for an axe to cut Dylan's sound cable, and said his objection was not to the type of music but only that the guitar mix was so loud you couldn't hear Dylan's words.

Seeger maintained his reedy 6-foot-2 frame into old age, though he wore a hearing aid and conceded that his voice was pretty much shot. He relied on his audiences to make up for his diminished voice, feeding his listeners the lines and letting them sing out.

"I can't sing much," he said. "I used to sing high and low. Now I have a growl somewhere in between."

Nonetheless, in 1997 he won a Grammy for best traditional folk album, Pete.

Seeger was born in New York City on May 3, 1919, into an artistic family whose roots traced to religious dissenters of colonial America. His mother, Constance, played violin and taught; his father, Charles, a musicologist, was a consultant to the Resettlement Administration, which gave artists work during the Depression. His uncle Alan Seeger, the poet, wrote I Have a Rendezvous With Death.

Pete Seeger said he fell in love with folk music when he was 16, at a music festival in North Carolina in 1935. His half brother, Mike Seeger, and half sister, Peggy Seeger, also became noted performers.

He learned the five-string banjo, an instrument he rescued from obscurity and played the rest of his life in a long-necked version of his own design. On the skin of Seeger's banjo was the phrase, "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender" — a nod to his old pal Guthrie, who emblazoned his guitar with "This machine kills fascists."

Dropping out of Harvard in 1938 after two years as a disillusioned sociology major, he hit the road, picking up folk tunes as he hitchhiked or hopped freights.

"The sociology professor said, 'Don't think that you can change the world. The only thing you can do is study it,"' Seeger said in October 2011.

In 1940, with Guthrie and others, he was part of the Almanac Singers and performed benefits for disaster relief and other causes.

'The idea of using music to try to get the world together is now all over the place.'- Pete Seeger, folk singer and activist

He and Guthrie also toured migrant camps and union halls. He sang on overseas radio broadcasts for the Office of War Information early in World War II. In the Army, he spent 3½ years in Special Services, entertaining soldiers in the South Pacific, and made corporal.

Pete and Toshi Seeger were married July 20, 1943. The couple built their cabin in Beacon after World War II and stayed on the high spot of land by the Hudson River for the rest of their lives together. The couple raised three children. Toshi Seeger died in July at age 91.

The Hudson River was a particular concern of Seeger. He took the sloop Clearwater, built by volunteers in 1969, up and down the Hudson, singing to raise money to clean the water and fight polluters.

He also offered his voice in opposition to racism and the death penalty. He got himself jailed for five days for blocking traffic in Albany in 1988 in support of Tawana Brawley, a black teenager whose claim of having been raped by white men was later discredited. He continued to take part in peace protests during the war in Iraq, and he continued to lend his name to causes.

"Can't prove a damn thing, but I look upon myself as old grandpa," Seeger told the AP in 2008 when asked to reflect on his legacy. "There's not dozens of people now doing what I try to do, not hundreds, but literally thousands ... The idea of using music to try to get the world together is now all over the place."

The Canadian Press

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/pete-seeger-dead-folk-singer-and-activist-dies-at-94-1.2513591

Monday, January 27, 2014

CHILDREN RISK THEIR LIVES 60 FEET DEEP UNDER FILTHY WATER - FOR YOUR GOLD RINGS

 
 
 
A miner prepares to enter a compressor mine near the coastal mining area near Peracale. Image by Larry C. Price. Philippines, 2012.
 
Larry C. Price for the Pulitzer Center

In the coastal areas of the Philippines, much of the clay containing the gold ore is below the water table. This means most mining activity must take place under water. In modern times, successful mining involves cheating the sea with low-tech techniques borrowed from local fisherman.

They call the practice compressor mining. It's the most deadly gold extraction method on earth and is unique to this part of the Philippines. Compressor mining is considered illegal under Philippine law, but the law is largely ignored.

Miners work underwater, breathing through a slender tube attached to a compressor on the surface--hence the name. Fishermen breathed through tubes such as these for generations, but even in relatively shallow waters, the practice is extremely dangerous. Drownings, accidents and carbon monoxide poisoning from faulty compressors are common.

 

Philippines: The Cost of Gold

Tiny children and teens toil in the gold mines of the Philippines. It is very risky business, sometimes deadly. But child labor is growing as families rush to exploit the worldwide craze for gold.
 
 
 

MY COMPUTER HATES ME

 
Those of us who lack tech savvy,
Suffer alone.
 
Each in our own place,
Trying to compose articles,
To communicate our ideas,
May run into tech problems
About which we know nothing.
 
But does the machine care that
Creativity is being frazzled,
Ideas are being overshadowed,
The creator is frustrated and weary,
Struggling to report,
To tell,
To reveal,
To enlighten?
 
The machine doesn't care !
It is a heartless animal.
 
Nay! Worse than an animal ! 
Animals have feelings:
Dear creatures. 
 
My computer has some sort of brain,
But it definitely has no heart.
 

Saturday, January 25, 2014

SAVAGE SLAUGHTER BY DENMARK

 
We have learned to expect this kind of savagery from the Japanese, but I did not expect this from Denmark.
 
FACEBOOK
January 25, 2014
 
 
SHAME ON DENMARK! In the name of tradition Denmark's Faroe Islands' waters are stained red. Why? So that young teens participating in this massacre can mature into "adults".  Spectators gather at the shoreline to celebrate while hundreds of dolphins are impaled with thick dull hooks over and over again. It sometimes takes hours for these friendly animals to die, suffocating in their own blood.  

Slaughter.  That s a strong word & but not strong enough.  How else could one describe these images?

WATCH, Graphic Video: http://www.protecttheocean.com/denmark-continues-dolphin-slaughter-warning-graphic-images/
 
SHAME ON DENMARK! In the name of tradition Denmark's Faroe Islands' waters are stained red. Why? So that young teens participating in this massacre can mature into "adults". Spectators gather at the shoreline to celebrate while hundreds of dolphins are impaled with thick dull hooks over and over again. It sometimes takes hours for these friendly animals to die, suffocating in their own blood.

Slaughter. That's a strong word… but not strong enough. How else could one describe these images?

WATCH, Graphic Video: http://www.protecttheocean.com/denmark-continues-dolphin-slaughter-warning-graphic-images/
 
 
 

THE RAGE ! MY RAGE ! DEATH OF THE INNOCENTS IN INDIA - INDEPENDENT LENS

 
The rage !  The anguish !  The agony ! Watching PBS' Independent lens, I watch little children in India dying of AIDS. Bad enough! But so many of those beautiful boys and girls are suffering because of the cruelty of villagers who make themselves gods and refuse medical help.
 
Their ignorance and arrogance and superstition force little children to undergo magical rituals while they wither away full of sores and pain - and they die - not only from the disease, but because of the acts of their own people.
 
Anyone coming into their territory to help is subject to hatred and accusations. A lovely little girl is finally swept away from the villageras with almost no life left in her as the young man in this PBS film tries to get her to a hospital. The child is too far gone. She dies. The arrogant community leaders blame her rescuer for her death.
 
This is what is happening in India today. The ignorance and superstition and arrogance of people who make themselves gods are killing hundreds of little children.
 

Rocky Braat and one of the many HIV-positive orphans he is working with in India

Rocky Braat and one of the many
HIV-positive orphans he is working with in India
Courtesy PBS.org
 

Why would someone leave everything behind to devote their life to helping others? Director Steve Hoover explores that question in Blood Brother, the remarkable story of his long-time friend Rocky Braat, who did exactly that. A young man from a fractured family and a troubled past, Braat went traveling through India without a plan. There he met a group of HIV-positive children living in an orphanage — a meeting that changed everything for him.

Braat left his life, friends, and career in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to live with the kids. Filmmaker Steve Hoover was intrigued and unnerved by his best friend's radical life change. In an effort to find out what compelled him to give up every source of stability in his life, Hoover decided to trace Braat's story, following him to India.

He witnessed Rocky and the kids endure disease, abject poverty, and death. But in the midst of all these troubles, he also saw their deep joy, and came to understand why Rocky had given up everything he had to experience it. Blood Brother is a story of friendship and of life stripped down to its essence.

As tragic as are the stories of adults with HIV, those involving children –and orphaned children at that – who are HIV-positive are even more heart-breaking, and rarely if ever told. Blood Brother, the newest entry in the Independent Lens series on PBS, tells that story, and does it by following a remarkable young man from Pittsburgh who gave up everything to help such afflicted children in India.

Rocky Braat is that man, and his good friend director Steve Hoover was so moved by Rocky's selflessness that he followed him to India to chronicle his story. And what a story it is: a deeply moving, heart-rending yet also incredibly uplifting tale of both how a jaded, disillusioned and lost young man helped those in dire need – and at the same time was himself given a new outlook and purpose on life by the very children he came to aid.

from Blood Brother

Rocky: I was moved by my entire experience in India, but there are two very moving scenes in Blood Brother for me. The death of Vemethi was especially troubling because I had never witnessed a child dying. It was especially difficult because I had known her prior to her death, she wasn't a complete stranger. It was sad to know that she didn't have to die, it could have been prevented. The most victorious and moving scene to me, though, was Surya's entire hospital experience. I have too much to say about it all, but there's nothing more inspiring than seeing someone come so close to death, then turning the corner and coming back to life. Despair to hope, it was a glorious time.

I hope that the film not only deeply benefits the subjects, giving them more resources and opportunities for life, but also hope the film will inspire audiences on a personal level. I don't have specifics for what I want people to do with that inspiration; I believe that's up to the individual to figure that out. However, we do have outlets for people to get involved to help with the causes and people in the film.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/blood-brother-filmmaker-interview

Friday, January 24, 2014

PIERRE ELLIOTT TRUDEAU PROMISED ME A JUST SOCIETY - I AM CLAIMING MY RIGHT TO IT

 
 
In Montreal, Quebec, Canada,
Criminals have all the rights,
"Crime victims",
A police offieer told me,
"Have none."
 
In Montreal, Quebec, Canada,
The police help the criminals
Thus, crime victims are doubly abused.
 
In a "Just Society"
The punishment would fit the crime.
 
In Montreal, Quebec, Canada,
Only the victims are punished.
 
In Montreal, Quebec, Canada,
Only the wealthy and the well-connected
Can hope for "justice".
 
Where is my "Just Society"?
 
 

SAVAGE BRUTALITY - INDIAN COURT ORDERS GIRL TO BE GANG RAPED

 
 
Woman, 20, sentenced to 'gang rape' by village court in east India.
Punished for having a relationship with a man from another village.
She was fined £490, but was taken away when she couldn't pay it.
The 'judges' locked her in a shed where 13 men raped her overnight.
 
 
Abhorrent: The 20-year-old woman, pictured arriving at a hospital in Western Bengal, was discovered with a man of another religion and was dragged to a 'village court' where elders sentenced her to be gang raped

The 20-year-old woman, pictured arriving at a hospital in Western Bengal.


By Richard Shears
 
20-year-old woman has been left fighting for her life in hospital today after a kangaroo court in India ordered her to be gang-raped for having an affair with a youth from another village.
 
The brutal punishment was allegedly carried out by the very same 'court' which found her guilty in a village near Suri in west Bengal state, 150 miles from Kolkata, police said.
 
Police said that all 13 accused men - ten of whom made up the kangaroo court - have since been arrested for rape. Among them is the village headman.
Despite her critical condition and clinging to life, the female victim managed to tell her story to The Times of India.
 
 
Police arrest around a dozen people in connection with the gang rape of a 20-year-old woman from Birbhum District in West Bengal, India.

Police arrest around a dozen people in connection with the gang rape of a 20-year-old woman from Birbhum District in West Bengal, India.

 
The men are accused of brutalising a woman as punishment for her having an affair

The men are accused of brutalising a woman as punishment for her having an affair

Ten of the accused took part in the kangaroo court, police said

Ten of the accused took part in the kangaroo court, police said

The victim of the alleged rapists was left barely clinging to life

The victim of the alleged rapists was left barely clinging to life

'I had an affair with a man,' she told the paper.

'We were dragged to a gathering where our community headman was present. They told me to pay 50,000 rupees (£490). When I said I couldn't, they brutalised me.'
 
A doctor told the paper that the young woman was alive 'only because she is a tough tribal girl.'
 
The woman's distraught mother said that 'the crime was committed by our own people.'
 
She added: 'They tortured my daughter and dumped her home late at night. We were threatened not to go to police.
 
'We tried to go to Bolpur hospital, but they stopped us.'
 
The paper said the woman was raped in a village in the Labhpur police station area.
 
It was on Monday afternoon that a group of tribal men found the woman sitting with her lover, who is from Chowhatta village and of a different religion.
 
They dragged the two of them to a religious place known as a 'than' where a makeshift court was hastily put together on the orders of the tribal chieftan.
Police said that the youth was told to pay a fine of £245 and warned that if he did not pay, men from the village would 'have fun with the girl.'
 
With no money forthcoming, the woman was allegedly tied to a tree before she was forced into a shed and raped continuously until Tuesday morning.
 
The woman's family were forced to remain indoors throughout Tuesday, doing their best to care for their daughter who was bleeding from severe injuries.
 
According to the Times of India, the family managed to slip out late on Wednesday afternoon and take the woman to a health centre, where doctors said she should be taken immediately to the nearest hospital.
 
But from that hospital she was shifted on to Suri hospital in a critical condition at night.
 
'This is when the crime came to light,' said police officer Prashanta Chowdhury. 'She was gang raped and the details are yet to be investigated.'
 
The shocking incident is not the first time that a woman has been punished for having an affair in the area.
 
Four years ago a teenage girl was stripped and forced to walk naked through four villages, during which hundreds of people molested her and mocked her.
They even filmed her with mobile phones, which resulted in police moving into the area and making arrests.

The girl received a bravery award from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and today she lives in a state-run welfare home.
 
More:
 
Schoolgirl gang-raped by five men as she walked home when she was 13 but was left so traumatised she didn't tell anyone for three years.
 
Killer who kept six women as sex slaves in a home-made dungeon and murdered two of them is executed in China.

Inside India's trafficking gangs: Lifting the lid on the criminals who steal girls as young as NINE and sell them into the sex trade
 
PUBLISHED: 03:42 EST, 23 January 2014
 

QUEBEC CANADIANS FOR COEXISTENCE - FACEBOOK ADDRESS

 
 
QUEBEC CANADIANS FOR COEXISTENCE  - 
FACEBOOK ADDRESS
 
 
 
 FACEBOOK
Canadians for Coexistence (group)
January 24, 2014
 
https://www.facebook.com/sterling.osmond
 
Have a concern about what is happening in Quebec?
Contact the Prime Minister of Canada
 
 

FEAR OF THE POLICE SILENCES CRIME VICTIMS IN MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA

 
 
Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is just after 5:30 AM. I rose from a brief sleep, haunted by this story that I must write.
 
I am a 77 year old Montreal journalist and blogger. More than 126,000 people around the world have now read my reports at Phyllis Carter's Journal and The Dawn McSweeney Crime Case.
 
I am handicapped and I take taxis frequently. During my drives, I engage the driver in conversation, as is my wont, to elicit their experiences, to learn about their cultures, to give the person a chance to express himself and share his feelings.
 
I am not a fiction writer. The core of my being is that of a reporter, a person driven to seek justice for those who are oppressed and suffer in fear and silence.
 
In Montreal, Quebec, Canada,  there is much to fear and the silence of the lambs prevents the general public from noticing what is happening right under their noses.
 
Yesterday, on my drive home from hospital, I engaged the taxi driver in conversation. When I told him who I was, he opened up to me. People usually do.
 
Now I will tell you his story. I invited him to put his experience in writing so that I could publish it in his own words - with or without his name - because he is afraid. Will he write to me? They usually do not. And that is why, to date, I have not reported the many stories told to me about the Montreal Police by taxi drivers. But this time, I must do it. I can't sleep if I don't tell.
 
For the purpose of this report, I will call the taxi driver Joseph. I will call the mysterious attacker Mr.Blank.
 
Here is Joseph's story, as he told it to me: I will write in the first person so the reader can sense his feelings through me.
 
"I was driving along at normal speed. I had no passenger. Suddenly a car struck me from behind. Then the car proceeded to come around my left side and we both stopped.
 
Mr. Blank got out of his vehicle and approached my car. I opened my widow slightly.
 
Mr. Blank flashed a badge before my eyes."
 
(Here I do not remember what Mr. Blank said to Joseph.)
 
"His manner was menacing. He splashed some liquid in my face. I don't know why. 
 
Mr. Blank then returned to his vehicle and drove out in front of me. I called 911 and told the police what had just happened. The police told me they were on their way to meet me.
 
Mr. Blank drove on and I followed him for about seven minutes. No sign of the police. They finally arrived. Mr. Blank stopped and spoke to the police officer.
 
I told the policeman what had just happened. I asked him what the police would do about it.
 
I said I wanted to make a report. I told the police officer the man had shown me a badge. The policeman's tone was not understanding.
 
The officer told me, "Mr. Blank has no badge." He told me I had a right to make a report, but I would be sorry if I did. He warned me that I might get beaten up. He said I would be facing big trouble.
 
I was afraid, for myself, for my family. I did not make a report. I have no idea why I was attacked."
 
I told Joseph that if he would repeat his experience in a report to me, I would publish it on my blog. I doubt that he - like others - will follow through. He is afraid. But his experience with the Montreal Police must not be hidden.
 
Joseph is not the first man to tell me of a nightmare experience with the Montreal Police. This is Canada in the 21st century. This is a so-called democracy, a free country. Why are people living in fear and in silence?
 
 
Phyllis Carter