Video -Irish Journalist Karen Coleman visits Colombia's Cocaine Towns at Buenaventura on the Pacific Ocean

Irish journalist Karen Coleman presents the award-winning radio show the Wide Angle on Newstalk106-108 every Sunday morning from 10:00-13:00.
In March 2009, Karen visited Colombia to investigate how the armed conflict and illegal drugs trade were affecting the Colombians. During her trip she visited the seaport town of Buenaventura on Colombia's west coast. Its strategic location on the Pacific Ocean makes it one of the biggest cocaine export ports in the world. Karen also visited slums on the edges of the port. In one of the slums, she met Fr Ariel Ruiz who's trying to stop right-wing paramilitaries from destroying his neighbourhood.

Florida-Funny Video: Chicken Man prankster visits supermarket

A new craze is sweeping through Florida. Children run through supermarket stores in chicken suits, gingerbread man suit or banana suit. They video the pranks and then upload them to Youtube or MySpace .
Lakeland-based Publix seems to be a prankster favorite. So, too, are Wal-Mart, Kmart, McDonald's, Best Buy and Sweetbay supermarkets.

Israeli air strikes against Hamas positions in Gaza-Contrasting Media Coverage from Fox News and Russia Today

The two videos provide a fascinating insight into media coverage of Middle East affairs. The Fox News video places a greater emphasis on Hamas attacks whilst the Russia Today video emphasizes more strongly the civilian casualties and places less emphasis on Hamas attacks.

Death camps-UN negligence is killing child refugees in Kosovo (New Internationalist)

The following article has been taken fom the New Internationalist . It is highly disquieting.

There is no acceptable lead level for children,’ announced the World Health Organization in response to the recent recall of millions of lead-painted toys made in China by Mattel, America’s largest toy manufacturer. Yet the world’s worst case of lead poisoning of children – still ongoing after nine years in two UN refugee camps in northern Kosovo – has been ignored by both the media and the UN itself.
Three camps were built in November 1999 in Mitrovica to house about 500 Roma refugees whose homes had been looted and then destroyed after the war by extremist Albanians returning from exile. When concerns were raised that the camps were being built on toxic wasteland, the UN promised that they would only be used for 45 days, until new homes could be found. If homes could not be found, the UN said, it would take the Roma abroad to be resettled.
Nine years later the refugees are still living on the toxic wasteland. Since 2004 blood tests have shown that the levels of lead in several of the children in the camps were the highest recorded in medical history. To date 77 Roma have died in the camps. Many of them are small children, who are amongst the most vulnerable to lead poisoning because their immune systems are not yet fully developed. More than 50 Roma women have also suffered miscarriages because of lead poisoning.
Dr Klaus Runow, Germany’s leading expert on heavy metal poisoning, visited the camps in 2006 and took hair samples from 66 children there. He sent the hair samples to a well-known US laboratory in Chicago. Tests on the hair showed that the children were not only suffering from fatal levels of lead poisoning but that they also had dangerously high levels of 36 other toxic elements.
Later that year the UN finally decided to close two of the camps, but then only moved the refugees to another camp – called Osterode – just 50 metres away. Several months earlier the French Army had abandoned this military camp after their doctors had warned all soldiers serving there not to father a child for nine months because of the high lead levels in their blood.
German newspaper Bild arranged for a family of eight to be taken from one of the camps to Germany for treatment. Medical tests there showed all were suffering organ and brain damage from lead poisoning. Doctors revealed that one of the children, seven-year-old Denis, had the liver of a 50-year-old alcoholic and would probably die prematurely.
Although the UN does not deny that an entire generation of Roma children living in these camps could face brain damage and premature death, it still refuses to evacuate the 500 refugees to a lead-free area and to provide them with proper medical treatment. The UN says the only solution is to build homes for these refugees away from the source of poisoning. But most agree this will still take several years.
The CEO of Mattel would probably be charged with offences carrying a life sentence if American children had such high toxicity levels in their blood after playing with one of Mattel’s lead-painted toys. But in UN-administered Kosovo, officials are not even questioned.

Paul Polanksy

Nigeria:Children and babies branded as evil are being abused, abandoned and even murdered on the charge of being witches

The Benenson Society has launched a campaign against the horrific treatment of some childen in Nigeria and has provided the following details:
"Nigeria is a land with fast growing Christian and Muslim communities. Almost 62 million Nigerians are Christians. In addition to mainstream Christian churches, there are many local evangelical and Pentecostal churches that blend aspects of Christianity with tribal religious traditions. Some of these communities, such as the Liberty Foundation Gospel church, have a strong sense of possession and witchcraft.

Some pastors of these churches are helping to create a tragic campaign of violence against children. Children and babies branded as evil are being abused, abandoned and even murdered on the charge of being witches, while some of these preachers make money out of the fear of their parents and their communities by charging for a deliverance from possession.

Twin boys Itohowo and Kufre stand surrounded by angry villagers who believe they are bringing evil to their lives (Robin Hammond/The Observer)

(Below are some of the stories of children harmed as witches recorded in a recent article by Tracy McVeigh for Britain’s Guardian newspaper. You can find her video report at Child ‘Witches in Africa’. (See also Children of Nigeria for horrific pictures which convey the gravity of the situation).

“ But an exploitative situation has now grown into something much more sinister as preachers are turning their attentions to children - naming them as witches. In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush.
Some parents scrape together sums needed to pay for a deliverance - sometimes as much as three or four months' salary for the average working man - although the pastor will explain that the witch might return and a second deliverance will be needed. Even if the parent wants to keep the child, their neighbours may attack it in the street.
………. Mary Sudnad, 10, grimaces as her hair is pulled into corn rows by Agnes, 11, but the scalp just above her forehead is bald and blistered. Mary tells her story fast, in staccato, staring fixedly at the ground.
'My youngest brother died. The pastor told my mother it was because I was a witch. Three men came to my house. I didn't know these men. My mother left the house. Left these men. They beat me.' She pushes her fists under her chin to show how her father lay, stretched out on his stomach on the floor of their hut, watching. After the beating there was a trip to the church for 'a deliverance'.
A day later there was a walk in the bush with her mother. They picked poisonous 'asiri' berries that were made into a draught and forced down Mary's throat. If that didn't kill her, her mother warned her, then it would be a barbed-wire hanging. Finally her mother threw boiling water and caustic soda over her head and body, and her father dumped his screaming daughter in a field. Drifting in and out of consciousness, she stayed near the house for a long time before finally slinking off into the bush.Mary was seven. She says she still doesn't feel safe. She says: 'My mother doesn't love me.' And, finally, a tear streaks down her beautiful face.

Gerry was picked out by a 'prophetess' at a prayer night and named as a witch. His mother cursed him, his father siphoned petrol from his motorbike tank and spat it over his eight-year-old face. Gerry's facial blistering is as visible as the trauma in his dull eyes. He asks every adult he sees if they will take him home to his parents: 'It's not them, it's the prophetess, I am scared of her.'

Nwaekais about 16. She sits by herself in the mud, her eyes rolling, scratching at her stick-thin arms. The other children are surprisingly patient with her. The wound on her head where a nail was driven in looks to be healing well.
Nine- year-old Etido had nails, too, five of them across the crown of his downy head. Its hard to tell what damage has been done. Udo, now 12, was beaten and abandoned by his mother. He nearly lost his arm after villagers, finding him foraging for food by the roadside, saw him as a witch and hacked at him with machetes.
What can we do?

....Write to the mainstream churches in Nigeria urging these Churches to speak out forcefully. The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria might also be written to as many of the churches involved in this issue are loosely affiliated as Pentecostal. One could also write to the founder of one of the churches engaged in the condemnation of Children – the Liberty Foundation Gospel Church.

You could also contact your local churches and urge them to look into the issue.

Catholic
Most Rev. Felix Alaba Job
President of the Nigerian Catholic bishops Conference
c/- Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria
6, Force Road,
P.O. Box 951, Lagos, Nigeria
Fax: 01-2636680
E-mail:Cathsecl@infoweb.abs.net

Anglican
The Venerable Akintunde A. Popoola
24 Douala Street, Wuse Zone 5,
Abuja,
Nigeria.

OR

Mrs Helen Ukpabio
Liberty Gospel Church Headquarters
Behind Desan House off Ndidem Usang Iso Road
Calabar, Cross River State
Nigeria.

OR

Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria
c/o Redeemed Evangelical Mission
Oshodi Apapa Expressway
Ijesha,Surulere,Lagos,
Nigeria "

Sarah Palin as VP will champion special financial plan for Special Needs Children

Today in Pittsburgh Sarah Palin called for parents of special needs children to use federal funding to pick the school of their choice. She stated that Obama would raise taxes on federal trusts designed to pay for medical and education costs for disabled children.

“In a McCain/Palin administration, we’re gonna put the educational choices for special needs children in the right hands, in the hands of the parents and the good responsible caretakers,” she said. “Under reforms that I will lead as vice president, the parents and caretakers of children with physical or mental disabilities will be able to send that boy or girl to the school of their choice, public or private.”

And, she added, those families are concerned about the tax policies of her opponent.
“They fear that Sen. Obama’s tax increase will have serious and harmful consequences,” she said. “And they’re right because the burden that his plan would pose upon these families is just one more example of how many plans can be disrupted and how many futures can be placed at risk and how many people can suffer when the power to tax is misused.”
Palin said Obama would raise taxes on federal trusts that families establish to pay for medical and educational costs for children with physical or mental disabilities.
“We’ll protect the savings and the earnings of American families and we’ll allow more of that investment and the prioritisation via our own families to make the difference here,” Palin said

MSNBC Video: Sarah Palin on Campaign Trail pays special attention to special needs children

Sarah Palin whose son Trig has Down syndrome is a champion of special needs children. The parents of such children are real heroes. Many are flocking to Palin's rallies. This is a story hidden by the liberal media. On the campaign trail the real Sarah Palin shines through. She is a woman of great compassion. The election of the McCain /Palin ticket would ensure that special needs children have true friends in the White House.

Pennsylvania-Palin promises tax-cut during Scranton visit

Visiting Northeast Pennsylvania for the first time, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin touted the new economic plan running mate John McCain unveiled Tuesday...... The new economic plan would get the nation “through a time of testing” and put “the economy back on track,” she said.
“Under this plan, we’ll help American families keep their homes and save family neighborhoods and bring stability to our housing market,” Mrs. Palin said.The plan seeks to reduce to 10 percent the tax on senior-citizen withdrawals from retirement accounts in 2008 and 2009, reduce to 7.5 percent the capital gains tax in 2009 and 2010 and quintuple deductions of capital losses. It is meant to supplement Mr. McCain’s call last week for a $300 billion government purchase of troubled mortgages.Mrs. Palin’s 29-minute speech was frequently interrupted with applause or chants of “Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!” ........... Full Report:The Times Tribune

Global Classroom: Hole in the Wall Education in India

This week RTÉ.ie, in association with the Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund, is presenting a special three part series about technology in the developing world.
This is part two of the series. Here RTÉ.ie News Editor Joe Zefran takes you to India to learn about the Hole in the Wall project which believes collective learning using a village computer can close the education gap for children around the world.
The full series covers India, Rwanda and Kenya where three programmes, including the Irish charity Camara, are using three very different approaches to achieve the same goal: educating the world's youngest citizens. It is compulsive viewing.
The full series is viewable here.

Ethiopia Drought-4.3 million people at risk of starvation according to Concern

In parts of Ethiopia, right now, 4.3 million people are at risk of starvation because of a prolonged drought. Concern is trying to help thousands of children and their families by providing urgently-needed food and healthcare. 75000 are in need of emergency medical assistance.

Some parts of Ethiopia have had only three days rain since last September. A similar drought has also struck neighbouring Kenya and Somalia. The March rainfall was pitiful. Many areas got no rainfall in March. Because of crop failure food prices have rocketed as hunger stalks the land.

Many of the poorest people are so hungry that they have resorted to eating the seeds they would have planted before the next rains due in July . Some mothers have stopped eating altogether, so that their children wont starve.

Concern volunteers in Ethiopia have to make awful choices. Because there are not enough funds to treat everyone the aid workers must focus on children under five years old and turn away other sick children. They have to choose between life and death.

Concern needs to raise €6 million to to cover the cost of food, medicine, seeds and tools to keep families going until December when the next harvest is due.

Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia:

As well as the regions in Ethiopia affected by drought, similar conditions are beginning to take hold in neighbouring Somalia and Kenya too. To donate click here

Click on thumbnail images to enlarge:

Austin Keenan, regional director for the Horn of Africa, recently talked to Concern employees about the situation in Ethiopia. Austin had just returned from Ethiopia several days before. During the talk, he described exactly how serious the crisis is becoming, how families are being affected, and what Concern is doing to help.

To listen to the podcast please click on the player below.

Horror of the Burmese Cyclone

Pictures taken from the Golden Colour Revolution