April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

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Omar Khadr

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Two stories in The Star today about Omar Khadr.

One on a video tape that was released to the press, despite not having been allowed to be aired in court. Oops wonder how that happened?

The lawyer for detained Canadian terror suspect Omar Khadr accused the U.S. government yesterday of abusing the legal process after CBS News broadcast for the first time a controversial video recording which allegedly shows his client manufacturing explosive devices.

“I think it’s outrageous that this tape has been released without the approval of the court,” lawyer Dennis Edney said in Edmonton.

Long seen as a key piece of evidence against Khadr in the eyes of the prosecution, Edney believes the U.S. government leaked the video after stalled proceedings prevented it from being shown in court.

The courtroom airing of the 12-minute tape, which allegedly shows a 15-year-old Khadr planting land mines and assembling bomb timers, was delayed during a hearing Nov. 8. The recording was broadcast Sunday on the CBS newsmagazine show 60 Minutes.

[Read more…] about Omar Khadr

An Open Letter to Dalton McGuinty

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Dear Mr. McGuinty,

My name is Devon. I am a 12 year old girl attending elementary school in Ontario.

In the past election you said your government would be best for education.

I recently watched this video, Writing on the Wall, by the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation.

I don’t think that schools should have to be in a draw to get books for kids.
School libraries should never get like this, the classrooms should never have only four textbooks for everyone in the class.

According to the video 38% of Ontario’s grade 3 children fail the standard reading exam.
The school library is the most important way to learn how to read, get up-to-date info for assignments and research and to get books to read for fun.

Four textbooks per class is not acceptable, it’s not a very good way to learn and get an Education.

Sometimes schools in rich areas can get books by donations from parents and bake sales, but poorer areas can’t do this. And bake sales are a bad way to budget for books anyway.

I hope you will take this seriously and that you and your government will do what you said about being best for Education. You can start by giving enough money to schools for libraries and textbooks.

Sincerely

Devon S.

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child readingI would also like to let everyone else know more about the video

you can find it on this page

Also there is a pdf with a letter to send to the Minister of Education in your province.

Please take this seriously. We are too young to vote. But our lives will be much poorer if we don’t get books and textbooks. Without them our education will suffer, and we won’t have much hope for the future.

We need adults to stand up to government and demand that they put our education first.

“Microcredit”=What the IMF offers women

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Women’s ENews has a very informative commentary on the IMF and it’s value to women.

(WOMENSENEWS)–Earlier this month President Bush, in a speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, opined that microcredit has “been very successful.”

Bush went on to say, “If you’re a rural farmer scratching out a subsistence living, would you want to be able to sell your goods to new markets overseas?” Don’t you “want to be able to sell into a larger universe?”

Apparently Bush and others believe that rural farmers will successfully exit subsistence agriculture and start competing for market share side by side with multinational powerhouses like ConAgra, General Foods and Nestle.

This equates the activities of the world’s largest corporations with the activities of peasants–mostly women–bartering in rural fairs. Yeah, right.

One expects Bush to endorse policies popular at the World Bank. But when the Nobel Prize Committee, the United Nations and hundreds of international development agencies join the celebration of microcredit as the key to reducing female poverty via women’s economic empowerment we have an obligation to probe their underlying premises.

Powerful policy makers–at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Federal Reserve and the White House–share the view that markets (specifically the individual exchanges that occur in markets) will save the world’s poor.

This view is an article of faith for neo-liberals since they adhere to the economic philosophy that holds that capitalism and unfettered markets will cure the world’s ills. It assumes that poverty is a problem of individual behavior.

In this article the authors contrasts the IMF approach with SEWA (SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION) approach. [Read more…] about “Microcredit”=What the IMF offers women

Day 4 (Dec. 6th Action)

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I don’t know what to write today to introduce you to this video.

It covers many subjects and it is of course up to the viewer to make their own interpretation.

If you think the voices sound familiar, it is Judy Collins and Joan Baez.

*some images are graphic*

For some reason the embedded player was cutting out half way through, it is fine on the youtube site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqewiVEemww

Day 2 (Dec. 6th Action)

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The word childhood evokes thoughts of lullabies, carefree days, playing, friends….

For too many this is not the childhood they know. Too many are dying.

Dying from poverty, disease, war, crime and abuse.

While these problems may seem insurmountable when taken together, when addressed individually the solutions are often simple, easy and affordable.

Case in point Spread the Net

Imagine the difference you could make in the life of a family by buying a sanitation kit, a goat or a chicken. Simple things to us, perhaps the difference between life and death for others.

And don’t forget the children next door. The girl who may need a mentor, the boy who is too ashamed to come right out and ask for help, the children who go to bed hungry.

You are only one person but, one person CAN make a difference.