A Disturbing 24 hours...
I was just sitting down to cave-in to few requests and discuss my views on the Cole inquiry into the Australian Wheat Board and their payment of $298 million to the Hussein Regime.
However, more disturbing news came across my desk this morning...
We have previously discussed rates of HIV infection in terms of a daily basis...
11 a day in Canada
200 a day in China
Save the Children have just
announced that 40 children in Uganda are born with HIV each day...
Let us head back to Australia now, in particular South Australia...
From memory this is the third such story that I have heard taking place in Australia since World AIDS day on December 1st 2005...
A HIV-positive South Australian man has been
convicted of having unprotected sex with three women, one of whom became infected with the virus.
'Andree Chad Parenzee, 35, had pleaded not guilty in the South Australian Supreme Court to three counts of endangering life, but a jury took just 2 1/2 hours to find him guilty on all charges.'Parenzee testified that he
'had not found out about safe sex until years after the diagnosis... he also said that he had used the "withdrawal" method in an effort to avoid passing on the virus.'We are only aware of this because
'Judge John Sulan revoked suppression orders on Parenzee's name and image, saying he believed there was a public interest in releasing the information.'Parenzee may face a maximum 15 years in jail for each count, is due to be sentenced tomorrow.
It's depressing to read about 40 children a day who contract HIV through no fault of their own, and then in the same day you hear about a man spreading the virus intentionally.
If Parenzee was not educated about how the virus is transmitted, then the state has failed him...
On the other hand, if Parenzee is just ignorant, he deserves the maximum punishment possible...
This story will obviously continue tomorrow...
Quote of the Week
"Philanthropy is like hippy music, holding hands. Red is more like punk rock, hip hop, this should feel like hard commerce."
-
BonoBono bets on Red to battle Aids The rock star Bono has launched a new global brand, Product Red, with a share of profits to go to the fight against Aids in Africa. Launch partners American Express, Gap, Converse and Giorgio Armani announced a range of "red" branded products... The hope is that profits from the venture will generate a "sustainable" flow of money to support the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria.
Bono warned the world was losing the fight against HIV/Aids, with 6,500 Africans dying of the disease every day.
China Reviews HIV Figures
The Chinese Ministry of Health along with UNAIDS and the WHO announced that they had the number of HIV carriers within China wrong...
In 2003 the Chinese Ministry released a figure of 850,000 people infected. Not surprisingly many HIV experts and activists claimed this figure was a ridiculous underestimation, they have often believed the figure to be closely to 1,5 million, possibly far more.
The new report available
here places the estimate at 650,000.
WHO Press Release:
'UNAIDS and WHO consider the methods used in the 2005 revision of the national estimates are appropriate. China has greatly expanded and improved its surveillance system in recent years from 194 sites in 2003 to 329 in 2005, and increased the population groups covered.'
However, whilst the overall number of cases has been reduced, this should not mask the fact the HIV infections are on the rise. New infections are increasing by 70,000 per year. There is no room for complacency and reassuringly the Chinese Health Ministry agrees.
The International Herald Tribune quotes a vice-minister in the ministry of health Wang Long de "Almost 200 people are infected every day in China... the situation is grave.'
200 people
EVERY DAY!!!
The Canadian Public Health Association claims that 11 people are infected
EVERY DAY in Canada!!!
Canadian Campaign: Disappointing (understatement)
Today is federal election day in Canada. The most disappointing campaign in years.
In the words of
Matthew Good: "Today, I am remiss to say, that most Canadians are not voting in a federal election, but rather taking part in referendum on the Sponsorship scandal. That sole issue has been the focus of this federal election..."
For a campaign running on so-called accountability, there was only one kind spoken about: financial. The issue of
Maher Arar and other
Canadians like him, was not mentioned once. Accountability for most politicians in this election has to do with dollars, not people, and that is a shame. Standing up for Canada? Not so much. Complacency in Canadian's torture abroad and the illegal extradition of Canadian citizens to countries where torture could/would be employed: apparently.
To quote from Mr. Arar's website,
We all have a right to the truth.P.S. Vote, because silence = death.Arar Commission: Factual InquiryAddition: This was not a mainstay of this election, thank goodness, likely because Stephen Harper realised he couldn't win on it. But nonetheless, some rightwingers who 'want their guns' continued to slag the federal gun registery. Apparently, in their self-rightousness, these opponents somehow feel above events.
Going through some of our archives here, I am reminded of the events which got the gun registry in motion in the beginning, and why it is saving lives.
- Geneviève Bergeron, 21, was a 2nd year scholarship student in civil engineering.
- Hélène Colgan, 23, was in her final year of mechanical engineering and planned to take her master's degree.
- Nathalie Croteau, 23, was in her final year of mechanical engineering.
- Barbara Daigneault, 22, was in her final year of mechanical engineering and held a teaching assistantship.
- Anne-Marie Edward, 21, was a first year student in chemical engineering.
- Maud Haviernick, 29, was a 2nd year student in engineering materials, a branch of metallurgy, and a graduate in environmental design.
- Barbara Maria Klucznik, 31, was a 2nd year engineering student specializing in engineering materials.
- Maryse Laganière, 25, worked in the budget department of the Polytechnique.
- Maryse Leclair, 23, was a 4th year student in engineering materials.
- Anne-Marie Lemay, 27, was a 4th year student in mechanical engineering.
- Sonia Pelletier, 28, was to graduate the next day in mechanical engineering. She was awarded a degree posthumously.
- Michèle Richard, 21, was a 2nd year student in engineering materials.
- Annie St-Arneault, 23, was a mechanical engineering student.
- Annie Turcotte, 21, was a first year student in engineering materials.
Nerd's Note: Comments are fixed
Apologies for the delay in fixing comments. The previous setting required commentors to be registered with blogger, which is no longer necessary.
Comment away!
Timor Leste taking Human Rights Abuses to UN
The mass human rights abuses which occured in East Timor before it's independence are somewhat well documented. Sadly, very little was done to remedy them at the time. On the bright side, an independent Timor-Leste strongly favours reconciliation, but maintains that the atrocities suffered during occupation should be made public.
The report to be handed to the UN details human rights abuses at the hands of the Indonesian military, including torture and poisioning of food and water supplies.
A leaked copy of the report, by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, includes claims the Indonesian government and military were responsible for the deaths of up to 180,000 East Timorese during a 24-year occupation of the former Portuguese colony.
The report, to be handed to the UN by East Timor President Xanana Gusmao, also says the Indonesian military tried to starve the East Timorese, and poisoned food and water supplies with napalm and other chemicals.
This + Snow = Disaster
Ok...so I've been away for a while, but I just wanted to say that it's relatively mild in Canada so far this winter, but it's bloody cold in Pakistan and Kashmir especially without shoes and adequate shelter.
Signed,
guilt ridden for complaining about the cold when I'm really not so badly off
Finally it's 2006...
It took a year, but at long last 2005 has concluded and 2006 has arrived...
So what will the world see in 2006? If the papers are anything to go by, we should be seeing some reform at the United Nations, then again we expected that in 2005, however, be encouraged...
The
International Herald Tribune reports that Secretary-General Annan's yearning for replacement of the Human Rights Commission with a Human Rights Council, is likely to happen over the coming weeks.
A 'Human Rights Council' was first floated by the Sec-Gen within his March 2005 report 'In Larger Freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all.'
On the current HR Commission: '... The Commission's capacity to perform its tasks has been increasingly undermined by its declining credibility and professionalism. In particular, States have sought membership... not to strengthen human rights but to protect themselves against criticism or to criticise others. As a result, a credibility deficit has developed, which casts a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole.' (Para 182)
International Herald Tribune (2/1/2005):
The current commission has 53 members serving staggered three-year terms and elected from closed slates put forward by regional groups. It meets each year in Geneva for six weeks.
The proposed council would exist year-round, be free to act when rights violations are discovered, conduct periodic reviews of every country's human rights performance and meet more frequently throughout the year.
Still in dispute are the council's size, the procedures for citing individual countries, how often the panel would meet, a possible two-term limit for membership and whether members would be chosen based on agreed criteria of human rights performance or by a two-thirds vote of the General Assembly as a way of weeding out notorious rights violators.
The other two major areas of reform Annan intends to address (according to Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's Chief of Staff), a new Peace Building Commission, and a biennial budget.
The Budget has been approved... see
hereThe Commission has been established... see
here
Stay tuned to see what happens with the Human Rights Council...
