Fashionable Awareness?
The Australian (Monday 27/02/2006) reports that Sydney fashion designer Jayson Brunsdon has just been appointed a UNICEF ambassador.
Mr Brunsdon said
"I will help raise awareness of children suffering HIV-AIDS in Africa, and also raise some money for them."This is good, Brunsdon has a plan... the part that I found a little disturbing, and I don't know why (which explains why I am posting this), was his quote on the match of fashion and UNICEF...
"Fashion runs on the idea that you don't need another dress but you want another dress, we all have our $2000 Luella handbags and Chloe Paddington bags, but if everyone could reach inside those $2000 bags and pull out a few dollars for UNICEF, that would be a start."First off, I didn't know you could get a $2000 handbag, but then again I'm not the most fashionable of people...
The fashionable people I do know have sworn to me that they do not have a $2000 handbag...
If you own a $2000 handbag is it not logical to assume that you could afford more than just a "
few dollars" to a good cause...
Brunsdon intends to send volunteers around his Australian Fashion Week show in Sydney wearing limited edition T-shirts to collect donations.
I think what offends me most is that he's not sending the limited edition shirts to those that need it most, the millions of children throughout the world that have no clothing.
But then again, as I have already mentioned, I'm not that fashionable...
Iraq on the brink of civil war
Was the invasion worth the price?
Picture from AP 2005
More than six dozen CIA-linked landings in Canada
OTTAWA (CP) - Newly declassified memos show the number of Canadian landings by planes tied to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency far exceeds previously known figures.
Internal government briefing notes obtained Wednesday also reveal senior intelligence officials from six federal agencies, including Canada's spy service, met in late November to discuss the flights.
The memos underscore the level of concern in government circles about public fears the CIA has been ferrying terrorist suspects through Canada to foreign prisons.
One note, stamped secret, says 20 planes with alleged CIA ties have made 74 flights to Canada since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
More than six dozen CIA-linked landings in Canada: declassified memos [Canadian Press]
Australia Finds Some Money
As some would be aware former US President Bill Clinton is in Australia at the moment earning $2400 a head for a 40 minute chat on thought leadership.
One other perk in being a former "leader of the free world" is your ability to make other governments listen to what your doing. At long last Australia has decided to jump into
bed (no pun intended) with Clinton and have agreed to provide $25 million in aid over the next four years to help treat the victims of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Concentrating on Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and China, the program will be complemented with further funds from the Clinton Foundation.
'The Foundation and AusAID will work together with public health authorities in each country to scale-up treatment and care for people living with HIV/AIDS. This will include availability of anti-retroviral drugs, improving laboratory and testing infrastructure and strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems.'It appears that Foreign Minister Downer finally understands the threat posed by the pandemic...
'[Today] I will officially launch the Asia Pacific Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS. This initiative by AusAID, in partnership with the Lowy Institute for International Affairs, recognises the long-term threat that HIV/AIDS poses for Australian business.
Through the government's partnership with the Clinton Foundation and by enlisting the input and expertise of our corporate sector, the Australian response to the spread of HIV in the Asia Pacific Region is being greatly accelerated.'I'll be sure to post more on the Asia Pacific Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS when it becomes available...
I spy with my little eye....similarities!
The top image is from Guantanamo Bay, and the bottom from Abu Ghraib, but the U.S. continutes to ask "torture, what torture?" (insert eye roll here!)
New Photos from Abu Ghraib
WARNING: Following are extremely graphic photographs depicting torture and severe injury.This is called breaking international law.
New photos have emerged from Abu Ghraib depicting torture used on Iraqi prisoners in the American-run prison.
The US Defence Department has confirmed the authenticity of the pictures. SBS / The Associated Press.Anger at Abu Ghraib photos
In Memorium: Betty Friedan
One of the leading figure in the feminism movement of the United States, Betty Friedan, passed away today, her 85th birthday.
"The problem that has no name — which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities — is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease."
- Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 1963. Betty Friedan, Who Ignited Cause in 'Feminine Mystique,' Dies at 85 (NY Times)
US feminist Friedan dies aged 85 (BBC)
Australia Breaks International Law... Again...
This post is a work in progress...
East Timor's Truth and Reconciliation commission is expected to release their report publicly very soon. The commission spent 3 years collecting evidence to produce a 2,500 page report on Indonesia's 25 year occupation of East Timor.
News Report available
here...
'... Foreign Minister Alexander Downer indicated Canberra preferred for East Timor to remain legally part of Indonesia and actively lobbied the government in Jakarta to delay the independence vote.''The commission said Australian policy after the 1975 invasion by Indonesia was influenced by a desire to negotiate a favorable outcome on the maritime boundary in the oil and gas rich Timor Sea.''The report said Australia's actions were in violation of its duties under international law to support and refrain from undermining the East Timorese people's right to self-determination.'During the Second World War a contingent of Australian and Dutch troops landed in East Timor where the Australian forces were left with little choice but to fight a guerrilla campaign in an attempt to disrupt the numerically superior Japanese forces. This disruption was achieved, in part, courtesy of a remarkable close friendship that was forged with the Timorese, who supplied and protected the troops. As a result of the support the allied troops only lost forty men, the Timorese however payed a much higher brutal price for their loyalty, with as many as 40,000 people or 14% of the population being killed.
At the end of the Second World War East Timor was devastated. Its miniscule economy was the outcome of years of Portuguese neglect, and further cripple by the war, the survivors were both physiologically and physically in dire straits. When the Australians left at the end of the War, they dropped leaflets which promised that they would never forget the East Timorese assistance in their time of need.
Still Disturbing
I still haven't been able to discover the sentence for Mr Parenzee, however, more
details have come out about the trial.
The Court heard Parenzee infected one of the women, a mother of two, but the other two tested negative.One of the women who did not contract the illness testified she was furious when she eventually learned Parenzee had HIV after the couple had broken up.She said she asked whether a woman he had been seeing since their break-up was also infected."He said he couldn't give a shit," the woman said. "He didn't care if she was sick or not."Parenzee also reportedly had unprotected sex with a fourth woman after contracting HIV. It is understood prosecutors are investigating whether Parenzee will face further charges over that relationship.I stand by my comments yesterday, although I'm now leaning more towards Parenzee going to jail for 60 years if prosecutors charge him over the latest revelation.
