❧❧❧ Whatever you can do or dream, you can BEGIN IT. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Goethe ❧❧❧
❧❧❧ You were born whole, not broken. Sandra Hammel ❧❧❧
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
IF ARMING TEACHERS IS THE ANSWER - WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GOAL?
The gun used at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
This is the advertisement for the Sandy Hook massacre gun.
Do we want educators or good shots? Do we want to require you have to be a gun carrying, good shot and NRA member to be teachers of our nation's students? A member of the NRA, but not a member of a teachers union? Teacher unions are under attack, the misnamed "right to work" raison d'etre (reason to be) is to kill the unions, teacher pensions are under attack, in many communities, the teachers have not been respected for decades. And yet, expectations for the education system has soared in more than the areas of subjects that once were the conventional things that we held our schools responsible for teaching our children.
Teachers carry a gun? Where in the classroom would the
teacher store her gun? Would she have impunity if a child got access to it?
Have you heard that the solution is that the Principal at
Sandy Hook Elementary School should have had a gun in her office?That all teachers should have guns. If
you are or have ever been a teacher in elementary school, middle school or high
school, or even on a college campus, you can picture what I am about to
explain.
Rep. Louie Gohmert argued that if the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary
School had a gun she could have stopped the shooter from killing 20
children and five other school teachers. Gohmert has spoken out publicly
in favor of increased gun accessibility in the wake of the Friday attack.
I was an elementary school music teacher.My first year as a teacher, I had 950
students. There are times you are the lone adult in a room or playground with
hundreds of children.Would you
carry your gun there?And if you
needed to use it, and accidentally killed one or more of the hundreds of
children under your care, because you are not a good enough shot, had an off
day as a good shot, got nervous or the chaos of a situation made it impossible
to only target an armed intruder or an armed student, would you have legal
impunity for killing one or more of your students? Or if you only have the gun
in your classroom somewhere, presumably locked away for safety that no child
under your care would get access to it, what good would the gun be if you were
doing duty in the cafeteria, school assembly, walking down the hall with the
class to a music, art or physical education class.
I am picturing my college years where I was supposedly
getting my education in my subject area.It was a liberal arts school, so though I was loaded with music courses,
I also took biology, English literature, French, Philosophy.If teachers were required to carry
guns, we would have to have courses in guns, knowing how to shop for the gun
allowed, because surely there would be laws restricting a teacher’s gun, the
kind of gun, the kind of bullets, how to handle a gun, keeping them in good
repair, insuring them, how to keep them out of the hands of students who might
use them as a play thing or the real thing, when it is and isn’t appropriate to
use the gun.Will there be “stand
your ground” laws for teachers? Will self-defense mean we must see a gun being
used on a student first before we can shoot?Do we need witnesses to prove we used the gun properly?Will we be police officers or teachers?If I would have been mandated to carry
a gun as a teacher and not given the same rights as police officers, there
would be major problems.If that doesn’t’
make sense, then the major problem begins with your critical thinking weaknesses.
How many college gun course hours would be required for my
teacher certification?How many
hours of target shooting would I have to have to get my teacher
certificate?Would I have to take
shooting range practice throughout my teaching career until retirement (now age
67 years in Rhode Island)?What if
I am not able to hold a gun due to illness of any kind, for example I am
disabled?When we hire new
teachers, do we have them illustrate their shooting abilities with range
shooting with moving targets as a part of the interview?
SIGN PETITION TO END VIOLENCE BY POLICE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES IN CALIFORNIA
Full statement by the University of California Faculty Association -- sign in solidarity on the right. (Professors sign here. Students sign here.)
This week, we have seen excessive force used against non-violent protesters at UC Berkeley, UCLA, CSU Long Beach, and UC Davis. Student, faculty and staff protesters have been pepper-sprayed directly in the eyes and mouth, beaten and shoved by batons, dragged by the arms while handcuffed, and submitted to other forms of excessive force. Protesters have been hospitalized because of injuries inflicted during these incidents. The violence was unprovoked, disproportional and excessive.
We are outraged by the excessive and unnecessary force used against peaceful protests.
We are outraged that the administrations of UC campuses are using police brutality to suppress dissent, free speech and peaceful assembly.
We demand that the Chancellors of the University of California cease using police violence to repress non-violent political protests. We hold them responsible for the violence and believe it can only result in an escalation of outrage that holds the potential for even more violence.
Police brutality damages the University’s public image, and, more importantly, it damages the climate for free expression at UC. We condemn the assault on the legacy of free speech at the University of California.
We call for greater attention to the substantive issues that motivate the protests regarding the privatization of education. With massive cuts in state funding and rising tuition costs across the community college system, the Cal State network, K-12, and the University of California, public education is undergoing a severe divestment. Student debt has reached unprecedented levels as bank profits swell. We decry the growing privatization and tuition increases that have been the frequent — and only — responses of the UC Board of Regents.
Signed, The Board of the Council of UC Faculty Associations
OBAMA FAILS TO DELIVER ON CAMPAIGN PROMISE REGARDING WALL STREET - INSIDE JOB - OSCAR WINNER 2011
We Are All Wisconsin
Financial Crisis - No One Held Accountable - Lack of Regulation
AND
Wisconsin - Bargaining Rights of USA Workers
What is the connection?
There's a problem and it isn't people who have the right to bargain. Do you know why states really have financial issues? Including pension payments for their retirees? It has to do with the banks who made bad investments and in turn it affected the market...the stock market where states had invested their money for the purpose of growth. But that growth didn't happen and the states are now in financial trouble. And it happened because legal restraints didn't exist to protect the public. The "less government is better" concept decided not to protect the "little people", but the big banks....you know those who were deemed "too big to fail". And none of those banks have been held accountable for the "bad business" practices...it's dominos-like. And here we are....time to wake the sleeping elephant in the "room". Justice doesn't happen, unless we make it happen.
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"IT'S A WALL STREET GOVERNMENT" quote from the documentary INSIDE JOB
The film Inside Job brilliantly exposes the corruption in US banking that led to the 2008 crash. This * article asked four bankers for their verdict on this damning indictment of their world in Inside Job
Where my head moved forward with my eyes intensifying as I saw the WORDS ~ "the plight for poor children in Mississippi is so dire, enriching experiences so meager and government aid so inadequate and spotty that after school tutoring and reading programs in Quitman County and two other Delta counties ARE FUNDED BY FOREIGN AID, a grant from the Bernard van Leer Foundation of the Netherlands."
Held Captive”: Child Poverty in America, a new report commissioned and published by the Children’s Defense Fund, found that the plight for poor children in Mississippi is so dire, enriching experiences so meager and government aid so inadequate and spotty that after school tutoring and reading programs in Quitman County and two other Delta counties are funded by foreign aid, a grant from the Bernard van Leer Foundation of the Netherlands. “The foundation focuses on children and families in what it refers to as oppressed societies,” said Betty Ward Fletcher, the director of a Jackson, Miss., -based consulting firm contracted by the Dutch foundation to help it design a program in Mississippi. “Some of its people wondered why it should be working in the most affluent country in the world, but they decided the reality is we have poor children in this country who are denied the opportunity to be all they can be.”
Julia Cass, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, chronicled the toll poverty is inflicting on America’s children for the Children’s Defense Fund. She spent time with poor children in Quitman County, Miss., Katrina-displaced children in Baton Rouge, La., and children of the newly poor in Long Island, N.Y. Cass found that despite safety net protections put in place over the past generation, poor children are still adrift in a sea of poverty with their future in jeopardy. Years of research link childhood poverty to a multitude of poor outcomes: lower academic attainment, higher rates of teenage pregnancy and incarceration, a greater chance of health and behavioral problems, and lifelong poverty. And the current economic crisis continues to drag more families and their children into poverty. This Christmas season 15.5 million children in America, more than one in five, are living in poverty, a number of them in extreme poverty. This is the highest child poverty rate the nation has experienced since 1959.
This new report begins in Quitman County in the Delta region of Mississippi, the starting point of the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. Audrey, a 13-year-old girl, illustrates the confluence of social, psychological and environmental risks that trap children in lifelong poverty. Audrey fell several years behind in school primarily because of suspensions. Asked if she felt isolated in her declining town where 34.5 percent of households live in poverty, Audrey responded, “Yeah. Isolated. Remote island. Held captive.”
In Baton Rouge, children displaced by Hurricane Katrina five and a half years ago are still struggling, and largely forgotten. The storm ripped apart fragile family safety nets. Too often, children are left to fend for themselves and they make poor decisions. Navia, 14 years old, is largely self-raised. She said she wanted to graduate from high school and be the first in her family not to have a baby before age 20. She didn’t seem to realize that being truant and missing a year of school would make it difficult for her to reach that goal. With no family support, public institutions charged with involvement in Navia’s life are failing her as well. She is out of school, yet the school district did not send a truant officer to her home all year. “She is already far off the pathway to a happy and successful life,” Cass reports.
All across Long Island, N.Y., the birthplace of the suburban American dream, families are falling from middle class to working poor and from working poor into poverty because of the recession, the housing crisis, the gap between wages and cost of living, and the insufficient safety net. Families are living in motels, food pantries are emptying, and outreach agencies are running out of funds to help with a month’s rent or an overdue utility bill. The new faces of poverty – the families that now seek help – include Jodi, a white, college-educated school teacher with three children whose divorce and special needs child have pushed her into the working poor. And Joseph, sole supporter of his teenage son, says his paycheck from an auto body shop does not cover the mortgage, utilities and food. He reports, “I can’t pay the bills. I don’t qualify for anything. I don’t eat lunch. I drink from the hose at work. That’s just how things are. You gotta sacrifice for your child.” The director of the Long Island Council of Churches, which runs food banks that now provide food for a record 3,000 people a month, described the situation for many Long Island families as a “Sophie’s choice: Do I feed the kids or pay the utilities?”
Julia Cass is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience writing for newspapers, magazines and non-profit organizations. She has written extensively about civil rights, poverty and the prison system. As a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer for almost 20 years, she shared the Pulitzer Prize with other staffers for the paper’s coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. She also received an award for her reporting on the Pennsylvania prison system.
She is the co-author of Black in Selma: The Uncommon Life of J.L. Chestnut Jr, published in 1990 by Farrar Straus and Giroux. It won the America Bar Association Award for best writing about the legal system that year and the Lillian Smith Award for writing about the South.
She has also worked as managing editor of the Sunday magazine of the San Jose Mercury News and as executive editor of the Buenos Aires Herald, an English language daily newspaper in Argentina. In addition, she has trained journalists and journalism students in enterprise reporting in Panama and Botswana. Several years ago, she contributed to writing CDF’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline® report.
She is now a freelance writer living temporarily in New York City. Her home is in New Orleans, La.
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“…unless we all have plenty
one of us will become a thief and the ghief will make you angry
you will hurt him
this will hurt his children
they will punish you
this will hurt your children
they will punish his children
and that’s how it begins
to believe in man is to know
peace will not work if just one man alive
is unjust
if one man alive
is ignorant
or hungry
or crazy
or ashamed
FOR we have seen if only one of us
decides to pull the plug, the millions of us can kiss
the world good-bye
whether we like it or not.
From Joseph Pintauro’s little book “to believe in man”
Illustrated by Sister Corita Kent
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The following is from the book "Teacher and Child" by Hiam Ginott (1972) - the year I began teaching
On the first day of the new school year, all the teachers in one school received the following note from their principal
Dear Teacher,
I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness: Gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates. So, I am suspicious of education.
My request is: help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human. (p.317)
From the introduction of the book by Alice Ginott
Haim Ginott died aged 51 years old and his wife wrote about him:
He wanted to learn how to discipline without humiliating; how to criticize without destroying self-worth; how to praise without judging; how to express anger without hurting; how to acknowledge, not argue with, feelings; how to respond so that children would learn to trust their inner reality and develop self-confidence. “What is the goal of education?” he would ask, “When all is said and done, we want children to grow up to be decent human beings, a ‘mensch’, a person with compassion, commitment, and caring.
This is what I have to say: I maintain that the arts are an exceptional path to do just these things. And of course not only treating the students with respect and dignity is important, but, so too, is it important to treat the teachers, the staff with respect and dignity. The community that we live in is the one we help create.
I support human dignity wherever and whenever possible.
There are especially disturbing reports about the Government of Sudan planning to move millions of displaced Darfuris from the internal camps in which they live to areas where there is even less protection, less humanitarian aid support, and no eyes to witness any further atrocities.
The following is my letter sent to President Obama today via the link above and again at whitehouse.gov/contact
Subject: Sudan, Darfur and USA Leadership Responsibility
October 14, 2010
Dear President Obama,
I believe that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.I have heard you use this phrase more than once yourself.I consider myself first a human being with compassion and empathy and politically I consider myself a Democrat.I believe Democrats historically have been compassionate to fellow human beings, and are not all out for ourselves, but after trying our best to live our lives responsibly, have expectations that the government should protect our interests with regulations and social programs.And I believe that duties of citizens include the responsibility to know what our politicians are doing in our name and that we must be actively and proactively involved.Furthermore, I believe that we must think about our responsibilities locally and globally, which includes how we address issues such as women’s rights worldwide, human trafficking and genocide.
Since 2004, I have been a community leader who has brought attention to the genocide upon the Darfuri people of Sudan in the state of Rhode Island.In my lifetime, I have watched USA President after President, tolerate genocide in spite of all the correct and moral promises, such as “Never again”.Unfortunately, we have never meant “never again”.We only have said those words when the time that “we” could have done something to divert the madness of genocide is over.We say those words, in order to make ourselves feel better about our lack of doing something.We feel guilty and we try then to assuage our feelings or explain away our behavior of staying away from “The Problem”.
On January 9th, Southern Sudan will hold its independence referendum.Both North and South are preparing for war, leaving civilians at grave risk of major human rights violations.Is this going to be one more time that that we, of the USA and the international community could have diverted another “hell on earth”, but chose not to?
I'm asking you to do all you can to help avert a terrible conflict there.Specifically, I hope you can do more in three areas:
1. Peacemaking: Intensify our support for the North/South peace process and dispatch a senior diplomat to revitalize the Darfur peace effort.
2. Protection: Focus the post-referendum UN peacekeeping mission on civilian protection, particularly in border areas where civilians are most vulnerable to conflict and rights violations.
3. Pressure:You have said there will be benefits for peace and consequences for war.These should be big enough to get the attention of the Sudanese or they won't matter.
Sincerely,
Sandra Hammel
Use Your Voice to Stop Genocide RI
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Here is a letter from George Clooney and John Prendergast asking us for the same proaction ~
If you had 90 days to prevent another Darfur, what would you do?
On January 9th, Southern Sudan will vote for its independence. The country is currently led by an indicted war criminal, Omar al-Bashir. Both north and south are preparing for war, leaving civilians at grave risk of major human rights violations.
The U.S. Secretary of State has called the situation a "ticking time bomb." The Director of National Intelligence has said that "mass killing or genocide is most likely to occur in Southern Sudan." President Obama has said that "the stakes are enormous."
We have a brief window of opportunity to do something that has rarely been done: stop a war before it starts. But if the international community is too hesitant or too late in its efforts -- as was the case in Darfur -- hundreds of thousands could die. The last war between the North and South was ended by a U.S.-led peace process, but not before two and a half million men, women, and children perished.
Republicans and Democrats stand arm in arm for this cause, a cause which does not require sending US troops or billions of dollars. In fact, a combination of international pressure and robust diplomacy ended the last North/South war in 2005. It can work again.
Tell President Obama that we support every effort to use robust diplomacy -- in coordination with all our diplomatic partners -- to ensure a successful referendum, and peace in the South and Darfur. Our President has the power to gather the political will to stop a genocide before it starts, and we must demand that he do so.
The international community was late to Darfur. Late to the Congo. Late to Rwanda. Late to Bosnia. Tell our President that the people of South Sudan can't afford for us to be late again.
AFP:War crimes-accused LRA chief likely in Darfur: think tank. The war crimes-accused head of the Ugandan rebel group Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, is likely in the southern part of Sudan's troubled Darfur, International Crisis Group said Wednesday. The International Criminal Court has an arrest warrant out for Kony for war crimes and crimes against humanity, with his outfit accused of massacres, mutilation, using child soldiers and taking girls as sex slaves. Kony is believed to be in the area of Daffak in southern Darfur where an attack took place September 2, according to information from Darfuri rebels from the Liberation and Justice Movement.
Bloomberg:Sudanese General Tanginye Holds Talks About Joining Southern Sudan's Army. A former Southern Sudan militia leader currently serving as a general in Sudan's army began talks with the semi-autonomous region's leader to switch sides ahead of an independence referendum next year. "We have not reached that conclusion, but we are in the process of negotiating," Sudanese Armed Forces Major-General Gabriel Tanginye said in an interview after a meeting today with Southern Sudanese President Salva Kiir in the capital, Juba. "The president is my brother and he is my leader," he said.
AFP:S.Sudan foes mend fences before independence vote. The south Sudanese leadership has been setting aside its differences with armed dissidents and civil war militia foes as a landmark referendum on independence for the region looms in January. Southern regional president Salva Kiir has offered an amnesty to rebel fighters and sought to reconcile with his leading political adversary, former foreign minister Lam Akol, in a bid to ease tensions in the run-up to the vote.
Reuters:North, south Sudan disagree over Abyei vote. A referendum on the future of Sudan's oil-producing Abyei region should be postponed, northern officials said on Thursday, but the south dismissed the proposal as unacceptable.
BBC:George Clooney call to freeze Sudan leader's assets. The Sudanese leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur - charges he denies. Mr Clooney told the BBC that freezing his bank accounts would be a good way of putting pressure on Khartoum. The Hollywood star has just returned from Sudan in his role as a UN messenger of peace ahead of January's referendum on secession for the south.
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Double click on video to to see in larger screen at Youtube
Yesteryear 1988 Melville Elementary School Ms. Hammel, Music Teacher Providing an evening music workshop to parents with their children to let the parents experience being a music student along side their children
This Year I attended a meeting tonight, June 9, 2010, to bring attention to the cut in the Portsmouth Public Schools budget by 1.2 million dollars for the upcoming 2010-2011 school year. This will be a disastrous cut for our community, for our children and education. And the other reason for the meeting was to organize so that we can make an impact on the Portsmouth (Rhode Island) Town Council hearing to be held next Tuesday, June 15, at 7:00 p.m in the Portsmouth Town Hall chamber.
The state of Rhode Island is cutting educational aid funding to communities and if we don't pick up the slack, the children's education will be greatly diminished. This is nothing new. I have seen this happen starting when I was in college and the administration decided to eliminate the thriving music department. Then at the contractual March 1st deadline to send out "pick slips" (termination of employment) in my second year of teaching, I received my pink slip. And this, then, began a career-long effort to keep music in our schools.
June 2, 2010 Budget workshop at which the Town Council voted to tentatively cut $1.2 Million from the Portsmouth Public School proposed budget. Councilor Karen Gleason speaks to Superintendent of Schools Susan Lusi when she is asked to speak about the budget.
SCREAM NOW OR SCREAM LATER NOW, WILL BE THE EASIER SCREAM If parents don't "scream" every time this "slash and burn the education" is in the cards, the whole education system will fail. And when we have practices of firing entire teaching staffs as was the case in one Rhode Island town this year, because of low performances of the students, I would like to ask what we expect to happen when we can't get a grip of civility and find funding for the students of today?
Town Council Members of Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Town Council email addresses: pmcintyre@portsmouthri.com, hlittle@portsmouthri.com, kgleason@portsmouthri.com, khamilton@portsmouthri.com, jplumb@portsmouthri.com, dcanario@portsmouthri.com, jseveney@portsmouthri.com
Contractually all pink slips had to go out in March, so legally cutting more teachers isn't going to work. And the state mandates that the students get the arts, so what they will get is a "spit in the eye" of music, art and physical education most likely. It is hard to water down music in a schedule, for example, that has traditionally only taught music to elementary students once a week for less than an hour. You try teaching something or learning something that you have for 45 minutes or less a week. And the other cut likely is sports. As Ms. Leveque said at the meeting at the Portsmouth Middle School June 9th, it isn't like we can cut second grade.
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Melville Peter Deffet as a 3rd Grader
Parents forming an excellent train for the song Little Black Train
My letter sent to the Portsmouth Town Council and copied to the Portsmouth School Committee:
June 9, 2010
Dear Member of the Portsmouth Town Council,
My name is Sandra Hammel, live in Portsmouth, taught music in the Portsmouth Public Schools starting in October 1973 and left after 29 years. All those years I stood up to keep music in our community's schools, attending many School Committee and Town Council meetings and going out on a limb to preserve the minimum of giving the students a weekly music class at the elementary level. Minimum. Music classes should be every day. Music skills are those very skills that the very young benefit from because they develop and nurture the readiness skills needed to learn to read - auditory processing skills, such as auditory awareness, auditory memory, auditory figure ground, auditory discrimination, etc.
A quick google search brought this up:http://www.succeedtoread.com/auditoryskills.html "A common weakness is in auditory discrimination skills. For example, many poor readers do not 'hear' differences in letter sounds. To them, the five short vowels sound almost exactly alike." Music lessons develop the abilities of the child to better discriminate differences of sound and therefore helps the child be more successful not only in the music classroom, but in the reading lessons. This is not "new" news, but well accepted for multiple years. However, many even who should know these things, don't. Oftentimes, teenagers who drop out of high school, do so because they have struggled with their reading skills which affect so many of the subjects required in high school. So if we are serious about keeping our students in school until they graduate this should be on our radar screen of what is a priority.
And rationalizing of the inclusion of music in our schools using this argument isn't the only reason for music's existence in our community's schools. Because this doesn't begin to express what is so advantageous from the standpoint of music's benefits itself. Music can stand on its own as reason enough to be part of the basics of education, although most people may not realize those reasons. But when tied to other subjects it seems to enable people to say, "Hey, well, maybe it is justifiable to include in the discourse of what should be included in the experience of our children's lives."
All the years I taught in Portsmouth Schools, I had no children going to the Portsmouth Public Schools because I had no children. That changed late in my teaching career because a young boy entered Hathaway Elementary School in the second grade who was in foster care. That boy has been my son since his fourth grade year and now is an exceptional engineering student at Northeastern University. I have no students in the Portsmouth Schools at this time. So, I speak now as a taxpayer who pays for others' children to have what they need. I care about the community. I care about the children in our community and the education that we as a community provide for the children.
I speak about music here. But, the Portsmouth Town Council members who voted to cut the Portsmouth Public School budget over a million dollars will necessitate cutting more than music from the schools. I say "You are wrong to do this". I am well aware how these things go. And I know that those who feel brave enough to cut the Portsmouth School budget have their supporters.
Even some of those who feel emboldened to cut, can step back, reconsider and make a braver decision and fund our schools. There will never be a day that this problem goes away. We just need to get smarter about how we are going to get through this immediate year's budget problem, but then get really smart and figure out ways to get ourselves a long range solution in action to thwart future years' similar dilemma. If we care.
There is no better investment that we can give ourselves as a community, than the education that we provide for our community's children. They are our future leaders. They are their future. Sincerely,
or Portsmouth will be the Pits regarding Education .................................................
................................................. Uploaded by PortsmouthSchools June 2, 2010 Portsmouth RI School Department Budget Meeting Part 1
First video of last week's town council/school committee budget workshop. There are 13 separate videos. The 1st one starts out discussing the open space/recreation bonds, but ends with Dr. Lusi presenting the FY 2011 budget.
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................................................. Uploaded by PortsmouthSchools June 2, 2010 Portsmouth RI School Department Budget Meeting Part 2 .................................................
................................................. Arguing Part 11 Motion to "Level Fund" Uploaded by PortsmouthSchools
Tribute to influential teachers ............................................. .............................................
The North Central College Choir that I sang in Uploaded by ilovemylifesblog
In honor of Paul Warren Allen, who was the head of the North Central College Music Department and Conductor of the North Central College Choir recorded here in 1968. Three years later the college eliminated the music department.
.................................................. This video has genocidal killings included in it - in Sri Lanka Uploaded August 27, 2009 by myRangana Channel 4 News websitewww.channel4.com/news
Click on this post's title to link to interview regarding Congo Uploaded on August 27, 2009 by CarlosDCblog
.............................................................. Day 6 iACT8 in Darfuri refugee camp - Djabal June 20, 2009 ~ World Refugee Day Uploaded by stopgenocidenow
Firefox has been crashing for me all day. I can't upload pictures, because every time I try to save a picture or add a picture to this blog, Firefox shuts down. You can find the pictures here http://www.flickr.com/photos/stopgenocidenow/3642642729/
Today is World Refugee Day. i-ACT is providing live video feed from refugee camps in Chad and there are events all around the world to honor the lives and the daily struggles of refugees. Each moment you spend getting to know a Darfuri brings you closer to the reality of today’s theme: Real People, Real Needs.
Today we invite you to go deeper by joining Darfur Fast for Life. For at least one day, 24 hours, fast on water-only or refugee rations in solidarity with the people of Darfur. Today, even as we honor them, they have few choices compared to ours.
To learn more about refugee rations and to join Darfur Fast for Life visit the website.
I’m angry. And I’m tired. My mind and my heart ache. It’s always a combination out here of emotional ups and downs from being around the refugees and then being personally challenged by exhaustion. I am at the point of constantly wanting to cry, and spending energy trying to hold it back.
I am not sure that by simply sleeping I would recover. I am not sure what I need to do or how to go about getting it. I just know that I am sad and emotional.
Taking a shower is an amazing thing. It did help, and although I am not magically ready to take on the world, I feel a bit better. I cried a bit in the shower. That probably helped too.
Walking through the camp today I heard my name a lot. There are many Khadijas in this camp, but only one “Hawaji” Khadija (the white one). They just don’t stop calling my name. I think mostly it’s that it is easy to remember, and I am easy to spot. I take their pictures, show them, and chase after them. I can’t help but play with the children. Today I saw Ibrahim who I met in March.
As we walked out of the school today, a tear ran down my cheek. I wasn’t able to hold it back. I want to suck it back in, smile and continue to play, but I didn’t have the power, it had been released.
After showering, I lay on my back in the dark of our new guest house at Feed the Children I close my eyes and reflect. I can be both sensitive, and strong. I can shed tears, and work hard to bring that passion and emotion through my work to others.
The generator begins to hum and think, “My heart is not aching, it is growing bigger.”
Paz, ktj
They are continuing the live feed (as in a loop) - which is a video of the live feed from earlier today for World Refugee Day - June 20, 2009 at http://www.refugeedaylive.org/
For me at this website, much of the video has no picture, but only sound. This seems to be from the parts that were video and not live streaming from today's presentation. Much of that video can be seen at http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact7/ as well as on Youtube, such as this one: ..............................................................
.............................................................. iACT 7, Day 6 Reunion with Adef's family March 28, 2009 Uploaded by stopgenocidenow
Test below is from Mohamed Suleiman, June 20, 2009. Mohamed is Darfuri, who has family still in Darfur being affected. Mohamed lives currently in the United States.
The IDPs (Internally Displaced People) in the refugees camps in Darfur speak out. Leaders of refugees in IDP camps in Darfur in interviews with Radio Dabanga this morning asked The President of The United States of America Barack Obama to fire his Special Envoy General Scott Gration for his remarks on Wednesday. One leader from a camp in Zalengie (west Darfur) said since the expulsion of the NGOs "the rations are cut 50%, we live with our children under rain in torn shelters, we lack health services, how could the Special Envoys says the humanitarian conditions are improving, from where he got this 100% figure?!". Another Leader said that when Gration visited Sudan in his first trip he said that he came to learn from the Government of Sudan. The refugees' Leader said that it is evident that Gration has learned from GoS how to lie and distort facts about the humanitarian situation on the ground. The Leader challenged the Special Envoy to come to his camp or any other camp in Darfur not staged by GoS to see the real conditions for himself.
UNAMIDsaid in a statement that the incidents of attacks by armed militias against people in the IDP camps has increased dramatically. The UNAMID spokesperson Nurddin said in a separate interview to Radio Dabanga that there is serious lack of drinking water, blankets, shelter material, food, health care, and education in the IDP camps of Darfur. The spokesperson said that no one likes to live in these camps due to the bad living conditions there. He added that there is a lot to be done to improve the living situation there and/or work on the return of these refugees to their original homes.
.............................................................. iACT 6, Day 9 The monthly food is rationed out to Darfuri refugees August 09, 2008 Uploaded by stopgenocidenow Darfur refugee Husna receives her food rations at Camp Oure Cassoni in Eastern Chad. For one month, she and her family of five will have to survive on:
2.5 oz of salt 6 cups of sugar 11 lbs of cereal 8 cups of oil 25 cups of yellow split peas 70 lbs of sorghum (grain)
I’ve told you “we’re going back” three times in the past, but this one is a little different. The last time we left Chad after our visits to the refugee camps in the east, we left on a French military plane, being evacuated in the middle of an all out coup attempt that left an already unstable country and region in even worse conditions.
Soon after, the Sudanese government attacked Darfuri villages, displacing tens of thousands of more civilians. This was in February 2008. Of the over 13,000 that reached the border between Chad and Darfur, 8,000 are still sitting in the desert, waiting to be transferred to camp Mile, according to UNHCR. The insecurity has stopped the transfers indefinitely.
Services have been reduced and interrupted at almost all of the camps in Chad. Chadian security officers working at the camps have been attacked and killed, and humanitarian aid workers have been targets. Our friends in the camps, mostly women and children, continue to live the life of a refugee—but the life of a refugee in grave danger.
We are returning after ourselves having been in some danger. That also makes it different. Our experience at the hotel in N’Djamena had an effect on Katie-Jay and I and on all the people around us. We are not taking this lightly. We will take all precautions possible and will make decision based on the best information from experts on the ground.
We want to continue putting a face on the numbers and allowing the voice of the victims to be heard. The innocent civilians of Darfur need immediate protection, and sovereignty cannot be an excuse for inaction from the entire world.
Join us for i-ACT, staring June 10th and for twelve consecutive days of webcasts, interactive blog, and opportunities for action. Scott Warren, the outgoing National Director of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, and Colin O’Brien, who served as the National High School Outreach Coordinator for STAND, will be going with us on the journey. Students have been the leaders of the Darfur movement, and we are looking for students and their communities to increase the heat and raise the noise this summer to bring peace to Darfur.
Paz, Gabriel ............................................................................................................................
Today was the hottest day yet in Camp Oure Cassoni. Hardly anyone was out in the heat, even as early as 9am. Even then it was only to fill their jugs with water, and quickly retreat to the shade. We met 15 women working hard to build a brick school to replace the primary school their children attend. Behind their 1/2 built structure we can see a dozen or so make shift tents with stick structures and tarps sewn together. Most are flapping in the wind and the sand has begun to strip sections of the walls and roofs. Their basketball court is cracking, and their swing set no longer has seats to rest to on. The futbol field is empty. In the furthest Zone of Oure Cassoni, you can see the harshest reality of living in this environment. The wind shifts the sand so much that building walls around your four-year old tent is not a choice, but a necessity. The sand burns to the touch, and yet more than half of the children we met wear no shoes to protect their feet. Even when the rainy season consumes the rest of the country, Camp Oure Cassoni remains a desert.
.............................................................. iACT6, Day 6 Tour of the outskirts of the Darfuri refugee camp August 08, 2008 Gabriel takes us on a drive around the outskirts of Camp Oure Cassoni, just across the border from Darfur. Uploaded by stopgenocidenow
>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>: President Obama's Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration needs to be replaced.
US Tries to Walk Back From Comments Downplaying Genocide in Darfur
June 18, 2009 5:41 PM
Kristina Wong
--ABC News' Kirit Radia reports: Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration's comments yesterday that Darfur is experiencing only the "remnants of genocide," thus implying the troubled region's worst violence is in the past, have exposed a deep disagreement on the matter within the Obama administration.
Just two days earlier US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice described th e situation as "genocide" and at a press conference in Germany earlier this month President Obama used the phrase "ongoing genocide."
After Gration's comments yesterday, Rice was furious, according to US officials.
The remarks touched off a debate within the administration, which is working to complete its policy review on Sudan. The debate continued today, and even delayed the start of the State Department daily briefing by over an hour until language could be agreed upon at the National Security Council, officials said.
Today, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affair PJ Crowley walked back from Gration's comments when asked to explain the discrepancy.
"I think there is no question that genocide has taken place in Darfur. We continue to characterize the circumstances in Darfur as genocide," Crowley said.
When asked if Gration had misspoken, Crowley said: "there's room in the administration for a debate about the interpretation of the facts that go into that judgment."
Gration's comments also irked the Darfur advocacy community.
"President Obama and Ambassador Rice recently labeled the situation in Darfur as an ongoing genocide, and it is troubling that key players in the administration are not singing from the same song sheet with regard to this fundamental issue," Save Darfur Coalition President Jerry Fowler said in a statement today.
John Norris, Executive Director of the Enough Project, told ABC News today that his group believes genocide is ongoing in Darfur.
"We believe that the ongoing efforts by the government of Sudan meet the classic definition. That they, through their actions, not only through their support of the Janjaweed, government denials, denial of humanitarian aid, seem to be designed to destroy people in whole or in part," he said.
ABC News' Elizabeth Gorman and Devin Dwyer contributed to this report
>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>: From Mohamed Suleiman
Two victims of rape still in Zalengie hospital. Raped by janjaweed using rape as a weapon to break the will of Darfur people. Government of Sudan tell the Janjaweed : You have to kill them savegly and violate their women, otherwise they will come back and claim their land. Still bomb craters fresh in Furawiah when it was bombed just few days ago. Gration is a hero in Khartoum. Champion of normalization. Gration does not feel the pain of Darfur people who are still suffering from an on going Genocide.
If Scott Gration reflects what Barack Obama believes, then I believe we have a problem. Scott Gration needs to be replaced in my opinion. We can't expect to make deals with Bashir and believe good will come of it. I am beside my self with frustration and anger.
Sent April 28, 2009 As someone who went to other states to help get Barack Obama elected, even though it was outside my comfort zone to go door-to-door and phone bank, as well as give money over and over, although I couldn't afford it - I am deeply in despair over Barack Obama's failure to act appropriately regarding the Darfuris.
I love my life. I love where I live. And I am passionate about my passions. I love to dance. Necessary to live: music, piano, singing, writing, acting, painting.
I have been fighting for and supporting the arts all my adult life. Since 2004, I have been working with other activists to end the Darfur genocide.
I have traveled to Europe many times since my early twenties. Places I have been: many USA states including Hawaii, Montreal, Canada, Barbados, France, Spain, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany - and have wonderful memories.
My last trip was in May - June 2013 to Spain.
I would like to travel to Europe and Kyoto, Japan.
I love the southwest where I have visited Hopi, Navajo, Zia and San Idlefonso potters.
Life is exciting and I intend to live it full-out to the end.
B.S. and M.M., both in music
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Khartoum, Sudan Stop Genocide Time
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RAFA NADAL -BRING BACK LONG PANTS - SLEEVELESS TOPS
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Darfur - The Abandoned Genocide - a video by Sandra Hammel
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Genocide is not only a word,
it is crying of the whole human race.
There is nothing redeeming about being silent
when speaking up is the humane thing to do.
The honor and integrity of the human race is at stake.
Julia Cass is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience writing for newspapers, magazines and non-profit organizations. She has written extensively about civil rights, poverty and the prison system. As a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer for almost 20 years, she shared the Pulitzer Prize with other staffers for the paper’s coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. She also received an award for her reporting on the Pennsylvania prison system.
