http://bluequack.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/340123 Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:14:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/340123 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/333013 Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:23:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/333013 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/324789 Myth One:
There is not enough food and not enough land.

Untrue. Measured globally, there is enough to feed everyone. For example there is enough grain being produced today to provide everybody in the world with enough protein and about 3000 calories a day, which is what the average American consumes. But the world's food supply is not evenly distributed.

Myth Two:
There are too many people to feed.

Contrary to popular belief, overpopulation is not the cause of hunger. It's usually the other way around: hunger is one of the real causes of overpopulation. The more children a poor family has the more likely some will survive to work in the fields or in the city to add to the family's small income and, later, to care for the parents in their old age. All this points to the disease that is at the root of both hunger and overpopulation: The powerlessness of people who must rely on food that is grown and distributed by wealthy people who have never felt hunger pangs, yet who determine how the land will be used, if at all and who will benefit from its fruits. High birth rates are symptoms of the failures of a social system - inadequate family income, inadequate nutrition and health care and old-age security.


Myth Three:
Growing more food will mean less hunger in poor countries.

But it doesn't seem to work that way. "More food" is what the last 30 years' War on Hunger has been about. Farming methods have been "modernized", ambitious irrigation plans carried out, "miracle" seeds, new pesticides, fertilizers and machinery have become available. But who has come out better off?

Myth Four:
Hunger is contest between rich countries and poor countries.

Rich or poor, we are all part of the same global food system which is gradually coming under the control of a few huge corporations. These giant businesses grow and market food for the benefit of those people who have money which means primarily people in North American and Europe.

Myth Five:
Hunger can be solved by redistributing the food to the hungry.

True. Adapting a simpler lifestyle helps us to understand our interrelatedness with all people and less wastefulness is better stewardship. But neither" one less hamburger a week". Nor massive food aid programs, will eventually solve widespread starvation and poverty in the poorest nation. People will only cease to be poor when they control the means of providing and /or producing food for themselves.

Myth Six:
A strong military defense provides a secure environment in which people can prosper.

But who feels secure on and empty stomach? The extraordinary investment the world makes in armaments annually (currently $900 billion) ensures that few funds are available for agricultural and economic development and shows that those who decide how a nation's money is spent are not intimately acquainted with the violence of hunger.


Source: Rehydration Project]]> Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:36:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/324789 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/318537 ]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:52:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/318537 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/317611
Boys and girls are being abducted by armed groups in record numbers to act as soldiers, spies, porters and sex slaves in eastern Congo, the charity said Monday.

Hussein Mursal, the Congo director for the charity, said, "The situation for children in eastern DRC is catastrophic; fighters from all sides are using children as frontline fodder, raping young girls and attacking houses."

Save the Children says it has managed to free about 800 youngsters from the militias in the last year - although some have been captured again.

Those children who have managed to escape have told the aid organization that they were held captive in small holes in the ground.

Fighting in the area escalated at the start of this month, when the army launched a long-planned offensive against dissident general Laurent Nkunda, with the support of UN troops. The fighting has forced tens of thousands of civilians from their homes, adding to an estimated 800,000 displaced people - around half of them displaced by this year's fighting alone.

Source: Reuters, Press TV, Save the Children]]> Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:42:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/317611 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/317471 Tue, 25 Dec 2007 10:23:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/317471 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/313247
*Settlers - These are people who intend to live permanently in their new country. Most head for the main countries of settlement, notably the United States, Canada and Australia. Around one million travel year, the majority of whom are joining close family members.

*Contract workers - They are admitted to other countries on the understanding that they will stay only for a specific period: the length of their contract. Some are seasonal workers. Others will be on longer-term contracts, of a year or more. Most are to be found in the Gulf countries.

*Professionals - These include employees of transnational corporations who are moved around from one country to another. These tend to involve fairly small numbers, typically fewer than 1% of people employed in local affiliates are expatriates.

*Irregular workers - Somtimes called undocumented or illegal immigrants. There are significant numbers in most immigration countries. Some have been smuggled in, others are overstaying their visas, or are working on tourist visas.

*Asylum seekers and refugees - Asylum seekers have left their homes to escape danger; if their claims for asylum have been accepted they are then classified as 'refugees'. In some cases of mass flight, however, when thousands of people escape across a border they are accepted as refugees without going through this individual process.

These are the main categories but there are many other possibilities.

Source: Stalker's Guide to International Migration]]> Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:31:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/313247 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/294685
*Immigrants contribute billions of dollars annually but receive no public pension in retirement, are not eligible for Medicare, and are not entitled to any other benefits. (Social Security Administration)

*Many older workers return home to Latin America when they reach retirement age. (BusinessWeek)

*Immigrants are not swamping the U.S. health care system and use it far less than native-born Americans. (The American Journal of Public Health)

*Immigrants pay taxes -- including Medicare payroll taxes -- and most pay health insurance premiums, but they receive only half as much care as other families. (The American Journal of Public Health)

*Undocumented add at least $22 billion, in total, to the economy each year, and legalizing their status would increase that amount. (Benjamin Powell, economist at the Independent Institute)

*Letting the undocumented save and invest, could also result in a decline in crime because if immigrants are allowed to protect their money in banks, the rate of hold ups and robberies in Latino or immigrant neighborhoods drop. (Austin Police Department)
]]> Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:12:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/294685 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/289555 Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:15:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/289555 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/282555 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 12:59:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/282555 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/282509 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:09:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/282509 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/280851 Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:31:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/280851 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/279751 Sun, 11 Nov 2007 18:13:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/279751 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/279371
* 3 would have plates that are heaped so high that they will never possibly finish what is there.
* 2 will just about manage to live by scavenging what is thrown away from the three.
* 3 will be permanently hungry
* 2 will die, one of dysentery and one of pneumonia.

...If only they would share it would be so simple, but the three with full plates are more interested in seeing how large they can make their plates. One of them hears a cry from the end of the table. He looks down to see a child, skinny and bony pleading for help. He shakes his head and says:

"That is awful! Somebody should do something".


Source: Abaana]]> Sat, 10 Nov 2007 11:53:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/279371 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/277263
The life of a street kid in the cities of Africa is harsh; many have known incredible hunger and have had to steal for food. As the number of street kids rise, so too will their problems. There will be more children competing for the few sources of income that are available. Without help, their prospects will be very bleak!


Jonah is 6 years old and HIV positive. He remembers the day when he came to Kampala and the people with him told him to wait by the bridge. He stayed there until night but they never came back so he was left to fend for himself, alone in an area that he didn't even know. Other street kids found him, looked after him, and brought him to a home where he is now cared for.

Catherine is 16 and was born on the streets. She remembers when she used to beg, people would tell her to 'go home'! She cried and said 'but this is my home!'

Emmanuel was found at Christmas in a plastic bag in a rubbish tip: someone heard a weak cry. So many babies are being abandoned for unknown reasons, some are left to be found, and some are thrown away like rubbish.

The governments of the African nations do not have enough money to spend on these social issues and the aid programs of the Western World tend to neglect them too. This is where you can help...

Source: Abaana


]]> Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:12:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/277263 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/275249
The remaining 25 % are homeless. With no family they sleep in abandoned buildings, under bridges, in shop doorways and in city parks. On the streets life is lonely and dangerous. Homeless children are subjected to violence, sexual exploitation and chemical addiction.

To escape hunger and loneliness street children commonly turn to solvent abuse. Inhaling glue numbs your ability to feel pain and hunger. It is dangerous and continuous misuse frequently leads to pulmonary edema, kidney failure, and brain damage.

In Columbia and Brazil - as well as many other Latin American countries - a policy of 'social cleansing' is practised against street children. To eradicate a perceived nuisance, street children are targeted for extreme violence and summary execution. The perpetrators are often the police or former police members, but also the general public.


Source: Street Children - Life on the Streets]]> Sun, 04 Nov 2007 07:25:00 EST http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/275249 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/274841
You are fortunate to be still alive at the age of six, many of your friends have died of things such as malaria, dysentery, malnutrition, and the like. The fact that both father and mother are alive is another miracle. Life expectancy for men is 40 years in East Africa and 42 years for women (rarely do you encounter gray haired men.) Malaria is still the number one killer in East Africa, but AIDS comes into second place. Wherever one goes, one can see the evidence of the ravages of AIDS. Go into any school and ask how many children have only one parent, or no parent and you would be astounded. In a country like Uganda with a population of 20 million, there are as many as 1.5 million AIDS orphans. Yes, there is rebel activity in the north and west of Uganda. Yes, there is malaria and other illnesses. This is the other war, AIDS, the silent killer that sweeps through offices, villages, banks, schools and government institutions. In fact many businesses refuse to give time off for more than one funeral a month to their employees, since death comes so frequently to families. (One of the most secure jobs is to make caskets along Entebbe road in Kampala; unfortunately, there is never a shortage of customers.)

So here you are, a child in Africa, living in a small shack, made of sun baked, mud bricks, covered by a corrugated tin roof (they are called iron sheets here), that leaks whenever it rains. The room is small, yes, the house is one room, and if you are really lucky it will be two. No kitchen, you have a stove outside, a charcoal one, charcoal costs about 7 dollars (£5) a bag and for some that lasts all month. If you have no money you find some wood and use a fire to cook over. The bathroom, consists of an outhouse down the path, shared by many families, there is a common one used by the men and by all to wash in. Most Africans bathe using plastic wash-tubs twice a day. A house like that rents for 30 to 50 dollars a month in a city like Kampala, and it is in slum areas of town. The income of your parents is only about 70 dollars combined. Father works as a night watchman for a well to do family from 7 in the evening to 7 in the morning. Mother goes off at 6:30 in the morning to work as a maid for some white people from Denmark.

You are a girl of 12, and now you are home alone, well almost. Father might sleep for a few hours, but then he is off into town seeing if he can come up with some extra work and make a few more Shillings for the family. Why are you not in school? Oh, the answer to that one is easy, a girl does not need school, she only needs to take care of the house, get a husband when she is older, have babies, raise a family, cook, maybe work as maid, or in a restaurant, but there is no reason to invest in a woman or so the thinking goes. (Most of the lack of education for girls has to do with economics, the firstborn boy is usually sent to school if any money is available.)

Your oldest brother left at 7 that morning, he had to take a roll of toilet paper to school, since the day before he was scolded for not having any. He also had to take a new broom to class to sweep the classroom and the school grounds after school.

School is expensive. A new law had been passed in 1997 making Ugandan school free through primary grades, but then there are all those other fees, such as PTA, Building Funds, extra this and that. Besides school is six miles away and the mini bus called taxi costs 50 cents each way. There are the hidden costs that no one talks about at school, but are so common. Class size is often about 100 students to the room. Even that is supposed to change but has not. Mother had to come up with extra money so that your brother could pay the teacher to sit up at the front of the class, where he could hear and learn better. Money had also to be paid to have homework checked and corrected, and if you wanted extra help called tutoring for the Primary 7 exam, there was something extra for that. That is why only one of your brothers goes to school, while the others hang around until maybe some of the uncles and aunts in the family can contribute something for the education of them. For that is how it works in Africa, no family can ever come up with the money alone, it takes combined resources of the extended family to send children to school in most cases.

Daily, it is your job, to look after the little ones. Do laundry in two plastic tubs with water that you had to carry in a 5-gallon can up a hill to the house. Not only washing, but there is cooking. You do not have to worry about preparing meat, there is no money for that, except a few times a month. The shop is just around the corner from you. No, you can't ask for a cut of meat, you get what is there and the price is the same. You really do not care about that chewy, tough meat anyway, plus it is covered with flies, yuck.

Live chickens can be bought in the market, but they are expensive, costing between four and five dollars. It is only on special occasions that one will buy them, it is your job to kill and pluck clean if your brothers are not around. The main staple of Uganda is Matoke (green bananas, masked and steamed under banana leaves) and Posho made from corn flour. Every evening you buy a plastic sack of milk, for immediate consumption, since it would spoil if you bought it during the day. It is sold along the roads by vendors with carts, and if you pick one from the bottom of the pile, it is still reasonably cool, well warm. Bread, can also be bought there from the same roadside hawkers who call out what they have for sale, as it gets dark small oil lamps illuminate their wares.

In the mornings it is your job to head to the market to buy stalks of bananas, some sweet potatoes if any money is on hand. There are also red kidney beans, but during the two rainy seasons of the year they may be filled with maggots and you do not like getting your meat and protein that way, but that is reality and what can one do. Rice is available but you have to pick the rocks out of it since it is no fun chewing on them. It is also very expensive. There are potatoes which you like and sometimes use when you buy beef, but it always comes down to how much money the family has.

The future does not look bright for you. You hear people talking about things getting better, but you have not seen it. Malaria still comes to visit you on a regular basis, there is dysentery, cholera that one has to look out for, and as you have gotten older and developed as a young woman has, there is the hidden problem in Africa. Your uncle has been coming around saying things to you, and suggesting that you come to visit him and learn how to be a woman. Yes, things are not getting better for you.

It would be nice to learn how to read and write, but it may never happen, in fact that are not many in the family that do. There are only two ways out of the slum in which you live. One is to get an education and the other way is what your Aunt Asha is doing, selling herself to White and Indian men who have money and just might take you in as a live in girlfriend. That however is not the way you learned in your church, just up the path from your slum called Eden Revival where they spoke of Holiness, right living and faith in God to bring about a future with hope. You have had a lot of hope, prayed a lot, but not seen the bright future, but then God must be busy in other parts of the world.

You like going into town with your mother to Owino market where you see clothes for sale, not that you get many, it has been some time since you last gotten a new skirt, and the detergent had long ago washed out all the brightness that had been there (Omo does get the dirt out, but also the color).
You reach down to scratch your feet, and notice that a few more jiggers have lodged themselves there and it would be time again to cut them out, since there was no money to go the doctor, and mother did a good enough job with a knife.

Fun, for you was playing with other children, going down to the place where the men drank out of common pot the homebrew that some of the women prepared. There you could dance to drums with some the other girls. You liked it and everyone would join in while the old men would talk about yesterday, today and tomorrow, always looking for that miracle to help them out of the slum.

A new lottery had come to Kampala and Uncle Fred had taken all of his salary of 30 dollars, (30,000 shillings) and bet it and won nothing in return. Others laughed about it but you felt sorry for him.

There was something new you had heard about. Some organization from Great Britain had set up a little office at the edge of the slum and was signing up children to go to school without school fees. They also provided school uniforms, books, transport and some food. The cost would be paid for a by a family far away and it was called sponsorship. Maybe, just maybe this was true and someone did care about children like you.

Maybe there was more to life; maybe there would be a chance, an open door to have hope. Maybe, someone did care.


Source: www.abaana.org

Do YOU care?...]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:02:00 EDT http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/274841 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/274217 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:59:00 EDT http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/274217 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/273859
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says children as young as 10 are beaten or threatened with arrest to make them enlist.

The report, entitled "Sold to be Soldiers: The Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in Burma" says there are thousands of children in the Burmese military.

It claims that children are approached in public places by military recruiters and civilian brokers who have been promised cash rewards by the military.

The children are often beaten or threatened with arrest to force them to enlist, the report says.

It is claimed that recruiting officers routinely falsify enlistment documents to register children as being 18, the legal minimum age for recruitment.

One child quoted in the report says he was forced to lie about his age when he was recruited for a second time.

"When I said I was 16, I was slapped and he said, 'You are 18, answer 18.'

"I just wanted to go back and home and I told them, but they refused."


Source: BBC News]]> Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:34:00 EDT http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/273859 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/273215
More than 39 million of these children are living in countries affected by armed conflict, where little is being done to help.

Millions more living in conflict-affected countries are receiving a substandard education.

These out-of-school children — like all children — have the right to an education. They, more than most, need the benefits education can bring:

* protection,
* stability,
* and the potential to start building a peaceful and prosperous society.

EDUCATION CAN REWRITE THE FUTURE

"Please open the school again. The war is between adults, but it affects us children."
-Gamesh, 16, Nepal

"It's far better to learn life skills and lessons than the education of war. If we all go to school maybe there will be no more war."
-Sarah, 15, Southern Sudan

"Life is good because my sisters, brothers and I have the possibility to go to school and learn. But I also dream of a country that's not at war. I want to entire Afghan people to stand together."
-Mirwais, 14 Afghanistan


Source: Save The Children ]]> Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:27:00 EDT http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/273215 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/270739
Africa is a homogenous continent: It is very common for people to think of Africa as a homogenous continent, and even to refer to Africa as a country. Africa is not a country, but is rather a continent consisting of numerous countries and diverse populations. Africa is, in fact, the second largest continent on earth next to Asia; it contains the most countries of any continent, and is 4 times larger than the United States. There are 53 African countries with an estimated population of more than


Perception #2

Africa is a poor continent: Africa is actually one the wealthiest continents in the world in terms of natural resources. Many countries in Africa contain rich reserves of valuable minerals like coltan, diamonds, gold, and bauxite, as well as other valuable commodities like oil, gas, and timber. With such an abundance of resources, the people of Africa should be among the richest in the world. While there are many wealthy people living on the African continent, this wealth has not historically translated into better living conditions for the average African person. There are numerous reasons for this including colonization, corruption, armed conflict or rebellion, as well as the policies of international financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.


Perception #3

Africans are tribal: The word “tribe” is actually a European word, not an African one. While Europeans have historically used the word “tribe” to refer to Africans, it is not a term that Africans have used historically to refer to themselves. Essentially, people who consider themselves to be outside of the categorization of a tribe use the term “tribe” to identify an “ethnic group”. It is not uncommon for North Americans to think of Africans as tribes, but to think about Canadians, Mexicans, or French as “ethnic groups” or “countries.”
Many people living in the West associate the word “tribe” with negative concepts like social backwardness, and unsophisticated technology, and often use the word to refer to Africans because they mistakenly believe these are somehow African characteristics. Since Europeans commonly used the term “tribe” during the colonial period, many Africans have internalized it and continue to use the word.


Perception #4

Famine is the only cause of poverty on the African continent: The roots of poverty in Africa are incredibly complex and can not be blamed on any one particular cause such as famine. While famine certainly poses many challenges, in order to truly understand the roots of poverty on the African continent, one has to understand the history and impact of colonization in Africa, the exploitation and exportation of Africa’s natural resources, the intention of governments and the political climate, corruption, the global arms trade, war, the policies of international financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, unfair trading policies, as well as the impacts of the spread of diseases like malaria, typhoid, and HIV/AIDS. Poverty is a complex issue and cannot be attributed to one root cause. It is important to understand the historical, political, economic, geographic and social contexts that contribute to poverty.


Perception #5

All Africans look the same and share the same ancestral background: People living in Africa have numerous different skin colours and physical characteristics. Most African cultures distinguish between the different skin tones and physical characteristics, and have words to describe different shades of skin colour and hair types. As is the case in western societies, prejudices based upon these observed differences often exist in African societies as well.
In addition to physical differences, the people of Africa have diverse histories of origin. While there are “indigenous” Africans whose ancestors remained on the continent, there are also African immigrants from all parts of the world. Some immigrants to Africa are ancient immigrants like Persians and Arabs among the Swahili of East Africa, Arabs in North Africa, or Indonesians among the Malagasy of Madagascar. Most immigrants to Africa arrived during the last several hundred years, or even in the last couple of decades. Newer immigrant Africans come mainly from countries in Europe like France, England, Portugal, and Holland, as well as from countries in Asia like India, China, Lebanon, and Indonesia.


Perception #6

People living in Africa speak “African”: People living in Africa do not speak a language called “African.” In fact, it is estimated that there are well over a thousand languages spoken in Africa organized into four main language families.
Nearly all countries in Africa have adopted official languages that originated outside Africa and spread through colonialism or the movement of people. In many countries, English and French are used to communicate in the public spheres, which included places like government, education, and the media. Arabic, Portuguese, Afrikaans and Malagasy are other examples of originally non-African languages that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public (government, school) and private (home) spheres.


Perception #7

Music in Africa has nothing in common with music we listen to in North America: Many of the popular styles of music in Canada like rap, blues, jazz, reggae, and rock and roll have their roots in the musical rhythms of Sub-Sahara and West Africa, and were brought to North America through the African Atlantic slave trade. Modern music on the continent includes highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and dance rhythms of Soukous, dominated by the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo.


Perception #8

People living in Africa are not educated: Although access to education is often limited in numerous countries in Africa due to the cost of school fees, uniforms, and school supplies, there are countless numbers of highly educated people living in Africa. In fact, according to the 2000 US census, immigrants born in Africa have the highest level of educational attainment in America when compared to other immigrant groups. It is also true however, that educated African immigrants often have a difficult time finding work in their field after immigrating to western countries due to language barriers, certification criteria, and racism.


Perception #9

Most people living in Africa do not have access to communications technology: Electronic communication is not a new phenomenon in Africa. Various forms of sophisticated communications technology like radio, television, telephone, and Internet are available in Africa today. In fact, many telephone systems newly installed in African cities take advantage of communications technologies that are more advanced than those available to the average telephone customer in North America.
While television and radio are the most widely used methods of communication technology in Africa, the Internet is becoming increasingly available and utilized on the continent. It is an astounding fact that while the Internet barely existed in Africa even five years ago, today 44 of the 54 countries in Africa have some form of Internet access at least in their capital cities.
Although Internet access in Africa is rapidly increasing, the cost of connection is still higher than in other regions of the world, rendering Internet use out of reach for many people. In addition to the costs involved, insufficient infrastructure and regulatory barriers also impede electronic communications.
Infrastructural challenges include scarce and/or poor quality telephone lines, unreliable power supplies, outdated equipment, and a lack of knowledge and training.
Regulatory barriers include government monopolies on telecommunications, high access rates for telephone service, and legal obstacles to foreign investment.


Perception #10

Africa is mostly jungle and desert: The physical geography of Africa is as diverse as the people who live there. Africa does contain the largest stretch of equatorial forest and the largest desert in the world; however, like any other continent, Africa is a continent of astounding ecological and geographic diversity.
Africa’s geography includes high snowy mountains, rich tropical forest, open grassland, mixed savanna (grasslands and trees), pine forests, and temperate climates. Think of any climate in the world (except Antarctica), and you can find it somewhere in Africa.


Source: War Child Canada: Get Loud]]> Sun, 21 Oct 2007 06:46:00 EDT http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/270739 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/267949
Release Date: November 2, 2007

Watch the trailer here: http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=23052]]> Sat, 13 Oct 2007 08:20:00 EDT http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/267949 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/263025 The child traffickers target young girls and boys who live in poverty or have difficult family relationships. Defenceless and intimidated by the unfamiliar surroundings, they cannot fight against the persons exploiting them. Should they attempt to do so, they are forced into submission.

Child Trafficking can be for the following purposes:

* Exploitation through work (incl. slave labour and bonded labour);
* Sexual exploitation (incl. prostitution and pornography);
* Exploitation through illegal activities (incl. begging and drug trafficking);
* The adoption trade;
* Marriage brokering.

Source: Stop Child Trafficking]]> Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:34:00 EDT http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/263025 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/260729
The three worst places are all in Africa where war and drought has brought death, disease and displacement to millions. But not all the regions named are ravaged by conflict. India is ranked sixth - reasons given include poverty, malnutrition and child labour.

Sudan, Uganda and Congo are the world's three most dangerous places for children due to wars that have brought death, disease and displacement to millions, a Reuters AlertNet poll showed on Tuesday.
Around half of respondents picked Sudan as one of their three choices, with many singling out the troubled western region of Darfur. Some 1.8 million children have been affected by a three-year conflict in Darfur, according to the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), where they risk being recruited to fight and are especially vulnerable to disease and malnutrition.

AlertNet, a humanitarian news website run by Reuters Foundation, asked 112 aid experts and journalists to highlight the world's most dangerous places for children.
After Sudan, they chose northern Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Somalia, India, the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Myanmar - with the top three clearly ahead.

More than 2 million children worldwide have died as a direct result of armed conflict in the past decade, and about 20 million have been forced to flee their homes, according to UNICEF. More than a million have been orphaned or separated from their families.


Source: AlertNet
By Megan Rowling]]> Wed, 26 Sep 2007 18:53:00 EDT http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/260729 54.9 23.954.923.9 http://bluequack.tigblog.org/post/250969
Facts:
• Some of the highest numbers of internally displaced people are found in the following countries:
- Democratic Republic of Congo - more than 4 million
- Iraq - more than 1.1 million
- Burma - up to 1 million
• One third of people affected by armed conflict become refugees, while two thirds are displaced
• 80% of the 53 million people uprooted by wars are women and children
• Some people have been displaced for over 20 years


Source: Red Cross
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