statism watch

CBC News
Sunday, June 1, 2008

The United Nations children’s agency and the World Health Organization have begun a three-day campaign to vaccinate more than a million children against polio in southern Afghanistan.

At one of the clinics that opened Sunday, women in burkas brought their children to a small table outside the hospital in downtown Kandahar.

There, the children were instructed to open their mouths to allow a UNICEF worker to drop in pink liquid, one of many doses they’ll receive for the vaccine to be effective.

The deputy governor of Kandahar province, Ghulam Jailani, kicked off the three-day vaccination campaign by delivering doses to two children.

Speaking to reporters, he acknowledged there are security problems in southern Afghanistan and said his staff is urging elders to allow health workers into their villages to deliver the vaccine safely.

Dr. Shahwali Popal, a health specialist with UNICEF, said the UN is using what the agency calls access negotiators – people who talk to the mullahs, teachers and local elders – and the strategy to eradicate a viral disease that can cause paralysis and deformities seems to be working.

“Even sometimes the health authorities are receiving calls from the communities asking why the teams are not coming to this location, so it means the involvement of the community is increasing,” he told CBC News.

Popal said some areas are still too dangerous to visit, and already this year cases of polio have been reported in the region, but overall the number of children with polio is dropping in Afghanistan.

Full Story | See Also: Vaccine-linked polio hits Nigeria | Polio Warning Issued for Travel to Nigeria

BBC News
Sunday, 1 June 2008

A truth and reconciliation commission examining what native leaders call one of the most tragic and racist chapters in Canada’s history has begun.

The commission will study Canada’s decades-long policies that removed Aboriginal children from their families to force Christianity upon them.

The state-funded religious schools were often the scenes of horrific physical and sexual abuse.

The commission has a five-year mandate to detail the abuses.

From the 19th Century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 aboriginal children were required to attend Christian schools in an attempt to rid them of their native cultures and languages and integrate them into society.

Darkest chapter

The federal government admitted 10 years ago that physical and sexual abuse in the once-mandatory schools was rampant.

Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages, and losing touch with their parents and customs.

Full Story | See Also: The Legacy of Native American Schools