Tuesday, 5 April 2011

16 April: International Day Against Child Slavery Ivory Coast: Child Soldiers Fuel Warring Factions

Channel 4 News, Thursday 31 March 2011



The army backing the disputed Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo calls on youths to enlist to help fight in the battle against his rival, Alassane Ouattara. 


The call - for "young patriots...to pick up weapons to go and fight" - has fuelled fears that child soldiers, who were widely drafted into the front-line during the last outbreak of civil war eight years ago, are becoming a growing feature again as fighting intensifies.

Laurent Gbagbo - who refused to step down as President despite having been declared by the United Nations as the loser of last year's elections - has come under increasing pressure both internally and externally.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council agreed to impose sanctions on the regime - including freezing its assets, banning travel and an embargo on the use of heavy weapons in the main city of Abidjan.

At the same time, Alassane Ouattara's forces have been making steady gains, including the capital, Yamoussoukro, and the major cocoa port of San Pedro.

Corinne Dufka - senior Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch - told Channel 4 News: "I've interviewed from recruitment camps in the past and child soldiers have been a big problem. I can't say if they are using them now. The UN have documented small scale use of child soldiers, but it is simply too difficult to monitor right now."

16 April: International Day Against Child Slavery Haiti: Children Sold to Human-Traffickers for 76p - less than 1€





Extract, by Laurie Hanna, Daily Mirror 22/02/2011
THEY survived a devastating earthquake which obliterated their homes and left them in disease-ridden squalor.

And now children in dirt-poor Haiti are being sold to callous human traffickers for less than a quid, it was revealed yesterday.

Some infants in the Caribbean country – still in chaos following last year’s horror quake – are being forced into prostitution. Others are being adopted by families in Europe who are unaware of their traumatic backgrounds.

Penniless parents, believing their young will lead better lives elsewhere, are handing them to crooks posing as concerned officials. Melissa Nau, 38, who suffers from learning and physical disabilities, sold four of her five children for 50 Haitian gourdes (76p) each. Unable to work to provide for them, she was living in a filthy, ramshackle camp in the quake-shattered capital Port-au-Prince when a man she knew only as Jacques offered to buy the youngsters, aged between four and eight. But the money only lasted a few months and she is broke again. Melissa and her remaining son Roland, who is 10 months old, later came to the attention of staff from the United Nations Children’s Fund and have been placed in a safe house.

Monday, 4 April 2011

NO SHELTER, Rage Against the Machine


The main attraction, distraction
got ya number than number than numb
Empty ya pockets son, they got you thinkin that
What ya need is what they sellin
Make you think that buyin is rebellin'
From the theaters to malls on every shore
The thin line between entertainment and war
The frontline is everywhere, there be no shelter here
Spielberg the nightmare works so push it far
Amistad was a whip, the truth feather to tar
Memories erased and burned to scar
Trade in ya history for a VCR

Sunday, 3 April 2011

The Prayer of the Children


The Prayer of the Children

 
Can you hear the prayer of the children
on bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room?
Empty eyes with no more tears to cry,
turning heavenward toward light.
Cryin' Jesus help me
to see the morning light of one more day,
but if I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take. 


Can you feel the hearts of the children
aching for home, for something of their very own?
Reaching hands with nothing to hold on to,
but hope for a better day, a better day.
Crying Jesus help me
to feel the love again in my own land,
but if unknown roads lead away from home,
give me loving arms, away from harm.