Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia, issued a national apology for Australia's role in child migrant programs. This program forcibly sent approximately 150,000 British children (some as young as age 3) to Australia, Canada, and other parts of the Commonwealth. These children were taken from single mothers and impoverished families in Britain and sent away to supposedly start a better life. However, they often experienced isolation, as well as physical and sexual abuse in the countries they were sent to. Rudd said this was "the absolute tragedy of childhoods lost." He said Australia was "sorry for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation, and the cold absence of love, of tenderness, of care." These children were known in Australia as "the lost innocents". Rudd also apologized for the so-called "Forgotten Australians" -- children that were placed in state institutions during the 20th century. Many were abused there.
Australia's opposition leader, Malcolm Turnball also spoke at the ceremony and offered his apologies on behalf of Australia, "Today we acknowledge that with broken hearts and breaking spirits you were left in custody -- we can hardly call it 'care' -- of too many people whose abuse and neglect of you, whose exploitation of you, made a mockery of the claim that you were taken from your own family 'for your own good.'"
A 1998 report by the British parliament concluded that the child migrant program was used as a way to relieve the financial burdens of Britain's social services agencies. In addition, the program had racial motivations: "The importation of 'good white stock' was seen as a desirable policy objective" that would "maintain the racial unity of Britain's empire." These programs ended about 40 years ago.
Britain's Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is expected to issue an apology for Britain as well. (Full Story)
Two gay men were granted a marriage license in Argentina yesterday and are planning on getting married in December. The couple was granted the marriage license after a judge ruled last week that a ban on same-sex marriage violates Argentina's constitutional rights of equality. The mayor of Buenos Aires -- the city which granted the marriage license -- said the city would not appeal the decision. The couple, which plans to wed December 1st, may be the first legal same-sex wedding in Latin America.
The court ruling did not set a precedent beyond this case, but other gay and lesbian couples who are denied a marriage license can follow this example and challenge their denial in court and cite this ruling. Currently, no other country in Latin America allows same-sex marriage, though in some jurisdictions same-sex partners are allowed to form civil unions. (Full Story)
The World Food Security summit started yesterday. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon opened the summit with some sobering statistics: A child dies of hunger every five seconds, despite the fact that the earth has enough food to feed all. One billion people are hungry. Six million children die of hunger each year -- 17,000 every day.
The summit leaders adopted a declaration to renew their commitment to eradicate hunger by promoting investment, increase funding for agriculture, and tackling the effect of global warming on food security. Ban Ki-Moon proposed providing farmers with seeds and land and offering them access to better markets and fairer trade. He said, "These small-holder farms are the heart and soul of food security and poverty reduction. Our job is not to feed the hungry but to empower the hungry to feed themselves." Hopefully this summit results in action and not just declarations of support.
The article also mentions that the U.N. is also seeking commitment from the public. They have started an online campaign called "Billion for a Billion", and they are making an online appeal for individuals to donate money to fight hunger. The World Food Program's executive director said small donations can make a big difference, "If a billion internet users donate a dollar or a euro a week, we can literally transform the lives of a billion hungry people across the world." (Full Story)
Researchers in the U.S. have found that Transcendental Meditation can have health benefits. A group of African Americans (201 men and women. Average age 59. Participants had a narrowing of the arteries in their hearts) were randomly assigned to meditate or make lifestyle changes. The meditation group was asked to mediate for 20 minutes twice a day. The lifestyle change group received education classes in traditional risk factors like exercise and diet changes. After nine years, the meditation group had a 47% reduction in deaths, heart attacks, and strokes. In the meditation group there were 20 events (heart attacks, strokes, or death) and 31 in the lifestyle changes group.
Another interesting finding was that at the end of the nine years, 80% of the meditation group kept up the meditation practices at least once a day. However, with the lifestyle group, they researchers did not see a continuous change in lifestyle (i.e., where they kept up diet modifications and exercise). The researchers noted that it can be hard to make those lifestyle changes.
In addition to reducing heart attacks, strokes, or death, the researchers found that the meditation group also experienced significantly lower blood pressure on average and in some participants there was a significant reduction in psychological stress.
The researchers also noted that to fully assess the impact of meditation on heart patients' lives, they would need to confirm the results in a larger study and with other ethnic groups. (Full Story)
The U.S. envoy for war crimes has announced that the U.S. will "engage" with the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC was set up in 2002 to try individuals for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The Bush administration refused to have any role in the ICC. For the first time, the U.S. will attend a meeting of the ICC. However, the U.S. will only attend the meeting as an observer. The envoy reports that the US is still years away from joining. The envoy explained, "There remain concerns about the possibility that the United States, upon whom a great deal of the world relies for security, and its service members might be subject to politically inspired persecutions." The ICC can only try individuals from countries that have ratified the treaty. So, in other words, U.S. officials are afraid the U.S. will be held accountable for any war crimes or crimes against humanity that it has committed. And they should be. The U.S. should be held accountable and held to a standard of humanity. It seems to me that the fear of joining obviously indicates guilt. Our country's behavior should follow international standards of humanity. I hope the U.S. does join the ICC; but at the very least, I'm glad that we are now engaging with the court. (Full Story)
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