More than 100 children report being detained by U.S. occupation forces in Iraq, according to recent information gleaned from the International Red Cross, including detainment in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
According to Report Mainz, a German television investigative magazine, 107 children were registered held in custody between January and May of this year, in at least six different Iraqi internment centres, Florian Westphal, speaking for the International Red Cross, told the magazine.
“The number of imprisoned children held could be higher,” Westphal said.
The TV magazine reported testimonies in which U.S. soldiers in Iraqi prisons had abused children. Samuel Provance, an NCO stationed in Abu Ghraib prison said specialists harrassed a 15- to 16-year-old girl in her cell.
Military police intervened only when she was already half undressed. Another time a sixteen-year-old was driven into water in cold weather and afterwards covered with mud. The child welfare organization of the United Nations (Unicef) confirms the capture of Iraqi children by coalition forces.
According to an internal U.N. document, written in June 2004, “Children from Basra and Karbala had been arrested because of alleged activities directed against the coalition … (these children) were routinely transferred into internment in Umm Kasr. Concern was expressed as to the classification of children as legitimate detainees, their indefinite internment without contact of family members, and their denial of due process.”
The German arm of the human rights organization Amnesty International demanded the clearing-up of the reproaches and a statement from the U.S.
As a reaction to the alleged torture of children, Norwegian authorities state they will address the U.S. both politically and diplomatically and clearly state that such activities by the U.S. occupation forces would not be tolerated.
Further, based on published reports, the International organization, Save The Children, called on the Danish government to mediate immediately with the coalition forces in Iraq in order to release children detained in Iraqi jails.
Move Over, Pirate Radio: SomaFM Plays Tunes For The World
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Ran across this San Francisco Chronicle story the other day.
SomaFM is a commercial-free, listener-supported, underground Web radio network broadcasting from a garage in the Bernal Heights neighbourhood of San Francisco.
Dedicated to high quality MP3 internet broadcasts reaching across the globe, SomaFM’s founder, Rusty Hodge — working with four other Bay Area residents whose music tastes have spun off stations like the indie-rock — broadcasts six RealAudio webcasts 24 hours a day.
The radio stations available range from the ambient beats and grooves of Groove Salad (RealPlayer / WinAmp required for each link), indie pop rocks, and the post-modern mysterioso of secret agent, to the blips ‘n’ beeps (backed w/beats) of cliqhop, the very tasty, atmospheric textures of drone zone, and the deep-house and downtempo chill of beat blender.
Among the salient features of the site (apart from the great music): a song history for each of the webcasts, linked to artist information; introduction to music you won’t hear elsewhere; and … the broadcasts are all perfectly legal, given an arrangement SomaFM has negotiated with the RIAA.
Donations to SomaFM, through Paypal or Amazon.com’s Honor System, are gratefully accepted.
New On DVD: The Dog Days of Summer
All and all, this is a relatively slow week for new DVD releases, although not entirely without merit.
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An unabashed, even old-fashioned humanist film, Monsieur Ibrahim tells the story of a grizzled, white-haired grocer (Omar Sharif) in a Paris working-class neighbourhood in the 1960s, a gentle man who provides the wisdom of his 70 years to a lonely and depressed young Jewish boy. Surprising and ironic at times, the movie insists that what is important is the interior life of the individual, the cultivation of a deep spirituality. The best new video release this week.
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Less worthy, but bound to find an eager group of renters (given that it’s star is teen heartthrob Ashton Kutcher), The Butterfly Effect is, as the Hollywood Reporter suggests, “an entertaining piece of supernatural nonsense whose sheer audacity disarms all (well, nearly all) skepticism.” With off-putting subject matter (maiming, murder and kiddie porn), The Butterfly Effect is maybe not a movie for the whole family.
Otherwise, this may be the week to consider renting a DVD that you missed earlier in the year. VanRamblings offers the following for your consideration: the sweet, funny and empowering Calendar Girls; the magnificent Oscar nominated film, In America; the engaging and understated period drama, Girl With A Pearl Earring; as well as the magical new version of Peter Pan, and the compellingly watchable epic, The Last Samurai.
A Triumphant Return To TV: Fiona Forbes and Michael Eckford
 Mike and Fiona: ‘Happy Together’ |
By far, the single most frequent Google search bringing visitors to VanRamblings concerns longtime Urban Rush, and recently deposed CITY-TV Breakfast Television, hosts Fiona Forbes and Michael Eckford.
In a Vancouver Province e-entertainment news story published today, columnist Dana Gee reports that “Fiona Forbes and Michael Eckford have agreed to terms with Shaw TV and will return in October to host Urban Rush, a show they last helmed almost two years ago.”
“It’s great. I won’t have to get up in the middle of the night,” says Forbes, referring to the 19 months the pair spent on Citytv’s BreakfastTelevision. “When we met with our old bosses (at Shaw) and they made us an offer, Mike and I left the meeting and looked at each other and immediately high-fived. We really are excited about this.”
Forbes and Eckford will replace current UR hosts Erin Cebula and Russell Porter, whose contract expires July 16th.
The new Urban Rush will remain a one-hour talk show, and will be broadcast from the almost completed Shaw Tower in Coal Harbour, affording viewers a background vista (and here) of Vancouver’s magnificent harbourfront.