Mood:  chatty

In 1911, Janusz Korczak was the first person in the world to formulate a declaration of children's rights...

Dateline Vancouver BC Canada :

Group celebrates children's rights hero

 This is interesting because it is at a time in history in the here and now that when Omar Khadr (a Canadian citizen) is on trial as a terrorist, his lawyers have argued that cite violations of juvenile justice rules set out by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child .

Omar was a 15-year-old child soldier when he allegedly killed a U.S. serviceman during a firefight in Afghanistan.

Mr. Khadr will be the first ever child soldier tried for alleged war crimes by any Western nation, including the United States.

Today, Mr. Khadr is the only remaining citizen of a Western country incarcerated in Guantanamo.

Lt.-Gen. (ret'd) Romeo Dallaire is the  former Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda and writes in the National Post. His moral outrage is an indictment of the powers that be which run Ottawa.

Full article here. 

Telling in the trial that  speaks volumes about the hubristic nature of the scenario that led to Omars capture and imprisonment is that of an American officers testimony that he was about to order the execution of Omar Khadr before U.S. Special Forces operatives intervened during the terror suspect's capture in Afghanistan in July of 2002.

The soldier who interrogated Khadr was later drummed out of the service for killing another prisoner he was interrogating.

With at least two now well known cases of Canadians languishing abroad in foreign prisons with no help from their respective governments, and with a current worry-wart mentality that "every Canadian charged outside the country in future might demand help from Ottawa in mounting a defence" if we don't include  Mr. Khadr as qualifying for inclusion in the Charter of Rights....

..then what good is to be signatory to and ratifying  theUN Convention on the Rights of the Child?

Khadr's lawyers hopeful top court will aid in defence against U.S. charges

 -  - -

I can just imagine that word slut/author RYP trying to interrogate/interview this kid in the same moda fashion as Johnny Lindh Walker.

Stay out of Canada Mr Pelton.  Unless youre just visiting, in which case..won't you stay, just a little bit longer.??

Posted by mach1231 at 11:22 PM PDT

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Mood:  crushed out

Machs Cafe is being re-furbished.

Please spend your idle time here 

Thank you. Check back next week. 

Posted by mach1231 at 2:19 PM PDT

Updated: Sunday, March 30, 2008 7:38 PM PDT

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Mood:  on fire

Just a reminder to the owner of the messageboard located at comebackalivedot com that...

Section 13.1 of the Human Rights Act, prohibits Canadians from electronically communicating "any matter that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt by reason of the fact that that person or those persons are identifiable on the basis of [their group identity]."

 

 - -

Next time you come to YVR Vancouver, just flash those pearly whites instead. I mean after you get stopped to declare your identity.

What ? Who are you? What are you? 

 A Crimean? With a watch whose hands have stopped?

Posted by mach1231 at 2:18 PM PDT

Updated: Tuesday, April 1, 2008 12:03 AM PDT

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Mood:  a-ok

My musical hero speaks!

FACTOID: Clear Channel began in 1972 with a single radio station in San Antonio, Texas.

And now in the news, execs at Clear Channel say lenders are threatening its $19.5 billion buyout deal with private equity firms

A temporary restraining order had to be used against the banks from purposely sinking the deal

 Clearchannel et al are suing the 6 : Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Group, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank AG and Wachovia Corp.

  - -

So in addition to this behind the scenes maneuvering, positioning and posturing, front face and center are more murderous ruinous accusations surrounding the well founded careers of the likes of Puff Daddy and Guns n Roses. Guns n Roses you say?

I mean really! 

Eliot Spitzer tries to blame album lyrics of Guns N Roses for his hooker problem

  --

But back to the raison d`etre for this blog entry .

Just click the pic! My musical hero speaks....! Thanks for visiting! 

Posted by mach1231 at 11:01 AM PDT

Updated: Saturday, March 29, 2008 2:48 PM PDT

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Mood:  not sure

...has anyone out there Googled the search terms :

 "medical tourism " in the news lately?

Seems like there are many countries competing for people searching for adequate treatment and care. 

Here is but one example ...old city called Lodz in Eastern Europe is becoming a attractive place for Britons to flee from their extortionist dentists - (lol)

The UK's Guardian has the details.

  - - -

See also

For big surgery, Delhi is dealing

---

Now on the other hand, if you have bought and paid for a travel holiday well in advance but are forced to cancel your well made arrangements due to illness, are you insured for such an event?

Sarah Modlock, author of money management book for twenty-somethings 'Skint to Mint' aims to answer such a question, with the fresh recent casebook example  of the nightmarish ('auspicious' too cute for a word) opening wing at Heathrow Airport..

Airport nightmares - what are you covered for?

 

 - -

 

And finally, 

amidst all of this....

traveling for health reasons, postponing due to illness, preparing for little emergencies....

comes this

Plane travel air quality rapped

Yes, the Global Cabin Air Quality Executive (GCAQE) is calling for a public inquiry into the issue of "contaminated air" on UK aircraft.

So now we have it all: terrorists, airline food and ...bad air. What more reason do you want to stay at home instead? :)

Posted by mach1231 at 10:16 AM PDT

Updated: Saturday, March 29, 2008 11:02 AM PDT

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Mood:  caffeinated

This one a little more closely felt to home in a place called Kimberley BC. 

But similar to the old Bankers Trust building in New York City I blogged about below....:

"...four people died doing what should have been routine work."

Including two ambulance attendants. This will be almost two years ago from today in what was once referred to as the

Sullivan mine mystery

But now , two years later, investigations by the chief inspector of mines as well as the inquest recommendations which followed the  accident at the Sullivan Mine in Kimberley has resulted in changes that will help ensure mine worker safety -

The amendments include adopting new reporting requirements for mine managers in the event of an accident or dangerous occurrence.

Very good.

Hopefully the lessons learned will be applied globally to assist mine operations around the world in mitigating risk with respect to similar waste dump sites. take care - Mach

  (Sometimes called : Bavarian City of the Rockies, Kimberley was named after the famous South African diamond mine, probably the same mine moniker used for the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for International Trade in Rough Diamonds)

Posted by mach1231 at 11:47 AM PDT

Updated: Sunday, March 30, 2008 8:27 PM PDT

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Mood:  don't ask

For New Yorkers it felt like a flashback to Sept. 11.

At 3:36 P.M. on Aug. 18, 2007, came a report that a skyscraper was burning about 150 feet from where the World Trade Center's Twin Towers once stood.

Thick black smoke was pouring out of the shell of what used to be the Deutsche Bank building...

The tombstone at Ground Zero 

---

New York landmark's storied past

Apparently the neighborhood surrounding the Deutsche Bank building near Ground Zero has a rich history..

 

 

Heres a  splice from a book called 'American Ground' that I gleaned from Amazon, looks excellent.

"Most of the rooms (of the Deutsche Bank dining area) had been unoccupied at the time of the attack, and were set for lunch-with fresh place mats, plates, and utensils, and sets of stemmed glasses, some of which had been capsized and broken by the pressure waves and lay now as they had fallen, like everything else here, under a feathery gauze of the Twin Towers' remains."

You should check it out. In it you can also read about :

David Griffin, a demolition expert who drove up from North Carolina, bluffed his way onto the restricted site, and quickly wound up in a position of authority

 - - - - -

Although the book was published in 2003 on the 2nd anniversary of the attacks, something tells me that this book is not destined for the scrap or book bargain basment:

"The one book to read, if you're only reading one."
--Detroit Free Press

"Slim but powerful . . . truth, unclouded by sentiment."
--The New York Times Book Review

"One of the most compelling, dramatic, and uplifting pieces of writing you are likely ever to read."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Extraordinary . . . An amazing piece of journalism, full of colorful characters and astonishing scenes."
--Peter Carlson, The Washington Post

"Says more about our essential character than a thousand maudlin tributes."
--Boris Kachka, New York

-  -

Post-publication date a lot has happened to the old Bankers Trust Building (in 1999 the German company Deutsche Bank had absorbed the Bankers Trust Corporation) as indicated in the posted stories above.

It was almost 5 years later after the attacks, that they had found bones there.

This was a very important discovery since of the 2,749 people who perished at the World Trade Center site on 9/11, no trace of 1,151 had (or have been) been identified.

Now theres talk of putting residential towers there for people to live in.

Yak yak yak yak

Yak yak yak yak!

 Take care. Yours truly - Mach

Posted by mach1231 at 9:27 AM PDT

Updated: Thursday, March 27, 2008 10:19 AM PDT

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Mood:  bright

The New York Times reports. on a mild hullaboo in the press at large in regards to a Los Angeles Times piece regarding old allegations against the smarmy rapper known as Sean 'Puff Daddy' Combs.

I discovered this through an abandoned thread

at Robby 'Y' P's Black Flag Cafe which is located here.

(The aforementioned is not a w-rapper. But a t-ravell'r.)

And I know we alll have typically better things to do than become gaping spectators at the scene of these crimes but I just wanted to point out now that the story gets better. Or worse. Depending on which way you look at it.

Interestingly all the stories I have read paint a picture that Shakur died in the lobby of a recording studio.

So does the Australian paper Sydney Morning Herald have the straight goods? What do they have the East Coast/West Coast papers don't have?

SMH.AU: Bullets, blood and bravado

 - - 

 --

 Didn't Bruce Springsteen have them all before anyone?

With his Murder Incorporated? Me thinks so anyway.

Posted by mach1231 at 8:04 AM PDT

Updated: Thursday, March 27, 2008 8:26 AM PDT

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Mood:  caffeinated

"It's a picture postcard island with some very sinister secrets."

Read on.

Child abuse claims haunt British Channel Island of  Jersey

 

 - -

Yet another shining example of our government abandoning its citizens overseas to rot in jail.

Anyone outhere "thinking" about travelling to Bihar?

 - -

Heres the other more widely known case...

New allegations surface in Mexican jail stalemate

Posted by mach1231 at 7:47 AM PDT

Updated: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 8:22 AM PDT

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