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bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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Modern Slavery
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Slavery still exists...maybe in your own backyard...

March 1, 2008 | 9:14 AM Comments  2 comments

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bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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The First Victim of Child Soldiers
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Artwork by Rafaela Tasca and Brazilian cartoonist Latuff

February 9, 2008 | 5:23 PM Comments  0 comments



bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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Hunger: Myths and Reality
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Myth One:
There is not enough food and not enough land.


Untrue. Measured globally, there is enough to feed everyone. For example there is enough grain being produced today to provide everybody in the world with enough protein and about 3000 calories a day, which is what the average American consumes. But the world's food supply is not evenly distributed.

Myth Two:
There are too many people to feed.


Contrary to popular belief, overpopulation is not the cause of hunger. It's usually the other way around: hunger is one of the real causes of overpopulation. The more children a poor family has the more likely some will survive to work in the fields or in the city to add to the family's small income and, later, to care for the parents in their old age. All this points to the disease that is at the root of both hunger and overpopulation: The powerlessness of people who must rely on food that is grown and distributed by wealthy people who have never felt hunger pangs, yet who determine how the land will be used, if at all and who will benefit from its fruits. High birth rates are symptoms of the failures of a social system - inadequate family income, inadequate nutrition and health care and old-age security.


Myth Three:
Growing more food will mean less hunger in poor countries.


But it doesn't seem to work that way. "More food" is what the last 30 years' War on Hunger has been about. Farming methods have been "modernized", ambitious irrigation plans carried out, "miracle" seeds, new pesticides, fertilizers and machinery have become available. But who has come out better off?

Myth Four:
Hunger is contest between rich countries and poor countries.


Rich or poor, we are all part of the same global food system which is gradually coming under the control of a few huge corporations. These giant businesses grow and market food for the benefit of those people who have money which means primarily people in North American and Europe.

Myth Five:
Hunger can be solved by redistributing the food to the hungry.


True. Adapting a simpler lifestyle helps us to understand our interrelatedness with all people and less wastefulness is better stewardship. But neither" one less hamburger a week". Nor massive food aid programs, will eventually solve widespread starvation and poverty in the poorest nation. People will only cease to be poor when they control the means of providing and /or producing food for themselves.

Myth Six:
A strong military defense provides a secure environment in which people can prosper.


But who feels secure on and empty stomach? The extraordinary investment the world makes in armaments annually (currently $900 billion) ensures that few funds are available for agricultural and economic development and shows that those who decide how a nation's money is spent are not intimately acquainted with the violence of hunger.


Source: Rehydration Project

January 21, 2008 | 7:36 PM Comments  1 comments

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bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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Make Poverty History - Toddlers
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic


January 3, 2008 | 4:52 PM Comments  0 comments



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Child soldier recruitment up in Congo - Once Again
Related to country: Congo, DR

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Recent fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo has led to a surge in child soldier recruitment, the charity Save the Children says.

Boys and girls are being abducted by armed groups in record numbers to act as soldiers, spies, porters and sex slaves in eastern Congo, the charity said Monday.

Hussein Mursal, the Congo director for the charity, said, "The situation for children in eastern DRC is catastrophic; fighters from all sides are using children as frontline fodder, raping young girls and attacking houses."

Save the Children says it has managed to free about 800 youngsters from the militias in the last year - although some have been captured again.

Those children who have managed to escape have told the aid organization that they were held captive in small holes in the ground.

Fighting in the area escalated at the start of this month, when the army launched a long-planned offensive against dissident general Laurent Nkunda, with the support of UN troops. The fighting has forced tens of thousands of civilians from their homes, adding to an estimated 800,000 displaced people - around half of them displaced by this year's fighting alone.

Source: Reuters, Press TV, Save the Children

December 26, 2007 | 5:42 PM Comments  0 comments



bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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Merry Christmas!
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic


December 25, 2007 | 10:23 AM Comments  0 comments

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bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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International Migrants Day - The Map of Flows
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Migrants can be divided into five main categories: settlers, contract workers, professionals, unauthorized workers and asylum seekers and refugees.

*Settlers - These are people who intend to live permanently in their new country. Most head for the main countries of settlement, notably the United States, Canada and Australia. Around one million travel year, the majority of whom are joining close family members.

*Contract workers - They are admitted to other countries on the understanding that they will stay only for a specific period: the length of their contract. Some are seasonal workers. Others will be on longer-term contracts, of a year or more. Most are to be found in the Gulf countries.

*Professionals - These include employees of transnational corporations who are moved around from one country to another. These tend to involve fairly small numbers, typically fewer than 1% of people employed in local affiliates are expatriates.

*Irregular workers - Somtimes called undocumented or illegal immigrants. There are significant numbers in most immigration countries. Some have been smuggled in, others are overstaying their visas, or are working on tourist visas.

*Asylum seekers and refugees - Asylum seekers have left their homes to escape danger; if their claims for asylum have been accepted they are then classified as 'refugees'. In some cases of mass flight, however, when thousands of people escape across a border they are accepted as refugees without going through this individual process.

These are the main categories but there are many other possibilities.

Source: Stalker's Guide to International Migration

December 18, 2007 | 12:31 PM Comments  0 comments



bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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Some Facts About Undocummented Latin American Immigration in the US
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

*The estimated seven million or so illegal immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the Social Security system with a subsidy of about $7 billion a year. (The New York Times)

*Immigrants contribute billions of dollars annually but receive no public pension in retirement, are not eligible for Medicare, and are not entitled to any other benefits. (Social Security Administration)

*Many older workers return home to Latin America when they reach retirement age. (BusinessWeek)

*Immigrants are not swamping the U.S. health care system and use it far less than native-born Americans. (The American Journal of Public Health)

*Immigrants pay taxes -- including Medicare payroll taxes -- and most pay health insurance premiums, but they receive only half as much care as other families. (The American Journal of Public Health)

*Undocumented add at least $22 billion, in total, to the economy each year, and legalizing their status would increase that amount. (Benjamin Powell, economist at the Independent Institute)

*Letting the undocumented save and invest, could also result in a decline in crime because if immigrants are allowed to protect their money in banks, the rate of hold ups and robberies in Latino or immigrant neighborhoods drop. (Austin Police Department)

November 27, 2007 | 9:12 AM Comments  0 comments



bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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Dying Child in Iraq - They pay the bigger price
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic


November 23, 2007 | 6:15 PM Comments  1 comments



bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
Inga's profile

Free Burma


November 15, 2007 | 12:59 PM Comments  0 comments



bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
Inga's profile

The Simple Truth


November 15, 2007 | 9:09 AM Comments  0 comments

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bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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Life in a Scrapheap


November 13, 2007 | 3:31 PM Comments  0 comments

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bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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How Long Will It Last?


November 11, 2007 | 6:13 PM Comments  0 comments



bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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The World as Ten Children

If we could reduce the whole human race to 10 children sitting around a table:

* 3 would have plates that are heaped so high that they will never possibly finish what is there.
* 2 will just about manage to live by scavenging what is thrown away from the three.
* 3 will be permanently hungry
* 2 will die, one of dysentery and one of pneumonia.

...If only they would share it would be so simple, but the three with full plates are more interested in seeing how large they can make their plates. One of them hears a cry from the end of the table. He looks down to see a child, skinny and bony pleading for help. He shakes his head and says:

"That is awful! Somebody should do something".


Source: Abaana

November 10, 2007 | 11:53 AM Comments  0 comments

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bluequack   bluequack Inga's TIGblog
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Street Kids in Africa

Children make up half of the population of Africa. Many of these kids are reduced to living on the streets, surviving through begging, theft and violence. It is estimated that as many as 130,000 street kids live in Nairobi alone (capital of Kenya), scavenging for food, shoeless or barely clothed and high from sniffing glue.

The life of a street kid in the cities of Africa is harsh; many have known incredible hunger and have had to steal for food. As the number of street kids rise, so too will their problems. There will be more children competing for the few sources of income that are available. Without help, their prospects will be very bleak!


Jonah is 6 years old and HIV positive. He remembers the day when he came to Kampala and the people with him told him to wait by the bridge. He stayed there until night but they never came back so he was left to fend for himself, alone in an area that he didn't even know. Other street kids found him, looked after him, and brought him to a home where he is now cared for.

Catherine is 16 and was born on the streets. She remembers when she used to beg, people would tell her to 'go home'! She cried and said 'but this is my home!'

Emmanuel was found at Christmas in a plastic bag in a rubbish tip: someone heard a weak cry. So many babies are being abandoned for unknown reasons, some are left to be found, and some are thrown away like rubbish.

The governments of the African nations do not have enough money to spend on these social issues and the aid programs of the Western World tend to neglect them too. This is where you can help...

Source: Abaana



November 6, 2007 | 6:12 PM Comments  0 comments



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