Australian deaths in custody and the call for a Senate inquiry – joint committee

Australian deaths in custody - one of the world's worst records - has become an obsession with me as I quickly compile a University Press book for community and research my PhD (Law) from a criminological aspect into the extensiveness of Australian deaths in custody. The Human Rights Alliance is working to disseminate the facts, and is beginning regional Deaths in Custody Advocacy Units to help affected families especially with their rights, and we continue the campaign calling upon the Australian Senate for an urgent Joint Committee Inquiry. There are a number of concerned human rights groups and some agencies such as the Aboriginal Legal Services and the Australian Human Rights Commission complementing each other in shining the light. We all need to spread the word.
Australia has one of the world’s worst deaths in custody records. Deaths in custody includes prison and police custody. We, of The Human Rights Alliance, have called upon our 76 Australian Senators to initiate an Australian Senate Inquiry into Australian Deaths in Custody. We ask that any Inquiry ensure a Joint Committee of Senators and experts, and not only researchers from the Australian Institute of Criminology however expert researchers from the Australian Human Rights Commission, and academics who have researched the criminal justice system and include our most respected and qualified Aboriginal Elders. It is negligence and constitutional impropriety for the Commonwealth to delay an Inquiry into Deaths in Custody. I myself have commenced a PhD (Law), through James Cook University, from a criminological aspect of the extensiveness of Deaths in Custody in our Australia. I am quickly writing a book for community, through a University Press, so as to en masse raise community awareness about the extensiveness of Australian Deaths in Custody.
There are more non-Aboriginal deaths in custody than Aboriginal deaths. The rate of Aboriginal deaths in custody is higher than in South Africa during the peak of apartheid (excluding Apartheid South Africa’s ex-judicial killings). Most Australians have not realised the extent of deaths in custody, and we must ensure they do so we can move to the next step of procuring genuine remedies and save lives...

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Gerry Georgatos @'Indymedia'

I'm playing catch-up on this issue(almost a year late), misguidedly thought that this problem had been long resolved, unfortunately its persistence within Australian society condemns/damns us all for its continuing iniquity. With a public apology, to the Indigenous People of Australia for past"treatment" since colonization, by the Rudd government some few years past, such alarming statistics/deaths tragically tell the reality of Australia's current indigenous relations.
beeden

Chernobyl

♪♫ Kraftwerk - Radioactivity

Colombia Slips Into the Abyss

While little attention has been paid by the press, Colombia just reached an ignominious benchmark – it is now the country with the largest population of internally displaced persons in the world, surpassing The Sudan which had held this position for the past several years. Colombia, with a population of around 44 million, now has 5.2 million internally displaced persons, meaning that almost 12% of its population is displaced – most of them by violence, and a disproportionate number Afro-Colombians and indigenous.As a report by the Colombian human rights group CODHES notes, half of the 5.2 internally displaced were displaced during the presidential term of Alvaro Uribe, and as a direct consequence of his "counterinsurgency program" – a program funded in large measure by the U.S. As CODHES noted, in a significant proportion of the municipalities impacted by this program, there has been large-scale mining and cultivation of oil palm and biofuel. CODHES is clear that this production is directly responsible for the violent displacement of persons from their land Indeed, it appears that the "counterinsurgency program," as many of us has said for years, was in fact largely intended to make Colombia safe for multi-national exploitation of the land at the very expense of the people the program was claimed to be helping.
The proposed Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is also intended to do the very same – to protect the rights of multi-national corporations over the basic human rights of the Colombian people. For example, the Colombia FTA would privilege the very palm oil production which is leading to the mass displacement of people. Even more frightening, as The Nation Magazine explained in a detailed article, entitled, "The Dark Side of Plan Colombia," around half of the palm oil companies are actually owned and controlled by paramilitary groups, meaning that the FTA will directly aid these groups by incentivizing their crops...

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Dan Kovalick @'Counterpunch'

Michigan Governor Plays Fast and Loose with Democracy, Invokes Radical New Powers

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa

HERE

JPBarlow John Perry Barlow

What spreads faster than radiation? Irrational fears about radiation.

Exodus from Japan nuclear plant

An estimated 170,000 people have been evacuated from the area around a quake-damaged nuclear power station in north-east Japan that was hit by an explosion, the UN atomic watchdog says.

A building housing a reactor was destroyed in Saturday's blast at the Fukushima No.1 plant.
The authorities said the reactor itself was intact inside its steel container.
Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami is believed to have left more than 1,000 people dead.
The Japanese government has sought to play down fears of a meltdown at Fukushima No.1, saying that radiation levels around the stricken plant have now fallen.

But on Sunday morning, concerns were raised about the safety of a second reactor at the plant after operator Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said the cooling system of another reactor had failed.

Since Friday's earthquake, radioactive air and steam has been released from several reactors at both Fukushima No.1 and No.2 plants in an effort to relieve the huge amount of pressure building up inside. Sea water and boron is being pumped into the site to lower temperatures.
Tepco said four of its workers were injured in Saturday's explosion, but that their injuries were not life-threatening. The Japanese government doubled the size of the evacuation zone around No.1 plant to 20km (12.4 miles) after the blast.
Reuters news agency quotes a Japanese nuclear safety agency official as saying that tests indicate that at least nine people have been exposed to radiation from the plant, and local authority estimates suggest this figure could rise as high as 160.
The government has urged local people to remain calm and is preparing to distribute iodine to anyone affected.
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a statement: "In the 20-kilometre radius around Fukushima Daiichi (No.1), an estimated 170,000 people have been evacuated.
"In the 10-kilometre radius around Fukushima Daini (No.2) an estimated 30,000 people have been evacuated. Full evacuation measures have not been completed."
Scenes of devastation
The tsunami that followed the 8.9-magnitude earthquake wreaked havoc along a huge stretch of on Japan's north-east coast, sweeping far inland and devastating a number of towns and villages. Powerful aftershocks are continuing to hit the region.
The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in the coastal city of Sendai, in Miyagi prefecture, says the scenes of devastation there are astonishing - giant shipping containers have been swept inland and smashed against buildings, and fires are still burning close to the harbour.
Police said between 200 and 300 bodies were found in just one ward of the city.
The town of Rikuzentakada, Iwate prefecture, was reported as largely destroyed and almost completely submerged. NHK reported that soldiers had found up to 400 bodies there.
NHK reports that in the port of Minamisanriku, Miyagi, the authorities say that about 7,500 people were evacuated to 25 shelters after Friday's quake but they have been unable to contact the town's other 10,000 inhabitants.
A local official in the town of Futaba, Fukushima, said more than 90% of the houses in three coastal communities had been washed away by the tsunami.

Couple walk past overturned vehicles in Miyako (12 March)

"The tsunami was unbelievably fast," said Koichi Takairin, a 34-year-old truck driver who was inside his four-ton rig when the wave hit Sendai. "Smaller cars were being swept around me. All I could do was sit in my truck."
Tens of thousands of troops backed by ships and helicopters have been deployed on rescue and relief missions. More than 215,000 people are said to be living in 1,350 temporary shelters in five prefectures.
International disaster relief teams are being sent to Japan, with the UN helping to co-ordinate the operation.
President Barack Obama has pledged US assistance. One US aircraft carrier that was already in Japan will help with rescue and relief efforts, and a second is on its way.
Japan's worst previous earthquake was of 8.3 magnitude and killed 143,000 people in Kanto in 1923. A magnitude 7.2 quake in Kobe killed 6,400 people in 1995.
@'BBC'