SAVING THE PLANET

I am really tired of hearing news reports and interviews on "saving the planet". It's not the planet that has to be saved. It is saving humanity from itself. The planet will continue to "survive", long after humans have wiped themselves out. There is another 5 billion years ahead of this planet before it is consumed by a dying star, the sun. 

We humans are a squabbling, quarrelsome bunch, many who are religious fundamentalists of some religion or belief who for the most part have undying faith in some invisible man who lives in the sky  swooping down one day to save all those who believe. I should mention at this point there are now an estimated 4,400 religions existing in the world today and god knows how many sub-sects. Does this mean there are 4,400 gods?

The big bugaboo today is plastic! It is not a "fake" scare such as Y2K. It is stifling this planet and being consumed by the very  sea-life and land animals we consume. Ergo, humans are consuming plastic in ever increasing amounts. The Great Lakes are now fully polluted with micro plastic balls. There is 18 BILLION pounds of plastic thrown into the oceans each year.  Glaciers all over the world are retreating with a dire recent warning that Canadian glaciers will have disappeared in another 50 years. Rising oceans?  Watch out all you people who live near coastlines.

So, saving the planet!  The earth has been here for an estimated 4 billion years. Homo sapiens have been around for about 200,000 years. Neanderthals, who died out around 35,000 years ago where around for about 350,000 years. What are the chances of our species lasting that long? As long as we have wars, religious conflict, greed, power struggles, unchecked pollution and destruction of our forests and oceans. NOT THAT DAMN LONG!

18 BILLION POUNDS OF PLASTIC GO INTO OUR OCEANS EACH YEAR

The inhabitants of earth are drowning in plastic. This, according to a new report carried out by National Geographic. What is the future on this planet for the children of today if the oceans become poisoned?

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/planetorplastic/

The Absolutely Worst Example of Human Treatment of other Humans Unfolding in Yemen

85,000 Children in Yemen May Have Died of Starvation

The aid organization Save the Children said the number was a conservative estimate of those under age 5 who may have died.

Experts say Yemen has become the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, and 14 million people could soon be on the brink of starvation,according to the United Nations.

‘It’s entirely preventable’

“For every child killed by bombs and bullets, dozens are starving to death — and it’s entirely preventable,” Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s country director in Yemen, said in the statement. “Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stop.”

What can you do to help?  Contribute to any of the following organisations, write to you government, fund raise in your neighborhood for starters.

https://foundationbeyondbelief.org/give

https://www.charityweb.net/

https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org

https://www.unicef.ca/en

These are just a few of the many charities working towards better world for children and families. You can help today.

KEHKASHAN'S STORY

This story is a must read if you care about fundamental humans rights and children.  

Kehkashan is a natural changemaker. Born in the United Arab Emirates on June 5, World Environment Day, she has always been passionate about protecting the planet. By 8 years old she was persuading those around her of the importance of environmental action. It was not just empty talk: Kehkashan soon put her words into action by planting trees and bringing together young people locally to collect and recycle waste.

CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR THE STORY

https://kidsrights.org/kehkashan-basu

HEADLINE: Saudi Led Air Strikes Kill Dozens of Yemeni Children

This news heading was in our main newspaper for one day. No following story. No breakdown of the horrendous heartache suffered by the parents and the shear horror of the Suadi action. Substituent the word "Yemeni: for American or Canadian or British. What would the reaction be? Imagine the outrage, the condemnation, the retaliation. 

The problem is that Yemeni children "are over there". Who cares. Just one of those "middle east" countries where they have always been killing each other anyway. It's similar to the 100 girls kidnapped by the Boko Harum. News for a day. Ho hum. 

Is the lack of moral outrage due to these children not being white? I'm just asking the question. It seems more and more that white children matter; non-white skinned children don't. Maybe this is harsh, but there is a great deal of truth to it.

At some point, some courageous politician is going to come forward and push for a real international war crimes against children tribunal. Brutalizing children and killing children in front of children results in these children growing up to become brutalizing adults. When will the madness stop.

Please help.  CLICK HERE

THE SAFETY OF CHILDREN OVERRIDES POLITICAL BULLSHIT

Frightened children are being held in tents and massive warehouses, in tight quarters - in extreme heat by day, and extreme cold at night. All after having to flee danger in their home countries. They must be put back in their mother`s arms.

Despite weeks of heartbreaking stories in the national news, parents and children are still being detained and treated like criminals by the U.S. Government.

The cruelty we’ve witnessed in the US must not stop people from speaking up for fair, just and legal treatment of refugees. The crass Executive Order announced yesterday by the U.S. administration allows for the indefinite imprisonment of families, and continues to be a violation of international law for people for seeking asylum.

Your emergency gift in response to this unfolding crisis in the USA, using our secure website or by phoning 1-800—AMNESTY (1-800-266-3789), will help Amnesty International to:
• Maintain public pressure to ensure migrant families are no longer separated
• Ensure reunification of up to 3,000 children separated by cruel U.S. policies
• Pressure for the permanent closure of family detention centres in the U.S., also known as "baby jails"
• Keep our researchers on the ground at the U.S. border and ensure the humane treatment of refugees
• Campaign to counter the false, negative stories being used by the U.S. administration to justify the policy of family separation and detention.
Families seeking safety deserve our compassion.

Children — and even toddlers and infants — have been taken from their parents at the border and put into government-run shelters, often hundreds of miles away from their parents.

These children have already suffered severe mental anguish from fleeing violence in their countries. They have seen things no child should have to see. How much more cruel that they’ve now been separated from their parents in a country whose language they may not speak. This trauma has the potential to affect their development and cause untold damage.

Please make an emergency donation today to help Amnesty International take immediate action.

Amnesty International staff recently conducted a research mission along the U.S. southern border, and a preliminary report found that since 2017, the Department of Homeland Security is increasingly separating children by force from their parents or guardians when these families request asylum.

In the past 2 weeks more than 100,000 Canadians have said “I’ve had enough” and sent a message to the U.S. administration, expressing their dismay at the practice of separating children from their parents at the U.S./Mexico border.

But children are still being put in prison.  Under no law or standard of civility or humanity is that ever acceptable, and we can only reverse it by speaking up loudly and collectively.
I know you care deeply about human rights and want Amnesty International to speak up forcefully right now.

Please help us do so by making a donation to help us do what needs to be done.

Evil Perpetrated on Children and their Families

There is no greater evil than that perpetrated on the weak, the innocent and defenseless;  children, animals, the mentally ill and women in godforsaken places where they are treated no better than chattels and beasts of burden.

Those with power who impose on children, forced separation from their mothers and fathers, siblings and families must at some point be accounted for. I liken it to war crimes. The other members of the ape family treat their children better than many human apes. And to make matters worse, they justify their actions by claiming it to be ordained by some holy book comprised of superstitious nonsense, human dogma, human designed commandments and created to place in bondage and enslave massive members of the human race.

The hypocrisy and sheer ignorance of these people knows no bounds. All humans at some point in time have been refugees. We all come from somewhere. Every person living outside the Great Rift Valley is a refugee or an immigrant. 

To quote the now infamous line of the uber ignorant Peter Navarro in his wholly unjustified and downright stupid criticism of Justin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister, "there should be a special place in hell for these people".  Unfortunately and contrary to the "holy" books, there is no hell. Even Pope Francis of the rapidly becoming irrelevant Catholic Church reportedly told an Italian journalist hell does not exist. 

Of course in today's world of borders, nationalism, terrorism, need for national security and protectionism, there has to be rules and regulation and a degree of security for established citizens of the various countries around the world. However, this regulation should not be to the detriment of the weak, innocent and defenseless. Shame on all the extreme right or left wing, power hungry, dollar chasing, divisive, narcissistic, misogynistic elite who pander to the whims of the ignorant, the superstitious, the fearful, the bigots and the racists of any religion, belief or creed who refuse to believe we are all descendant from the same common ancestor and we all have a duty as humans to protect the weak and defenseless, particularly children.

Let the children go!!!

The Future of Planet Earth and Chidren

Are you a parent? Or a grandparent? Or an uncle or aunt? 

If none of the above, do you care about children and the future of children on this planet?  This planet has been through a great deal over the millenniums. Earthquakes, hurricanes, ice ages, droughts, rising and lowering oceans, tsunamis, meteor showers and more. The earth has survived through all manner of catastrophes and will continue to do so. The big questions is; will humans survive? 

Approximately 70,000 years ago, during the Toba catastrophe, scholars estimate the Homo sapiens population may have dropped to as low as between 1,000 and 10,000 individuals. Now there are over 7.0 billion of us. We are in some ways like a giant ant nest but unlike an ant nest we are not working together for the common good. And, the common good must include planning for the future and modifying our behaviour to ensure the survival of our species. The future for people is the children of today and the children yet to be born. The planet will probably be around for the next 5 billion years and will do just fine without humans. We humans cannot do without the planet. 

The planet earth is Plan A for us. There is no Plan B. Not yet and not in the near future. Some day maybe but we have to survive to reach that some day. 

Greanwold’s Green World for Families and Kids.

Website: www.greanwold.com
Greanwold Blog: www.greanwoldfoundation.blogsopt.ca
Greanwold Crowdfunding: https://goo.gl/nKUBG8
Thanks

Greanwold and Friends.

THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY

Oxfam says the wealth of worlds richest 1% is now equal to the other 99%. 

The richest 1% now have as much wealth as the rest of the world combined, according to Oxfam. It uses data from Credit Suisse from October 2016  for the report, which urges world leaders  and world business leaders to take action on inequality.

These 8 Men Control Half the Wealth on Earth

https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/meet-the-8-men-who-control-half-the-worlds-wealth.html

Every 10 seconds, a child dies from hunger. Poor nutrition is responsible for nearly half of all deaths in children under the age of 5—about 3 million children die each year because their bodies don't have enough of the basic nutrients they need to function and grow.

Now read this.

 http://www.businessinsider.com/outrageous-ways-the-super-rich-spend-their-money-2015-7/#they-can-fly-luxury-underwater-planes-1

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THE INSANITY OF THE WAR IN SYRIA & IT'S EFFECT ON CHILDREN

Syrian refugee numbers reach 5 million

It's been five years since the onset of the civil war in Syria and there is no end in sight. In just the past few months intense fighting has taken a high toll on civilians across Aleppo, which prior to Syria’s conflict was the country’s largest city and commercial hub. With no effective ceasefire in place, men women and children are fleeing, telling harrowing stories of weeks of bombardment, and shortages of food, medical care and fuel for heating.

Ongoing fighting has seen a surge in people fleeing the country in the last few months, with refugee numbers now reaching over 5 million.

Syrian children and families have witnessed unspeakable violence and bear the brunt of the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of people have died. 6.3 million Syrians are displaced within the country. Half of those affected are children.

The above facts and figures have been contributed by the following charities who provide support for families and children:  PLEASE CONTRIBUTE

https://www.worldvision.org

https://give.unhcr.ca

Written by:

Dr. Samantha Nutt    http://warchild.ca/work/     PLEASE CONTRIBUTE

The Syrian Children: Some bear physical scars. All carry emotional ones. On the Syrian border, where the swell of refugees fleeing a bloody and unrelenting conflict shows no sign of abating, the stories that are the hardest to hear belong to the children. War permeates their dreams at night. It has made many of them too anxious to go to school, to leave their homes, or to be more than a few feet from their parents. Children who were once confident, bright and articulate now cower in corners of make-shift tents, eyes downcast, the strain of their lives palpable.

There is five year old Mada, whose hands shake so uncontrollably that she has difficulty dressing herself. Nadiyya, also five, stopped speaking for three years after a mortar exploded in front of her house. Her mother Rasha, pregnant with her second child, immediately bundled her daughter up and fled to the Jordanian border, which she calls “the journey of death.” Like most Syrian refugees, Rasha and her children can barely get through the day, drained as they are by fear and exhaustion. They don’t think about the future, she says, because it is too difficult to imagine one.

As the Syrian conflict enters its fourth year, international agencies worry about the “lost generation” – the children of war who are now years behind in their schooling, and who feel dislocated in an environment that often treats them as interlopers. Syrian children who do manage to enroll in local schools must rejoin at a lower grade level – something that older children say embarrasses them and causes them to be stigmatized by their peers.  Their extreme poverty, the lack of running water in their homes that makes it impossible to wash themselves or their clothes, and the very fact that they are Syrian, often result in bullying.  Parents notice changes in their children’s behaviour as well: their screams in the dark; their unexplained tearfulness; and, their attention and behavioural problems.

But for some children, like ten year old Ameera, school itself is simply too painful to think about.

Ameera wears an orange-knit dress with threadbare sleeves, which she ritually pulls at. A once outgoing little girl with high grades, Ameera no longer attends school – she cannot even bear the thought of it. The last time she sat in a classroom, a missile landed in the school’s courtyard, instantly killing fifty primary school children. Ameera placed her hands over her head as her two best friends, seated a few rows in front of her, were blasted with glass and shrapnel. Amidst the smoke and confusion she ran to them, but her teacher prevented her from seeing them. The girls were already dead. The teacher then led Ameera out the back of the school, and instructed her to run home without stopping. This is her lasting memory of grade five.

Shortly after the missile attack at Ameera’s school, her father, Fayez, began making arrangements for this family of nine to make a run for the border, believing that it was safer to take their chances with what lay ahead than to face what was surely coming for them. The day of their departure, over 100 people – neighbours and friends – were pulled from their homes and hiding places and, according to Fayez, were butchered with knives or gunned down as they ran. Fayez grabbed his children, hastily bundling them into the car behind their home, and fled.

Now in Jordan’s northern refugee area, Fayez is unable to earn a living because he cannot afford the necessary work permits and has shrapnel damage to one arm. Still, he hopes that with time and support his children will have a chance at recovery, and that Ameera will once again be excited to go to school. “I want to be a doctor” she told me. Her wish is that someday she might be able to stop people from dying.

What children like Ameera need – desperately – is to feel safe. This is why War Child’s first priority is to reduce the immediate risk of violence, exploitation and abuse. In the coming months and years we will need to address the education deficit, with accelerated learning classes that will help children catch up their missed years of school quickly. This will allow them to either join the formal Jordanian school system or remain in the program to continue their education. A safe place to go and a return to learning – important first steps on the long journey to a restored childhood.

The war in Syria has precipitated the biggest refugee crisis in twenty years. But it is the stories of individual children like Ameera that give us a sense of the true scale of the tragedy. The suffering of Syria’s children cannot be ignored. It demands action.  Please give generously today.

SERIOUSLY EVIL ADULTS USE TASER GUNS ON CHILDREN.

UNBELIEVABLE!

Just when you think you have read the worst story on the abuse of children, this story arises. 

Police: 4 charged after stun gun used to discipline kids

These people should get a taste of their own medicine. After serving years in prison they should then be shipped to a desert island to rot. 

Global Missing Children's Network

The Global Missing Children's Network is a multilingual database featuring photos of and information about missing children from around the world. It was launched in 1998 as a joint program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® and International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children®.

Photos are one of the most effective tools in the search for missing children. Rapidly distributing a child's photo can make the difference between a fast recovery and prolonged search.

CLICK HERE TO LINK TO MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN