6-Year-Old Albino Girl Killed for Body Parts

I had no idea that in the 21st century witch doctors still made magic potions - out of human body parts. I did not know that they use body parts such as arms, legs, hair, skin and genitals to concoct their potions. I did not know that albinos were considered choice candidates for making these magic potions. I also did not know that in some parts of Africa, albinos are considered less than human and that killing an albino was not even considered a capital offense in Tanzania - until very recently. I did not know that "at least 27 albinos, mostly women and children, have been killed in different parts of Tanzania over the past year".....for their body parts. I did not know that "discrimination against albinos is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa". I did not know that "traditionally, midwives were known to kill albino babies, declare them stillborn and bury them secretly". These are some of the things I learned after reading the following story:

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In Ruyigi province, Burundi, a 6-year-old girl, named Cizanye, was murdered in front of her family because she was an albino. A gang of armed bandits broke into the family home; they tied up the girl's parents and shot the little girl in the head. They then cut off her head and both her arms and legs and left with the body parts. The attack took place at the family's home in Bugongo, more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of the capital Bujumbura. Police said they suspected criminals of hunting albinos to sell their organs and limbs to witch doctors in Tanzania who use them for lucky charms.

"This little girl is the third albino victim of such barbaric crimes in our province since September. We are doing everything we can to find the killers,'' Ruyigi province prosecutor Nicodeme Gahimbare said.

The recent attacks against albinos had prompted the local authorities to set up a shelter where the albinos in Ruyigi province were invited to gather. In neighboring Tanzania, at least 27 albinos, mostly women and children, have been killed in different parts of the country over the past year alone.

In Burundi, officials said they made two arrests related to the killings of albinos in that country.

"The two who were arrested confessed to the crime and said they got 1 million Burundian francs ($840) from a Tanzanian seeking albino body parts," Gahimbare told Reuters.

Police also arrested two elderly men. Gahimbare said they confessed to being in touch with a Tanzanian who had promised them three million francs for albino hair.

In the meantime, officials in eastern Burundi said that 24 albinos have fled their villages and gone into towns for fear of slaughter. Kazungu Kassim, head of Burundi's albino association, appealed to the government to boost their security.

"Our biggest fear right now is the fear of living. If you leave work at night as an albino, you are unsure of reaching home safely. When you sleep, you are unsure of waking up in one piece," Zihada Msembo, secretary general of the Tanzania Albino Society, told Reuters in an interview.

"We marched, the president (Jakaya Kikwete) received us and we said 'now we can have some peace' and slept soundly that night. Next morning, we hear yet another albino was killed that very night."

Msembo said many albino children were dropping out of school for fear of being kidnapped. Many albinos have sought refuge in urban centers, which are relatively safer. She said "They are cutting us up like chickens" while pointing to a picture on a wall in her cramped office of a limbless body with the skin on its face peeled off from an incident in 2007.

"We are human beings like others, we have a right to live," Msemgo said, adding they had been turned into a commodity.

"Our country has earned a reputation that it is doing business with albino body parts, so people in other countries can kill and cross into Tanzania where there is a ready market."

Olalekan Ajia, a communication specialist for UNICEF in Burundi, said the Government of Tanzania has started to take some action:

“Now the Government of Tanzania quickly took action and made it a capital crime for anybody to kill albinos,” he said. “And the witch doctors and so on moved on to Burundi, where there’s a lot of poverty, and got some people who are completely dislocated mentally and psychologically to begin to hunt for albinos.”

“......we are working with [the] Government to raise awareness around the country to explode the myth that using body parts or blood can make anybody rich.” said Ajia.

He also said Burundian authorities have responded swiftly to the recent wave of attacks, passing laws similar to those in Tanzania and offering a safe house in at least one province for albino children. He noted that many albinos remain extremely fearful about their safety and are asking the Government to do more to protect them.

In another incident police caught a man in Tanzania trying sell his albino wife for $3,000. He allegedly tried to make the sale to two businessmen from Congo, police say. His wife did not know she was about to be sold. Police arrested the husband, a fisherman, after receiving a tip. The businessmen, though, escaped and are thought to have returned to their native country, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tanzania has asked the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to help find them.

Councilor Joseph Manyara told a rally organized by the Tanzania Albino Society (TAS): "It is utterly stupid for some people to believe that albinos have magic powers and their parts can make them rich."

"People should be provided with education to understand that it is only through hard working that they can prosper in life and not through selling albinos' body parts."

Albinism is a congenital lack of the melanin pigment in the skin, eyes and hair which protects from the sun's ultraviolet rays. For further details click here. Albinos are vulnerable to medical complications and social discrimination in Africa. Many African societies shun albinos and treat them as if they bring misfortune or accuse them of being involved in witchcraft. Below is a special report on the plight of albinos in Tanzania:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzIfK-_y5Js&eurl=http://www.underthesamesun.com/home.php]

For more on albinos in Tanzania click here

Jordan Gruver Awarded $2.5 million Against the Klan

It was the night of July 29-30 2006 that 16-year-old Jordan Gruver attended the Meade County Fair in Brandenburg, Kentucky. It was that same night that Ron Edwards, leader of the Imperial Klans of America, sent his supporters on a membership recruitment drive to the same fair. It was that night that changed Jordan's life forever.

Jordan Gruver is an American citizen born in Bismarck, North Dakota. His father was from Panama and his mother is of Native-American descent from Kentucky. He was spotted at the fair by four of the klan members:

• Jarred Hensley, the Ohio Klan's "Grand Titan." - the second highest klan official in the state.


• Andrew Watkins, the Klan's "Imperial Gothi" and webmaster


• Joshua Cowles, the Klan's "Exalted Cyclops" and  national director of the klan's recruitment effort


• Matthew Roberts, the Ohio Klan's "Exalted Cyclops"

The four men, who had all been drinking at the fair, mistakenly thought Jordan was an illegal Latino immigrant. They approached him and without provocation began calling him racial epithets like " illegal spic". They then proceeded to spit on him and poured alcohol over him.

Two of the men - Hensley and Watkins, with the other two men standing close by - began to attack Jordan, knocking him to the ground, kicking and hitting him repeatedly. At 5'3" tall and weighing 150 lbs, 16-year-old Jordan was no match for the two men, one of whom weighed 300 lbs and was 6'5" tall.

During the attack Jordan suffered extreme pain and severe physical injuries including a broken jaw which had to be wired shut, broken teeth, a broken left forearm and two cracked ribs. He now has permanent nerve damage. The attack also traumatized Jordan to the point of severe emotional distress. He doesn't leave his house and rarely sleeps more than two hours at a time because of his nightmares.

Both men responsible for the attack on Jordan Gruver, Jarred Hensley and Andrew Watkins, went through the Kentucky criminal court system, striking a plea bargain. They both served 2-year sentences in the Kentucky state prison system.  The case was not however treated as a hate crime.

Jordan Gruver, now 19 years old, fought back and, with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of Americas' leading civil rights organizations, he sued the Imperial Klans of America (IKA); its leader, Ron Edwards; his two attackers (Watkins and Hensley); and Joshua Crowles who was present at the time of the attack and failed to prevent it; for $6 million seeking both compensatory and punitive damages.

The original personal injury lawsuit named Ron Edwards, leader of the Imperial Klans of America, Jarred Hensley, Andrew Watkins and Joshua Cowles as defendants. See a copy of the complaint here. However before the trial started both Watkins and Cowles settled with Gruver. The trial went forward against Edwards and Hensley.

The lawsuit claimed that as part of an official recruiting drive organized by the IKA leadership, members went to the Meade County Fairgrounds in Brandenburg, Ky., to hand out business cards and flyers advertising a "white-only" IKA function. This is where the encounter with Jordan Gurver occurred.

Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPL Center), discusses the lawsuit against the IKA in the video below and answers questions about the IKA on the SPL Center's website here:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n28NGMuhyQM]

The following video shows defendants - Ron Edwards and Jarred Hensley along with Steve Edwards, President of Supreme White Alliance, son of Ron Edwards - stating their case for white power: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31dZ27pPVgk&eurl=http://www.hillbillyreport.com/blog/2008/11/jordan-gruver-vs-imperial-klans-of-america.html]

On its Web site, the Imperial Klans of America refers to itself as a Christian organization exercising its rights of free speech and assembly under the U.S. Constitution. The site carries this proviso:

"If you are not of the White race, this Web site is not for the likes of YOU!" We reserve the right of free speech to state our views whether our enemies like it or not. The IKA hates: Muds, spics, kikes and niggers. This is our God given right! In no way do we advocate violence. We believe in educating our people to the monopolistic Jewish control of the world's banks, governments, and media. White education is what ZOG hates and why it tries to imprison White Racialists.

Ron Edwards lives in a trailer on the Klan's heavily guarded, gated compound in rural Dawson Springs, Kentucky. The compound is the site of the Klan's annual white power rally and music festival, know as "Nordic Fest". It was at the compound, the lawsuit alleges, that the Klan incited its members to use violence against minorities. The center is seeking to win a judgment that would allow it to seize up to $6 million in assets.

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Richard Cohen, the law center's president, said he hoped that the jury would award enough in damages to put the IKA out of business:

"The Imperial Klans of America is one of the largest Klan organizations in the country. It promotes violence and intimidation against racial and ethnic minorities, homosexuals and so-called 'race traitors.' While on a recruiting mission, members of this organization targeted and viciously beat our client solely because he has brown skin.

"Our lawsuit seeks justice and compensation for the victim of this brutal hate crime. We also hope that the monetary damages will be sufficient to put the organization out of business and send a strong message to other hate groups and their followers that this type of racial violence will not be tolerated."

The trial lasted for 3 days and, after deliberating for 6 hours, an all-white jury trial comprised of 14 people - 7 men and 7 women - awarded Jordan Gruver a total of $2.5 million. $1.5 million for lost wages and medical expenses and the jury laid $1 million in punitive damages solely on Ron Edwards.

"We look forward to collecting every dime that we can for our client and to putting the Imperial Klans of America out of business," said SPLC founder and chief trial attorney Morris Dees. "It's all about the money. It's all about the money. If you stop the money, you'll cut the organization off."

"The people of Meade County, Kentucky, have spoken loudly and clearly. And what they've said is that ethnic violence has no place in our society, that those who promote hate and violence will be held accountable and made to pay a steep price," Dees said.

The heavily tattooed Edwards plans to appeal the verdict. Despite the judgment, Edwards said the KKK will remain active. "We're not going away," Edwards said.

"I'm overwhelmed. I'm victorious," Gruver said. "And, I'm also sad. I'm sad because those guys are still going to be the same way that they were. That will never change."

John Gruver - in an interview with his mother, Cindy, his pregnant girlfriend and his brother - summed it up nicely when he said in the video below: "Kentucky is a good state but it has some bad people in it"

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T3lD_7PF5Y]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmjk1GELvAQ]

13-Year-Old Girl Wins The Right to Die

Hannah Jones is just 13 years old, but for 9 of those 13 years she has been in and out of hospital. She has acute myeloid lukemia and cardiomyopathy (a hole in her heart). She is terminally ill and needs a heart transplant to survive. She has made it clear that she does not want the operation and, with a maturity that belies her 13 years, she told her doctors that she wanted to go home and die surrounded by her loving family. The hospital went to court seeking to gain custody of the girl from her parents and force her to undergo the operation.

Hannah's parents Kristy and Andrew Jones, though heart-broken at her decision, both supported their daughter's wishes. They were shocked when they learned of the hospital's attempt to take away their daughter from them.

Hear the interview with Andrew Jones here.

Mr Jones said: "The threat that somebody could come and forcibly remove your daughter from you against her wishes, against our wishes, was quite upsetting really." He added: "We didn't get too involved in (Hannah's) decision.

"Hannah made that decision consciously on her own, a bit like a grown up, even though she was only 12 at the time and she has maintained that decision. How she coped with it, what her mind was thinking at the time, I've got great admiration for her in that and, as I said, we have to support her and her decision."

In making her decision, Hannah said that she was tired of hospitals and didn't want to go through any more operations.

"I just decided that there were too many risks and even if I took it there might be a bad outcome afterwards. I have been in hospital too much," Jones said. She added: "I have had too much trauma. I didn't want this [a heart transplant] and it's not my choice to have it."

Although her decision means that she may have only months to live, Jones said: "I have made the right decision at the moment and I'm not going to change it." adding: "There's a chance I may be well and there's a chance I may not be as well as I could be. That's a chance I'm willing to take."

Even the hospital had to admit that the operation was risky at best and may cause complications.

However, doctors have warned her that a heart transplant is risky and that, even if it succeeded, the drugs used to prevent her body rejecting the new heart could prompt a recurrence of the leukemia.

The family first learned that the hospital wished to force the operation on their daughter when they received a phone call telling them the hospital was applying for an order removing Hannah from the family home on the grounds that her parents were “preventing her treatment”. Mrs Jones, 43, said that the locum doctor had wanted to give Hannah a drug to facilitate her transfer to Great Ormond Street for the operation.

“The doctor wanted to give her a drug she had already said she didn’t want again . . . The family was in tears thinking she was going to be taken from us against her wishes.”

However, Great Ormond Street told the family that they would not admit the teenager without her consent.

After the incident the Jones' wrote to Herefordshire Primary Care Trust complaining about its intervention. In his reply, Chris Bull, the PCT’s chief executive, described Hannah as a “brave and courageous young woman” but defended the doctor’s decision.

However a nurse from the child protection team was called in to interview Hannah in private. The teenager was adamant that she did not want the transplant and she convinced the authorities that the operation was not in her best interests. It was then decided not to apply for a court order. In the letter to the family, Mr Bull concluded:

“Hannah appears to understand the serious nature of her condition . . . Treatment options were discussed and Hannah was able to express her clear views that she did not wish to go back on a pump or to go into hospital for cardiac treatment.”

Hannah’s father said he was not sure exactly what his daughter had told the child protection officer at their private meeting, “but it must have been powerful enough to convince some very high-up people that she was right. Hannah has been through enough already. To have the added stress of a possible court hearing or being forcibly taken into hospital is disgraceful.”

Dr Daniel Sokol is a lecturer in medical ethics at St George's Hospital in London, he also backs the 13-year-old's decision.

"She's evaluated the risks of the procedure, the risk of dying on the operating table, or suffering a whole host of nasty complications and in contrast to that are the benefits which is living longer," he said.

"She's a professional patient, she's been a patient for most of her life and if she is able to understand, she comprehends and has enough information then it doesn't matter whether she's 13 or 88, it should ultimately be her decision in my view."

Doctor's warn that without the transplant Hannah could die within months.

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About Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's Countdown does not need any introductions. He has been highly critical of the Bush presidency and has ridiculed the President and his policies numerous times on his show. He has also attracted many people to tune into his show, boosting the ratings of the entire network. Well, the powers that be have rewarded him with a brand new extended contract and a raise. MSNB issued the following statement:

Olbermann will continue to host Countdown as part of the new agreement and will also “play a prominent role in MSNBC's coverage of all major news events,” according to the network. He will also continue to serve as co-host of NBC’s Football Night in America studio show.

The network tore up his February 2007 contract, reported to be worth up to $4 million a year (expiring in 2011), and wrote a new one. The new contract is valued at about $7.5 million a year through 2012, ensuring that he will be on the air through the next presidential election.

Congrats to Mr. Olbermann but.....I was surprised to learn that for all his Bush-bashing Keith Olbermann did not even bother to vote in the 2008 elections. He was interviewed on the ABC show The View where he made this eyebrow-raising admission......and was roundly criticized by the entire panel who called him "a bad role model". Olbermann defended himself calling his decision "A symbolic gesture":

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii-SEu8wyEY]

And Kudos to Keith Olbermann for his stand on California's Proposition 8 which rescinded the right for gay people in that state to marry:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7PLkai0Nl8]

Salvation Army goes High Tech

The Salvation Army announced that it will try a new program to increase donations for this holiday season. It will now be possible to text a $5 donation directly from your cell phone to the charitable organization. The program will be introduced first in the Atlanta area, beginning around Thanksgiving:

"We've been putting kettles out for over a hundred years," said James Seiler, commander of the Metro Atlanta Area Salvation Army. "This year we're gonna try something different."

Beginning in two weeks, cell phone users in the Atlanta area can text message "TSA" — which stands for "The Salvation Army" — to 90999 and a $5 donation will be added to their phone bill.

The phone number and instructions will be posted on the familiar red donation kettles outside 297 locations in the 13-county metro Atlanta region. The hope is that this alternative way of giving will appeal to cell phone users who may not be carrying extra cash.

"Society in general carries less cash," said James Seiler. "It enables people who want to help, who want to support, to hit a few quick buttons on the telephone."

With the economy in turmoil, charity organizations are having a tough time raising funds. An October study by GuideStar.org, which tracks nonprofit organizations, found that among 2,927 individuals representing at least 2,730 charitable organizations, 35 percent reported a decrease in gifts during the first nine months of 2008. That's nearly twice as many as for the same period in 2007.

The Atlanta area has been hit hard with job losses according to Seiler, who says that some people who had given in the past have been coming to the organization looking for help. Last year the region gave $1.4 million to the charity between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year the goal is to raise $1.6 million.

The Salvation Army is also promoting online donations in Michigan and other states with its Online Red Kettle Promotion. They are encouraging people to logon on to OnlineRedKettle.Org

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8RB0earTac&feature=related]

For more information about the Salvation Army visit The Salvation Army International website or The Salvation Army USA website.