Unaccompanied Detained Children in Fight at Melbourne Immigration Detention Centre

AN investigation will be held into a brawl involving about 50 unaccompanied Afghan asylum-seeker boys at a Melbourne immigration detention centre. Department of Immigration spokesman Sandi Logan said the boys were unaccompanied minors and were yesterday involved in “a number of separate scuffles in the dining room” of the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation centre in Broadmeadows, in Melbourne's west.
The brawl erupted after 98 unaccompanied minors were transferred from Australia's Christmas Island detention centre to the Melbourne centre over the weekend.
Seven of the boys, aged about 15-18, were taken to hospital, most with cuts and bruises and one with a possibly fractured nose.
One boy remains in hospital, with the rest having been returned to the detention centre.
Mr Logan said furniture and windows in the dining room were also damaged during the brawl, which broke out before 8pm, but no staff were injured.

“Victoria Police were called and assisted to restore order in about 30 minutes, with the individuals returned to their rooms,” Mr Logan said.
“The centre is now calm and has been since last night.”
A department spokesman said there were currently 136 people being held at the centre.
Mr Logan said detention services providers would investigate the incident and provide a full report.
AAP

[RAP: "Department of Immigration spokesman Sandi Logan said the boys were unaccompanied minors"  RAP wonders whether this was "a brawl" or "separate scuffles" and notes that having been in positions of responsibility in secure institutions that it is a fine line between needing police assistance and not. Often it is the presence of the police itself that decides the seriousness with which an event is viewed. 

The only surprising aspect of this story of unaccompanied, stressed and traumatized children, detained by Australia and then becoming involved in horizontal conflicts and violence is that it wasn't predicted and the risks contained. Primarily, it must be said the risks should be contained by releasing all these children from detention immediately and caring for them according to our international and human rights obligations. And as with most comparable countries stop detaining and criminalizing people for seeking asylum and feigning surprise when people's behaviours reflect their treatment and the contexts in which they're held.]


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/teenage-brawl-erupts-at-melbourne-immigration-detention-centre/

83 Sri Lankan's explicit photographs made public in police attack despite editors' refusals to publish

By J.A. Fernando

Sri Lankan Police Flag

Colombo, 10 November, (Asiantribune.com):

Despite leading newspaper’s refusing to publish the porn star photographs, Sri Lankan Police has issued 83 porn star images yesterday to all media organizations in the country with a view of seeking help from public to take them into custody. Among those images there are 81 of women and 4 men’s images.
Asian Tribune earlier on November 6th published 11 porn star pictures which are supposed to be taken from local porn websites.
However, all national dailies had refused to print the photographs except for the Lakbima Sinhalese newspaper, which published the 27 porn star mugshots at the bottom of page two on Tuesday, without any reference to the accusations against them.
Meanwhile the country’s largely circulated daily newspaper has also refused publication of these pictures according to AFP.
"We were given the photos with a request to publish them, but we decided not to," Chief Editor of the mass circulating Sinhalese daily, the Lankadeepa, Siri Ranasinghe reported to have said to AFP adding that it is a question of privacy of people and that no one doesn’t know who these people are and under what circumstances the police got the pictures.
“Technology can be used to manipulate pictures, so we decided to leave them out." Mr.Ranasinghe reported to have said to media.
AFP reported that the government has also ordered the removal of bill boards featuring scantily-clad women and launched a campaign to discourage the use of alcohol and tobacco in conservative Sri Lanka.
Authorities say the wanted individuals were found portrayed on 180 Sri Lankan pornographic websites that have since been blocked by telecommunications regulators.
The Police Women and Children's Bureau had issued these pictures in line with its earlier announcement of publishing the photographs of those who had posed on local porn websites, according to an order by the Colombo High Court.
The police department say that punishments in relation to porn should be made harsher where as the current laws in Sri Lanka are too little. In Sri Lanka the Obscene Publications Ordinance of 1983 clearly states that, anyone involved in distributing, exhibiting or advertising obscene matter, can be fined Rs. 10,000 and leads to face a three month imprisonment.
The Sri Lankan police are banning at least 100 porn websites on a weekly basis according to reports.
However, many other porn sites featuring non-Sri Lankans remain still available according to analysts.

[RAP: This a perverted attack on the civil liberties of every one of the people in these photographs, that will likely destroy lives and families. A number of the people in the photographs appear to be close to or below the meaningful age of consent and coercion cannot be ruled out in any of them. As such it is very likely that some of the people pictured are victims of crime and the police in Sri Lanka have forced and facilitated the publishing of photographs of those victims of crime and the crime scenes.

The so-called mug shots or "porn star" photos appear to have been taken in a much more amateurish setting, some of them it would seem, have been taken by adults engaging in mutually consensual sex and were for private use not publication. It is probable that some of the people in the photographs will not be aware that their photographs are in the public domain.

RAP hopes the people in the photographs are not found by the police and if they are they will find the support they need in their communities.

The editors who refused to publish the photographs are to be commended and the police and the editors who published them in their misguided, myopic and misanthropic campaign deserve the contempt of their communities.]

http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2010/11/10/exclusive-sri-lankan-83-porn-stars-now-public-despite-local-newspaper-editors%E2%80%99-refus

Nearly 200 teenage girls give birth

Thailand had two young girls who became mothers at the age of just nine years old, according to a survey by the Provincial Administration Department.

Sex Education is needed at home and in school

The survey, conducted from 2000 to 2009, documents extensive underage pregnancies in Thailand over the past decade. Details were revealed yesterday at a children's rights forum in the North.Aside from the two nine-year-olds, the survey also said there were eight girls who became mothers at the age of 10, 15 who became mothers at the age of 11, 75 aged 12 years old, 481 aged 13 years old, 2,781 aged 14 years old, 8,999 aged 15 years old and 19,402 aged 16 years old.
In 2008 alone, nearly 70,000 teenage girls (69,387) had children - an average of 190 teenage mothers giving birth every day.
Officials who conducted the national survey predicted the amount of young mothers was likely to increase.
Chusri Chuto, a senior pro?fessional development officer at the Social Development and Human Security Ministry, said the issue of underage sex and pregancies was just one of many child problems discussed at the forum.
The forum has been held annually since 1989 so that chil?dren and youths can express their opinions, talk about their problems as part of efforts to protect their rights.
She said the northern forum called on the government to ensure children's development, protection and participation without discrimination. They wanted every agency to consid?er or give priority to issues so that children benefit.
After each region had held their own forum, their propos?als will be submitted to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva the day after the national forum, scheduled for November 19, is held.

[RAP: Away from the sensationalism of the first, bold sentence of the report and the lives of young women and girls reduced to stats there is a pressing issue here. While these girls and women are as capable as any other of loving their babies, we can assume that in the majority of cases the pregnancies were unintended and if there were safe legal options open to them many would not have gone through with their pregnancy and birth. There are of course illegal abortion clinics in Thailand, that sometimes involve small doorways, under flights of stairs around the back of small, private hospitals and the implied shame as well as prohibitive costs. But for many girls and women the research (and possible exposure) necessary to find the clinic, the costs and difficulty getting to it and the fear of an unsafe, unhygienic operation means many cannot go through with it.

Sex and relationship education in Thailand operating inside the 'sweet girl' 'bad/smart boy', "do as you're told and listen to your parents and teachers" model is dis-empowering young women and the results are evident in the report above. In addition, as reported by The Nation in July a girl who chooses or is forced to remain pregnant then faces the prospect of school exclusion and social stigma leading to problems that will last well beyond the nine-month term and very often well beyond her generation.

In 2009, The Nation reported on the need for clearer and more honest communication within familes "Some parents do not have sufficient communication with their children or ensure that they have accurate information about their bodies and the biological changes they are going through. Some even treat the issue as inappropriate. It is time that parents began to communicate with children on these issues more honestly." and schools "Sex education is absent or insufficient in schools partly because some conservatives treat the issue as taboo." Rates of unplanned teenage pregnancies and the resulting difficult process of finding a safe abortion are shown to be higher in conservative dominated areas and in girls and young women who become pregnant the rates of suicide rise. It is time for change and to grow up.

A study in Chiang Mai found a need for "targeted training and support for teachers; peer-led sex education by teenagers; story-based scenarios to promote applied learning; local development of educational materials; and use of trained sexual health professionals to address learning needs of pupils, teachers, and parents."

Young people have sex for many reasons and their reasons are usually the same as for adults. Bearing in mind that in Thailand young people's curiosity, hormones and impulsiveness will lead to sex, like they do everywhere else, Thailand needs to look at this properly. Thailand's young women and girls (and boys) deserve better, they deserve help accessing help and advice, accessing contraception, accessing learning about relationships and assertiveness to overcome coercion. If this doesn't come from their parents, teachers, and health workers it will come from their friends and from movies and online. Where that leads to, is here.]

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/11/07/national/Nearly-200-teenage-girls-give-birth-30141689.html

Hope Floats

A Beautiful Photo Exhibition from Bali (http://www.sacredchildhoods.org/) hosted on photophilanthropy. (photophilanthropy.org/)



http://photophilanthropy.org/blogmedia/gallery-posts/hope-floats/

New Risks Identified from Second Hand Smoke

Smoking, ADHD link found: study

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/smoking-adhd-link-found-study-20101008-16b0g.html

"Wendy Max, Professor of Health Economics at the University of California San Francisco, said the results showed how passive smoking could impact on a child's overall health as well as learning and social development.

Prof Max said the trend of a rising smoking rate in developing nations ensured those countries less equipped to deal with the ramifications would bear an increasing burden.
"Children in countries with high smoking prevalence are at greatest risk," Prof Max said.
"As smoking rates in developed countries (such as Australia) continue to fall, the burden of childhood exposure to second-hand smoke will be disproportionately borne by countries that already face economic disadvantages."

A huge issue affecting the AP region. Thailand has made a number of moves in this area and is to be applauded for some of them. Their ban on advertising of tobacco products is noticeable to anyone paying attention. One downside is the silly censoring of smoking in TV movies in which a smoky vaseline splodge follows what everyone knows to be a cigarette around the screen. Marring the movie and hiding nothing. ( A US Lobby Group's brief appraisal of Thailand's efforts: http://www.tobaccofreecenter.org/resources_country/thailand, Risk Factors of Tobacco Use Among Thai Adolescents: http://www.mat.or.th/journal/files/Vol92_Suppl.3_4_9867.pdf, Thailand Government on Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bans: http://www.who.int/tobacco/training/success_stories/en/best_practices_thailand_adv_ban.pdf)

Indonesia however continues to lag behind, trampling the rights of Indonesians to clean air. Indonesia is one of a very few countries in the world that has refused and failed to sign the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It is common in Indonesia to ride in public transport in which half of the passengers are men, many of them smoking and the other half women and children breathing in the fumes with the windows closed. Indonesian sports and entertainment promoters continue to use Corporate Tobacco to promote, fund and hijack their events, linking the cool of the musicians with the whiff of smoke. (A US Lobby Group's brief appraisal of Indonesia's woeful situation: http://www.tobaccofreecenter.org/resources_country/indonesia, BMJ: Tobacco Control in Indonesia: http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/8/1/85.extract, Full Text: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1763925/pdf/v008p00085.pdf)

Bikes For Remote Indigenous Kids in Australia

New Bikes For The Mt Liebig Kids

http://www.sbs.com.au/podcasts/Podcasts/world-view/episode/114687/Bikes-for-remote-Indigenous-kids

"The Bikes for Bush Foundation presented the 30 bikes to the children of Mt Liebig, about 325 kilometres west of Alice Springs."

When Response was in the UK there was a bike project that took found, left, lost and stolen bikes from the police, made them lovely and then gave them away to local inner-city kids with free workshops where the young people could bring them in and learn to repair and maintain them. It made a big difference to young people's lives and we're hoping it can do the same in remote Australia. Will there be any kind of similar follow-up here?

Reaching Out to Minorities in Viet Nam with Midwives who Speak their Language

http://bit.ly/a0IbuF

"Five to seven women still die almost every day due to pregnancy or childbirth in Viet Nam. Although the maternal mortality ratio has declined significantly over the past few years, there are still big differences between regions – from a low of 40 up to 410 deaths per 100,000 live births in some areas. The highest ratios are found in remote and mountainous ethnic minority areas of the country, partly due to the shortage of skilled birth attendants and health care workers in these areas. Cultural barriers also keep many of the women in these areas from using reproductive health services. To address this issue, UNFPA is supporting an initiative to recruit and train local women to become village-based midwives."

I remember reading and hearing about similar initiatives in Indonesia a few years ago and if I remember rightly their successes were fantastic. Good luck Vietnam.

Ban All Tobacco Advertising Say US Paediatricians

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827803.800-ban-all-tobacco-advertising-say-us-paediatricians.html

"The authors of the policy statement argue that while parents and teachers are urging kids to stay away from smoking and drinking, the $25 billion spent each year in advertising glamorises it - sending confusing messages to children."

And how much truer is this in the AP region, where lax legislation on the part of governments and lax morals on the part of the companies leads to hyper-aggressive advertising aimed at SE Asian youth?

Karen Doctor Sees Little End to Humanitarian Crisis in Eastern BurmaKaren Doctor Sees Little End to Humanitarian Crisis in Eastern Burma

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Karen-Doctor-Sees-Little-End-to-Humanitarian-Crisis-in-Eastern-Burma-103235659.html
"The local Mae Sot community also looks after a growing population of abandoned children. The clinic and a network of 62 community schools already educate 12,000 children from migrant workers and refugees in the provincial Mae Sot area. Dr. Muang says as people lose livelihoods children are being left behind."