Puppy Farming? Yes…it happens….

Puppy farming is the mass commercial production of puppies purely for profit and without a thought for the welfare or happiness of the pup, breeding bitch or stud dogs. These poorly pups are then sold en masse to pet shops, online or from free newspaper ads and usually die soon after reaching their new home.

Pupaid is a yearly campaign designed to raise awareness and to change the law to prevent the mass commercial production of puppies purely for profit and without any thought for the health, welfare and quality of life of the puppy and its parents. Pup Aid is determined to bring about an end to this cruel and unnecessary practice.

Monday Matters roving reporter Bonnie Britain went along to the PUP AID 2014 – event on 6th September and spoke to various celebrities including Sue Perkins, Jeremy Edwards, Matt Johnson and many others.

MH17 AIRLINE CREW RECALLS HAPPY VOYAGERS BOARDING FLIGHT

An airline ground crew member who checked passengers in at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport for the doomed flight MH17 has made an emotional post on Facebook, recalling sending off holidaymakers, children and grandparents with wishes for “a pleasant flight”.

 

Renuka Manisha Virangna Birbal recounted her memories of the passengers

 

She wrote

A smile, a greeting, a happy face ..

At the transfer desk, I get two football fanatics, one is checked in and the other not, “can you check me in Love”. They were not seated next to each other in the business compartment , “would you like to sit together sir?” Any doubt,, I want a few hours of rest joked the other one. ‘’cheers’’

A loving family of six with their 10 pieces luggage that I had to put in the system. “After long time we’re returning home”

It was busy at the check in desk, so I went there to help my colleagues.
A child smiling and waving at me.

They thank me for my help so she could sit together. excited children “mom when do we see our luggage again?”

The crew running towards me waving and signalling.  They were ready to drop their luggage at the odd size belt.

A man who is about to start a new life in Malaysia.

A family get dropped off by their grandparents, kids first holiday far away.

Grandma makes photos of how her children and grand children check in. This time I do not mind that I am in the picture.

Arriving at the gate G03 a young man asked if he has time to buy something quickly. “Of course, sir, if you only ensures that you are back here at 1130”

My colleague helps an elderly woman inside, all the way to her seat in row 21, she had difficulty walking and traveling alone. The lady had the same name (one letter difference) as the son of my colleague and said that she would remembered the name.

I appeal to everyone to go to the toilet before they enter the gate because there are no toilet facilities at gate G03. A few passengers went back out of the line.

A woman traveling with her husband and her mother still asks her mother a few times if she had to go to the toilet, the elderly lady has a bladder problem. I allowed them to wait outside and they can come inside the priority line when their ready.

A newly married couple, on the way to their honeymoon.

A beautiful little girl hold by her mother, her father behind them pushing the stroller. What is she beautiful, a half Dutch half Malaysian with beautiful big eyes. She kindly smiled at me.

A man who could still join the flight to be on time for the funeral of his mother.

Grandchildren traveling with their grandparents.

Suddenly I see a familiar face, it is our colleague from the MH ticket counter

He proudly shows me his son, wife and daughter. With a big smile he waved “See you soon”

A woman want to go out of the gate unable to go to the toilet, unfortunately, we have already begun boarding and nobody can go out. “May I board first then?” of course.

I walk quickly along with the last two passengers who may eventually join the flight, and what are they happy …

A final farewell to the crew, till next time!

And then we removed the bridge.

Passengers traveling for business, on the way home, on the way to family, on the way to their holiday, on the way to a new beginning …

Group travel, families, couples, individuals, infants, children, grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, partners, uncles, aunts, colleagues, friends, neighbors, acquaintances.

The last time I saw them, talked to them and wish them a pleasant flight the passengers of flight MH017 on 17jul14.

One last smile, one last salute, a happy face …

+ Rest in peace dear passengers & crew +

On behalf of the ground handling agents of flight MH017 on Thursday 17-07-2014

 

 

Could Oscar Pistorius Defence team – be in trouble?

A retired South African Judge has claimed that the repercussions of a newly leaked video showing the athlete re-enacting the events of the night he killed his girlfriend are “enormous” and could lead to Pistorious’s Defence team, including Barry Roux being stripped of their right to practice law.

Former Zimbabwean High Court Judge and Acting South African High Court Judge Chris N Greenland made the comments whilst speaking to me on 106.9 SFM saying “if the defence team…acting for Oscar, knew the true position and then lead this evidence to the contrary, the implications and repercussions of that are enormous and could actually lead to disbarment”.

Also worrying for the defence team, Judge Greenland said that the video could also lead to the prosecution of Professor Wayne Derman – who finished giving evidence on Monday.   Derman, a professor of sports medicine, had worked with the athlete for many years and claimed in Court that Mr. Pistorious had limited mobility whilst on his stumps and that his disability had left him feeling vulnerable.

However, the leaked video counters Mr Derman’s claims of Oscar’s mobility and vulnerablity and it’s implications were “very serious”.

ukip are MAD, but not as dangerous as the killers we keep!

How is this possible?

The current coalition Government and their opposition numbers in the Labour party denounce UKip for the “racist” and the “dangerous” language they use when speaking on matters of immigration.  I wouldn’t wish to take this valid point away.

However, how well does our Government’s record stand up to scrutiny when it comes to the immigration status of the truly undesirables in the UK?

The UK political elite state that UKip’s protestations, that there are too many ‘immigrants’ in the UK, is nothing short of dangerous racism, yet at the same time – have allowed our courts to give ‘leave to remain’ to some of the worst murders and war criminals at large from around the world.

They seem not as affronted when a foreign killer of a few or many – wins the right to stay in Britain indefinitely – after claiming his human rights would be breached if he was deported.

Or when a mass murderer is allowed to roam our streets freely because to send him back to the country that seeks him – to answer for his crimes- may use capital punishment and to that end – we will not go.

I do not agree with capital punishment – but I agree even less with a murderer or someone connected with genocide escaping to our country and using our laws to hide the justice that seeks them.

I cannot comprehend what it must be like to know that the person who killed your family member (or family) is being protected by another country- that defends them that slaughtered your loved ones the “right to family life”?

Yet we have it here in the UK.

The test for our politicians is not just to point at UKip – accuse them of being racist and hope the problem will go away – but to look at the reality of modern day Britain and ask…

Who would you rather stayed in our country?

• A mass murderer
• A student whose visa has expired

Currently – if you are on a student visa which expires – we’ll grab you by the collar and throw you out on your ear and our courts won’t lift a finger to help! However, let us say you are a mass murderer…well, errrm… “Welcome To The United Kingdom”.

Here are just a few examples…

Foreign war criminals ‘able to stay in UK’ 

Immigration judges block foreign killer’s deportation on ‘human rights’ grounds

IRA terror suspects told they would not face prosecution in ‘comfort letters’

Killers on our streets: 207 war crime suspects living in Britain including five ‘Nazis’

Britain home to nearly 400 war crimes suspects

100 war criminals apply for UK asylum in a year

 

Yet it takes years for us to deport known extremists and the only way we seem to get any kind of conviction is in a foreign court!

Abu Hamza found guilty of terror charges in US court

Britain finally deports Abu Qatada

 

And if they are not mass murders – just ordinary people – they have even more of a struggle…

Nigerian Lesbian Posts Video Plea For Asylum, Facing Death or Prison if Deported

19-year-old Mauritian student Yashika Bageerathi deported

UK decides to deport Indian girl’s entire family back to Mauritius despite protest

Community shocked as Sajid family is deported

Derry man Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh tells of wife deportation fear

 

Others just have to fight….

FORMER British Army soldier Isimeli Baleiwai fights to stay in the UK

Najibullah Hashimi seeks help raising cash to fight deportation

Convicted boat race protester Trenton Oldfield fights deportation from UK after visa denied

Thankfully they won…but only after a BIG fuss….

Soldier given leave to remain in UK

Teenager ‘over the moon’ after winning deportation battle to Afghanistan

Boat Race protester Trenton Oldfield wins deportation case

I guess the question is – what are human rights in the 21st Century and does that apply to those who seek to evade justice?

Professor Brian Cathcart – The Case of Stephen Lawrence

Democracy Rules the waves

The right of someone to love another of the same sex has progressed exponentially over the past 50 years in the United Kingdom, Europe and America.  In the UK, it was the Buggery Act 1533 which outlawed homosexuality which was punishable by death – defined as “unnatural sexual act against the will of God and man”.

This Act remained on the statute books until being repealed and replaced by the Offences against the Person Act 1828, with buggery remaining a capital offence until 1861.  It was not until the Sexual Offences Act 1967 that homosexuality was decriminalised – sort of…there were a couple of caveats:

1) it had to be consensual
2) take place in private
3) only involve people 21 years or older

Sitting in 2014 – with all the comforts that modern living brings with it – including a feeling of security and state protection, it’s difficult to fully comprehend what my life would have been like had I not been born in the late 1970s.

Well, kind of.  We need to look no further than Africa or Russia to see how a government and the people within it – can persecute and harass minority groups who pose no threat to them or their way of life – other than a dislike of their practice.

Gay rights campaigner arrested in Russia

But lets be reasonable, the maltreatment of minorities – in whatever form it be, is not new; is not limited to sexuality and does not seem likely to end any time soon.

Listening to Radio 4’s serialisation of the book/turned film “12 Years a Slave” today, I was reminded that as human beings, we have a history of being horrible to each other.  There appears no end to our nailing, hanging, whipping, stabbing, slapping, dicing or slicing each other.  In the book Solomon Northup regales such horrific tales of torture and enslavement – you cannot read those events without deep feelings of enragement and pity.  Pity for those humans enslaved and the human race for all our inadequacies that allow us to do horrible things to other people.

Solomon Northup

That so much progress can be made in one part of the world whilst rescinded in another is heartbreaking.  But the curbing of minority rights in countries such as Uganda or Russia should be seen in their totality.  The Russian state has been curbing any kind of dissent – especially that which highlights corruption at a local or national level.  Russia is a hostile place to live if you want to be critical or outspoken about the Putin’s government.

Reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch highlighted “In the year since Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in May 2012, the Russian government has unleashed a crackdown on civil society unprecedented in the country’s post-Soviet history.  The authorities have introduced a series of restrictive laws, harassed, intimidated, and in several cases imprisoned political activists, interfered in the work of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and sought to cast government critics as clandestine enemies, thereby threatening the viability of Russia’s civil society.”

However, it is not the state acting alone, especially when it comes to homophobia.  Data which has been published by the Pew Research Centre shows that nearly three quarters of Russians believe that homosexually is morally unacceptable.  The Russian Orthodox Church has been very vocal in its anti-gay rhetoric .

In 2013, ahead of a vote on the “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” bill, gay rights activists attempted to hold a “kissing rally” outside the Duma, the Russia legislative building in Moscow.  CBS News reported that the activists “were attacked by hundreds of Orthodox Christian activists and members of pro-Kremlin youth groups. The mostly burly young men with closely cropped hair pelted them with eggs while shouting obscenities and homophobic slurs.”

In Uganda, political corruption is rife and government spending out of control.  There is a  HIV/AIDS epidemic with more than 1.1 million people, or 4% of the population living with AIDS; leading to high mortality rates, high infant mortality rates with the overall standard of living decreasing.  In Uganda there is only one political organisation that is allowed to operate without any restrictions.  Literacy rates are low with only 56.5% of females and 30.7% of males having any form of literacy.  With religion playing such a crucial role in the country – daily preachings from the pulpit denouncing people who are gay –  no wonder the population are suspicious. So, don’t blame the people – blame the government and blame religion.

The Russian’s think we in the West are all Fascists and many Africa states think that we are still trying to impose our old colonial ways and dictate how they live and think.

Frankly, the homophobia that spills out from the governments of these countries is endemic of places that are in the midst of turbulent times where the value placed on life is low and individuality a sign of disobedience.  We in Britain are lucky. We have a functional government and although we moan and complain about our politicians – I have no doubt that they and our leaders do have our interests at heart.  Whether it be David Cameron, Ed Milliband or Chris Smith of the Environment Agency – when confronted by angry members of the public – the only thing hurt is their ego.  We should be pleased about that.

Chris Smith gets grilled

Accused of genocide? Better get here quick….

We have a peculiar set up in 21st century Britain whereby If I was to say or write something derogatory about someone in another country – if they were to protest and take me to court – chances are I’d be hauled in front of a Judge to defend my words.  It seems, however, if someone abroad commits horrendous acts of slaughter, rape or genocide and then flees to our country, our Government is rendered incapacitated to extradite them back to their country of origin by our Courts – in case to do so leads to their torture or death.

And so, they flood here, knowing that our strong humanist beliefs will shelter them from their past indiscretions and enable them, sometimes people who have killed many, to share the same bus or restaurant as our unsuspecting non-murderous citizens who’d be affronted if they knew the true unpleasant history of the person(s) that shares their space.

We wonder why our country has such a bad reputation the further East one sails – we are seen to espouse standards and export morals that we ourselves do not abide by.  If you live in Africa, Iran, Afghanistan or Iraq and know, or even simply suspect, that a man who’d killed, tortured and maimed many people – including some of your own relatives, was walking free and protected by England and English law you’d be sick to your stomach.  You’d wonder at the double standards that doesn’t allow this man who’d brutalised your friends, neighbours, your children to be brought back to your country and account for the crimes committed.

And they are right.  We often condemn Russia for protecting known hitmen and I’m sure there would be absolute outrage in this country if a person killed hundreds of our citizens, fled to Iran and was then protected by the state.  Yes, you can argue that once returned we would not torture and we would not executed. However, with regard to the latter these are our standards that are not universally excepted.

Human rights are crucial and come from one of the worst moments in our history on this planet – Hitler and the Nazi’s.  We must not forget the circumstances that brought in these laws, however, must not allow the continual reinterpretation between different generations of judges and lawyers to decimate credibility in what is about protecting the innocent – not harbouring the guilty.