The topic of Mr. Duranty is a very difficult one for me at best. My family background is Ukrainian, and my great grandmother starved to death because of the Holodomor. It was a horrific time frame. Most of our extended family my grandmother's siblings we have no idea what happened to them. My grandfather is buried in a mass grave somewhere near Vinnytsia.

Walter Duranty was a British journalist who won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for a series of 5 stories written as the correspondent for the New York Times in Moscow. These stories covered Stalin's Five Year Plan to industrialize the Soviet Union. Part of that plan was to collectivize farming, to which the majority of Ukrainians were opposed.

He described those who opposed collectivization of farming as an "almost privileged class" that had been created by mistake by Lenin. He said that the same logic that led to the overthrow of the Czarist regime must inevitably lead to the destruction of these people, whom he numbered at 5,000,000.

He said that these people had to be "liquidated or melted in the hot fire of exile and labor into the proletarian mass". Duranty claimed that the Siberian labor camps were a means of giving individuals a chance to rejoin Soviet society but also said that for those who could not accept the system, "the final fate of such enemies is death.".

On March 31, 1933, Walter Duranty denounced the famine stories in the New York Times. In the piece, he described the situation under the title "Russians Hungry, But Not Starving" as follows: "In the middle of the diplomatic duel between Great Britain and the Soviet Union over the accused British engineers, there appears from a British source a big scare story in the American press about famine in the Soviet Union, with 'thousands already dead and millions menaced by death from starvation."

Contradicting what he had written in the New York Times, on September 26, 1933 in a private conversation with British Diplomat William Strang, Duranty said, "it is quite possible that as many as 10 million people may have died directly or indirectly from lack of food in the Soviet Union during the past year."

Walter Duranty mislead the world by writing deliberate falsehoods about the Holodomor, which has been decreed an act of genocide by the Verkhovna Rada Ukrajiny.

It is time in my opinion that this historical event be made right by revoking the Pulitzer Prize awarded to this man.

Sources:

Holodomor Wiki

Revoke Walter Duranty's 1932 Pulitzer Prize

Join The Facebook Group - Revoke Walter Duranty's 1932 Pulitzer Prize

Portrait miniature of Catherine Howard, by Hans Holbein the Younger.

Out of all of Henry's wives my heart goes out to his fifth Catherine Howard also known as Katherine, or Kathryn Howard, and by the King's nickname for her "the rose without a thorn". Henry became infatuated with the teenage Catherine soon after he annulled his marriage to Anne of Cleves. Catherine was Anne Boleyn's second cousin, but had a much different upbringing then her older relation.

She spent all of her life in England, and from the age of 15 had had a series of serious relationships with different men, which her family desperately tried to cover up, especially once the king began to express interest in her. She was accused by her enemies of not having ceased her reportedly wanton behaviour after her marriage, and Henry was soon made aware of these allegations. He was not amused.

Catherine, her lovers, and her lady-in-waiting were all found guilty of treason executed. Catherine had been queen for 18 months, was never crowned, and had not yet reached her 21st birthday in my mind a terrible waste, and tragedy as none of the claims against her were ever adequately proven in my opinion let alone so terrible by 21st century standards.

Last month news broke of grave sites across the country that have been hidden for years. They have finally publicly released some of the grave site locations. I sincerely hope that this can be a first step in the healing of our Aboriginal people who have suffered through what can only be termed in my opinion as a genocide.

At a public ceremony and press conference held today outside the colonial 'Indian Affairs' building in downtown Vancouver, the Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD) released a list of twenty eight mass graves across Canada holding the remains of untold numbers of aboriginal children who died in Indian Residential Schools.

The list was distributed today to the world media and to United Nations agencies, as the first act of the newly-formed International Human Rights Tribunal into Genocide in Canada (IHRTGC), a non-governmental body established by indigenous elders.

In a statement read by FRD spokesperson Eagle Strong Voice, it was declared that the IHRTGC would commence its investigations on April 15, 2008, the fourth Annual Aboriginal Holocaust Memorial Day. This inquiry will involve international human rights observers from Guatemala and Cyprus , and will convene aboriginal courts of justice where those persons and institutions responsible for the death and suffering of residential school children will be tried and sentenced. (The complete Statement and List of Mass Graves is reproduced below).

Eagle Strong Voice and IHRTGC elders will present the Mass Graves List at the United Nations on April 19, and will ask United Nations agencies to protect and monitor the mass graves as part of a genuine inquiry and judicial prosecution of those responsible for this Canadian Genocide.

Eyewitness Sylvester Greene spoke to the media at today's event, and described how he helped bury a young Inuit boy at the United Church's Edmonton residential school in 1953.

'We were told never to tell anyone by Jim Ludford, the Principal, who got me and three other boys to bury him. But a lot more kids got buried all the time in that big grave next to the school.'

For more information: http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org

My thanks to our dear friend Penny who has worked very hard, and volunteered her time, and skills to a northern Ontario reserve for bringing this to our attention. This horrific bit of Canadian history must not be swept up under a rug, nor should these innocent victims be forgotten.

Happy Wordless Wednesday! And Thank You For Stopping By!

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Image Credit BBC

Well not exactly, but would you want to know if your great, great grandfather or grandmother was a murderer? Family skeletons have been toppling out of closets since the searchable details of more than 200 years of Old Bailey trails went online last month. So how does it feel to idly type a name into a search box and be presented with more than you bargained for? Some people have uncovered such info, and some are not truly overly concerned by it, others have had much different reactions.

Here is a snippet from the BBC:

"When I typed the surname in, I thought I might find offences like petty theft, breach of the peace, being drunk and disorderly, that sort of thing."

"First I saw the name 'Alexander', and I thought 'fantastic'. But then I read the next word, 'killing'. I was so shocked I nearly fell off my stool."

Full BBC article can be accessed here.

I was just listening to a radio news report on the situation in Myanmar also known as Burma. The report claimed that the death toll would reach 100,000 since the Cyclone Nargis hit the southern delta region on May 2nd.

The time to put all politics aside is now. We in the West must try to help these people.

I know it looks overwhelming, and people really get frustrated sitting in their offices, or at their home computers not knowing how they can help.

I would like to suggest to anyone that can spare even a few dollars please make a donation to the Red Cross just click on the link to read about their efforts in Burma. Why I decided to post up the Red Cross website is because they can and do help. My mother was a DP or Displaced Person, and grew up in a refugee camp. She would not be alive today if people in the West had not opened their hearts, and wallets, and helped organizations like the Red Cross, which she has never forgotten in her 73 years.

I plan to donate to the Red Cross in the memory of my Grandmother who was also a refugee, and I hope other will consider making a donation no matter what the amount as well.

Photos Courtesy BBC

A morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music.

It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers. Implements such as sticks, swords, and handkerchiefs may also be wielded by the dancers. In a small number of dances for one or two men, steps are performed near and across a pair of clay tobacco pipes laid across each other on the floor.

There are claims that English records of the morris dance dating back to 1448 exist, but these are open to dispute. There is no mention of "morris" dancing earlier than the late 15th century, although early records such as Bishops' "Visitation Articles" mention sword dancing, guising and other dancing activities as well as mumming plays. For further info please see Morris Dance wiki entry.

Happy Wordless Wednesday! And Thank You For Stopping By!

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Image Credit BBC