The Circus Girl

World Environment Day, which is commemorated each year on June 5th, is one of the most significant mode through which the United Nations stimulates the global awareness of the environment. It is by this way that the United Nations attract political attention and enhances action to shape a better global environment. Each year the World Environment Day is celebrated in recognition of unique theme. Norway was honored to host International World Environment Day 2007 celebrations in recognition of the theme — ‘Melting Ice – The Hot Topic’. Over a hundred nations across the globe celebrates the World Environment Day with highly relevant theme each year.

The slogan for World Environment Day 2008 is ‘Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy’. With an understanding of the fact that the change in climatic condition is gradually becoming one of the most defining issue of the age, UNEP is requesting the nations, companies and communities to put special focus on the greenhouse gas emissions and to put spare thought over how to reduce them. The World Environment Day 2008 is going to highlight resources and focuses on promoting low carbon economies with a view to shape a better and healthier future. Promoting a low carbon economy involves steps towards improved energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, forest conservation and eco-friendly consumption. The chief international celebration of the World Environment Day 2008 is going to be held in New Zealand.

The Heads of State, Prime Ministers and Ministers of Environment deliver statements and commit themselves to care for this only green planet of the universe. Serious pledges establish sound and non-transitory governmental policies related to environmental management and economic planning. bicycle parades, tree planting , recycling campaigns, clean-up campaigns, street rallies, school level essay and poster competitions etc. are organized all over the world on June 5th to celebrate the World Environment Day.

Here are some information on World Environment Day for the last ten years regarding where the WED celebration was held at and what were the respective themes each year:

Places of celebration:

World Environment Day 2007 – Tromsø, Norway

World Environment Day 2006 – Algiers, Algeria

World Environment Day 2005 – San Francisco, U.S.

World Environment Day 2004 – Barcelona, Spain

World Environment Day 2003 – Beirut, Lebanon

World Environment Day 2002 – Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

World Environment Day 2001 – Torino, Italy and Havana, Cuba

World Environment Day 2000 – Adelaide, Australia

World Environment Day 1999 – Tokyo, Japan

World Environment Day 1998 – Moscow, Russian Federation

Themes of celebration:

World Environment Day 2007 – Melting Ice – a Hot Topic?

World Environment Day 2006 – Deserts and Desertification – Don’t Desert Drylands!

World Environment Day 2005 – Green Cities – Plan for the Planet!

World Environment Day 2004 – Wanted! Seas and Oceans – Dead or Alive?

World Environment Day 2003 – Water – Two Billion People are Dying for It!

World Environment Day 2002 – Give Earth a Chance

World Environment Day 2001 – Connect with the World Wide Web of Life

World Environment Day 2000 – The Environment Millennium – Time to Act

World Environment Day 1999 – Our Earth – Our Future – Just Save It!

World Environment Day 1998 – For Life on Earth – Save Our Seas

They called it a near miss, but I called it terrifying. I had just nearly killed my Uncle Harry!

After fifty years, I still clearly remember the incident. It occurred when I was about twelve years old and had just begun to be allowed to hunt with the men in my family. We lived on a chicken and dairy farm in Belfast, Maine. Traditionally, every Thanksgiving eve the farm chores were done up early and the guys would head off for a late afternoon deer hunt before dark. This was the first year I was included. I felt grown up. And I had a rifle, too – an heirloom Winchester 38-40 caliber made in the late 1800′s and still a damned good deer rifle. Short barrel and stock, light, and a short range power packer. Perfect for a young fella like myself.

With a hunting party of five, we proceeded on the dirt path between the barns to the fields and apple orchard in the distance. All the others had loaded their rifles before leaving the yard. For some reason I had not. As usual, I was late in joining the group having been dilly dallying as young boys are wont to do.

“You’ll be late to your own funeral,” my older brother Burt always said. I never got it. At my age funerals were the farthest thing from my mind. Until that day, that is.

I hurried behind the men while reaching into my worn red plaid wool jacket pocket for the shells to the rifle. I dug out a handful, maybe six, and proceeded to slip them into the weapon one by one. I pulled the lever down to inject a shell into the chamber so as to be ready in case a deer jumped up from the brush along the path.

I was clearly in violation of all the rules of gun safety I had been taught since I first handled guns at about age seven: I was walking and loading; I was pointing the muzzle down and at someone rather than up and away from all possible human targets; I wasn’t paying close attention while handling a rifle. I was, in short, a danger to all with a loaded gun in my hands. I had set myself up for ‘Murphy’s Law’ to show itself.

As I jacked the round into the chamber – with my right forefinger errantly on the trigger – the rifle discharged. The sound was deafening since we were between two buildings. And it was a cold afternoon to boot. I saw a large clump of dirt kick up from the ground directly in front of and slightly to the right of my Uncle Harry. I just knew I had killed him and would catch hell for it. I froze in place - not from the cold but with a fear I had never experienced.

Everyone in the hunting party abruptly stopped and just stood still like in freeze-frame mode in a movie. No one moved; everyone was looking straight back at me with surprised and somewhat angry expressions. I was dead meat. Probably get pummeled and banned from the hunting party for life. I instantly knew so.

Everyone, that is, except my almost target, and fatality, Uncle Harry. He stopped walking only for a split second, shrugged, look back at me and calmly muttered “Geez, NEVER do that!” and continued on – unfazed.

That was my Uncle Harry; he didn’t get riled at much. Thank goodness I hadn’t killed him!

Especially not on Thanksgiving!

Since the arrest of film director Roman Polanski on a 30-year warrant for child sexual abuse, many supporters have circled the wagons. First, beginning with the news media — which many have long relied on for their daily dose of news, but which many now increasingly associate with biased, unethical reporting (not journalism).

Consider the case of Michael Jackson. When the King of Pop was under investigation for allegedly sexually assaulting children the media persecuted him, and even continued to do so after his death. Let me state clearly from the outset, that if Michael Jackson was indeed guilty, he got what he deserved. However, that’s the very point, isn’t it? Michael Jackson was never proven guilty and stayed to face his accusers and a derisive public.

Yet, a grown man, Roman Polanski, admits to having sex with a 13-year-old girl when he was 43 at the time, pays off the girl, flees the country and remains at large for over three decades just so he could avoid facing the crime he committed. And many in the media and entertainment industry rally around him as if he’s the victim.

But the support for Polanski doesn’t end there. French ministers have denounced the actions taken by Switzerland and the U.S. government. The French government, duly elected by the people — many of them parents with children — comes out in defence of one of the most heinous crimes of the day — child sexual abuse. Do not be mistaken: You cannot defend Polanski’s crime and his subsequent actions without simultaneously belittling child sexual abuse.

The media and other Polanski supporters reason that the acclaimed director should be released for several reasons: They cite that he’s been through so much as a holocaust survivor, and he suffered through the vicious death of his wife, Sharon Tate, by the Manson clan.

First, one can only imagine if holocaust survivors and their offspring everywhere are somewhat perturbed by the suggestion that surviving Nazi terror and violence is an excuse to commit a crime, especially the rape of a child. I’d hazard a guess that many are insulted by the very suggestion.

Similarly, the idea that the tragic death of his wife should explain away Polanski raping a 13-year-old girl leaves many of us wondering if we’re in the Twilight Zone. But, no, it’s just the media, very easily confused with the Rod Sterling series these days. An institution that has profoundly lost its purpose, as the late, great journalist Walter Cronkite acknowledged.

Here’s just a taste of what many in the news media, French government officials, and peers of Polanski are defending by the way, as indicated from released court documents published on Smoking Gun, http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html.:

• At the time Polanski was photographing the 13-year-old girl — topless — apparently for the French edition of Vogue.

• He gave her alcohol and Quaaludes, which are sedating, relax muscles, and increase sexual arousal.

• The young girl reported that Polanski performed oral sex, vaginal intercourse and sodomy on her. Throughout this horrific ordeal for the young teenage girl she continued to protest, but Polanski did not stop. At the time the age of consent was 14; Polanski was 43 years old.

The details of the case can be found at

According to reports, Polanski paid a settlement to the young girl (who has now forgiven him) and also spent 45 days in prison. When he thought he’d have to spend more time in jail he fled the country.

Polanski supporters want us to believe that because it’s been more than 30 years the case should be dropped. But, we all know that they wouldn’t be so quick to make such a suggestion if Polanski was Jo Schmo, a local “nobody” — particularly a local “‘ethnic minority’ nobody.”

However, it’s not just the continuing elitist ideas that pervade the news media that are sickening. It’s the seeming collusion in a crime that’s growing every year, child sexual abuse by grown men — in which child trafficking and the child pornography industry play major roles.

Interestingly, at the same time when the media was jumping to the defence of Polanski they gave sparse attention to the protests against child trafficking that were occurring at various places around the world.

And the hypocrisy goes even further. This is the same news media that on the one hand wants “to catch a predator,” while supporting the notion that a man who admits to raping a child shouldn’t have to answer for his crime — regardless of whether it took 30 years or more for law enforcers to get their hands on him.

Also, where are the organizations against child abuse in all this? Why have they been silent so far? If ever there was an opportunity to shake people awake about these atrocities being committed in every corner of the globe — this is it.

French Government Response a Dilemma for Many

Getting back to the French government, you have to wonder what the law enforcement officers investigating child sexual abuse and child trafficking crimes are supposed to think when their French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand issued this statement:

“To see [Polanski] like that, thrown to the lions because of ancient history, really doesn’t make any sense….In the same way that there is a generous America that we like, there is also a scary America that has just shown its face.”

How do the French parents of children who have been sexually abused feel? What do the children feel? Is that government committed to battling the increasing problem of child trafficking and child pornography, or will they ignore it if it’s socially and economically expedient to do so? If you’re a tourist, should you leave your underage children at home?

More importantly, why am I asking these questions? Why are so few of the news media in North America rallying against Polanski? Is it any wonder that these organizations are becoming increasingly irrelevant in a world where gatekeepers no longer rule access to information?

It’s not surprising that the news media becomes less valued every day in a world where many people still consider values to be important, yet they continue to treat the viewing public as if their values aren’t?

Cronkite had it right. Journalistic quality and responsibility has fallen by the wayside. Instead of treating the Polanski arrest as a crime story while referencing his creative accomplishments, they treat it as a dumbed-down entertainment story while giving the spotlight to those who criticize Polanski’s arrest. Many have yet to mention the details of the crime, preferring instead to harp on about Polanski’s illustrious career.

But, there’s another insight Cronkite makes that helps us to understand the media’s apparent softness on child sexual abuse in this case, but not Michael Jackson’s: Mergers. As these continue to occur, diversity of views diminish, which means you will be increasingly exposed to a homogeneity of story angles on the TV news and their websites.

Media Coverage Could Get Worse

If you’re not disgusted by the coverage yet, hang on to your seat because it could get worse. Some bloggers are already trying to blame the victim. “Shocking,” you say — after all it’s such a novel action to blame the victim in a rape case. But, why is this important?

Because the traditional media are increasingly relying on blogs and Internet news sites to create their own news and agenda. So, don’t be surprised if you hear some moron low on the morality scale saying that the child victim “looked older for her age.” Or, that the mother forced the child on to Polanski.

A 13-year-old child being blamed for her own rape. What next? Polanski should be given a Nobel prize?

Somewhere, Michael Jackson is rol
ling over in his grave.

Learn More About Child Sexual Abuse

If you want to find out more about preventing child sexual abuse, visit sites such as Dark To Light, Little Warriors, or:

• Stop It Now http://www.stopitnow.com/

• International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, http://www.ispcan.org/about/index.html