The UN is planning for 600,000 refugees in the coming war with Iraq.

Ruud Lubbers, the UN high commissioner for refugees is in Athens on a two-day visit.

“It can be more, it can be less … But let me stress that international solidarity is not only needed for that possible crisis, but also to find solutions for the refugees we (already) have,” he said.

“We should be a little bit generous in Europe when real refugees are coming here, to accept them.”

Of the 10 million people in Greece, 1 million are undocumented immigrants.
Many fleeing Afganistan, Africa and Iraq want to come to Canada.

Afganistan
Reports are mixed after coalition forces led by the US continue an offensive started when a US patrol was ambushed in the southern part of the country earlier this week.

Colonel King said coalition warplanes dropped four 500 pound (230kg) bombs and fired several hundred rounds of ammunitions at the caves on Thursday.

He estimated there were between 30 and 100 rebels hiding in the area.

“But that might not necessarily be all of them. There may be others in the area because it is a relatively long valley,” he said.

The operation would probably last several more days, Colonel King said.

30 civilians in three villages in the Baghran area were killed, according to residents.

Aid to other Countries
This report is disturbing.

Put these countries in order of priority from the post-conflict country which was given most per head by the international community down to the least - Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, Rwanda, Afghanistan.

And that is actually the order.

Afghanistan is at the bottom of the pile, receiving just $75 per person per year, against an average of $250 for the other four.

The task of restoring Afghanistan is a huge one, and peace is fragile.

Sudan
Researchers have discovered killing fields in the Southern Sudan where as many as 3 thousand bodies have been left by Muslim rebels.

Since 1983, 2 million Sudanese men women and children have died from war and related famine. 5 million Sudanese have become refugees.

Think about that while you are chowing down on those Valentines Day goodies.

Those chocolates….came from cocoa beans harvested in the Ivory Coast and surrounding countries.

300,000 children work in dangerous conditions on cocoa farms in the four countries surveyed — Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon — the vast majority of them in the Ivory Coast. The report, released in July 2002, says that of the 300,000 children, more than half (64 percent) are under 14 years old. Twelve thousand had no connection to the family on whose cocoa farm they toiled, but only 5,100 of them were paid for their work. Almost 6,000 were described as “unpaid workers with no family ties,” provoking advocates to refer to them as “slaves.”

Americans will spend 1.1 billion dollars on chocolate today.

Do something today
Kathy Shaidle of relapsed catholic sent me this link. She works for the United Way in Canada.
This isn’t going to cost you a cent. Go to the heart. Click on it.
United Way Sponsors will donate 50 cents to United Way agencies helping abused women and children in Canada.
Go on, I’ll wait.
30 seconds.
This opportunity to commit an act of kindness expires at midnite EST today.