| ‘Sophie Scholl’ is heart-stopping journey of a Righteous Gentile
Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were arrested on February 18, 1943 for distributing anti-Hitler leaflets at a Munich university. Their stay in Gestapo custody lasted just four days.The Scholls belonged to the White Rose, a student resistance group committed to raising public awareness ofand igniting opposition tothe Fuhrer's catastrophic military strategy and systemized killing of innocent civilians. Several members, Hans included, had witnessed the mass murder of women and children when they were stationed on the Eastern Front."They knew [about] it and they wanted to know," asserts German film director Marc Rothemund, "and that's the difference between the majority of all other Germans [who] profited from the system and didn't want to know where the money came from, and what's behind the politics."Rothemund's tense, mesmerizing and infinitely valuable "Sophie SchollThe Final Days" draws heavily on recently discovered transcripts of the remarkably poised 21-year-old's interrogation and trial.
Police Without Frontiers
The Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) ‘Policías Sin Fronteras' performed their first act in the Valencian Community last Tuesday at the City of Elche Congress Centre. The national president of the organisation, Silvestre Domínguez, was there to announce that the province is the launch point for their activities in Valencia and that their first headquarters will be in Alicante. He declared that there are already over 100 officers from the province that are interested in participating. The principal activities of the NGO are, “humanitarian tasks, collaboration with and assessment of other groups; for example the case of immigrants where important work is being carried out," assured Domínguez. They are an international non-profit organisation open to police, firemen, private security firms and the like that work in a variety of capacities.
Highlands goes global
Highlands Hospital in Connellsville is joining a Pittsburgh-based organization to send supplies to the neediest hospitals in some of the world's poorest countries. Dr. David Lemonick, emergency room director for Highlands Hospital, first heard about Global Links after his wife started volunteering for the organization two years ago. It also made him realize the unnecessary waste occurring in his own hospital. "It's disgraceful, the stuff that goes in the Dumpster," Lemonick said about the medical equipment tossed out because "even air touching the piece of equipment would have it considered to be contaminated." "It's only disposable if it's thrown away; it can be sanitized" is the principal behind the organization, Global Links, which began 18 years ago. The group has recognized that, each year, operating rooms in America throw away about 2,000 tons of medical equipment and supplies, much of it unused.
Thutha Ma-bucket!
“The smell my brother, the smell. My relatives from Jo'burg can't visit me anymore because they dread staying in shit," says a distraught Linda Dlamini (40).Dlamini lives in a leaky one-roomed shack in Ezenzeleni township, on the outskirts of Warden in the Free State. He has stayed in this shack for more than 10 years, waiting patiently for his RDP house application to be approved. Warden, one of the least developed towns in the Free State, is home to thousands of people who use bucket systems. Last June during an imbizo, President Thabo Mbeki promised a crowd of Ezenzeleni residents that all bucket-system toilets would be substituted with sewerage toilets by end of 2006, a year ahead of the ANC's national schedule for the system to be eradicated by 2007.Ten months after the presidential imbizo thousands of residents continue still use bucket toilets.
Social Services more accessible
The North Potomac Street entrance of the Washington County Department of Social Services is now accessible to individuals who utilize wheelchairs, walkers and other mobility aides. The installation of an exterior ramp to the building, automatic doors and an interior ramp will enable those who have mobility restrictions to access the front lobby. Citizens who require special accommodations should call 240-420-2100 so efforts can be made to meet their needs. The Washington County Department of Social Services, at 122 N. Potomac St. in Hagerstown, is a field office of the State of Maryland Department of Human Resources under the direction of Gov. Martin O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown. .
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