Sobering

Halloween decorations carry haunting message of forced labor

The letter came in a box of Halloween decorations purchased at Kmart, but for a year Julie Keith never knew. It gathered dust in her storage, a haunting plea for help hidden among artificial skeletons, tombstones and spider webs.

If legitimate, this letter is from a forced labour facility in China. It breaks the heart to think of someone being 're-educated' through such labour for disagreeing with the party line. And it is disturbing that K-Mart sold something that may have been produced by such a place.

"We're in no position to confirm the veracity or origin of this," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. "I think it is fair to say the conditions described in the letter certainly conform to what we know about conditions in re-education through labor camps."

China's re-education through labor is a system of punishment that allows for detention without trial. Various reports allege followers of the banned spiritual group, Falun Gong, are sent to the reform camps – claims supported in the letter – but the facts are difficult to confirm.

Masanjia labor camp is located in the industrialized capital of the Liaoning Province in northeast China. A Google search of the camp yields pages of grim results.

"If this thing is the real deal, that's somebody saying please help me, please know about me, please react," Richardson said. "That's our job."

I went to K-Mart for the first time in years the other day. All the clothing I looked at was made in countries like China, Vietnam, and Thailand. It makes me wonder what conditions those workers have as well.

Disheartening

Drug Shortage Linked To Cancer Relapse

A drug shortage appears to have caused a higher rate of relapse among children, teens and young adults with Hodgkin lymphoma, researchers form St. Jude Children's Research Hospital reported this week. The scientists say this is the first example of the tragic consequences of the current drug shortage. They emphasized that protecting patient access to lifesaving treatment must always be the number one priority in any health care system.

People's lives shouldn't be on the line because of drug shortages or for that matter the lack of orphan drugs, which are not considered as profitable as others.

As an aside, while in the seemingly interminable line today, the ladies before me were asked if they would give to St Jude Children's Research Hospital and declined somewhat rudely. When I got to the counter, the young lady, who was obviously stressed from the lack of cashiers and annoyed customers, did not ask me. I smiled and asked her about it, and she said it was $1. I told her to go ahead and put it on my order, and she smiled and thanked me. I tried very hard to not blame the three ladies trying to get the customers out, and was very courteous. Then I went and sat down in a wheelchair (we didn't see it or the electric carts until the end of our shopping) until Brenda got through her line.

When I was 9, I had a classmate with leukaemia who had been treated at St Jude's. Sadly, she died, the first time it really hit me that kids did that, and I've never forgotten her, even though I met her at church literally three days before she passed away. I remember her last name was Probst. Her first name may have been Linda; she had a sister I got to know a little later, and I may be getting the first names mixed up. That would have been about 1976-1977. But since that time, there have been amazing strides in childhood cancer, especially leukaemia, in no small part to the work at St Jude's. They're a very worthy cause, and certainly worth $1 tacked onto your total. If you're in K-Mart in the near future, check and see if they're still doing it.