“CATEGORY: Macleans.ca - Macleans” plus 3 more

CATEGORY: Macleans.ca - Macleans
Victims Of Top Secret West Loch Disaster Finally ... - msnbc.com
Detroit girl dies waving from school bus - CBC Olympics
11-year-old Detroit girl dies after sticking her head out of a school bus window, hitting tree - MLive.com

Posted: 22 May 2010 02:30 PM PDT

Most of the audience at Baghdad's Rasheed Hotel was Iraqi, though a few American soldiers were in the crowd.

"It was just amazing," said the slim, energetic teenager with long, wavy brown hair. "We connected well with this orchestra. I like the spontaneity of it. Honestly we had a ball up there," he told The Associated Press afterward.

Llewellyn arrived in the Iraqi capital Friday for the first time with his mother and father and admitted he was a little scared.

"I've never seen anything like this before," he told the AP in an interview before the concert, describing his heavily guarded trip past blast walls, concertina wire and checkpoints on the way from the airport to the hotel in the heavily protected Green Zone.

"I've never had a bulletproof vest on before and a helmet and all this protection," he said. "Honestly, before I got here, I was a little scared. But as soon as I arrived, I felt safe in a way."

Thoughtful and articulate, Llewellyn said he has been following the news and knows he is in a war zone. But he said he hoped he would "break ground" with his performance.

"I don't want to be shallow. I know there are strong feelings out there," he said of the Iraqis. "Several mistakes from my country have been made in terms of invasion and occupation. But me being here today is one way to show the U.S. has a lot of wonderful things to offer."

His father, Llewellyn Werner and his California-based private investment firm have been working in Baghdad alongside the U.S. Department of Defence for three years. The father met the conductor of the Iraqi orchestra and proposed that his son come over to play with them.

"My son leaped at the opportunity enthusiastically," he said. "He came here with absolute fearlessness because he believes the music brings down barriers."

Karim Wasfi, the chief conductor and director of the orchestra, praised his young guest. "He is very talented. He is a genius, actually," Wasfi said.

As for his orchestra, Wasfi joked about the difficulties of getting 90 musicians and their instruments through multiple checkpoints in the dangerous city.

"I am amazed how easy it is for bombs to move around Baghdad and how difficult it is to transport musical instruments," he quipped.

The national orchestra collapsed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq when many musicians fled to neighbouring countries. But Wasfi reconstructed it in 2005 with 50 musicians and it has now grown to 90.

He said he wanted to keep Iraqi musicians from fleeing sectarian bloodshed during the war.

"I did not want to see them play in bars and at weddings in neighbouring countries," Wasfi said. "I was looking for ways to make them stay."

"Even at the height of the sectarian violence, I convinced members of the orchestra to play and practice," Wasfi said. "We'll perform no matter what happens so people have a sense of normalcy."

They perform twice monthly in Baghdad and do concerts around Iraq, but Wasfi said the orchestra has never had an American guest performer.

Cultural life in Iraq largely died down during the violence and reviving it was not the government's priority. But that is slowly changing.

The government has allocated $120,000 for the orchestra's operational budget and approved the building of an opera house in Baghdad. The national theatre is being renovated.

"Iraq is recovering and so is the cultural scene," said Salem al-Moussawi, a 52-year-old businessman who attended Saturday's concert with a friend. "I applaud the courage of the young American artist to come here and play for us."

Llewellyn has travelled around the world to perform, his parents said. Last year, he played a private concern in Rwanda for the president's family.

He was fascinated with music from a very young age and began learning piano at 2. He composed his first piece at 5, and began college studies at the same age, his parents said.

By the age of 6, Llewellyn was a full-time college student, taking advanced music theory courses.

He has a college degree in music and is about to complete another. He is finishing up his third year at Juilliard.

His mother, Martha Sanchez Werner, said her son did not hesitate, and neither did she, when the chance to play in Baghdad came up.

"I have and I believe my son has a very strong sense of social commitment," she said.

"Music is a way to connect," her son added. "I'd like to bring Americans and Iraqis closer together. I'm excited to make a difference."

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Victims Of Top Secret West Loch Disaster Finally ... - msnbc.com

Posted: 22 May 2010 05:12 AM PDT

HONOLULU - KITV.com

The military kept the West Loch disaster of 1944 top secret for 16 years. For the first time Friday, the military publicly honored the scores of servicemen who were killed in the explosions.

Historians said servicemen were loading ships with munitions and supplies, preparing for an invasion on the Japanese-controlled Mariana Islands. Then the unthinkable happened.

"An explosion ripped through one of the ships. The explosions obliterated the vessel and encapsulated the remains in black smoke and set off a chain reaction of explosions," said Lt. Colonel (select) Christopher Shaw, USMC.

Shaw was the keynote speaker at the first public tribute to the servicemen who died May 21, 1944, at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

The military never determined the exact cause of the explosions, although it speculates a mortar round may be to blame.

The military never released a death toll and many of the dead were never identified. "Due to the secrecy of the operation, the force of the explosion and the intensity of the fires, the full account and identification of those lost at West Loch was never accomplished," said Shaw.

The African American Diversity Cultural Center of Hawaii organized the tribute, in part because many servicemen were from a predominantly African American unit assigned to loading the ships.

"They were so young. And it happened and we don't know anything about it. It was forgotten history," said historian Deloris Guttman.

Although the Department of Defense lifted the veil of secrecy in 1960, the public still knows very little about the tragedy today. "But now it is our time to reveal this history to the world," Guttman said.

Guttman is helping with the search for the families of six servicemen who were identified, but whose families were never found.

There are 30 unidentified servicemen buried at Punchbowl. "Just thinking of their (families) never knowing what happened to their loved ones. We feel that we need this. We owe this to their memory and to their families," Guttman said.

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Detroit girl dies waving from school bus - CBC Olympics

Posted: 21 May 2010 11:25 AM PDT

Tiffany DiCicco-Ross, 11, died when her head was crushed against this tree outside her school in Detroit. (CBC) An 11-year-old Detroit girl is dead after her head hit a tree when she leaned out a school bus window to wave to a friend.

Police are investigating the accident that killed Tiffany DiCicco-Ross, who was in Grade 5 at Phoenix Multi-Cultural Academy in Detroit's southwest side.

Tiffany was heading home Thursday afternoon when she boarded the school bus, took her seat and then leaned out of the window.

As the bus pulled away, Tiffany's head struck a tree.

She later died at Children's Hospital of Michigan.

Siblings also on the bus

The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press say DHT Transportation operated the bus.

There were about 10 students on the school bus, including Tiffany DiCicco-Ross's brother and sister. (CBC)Students said there were about 10 children on the bus who witnessed the accident, including Tiffany's younger sister and brother.

The Free Press reported that the driver has been removed from his route pending completion of the police investigation.

Crisis teams were expected at the school Friday to meet with students and staff.

With files from The Associated Press

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11-year-old Detroit girl dies after sticking her head out of a school bus window, hitting tree - MLive.com

Posted: 21 May 2010 01:31 AM PDT

By The Associated Press

May 20, 2010, 5:55PM

Update: With Fox 2 video, and name of the girl, Tiffany Dicicco.

An 11-year-old girl riding on a Detroit school bus has died after a tree branch struck her as she leaned out the window.

WDIV-TV reports that the girl was a fifth grader at the nearby Phoenix Multi-Cultural Academy on the city's southwest side.

Detroit Public Schools' emergency financial manager Robert Bobb told reporters it was a sad day for the district.

As police investigated, the bus remained parked at the scene and a bloody hand print was visible on the rear door.

Police say the girl stuck her head out the window as it was pulling away and was struck by the branch. The accident happened Thursday afternoon the girl died later at Children's Hospital of Michigan.

Students at the school say the girl was on the bus with her 9-year-old sister.

The girl's death comes on the heels of several other deaths of youth in the city, including the shooting of a 17-year-old outside a party store, the police shooting of a 7-year-old in her home, the drive-by shooting of a 15-year-old, a 2-year-old killed in a car wreck and the rollover accident death of two 15-year-olds.

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Information from: WDIV-TV, http://www.clickondetroit.com

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Cultural

Saturday, May 22, 2010