Children: The Love of a Parent and the Death of a Child

In Yakima Washington,  an 18-month-old boy died when a dresser apparently fell on top of him, according to police.  I cannot imagine the feelings the parents have.  It is beyond imaginable, the pain they feel and endure.  It is an unimaginable pain for the rest of us, and one that never abates, but is embraced.  A parent has a child and would give their life for their child, and to have a dresser or dog, or pool, or anything take the life of that child ... we weep for the child and for the family.  Yet, there are places in the world where the people who give birth to you, raise you, teach you, protect you ... will kill you if they feel slighted.

There is no protection and the people we trust most - our mother and father, end up being the killers.  What do we say about any civilization or culture that tolerates, perpetuates, permits ... this to continue!

In Pakistan, five girls were killed for having fun. Then the story took an even darker twist. 

By Pamela Constable 

Washington Post

December 17 at 7:00 AM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — It was just a few seconds, a video clip of several young women laughing and clapping to music, dressed for a party or a wedding in orange headscarves and robes with floral patterns. Then a few more seconds of a young man dancing alone, apparently in the same room.

The cellphone video was made six years ago, in a village deep in Kohistan, a rugged area of northwest Pakistan. It was the last time the young women, known only as Bazeegha, Sareen Jan, Begum Jan, Amina and Shaheen, have ever been definitively seen alive.

What happened to them remains a mystery. Their fates have been shrouded by cultural taboos, official inertia, implacable resistance from elders and religious leaders suspected of ordering their deaths, and elaborate subterfuges by the families who reportedly carried out those orders.

Even in Pakistan, where hundreds of  “honor killings” are reported every year, this case was extreme. According to court filings and interviews with people who investigated it, the families confined the girls for weeks, threw boiling water and hot coals on them, then killed them and buried them somewhere in the Kohistan hills.

Later, when investigators appeared, relatives and community leaders insisted that the girls were still alive and produced a second set of similar-looking girls to prove it. They even disfigured one girl’s thumbprints so she couldn’t be checked against the identity of the victim she was supposed to impersonate.

The story illustrates many of the reasons Pakistani officials have failed to curb the problem of honor killings. These include the cruel sway of traditional tribal councils, known as jirgas, over uneducated villagers; the lengths to which such leaders may go to defy state authority; and the casual worthlessness they assign to the rights, lives and even identities of young women. 

Today, the truth is finally beginning to emerge, mostly through the efforts of a few individuals including Afzal Kohistani, a young man whose brothers were killed as a result of the incident. He spent years seeking help from local and provincial officials, then petitioned the Supreme Court. In 2012, his case was dismissed, but last month the high court reopened it and ordered a new investigation that has produced a chilling report.

“This has destroyed my family. The girls are dead, my brothers have been killed and nothing has been done to bring justice or protect us,” said Kohistani, 26, who has received death threats. “I know I will probably be killed, too, but it doesn’t matter,” he said in an interview last week. “What happened is wrong, and it has to change.”

Renewed judicial interest in these long-ago events coincided with another encouraging development: the passage of a law in Parliament that strengthened judicial powers in honor-killing cases. Often, even when such crimes manage to reach the courts, there is no punishment because the law allows victims’ families to “forgive” the perpetrators — who are often their own relatives.  

The new law, passed in October, gives judges more ammunition to impose life sentences for honor killings in extreme circumstances, allowing them to overrule personal deals by making the murder a crime against the state. But supporters fear that cultural and political resistance will continue to prevent justice being done.

“We don’t know yet whether the law will make much difference. Punishment is still not mandatory, and forgiveness can still negate justice,” said Benazir ­Jatoi, a lawyer who works on women’s rights. “Until there is more political will, I don’t think the lives of ordinary women threatened with honor violence will change.”

The Kohistan case unfolded in a conservative rural region where social mingling between genders is taboo. The girls’ participation in a coed singing party was risky enough, but someone posted the video on the Internet, where it spread rapidly, bringing shame on their community before the vast virtual world. 

The mingling of young men and women at a village singing party, along with the spread of this video, was considered a dishonor to their community in a conservative rural region of Pakistan. (TWP)

The head of the local jirga, a Muslim cleric, allegedly issued a religious decree ordering the five girls to be killed for dishonoring their tribe, along with the boy seen dancing and every member of his family. There was no resistance from the community. After the girls were disposed of, several brothers of the boy were also caught and killed. The rest of the family, including Kohistani, fled the area.

There things stood for more than a year. No crimes were reported, and no one came to investigate. Kohistani, a college graduate from one of the area’s wealthier families, said he repeatedly approached local and provincial officials, reporting the killings and seeking protection, but was chided for opposing the jirga’s verdict. 

“No one in my district or my province has ever spoken against honor killing. They tell me I have defamed my culture, my religion, my tribe,” Kohistani said this month. “Everybody knows what happened, but no one is ready to come forward. This is an illegal, unconstitutional and un-Islamic tradition, but people don’t even consider it a crime.”

With assistance from a lawyer in Islamabad, Kohistani appealed directly to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, a liberal activist, personally took up the case in 2012 and ordered two fact-finding missions sent to the remote area by helicopter.  

When the visitors demanded to see the girls, their families at first refused but eventually presented three girls and said they were the ones in the video. The three delegates had no chance to speak to the girls in private, but they compared their faces with images from the video. Two were convinced of the likenesses; the third, Farzana Bari, said she had doubts. 

“I was upset and confused. We had no translators who knew their dialect, and everyone there insisted these were the same girls,” recounted Bari, an academic in Islamabad. “When we got back the second time, I filed a dissenting report, but the judge closed the case. I still feel terrible.”

After that, life in the village apparently returned to normal for several years. One journalist sent photos of both groups of girls to analysts in England, who found only a 14 percent chance they were the same individuals. That evidence was taken to a provincial court, but it declined to take action. Kohistani, in the interview, named each of the original girls and their replacements, who he said were similar-looking sisters, cousins and sisters-in-law. 

Finally, last month, Kohistani’s crusade got an unexpected break when the Supreme Court, under a new chief justice, agreed to accept his petition. Once more, a fact-finding mission was sent to the village. This time, it included a district judge and two police officers, armed with government ID records with the heights and thumbprints of the missing girls. 

What they encountered was hair-raising. 

In his report afterward, Kohistan Judge Shoaib Khan said the village elders were “unanimous” in insisting that the girls were alive. But two of the girls they produced were much younger than the victims, according to their official birth dates. A third could not be identified because both thumbs had been burned; her parents insisted that it was from a cooking accident. He concluded that at least two girls did not match the ones in the video and that the others were probably also impostors.

“All this leads to the suspicious conclusion that something is wrong at bottom,” Khan wrote. The case, he advised, “needs exhaustive inquiry.”

On a recent day, Kohistani, wearing a conservative suit and carrying a copy of the judge’s report, walked up to the Supreme Court. He smiled slightly as he shook hands with his attorney, and they went inside to wait for the next hearing. 

Harm a Child = Die (in prison)

There are very few individuals living, who deserve to die.  Anyone who harms a child deserves to die.  Among the worst a code exists.  This being will not live long among them.



Lantana man gets life in prison for impregnating girl, 9




By WAYNE K. ROUSTAN
Sun Sentinel
Thursday, March 24, 2011



Fede Datilus, 33, was convicted and sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison plus 5 years for impregnating a 9-year-old girl, according to Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe.

The trial evidence showed that Datilus sexually battered and impregnated the victim when the two were living in Lantana. The victim carried the baby to term and delivered the infant when she was 10, prosecutors said.

The victim's father learned of her pregnancy when he took her to a clinic on March 18, 2009. She reluctantly identified Datilus as the man who impregnated her during questioning by investigators and counselors through a Creole translator, according to court records.

She had been in the U.S. for only 2 1/2 years and told a counselor she feared being returned to Haiti if she revealed what happened to her, according to the case file.

Datilus was found guilty of sexual battery on a person less than 12 years of age, punishable by up to life in prison. He also was found guilty of impregnation of a child which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years behind bars, according to McAuliffe.























evil

Pakistan: Our Friend and Ally, Part 2

Rape as Punishment


Washington Post
By Mona Eltahawy
Editorial
Pg B07
July 28, 2002



A Pakistan tribal council's horrific "punishment" by gang rape of a young woman last month was just the tip of a very ugly iceberg called honor.

In the name of that most elusive of concepts, women are shot, beheaded, burned, stoned and beaten. And, in the case of Saleema, raped.

Four men raped Saleema (not her real name) for more than an hour to ruin her honor and avenge that of another woman. (Saleema's 12-year-old brother had been in the company of a woman from a more powerful tribal family, apparently not by his own choice, and been summarily accused of having an affair with her). Hence the tribal council's "verdict" on his sister.

The Pakistan Human Rights Commission estimates that at least eight women, five of them minors, are reported raped every day; more than two-thirds of them are gang-raped.

In Pakistan rape is often used for revenge or punishment against an enemy. A woman is "defiled" to taint her family. What irony that a woman as powerless as Saleema carries the whole family's honor on her shoulders -- a heavy burden indeed.

It is one that is carried by women in countless Muslim countries, yet there is not a single word in the Koran that calls for death in the name of honor. Virginity before marriage and chastity afterward are the bulwarks of honor in societies where such killings prevail.

The mere suspicion that she has jeopardized that honor -- talking to a neighbor, being seen with a strange man, or even asking for a divorce -- can earn a woman a death sentence.

Some conservative Muslim clerics shamefully support honor killings. They accuse activists who fight to eradicate such crimes, often at risk of their own lives, of seeking to impose Western values upon their traditional societies.

What is so Western about wanting to end a barbaric cultural practice that leaves a woman damned if she does and damned if she doesn't?

In Yemen a few years ago, a man shot his daughter dead on her wedding night after her husband claimed she was not a virgin. At the mother's insistence, a doctor examined the young woman's body and found her to have been a virgin. Her husband was impotent and lied to protect his honor because he knew he would not be able to display a bloodied rag as proof of his bride's virginity.

According to UNICEF and Amnesty International statistics, more than 1,000 women were victims of honor killings in Pakistan in 1999. There were up to 400 honor killings in Yemen in 1997. The United Nations says such killings have also occurred in Britain, Norway, Italy, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela. At least one case has been reported in the United States.

One particularly gruesome killing had us dumbfounded as word of what happened came into the Cairo newsroom where I was working at the time. A young woman named Nora Ahmed had eloped. Her father had not approved of her choice of husband. When she returned to Cairo to try to change her father's mind he asked to speak with her privately. He then cut off her head and paraded it down a Cairo street, shouting "Now my family has regained its honor."

In 1997 some 52 honor killings were reported in Egypt. The actual figures in all of the countries I've cited are probably much higher because most honor killings go unreported.

What to do if clerics remain perversely silent about an ancient practice that is rooted in culture rather than religion? What to do when men who kill female relatives in the name of honor too often escape punishment or receive atrociously short sentences?

We must acknowledge the brave few who speak out. A village imam courageously condemned Saleema's rape in a Friday sermon, drawing journalists' attention.

A particularly useful weapon is embarrassment. In Saleema's case, local and international outcries led Pakistani authorities to arrest and charge all four suspected rapists. Several other people -- including a police officer -- are also in custody for allegedly failing to prevent the attack or hiding the suspects.

Two of the most courageous activists fighting honor killings are sisters Asma Jehangir and Hina Jilani. They are both lawyers and human rights activists who tirelessly champion women's rights despite death threats and a largely unsympathetic government.

Let's embarrass that government into prosecuting more of those who kill in the name of honor. Let's shame it into doing the honorable thing.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
pakistan

Canadian Women: Clueless and Amoral

Feminists anti-US speech causes uproar



Peter O'Neil

Vancouver Sun
Tuesday, October 02, 2001
Canadian Press



OTTAWA -- A B.C. feminist told a cheering audience here that the United States government is more threatening to the world than international terrorism.

Sunera Thobani received several standing ovations from about 500 delegates attending the Women's Resistance Conference on Monday.

[Standing ovation - the 500 women attending this hate speech, should be given 1st class tickets to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, Algeria, Jordan, Syria, Iraq ... one way tickets.]


Her comments caused a political uproar, with opposition MPs condemning Secretary of State Hedy Fry for sitting silently as Thobani spoke. MPs called on the government to fire Fry, charging that she should have
immediately condemned Thobani's statements.

"Today in the world the United States is the most dangerous and the most powerful global force unleashing horrific levels of violence," said Thobani, a women's studies professor at the University of British Columbia and former head of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.

"From Chile to El Salvador to Nicaragua to Iraq, the path of U.S. foreign policy is soaked in blood."

Thobani said she empathizes with the human suffering following the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania that left more than 6,000 people dead or missing. "But do we feel any pain for the victims of U.S. aggression?"

In an interview with The Vancouver Sun Monday night, Thobani said her comments were directed at George Bush, not the American people.

"I made a 40-minute speech. I provided a contest for those comments. I was basically advocating an end to war," she said.

"If America wants to lead this war, then I'm against American foreign policy."

In her speech, Thobani also ridiculed any suggestion that the U.S. would be advancing women's rights by ousting Afghanistan's Taliban regime, which has forbidden women from working, attending school, or showing their faces in public.   "It's really interesting to hear this talk about saving Afghani women," she said. "Those of us who have been colonized know what this saving means."

And what colonizing has the US done you quaga.

The Tanzanian-born Thobani became the first non-white president of the NAC in 1993, a position she held until 1996.

As the outspoken leader of the NAC, Thobani created much controversy when she said in 1995 that only white, middle-class women had benefited from the feminist movement.

Monday she said women will never be emancipated until the U.S. and the West stop dominating the world.

"The West for 500 years has believed that it could slaughter people into submission and it has not been able to do so. And it will not be able to so this time, either."

[The women in Canada need a new leader and a new idea because this woman is a moral idiot.]



After Thobani's speech, opposition MPs said Fry, the Chretien government's secretary of state for multiculturalism and the status of women, who also delivered a speech at the conference and was on the podium while Thobani spoke, should have sent an immediate message that the speech went too far.

"She should apologize to Canadians and our American cousins for not condemning these comments and walking out on this insulting and inflammatory speech," said Chuck Strahl, deputy leader of the Tory-Democratic Representative coalition.

New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDonough, whose party was once a close ally of NAC's, said Fry should have offered "an unequivocal rejection of the kind of cheap sloganeering, of the excessive rhetoric.

"This is a time to be building tolerance, to be building bridges, not to create greater divisions," McDonough said. Fry defended freedom of speech within Canada, but said she didn't applaud and immediately left the event after Thobani spoke.

"I condemn that speech," the Vancouver Centre MP told jeering opposition MPs.  "I thought the speech that was made by the expert of NAC to be incitement."

Opposition MPs said Fry, who wrongly portrayed Prince George as a haven for cross-burning racists earlier this year, has made one too many blunders and must be fired.

"The history of this minister is not a very happy one and I think it is time for a change," said Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day.

McDonough said Fry doesn't have the credibility to travel across Canada and speak publicly against intolerance.


























canada

German Appetite

Murder is an odd thing.  If you kill someone ... rather, if you take the life of a person who willingly offers their life to you, is it still murder, given the legal definition being the unlawful killing of a human being with malice either express or implied.  Manslaughter is unjustified and inexcusable and intentional WITHOUT deliberation. 

What if you picked up a paper, and found someone in the Wanted Ads who had an ad asking to be killed.

It is certainly premeditated - you read the paper, you called the number, you met the person, and (assuming) agreed to accept their offer - premeditated.  That rules out manslaughter - most especially given that no defense is involved.  Your intended does not intend to defend nor attack.

If not murder and manslaughter, how far down the list of crimes do we go to find something we can convict the guy of?

What if Bob picks up the paper and looks through the ads under cannibals and finds an ad he may be interested in.  Tom put an ad in the paper in the cannibal section - Tom wanted to be eaten, and he was looking for anyone interested in following through and eating him.

Is it murder if Bob meets Tom, Tom and Bob get along and both agree to the deal, Tom informs Bob he must hit him (Tom) with a hammer on the side of the head and quickly follow through to ensure that the meat is tasty and not ... is it manslaughter?  Maybe we get the guy on cannibalism.  For how long?  And then he is out again looking for another meal.  What if he claims in defense that it is his dietary choice to eat people and if they want him to eat them, whats the problem.

Well, in Germany they have to deal with this (or rather, had to 7 or so years ago).  Who knows, he may be out, looking for another meal!!




17 July, 2003
BBC




German 'cannibal' charged with murder





The crime was allegedly carried out with the victim's consent

A German man who confessed to killing and eating a man he met through a website for cannibals has been charged with murder, prosecutors have said.

The 41-year-old suspect, identified as Armin M, is alleged to have killed the 43-year-old victim in March 2001 in the town of Rotenburg in central Germany, after meeting him through the site.

He then carved up and froze portions of the man's flesh, later eating some of it, prosecutors allege.

The crime was apparently carried out with the victim's full consent, however state prosecutor Hans-Manfred Jung told French news agency AFP that the victim's supposed "death wish" did not change the fact that the killer had wanted to commit murder.

The suspect's arrest in December last year caused a sensation in Germany, as the country's tabloids competed to report the most grisly details of the case.

'Sexual enjoyment'

The suspect and victim met in early 2001, after Armin M is said to have posted a personal ad on several websites and in chatrooms asking for "young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 to slaughter", the German daily newspaper Bild reported at the time of his arrest.

The victim was a 43-year-old Berlin computer technician who had sold his car, written a will and taken the day off work to sort out what he called a "personal" matter.

He then went to Armin M's home, where the pair reportedly agreed to cut off his penis.

The victim was then allegedly stabbed to death - still apparently with his approval - and cut into pieces.

The whole incident was filmed on videotape, and prosecutors say that the whole crime was committed for the purpose of sexual enjoyment.

Authorities were tipped off by internet surfers who found the requests on various sites.

Mr Jung said there was no evidence that Armin M had been involved in further cases, however several people with whom he had been in contact on the internet are still under investigation.

A date for the trial has yet to be set.


















germany

Genocide is Rare - we should abolish the laws against it

Of course all cultures, all governments, all societies are equal, who are we to judge.  War is bad, sex is good, even with your mother or brother.




Switzerland considers repealing incest laws


Switzerland is considering repealing its incest laws because they are "obsolete".

Allan Hall in Berlin
13 Dec 2010

The upper house of the Swiss parliament has drafted a law decriminalising sex between consenting family members which must now be considered by the government.

There have been only three cases of incest since 1984.

Switzerland, which recently held a referendum passing a draconian law that will boot out foreigners convicted of committing the smallest of crimes, insists that children within families will continue to be protected by laws governing abuse and paedophilia.

Daniel Vischer, a Green party MP, said he saw nothing wrong with two consenting adults having sex, even if they were related.

"Incest is a difficult moral question, but not one that is answered by penal law," he said.

Barbara Schmid Federer of The Christian People's Party of Switzerland said the proposal from the upper house was "completely repugnant."

"I for one could not countenance painting out such a law from the statute books."

The Protestant People's Party is also opposed to decriminalising the offence which at present carries a maximum three year jail term.

A spokesman for the party said: "Murder is also quite rare in Switzerland but no one suggests that we remove that as an office from the statutes."

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
war

Mexico: The Truth is Out There, dear Emperor

Mr. Calderon - this issue is very much akin to the emperor and his new clothes.  Everyone says one thing, but the truth is very different from the common conversation.

To be very clear Mr. Calderon - Mexico has the moral authority of a pedophile speaking out against discriminatory practices against pedophiles.  You have NONE, ZERO ... among all human beings who reason and use logic when they think.

More human beings have been murdered trying to cross the border to the US, by Mexican gangs, police, and soldiers than by the entirety of the US border patrol and all others engaged in trying to stem this illegal tide.

You can't protect your own citizens let alone those who cross illegally into your country for jobs.

You have no moral authority and in fact, control less than 2/3 of your 'country' while the other (more than) 1/3 is controlled by cartels.

This is the truth Mr. Calderon, not the fantasy you wake up each morning trying to blow life into, in order that you not fall into despair over how miserable your government really is. 



Mexico Lashes Out at U.S. Immigration Practices



September 10, 2010
FoxNews.com


MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Felipe Calderon said in an interview Friday that last month’s massacre of 72 migrants doesn't undermine Mexico's moral authority to demand better treatment for its own migrants.

"Of course we have the moral authority, because Mexican officials are not shooting Central American youths at the border, but U.S. agents are shooting Mexican migrants," Calderon said in an interview with the Spanish-language Univision network.


"If we are talking about responsibility, at the root of this, in the case of immigration, is the lack of immigration legislation in the United States that would recognize this phenomenon," Calderon said.

The massacred migrants, most from Central America, were attempting to cross Mexico to reach the U.S. border when they were kidnapped by what is believed to be a group of gunmen from Mexico’s Zeta drug cartel, according to a man who survived the massacre.

In a joint meeting with Calderon, President Mauricio Funes of El Salvador said that the home nations of migrants bear some of the responsibility for immigration problems.


"In part, the greatest responsibility lies with our governments, the Salvadoran government, for not having generated the employment conditions, the welfare conditions, that doesn't leave our migrants any choice but to look for other opportunities in the United States and Canada."


Thirteen Salvadorans were among the dead identified so far in the massacre in late August.

Funes also said, however, that he doesn't blame Mexico's government for the massacre, and called for a joint effort to fight drug cartels.

"We have come to have a conversation with the president of Mexico, not to condemn him or criticize him," Funes said. "Rather the opposite, to show him our support and offer our help in this fight."

Funes said the two countries formed a high-level working group to develop joint strategies for combating the drug gangs.














mexico

Carter Apologizes: Too Little, Too Late

Carter apologizes?  Reading the statements provided in the article, it does not show a full appreciation for his words, rather for the stigmatizing that he did, not the aid and assistance he provided to hamas as he criticized and condemned Israel.  Not the aid he provided to the enemies of Israel every time he attacked Israel in word or print.  An apology?  He is simply skirting the subject.  Unfortunately for him, or rather fortunately for him, an apology is to be accepted by Jews, unless otherwise shown to be something else, or without meaning.  In my case, I am not a Jew, so I don't have to accept his attempts at recasting his image and correcting or adjusting for his actions.  He needs to be alot more forthcoming in what it is exactly he needs to apologize for - words, statements, phrases, ideas, concepts - be clear Mr. Carter, apologize for what you have done to harm the people of Israel and the prospects for peace, be very clear what it was you said and did, and then seek their forgiveness.  After which, please crawl back into your corner of the Carter Center and stay there until God calls you home.





Carter apologizes for 'stigmatizing Israel'




Former US president offers US Jewish community heartfelt apology for any contribution he may have had to Jewish nation's negative image


Yitzhak Benhorin
12.21.09
Israel News
YNet


WASHINGTON – Former US President Jimmy Carter on Monday asked for the Jewish community's forgiveness for any negative stigma he may have caused Israel over the years.

Carter, who is not a popular character in Israel, enraged the American Jewish community's in the past with various statements made in his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

In the book, Carter blamed Israel for impeding the Middle East peace process via settlement construction, further claiming such a policy will lead to apartheid.

The former president also accused Israel of interfering with US efforts to broker peace in the region.

"We must recognize Israel’s achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel.

"As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so," he said.

"Al Het" refers to the Yom Kippur prayer asking God forgiveness for sins committed.

Head of the Anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman welcomed Carter's apology, saying it marked the beginning of reconciliation.









Carter

Children and a Just Cause for the Death Penalty

Boy sold for sex.. aged nine months


By TOM WELLS

December 11, 2009
The Sun


A NINE-MONTH-OLD boy was among 5,000 kids abused by child sex rings in Britain last year, shock figures revealed yesterday.

The tot - thought to be one of the youngest ever child prostitution victims in the UK - was saved by social workers in Lambeth, South London.

A four-year-old girl was also helped by the same council team over fears she was being sold for sex.

Katherine Hill of The Children's Society said: "Research shows that as many as 5,000 children a year are sexually exploited in the UK - including being involved in prostitution.

"They are from a variety of backgrounds and it is important to note that there is not one 'type' of young person most likely to be involved."

The horrific cases were exposed after we carried out a Freedom of Information probe into the child vice trade.

Other victims were found in Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council, West London, where two girls aged 14 and 15 were rescued, alongside a 14-year-old boy.

In Swindon, Wilts, social workers helped five girls in the past two years, four aged 15 and one 16-year-old.

Rescued

In Telford, Shrops, a girl of 13 was found to be at risk of suspected involvement in child prostitution.

In each case the children were placed under "child protection plans" by experts to monitor them and prevent further abuse.

But the local authorities would not reveal whether all those rescued had been taken into care.

Experts warn the true scale of UK child prostitution is not known because many victims are mistakenly recorded as "routine" sex abuse cases.

Ms Hill added: "By law a child ten or over remains criminally liable for the commission of a prostitution offence, such as loitering or soliciting.

"A fear of being prosecuted is preventing children from coming forward to seek help."

********************************************

Change the law. If this story touches the surface, the real question is how bad is it.

Arrest the people who had custody of the child, arrest anyone involved.  Bring them all to trial, let a jury decide, and then execute anyone found guilty.

I would prefer you let them serve some time in prison ONLY if they are branded on their forehead with the words - Child Rapist.

THEN, I would be willing to allow them to serve their time, or rather, serve whatever time they may have.

We, as a society have so many issues so wrong - the depth of our problems are not in that people may be un employed (get up and look for a job), uninsured (get up and go to the emergency room if you are very sick) ... it is the fact we tolerate these predators among us.  Predators why prey upon the weakest most vulnerable, most innocent, and rob us of hope.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
children

Tanzania

Other cultures (of course, a few hundred people does not a culture make, nor is it an entire village plus a few hundred people a culture make ...)

 
 
 
 
I heard my albino daughter being hacked to death for her legs
 
By DAVID LOWE

13 Nov 2009
The Sun



WAKING with a start, Mary Mathias watched in horror as a stranger burst through the darkness and thrust a machete to her husband's throat.

Pleading for him to be left unharmed, the mum-of-seven's thoughts quickly turned to their three vulnerable albino daughters sleeping in the room next door.

The sickening thuds from the other side of the wall made her blood run cold.

In recent years a wave of albino killings has swept Tanzania, fuelled by witch doctors who make potions from the body parts of people with the condition.

After the gang had fled, Mary's worst fears were confirmed - she found her beloved daughter Eunice, 14, lying dead in a pool of blood with both legs hacked off.


Mary says: "I was woken by a noise in the middle of the night.

"Two men ran into our room and held a machete to my husband's throat.

"They told him they'd kill him if he looked at them and made me lie still without a sound.

"A terrible noise was coming from the children's room.

"Eventually I got up and walked next door. I saw my daughter's legs were gone.

"I realised she was dead and I couldn't stop crying."

In less than a year, 50 albinos across Tanzania have been murdered for their body parts, shattering the country's image as one of the most liberal and stable in Africa.

Convictions have been few and far between, but earlier this month campaigners celebrated four men being sentenced to death for the murder of 50-year-old albino, Lyaku Willy.

It was the first time sick body part traders had been brought to justice.


As authorities step up their fight against the racket, even family members have been discovered striking deals for body parts belonging to their own children.

Shockingly, cops investigating Eunice's death earlier this year believe it falls into this category.

Sobbing, Mary says: "My husband was arrested. He was charged with our daughter's murder and remains in custody to this day."

Unsurprisingly, Mary's other albino daughters are severely traumatised by their sister's killing, and live in fear that they'll be next.

Shida, 13, says: "People avoid us and tell us to keep away.

"They laugh and spit at us.

"I heard the sound of a machete chopping my sister.

"They said they'd kill me if I looked at them.

"The last thing I heard my sister say was 'God help me. I am dying'.
 
"I want to get away from here before we get ambushed by the albino killers.


"We just want normal lives like anyone else."

Albinos have inherited altered genes, which means they don't produce the usual amounts of the pigment, melanin.

In the UK, one in 17,000 people is born with the condition, while in Tanzania the figure is among the highest in the world at one in 1,400.

Although sufferers there have always faced discrimination, recent rumours of their magical properties have left them fighting for their lives.

Demand for albino body parts comes from various quarters including miners looking for help tracing gold and gems and fishermen who believe tying the milky white limbs to their nets will increase the catch.

Figures of £2,500 for an arm or leg are not uncommon.

Mary says: "My first albino child, Semeni, was born in 1991.

"People laughed at me and made fun of the baby.

"The villagers were afraid she was going to bring bad luck on them all, but a child is a gift from God.


"The reason Eunice is underground is nothing more than evil men seeking wealth.

"I hope Eunice's soul has gone to heaven.

"We have no protection and no help from the village.

"Every relative I have has deserted me because they disapprove of my albino children.

"When I walk with them people look down on us.

"It makes me angry - they are human beings, not dogs.

"My kids live in great fear.

"Every evening I prepare their food but they cannot eat.
 
"They say, 'The night has come. Tonight we are going to die.'"


Eunice's butchered body was laid to rest in a secret, unmarked grave.

The local council also took the precaution of encasing her coffin in concrete to deter ghoulish robbers.

As she stands over her daughter's burial place, Mary can't help but cry.

She says: "Eunice was a good child. It feels terrible to be standing at her grave side.

"I would like it to be lovely like the other pretty graves.

"It's sad to see her like that, encased in grey concrete."

The albino murders which began in Tanzania have now spread to neighbouring Congo and Burundi, where at least 12 victims have been butchered and their body parts stolen.

Because of the genetic defect that affects skin pigmentation, albinos suffer abnormally high rates of skin cancer and have ultra-sensitive eyes.

This leaves them even more vulnerable to attack and makes reading and writing extremely difficult.

Shida says: "I find it hard to open my eyes during the day.

"Outside I feel like I'm on fire.

"The sun burns my arms all over.

"I'd love to go to school and get an education. I wish I could read, but I can't."


[To read the rest, click on the title link above]













cultures

Liberalism: Never Say Sorry, Never Apologize, Just Keep on Truckin'

Being a liberal means you never explain or apologize, you simply move on, but if a Conservative does it - you crucify them and pursue the story in the most unrelenting fashion possible.

It doesn't matter if it was 1984 or 1994 - a 15 year old with a 40 year old or 50 year old ... the law is the same, and excusing it with a wave of his hand - something that happened long ago, and if I could do it again I would change it and teachers should have more preparation, and society can benefit from his error ... doesn't sound, to me, like an apology -- it sound slike a defense and excuse.




Head of Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools Expresses Regret for Controversial Incident

September 30, 2009
ABCNews.com


A senior official of the Department of Education expressed regret today for an incident that happened when he was a young teacher in the late 1980s, saying he should have handled it differently, but that society could benefit from his error.

Kevin Jennings, director of the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools and founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), has been criticized by social conservatives for a passage in his 1994 book “One Teacher In Ten.” At the time, only a few people knew that Jennings, then a 24-year-old teacher at Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, was gay. In the Spring of 1988, a young woman who knew Jennings was gay, brought to his office a high school sophomore whom Jennings called “Brewster” in the book.

As Jennings wrote:
“’Brewster has something he needs to talk with you about,’ she intoned ominously. Brewster squirmed at the prospect of telling, and we sat silently for a short while. On a hunch, I suddenly asked ‘What’s his name?’ Brewster’s eyes widened briefly, and then out spilled a story about his involvement with an older man he had met in Boston. I listened, sympathized, and offered advice. He left my office with a smile on his face that I would see every time I saw him on the campus for the next two years, until he graduated.”

Jennings in 2000 told a GLSEN conference that Brewster told him he “’met someone in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him.’ High school sophomore, 15 years old. That was the only way he knew how to meet gay people. I was a closeted gay teacher, 24 years old, didn’t know what to say, knew I should say something quickly. So I finally, my best friend had just died of AIDS the week before, I looked at Brewster and said, ‘You know, I hope you knew to use a condom.’ He said to me something I will never forget, He said ‘Why should I, my life isn’t worth saving anyway.’”

That Jennings knew of a sexually active 15-year-old, of any gender, involved with “an older man” and didn’t take steps to report that relationship to the student’s parents or to authorities has made him a target for criticism -- long before he was put in charge of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools.

In July 2004, before Jennings was about to receive the National Education Association’s Virginia Uribe Human Rights Award, Diane Lenning, head of the NEA’s Republican Educators Caucus, protested, suggesting that Jennings “did not report sexual victimization of a student to the proper authorities” and asked "Is it a good idea for NEA to honor as exemplary a teacher who engages in unethical practice?"

Jennings today issued a statement saying, “Twenty-one years later I can see how I should have handled the situation differently. I should have asked for more information and consulted legal or medical authorities. Teachers back then had little training and guidance about this kind of thing. All teachers should have a basic level of preparedness. I would like to see the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools play a bigger role in helping to prepare teachers.”

Education Secretary Arne Duncan issued a statement today supporting his colleague, saying “Kevin Jennings has dedicated his professional career to promoting school safety. He is uniquely qualified for his job and I’m honored to have him on our team.”

Administration officials point out that Jennings has received accolades from the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Association of Independent Schools, the National Education Association, and the Massachusetts Counselors Association, and he has been named to a commission by former Republican Massachusetts Gov. William Weld.

In July, the conservative Family Research Council launched a “Stop Jennings” campaign in which they seized upon not just that one incident with Brewster, but other comments from his past. The liberal Think Progress has issued a fact check of what they call a “right-wing smear campaign” against him by those who oppose homosexuality.

Today’s statement is a departure from the posture Jennings took in 2004, when he protested Lenning’s campaign against him, saying that the “comments and accusations made by Diane Lenning regarding my career while I served as a teacher at Concord Academy were not only personally hurtful but inaccurate and potentially libelous."

It has also been noted that the new head of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools wrote, in his 2007 autobiography, "Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son: A Memoir,” that in his high school years he “got stoned more often and went out to the beach at Bellows, overlooking Honolulu Harbor and the lights of the city, to drink with my buddies on Friday and Saturday nights, spending hours watching the planes take off and land at the airport, which is actually quite fascinating when you are drunk and stoned."

Jennings today said: "I have written about the factors that have led me to use drugs as a teen. This experience qualifies me to help students and teachers who are confronting these issues today.”














liberals