Week eleven: Vatican Inquiry Reflects Wider Focus on Legion of Christ

VATICAN CITY

VATICAN CITY — The Legionaries of Christ, a powerful but troubled worldwide religious order whose founder became involved in a sex scandal years ago, said on  Friday that the Vatican was investigating seven Legion priests over allegations of sexual abuse of minors. , the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the abuser, who fathered several children, abused seminarians and misused funds. The pope removed Marciel from priestly duties; he died 2 years later. Even though this man is dead, it is crazy that the story is only coming out now. Those must have been completely traumatized, and who would believe their story? I personally it is ridiculous that people who are supposed to be working and serving god are sexually abusing young children. If people that are so highly respected are doing this, imagine the people no one knows about.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/12/world/europe/vatican-inquiry-reflects-wider-focus-on-legion-of-christ.html?_r=2&ref=childabuseandneglect

Week Eleven: The Truth about "Asian sex gangs"

Our children are not halal meat!

Back in 2011 times magazine wrote about “conspiracy of silence’, talking about Pakistani men sexually exploiting white British females. The nine men in question are all predominantly muslim, who used Asian cover up names. These men used the Asian names to trick young 16 year old girls to have sex with them. Street grooming is a legal act, it is when pedophiles become friends with their victims before the sexual or physical act. Street grooming is a crime that is often come by, but “difficult to decipher from other crimes’.  The majority of the people who offend, offend in large groups. This seems so sick and disturbing to me that I hope governments make a law against ‘street grooming” to protect the children


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/08/asian-sex-gangs-on-street-grooming

Week Ten: China Says Abusive Child Labor Ring Is Exposed

Authorities in southern China’s southern Province, near Hong Kong, claim that they have made several arrests and had already rescued more than 100 children from factories in the city of Dongguan, one of the country’s largest manufacturing centers for electronics and consumer goods sold around the world. Investigators say that there were reports that hundreds of other rural children between the ages between 13-15, had been lured or forced into captive, almost slave like conditions for minimal pay. Regardless that the legal working age is 16.  I really hope that this doesn’t continue to innocent children, and that authorities continue to intervene. It makes me wonder about how many other places in the world that force children into hard labor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/world/asia/01china.html?_r=1&ref=childlabor

Week Nine:5 year Old Girl Dies of Cough Medicine Overdose

Kimber Michelle,5, took a deadly combonation of cold and allergy medicine while under the care of her grandmother. Reports ruled the overdose was accidental, caused by dextromethorphan, an ingredient commonly used in cough syrup.Her blood levels were two and a half times higher than the recommended dosage. It has been suggested that Kimber might have taken some medication herself or that her grandmother gave her the wrong dosage. Toxicology reports show that Kimber, who weighed only 46 pounds, had 96 nanograms per millilitre of dextromethorphan in her blood. The upper limit for this drug in adults is 40 ng/ml. I personally believe that this story should be very public, to gain awareness of the dangers that come along with taking over the counter medicine, especially with children.

Week Eight: Pulling Children out of Nepal's Prisons

Pushpa Basnet, lives in Nepal, which according to UNICEF it is one of the poorest countries, with 55% of people living under poverty line. She resides in a two story house accompanied by 40 children. All of the children she lives with, has once been in prison with their parents. Without her help, these children would be spending LIFE behind bars, because of their parents’ crimes. When the parents are arrested, they ahve the choice to bring their children to jail with them or to let them live on the streets. Since 2005, Basnet has helped over 100 children of incarcerated parents. The “Butterfly House”, continues to aid children with food, clothing, shelter, medicine, school and most importantly, love.  I think that this article is really inpiring because it shows that one person with a big heart can make a difference.

"...The smiles of my children keep me motivated."

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/15/world/cnnheroes-basnet-nepal-prisons/index.html?hpt=wo_bn3

Week Seven: Treyvon Martin, 17, shot dead in his own neighbourhood

"Trayvon Martin didn't die so we can create a race war he died so we can promote better understanding. We must starthonest dialogue."

Treyvon Martin, 17, shot dead in his own neighbourhood, unarmed, by the neighbourhood watch. 28 year old, George Zimmerman is the shooter.  He said "This guy looks like he's on drugs, he's definitely messed up" about Treyvon to a 9-1-1 dispatcher. Zimmerman continued to follow him, and then more 9-1-1 calls were reporting the two fighting in the back of Treyvon's house. All Treyvon's parents want is justice. I think this article is very important to my blog, because it shows one perfect example of another injustice being done to a child in the public's eye. This man NEEDS to be locked up, so sign a petition go to www.change.org to add your name!

 

http://abcnews.go.com/US/treyvon-martin-neighborhood-watch-shooting-911-tapes-send/story?id=15937881

Week six: Child Abductor Confesses, Forgiven by Father

Kienan Hebert was a regular 3 year old boy, when suddenly was abducted from his household and kept for 4 days. The abductor, Randall Hopeley returned the toddler after 4 days. He said he cleaned a vacant cabin and filled it with things that kids require, then went scoping for children. Prior to the incident, Hopeley has been sentenced for 2 years for sexually assaulting a five year old boy. He admitted that he never did anything sexual with Kienan, and that their time together was innocent, and that “he took good care of him.” After all was said and done, Kienans father forgave the abductor and even shook his hand. Personally, I think that this father should have been very upset at the situation. The father should be protecting his son, not becoming buds with him. By forgiving the abductor, it says that what he did is ok. It is not ok, and this man should be taken off the streets forever.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/child-abductor-confessed-was-forgiven-by-kienans-father/article2382130/

Week Five:Joseph Kony

Joseph Kony is the leader of the "LRA", or better known as the Lord's Resistance Army, which is a
"christian army" that has terrorized Uganda for two decades. The army  kidnapps children from their homes, and force them to either be sex slaves or soliders. It is reported that there have been tens of thousands of children that have been tortured and/or killed. Kony stays in hiding because he is wanted by the International Criminal Court Crime since 2005. Although, in 2007 Kony came out of hiding to sign a historic peace deal, which would have stopped his army but instead he backed out in 2008.  Today, there is a group called lll that is making Kony's name international. Hopefully this man will be stopped sooner than later, innocent children being tortured and killed is an URGENT ISSUE!

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/joseph_kony/index.html

Week four:State Keeps Death Files of Abused Children Secret

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/nyregion/nys-evades-requirement-for-disclosure-on-childrens-deaths.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=children&st=cse

In 1995 Elisa Izquiere (6 yrs) was killed by her own mother, led to changes in the New York City's child welfare system. In which created the Elisa law which allows less secrecy, and more investigations. In 2008, it was decided that if a child was killed who had other siblings in the household the fatality reports weren't released. The state issues about 250 fatality reports each year, And in 2010, two-thirds of the reports issued in New York City involved homes with multiple children, which meat that under the new policy, officials could keep information about their deaths private. I personally believe that any child that dies due to abuse should be made public. I believe that everyone should know the kind of person the abuser is and the acts that they have committed towards the child. I think by keeping their deaths secret it is protecting the abuser rather than the child. These children died for no unjustifiable reason, and that their stories should be heard.

Week two: It's Child Porn

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/its-child-porn-we-need-bill-c-30/article2341294/

           As of today, 22 Ontario children were rescued from child pornography in this MONTH alone! Police charged 60 people, with over 200 charges! It is debated throughout the article, whether police should be able obtain IP address' of people who are doing questionable things on the internet. Police have internet protocol and this is when they hire hackers, who can find out who is sending and receiving pornographic images of children. I personally believe that police should have access to everyone's IP address for security reasons. I think that people shouldn't have a problem with it if they have nothing to hide.

Week One: NATO Admits Killing Afghan Children

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/nato-admits-killing-afghan-children-in-air-strike/article2336069/