April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

child abuse

Teaching Hate

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Collage of images representing the :en:Scottish people. Up (from left to right): :en:James Watt, :en:Walter Scott, :en:Alexander Graham Bell. Down: :en:William Wallace, :en:Mary I of Scotland, :en:Sean Connery.Image via WikipediaA self proclaimed “proud Scottish chick” from Manitoba has had her son removed from her home because he came to school sporting a swastika. Personally I am offended both by her beliefs and by her bringing the Scots into it. Nevertheless, the question here seems to be, can the government remove children for parental teachings of hate.

At first blush one might be tempted to say yes. However, further reflection sheds light on the dilemmas this would cause. For instance, many fundamentalist religions teach hate against women, gays and others not seen as reflective of their beliefs. And while anyone with any humanity would wish this sort of brainwashing not be inflicted upon the next generation, taking children from their homes is a serious issue and should not be done lightly.

Imagine if the current crop of nutters, aka the Not your Father’s Conservatives Party had the authority to take children from homes they considered “unsuitable”. A horrific thought indeed.

So while the teaching of hate is not something we wish to see and is indeed, in my mind at least, child abuse in protecting the rights of parents to teach their values we protect the rights of all. Paradoxically the reality that these self same people would take away our rights if given half a chance is all the more reason to ensure that we protect theirs.

And this is the appropriate way to show Scottish Pride. Wha’s Like Us? Damn Few And They’re A’ Died!

8 Year old asks for divorce

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Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself on Wednesday, April 2, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her two months ago to marry Faez Ali Thamer, a man 22 years her senior. The child also asked for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse.

According to Yemeni law, Nojoud cannot prosecute, as she is underage. However, court judge Muhammed Al-Qathi heard her complaint and subsequently ordered the arrests of both her father and husband.

Link

Now there will be some who will see this as an excuse to loose racist nonsense, just one glaring example from a yahoo thread;

These people are uncouth savages. Always have been…always will.

Human rights and the rights of women are virtually non-existant in this place and others that surround it. And yet you have imbicilic females from the U.S. and Europe that marry these men and are shocked to their roots when the first time they want to go out in public they’re beaten sensless by their husbands because it’s ‘custom’ for you to hold a position in his and the other male family members lives that is no better than a goat or a piece of furniture. Property…that’s all.

Stay on your side of the world. And we should be staying on ours as well.

My one would almost think that these sorts gave a rats ass about women and girls. Never fear the National Pestulance comes along to dispell that notion in no uncertain terms.

Seems like this is a cause Canada’s feminists should get behind — assuming they’re not too busy protesting laws that would protect unborn children from murder.

This is a heartrending story of a an 8 year old subjected to rape, to multiple beatings to things no child should ever have to bear. It is also a story of bravery and survival. An example of the power of just one voice. Yet the right wing radicals over at NP are climbing on this brave girls back to shout anti-feminist and anti-abortion slogans. The headline on Jonathan Kay’s story dubs her “world’s bravest 8-year-old feminist” , we all know how the NP and their rabid readers feel about feminists, so they appear to be actively attacking this girl. Of course appearances can be deceiving and one hopes that is the case here.

As for young Nojoud Muhammed Nasser;

“We are planning to put her in Dar Al-Rahama [an non-governmental organization that works with children], where she can have a better life and education. We do not want her family to pay her expenses, as they are poor.”

I believe this girl could have a very bright future ahead of her.

8 years for torture

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For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out. James Baldwin

8 years for the torture of a 4 year old hardly seems appropriate. The abuser showed no remorse, no understanding of the heinous nature of his activities and I predict will re-offend in the future.

Bannert showed no emotion as the judge read his sentence, which was reduced to five years and eight months in prison because of the 14 months he spent in pre-trial custody. The Crown was seeking a much harsher sentence of 15 years.

The court heard she was denied liquids to a point where she had to drink urine from the toilet and plant water. Graphic details of her sexual abuse also emerged from the trial. She described how sex in a bathtub with “daddy” was a common occurrence.

A victim impact statement written by a social worker said the girl is so traumatized she cannot learn or form normal emotional relationships. About to turn six next month, the girl is on medication for post-traumatic stress syndrome. She now lives in a foster home.

Her mother was earlier convicted and sentenced for her part in this crime.

Apparently the defense tried to argue this off as discipline. Locking a four year old in the basement, handcuffing her, denying her water, forcing her to watch pornography and dance in a suggestive fashion, raping her in the bathtub…..what part of that could in anyone’s twisted mind be considered discipline?

I wish you peace sweet daughter.



news sources:

CTV
CBC

The game blame

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Very sad story about serious neglect and abuse of two children, a 22 month old boy and an 11 month old girl.

Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.

Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.

Not content to let the story stand on it’s own as an example of the horrors humans commit on one another and that not everyone is equipped to be a parent, both the media and the authorities are spinning this as a “game addiction”.

Viloria said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing “Dungeons & Dragons” series, to give their children proper care.

“They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games,” Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Gaming is the excuse, not the cause. Video games are blamed from everything from obesity to murder. It is as if none of these things ever existed before.

It would be much more helpful for us a society to focus on what drives people to obsess, what drives people to neglect their children, what signs of trouble are being missed.

Domestic abuse, road rage, gaming addiction, these are all silly labels put on big problems that allow media and authorities to easily file cases rather than have anyone actually find out the underlying causes of the initial behaviors.

Where’s a millstone when you need one?

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It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. (Luke (ch. XVII, v. 2)

Apparently on that Christ and today’s church would disagree.

Deliver Us From Evil is a film that chronicles the abuses by Father Oliver O’Grady.

He was the closest thing to God they knew. Bob Jyono can still picture the priest he and his wife, Maria, called Ollie, a family friend who often spent the night in their Lodi home, saying his morning prayers with a Bible in his hands.

“And all during the night, he’s molesting my daughter — not molesting, raping her! — at 5 years old,” wails Jyono in “Deliver Us From Evil.” It’s a devastating documentary about Oliver O’Grady, the notorious pedophile priest who sexually abused children, including a 9-month-old baby, in a string of Central California towns for 20 years — and the Catholic bishops who moved him from parish to unsuspecting parish, allegedly covering up his crimes.

The church knew what he was doing and at one point helped him avoid prosecution by telling the police they would move him somewhere there were no children a complete falsehood. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.(perhaps that does not cover lying to protect a pedophile)

Father O’Grady is decidedly unrepentant;

He wears a sly smile as he says what arouses him: “How about children in swimsuits? I’d say, yeah. How about children in underwear? I’d say, yeah. How about children naked? Uh-huh, yeah.”

And the church of course is praying for the hearts and souls of those he hurt. Denouncing him as evil, thanking those who brought his heinous crimes to light…or not..

The film also points to the culpability of church officials, like Mahony, who has been named in numerous civil suits by victims of priestly abuse. “They banked on our silence and our shame,” Jyono said. “That’s how they got away with it for so long.”

snip

In a phone interview with The Chronicle, Tamberg said, “Everyone should be saddened by the kind of emotional and spiritual devastation that these kind of child molesters can wreak on individuals and families. That said, this movie is incredibly biased and omits many facts that would’ve changed the assumption the movie makes.”

The movie, Tamberg added, “is chock full of attorneys and expert witnesses who make millions of dollars every year in abuse litigation against the church. It’s a big advertisement for them.”

What facts could change the assumption that the church knew full well of his activities and allowed them to occur?

Maybe this fact?

The leaked Vatican document proves that under his papacy his deputy Cardinal Radzinger reissued the Vatican directive “Solicitacciones Criminale” of Pope John XXIII instructing Roman Catholic bishops to protect sex pervert pedophile and homosexual and lesbian pedophile priests and nuns at the expense of not protecting the little children whom these criminal perverts destroy. The directive also instructs the protection of clergy who have sex with animals.

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Black and yellow, red and white
They’re all precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world…but the church not so much…