[AGL] Speaking of child abuse...

Fri Nov 3 15:20:02 EST 2006

Frances-- Thanks for sending this along. The problem behind much of this 
abuse is economic, in some cases religious.  There are pervs out there, to 
be sure, but religious repression twists them while  fractured social 
conditions give them a big advantage, particularly if they have money to 
spend on buying children's favors or if they are in positions of religious 
and other social authority, like Mark Foley was . Poorer countries have very 
few resources to curtail child abuse, and many people (including parents)  
see children as a way to turn a profit. Meanwhile, as the report indicates,  
many kids  starve to death and are imprisoned just to keep them off the 
streets because their families are broken up or non-existent.

Jon

>From: Frances Morey <frances_morey at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 
>60s<austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
>To: Austin List <austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
>Subject: [AGL] Speaking of child abuse...
>Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2006 00:23:21 -0800 (PST)
>
>DRANT DAILY
>   DRANT # 200
>   November 2, 2006
>   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>   Today's DRANT
>   ---Ill-tempered, Iconoclastic, Impatient and Ideologically-unpredictable 
>views, comments, and sources about the World, how we humans are messing it 
>up, and how we can all DO SOMETHING about it.
>   For the complete, entire Megillah, please access : 
>http://drrant.blogspot.com
>   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>   WARNING
>   By Presidential Executive Order, the National Security Agency (NSA) may 
>be reading this email without warning, warrant, or notice,  judicial or 
>legislative oversight. You have no recourse, or protection.
>   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>   A brilliant article about the horrifying global and domestic epidemic of 
>child abuse.
>   The media coverage of the Foley scandal has been singularly 
>hypocritical-
>   AS IF his being a homosexual explained his perversion.
>   AS IF Congress and The Pentagon, Organized Religion and Corporate 
>America aren't populated by child abusers and perverts - whose greed 
>mendacity and lust for power is merely the tip of the Viceberg.
>   And what is bequeathing to our progeny -- an unbreathable atmosphere, 
>obesifying non-nutritive food, poisoned water, and toxins so pervasive that 
>our infant mortality is actually INCREASING --
>   Except a profound form of Child Abuse ?
>   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>   "...In the context of the real enormity of child abuse both in this 
>country and in the world as a whole, it is hardly surprising that we allow 
>the moral of the Foley story to be mis-framed as the sexual proclivities of 
>one man, rather than a symptom of a much larger crime.  If we truly valued 
>families and the lives of children, these are the issues we would address."
>   Lucinda Marshall
>
>
>   ZNet Commentary
>   Child Abuse:  As American as Apple Pie November 02, 2006
>   http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-11/01marshall.cfm
>   By Lucinda Marshall
>
>
>   Lost in the homophobic political and media posturing over the Mark Foley 
>incident is the reality that there is a global pandemic of sexual and 
>non-sexual child abuse. The scandalous thing about the Mark Foley incident 
>isn't that he is gay.  It isn't about pedophilia either, because the roots 
>of that word come from a Greek word meaning to love children, and there is 
>nothing loving about sexually abusing children.  What is truly scandalous 
>is that we live in a society where not only is such behavior condoned in 
>the hallowed halls of Congress, but in every corner of both this country 
>and the entire world.
>
>
>   In 2002, 150 million girls and 73 million boys were sexually assaulted.  
>Two million children were forced into working in prostitution and 
>pornography and over one million children were actually bought and sold, 
>according to the U.N.
>
>
>   The global atrocity of child abuse however, goes far beyond sexual 
>assault.
>
>
>   53,000 children were murdered in 2002, 2893 of those murders were here 
>in the U.S.  220 million children are economically exploited every year, 
>half of them working in dangerous situations such as mines and 5 million 
>children live in slavery. In Bangladesh, contractors providing clothing for 
>Hanes, Wal-Mart and J.C. Penney employ children less than 11 years of age, 
>making them work shifts as long as 20 hours according to the National Labor 
>Committee.  The children are paid 6.5 cents an hour.
>
>
>   300,000 children around the world are pressed into military service 
>every year.  While there seems to be plenty of money for military 
>recruiting in the U.S. (the Pentagon spends $4 billion dollars a year on 
>it), the Bush Administration provided $9.4 billion dollars less in funding 
>than promised for the educational programs mandated by the same No Child 
>Left Behind Act that allows recruiters access to schools.
>
>
>   More than one million children are imprisoned worldwide, 100,000 of them 
>in the U.S.  The U.S. is one of only four countries that sentences children 
>to life without parole, and along with Somalia is one of only two nations 
>in the world that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the 
>Child.
>
>
>   16,000 children die of hunger-related causes every day and more than 
>half a million children under the age of 15 died of AIDS in 2005.  
>According to the Census Bureau, there are 8,310,000 children in America 
>without health
>   insurance. The U.S. ranks 28th in the world in infant mortality.   There 
>are 9 million children between the ages of 6-19 in this country alone who 
>are obese.  And the Washington Post reports that,
>
>
>   "In 2002, about 6 percent of all boys and girls were taking 
>antidepressants, triple the rate in the period 1994-96. And about 14 
>percent of boys -- nearly one in seven -- were on stimulant drugs in 2002, 
>double the number in 1994-96."
>
>
>   In the context of the real enormity of child abuse both in this country 
>and in the world as a whole, it is hardly surprising that we allow the 
>moral of the Foley story to be mis-framed as the sexual proclivities of one 
>man, rather than a symptom of a much larger crime.  If we truly valued 
>families and the lives of children, these are the issues we would address.
>
>
>   #####
>
>
>
>
>   Lucinda Marshall is a feminist artist, writer and activist. She is the 
>Founder of the Feminist Peace Network, www.feministpeacenetwork.org. Her 
>work has been published in numerous publications in the U.S. and abroad 
>including, Counterpunch, Alternet, Dissident Voice, Off Our Backs, The 
>Progressive, Countercurrents, Z Magazine , Common Dreams and Information 
>Clearinghouse. She blogs at WIMN Online
>
>
>---------------------------------
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