Stolen Childhood

China seems to be getting blow after blow in recent times. Recently it was criticized for bad handling of the Tibet riots by the international community and now, the illegal usage of child labor by its Southwestern factories is fast building up as a reason for attracting international attention in the wrong way. Surely, it seems as though the prospective Olympic hosts are having a hard time trying to stay in the good books of the international community.

If you thought that slave trade was only a nineteenth century tyranny by the white masters of Africa then you are mistaken because slave trade continues even these days, but the perpetrators of the crime have changed. The 21st century slave trade focuses mainly on children from impoverished and illiterate African families and the traders are their African brethren who sell these children to African families in U.K.

Parents in Nigeria are cajoled to sell their children to families in U.K, convincing better lives for the children in the country. Poverty and illiteracy make parents in African countries such as Nigeria to sell children for ₤2,000 to ₤5,000 each. Many pregnant teenage girls even sell their babies before they are born for less than ₤1,000. International traffickers often earn as much as ₤6,000 every week trafficking children from Africa to Europe. Once these children are brought to Britain, fraudulent means are used to obtain illicit housing and other welfare benefits. They are sold to African homes or to criminal gangs where they are made to work for up to 18 hours a day and are subjected to physical and sexual abuses. Once these children grow older and are no longer entitled to any benefit, they are thrown out on to the streets with no papers to prove their identity.

If cocaine is for rich man’s addiction, paco is the poor man’s narcotic drug. Made from the chemicals discarded after the production of cocaine, paco smoking has assumed epidemic proportions in Argentine slums and in other parts of South America. Sulphuric acid, kerosene, rat poison and crushed glass are some of the ingredients of paco. To make matters worse, the children living in the Argentine slums are fast becoming addicted to the drug that doctors claim could cause brain damage within six months. According to conservative estimates, there are 85,000 paco addicts in Argentina. The United Nation says that paco addiction has tripled over the past two years.

Food is becoming more expensive not only in our local market but the impact is seen all over the world. Severely affected are the Jamaicans. The researchers and the education officials claim that the current condition of Jamaican children is something that really needs to be taken care of. Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) Director General Dr Wesley Hughes recently brought the matter to the world’s notice while speaking at one of the functions for Children.

A member of the Stolen Generations says that Australian Aboriginal children have been used as experimental specimens for testing the effects of new medicines. The tests proved to be life threatening for the meek Aborigines who feel shameful even speaking about it. If this incident were true, it is not the victimized Aborigines who should be shameful about the entire incident, but all those so-called ‘highly educated people’ who are using them for experimental purposes. It is understood that they are conducting these experiments on a sample population to benefit a larger population with the invented medications. But is it right to sacrifice innocent lives for the benefit of others? Nowadays, with the advancement in simulation technology, it is possible to predict the outcomes of a particular drug without actually trying the drugs out on any life form.

The country of Vietnam is perhaps best known for its wars which left its people shattered and economy terribly weak. One of the under developed nations in Southern Asia, Vietnam is still struggling to rebuilt itself even after 33 years since its war with the US ended. The future of a country is its children and this rings true even for the country of Vietnam where the only hope left is from the children. However, the pathetic conditions that the children here live in moved a retired person from the United States who decided to do something for them.

Bored with the monotony of life and blessed with a philanthropic soul with the wish of doing his bit for the society, Ben Wilson decided to start an organization called the Children of Vietnam (COV). When the organization was started ten years ago, Ben Wilson, then 65 had never thought of the big response it will fetch and the kind of difference it will make to millions in Vietnam.

The country has very poor health care, residential and educational facilities and is too poor to afford any thing better. The economy of the country is so weak that it can hardly provide its citizens with aids required for survival. Even those seeking medical help often die as they cannot afford the prescribed medicines. The COV has made it their mission to not let any child die for the lack of medical help and fund medical operations of anyone who seeks their help. The organization has funded many orphanages and kindergartens in the country which also house children with deformities, thus educating and feeding them for their future lives. The money required for these funds are raised in the US by Ben Wilson, who couldn’t have a busier retired life.

Smoking cannabis was common among the Flower Power generation. In fact smoking cannabis were once associated with youthful indulgence, rebellious behavior and artistic excellence. Cannabis was considered harmless. However, smoking cannabis in the current time has been linked to poverty, parental deprivation and school dropout and above all rise in criminal activities among teenagers and youths. In a national survey in UK, two-thirds of Youth Offending Teams claimed that they have seen cannabis use soaring among youth offenders. In some areas of England, nine out of ten young offenders are cannabis users.

None heeds my pet peeve. Even though I have the likes of Jonathan Swift endorsing me. I have maintained that there are too many kids on this earth. Look wherever you will, there are just too many children swamping the place. They just will not leave us in peace. We have tried every imaginable torture on them but yet they won’t finish themselves off. We routinely abuse them, rape and sodomise them, make them work in sweatshops for hours, betray and beat them. Yet they refuse to die. Like Swift, I am a firm believer in cooking and eating them all up. That will sort out the hunger-issues faced by the poor and at least bring some calm to the world. Are we not tired of the incessant noise that kids make? IAfrica.com reports a clichéd issue is the blandest manner possible. Children in Mogadishu in Somalia are having a hard time — they are living off the streets, are being beating mercilessly; in short: they are being exploited. Well, there are two aspects to the issue. The street-kids in Mogadishu are not having it any worse than the street-kids in say, Cambodia or even in India. This, notwithstanding Somalia’s being in civil war for sometime. Human nature is the same everywhere and at all times. Children are the most vulnerable in our society. Thus it is natural that they be exploited; they cannot protest. The other crucial point we have to bear in mind when we read any report of child-abuse: since adults by their own admissions know everything better than children, why should anyone complain about kids being tortured? The adults involved in the torture always know better and if they choose to be cruel, should anyone cry foul at all?

Once considered to be the most politically secure society, the aftermath of a blamable election in Kenya has done more harm than just a fight between two ethnic groups; it has ignited the long hidden ethnic tensions, resulting in violence that has made hundreds of children homeless, orphan or separated from their parents. Children who otherwise stood a full chance to a bright and equal childhood compared to any child in the world, making their own country a prison with least hope for peace. The number of bright young eyes in Nairobi, that quiver at the sound of workers coming hoping for some news of their parents or loved ones. Red Cross estimates over 500 children separated from their parents in the chaos, and the figure could be much higher in a nation wide count. With thought of normalcy far as peace talks are concerned, show no respite, the only good news is that more than 300 children have already been successfully reunited with their parents, thanks to tremendous efforts put in by the social workers.

As the number of reported cases of children soldiers in countries wrought by armed conflict increases, the U.N. Council recently warned of setting stricter measures against military organizations that encourage such activities. But the announcement was quite strange since the U.N. has no firm pledge on what possible sanctions may be imposed to the violators.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should somehow lay down the cards on how to protect children getting recruited in nations experiencing armed conflict or the practice will continue killing ill-prepared young children and wasting their lives in the war. In a recent report, Ban cited 58 groups in 13 countries participating in armed conflict. Most of them are in Asia and Africa, whose soldiers are children and are allowed to join in live encounter. Such government armies included Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Somalia and Sudan, including rebel groups.

The recent poll of some 100,000 Israeli children being victimized and sexually abused is very alarming. It seems most parents in Jerusalem cannot protect their children from harm. If they can’t do it, who will? Parents should be held responsible about the welfare of their children.

Based on the polls, only a fraction of about 2.5 percent of 100,000 abused children cases in Israel was reported to the police. Such percentage was too small to consider the issue as a national concern if we would only rely on statistics. Some may even think of them as isolated cases.

Such findings were presented at the National Council for the Child conference in Be’er Sheva, where around 500 parents joined the polls. In addition, the poll showed that only 5 percent of the parents alerted the authorities that their kids were sexually harassed. A quarter of the parents had never told their children to avoid entertaining strangers.

Yuli Tamir, Education Minister, presented the data from the Central Bureau Statistics. He said for the last three years, there has been a decreasing dropout of 25 percent in high school. Last year, there were about 22,000 or 4 percent of the population of Israeli children who stopped studying. But Tamir said the Education Ministry is currently adopting a program to augment the declining dropout rates.

A new chapter has been opened by Al Qaeda in Iraq; which is to use children to further its aims. The US military released video footage of a tape it claims it stumbled across during a raid last December. The tape showed children as young as 10, wearing trademark masks receiving training. Though there is no certainty of the authenticity of the tape, one tends to believe in the US military. Some cynics might argue that all this is the handiwork of the dirty-tricks department of the CIA, but one would not go so far as to agree with it.

The use of children by Al Qaeda is disturbing news. It is doing so for the same reason as they are using women suicide bombers. To increase troubles for Iraqi and US security forces, as women and children are largely ignored during security checks.

Africa’s children are getting a raw deal. We had heard of children being kidnapped by the armed groups fighting in Congo and used for carrying ammunition or for sex. Now it has come to light that children from many African countries, especially Nigeria, are being sold by their parents to unscrupulous agents, who assure them that their kids will see a great future in foreign lands. Helpless African parents living in poverty are taken in by this con-talk. But these children are brought to Britain and abused. They are used to get welfare benefits. They are used in hotels and restaurants and are sexually abused.

Britain seems to have become a haven for these traders in children. Some of these agents are procuring children from Romania from similarly poor parents and then use them in organized gangs.

Abortion is banned in Indonesia except for some medical cases, to save a mother’s life. Despite this tough law, many unmarried women get pregnant and go for illegal abortion by doctor, using herbal remedies and vigorous massage. They could not reach to professional medical gynecologists because abortion is only permitted to save a mother’s life and not to terminate unwanted pregnancy. Currently, a doctor can face up to 15 years in prison for performing an abortion and a woman wanting a termination, up to 4 years.

In some failed abortion cases, the fetus could not be terminated successfully and pregnancy survived and grew in the uterus. These babies had born with mental and physical disability like hydrocephalus - a condition causing spinal fluid to swell patient’s brain. These children, living in orphanage had been left by their parents.

What is the most that you can do for your child to give him a good future? The probable answers would be securing his future by making good investments to make funds available when he needs it or imparting good knowledge so that he is at par with the rest of the world.

Well the Iraqis think or rather are forced to think otherwise. In a war struck nation where the living conditions are worsening by the passing day the best thing its citizens can do for their children is to sell them away. Yes, as shocking it may sound it is a harsh reality that is stigmatizing Iraq in recent times.

With the army destroying even the civilian areas of Iraq the people are left without any shelter and are forced to stay in make-shift refugee camps. People are left unemployed with the economic status of the country slumping dangerously. The hygiene of these areas is in a very poor condition leading the residents to lead unhealthy lifestyles and putting them at risk of an epidemic. The children here are malnourished and have to drop their education as their parents cannot afford the fees.

In such conditions the parents are resorting to selling off their children to foreigners in order to get some money and secure the child’s future. On questioning they justify their actions by saying that by selling off their child they have ensured their healthy upbringing along with providing monetarily to the remaining kids.