Late Night Laugh: Going To The Dogs

Leftist Love: A Whole New Meaning

The organization the leftists love:

Sexual abuse of children as young as six by aid workers and United Nations peacekeepers has continued unchecked despite repeated promises to stamp it out, according to a 12-month investigation.

More than half of the children interviewed in three countries, Ivory Coast, South Sudan and Haiti, knew of cases of forced sex with aid staff or peacekeepers.

The assaults were often in return for the very food or protection supposed to be provided to the vulnerable in a crisis.

Similar allegations have dogged UN missions since the organisation sent peacekeepers to Cambodia in the 1990s. However, today’s report, from Save The Children, is the first to point the finger at civilian aid staff, including those working for British charities, as well as soldiers.

Its findings suggest a continuing lack of action despite promises to tackle alleged abuse made at a conference of UN officials and aid agencies in December 2006.

Six months after that meeting’s stern commitments, 12-year-old “Elizabeth” claimed that she was walking to tend her mother’s fields past the camp of a battalion of UN peacekeepers in northwestern Ivory Coast.

“There were men there who called my little brother over and gave him biscuits,” she haltingly told The Daily Telegraph last week in a village close to the town of Man.

“I refused to go, but one man came to me and held me by my dress and took me into the bush far from the road. His friends came, there were 10 of them. They held me down and raped me one by one. I could not flee. They were big men.

Afterwards I ran to my village, I was crying all night and vomiting. Even today I have medical problems. I can never forget that thing, it is stuck in my mind and I keep seeing it happen over and over like a film.”

Too fearful to leave the security of her village, she has dropped out of school. Even now, almost a year later, she says she freezes with fear whenever she sees a white UN or aid agency vehicle.
Elizabeth’s case is not unique among the 341 children interviewed.

A third claimed that they knew of someone in their community who had been sexually attacked by a peacekeeper or an aid worker.

More than half claimed to know of cases where penniless children, some as young as six, were forced into sexual acts in return for money or food.

The overwhelming majority of those interviewed said that they would not report a case of abuse themselves and had never heard of others doing so, despite commitments from all humanitarian agencies that allegations would be dealt with sensitively but firmly.

Heather Kerr, Save The Children’s country director in Ivory Coast, said: “Even one prosecution would show that local authorities will act, and that would be a big step forward.”

A spokesman for the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York said: “The abuse of children by those who are sent to help is a significant and painful issue and one that we have begun to address. We are doing everything we can to train and monitor our civilian staff.”

Save The Children itself is not immune. There were 15 allegations of misconduct towards children made against its staff in 2007, three of which were proven and led to dismissal. Oxfam reported 12 allegations of exploitation or abuse in 2007, leading to three staff being sacked.

They and other British-based agencies including Plan International, ActionAid and Care said that they supported the Save The Children report’s call for a global watchdog to police sex abuse by aid staff.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does: Counselling And Therapy For Terrorists

‘Therapy’ For Muslim Extremists suggested- Like that worked so well for the Saudis…

Islamic extremists could escape prosecution and instead receive therapy and counselling under new Government plans to “deradicalise” religious fanatics.

The Home Office is to announce an extra £12.5 million to support new initiatives to try to stop extremism spreading.

The central element of the Home Office plan is a new national “deradicalisation” programme that would persuade converts to violent and extremist causes to change their views.

Controversially, the new plan makes clear that people who fall under the influence of violent organisations will not automatically face prosecution.

Instead, the presumption should be that some such individuals would face therapy and counselling from community groups instead of criminal charges.

Documents being distributed to local councils explain that many people who get drawn into extremism have often suffered some sort of personal trauma or crisis that makes them vulnerable to exploitation.

“We do not want to put through the criminal justice system those who are vulnerable to, or are being drawn into, violent extremism unless they have clearly committed an offence,” a Home Office report says.

“It is vital that individuals and communities understand this and have the confidence to use the support structures that we shall be developing.”

Most of the new funding will be set aside for grants to community groups that challenge the messages of violent extremists should be supported.

The plan includes a suggestion that local councils should map their areas religion, surveying and recording the faiths and denominations of local residents.

New guidelines for councils say: “A deeper understanding of local communities should be developed to help inform and focus the programme of action – this may include mapping denominational backgrounds and demographic and socio-economic factors.”

The Home Office has told councils they must be prepared to ask police to vet anyone involved in projects that receive government anti-radicalisation funding.

If a group is found to be promoting violent extremism, local agencies and the police should consider disrupting or removing funding, and deny access to public facilities, the document added.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “A key element of our strategy aims to stop people getting involved in extremist violence.

“We are investing at local level to build resilient communities, which are equipped to confront violent extremism and support the most vulnerable individuals.”

Shadow home secretary David Davis said of today’s publication: “This is pointless when the Government is fuelling the problem it is seeking to solve with its draconian approach to 42 days.”

Transcending Youth, Part Four

This is the final (and belated!) installment in our series, Transcending Youth. See Part One, Part Two and Part Three. We are grateful to the reader who pointed out our delay in publishing the last in our series.

From Part One:

It is true that as we age, our physicality declines. There is a reason there are no 59 year old football players. It is also true that 75 year olds pull fewer all nighters than 21 year olds.

Of course, that begs certain questions: Is a person’s worth and value determined by his or her physicality? Is a persons worth or value determined by how many hours of overtime that can be extracted from him or her? By their ability to recover from jet lag quickly?

What does it say about us as wards of culture where masses of people are swept aside because of their year of birth? What does it say about us as we label people ‘less fit; because they were born a decade or two before ourselves? What does these realities say about our values?

There are many who are less physical than they used to be, and at the same time they have accumulated much wisdom and insight. Are those people in decline or have they grown? Do we measure the value of output by quantity or quality?

From Part Two:

As we age, our physicality diminishes and our productivity declines. This is an immutable law of nature. How we respond to this truth demarcates how we actually see ourselves and our value to others. If the singular purpose of the spirit and soul is to feed the physical wants and desires of the physical self, then the spirit and soul also diminish with the aging process. For those who believe that our physicality defines our drive and worth, the quality of life diminishes as well. The self fulfilling prophecy of their decline is inevitable…

We live in a culture and society that assigns productive and non productive phases of our lives. For the first couple of decades of our lives, we get a free pass- we are not expected to achieve anything, at least not in the adult sense. Our lives are guided by others. Those years are spent in school, amassing knowledge, acquiring the rudiments of a skill and learning the rules that govern our society. For the following 30 to 40 years, we are on stage. Our skills, ideas and creativity are given a stage of sorts. Some of us aspire to do our job well. Others put in time only and are productive only as much is necessary. All in all, we are expected to take over those who have preceded us and are now passive. We are also expected to prepare those behind us to replace us.

Our culture and society dictate that we are supposed to take our now honed skills, knowledge and creativity and put them away because we are getting older. As a certain birthday approaches, achievements are to be arbitrarily put on the shelf. Overnight, the older person is moved to the sidelines of life. Any creativity or ideas that still bubble over are meant to be directed into harmless pastimes. The ‘twilight of our lives’ are meant to be spent in mindless and meaningless endeavors. Once we reach a certain age, we are supposed to believe that time itself has less value. We come full circle, back to our childhood. We are not expected to really contribute. As in childhood, we are told what is best for us. Our still valuable potential to do, achieve and mentor is packed away in boxes and put into permanent storage.

From Part Three:

Cultures and societies assign a kind of sanctity to some institutions and ideas. We educate children in a certain way, we have established work patterns and ethics and we have institutionalized and even idealized (invisible) aging and retirement.

Forced or otherwise, retirement has literally destroyed the lives of countless Americans. As we grow older as a nation and society and live healthier and longer lives, retirement removes some of the valuable human capital from the pool of useful wisdom and insight. Capable people are taken out of the race, and their hard earned experience and assets are wasted. This is nothing short of a human, cultural and social disaster. Younger people learn that if society will not assign great value to the potential of the aging, why should they? If our culture regards older people as a burden, is it any surprise that people who worship the appearance of youth will feel burdened and overwhelmed in the presence of older people? Our parents can only serve as a painful reminder of what is to come- and a reminder that we cannot overcome nature, no matter how tightly we shut our eyes or how many times we click our heels in fervent wishing. We too will age. No wonder parents and grandparents are relegated to nursing homes and elder care facilities. Out of sight, out of mind.

It is clear that for every retiree who wishes to spend time in their garden or fishing, there are many times that number who want to make positive contributions to the world around. Still others want to pursue the ideas and goals of their youth that were often pushed aside in favor of more pressing responsibilities.

We also noted

Colleges and universities can make classes and courses free or of little cost to older Americans. The benefits to young students sharing a classroom with older Americans too numerous to mention. Older students can challenge professors and teachers with ideas and observations born of experience. Younger students could only benefit from the wisdom shared in the classroom. More importantly, integrating older people with young students can only serve to benefit society as a whole. Young people who integrate their older peers are less likely to see them as ‘valueless’ or ‘irrelevant.’ Wisdom and insight have a profound effect on how we see our world and how we integrate new ideas. There is a reason teachers influence students and when it is all said and done, you can never have too many teachers. Older students have a real thirst and hunger for knowledge (it isn’t as if they have to be in school). Their enthusiasm for learning can only serve as a lifelong good example.

Every city, town and village can benefit from such an arrangement. Bringing together the vitality of youth with the wisdom and insight that comes from experience is a testament to life long productivity.

Westerners often marvel at the Asian societies that so fully revere and respect elderly family members and the aged. How that has come to pass is clear: In many of the Asian cultures, age is not a handicap, but rather a record of achievement. To have reached old age is to have endured much hardship and tribulation. To have reached old age means that knowledge and wisdom have been acquired, by way of personal experience or by way of lifelong observations.  Old age is a mark of success.

In western societies, old age is a badge of failure and decline- and in every society that equates old age with irrelevance, older people will fight nature and reality. Entire industries today are predicated on the idea that old age can be put off. Older people will pit themselves against younger people, competing for the same center stage, the same material possessions, cultural supremacy and ideological influence.

Even the word retirement has a negative connotation. We retire objects and ideas when they are no longer viable. What message does a culture and society send when people are ‘retired’? If we channel and direct the experience and wisdom of older people, we can purge and abolish the very notion that people are ‘retired’ from a meaningful and contributory life as they age. In reality, we can demand and expect much from those willing to make our world a better place.

Every year, we read of 80 and 90 year old high school and college graduates and marvel at their tenacity. Every year, older physicians and lawyers and accountants go our into their communities and help or mentor others. Their successes should not come as a surprises to anyone. A lifetime of experience, wisdom and insight makes those people uniquely qualified to succeed. Their ‘retirement’ is really just another word for ‘meaningful engagement.’