Society's ChildS


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No moral compass: British austerity has created a country of destitution


RT
Sat, 30 Apr 2016 15:33 UTC
disabled Britain, homeless Britain
© Luke MacGregor / Reuters
Hundreds of thousands of disabled people in Britain are forced to live in destitution and are unable to afford basic requirements such as food, shelter and clothing, the UK's first study examining extreme poverty suggests.

The report, which was commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), was published earlier this week. Amid growing concern that extreme poverty is on the rise in Britain, the UK-based group pushed for academics to investigate the matter.

Toxic debt & spiraling health costs

The groundbreaking study was conducted by researchers at Herriot-Watt University, a range of other experts and a number of key UK service providers.

Central to its findings was a new method to measure the scale of extreme poverty - or destitution - in Britain.

The report revealed that 1.25 million people faced destitution in 2015, 312,000 of whom were children. The vast majority (80 percent) were born on British soil.

Individuals burdened with toxic debt and an inability to pay for spiraling health costs were found to have faced a tipping point, which pushed them from an impoverished state into a state of destitution, where life's basic essentials were beyond their grasp.

Comment:

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Whistle

TSA whistleblower: Orders were to profile Somali imams; he refused


RT
Thu, 28 Apr 2016 23:27 UTC
Rhoades
© www.citypages.comTSA whistleblower Andrew Rhoades accused of "going native."
Minnesota is home to one in three Somalis in the US, according to MPR News, and Somali leaders in the Twin Cities claim that members of their community are subject to higher scrutiny and harassment from TSA agents. In an effort to address these concerns, Andrew Rhoades, an assistant federal security director for the TSA, met with Somali imams and others in the local Somali community. Rhoades's good intentions, however, were being undermined by his superiors.

Testifying at Wednesday's House oversight committee hearing, Rhoades said his supervisors had ulterior motives for the meetings. "Recently I was asked to profile Somali imams and community members visiting my office," Rhoades said, adding, "I will not do this," City Pages reported.

Rhoades told legislators that his TSA supervisors wanted to screen Somali-Americans through databases to check for terrorist ties, the Star Tribune reported. The problem with this, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, is that Somalis would be screened for terrorist connections "by the same office designed to address their complaints."

Rhoades went on to describe a toxic work climate fostered by the TSA, a "culture of misconduct, retaliation, lack of trust, cover-ups, and the refusal to hold its senior leaders accountable for poor judgment and malfeasance."His testimony described a "punitive" system of punishing employees through transfers and demotions.

Comment: TSA says it doesn't tolerate racial profiling. Clearly it does, according to both employees and community members. Somalis in Minneapolis concur they are under surveillance and being profiled whether they fly or not. Resisting a supervisor's order or filing a complaint results in a demotion and transfer to other parts of the USA, each move paid for in total by the US public. Mr. Rhoades said, "TSA's problems are rooted in the areas of leadership and culture...and the refusal to hold its senior leaders accountable for poor judgment and malfeasance." When you are the maker of the rules and you are the enforcer of those rules, odd how it rarely applies to you.

See also: TSA whistleblowers: Agency has "bully bosses" and "Lord of the Flies" culture

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Attention

Followers of Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr storm Baghdad's Green Zone, enter parliament


RT
Sat, 30 Apr 2016 14:23 UTC
Protesters at Baghdad green zone
© Ahmed Saad / ReutersFollowers of Iraq's Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are seen at the parliament building as they storm Baghdad's Green Zone after lawmakers failed to convene for a vote on overhauling the government, in Iraq April 30, 2016.
Hundreds of supporters of influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who have been protesting corruption, have stormed Baghdad's Green Zone. Some have entered the parliament buildings, according to Reuters.

The demonstrators decided to break into a heavily fortified area, which holds government buildings and numerous foreign embassies after lawmakers failed to pass a vote on making changes to the current Iraqi government.

Shouting "the cowards ran away," in reference to the MPs who were leaving the parliament building, they managed to make their way into the Green Zone and subsequently into the parliament building. The demonstrators smashed glass and furniture, while another group set a vehicle on fire.
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Family

Thousands of UK parents to remove children from school in protest over new 'stressful' and 'unnecessary' exams

Rachael Pells
The Independent (UK)
Fri, 29 Apr 2016 12:58 UTC
Primary school classroom
© GettyPrimary school children aged 6 and 7 will sit exams for a week in May

Some primary schools expect half their pupils to be taken out of school for a day of 'fun learning' outdoors

Parents across England are preparing to take their children out of school for a day of protest over "unnecessary" new examinations and a lack of creative learning within the primary school curriculum.

The protest, organised by anonymous members of the Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign, comes as head teachers warn that children as young as six are becoming anxious and stressed over National Curriculum tests (SATs).

Almost 30,000 people have signed a petition in favour of the SATs boycott on Tuesday May 3, with thousands pledging to take part in a day of "fun learning out of school" with their children to promote the value of creative outdoor learning.

In an open letter to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, campaigners said their children's mental health was at risk from the stress of sitting exams too young.

"Children as young as six are labelling themselves failures and crying about going to school," the letter said. "All year, their curriculum has been centred around comprehension and arithmetic in order to pass these tests.

"Outdoor learning has decreased, childhood anxiety has increased, games have been replaced with grammar, playing with punctuation."

"We want an end to SATs now."

Comment: It's a Pink Floyd World - Welcome (back) to the machine - Kids
Those who are bored, confused or disinterested may eventually find themselves with lower paying jobs and run the risk of being drawn toward "harmful" and "antisocial" activities such as gang membership, drugs, crime or alcoholism. Schools are society's indoctrination system, created to train and measure our children, using test scores to determine their future social status.

Pink Floyd's social criticism was pretty much on target. The system has been set up this way since the beginning of the last century, as a way of programming children, much as soldiers are trained, to serve as "tools" for those in positions of authority. It's a highly mechanistic and authoritarian system, not at all in tune with the creative and holistic ways young people naturally learn.
education reform cartoon


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Newspaper

Netherlands allocating $1.4 million for Russian-language news center


Sputnik
Sat, 30 Apr 2016 12:40 UTC
Journalist camera
© Flickr/ Penn State
The Netherlands is allocating 1.3 million euros (about $1.4 million) for setting up a news center that will ensure the cooperation of independent Russian-language media in Europe, the country's Foreign Minister Bert Koenders announced.

The center will enable journalists to exchange news stories and articles in the Russian language, Koenders said in a statement posted on the official Dutch government website on Friday.

According to the foreign minister, the initiative is a continuation of plans put forward at the September 10, 2015 conference in Warsaw.
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Quenelle

German activists rally against Merkel's cooperation with the despotic Erdogan


RT
Sat, 30 Apr 2016 04:51 UTC
German Merkel Erdogan deal refugee protest
© Ruptly
Dozens of pro-Kurdish activists alongside members of Germany's Pirate Party have held a rally outside the Chancellery in Berlin rejecting Angela Merkel's cooperation with the Turkish President, which they claim made her an accomplice in human rights violations.

Gathered outside the seat of the Chancellor, demonstrators wielding Kurdish flags and banners were addressed by Bruno Kramm, the head of the Berlin branch of Germany's Pirate Party.

"Human rights, Mrs Merkel, are not up for negotiation. We are angry because you appoint a dictator as an accomplice due to your own lack of ideas, inconsistency and cowardice," Kramm said referencing Erdogan, who has signed a migration deal with the EU in exchange for cash last month.

"We are angry. We are angry because you [Angela Merkel] reached out to a despot to withdraw from your responsibility for refugees," Kramm added accusing the Chancellor of taking a cozy route, instead of dealing with the migrant crisis head on.

Comment: Further reading:
A flood of uncontrolled war refugees from Syria, Libya, Tunisia and other Islamic countries destabilized by Washington's 'Arab Spring' Color Revolutions, has created the greatest social dislocation across the EU from Germany to Sweden to Croatia since the end of World War II. By now it has become clear to most that something quite sinister is afoot, something which threatens to destroy the social fabric of the very core of European civilization. What few realize is that the entire drama is being orchestrated, not by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, or by faceless EU bureaucrats of the Brussels EU Commission. It is being orchestrated by a cabal of NATO-linked think tanks.

NATO-linked think tanks control Europe's reaction to refugee crisis


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Eye 1

2 toddlers found tied up in backyard as 8 children found abandoned in Texas home


RT
Fri, 29 Apr 2016 00:05 UTC
child
© Pierre Marsaut / Reuters
Two crying toddlers tied or chained down in the backyard of a home in San Antonio, Texas, were among the eight children, ranging from ages 10 months to 13 years old, found by police in what authorities have called a "horrific" case of child abuse.

Around 11:45pm on Thursday, Bexar County sheriff's deputies arrived at the home following a 911 notification in which the caller said she had heard children crying in the backyard for at least a couple of hours. Using a ladder, the deputies found a two-year-old boy chained to the ground and a 3-year-old girl tied to a door with a dog leash.

"Our deputies arrive to the house, they knock on the front door (and) no one answers. They go to the backyard, they get a ladder to look over the fence and that's where they see the two toddlers," Bexar County Sheriff's Office spokesman James Keith said, accordingto KSAT. "The little boy was chained to the ground. The little girl was tied up with a dog leash to a door. It was obvious they had both been there a while. There (were) obvious signs of abuse."

Inside the house, deputies found six more unsupervised children of varying ages. The toddlers were taken to Christus Santa Rosa Children's Hospital to be treated for injuries, the Sheriff's Office said. The girl had a broken arm, Keith added. All eight children are now in custody of Texas Child Protective Services.
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Light Sabers

Civic minded Romans reclaim the city after years of neglect by corrupt officials

Frances D'Emilio
The Big Story
Fri, 29 Apr 2016 14:51 UTC
rome voluteers
© AP Photo/Alessandra TarantinoVolunteers clean the banks of the Tiber river, Rome, as part of the Retake Rome gathering, Sunday April 17, 2016. Tired of waiting years for the city to replace diseased trees and do other work, Romans are starting to take back their city.
Armed with shovels and sacks of cold asphalt, Rome's residents fill potholes. Defying rats, they yank weeds and bag trash along the Tiber's banks and in urban parks. Tired of waiting years for the city to replace diseased trees, neighbors dig into their own pockets to pay for new ones for their block.

Romans are starting to take back their city, which for years was plundered and neglected by City Hall officials and cronies so conniving that some of them are on trial as alleged mobsters.

In doing the work, Romans are experimenting with what for many Italians is a novel and alien concept: a sense of civic duty.

One windy recent Sunday morning, Manuela Di Santo slathered paint over graffiti defacing a wall on Via Ludovico di Monreale, a residential block in Rome's middle-class Monteverde neighborhood. Men, perched on ladders, used mechanical sanders to erase graffiti on another palazzo. Women and children swept up litter, filling black plastic trash bags provided by the city's sanitation service, which is only too glad to have someone do the job for free.

"Either I help the city, or we're all brought to our knees," said Di Santo.

Comment: Bravo to these Romans who have recognized that the quality of their lives is in their own hands and have begun the necessary steps to reclaim their power. If these types of movements could gain traction around the globe, perhaps we might collectively begin to hope for a better future for humanity.

Post imperialism: A Template for a New Social Order

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Sheriff

Road-raging Chicago cops beat minister

Dave Savini
CBS Chicago
Thu, 28 Apr 2016 20:11 UTC
chicago police
A woman with two small children in her car tried to pull into her driveway. That simple task ended with Chicago police officers pointing a gun to her head and charging her with attempted murder.

CBS 2's Dave Savini has police video, the 9-1-1 calls and complaints against these officers.

In 2013, Rev. Catherine Brown found herself in a violent struggle with Chicago police, which was caught on squad car cameras. It began when Brown was driving down her alley heading to her driveway. Around a bend she says she saw a squad car speeding towards her without lights or sirens.

"It's a blessing I did blow my horn," says Brown, who thought the police car could have hit her.
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Handcuffs

McCain staff member arrested for running meth lab and drug operation


RT
Fri, 29 Apr 2016 21:47 UTC
meth lab mccain fundraiser
© Ralph Orlowski / Reuters
A meth lab in Arizona is standing out not because of the drugs or counterfeit cash police found inside, but rather the person behind the operation: the fundraiser for John McCain's Senate re-election bid.

Emily Pitha was arrested after the lab was found in her Maricopa County home on Tuesday. Pitha, 34, was a staff member for retired US Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) and was listed as the RSVP contact for Sen. John McCain's (R-Arizona) re-election fundraiser, Raw Story reported.

Comment: Considering McCain's psychopathic nature, it's not surprising that his coterie would contain those of like mind.

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