Society's ChildS


Airplane

Jet Blue puts 5 y.o. boy on wrong plane; mom freaks out

Maribel Martinez
© Jesse Ward/NY Daily NewsMaribel Martinez, a Manhattan mom, lost it when she couldn't find her son on a plane that arrived at JFK. She's seen here holding a photo of her little boy.
It was JetBlue's plane stupidity that got a Manhattan boy lost.

A 5-year-old returning home alone from a family visit in the Dominican Republic was placed on the wrong flight — and ended up 214 miles away in Boston while his panic-stricken mom waited at Kennedy Airport.

Maribel Martinez said she lost her mind while it took more than three hours to locate her son, Andy Martinez Mercado.

"I thought he was kidnapped," Martinez, 38, told the Daily News. "I thought I would never see him again."

People 2

HRW: Displaced minors recruited by Iraqi govt militias to fight ISIS

child soldier
© www.warscapes.com
Child soldiers are recruited by government-aligned militias to fight Islamic State forces in Mosul, Human Rights Watch has learned. The NGO urges Iraq's allies to take action as the US-led coalition plans to retake the Iraqi city before year-end. Speaking to witnesses on the ground the HRW discovered that two tribal militias who are taking part in the fight for Mosul recruited at least seven children from the Debaga camp in August

The camp itself houses displaced persons who fled Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) from an area near Mosul. The HRW found that people living in the camp since March attested to seeing at least two militia groups, commanded by Sheikh Nishwan al-Jabouri and by Maghdad al-Sabawy, recruit from the camp for months.

Witnesses told the NGO that they have seen trucks arriving empty to the camps but driving away with new recruits, which sometimes included underage boys. On the evening of August 14, camps residents reported seeing some 250 recruits being taken away by Sheikh al-Jabouri's forces, with seven boys among them. The boys were said to be then driven to a town 7km from the front lines with IS, closer to Mosul, where Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) are preparing for an offensive to drive the terrorists from the city.

An unnamed aid worker revealed to the HRW that recruiting from the camps was part of the government-backed militias' plan to reinforce the front line with terrorists. The NGO has also documented that Iraqi Shiite militias as well used child soldiers to fight IS forces. On the other side of the front, militia's young soldiers are to be met by the so-called 'Cubs of the Caliphate', child combatants recruited and trained by IS.


Comment: War crimes are happening every day. They continue unaddressed. There is no global mandate/protocol/officiate -- authorized and willing -- to condemn such actions by enforcing severe and immediate consequence, therefore no rules apply. Using children as soldiers/jihadis in the line of fire is one of the worst of all ungodly offenses.


Attention

Rutgers: Speak only when necessary to avoid microaggressions

poster Rutgers
© coed.com
Students in at least one Rutgers University residence hall are being encouraged to use only language that is "helpful" and "necessary" to avoid committing microaggressions. The display, which is part of the school's "Language Matters" campaign, also includes hand-written definitions of the three types of microaggressions, as well as a flyer listing potentially-offensive words and phrases.

The display, photos of which were obtained by Campus Reform, is titled "Language Matters: Think," and was placed in the College Avenue Apartments by a resident assistant, according to a current resident of the building who does not wish to be identified.

Erected as part of the university's "Language Matters" campaign, the bulletin board instructs students to ask themselves whether their choice of words is "true," "helpful," "inspiring," "necessary," and "kind" before speaking out, and also includes a list of potentially-offensive terms, such as "retarded" and "illegal aliens."

The board warns students that failing to follow these guidelines could lead them to commit a microaggression, which include "microassaults," "microinsults," and "microinvalidations."

Comment: Geez! Why don't they just hand out mouth band-aids? There is SO MUCH wrong with this! Someone who is offended by another's use of language should just say so and work it out between them, as in (duh) 'communication.' The bigger, broader picture is the authoritarian promotion of isolation and fear, leading to numbed down sheeple afraid to say anything...which serves the PTB just fine. Shhhh! Mums the word...


Fire

Attempt by relatives to set pregnant Indian woman on fire after oracle predicts baby girl

Girija
© www.thehansindia.comGirija
A pregnant woman in India was almost set on fire by her husband's family after a soothsayer predicted that she would carry a girl, not a boy, local media reported. The incident took place in the village of Muthukur, Andhra Pradesh state, southeastern India, the Hans India newspaper reported. Though the case happened on August 20, it has appeared in Indian media only recently.

The woman, identified as Girija, married a man named Tandra Srinivasulu two years ago. The couple already has one daughter. When Girija became pregnant again, Tandra's mother and sister contacted a soothsayer who predicted that Girija would have a baby girl again. In many Indian villages baby boys are still much more welcomed than girls. The woman's in-laws demanded she have an abortion, but she did not agree.

"After Girija refused, her mother in-law attempted to set Girija on fire by pouring kerosene on her stomach while she was sleeping," police sources told News18.com outlet. The Hans India daily also reports there was some acid mixed with the kerosene. Neighbors heard the cries and called an ambulance. The woman was admitted to a private hospital. News18.com says her health is out of danger.

Women in India face numerous crimes of oppression, including rape, acid throwing and the forced prostitution of young girls. In 2012, India was ranked as the worst G20 country to be born a woman and one of the worst countries for women in the world by TrustLaw, a legal news service.

"In India, women and girls continue to be sold as chattels, married off as young as 10, burned alive as a result of dowry-related disputes and young girls exploited and abused as domestic slave labor," Gulshun Rehman, health program development adviser at Save the Children UK, which took part in the poll, told Reuters. In 2014, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said it was concerned over India's "failure to implement relevant laws and policies and ensure non-discrimination."

Comment: This monstrous action is unthinkable as a way to solve a family issue. There are extreme variations of morals, ethics and behavior in different parts of the world, and differences in acceptability within those populations. India is noted as one of the worst for women's rights and wellbeing of any modern society. It has a long way to go to reach an acceptable global standard of human rights and equality and should start with outlawing female feticide.


Syringe

Olympic wrestler refuses medal upgrade from disqualified deceased Olympic competitor

Yogeshwar Dutt
© Suhaib Salem/ReutersIndia's Yogeshwar Dutt, bronze medal winner Mens' 60Kg Freestyle wrestling, London 2012 Olympic Games
An Indian wrestler has refused a medal upgrade from the 2012 London Olympics after a Russian competitor's dope test turned out positive following his death in a car crash. The athlete said the family of the Russian wrestler should keep the silver medal.

Yogeshwar Dutt from Haryana, India, competed against Russia's Besik Kudukhov in the men's 60kg freestyle category at the 2012 Games. The Russian wrestler received a silver medal, while Dutt claimed the bronze.

Although Kudukhov - a four-time world champion and two-time Olympic medalist - died in a car crash in 2013, his samples were recently re-tested and were found to have contained banned substances. That finding has resulted in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripping him of his medal.

The re-test was part of standard practice by the IOC, which stores samples for up to 10 years to allow for the use of advanced testing methods. A total of 98 athletes from the London and Beijing Olympics have so far tested positive for doping, out of the 1,000 samples re-tested.

Comment: The anti-doping Nazis are at it to the fullest, checking samples on hand for 10 years and issuing reversals of fortunes at any time therein. Russian forfeitures were the only ones specifically mentioned in this article although it claimed 98 positive tests.


Penis Pump

US pervert politician Anthony Weiner investigated by Children's Services for sexting next to son

Anthony Weiner
© Lucas Jackson/ReutersAnthony Weiner
Children's services have reportedly entered the apartment of former congressman Anthony Weiner over his recent sexting, this time because it apparently involved his four-year-old son. According to the New York Post, representatives of the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) have already visited the Manhattan apartment, where Weiner lives with his wife, Huma Abedin, a senior aide to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and their mutual four-year-old son Jordan.

weiner and son
© www.thesun.co.uk
The ACS has reportedly started a probe into "disgraced" Weiner's care of the boy after the Post publically shared a picture that the former politician sent to an unknown woman, believed to be a divorcee in her 40s.

A children's services worker told the Post Wednesday that under ACS protocol, officials should respond with a home visit within 48 hours. ACS showed up at Weiner's on Tuesday. The government source has also explained that the main purpose of such checks is to make sure that a child has a room to sleep in and food to eat.

At the same time, the Post obtained a video that showed Weiner leaving his apartment early Tuesday morning, and it was not clear if officials managed to enter the property. On Wednesday, Weiner reportedly claimed that he had no ACS officials visiting him.

Weiner's sexual messaging exchange took place over a year ago, but was made public only this week.
"Someone just climbed into my bed," Weiner wrote in a message sent shortly after 3:00am on July 31, 2015.

"Really?" she responded.

This is when Weiner sent proof, a picture of himself lying on a bed in his underwear with his son, right near his hips.

"You do realize you can see you[r] Weiner in that pic??" the woman wrote.

Comment: That poor kid has one heck of a choice in parents.


USA

Trump immigration hypocrisy: Former models for Trump agency say they worked illegally and violated immigration rules

trump models
© Pierre Roussel/ Zuma Press; Louis Lanzano/AP Photo
Republican nominee Donald Trump has placed immigration at the core of his presidential campaign. He has claimed that undocumented immigrants are "taking our jobs" and "taking our money," pledged to deport them en masse, and vowed to build a wall on the Mexican border. At one point he demanded a ban on Muslims entering the country. Speaking to supporters in Iowa on Saturday, Trump said he would crack down on visitors to the United States who overstay their visas and declared that when any American citizen "loses their job to an illegal immigrant, the rights of that American citizen have been violated." And he is scheduled to give a major address on immigration in Arizona on Wednesday night.

But the mogul's New York modeling agency, Trump Model Management, has profited from using foreign models who came to the United States on tourist visas that did not permit them to work here, according to three former Trump models, all noncitizens, who shared their stories with Mother Jones. Financial and immigration records included in a recent lawsuit filed by a fourth former Trump model show that she, too, worked for Trump's agency in the United States without a proper visa.

Foreigners who visit the United States as tourists are generally not permitted to engage in any sort of employment unless they obtain a special visa, a process that typically entails an employer applying for approval on behalf of a prospective employee. Employers risk fines and possible criminal charges for using undocumented labor.

Syringe

Drug prohibition and the backstory behind the recent wave of heroin overdoses

heroin overdose
Over the course of six days in mid-August, 174 people overdosed on heroin in Cincinnati, Ohio. Earlier this month, 26 residents of Cabell County, West Virginia shared the same fate in a four-hour span. And between May and July of 2016 in Louisville, Kentucky, the number of heroin and opioid overdoses tripled.

As increased opioid use and overdoses become a trend, the natural response from law enforcement in most of the country is to come down harder on drug traffickers and users. This amounts to taking on the same approach to drug use and commerce that has been directly associated with the increase in incarceration among poor and non-violent blacks and Latinos.

According to the National Seizure System's data, there has been an "80 percent increase in heroin seizures in the past five years" in America, from "3,733 kilograms in 2011 to 6,722 kilograms in 2015."

Comment:


Rocket

Rocket carrying Facebook satellite explodes on launch pad at Cape Canaveral

space x rocket explosion
A Falcon 9 booster rocket exploded on the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as tropical storm Hermine bore down on the area. An Israeli satellite that was to provide Facebook broadband to Africa was lost in the explosion, SpaceX confirmed.

"In preparation for today's static fire, there was an anomaly on the pad, resulting in the loss of the vehicle and its payload," SpaceX said in a statement Thursday morning.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the explosion occurred during the fueling phase, and originated "around upper stage oxygen tank," but the cause was still undetermined.

The blast shook buildings some distance away, according to witnesses who reported it on social media. Thick black smoke could be seen rising from the pad, while secondary explosions continued.

The plume of smoke was tracked on weather radar.


Dollars

Italy: "Here's some money, kids, don't become terrorists"

St. Peter's Square
© Alessandro Di Meo/European Pressphoto AgencyItalian police stand guard at a checkpoint in Conciliazione Street, next to St. Peter's Square, in Rome in Nov. 17, 2015.
As Europe struggles to counter the threat posed by the Islamic State and other militant groups, the Italian government is set to launch a scheme that will take the fight to a different level.

Starting mid-September, more than half a million 18-year-olds living in Italy are eligible to receive vouchers valued at more than $500 each. The vouchers will allow recipients to visit museums free, go to concerts for reduced prices or watch movies.

"It sends a clear message — a welcome for those who reach the age of 18 and a reminder of how crucial culture is, both for personal enrichment and for strengthening the social fabric of the country," Tommaso Nannicini, the official in charge of the program, was quoted as saying last week.

Comment: A one-time check for $500 is hardly enough to radically change a youth's worldview. It may be fun as a "culture bonus" for those who already appreciate Italian culture, but as an incentive to counter 'radicalization'... good luck. The only solution would have to be much more complex and involve not only a complete rearrangement of geopolitics away from Western hegemony, harsh penalties for organizations (like the CIA, Gulen, and Saudi networks that support and train terrorists), support for moderate and stable government in the Middle East and surrounding regions (e.g., Assad's Syria, Libya as it was under Gadaffi, Iran, Chechnya under Kadyrov), isolation and sanctions against radical regimes (e.g., Saudi Arabia), multi-religious education, cross-cultural sharing and socialization, and more. Russia has arguably been more effective in their approach over the past 20 years. It's not perfect, but it's far better than the alternatives on offer in the West: