Since I didn’t see any other Pit thread concerning this, I’m cross posting this entry from my journal. I’m still angry at the thought of this. Wow, just…wow. :mad: :eek:
I found this news story today. I just sat there, mouth hanging open as I read it. What the hell is wrong with some people? How could that woman do what she did? How could she get any peace at all, knowing what she did?
At least the 16 year old likely had enough common sense to help their siblings survive. I wonder if this case will set precedents? If I were a prosecutor I’d be sorely tempted to try to prosecute her for some form of attempted murder/reckless endangerment. She left them behind, in a foriegn country to fend for themselves. Three of them contracted malaria. I cannot imagine being lost and unable to truly help myself without commiting a crime in this country, let alone a strange one with customs and languages I didn’t understand. Who knows what those kids had to do in order to get food. I hope she rots.
I heard a radio story about that situation that said she was still receiving her payments of a little over $500.00 per kid while the kids were in the orphanage!
Also, I find it interesting in the new story that ‘state officials were deciding whether to bring charges’. “Whether”? …Should be “When”.
I hope she doesn’t get off on some loop hole such as “Uh, we don’t have a law against dropping adopted kids off in foreign countries”.
It amazes and sickens me that horrid people are allowed to adopt and then neglect/ abuse children. I sincerely hope that in her next life, the adoptive mother ends up as neglected as these kids.
What makes me shudder is wondering how the kids got food. Did the “only” steal? Did they forcibly rob people? Or did they have to “sell” themselves in order to eat? Do they have other diseases besides malaria due to this? My heart aches to even consider what they had to do just to get food.
No, in all honesty, it doesn’t.
And before anyone starts screeching about how unsympathic I am, I’ve don’t think a bleeding heart necessarily helps put food on the table.
It can but it can also allow one to wallow in a kind of inactive compassion that enables one to feel good about oneself while doing nothing but paying lip service to the problem.
I’ve discovered that what works for me is to 1) support the politicians that actually attempt to address the issue of poverty in the Third World and 2) to give what I can to organizations that attempt to alleviate the mind numbing poverty.
Of course, this is not in any way an implication that you do not do the same.
Of course not, why would you imply anything like that about me? Those implications deserve no more comment than that. Here’s a quote from the OP, just in case you missed it.
The topic is a specific case of extreme case of child abadonment. Wherever it occurs, it’s wrong. I just happened to bring up a specific case that has recently had media attention. Why don’t you stick to the discussion at hand, and quit coyly sniping at me? I thought I made your “brain bleed” anyway? Why are you participating in, much less reading this thread which I started, in the first place? Surely it’s not to take a chance to slyly slip in a dig or two, is it? Why not show that you can stick to the topic, and not be petty? :dubious:
In a lot of cases, there’s simply no real law about it. I mean, its like there’s no law on building black-hole generators and sucking the universe into your basement. Its simply not something that people think about when they right laws.
Actually, I was and I agreed that this woman’s act was beyond the pale.
However given that millions of children are forced daily to to perform the very acts that “make your heart bleed”, I was just curious as to whether it bleed only for these particular children.
Truthfully, I’m a wee bit bored this morning and I read every thread in the Pit .
And I thought your “aching heart” comment was an example of over the top sentimentality .
Plus I didn’t know that it was verboten for me to comment in your threads.
What, do you keep a file on everyone that’s ever disagreed with you on the board?
Actually, I did.
I commented on the original topic
and added that this was a common state of affairs for a large group of children who also live in Nigeria.
If you were so very concerned about staying on topic, why did you decide to lecture me?
Wow, you’re kind of an asshole, aren’t you? What’s with these people who feel the need to search for any instance of compassion and (always without grounds) accuse the compassionate person of being a hypocrite? Usually this only shows up in political threads with phrases like “bleeding heart liberal” tossed hell, west and crooked, but it’s nice to see that the hypocrisy police are expanding their activities.
In other words, for throwing a tantrum at seeing another person feel human compassion, I brand you a :wally
Asking a question is now throwing a temper tantrum?
Hardly.
What don’t you understand about the words reprehensible or persecution or the phrase "beyond the pale’?
And I certainly never called Zabali_Clawbane a hyprocrite.
As I said before, this is the lot of thousands if not millions of the children that live in Nigeria.
Prostituiton, theft, starvation, and disease.
A way of life.
While it’s nice that the plight of these children has caught both the eye of the media and Zabali_Clawbane, all I asked was if her heart ached for the one’s that weren’t today’s topic de jour.
Because they’ll still be living that way, long after these kids have come home.
Maybe I’m an asshole too, but I think jlzania raises a provocative and worthwhile point.
We feel outrage over the stories that hit the front page, while we let a lot of other stuff slide. Some of that is probably sensible survival. We’d get compassion fatigue. We’d also get depressed if we spent all our time (and pit threads) focused on tragedies that befall children.
I’ve often felt that ranting about stuff like this is purposeless. Maybe it lets off a little steam, I guess, but what else does it do? Show other Dopers that you’re Sensitive, Caring Person Who Gets Upset About Things Like This?
I salute those of you who work, in any way, shape, or fashion, on improving the lives of people who are featured in these sorts of stories–or the nameless faceless people who should be featured in these sorts of stories. I understand those of you who can’t, or won’t, or are spending your time/energy on other compelling causes. We can’t all do everything. And we can’t fix everything.
But if you’re one of these people who just enjoys ranting, well, I hope it makes you feel better. Not sure what else good it is doing. It’s not even entertaining (which makes many a pit thread worthwhile)–it’s just a big bummer.
Think you misunderstood me. I like the whole rant/pitting, it is just that any time there is a thread condemning someone’s actions, some fucknut pops in and tries to tell everyone that “…we should remember that everyone is innocent until provien guilty in a court of law…”
Just trying to fend off those a-holes before they get going.
