Teeter-totter

     This blog is the third part of a trilogy about children in many parts of the world. An earthquake in Peru sends many flocking into a church, but hundreds die when the House of God collapses upon them. A bus load of school children teeters on a broken bridge over the Mississippi River. They escaped, but not without being psychologically scarred for life. This seesaw of life and death causes many to ask where was God's protection, but not even Mother Teresa could answer that question, for her writings reveal that in dark moments she doubted the existence of a Supreme Being.

                                             A lad in Argentina slides under the ice. A life-saving team nearby pulls him out and revives him. A boy noted for his big friendly smile is shot dead by two drive-by teens in England, a terrible shock in a country that prohibits the bearing of firearms. In this country, three college students were forced to kneel by a vicious street gang and shot in the back of the head. The leader of the gang turns out to be an illegal alien from Peru, a member of one of America's most feared gang, La Mara Salvattucha, or MS-13.

     More and more attention is being paid to the horrifying plight of young children forced to work from dawn to dusk in dangerous locations. To commemorate World Day Against Child Labour, BBC News spent a day with 800 child miners digging for copper and cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "At eight years of age, Decu and his twin brother, Kaba, set off on a two-hour walk to work, both in torn sweatshirts and trousers, with only a few sips of water to serve as breakfast. When they arrive at the mines, they join the ranks of boys and begin digging with their bare hands without any protection from the choking grey dust. Some of the children are as young as five or six. this pathetic scene taking place in one of the richest countries in Africa."

     An  earlier blog, "Small Fry," July, 2007, described young black children sold into slavery by their poverty-stricken parents to work for fishermen. Even more horrifying are the stories of children kidnapped and forced to enlist  in armies. Loaded down with weapons and high on drugs, the Lost Boys were soon transformed into mutilating, killing machines, more ruthless than adult rebel fighters.

     "If I had a gun, I would kill all the Arabs," says a 13-year-old boy from his hospital bed in Chad. After the Sudanese-sponsored jamjaweed Arab militia shot his father, Ismail Hassan ran forward and covered his father's body with his own. That show of courage didn't stop the jamjaweed from shooting Ismail as well. The genocide that began in Darfur has spread to Chad and is threatening other neighboring countries. The White House is doing very little to stop the expansion, leaving black boys like Ismail no choice but to dedicate their lives to killing Arabs.

     Meantime, in Middle East countries, Muslim youngsters are being taught that Christians and Jews are infidels and should be beheaded.Clashes among religions are the driving forces that lead to the killing fields. Recently, three masked cowards poured gas on a three-year-old boy and set him afire. Oh, brave new world that has such bastards in it.

     Saddam Ali Abbas, one of the 24 orphans rescued from deplorable circumstances, succumbed to the medieval mistreatment. None of America's miraculous advances in emergency treatment could save the boy. (See blog "Small Fry")

                                        Let's hope Ali Abbas is safe and comfortable in Paradise. Once more the teeter-totter moves in the opposite direction. Here's a story from CBS entitled "Miracle Baby in Iraq." Her name is Fatima and the nurses caring for her guess she's about nine months old.Fatima's life was saved by her seven-year-old brother, who led Iraqi and U.S. soldiers to their home, where they discovered her mother and uncle had been shot close range to the head. Fatima lay helpless and dying in the sweltering heat. A nurse later commented:  "When she first got here, her arms and legs were just bones." With constant love and attention from the hospital staff, Fatima has already put on four pounds.

                                       

       No one has visited Little Fatima except for the soldiers who rescued her. The hospital staff members know she can't stay there forever, and they're desperately worried about her future.

     Let's all pray that she doesn't get sent to an Iraqi orphanage, a nightmare in a country whose religion has an edict to protect the poor and the helpless. Bush's Surge may be helping in some areas, but nothing will ever bring about a reconciliation between the Shiites and Sunnis. Deaths among Iraqi civilians increased in August. The seesaw continues when a Marine murders four young men and then blows up two houses and kills women and young children. Only one American army officer was tried for the permanent black eye of Abu Ghraib, not for the torture, but for going public with what was done to the prisoners. Years from now, when we look back at Bush's War, will we ask: "Was that us?"

                               Postscripts

     >A future blog will be devoted to the killing of Afghan students by the Taliban and American kids dying in street wars. You'll be surprised by what they have in common.

     >In your wildest dreams, do you think it's possible that Laura might roll over in bed and say, "Bushie, why did you use a poison pill meant to deny thousands of children health care?" Probably not. By now she knows he's too self-centered to feel the pain of others. Besides, they are busy planning their daughter's wedding, while thousands of grieving mothers and bereaved wives plan funerals for loved ones killed in Iraq.

    > Both Giuliani and Romney seem to be cut from the same political cloth as Bush, who now has more blood on his hands than any other president. A woman in an audience recently asked Romney whether any of his five sons are serving in the military. After some hemming and hawing, he finally said:  "One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected president, because they think I'd be a great president."  His arrogance is matched by Giuliani's command: "Leave my family alone."  He'd been asked why he should expect loyalty from GOP voters when his children aren't backing him.

     >While traveling in space, teacher Barbara Morgan sent a message to her students on earth:  "That's one small step for man, one slight stagger for moonshine." (I should have had her send a message to my granddaughter, Sarah, who is getting married next week).

>Lusty Larry no longer answers roll call/For sending signals in a stall.

Where do you find a male ho/In the Gay Old state of Ida-ho?

Mr. Family Man was quite haughty/Until arrested for being naughty.

He spread his fat legs wide/To dodge the turgid tide, ho-ho.

He said: "I'm not gay, never have been gay/And thank you for

coming out today."

     >An e-mail from Karl the Actor:  "In your August column, you should have included the short Swift essay."  Since I was recommending literature for children to replace"Harry Potter," don't you think that Swift's "Modest Proposal"  is too savage for young minds?  After all, the cannibalism involved in feeding Irish babies to the rich is just a bit hard to swallow.

     In closing, let me identify the rat who thought he could out-cook me. I lifted that rat-scal from a a movie making the rounds, mainly to entertain the little ones.

                                       

  End of Kiddie Trilogy

Comments

[Wondering]

Is this the Small Town blog ot the Iraq blog? I can't figure it out.

[Wondering]

But I love it, don't get me wrong! Keep up the great work.