What About The Iraqi Children?

[vicente]

With $ billions now going to the Tsunami children, what about the Iraqi children?

Hey,...we're not suppose to discuss that,...we could be arrested under the Patriot Act,...so could I for responding. If we begin to discuss Iraqi children, this will lead to comments regarding the more than 50,000 Iraqi children who died per year as a direct result of US sanctions through the 90's.

http://www.scn.org/ccpi/nicarthy-VoicesFromIraq1.html
UNICEF estimates show that about 50,000 Iraqi children die each year because of economic sanctions.
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/response/...105.muslim.html (http://www.npr.org/news/specials/response/home_front/features/2001/nov/muslim/011105.muslim.html)
Background of the Iraqi conflict
http://deoxy.org/wc/warcrim2.htm#back
Who gassed the Kurds?
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/THO209A.html
Bush's illegal war
http://www.impeachbush.tv/impeach/articles.html

America is not ready for the truth.

Imagine,...between 1991 and Bush's illegal, premeditated invasion of Iraq, more 50,000 Iraqi children per year died because of US sanctions,...that's roughly 6 million who could not be freedom fighters during the US occupation.

Vicente
:)

[mer]

Thanks for bringing these things up. Yes, you're right, we can't handle the truth.

It's interesting to me that in all rescue and relief efforts, children are listed primarily. Why do people see children as more deserving of not being killed, not starving, etc.? Don't wax eloquent and romantic about the innocence of children - as a teacher for a number of years, they often remind me of The Lord of the Flies. They're far crueler than (most) adults are.

Which is not to say I disagree with the premise that children are highly deserving of all help possible - I've devoted my life to it. But why not the adults of the community, who are the most influential role models? Why are we so threatened by the idea of adults deserving and requiring post-disaster relief? That they could govern their own country and we never should have invaded? Etc.

Vicente, are you located in the US? I do miss the news reports I'd get in other countries. While I can dig around for alternative view (not US's DOD's) here, it's not as present.

[vicente]

Vicente, are you located in the US? I do miss the news reports I'd get in other countries.

Yes,...I'm in the US Southwest. I too enjoy the alternative news sources.

"There's really five companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see and hear. It's not healthy." Ted Turner

Some of my favorite alternatives include:
http://www.disinfo.com/site/
http://www.alternet.org/
http://english.pravda.ru/
http://www.wpherald.com/
http://smudgereport.com/
http://icasualties.org/oif/

:)

[sahyo]

They're far crueler than (most) adults are.



babies cruel before taught/encouraged to discriminate?

[sahyo]

It's interesting to me that in all rescue and relief efforts, children are listed primarily. Why do people see children as more deserving of not being killed, not starving, etc.? Don't wax eloquent and romantic about the innocence of children - as a teacher for a number of years, they often remind me of The Lord of the Flies. They're far crueler than (most) adults are.

Which is not to say I disagree with the premise that children are highly deserving of all help possible - I've devoted my life to it. But why not the adults of the community, who are the most influential role models? Why are we so threatened by the idea of adults deserving and requiring post-disaster relief? That they could govern their own country and we never should have invaded? Etc.



may all children rebel such idotic attempts to rationalize the importance of imagined adults

[mer]

babies cruel before taught/encouraged to discriminate?

Children are cruel. Babies probably would be if they had any power - just because they are hard-wired to be pretty self-absorbed for survival.

Who are children cruelest to? Usually their siblings. No discrimination there. Children are wonderful and fascinating and blessings - but please don't romanticize them.

may all children rebel such idotic attempts to rationalize the importance of imagined adults

What imagined adults??

I speak theoretically of tsunami victims, but concretely of U.S. education. All these billions of dollars spent on ed reforms, but want to know what really makes a difference in kids' education? Helping their parents out of poverty. 86% of the factors influencing students' achievement in schools in California is outside of school control - it's things like mother's education level and SES of parents.

Why help adults? Real, not imagined adults? They are the ones who can really help their children.

[sahyo]

They are the ones who can really help their children.



like encouraging them to discriminate like you posted?

[sahyo]

but want to know what really makes a difference in kids' education? Helping their parents out of poverty.



what saying? :)

[mer]

like encouraging them to discriminate like you posted?

Discriminate between differences, yes. Against others? Where on earth did I post that?

No, parents help their children far more than external aid agencies any day - with a very few exceptions.

This thinking outsiders are better for children than their own parents - that is a really frightening idea that led to cultural genocide for most Native Americans.

[sahyo]

Discriminate between differences, yes. Against others? Where on earth did I post that?



didn't say "against others"?


No, parents help their children far more than external aid agencies any day - with a very few exceptions.



:lol:


This thinking outsiders are better for children than their own parents



what "outsiders"?

[mer]

outsiders = external aid agencies, governments, etc.

Who are often meaning to do really good things and their hearts are in the right place. But ... in the case of Native Americans, children were forcibly removed from their homes and raised in white-run boarding schools in order to remove all traces of Indian/Eskimoness. The BIA was the outsider there, and this policy of considering an official superior to a family destroyed countless lives.

The belief that used to be held that formula was better for babies than mother's milk goes hand-in-hand with that - that "science" and "authoritative knowledge" is better than parents. Of course it led to thousands if not millions of deaths especially in developing countries where perfectly healthy and lactating mothers who wanted to do best for their children used water for formula which was not completely clean.

Outsiders - anybody not family. Family is and should be the first vehicle of assistance for children by strengthening the family's resources.

This was my point. When we deliver aid to tsunami survivors, we need to help everybody - not just children. It also undermines the family value when the parents aren't the ones providing. Only when the family/community cannot care for a child should outsiders help more directly.

And I didn't understand your earlier post - "what saying"? What? Do you mean where do I get the 86%? From my statistical analysis of all California middle schools and the factors affecting student achievement, which I found later had been run by the California Department of Education for students in general, and their numbers matched mine.

[sahyo]

Family is and should be the first vehicle of assistance for children by strengthening the family's resources.



well many families don't....
and should/shouldn'ts not happening


This was my point. When we deliver aid to tsunami survivors, we need to help everybody - not just children.



but stating "They're far crueler than (most) adults are."
for trying to convince?


It also undermines the family value when the parents aren't the ones providing.



only seems "family" if imagining-'not family'


And I didn't understand your earlier post - "what saying"? What? Do you mean where do I get the 86%? From my statistical analysis of all California middle schools and the factors affecting student achievement



no, this:


but want to know what really makes a difference in kids' education? Helping their parents out of poverty.



what saying?

[mer]

uh, still don't understand your point. The most effective way to improve children's lives and educational achievement is to improve the conditions in which their parents work and live.

are families perfect? hell no. are they better than institutions and the accompanying inhumanity? hell yes.

and should/shouldn'ts not happening

oh yes they are - all around us. like rainbows and smog and clouds and pollen.

but stating "They're far crueler than (most) adults are."
for trying to convince?

it's realization. children are cruel. and annoyance with romanticization because what accompanies it is often racism. "The children are ok because they haven't been infected with *their* values."

[sahyo]

maybe mer romanticizing?

[Nick_A]

Just felt like acknowledging once more the very unique heart of this special friend and her efforts for these children.

Excerpt from a letter from Iraq:

Bettejo Passalaqua, Baghdad, Iraq, 15 April 2003

I spent the morning with a wonderful Iraqi family whom I have come to know because Khaled and his son Waleed drive fro us. Waleed speaks excellent English and he is helping me with some with Arabic too. He is an extremely intelligent and thoughtful person. Once as we were leaving the hospital [where we were helping with an] arts and crafts program, he told me he could see in the eyes of the children that I was to them an angel sent to give them hope. I broke down crying, because I know I can offer them no hope. Today he said that his experiences at the hospital have changed his way of thinking [about] his life, and he would like to devote his time to the service to others.

An interview with Bettejo


SOMETIMES IT'S BETTER
NOT TO HEAL
Journal of Healing – June 18, 2003
By Mary Koch

Three months in Baghdad, witnessing war while fasting for peace, took a toll on Bettejo Passalaqua. Weak and sick, she returned to the U.S. a few weeks ago.

Bettejo went to Iraq earlier this year as a peace activist. Before that, she'd served for six years as a pastoral assistant for the Catholic church on the Colville Indian Reservation. Now she's staying with friends in Okanogan

Resting and being with friends has been healing, she says, but she's not seeking full recovery.

"I'm not sure how healed I am at this point," she told me. "I wouldn't want to become so healed that I lose my my feeling for it. We carry these things with us for a reason."

Bettejo and I were having this conversation in a quiet backyard on a perfect June morning. A native of Florida, she set her lawn chair in the hot sun. A native of Minnesota, I chose a nearby chair under the shade of a large tree. She sipped what she called her "morning caffeine." I drank ice water.

Individuals have these small differences. But there was a yawning, gaping difference between Bettejo and me. For me, Iraq was a worrisome but distant problem. For her, Iraq is at the core of every waking moment.

"When I came back, maybe after ten days I walked outside and it was a beautiful day. I felt good for just a moment. It was maybe 15 seconds before I said, 'What's happening in Baghdad?' and broke down again."

A 42-year-old grandmother of six, Bettejo was not a stranger to hardship when she went to Iraq.

"I've worked in the South Bronx and I worked here on the reservation and encountered a tremendous amount of suffering among the people," she said. "But not so concentrated -- like going into a hospital with children dying. Then after the bombing, children paralyzed, no arms or legs."

Before the war began, Bettejo had participated in a vigil at the border of Kuwait. She'd traveled with the Iraq Peace Team across the desert, witnessing the devastation still visible from the Gulf War. Not as visible but omnipresent was the depleted uranium pollution of soil and air that remains from ammunition used by U.S. forces. Medical authorities in Iraq have been charting a dramatic increase in cancer caused, they say, by depleted uranium.

Bettejo worked in a Baghdad hospital, providing arts and crafts for children in a cancer ward.

"It was a diversion," she says, "this stupid white woman coming in with paper and crayons."

"Do you think it made a difference?" I ask.

She shrugs and answers, "Other people said it did."

That's the deepest wound from Iraq: "There's a feeling of devastation, a sense of defeat, of helplessness," Bettejo says.

How do you overcome helplessness?

"Maybe the healing I've experienced thus far comes from my feeling to do service, to be of service," she answers.

Bettejo doesn't know yet what that service will be. "The best I can do is to get people to ask questions . . . to ask, 'Is this right? Can we do better?'"

The day after we talked, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer carried a front page story about the problems hospitals in Iraq are facing, especially the problems of treating children with cancer.

Ordinarily I would have scanned the story, then moved on. This time, after reading carefully, slowly, I filed the story in my heart. I'd been with someone who'd been with those children. And now those far-away problems don't seem so far away.

(Mary Koch writes about health care issues and her experiences as a family caregiver. Her husband, retired newspaper publisher John E. Andrist, was severely disabled by a stroke in 1993. They welcome your letters at P.O. Box 3346, Omak WA 98841 or e-mail: marykoch@marykoch.com)