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Posts Tagged ‘children’

Viva La Vida, Que Vivan Los Niños

7:09 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Arts|Education|Music|youth · 2 Comments

12 Jun 2009

Coldplay‘s Viva La Vida is perhaps the world’s most overplayed song these days. You may want to scream when you hear it, it’s so played out by MTV, Top 40 and soccer teams. But there’s something about this song. I was never particularly a fan of Coldplay until this album, and this song in particular has some magical quality, as evidenced in the video below.

As much as I love the escuincles, singing kids, instead of inspiring me, instead normally have a more nauseating effect on me. This video, however, actually moved me to tears. As the original title of this amateur video reads: remind me again why music shouldn’t be in public schools? Answer: it should be.

Via / YouTube

At least 35 killed in fire at Mexican day care center

11:12 am By la Macha · Labor|mexico|youth · 1 Comment

8 Jun 2009

Tragedy occurred over the weekend in multiple places. One of the most notable was this fire that killed 35 and hurt countless others at a daycare center in Mexico.

And from the BBC News:

Reports say the fire started in a tyre depot next to the state-run centre.

President Felipe Calderon said that the fire was a “painful tragedy for all Mexicans”.

“I have ordered the federal prosecutor to carry out investigations as soon as possible to help us know exactly what happened and how, and to determine the corresponding responsibility,” he said.

More than 140 children are reported to have been at the centre when the fire began.

This is just so horrible. And it made me remember the “ground zero” kid (remember him?) and how *his* home was next to a pig factory. It reminded me of all the lives that were lost back in the late 1800′s/early 1900′s here in the US that basically kicked the labor movement into high gear.

Why were people working in such conditions? Why is it considered ok to have some children grow up surrounded by toxins that kill?

There are no answers yet–and given the Calderon government’s past history with transparency and accountability, I hardly expect them. I wish nothing but strength and healing for the people dealing with this tragedy–and may Calderon be on the right side when these families begin raising hell in the name of their loved ones.

Immigrant Mujeres : New Poll Helps Fill in the Picture Pero is it the Same Old Imagen?

2:09 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · children|Immigration|Media|media justice|Women · 3 Comments

16 May 2009

138923996_ed471b7c941 While anti-immigrant actions and speech are facing a serious pushback, the face of immigration continues to be read as male. Immigrant women are rarely mentioned or discussed, except in the context of being breeders, bearers of anchor babies, victims, dangerous, deceptive. Immigrant women aren’t painted in the full colors of their lives as mothers and activists, artists.

Earlier this week New America Media (NAM) released the results of a poll of 1,102 immigrant women. And while the information isn’t surprising, as they reflect what immigrant women have been saying for years about their lives, pero there are those who get hung up on numbers. So what do the numbers say?

82% of Latin American women found discrimination against immigrants
to be a major problem for their family, compared to 17% for women from
African or Arab countries, and only 13% for those from China. Still, 90% of
the Latin American women said they want to become US citizens.
40% of immigrant women from Latin America and significant
percentages from other regions do not have health insurance. A clear
majority of women immigrants without health insurance are unaware of public
health programs that could help their children receive medical assistance.

The poll also found that immigrant women felt discrimination in the United States, especially immigrants from Latin America. Along the same thread, immigrant women were concerned about immigration raids and their possible impact on the family.

Pero is the image of immigrant women presented in the poll really three dimensional or does it play up old stereotypes?

Homophobic Bullying Leads to a Child’s Suicide

11:38 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|GLBT|society|youth · 3 Comments

21 Apr 2009

jaheemx390 If you think kids calling other kids gay and taunting them for their sexual orientation is child’s play, think again. A child in Atlanta, 11 year-old Jaheem Herrera, took his own life last week after being tormented by schoolmates who called him gay.

Masika Bermudez said her son was being consistently bullied at school. She said she had complained to the school, and she said it was her 10-year-old daughter who alerted her to the stress Jaheem was under.
Channel 2 Action News reporter Pam Martin went to speak to Jaheem’s mother Monday.
“She said, ‘Ma, did you know they called Jaheem gay again today in school,’” said Bermudez.
Bermudez said bullies at school had called Jaheem “gay” and had taunted him about his accent. She said when he came home Thursday and she asked him about it, he denied it. She sent him to his room to calm down. That was the last time she saw him alive.

Little Jaheem hung himself with a belt after school on April 16th.
Read more…

Pew Reveals New Face of Undocumented Immigrants

5:53 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|Family|Immigration|Politics|society · 2 Comments

15 Apr 2009

slide_immigration_family_400x308 The image of the undocumented immigrant has been, for years, that of a single man from Mexico who comes to the U.S. to work and lives alone. But according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a new study (PDF here) reveals a demographic shift which shows that undocumented immigrants tend now to be part of a family unit, with different immigration statuses between the members; some are married to documented immigrants, others have children who are U.S.-born, etc. From the Pew report:

Unauthorized immigrants living in the United States are more geographically dispersed than in the past and are more likely than either U.S. born residents or legal immigrants to live in a household with a spouse and children. In addition, a growing share of the children of unauthorized immigrant parents—73%—were born in this country and are U.S. citizens.

Most children of unauthorized immigrants—73% in 2008—are U.S. citizens by birth. The number of U.S.-born children in mixed-status families (unauthorized immigrant parents and citizen children) has expanded rapidly in recent years, to 4 million in 2008 from 2.7 million in 2003. By contrast, the number of children who are unauthorized immigrants themselves (1.5 million in 2008) hardly changed in the five-year period and may have declined slightly since 2005.

According to Pew, nearly half of undocumented immigrant households are families with children. In addition, a third of these children and a fifth of adult unauthorized immigrants lives in poverty, practically double the poverty rate for children of U.S.-born parents (18%) or U.S.-born adults (10%).

Why is any of this important? Because as we move closer to “immigration reform”, the Obama administration is going to have to take all of this into consideration as it develops new policy. This new reality is proof that policy must protect families — which over the past few years we’ve seen torn apart by raids and deportation — and that immigration status can no longer be only about the individual when families are involved.

Via / Pew Hispanic Center

If Jesus is Love, Where’s the Amor for 9 Year Old Brazilian Rape Victim

2:04 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Brazil|children|Health|Religion · 7 Comments

6 Mar 2009

It’s so horrific that it physically hurts me to think about: a 9 year old child (allegedly) raped by her stepfather and then she becomes pregnant.

A nine-year-old Brazilian girl who was impregnated after being allegedly raped by her stepfather underwent an abortion yesterday.

The child- who’s identity is being kept private- would’ve had her life in danger had she allowed the pregnancy to continue according to doctors. (At the time of the abortion the eighty-pound girl was in her fifteenth week of pregnancy). “She is very small. Her uterus doesn’t have the ability to hold one, let alone two children,” said Fatima Maia- the director of the hospital where the abortion was performed.

And instead of the faith community offering compassion and comfort to a child, the Roman Catholic Church has come down on the girl’ mother and doctors for saving her physical life.

A Roman Catholic archbishop says the abortion of twins carried by a 9-year-old girl who allegedly was raped by her stepfather means excommunication for the girl’s mother and her doctors.

Despite the nature of the case, the church had to hold its line against abortion, Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho said in an interview aired Thursday by Globo television.

“The law of God is higher than any human laws,” he said. “When a human law — that is, a law enacted by human legislators — is against the law of God, that law has no value. The adults who approved, who carried out this abortion have incurred excommunication.”

I worry about the girl’s emotional life, her soul and not in the sense of if she will go to heaven because she had an abortion. I wonder about how this child can comprehend all that she has had to face and will continue to face.

I also wonder what the hell the Catholic Church is thinking when they lack the basic compassion and love that Jesus preached.

Via / The Latin Americanist

Dr. Phil is a Turd in my Toilet Bowl

10:54 am By la Macha · children|Women · Comments Off

27 Feb 2009

This Nadya Suleman story just won’t go away.

The latest news is that Dr. Phil felt the need to bully Suleman until she finally admitted on national television that it was a mistake to have her very much alive children (who will one day get to witness said admission, hooray!).

The thing that cracks me up here (in an ironic sarcastic way), is that as somebody who was mildly interested when those sextuplets were born years ago (the ones that Diane Sawyer kept interviewing), I know that that family *also* was counting on the resources friends, family, and neighbors/community members were willing to provide. I remember that they started off living in a small house and only finally moved to a bigger house because corporate sponsors provided them with one. And I have yet to see *any* of the houses of these families (including the oh so on top of it Duggar family) that don’t look like train wrecks.

So why are all these things (messy houses, lack of resources, getting help from friends and family) so cute and wonderful when it’s other families and so horrible and terrifying when it’s Nadya Suleman?

And why does Dr. Phil think it’s his right to act as representative of the U.S. when interrogating Suleman’s choices?

I know a lot of people will point to the fact that Suleman has 14 children and seems economically unready to handle them–but I have to say, as a mother of two, it makes nary a difference if you are living on welfare/student loans with 2 children or with 50. When you don’t have money–you simply don’t have money. You can’t get “more” broke than broke, right? So is it *really* an issue how many children she has?

Or is it more just a fact that like *all* single mothers, Suleman seems to be flouncing in the face of the world that heterosexual relationships are simply unnecessary to have and raise children? Or like all mothers of color, Suleman keeps bringing all these little brown babies into the world like they have a right to be here? Or like all women who may have mental health issues, Suleman is continuing to live life as if she has a right to live life, even though people with mental health issues are supposed to be locked up with the key thrown away? Or does it just piss the poor Dr. Phils amongst us off to no end that women can (ARGH NO) get *rich* off of having kids? Rather than working our big white butts to the bone like Dr. Phil so clearly has?

If we get over the fact that she has 14 children (so the hell what), we can start to uncover some truly disturbing trends in how U.S. culture treats women and mothers specifically. Will we be brave enough to do that?

Update in the “America’s Most Wanted” case

1:56 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children · Comments Off

16 Dec 2008

I’m sure everybody remembers the show “America’s Most Wanted.” Remember how the man who hosted the show, John Walsh, was the father of a child who was abducted? And how he basically got his start on America’s Most Wanted through his advocacy done in the name of his son?

Well, there’s been an update in the case:

Police in Hollywood, Florida, said Tuesday that they are closing the investigation into the 1981 abduction and slaying of 6-year-old Adam Walsh.

Adam Walsh 6, disappeared from a mall in August, 1981. His head was found two weeks later, 120 miles away.

The boy’s abduction and slaying 27 years ago put missing children on the national agenda.

Police will name deceased drifter Ottis Toole, a convicted pedophile who died in prison in 1996, as the boy’s suspected killer, a law enforcement source told CNN.

Toole twice confessed to killing the boy — and twice recanted his story, saying he made it up. It could not be learned what, if any, new evidence exists.

It is every parents worst nightmare–and all I can say is I hope that this update will bring peace to Adam Walsh’s parents, family and loved ones.

The Children are Keeping it Real : They Know About Racism and the Electoral System

1:27 pm By Maegan La Mala · children|race|US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off

6 Oct 2008

bdj.2007.201-i1.jpg There are way too many adults in the country who would rather ignore or play pretend when it comes to the role of race in electoral politics. Children, however are not playing pretend. A study released yesterday suggests that:

Children are aware white males have monopolized the US presidency, and most attribute the trend to racial prejudice.

Wait, so children (and not just my own) get white male privilege something so many adults still refuse to acknowledge plays any role in anything? Well, not exactly.

The research team interviewed 205 children aged five to ten in 2006, a year before Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama began their historic bids for the White House. Clinton lost to Obama in the primary fight for the Democratic nomination.

The study asked the children, from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, about their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the US presidency, and specifically about similarities between presidents and the absence of female, African-American and Hispanic presidents.

A third of the children said the white male monopoly was due to “racial and gender bias,” and another third believed members of the excluded groups “lacked the skills to hold the position,” according to the study.

One in four participants told researchers they thought it was “illegal for women and minorities to hold the office of president.”

Long Hair, Religion and Rules Clash at Texas School

10:28 am By Maegan La Mala · children|Controversia|society|Texas · Comments Off

16 Jul 2008

5- year old Adriel Arocha shouldn’t be at the center of a firestorm right now. He should be in school learning alongside his classmates in his hometown on the outskirts of Houston, Texas. But a controversy around his physical appearance is holding him back:

Michelle Betenbaugh says her 5-year-old son, Adriel Arocha, wears his hair long because of religious beliefs tied to his Native American heritage.

But the leaders of the Needville school district have strict rules about long hair on boys and don’t see any reason to make an exception in his case.

The dispute illustrates a problem American schools have faced for decades: how to balance individual student rights against rules designed to maintain order and discipline in the classroom.

The case also shows that some rural Texas school districts often have stricter grooming codes that reflect the traditional or old-fashioned values of small-town America when compared to those in big-city school districts such as Houston’s.

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