Kidnapped to Egypt

The story behind the article I will be covering today started nearly 12 years ago. That may make you wonder how this could be a current event at all but it is an issue that has been on going and is still current. 12 years ago Michael Shannon saw his two young sons, 10 months old and 4 years old, for the last time until he was shown a video of them in Egypt by CNN correspondents this year. This is a story of disputes, custody battles, deception, foreign policy and ultimately kidnapping.

Micheal Shannon was once married to Nermeen Khalifa, the mother of his two boys. They were divorced in by 2001 on terms that were not specified in the article but there was a history of domestic disputes between the two where Nermeen was accused of assault. Also she had lost custody of her children and Micheal had sole custody. The children were not allowed to leave the country let alone the state without their father's consent. Their mother and grandmother, Nermeen's mother, created a scheme to get Micheal to allow his children to spend a weekend in New York with their mother for a weekend. Once there the two women followed through with their plan and retrieved new passports for the children and took them to Egypt where the grandmother lives and the mother is originally from. In Egypt there are limited parental rights for US parents. So regardless of the laws enforced in the US to protect the boys from their mother their father has now become hopeless in getting his boys  back home.

He has been fighting for 12 years to get custody of his two boys and because of the laws in Egypt he is failing miserably. He has questioned how the US could allow this to happen to his family and 22 other families in similar cases and not do anything about it. But on top of taking no action they are also provide aid and support to this country. The question that arises from this, is it wrong for america to neglect 22 children for the sake of peace with Egypt? Can families trust their government to help them? What will it take for there to be justice? or Is the relationship with Egypt more important than these families?


http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/12/world/kidnapped-to-egypt/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

CNN's Dana Ford reported Wednesday April 3rd that nearly 1,200 cancer patients in 4 Canadian hospitals received weak doses of chemo therapy medication. This issue was discovered late last month when a physician tested the medicines strength to find that dosages were between 3-20 less than the expected or labeled dosage. There is no way of telling exactly how long patients have been receiving these low doses but there is an estimate that some have receiving the wrong dosage for up to a year. It is also very difficult to see what if any damage this may cause to patients health as they fight cancer. There are many questions as to how this could have happened. Apparently the hospital supplier, Marchese Hospital Solutions, mislabeled the drugs. Although the spokesperson says "Our preliminary investigation of this issue leads us to be confident that we have met the quality specifications of the contract we are honored to have been awarded." But in contrast the Ontario hospital have been mixing their own chemo medications and are no longer using Marchese Hospital Solutions as a suppliers.

I feel as though this a major social issue because innocent people who are suffering from a terminal illness are the victims of, in some ways, neglect. My question is how are you going to convince these people that there was  no harm done? How are you going to prevent a uprising of grieving families? What happens when lawsuits rise? These are factors that can lead to a social movement. Now that this has happened there will be questions in policies of the hospitals and the company. Investigations into procedures and protocol. I foresee repercussions for both the hospitals and the company. Families are going to have demands and when you drop a ball like that you are responsible for their answers.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/02/health/canada-patients-under-dosed/index.html?hpt=he_c2

US vs Russia: Adoption Pawns

Russian President signed a bill to ban U.S. families from adopting Russian children on December 28th, 2012. This political move comes  after the U.S. President Barack Obama signed Magnitsky Act into law. This act was put into place to punish the Russian officials that are allegedly responsible for the death of a lawyer by the name of Sergei Magnitsky. Mr. Magnitsky was a lawyer that was arrested for an  investigation he was doing on Russian officials. He spent a few days short of a year in a Moscow prison before he died from unknown circumstances. There are stories of him being sick and not receiving proper medical attention and also stories of torture and murder. Although these things are unclear there is a consistent story of foul play. The U.S.  in return created the Act in his honor to "blacklist" the officials that were suspected of being involved. Which in turn lead to the the Russians to ban U.S. families from adopting. Yet neither of these articles are my focus article this week. These stories lead to the article entitled "Russia concerned over adopted boy's cause of death" which I read this week.

A 3-year old Russian child was living in Texas with his adoptive parents and died on January 21st from what looks like self-inflicted trauma to the abdomen and not murder as Russia's children's rights commissioner announced via twitter last week. Which then gave the Russian government reason to be concerned and a case to back up their claims that American adopted children are mistreated. They seem to focus on the fact that 19 Russian children have died due to maltreatment by their adoptive american parents. This child's accidental death has made him the poster child for Russia's ban against american adoption. When in actuality it seems as though this adoption ban is nothing more than a pawn in a game of a political mudslinging.

This is a social issue because this preventing families from finalizing their adoptions that were well underway. Children who were preparing to move to America with a loving family are now back to searching for a family. This political agenda was taken without thoughts of the ramifications that citizens would have to suffer from.  


http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/02/us/russian-adoption-death/index.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/adopted-russian-boys-death-ruled-accident-texas/story?id=18631668
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-06/world/35649594_1_magnitsky-law-magnitsky-act-law-accountability-act

Misogyny In India

Yesterday morning CNN reporter Harmeet Shah Singh posted is article entitled “3 girls found dead in India well; Mother calls for culprits to be hanged”. This story comes a 23 year old woman was gang raped and murdered in broad daylight on a New Delhi bus in December. Therefore this story is unfolding in a volatile atmosphere. According to the article three girls, 6, 9 and 11 years old, were reported missing and two days later were found in a well. Medical reports claim that the children drowned and had been sexually assaulted. As seen in the title the mother of these young girls is very angry. She has made claims that the police did not respond quickly enough. She believes they could have found her daughter sooner if they looked in the neighboring areas. She is calling for the men held responsible to be hung in the public. Of course the police claim that they did everything they could. In contrast, the officer that was in charge of patrolling that area has since been they fired. As far as locating the guilty parties they have questioned some suspects but have made no arrests as of yet.

This single incident may not be a social issue in itself but it is the result of some major ones such as Women’s Right, Misogyny, Selective Abortions, Discrimination, Domestic Violence to name a few. India has seen a rash of incidences like the one presented in the above article. The women of India are not safe. As presented in another CNN article entitled “Challenges of being a woman in India”.  Women are dealing with discrimination from the womb to the tomb. Families are aborting their unborn daughters to avoid the responsibility of a dowry. Dowry is a Indian custom, currently illegal, that requires the family of the bride to pay her husband’s family a large sum of money and pay for an elaborate wedding ceremony. Although illegal there is no regulation. Therefore unborn daughters are killed; young girls are killed, leaving there to be an overpopulation of men who prey on these women who made it through. It is a never ending cycle of misogyny. 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/21/world/asia/india-girls-deaths/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/12/world/asia/india-women-challenge/index.html

National Security

The focus of my blog this week is Australia and the implementation of their first national security strategy. As acts of terrorism and nuclear weapons, particularly in the Asian regions, become more prevalent the Australian government feel the need to up their protection. They want to focus their strategy on three areas which are, effective partnerships, cyber security and enhanced regional engagement. These will cater to risks that are presenting themselves these days such espionage and coercion. The Prime Minister states that "Australia is an attractive target for a range of malicious cyber actors, from politically-motivated hackers and criminal networks to nation states". Prime Minister Gillard feels that in order for Australia to grow it must be in a "climate of relative peace and stability" and these implementations will secure Australians a chance to create and maintain a that kind of climate.

I feel that National Security is a very important social issue. It is a social issue because it affects a nation, as in the title itself. A government is responsible for keep its citizens safe from harm. Australia may be relatively late compared to other countries but they are now viewing international threats as top priority. This social issue also relate to families on a broad perspective. Many Australian families may have only look at weapons of mass destruction, terrorist attacks and espionage as I may look at genocide and malaria... Issues that are unfortunate but not necessarily a threat to me. Now that the nation is making a stand against these and identifying  them as threats there could be a shift in family life. Socializtion of children could change as in the US we are somewhat socialized to be weary of suspicious people in airports, not to use the term bomb freely etc. These are examples of ways this issue of heightened National Security is a social issue that can affect the families of Australia.  

http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2013-01/23/content_16164195.htm

China's Forced Family Planning

Tyshea Lewis
2/8/13 1:35 p.m.

"Arrests over China baby's death in one-child policy row"

        As many of you know China has a major population issue particularly in its urban areas. This has been a problem because although china is a fairly large country much of it land is uninhabitable due to its mountainous landscape. This leaves a small part of the massive country to house the over 1.3 billion occupants. Being under a communist rule China's officials created a one-child-policy which limits families in urban areas to having only one child, families in rural areas to have two only if the first was female. The consequences of violating this law are to pay fines and be punished by not receiving bonuses etc. There have been speculations about infanticide and selective abortions that are mentioned in this article. The question is how far is the government willing to enforce this policy and this article may just be a gruesome answer to this question.

       This article covers the death of a 13-month old baby who was a family's third child. Apparently government officials were trying to persuade these parents to pay the fines they owed for breaking to this law or be taken away. During this struggle the child was dropped and the local Communist Party secretary an over the child. This was a horrible incident and the secretary was arrested but it hasn't been announced exactly what the charges are. The article goes on to mention the forced abortions and even sterilizations that have been occurring. The question is... Is this a becoming a social issue in China?

        There have been protests and resentment against the policy in these recent years. These efforts have caused some adjustments to the policy such as allowing families in rural areas to have a second child and allowing parents who are both the only child two have a second child. Will this continue until the policy is completely null-and-void? If so will China be able to handle the population boom? What is next?














http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21359962

Immigration Reforms

My article this week is entitled "240,000 illegal Indian immigrants could get US citizenship" focuses on the plans US president, Barack Obama is proposing for immigration reform. Throughout the article he is quoted in saying that the immigration programs in place are outdated and need to be changed to accommodate our situation in the present day. As many people know the process to become a US citizen in a lengthy and discouraging one. Therefore many immigrants avoid it and are in the US illegally. According to the article "more than 11 million undocumented immigrants" are here in the US today. The president is looking to take advantage of this fact and use citizenship as an incentive for well-educated immigrants. In summary, meaning that if a student achieves a PhD or master’s degree from the US and find US employment would receive a green card. This pertains to families because he looking at raising caps for family-sponsored system. This would also include same-sex families. So families could exchange their expertise for a chance to live and work in the US in the future. But what about the 11 million that are already here. The president stated that it is "impossible" to deport them all... Does this mean that there could be some kind of pardon for these immigrants? That was unclear. The president did state that they were a part of the US already. Therefore you could speculate that the 11 million immigrants could be given US citizenship. I guess now all we have to do is see when or if this seemingly bipartisan effort comes through.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/240000-illegal-indian-immigrants-could-get-us-citizenship/369720-2.html

Families

I chose this topic because family is an important part of my life and my studies. I am an HDFS major and I current taking other courses that focus on families around the world and how diverse families can be.