Week 5 Blog 1

Today’s assignment really touched on something as a parent I feel I struggle with everyday; is technology making our children weak, more vulnerable, and in plain terms stupid.  Mark Bauerlein refers to the under 30 generation as being “the dumbest generation”, and in many ways I wonder if he isn’t correct.  I know I struggle to pry my child from the IPod, or the computer to get her outside and enjoy the fresh air.  Their relationships are on the computer, they network and text instead of study and imagine.  And who is really to be held responsible, if the technology is there it is going to be wanted and used, but doesn’t it fall on the parents to help find the balance and find control?

Something that I thought of today was a term that was brought to my attention when I was looking into ADD and ADHD, this is NDD or Nature Deficit Disorder, where people are so disassociated with the world around them that they don’t know what their natural surroundings are.  It blew me away to think of a world that was so technology based that they forgot the sunset or that the trees are the reason we breathe.  But it is the truth, you look around at all the faces stuck to their cell phones, I pads and all the other little gadgets we all feel we need to leave the house and it is really no surprise that NDD is something that really exists.

Week 5 Blog 2

I have at many points really thought about how lucky we are in America to have the several technologies that we take for granted, so this topic was something I had spent a lot of time thinking about in the past.  We are very fortunate for the many technologies that we have from lights to the IPod that my child believes she cannot live without.  But what about other countries?  We have seen throughout this course that poverty, where you live, and who you live with is 3 prime factors that go into what kind of life you will have and how you will develop as a child; technology is no different. 

Something that kept playing through my mind while doing today’s assignment was the commercial you see for laptops, ‘buy a laptop and provide one to a child in Africa’.  I think in some ways we move through life without truly evaluating the position of other countries, or the fact that the simple conveniences that we have are what keep so many other countries in levels of higher poverty and lower access.   

A reference to the digital divide which refers to the “gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic area at different socioeconomic levels with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communications technologies and to their use of the Interned for a wide variety of activities (Bergh, 2004)”.  This is a broad statement that pretty much lays is out clearly if you do not have the means to access modern technologies you will not leave the life that has been handed to you.  

Week 4 Blog 5 Gang Intervention Efforts

TRIANGLE

It was uplifting to view something that regarded intervention and positive effort.  With reading so much on poverty, struggle, gangs, which all leads to higher health risk and possible injury it was a breath of fresh air to see places like Glen Mills Academy that are using positive efforts and reinforcement to change the lives of people.  This establishment had almost cut the statistic that 60 percent of all delinquents at some point return jail in half.  This means that places like this are working and at a much more efficient cost.  Glen Mills is an example of how to show children positive peer pressure and a change from the pressures of poverty and deprevassion.

SQUARE

An extra point that needs to be made is in reference to the difference in surrounding from prison, juvenile detention, and a place such as Glen Mills.  References were made that it cost less per day to work with students at Glen Mills versus a standard prison setting; which is sad when you look at the difference in scenery.  Glen Mills was beautiful, and was treated and respected in such a way; the prison is just that a cold place of concrete and bars, yet it still costs more money?? Does not make sense.

CIRCLE

What I really enjoyed about Glen Mills is that the youth that are spending out their sentences are referred to as students, not numbers.  They are given the opportunity to feel self worth and build who they are while they are learning how to reestablish in society.  I think a lot has to be said with this; when you watch shows such as Locked Up, or Scared Straight there is one thing in common in how prisoners refer to themselves, they are a number, nothing more.  I think that this degrades the person and reinforces a lack of self worth which only heightens the problems instead of solving it.  Glen Mills has taken this into account and properly done something about it and it shows.  Something as small as one word can really mean a lot.

“Glen Mills Gang: Arrested Without Locks and Bars.” (2000) Films on Demand. Web. 27 Jun 2011. <https://myasucourses.asu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_206021_1>.

Week 4 Blog 4 Globalization and International Gangs

TRIANGLE

The first thing that really stood out to me in reading the article “The Global Impact of Gangs” was a reminder on how people use terminology in order to portray what they want to say.  Many pieces of literature will have you believe that the birth of gangs was in America when in fact it was Latin America; this is an excellent example of what I mean.  In many other countries children brought into gangs are termed differently, such as the ‘invisible soldier’ or street children, the one I thought was almost ironic was “children in organized armed violence (Dowdney, 2003)”.  We all know what these words mean, but coin them differently so that we can shift blame, or responsibility.

While I have seen so many specials on gangs and prison, I am still amazed at the fact that the majority of gang leaders do their work from within prison walls.  In many circles you have not truly done your time and cannot be a higher level gang member until you have served time.  And it is within the walls of their cell that calls are made, money is cared for and peoples fates are judged, whether or not they live behind the cell walls with the person calling the shots.  How is it that the very system that we set up to punish perpetrators of crime is the very same spot that the higher gang members want to be calling their shots from?  Not only does the gang member live the life within the walls through illegal means and monies but they care for their families outside the same way.  Why I see it I really cannot understand it.

SQUARE

My squaring point is how the writing showed how in many ways how the economic changes that the US has gone through has reinforced gangs and gang work.  “In the wake of reduced opportunity for unskilled labor, many gang members have remained in their gangs as adults and gangs have become an important ghetto employer (Hagedorn, 2001)”.  Many people come to the gang with lack of education, and skill and from there they are groomed into the foot soldiers that they become.  They stay within this life and their families generally follow suit because there is such a lack of options on how to make anything different.  The United States does not have a high range of labor jobs that require little education, until that or how we educate people in lower economic classes, they are going to continue work ‘ghetto employment’ means that are available to them.

CIRCLE

What must be circled are the hard facts that we learned about place such as Haiti where the state “lost all capacity to control the populace and various types of groups of armed youth, leading to the deposing of Aristide and an uncertain status for the new state (Haegoedorn, 158).”  In these cases the states or countries themselves are being overthrown by their gangs, and while we would like to think that being American is enough to keep it from happening here, nothing is impossibility.  We have many things in common with the other places around the world, gang members are buying off their freedoms, making decisions that will affect massive groups of peoples, and overthrowing the decisions of others.  Is corporate America enough to keep organized crime leaders at bay?  It is scary to think of how gangs work in other countries, how vicious and unrelenting they are, and how they have changed the environment in which so many live in.  We have isolations of this is different parts of America such as LA that as we know has a huge district of people that do not truly live by the laws that everyone else does.  They live by their drugs, their gangs, and their immediate needs to overcome poverty.  All of this scares me to think of what could happen if the gangs of America truly wanted to fight for control.

 Hagedorn (2005). The global impact of gangs. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 21(2), 153-169.

Week 4 Blog 3 Generational Gang Membership

TRIANGLE

Connections between the film’s take on generational gang membership and other resources we have had in this class were that in many cases the family that children are born into is in many ways their gang family.  As the video “Nuestra Familia, Our Family” showed, the gang family is your family, and your family is part of your gang family.  You are born into a gang allegiance, defined by it, and raised by it.  Lil Mondo was an excellent example of this; he was born into a family where is father was already part of the Nuestra gang, therefore making him a soldier in the making.  He learned from his father the prices you pay for your gang or ‘family’ by watching him go to jail, he learned the trade from the those that cared for him when his father could not, and from what he saw of his father when he came back into his life.  This was something that he set to repeat himself by committing crimes, even murder by the age of 19.  He reset all that had happened to him, by leaving his child behind while he served his time in jail just as his father had. 

SQUARE

It amazes me that while people join gangs or form them for money and power, they are generally all linked together by poverty.  You don’t see many depictions of the gang member that made the big bank and actually owns all of his assets.  So many of these people trap their families in gang life like the Nuestra family out of wanting to make things better, but that is never the case in the long run.  In order to make it to the top you have to be willing to lose a brother or a son, you give way more than you will ever financially gain. 

CIRCLE

By being born with a father that was in the Nuestra family, Mondo’s life had already been set for him.  What he would do, who he would be surrounded by and what he would learn.  And as we saw with how Armando chose to change his life and try to make a difference for his blood family, the fight is long and hard.  Generally you do not leave your gang family and if you do you pay handsomely.  I think that it is worth circling Armando’s fight to change and leave the Nuestra family behind; it shows you that while it seems like your destiny is mapped out for you, you can chose to change it.  It gives you hope that maybe one day these gang families will dissipate as more and more people separate their blood family from their gang families.

"Nuestra Familia, Our Family." (2006) Films on Demand. Web. 27 Jun 2011. <https://myasucourses.asu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_206021_1>.

Week 4 Blog 2 Youth and Gang Violence

TRAINGLE

Explore some connections between the economic issues in the film and the data presented in the article.    

The first point that I enjoyed about today’s information was the cold hard fact that even though the life of a gang member looks identical to what one lives in society (making money, having people above you such as upper management, and consequences for not doing a good job) the cold hard truth is that it just doesn’t pay.  Just as was displayed in the film “Why Do Crack Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?” you see that these people generally do not get farther than home in life because they are too busy being addicts of their own market.  Generally these people health and safety are not cared for or jeopardized in a manner that keeps them from progressing or living life.

Next is how young people become involved in the lifestyle of gangs and drugs.  Generally these young kids are sold on the dollars and cars that they see.  Generally their upper management portrays a lifestyle of money and success even though in most cases the resources that they display them generally do not own.  These young kids become “foot soldiers” committing the acts and crimes that the older gang members no longer want to get into trouble for.  And even though they commit themselves to these acts and live life, generally these children are sold on a lifestyle that usually ends up owning them.

These children believe that they are buying into a lifestyle that will take care of them when generally the truth is that they are becoming part of a life that will kill them.  They are generally not as healthy because of drug use, being on the streets, fighting etc. and they are in more cases then not people that generally end up spending more time in jail then they do making money.  With all of this lower life expectancy, lower standard of life, and lower satisfaction of life is what these children really have to look forward to.

SQUARE

What is difficult for me to read about and see is how the media is portraying these lifestyles.  While we do have shows that educate and help show the realities of these lifestyles, in more cases then not children are watching and learning about these worlds in rap videos and gangster movies.  Many children get an idea that living this lifestyle is full of girls, and parties, great times and good friends that are better to you than your family.  They reinforce the lies of this dark world and in many way glamorize the very ways of life that can harm if not kill these young minds.

CIRCLE

In reading “Longitudinal Perspective on Adolescent Street Gangs” the writing represented that the only way to make a difference is in assuring that interventions on youth are effective and supported.  While it is unfortunate that many of these kids come from homes that parents either lack the attention or don’t have it to give, we need avenues of support to replace those.  A strong front on the truth of this lifestyle has to be taught, and the glamour of the lifestyle needs to be shown for the sad truth that it really is……a death trap.  If we can target and attack against all that makes this lifestyle look good we can start to make a dent into the number of children a year we are losing to drugs and gang violence.

Krohn, M. D., & Thornberry, T. P. (2007). Longitudinal perspectives on adolescent street gangs. In The long view of crime: A synthesis of longitudinal research. (pp. 128-60). New York: Springer.

TED Talks."Steven Levitt analyzes crack economics." Feb 2004. Online Video Clip. Accessed on July 27 2010.

Week 4 Blog 1 Domestic Violence and Youth

TRIANGLE:

Watching Tracee Parker from Safe Haven speak it did not take long to be astonished by the statistics she spoke of.  The first fact that I could not believe was that 3 to 7 million children are exposed to domestic violence every year, with that overlapping an additional 30 to 70 percent of them being victims of child abuse.  While we all know that this is something that exists to hear and read the actual statistics is heart wrenching. 

Next and even more difficult is to read or hear of what this is doing to these children’s lives.  Women that are victims of domestic violence usually live their lives in confinement, held back from friends and family.  This same pattern is usually repeated in the children; many will not have friends over or begin relationships that will include people coming into their family home.  Not only are these children scared of what their friends may witness, but are embarrassed to admit the lives that they behind closed doors.

All of this pain and embarrassment leads to children that live in what Tracee Parker states as “fight or flight”.  Many times children of domestic violence do not know what they should do, they will attempt to calm dad before he blows up, hide themselves and their siblings from the violence, and in many cases the older sibling becomes the caretaker of the siblings, protecting them from violence by taking it on themselves.

SQUARE

The biggest point that squared with me was the excuses or ‘crazy making’ that the perpetrator the violence uses in order to justify their actions.  In many cases the abuser will deny or distort what has taken place, telling others that they did not really see what took place, or that they did not see the reason for the abuse.  They blame shift, and tell even children that they are the reasons the abuse occurred, and in some cases try to justify why violence was needed in order for the other to learn.  This distorted way of justifying the abuse confuses children, makes them doubt themselves, and in some cases maybe even doubt the reality that they do live in.  All of this makes it very difficult for these children to grow up and live productive and healthy lives.  It is sickening to think of what these poor children live through, and what it turns them into in the long run.

CIRLCE

Action that is being taken in order to help children, protect them and educate them is something worth circling.  Tracee Parker shared her ideas on how you can develop a safety plan to help develop the child’s strength, ability to find help, maybe even just a place they can go in order to receive positive reassurance, not of what happened but of who they are.  It is very important that these children grow knowing that this abuse is not their fault, and they know the resources around them that can help them.  It is important that while they know what is taking place in their home, that they still find a safe place that they can develop correctly and learn the differences between wrong and right, good and bad.  Safe Haven was an excellent example of a place that people can go; Tracee is an amazing women who wants to make sure every child has a safety plan and that they have every opportunity to grow and develop normally.

Fusco, R. A., & Fantuzzo, J. W. (2009). Domestic violence crimes and children: A population-based investigation of direct sensory exposure and the nature of involvement. Children and Youth Services Review, 31(2), 249-256.

University of Wisconsin series on Issues for Youth Advocates and the Systems in which They Work (Producer). (2009, March 30) The Impact of Domestic Violence on Youth

[Online video]. Retrieved July 26, 2010 from http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=29215&fID=345

Week 3 Blog 5 Child Labor Exploitation

Triangle:

This triangle is simple: 30,000 invisible child soldiers, torture, brainwash and mutilation, and last a resolution that seems impossible.  It is amazing that three boys Jason, Laren and Bobby can become so involved in a movement that they become front runners in the ground breaking for communications.  What is hard is to see how much they accomplished and what they did in their film making to just end in the same resolutions as the past.  Each time Joseph Koney the leader of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) begins negotiations in peace it ends with him storming the grounds of villages and stealing family’s children in the night, mutilating and killing without regard in the process.

A moving point in the film Invisible Child was the number of children that had to be counted as invisible; taking into account the number of children stated to be in the LRA, then the number of children that have been massacred, cross that with the number of children that have been reported stolen you come up with thousands of children that have disappeared into thin air.  One is only left to assume that they were killed in the process of becoming a LRA soldier.

Square:

How does a nation or international community go up against a modern day Hitler?  Is it possible that Joseph Koney will stand trial against his crimes of humanity?  Watching the video footage of Christmas day and the disturbing attack of genocide that took place one really wonders if justice will ever be served for someone who has committed so many crimes and been at the heart of so much pain.  You think of how communities feel when they suffer the loss of a great police officer, or someone who did a substantial amount for the community, how do 5 countries recover from the magnitude of pain that one man has put them through.  I cannot imagine what it would be like to live a life of fear, wondering if you will be able to watch your children grow up, and if you do will it is because they are forever mutilated by a monster who did not find them worthy of capture. 

Circle:

If we liberate the children of Northern Uganda, are we prepared to help these children reintegrate back into a normal life?  Is a normal life possible for them?  While I do not think that there is any other option then to continue in the process of shutting down the LRA and bringing Joseph Koney to justice, one has to be honest that the children of Northern Uganda whether physical or not will forever be changed by the fear of the LRA.  It is going to take generations of recovery to not only close the LRA down, but to reestablish a common ground with these small people who know nothing else but murder.  While it is comparable to think of Joseph Koney as a modern day Hitler, you cannot think of the soldiers the same because they are just children.  They will have many years to live if they are ever liberated, something that our nation and the world alike needs to think about is what everyone will be willing to do be there for the children of Northern Uganda.

Russel, J, Bailey, B. & Poole, L. (Creators). (2006, April 7) Invisible Children [Google video]. Retrieved June 18, 2010 from http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3166797753930210643

Russel, J, Bailey, B. & Poole, L. (Creators). (2008) The Rescue: Full [vimeo]. Retrieved June 18, 2011 from http://vimeo.com/3400420

Week 3 Blog 4 Child Exploitation and Abuse-Youth Sex Workers in the U.S. Context

Triangle:

There is one thing stays consistent with the materials of our course that is the link of poverty to every area.  It does not matter your age, where you live or how you live, all of the people that we have studied all come from the common link of poverty.  Generally they are raised in it and at some point reproduce offspring that will continue in the same lifestyle or income level.

The second point is the one that is hard to swallow is that these young people are turning to sex trades in order to help dysfunctional families, and abusive situations.  Clearly stated in our Newline Statistics article “child prostitution in the United States is often the product of family dysfunction. “Over 70 per cent [of victims of commercial sexual exploitation] have been in child welfare system at some point. Which indicates that something is going on in the home, whether its abuse or neglect or alcoholism,” (Keim, unicef.org).  It is so difficult to think that here we have children that are not only products of abuse, but continuing to be abused by the profession that their life situation has put before them. 

The last point to my triangle is what the child’s attitude is towards their life situation and the position they are in with working in the sex trade.  Generally many of them do not see themselves as being abused until they are much older; they are acting off of the need of the family, the pressure of being able to make ends meet while making the parental figures happy. 

Square:

My squaring confrontation with this problem is that it is at endemic levels, it’s scary to think that ““at least 300,000 children and adolescents are prostituted every year in the United States” (Kiem, 2008).  This means that of those 300,000 children 210,000 of them are products of sexual and physical abuse according to the statistics above.  And this is only in the United States; if you take into account the number of youthful internet brides and illegal prostitution in other countries it is really enough to make you ill.  What does one do in order to make a dent in the problem, or how do you really make people really aware of the problem?  It all seems overwhelming.

Circle:

With all the abuse, neglect and exploitation what about the physical and emotional issues that these children will face such as depression, physiological issues, and even disease as adults.  It is stated in Sex Trafficking of Women in the United States that “Almost half of the U.S. women (47%) reported head injuries. Thirty-six percent of the international woman and 53 percent of the U.S. women reported mouth and teeth injuries. Fifty-six percent of the U.S. women required emergency room treatment for injuries and illnesses sustained while in the sex industry… Sixty-four percent of U.S. women said they had suicidal thoughts and 63 percent said they had tried to hurt or kill themselves”.  This means that of all of these children that are being subjected to sex trades and abuse that over 50% of them will end in some sort of psychological or physical complication if not death.  It is truly eye opening to see what a sad cycle of life is being left for so many children internationally.

Works Cited

Kiem, E. (2008). Child sexual exploitation in the USA: Not just a problem for developing nations. Unicef. Retrieved June 18, 2011 from http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/usa_46464.html

Raymond, J., Hughes, D., & Gomez, C. (2001). Sex Trafficking of Women in the United States: Links Between International and Domestic Sex Industries, Funded by the U.S. National Institute of Justice. N. Amherst, MA:

Week 3 Blog 3 Child Exploitation and Abuse

Triangle:

There are several pressures that a child in faces when they are led into the world of sex work.  A graphic example of this is “Thailand in general, and in Baan Nua especially, this sense of duty was reversed.  Children are said to owe a debt of gratitude (bun khun) to their parents and

Especially their mothers; they should be the ones to repay their parents for giving

The life and it is part of children’s duty to support their parents in whatever way

They can (Mulder, 1979; Tantiwiramanond and Pandey, 1989).”  In these cultures it is not uncommon for the parents to be the reason that a child turns to sex work in order to help the family financially.  For those that cannot find work or a means of sending money home to the family, generally the sex trade is where they turn.  Children as young as 5 in a story done by Chris Hanson’s Dateline were reported to be turned out to the sex trade in order to financially help their families.

Poverty is something that links all of this together.  All of the stories in today’s readings and viewing had one thing in common and that was poverty.  The fact that families even combined in the labor industry still have taken to turning to illegal and the shady sex trade in order to maintain the minimum needs of life. 

Square:

It is difficult to find one thing that squares with you on a topic that in itself is very wrong.  I cannot say for oneself that if I woke tomorrow with no other means to taking care of myself or my family what I would do; it is repulsive to think that sending one of my children out to work in the sex trade is something that some could consider.  In reading of the children of Taiwan and Vietnam you see that these girls and in some cases boys probably see nothing more than their responsibility to family; it makes you truly consider how lucky you are just to have the freedoms we do. 

Circle:

A point that is worth noting in the writing on the 22 women in Vietnam was what their stories have to do with helping tomorrow.  Today “Life stories or narratives are increasingly being used in social science research as a means to describe and give meaning to experiences and choices in the lives of people. Narratives are understood as stories that ‘include a temporal ordering of events and an effort to make something out of those

Events’ (Sandelowski, 1991: 162).”  What at least can be hoped from all of this is that the stories of these to young youth can in some way change the way that children of the future are treated.  Groups are studying the common links between poverty, child labor and the many different realms that children are pushed into way to early in their lives.  With these continuing studies they learn more how not only to help these children but maybe someday how to curb different trades that these young minds are forced to live through, and possibly hand down to future generations.

 Montgomery, H. (2007). Working with child prostitutes in Thailand: Problems of practice and interpretation. Childhood, 14(4), 415.
Rubenson, B., Hanh, L. T., Hojer, B., & Johansson, E. (2005). Young sex-workers in ho chi minh city telling their life stories. Childhood, 12(3), 391.

Taylor, L. R., Mulder, M. B., Formoso, B., Liddell, C., Montgomery, H., Nieuwenhuys, O., et al. (2005). Dangerous trade-offs. Current Anthropology, 46(3), 411-431.

Week 3 Blog 2 Youth Rules! U.U. Department of Labor

Triangle:

I think the biggest difference that the United States and other countries have in regards to labor practices is that we have something more than the Convention of the Rights of the Child, we have federal laws governing what is deemed right and wrong in regards to child labor, we have state mandates and general rules and guidelines that apply to different sectors that children are exposed to such as school, work and home.

This being said it does not mean that the United States at all times follow all laws and mandates set forth to protect children.  Every day thousands of children are abused, neglected, labored and denied the simple benefits of life.  It is this blind eye that is so common with other countries.  The International Labor Organization or the ILO “estimates that there are approximately 250 million child laborers world wild, with at least 120 million of them working under circumstances that have denied them a childhood and in conditions that jeopardize their health and even their lives (Roggero, 2007)”.

Square: 

The standard of health is what really squares with me today.  In our reading it was stated that “data on HIV/AIDS infections, non-HIV infections, and malaria among children aged 5 to 14 years, associated with 4 major risk factors (malnutrition, poor water and lack of sanitations and hygiene, unsafe sex, and dangerous occupations), and came from the Global Burnden of Disease Study”.  This was a segment that helped make all of the information from the last several days sync in.  The system brings about people that live within the lines of poverty, of those a huge percentage will have children that will continue to live within these povertous means and continue the circle.  This is where all of this comes together, maybe your mother had a virus that you were given upon birth, or maybe you contacted it because of unsafe living conditions.  If that is not something hard enough to live with you still have to realize that you are poor and that more and likely if not already sick the chances of you contacting something because of exhaustion due to work is something else that at a young age you have to think about.  That is a lot for a youth to endure; and was really eye opening to read about and connect over the last several days.

Circle:

The viewing on India’s children and the fight to help them live a more child like life with better safety, and education was very aspiring to how people should be and how caring the world can be.  I have enjoyed viewing the many different people that have taken a step out of their comfortable lives and either financially supporting or experiencing them what it is like to see the world through the eyes of a child.  The different foundations and organizations such as MVW that help to get children away from the laborious days of work and into the classroom where they can begin to change their and their families lives.  While it has been challenging to bring education to the children of India they have done so and slowly brought a statistical change to the number of children that are dying every year of malnutrition and dehydration.   

Meehan, Ruth (director). "India: Working to End Child Labor" 2004. Online video clip. Arizona Universities Library Consortium. FMG Video On Demand. Peadar King (Executive Producer)Accessed on 20 July 2010. http://digital.films.com/play/VBRGKP

Roggero, P., Mangiaterra, V., Bustreo, F., & Rosati, F. (2007). The health impact of child labor in developing countries: Evidence from cross-country data. American Journal of Public Health, 97(2), 271-5.

Week 3 Blog 1 Youth and Human Rights

Triangle:

In regards to information there were 3 points that I was completely shocked by; but at the same time I was happy to see that had at least been identified and had progress made on were statistics in regards to children’s health, safety, and freedom.

Disturbing to me was the statistics revolving around how many children were not receiving vaccinations and that something that surprised me was the number of children fighting HIV.  Just as so many blue collar workers complain it seems the same is for children, they do not receive a health benefit, nor are they generally thought of needing medical treatment.  “22 million infants are not protected from diseases by routine immunization and 4 million under – fives die each year from just three causes: diarrhea, malaria or pneumonia (Executive Summary, 2009).”  This to me also pushes into the corner of safety; I look at children from the prospective that we are to teach, protect and love our children in order for them to grow and flourish in the world; what can be said if you cannot even provide something as important as vaccinations, is that looking out for the safety and well being of the child.  I think that one has to take into consideration that a child does not really understand exterior circumstances of their lives until later in life, but something as simple as health and safety are the basic needs one has to have in order to survive.

Which leads one to see that while the rate that children have received vaccinations as a requirement of law and of education we have also seen the death rate in children decrease by millions over the last several years.  “The annual number of global under-five deaths has dropped from 12.5 million in 1990 to less than 9 million in 2008 (Executive Summary, 2009)”.   This is something that we have to feel progressively better on a global perspective, but is so difficult to think of how many children are unnecessarily suffering from something that could have been avoided by something as small as a vaccination.

With this also comes the value of a Childs freedom; yes not having medical benefit by home or work is difficult, what is to come of a child who is worked to the bone and sickly?  Are they still a child?  Do they know what play is?  The sad truth is no.  It was not until 1836 that there was anything written that gave a child the right to an education, that meaning 3 months of practice on the basics of reading and writing.  And it was not until 1903 with the Children’s Crusade that children’s rights in regards to just being a child were not truly thought of.  People forget that under these youthful bodies that do not understand what pain, and in many ways right and wrong are still young minds that need to imagine and play, need to look at the world through their own lenses and figure it out instead of having it handed to them by the most commonly povertous hands that lived before them. 

Square:

Something that squared with me looking over the timeline of events given on Wikipedia was that while we have continuously made changes and ratifications to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (and even before then with child labor laws) nothing has really changed about exploiting children except for how it is done.  In the 1800’s labor laws were created to protect children from being worked to death, in the 1900’s the change to exploitation began and by the time we came to 2000 it has become sad, sadistic and unspeakable what people will do to exploit a child.  The laws and ratifications made to laws change with the times and how children need to be protected.  This squares with me in a very sad and disturbing way because it shows that the world does not get it; we make laws for people to get the point and let children be children, not for people to think of new ways to exploit and use them.  It must be said that just as there are many people that look at youthful people as tools or worse there are several people that work just as hard to protect the rights of children.  It is just difficult to think that these people can never rest because there are people out looking for the next way to abuse and exploit kids who deserve the right to grow properly.

Circle:

A circling notion that you could warn others about is how much the way that we have exploited and over worked children has changed over time; this does not bode well for the means that people will go to continue to use children for labor and money.  While we feel we are doing so much with labor laws, and departments dedicated to the many different forms of freedom that children fight for it must be understood that it begins with parental control.  A firm and loving hand that provides for the child, looking back at how many children were dealt with in the early 1800’s, the exchange for a roof and food for labor until the age of 21 almost does not seem to bad off in comparison to what many children deal with today. 

Timeline of young people's rights in the United States. (2009, May 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:57, May 19, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Timeline_of_young_people%27s_rights_in_the_United_States&oldid=290549375

Week 2 Blog 5 Youth Homelessness

What are some similarities and differences between the kids on Skid Row vs. those running away from home in the article? What are some differences between generational and situational homelessness? Consider some of these relationships in your blog posts today.

While there is not too many general differences between children living on Skid row versus those that run away from home as far as maintenance and care for themselves and their living situations; the first point on my triangle is the main difference that I saw, which the difference between generational homelessness and situational homelessness is.  In what they were calling the third world city, the Skid Row area houses a huge population of homeless children that live in this situation because they know nothing else, their families are based and from homelessness, or the life of hotel life.  While on the other side of the coin children that choose homelessness by running away are running from conditions of neglect, abuse and poverty in their own home so they chose to be on their own versus a victim. 

A comparable factor about children from Skid Row to kids that chose to run away from home for a life of homelessness is that both stem from violent and explosive backgrounds.  That generally speaking from all evidence in our reading and viewing that their lives are filled with crime, abuse, neglect, hunger, just to name a few.  I think Franklin, the child from Skid Row that was given a camera to document what life was really like did the area great justice; and if you take the time to Google his name and video clips you can see more footage and understand why I say this.  When you hear the term third world city it is almost shocking, until you see some of the footage this young man captured and the stories that there is to tell and you realize that whether you are generationally homeless or this is the life you choose the one story that you all can share is a tale of abuse and neglect.

Another interesting point in my triangle of thoughts is the difference in attitude that people seem to have between generational and situational homelessness.  The people or youth that live the lives of homelessness because of their families in many cases seem to come up angry and violent, generally making their way into the legal system at some point.  While people that tend to be from situational homelessness seem to feel more victimized and humbled by their experiences.  If they have chosen the lifestyle in the way of running away from home, then generally they feel justified and grateful to be away from the situation; while at the same time those that are here due to a fall in their lives generally fit the model of victim and are more humble about the experience, hoping that they one day can come back to some normalcy that they used to know.

A squaring point or one that is greatly worth noting was a similarity that I do see in all the organizations and foundations around the world that have been established for young homeless people.  This week we have seen a lot of povertous children that although maybe not considered homeless in some countries their living conditions are still equal to that.  You see homeless squatters on Skid Row and then you see these small facilities, small groups or even in the case of the Rageeda in the video on Views in Global Poverty, 3 women took care of all of the children of a community of people that worked on construction sites.  And when the job was done everyone including the teacher/caregivers travels to the next site and carry on with the same routine.  On Skid Row you had education on wheels with people that came into the Skid Row area to not only help children find education but maintain it and hopefully find better programs to help aid them in making their lives at least safer. 

A great point that I think needs to be taken away from this week’s information is that children are products of their environment.  We have seen and read so much about the violence and hurt that is part of their lives but still hear their words of how things can be better.  Yet somehow just like their family before them they end up struggling and what was once an optimistic youth is now a hardened criminal.  With all of this we are changing our world dramatically in a way that will take too much to put back together correctly.  Poverty has spread so badly that know we have areas in our own United States that are considered to be of third world standards.  If extreme poverty such as the many shanties towns and dusty alley ways of other countries is capable of being that entire people know how far off is America from having more than just one city be that way?

Hyde, J. (2005). From home to street: Understanding young people's transitions into homelessness.  Journal of Adolescence , 28 (2), 171-83.