Such an inspring story …

On February 18th, 2011, our lives were changed forever when our son Christian Taylor Buchanan entered the world. He was born with a bilateral cleft palate and lip and almost completely blind. This blog is the story of his life, the joys we share, the challenges we encounter, and the amazing and trying journey ahead of our family!

Inspiring, isn’t it?

You can learn more about this beautiful family on their blog or public Facebook Page.

The case of a baby girl who was allegedly buried alive in the state of Uttar Pradesh has shocked many Indians, as the BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder reports.

Inside a filthy paediatric ward at a government hospital in Meerut, a short drive from Delhi, two-month old Radhika lies quietly on a bed.

Incredibly frail and weak, she is connected to an intravenous drip and her stomach is distended.

“She’s suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration,” says the doctor attending to her.

But she is incredibly lucky.

Her father and uncle allegedly tried to bury her alive, apparently as a sacrifice to protect the health of their other children on the advice of a spiritual guru.

“We have arrested both men,” says Bimal Yadav, the police chief in Pilkhua town where the incident allegedly took place.

“They will face charges of attempted murder.”

Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
Ere the sorrow comes with years?
They are leaning their young heads against their mothers—
And that cannot stop their tears.

They look up, with their pale and sunken faces,
And their look is dread to see,
For they mind you of their angels in their places,
With eyes meant for Deity;—
“How long,” they say, “how long, O cruel nation,
Will you stand, to move the world, on a child’s heart,
Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation,
And tread onward to your throne amid the mart?
Our blood splashes upward, O our tyrants,
And your purple shows yo}r path;
But the child’s sob curseth deeper in the silence
Than the strong man in his wrath!”

- from “The Cry of the Children,” Elizabeth Barrett Browning

SOURCE: BBC News India

Greetings from The Slave Detective,

I’ve been knocked into ‘a tin hat’ again by another blogger!

But then why do I need to write my own words when the brilliant ‘Secret Diary of a Dublin Call Girl” can reveal the inner thoughts of a survivor that I could never articulate.

In her recent blog ‘Time and Companionship’ she discusses the ‘contract’ one enters into or doesn’t.

‘Dublin Call Girl’ also questions the careful use of language so that people engaging in the services of a prostitute feel more comfortable in what they are doing.

It leads me on to the apparent acceptability when survivors are manoeuvred into in the vice world. Once a trafficked person has been nudged over that line into accepting the poison chalice, whether it is by force, coercion or persuasion, the use of language to ‘normalise’ this business by all involved helps to be acceptable on the exterior of the relationship. This continues until the trafficked person is empowered to liberate themselves from the situation either by themselves or others. This is true also of other forms of trafficking, but more so in Prostitution.

I am still in touch with several of my victims to ensure they have a ‘fall back’ should they need it. I’m sure they would take strength from survivors like ‘Dublin Call Girl’ and ‘Stella Marr’, who also enlightens and talks openly.

RE-POSTED: Slave Detective | IMAGE: Stephen Griffin

Have you ever heard of the term, “Third Culture Kid?”

If you’re a missionary kid, expat or lived abroad while growing up, you may have heard of the term.

Here’s more about the video below:

So Where’s Home? explores the unique perspectives and identities of Third Culture Kids, people who have spent a significant portion of their childhood overseas. The purpose of this short documentary project is to understand why third culture kids struggle to answer the question of “so where’s home?” and the implications this difficulty has on personal identity.

Take a look!

Since my kids are growing up Third Culture, this was really insightful and helpful to see.

SOURCE: Vimeo

Washington Post opinion writer George Will shared a piece of his life, last week, as he wrote about his son.

His son, Jon Will, turns 40 this week. Although this may not seem like much of anything, you have to understand that George Will’s son has Down Syndrome.

When Jon was born in 1974, the life expectancy of those with Down Syndrome was about 20 years.

Today, it’s 60.

Awesome, isn’t it?

Back in 1974, people referred to people with Down Syndrome as ‘Mongoloids’ and doctor’s would ask parents if they wanted to take their baby home.

Yes, that was a serious question, as many with Down Syndrome were institutionalized or put up for adoption.

Today, however, George points out that those with Down Syndrome are hardly treated any better:

This era has coincided, not just coincidentally, with the full, garish flowering of the baby boomers’ vast sense of entitlement, which encompasses an entitlement to exemption from nature’s mishaps, and to a perfect baby. So today science enables what the ethos ratifies, the choice of killing children with Down syndrome before birth. That is what happens to 90 percent of those whose parents receive a Down syndrome diagnosis through prenatal testing.

90.

Percent.

This is so wrong.

What the hell are we hiding?

Is it fear?

Is it so-called, ‘imperfection?’

I grew-up with someone who had Down Syndrome and this statistic makes me sick.

After you read Geore Will’s personal testimony, maybe you’ll understand why the world would have been a better place if those 90 percent had been left to live.

Mali.

I think the last time I thought about Mali was in 9th grade geography class when we learned the countries in Africa.

Where is that again? West coast? East coast? NO idea.

And now I read that there has been fighting between rebels and the Malian army since January, so much so that the people are fleeing Mali for Burkina Faso, a neighboring country, and it’s caused a humanitarian emergency.

My first thoughts are – more fighting? more fleeing? more desperation? more starvation? How can we handle this much more? My brain is overtaxed with the cares of the world, and, honestly, I almost feel like I can’t add one more situation to care for or even pray for.

But I do add it to my brain, and cement it into my heart. And I wonder if I’m doing everyone a disservice by trying to spread my attentions so thin. Maybe I’m trying to make up for the others who DON’T take the time to care and pray for the people in these situations.

Maybe I need to resign myself to the reality that I am one person. And as much as I want to be the champion for Mali, Haiti, Moldova, Appalachia, Georgia, England, Italy, India, and more – I can’t. When I spread my attention too thinly, then something loses out.

My (temporary) solution is this. Continue to love all, and pray for all. BUT – choose one or two areas on which to focus. Maybe more good can be accomplished this way.

Now, to choose…

SOURCE: Doctors without Borders

| Re-Posted via VOM News Room |

Dildar Yousaf, the Pakistani Christian arrested and charged with blasphemy for saving his 8-year-old nephew from Muslim attackers, was acquitted March 26 after prosecutors failed to produce any evidence against him.

“I was produced in court three times during the case proceedings, but not one accuser ever turned up at the hearings,” Yousaf told Compass Direct News. “You cannot imagine my joy when the prison officials told me that I had been acquitted by the court.”

In February, Dildar’s father told VOM workers that Dildar’s accusers had conceded in a community meeting that they were wrong and were ready to withdraw their charges. His father said he felt like God was sitting in the meeting with him.

Yousaf said there were times in prison when Muslim prisoners or jail officials directed unwarranted anger at him, but he said someone always defended him and saved him from being assaulted. He had faith that Jesus would free him from prison and from the false charge.

“I prayed a lot — this was the only other thing I did in prison besides having food and sleeping,” he said. “I kept on telling God that I had complete faith in him and would wait for the day when he would set me free.”

Yousaf’s nephew, Ehtasham, was fetching ice on June 10, 2011, when Muslim boys from a nearby madrassa, or religious school, beat him for refusing to convert to Islam. Seeing the attack from a distance, Yousaf rushed to his nephew’s defense. Thinking everything was over, he then went to work.

The village prayer leader claimed to have heard Yousaf “abusing Islamic holy words” while standing near the entrance of his mosque. He called on all Muslims to come out for the defense of Islam. A Muslim mob of about 55 surrounded Yousaf’s house and demanded that “the blasphemer” be handed over. A short time later, police registered a blasphemy case against Yousaf.

After being released, Yousaf returned home to his wife and two young children. He then relocated his family. Yousaf told Compass Direct that the circumstances helped him see the hand of the Almighty at work and drew him much closer to God.

SOURCE: VOM News Room | IMAGE: lukexmartin

The world map pictured below, shows the distribution of world religions.

| Click for Larger |

Remember, this is general and makes no delineation between types of Christianity or variances of any others.

Interesting, none the less.

Thoughts?

SOURCE: Today I Learned Something New | IMAGE: MarcelGermain

Stemming from a 2009  child pornography case of a college professor who had around 100 illegal images on his work computer web cache, the New York Court of Appeals has taken a dangerous step in the direction of legalizing child pornography.

“Merely viewing Web images of child pornography does not, absent other proof, constitute either possession or procurement within the meaning of our Penal Law,” Senior Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick wrote for a majority of four of the six judges.

“Rather, some affirmative act is required (printing, saving, downloading, etc.) to show that defendant in fact exercised dominion and control over the images that were on his screen,” Ciparick wrote. “To hold otherwise, would extend the reach of (state law) to conduct — viewing — that our Legislature has not deemed criminal.”

Bottom line: Looking at child pornography on the Internet is legal in New York.

I could understand if someone mistakenly stumbles onto it. Or a computer virus causes an issue. But when you’re talking about a hundred child pornography images, this isn’t a stumble. This isn’t a mistake. This is wrong.

This is another example of the slippery slope that could lead us to eventually make issues like human sex trafficking, even child sex trafficking, legal.

SOURCE: MSNBC | IMAGE: bloomsberries

Greetings from The Slave Detective,

I saw this well written article in the Washington Times. It once again returns to the debate of whether prostitution should be legalised. Written by Lisa M. Ruth.

It lays out brilliantly the questions for and against. Lisa Ruth then comes to a conclusion. It is of course her conclusion but I’d wager many more support her findings.

One of the facts that I hadn’t heard before was that in Amsterdam, after prostitution was legalized, child prostitution increased 300%. Legalization provided a veil of acceptability to prostitution, making it easier for pimps and traffickers to operate.

Then of my regular readers/fellow blogger Stella Marr commented quite rightly,

“Well-meaning people who’ve never been commercially sexually exploited often think that legal brothels will protect the women in prostitution from pimps and violent johns. They are mistaken.”

Stella has been there. The movement to legalise prostitution, will of course, say something along the lines of these are women’s rights ‘do gooders’.

But when you read the article the argument is so powerful. It isn’t a card carrying ‘activist’ but a balanced argument with conclusions I have echoed many times.

Women (and men) who work in the provision of sexual services are very unlikely to pick up a phone and ring home saying they had just got this great job!

In Germany, where prostitution is legal, the trade union’ ver.di’ expanded membership to include sex workers. This would give the workers health care, legal aid, paid holidays and a five-day work week. Of the estimated 400,000 sex workers, only 100 joined the union. Follow-up studies found that prostitutes were “too humiliated” to admit they were sex workers.

So we have to keep the debate open and continue to challenge persons (almost exclusively men) who use ‘Sexual Services’ that this is not an acceptable ‘hobby’.

The International Union of Sex Workers have a web page which supports the legalisation of Prostitution. I think this site should be read an the comments made there discussed as equally as the one published by Lisa Ruth. Some of the points raised by this page are worthy of healthy debate. I am by no means suggesting picking a fight with this organisation but working together to STOP trafficking. Some of the measures suggested have merit!

“According to the 2000 National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles 9% of men in London had paid for sex in the past 5 years, compared with 4% across the UK. In a survey of 16,000 gay & bisexual men, 10.4% had bought or sold sex in the past year.”

This is just one of the banners running through the web page. A lot has changed since 2000 one thing being the introduction of the 2004 legislation targeting Human Trafficking under Section 57, 58 and 59 of the Sexual Offences Act.

I have looked through the site and not able to pin point a place where they actually call for the legalisation of prostitution. Nick Davies of the Guardian Newspaper, a mouth piece for the IUSW openly calls for this measure to provide protection for those who chose to work in ‘The Industry’.

I think a reference back to an article I wrote “Every Young Girl should read this” is a good place to conclude.

RE-POSTED: Slave Detective | IMAGE: Koen Cobbaert