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I.S.U.P.K. WEEKLY NEWS!!
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Dying from hunger in food-exporting Argentina

Many of the communities have no sewage systems and limited access to clean water

At least 10 indigenous children have died from malnutrition in north-west Argentina this year. How could this be happening in one of the world's biggest food-exporting countries? BBC Mundo's Vladimir Hernandez travelled to the indigenous Wichi community in a remote part of Salta to find out.
A local elder greeted us politely, but his message was clear: "I'm done talking to journalists, it hasn't helped us one bit."
His words may seem harsh, but what his people are facing is much harsher.
At least 10 children in the Wichi community have died from poor nutrition or a lack of food this year. That is already double the number who died from malnutrition in 2010.

Argentina is one of the world's biggest food exporters and it has shocked the nation to discover that some of its population are not getting enough food.

“Start Quote

A bout of diarrhea or dehydration can kill them in no time”

End Quote Enrique Heredia Director of social medicine

Almost 30,000 people live in this region of north-west Argentina, making up around 200 communities. The tribe we visited is known for its reticence. Its members are wary of contact with outsiders.
The areas where they live are a picture of desperate poverty. The houses are mostly wooden shacks, with blankets as makeshift walls, where there are any at all.
We found hardly any access to clean water or sewage systems in the communities we visited.
"When children who lack proper nutrients also face these sorts of sanitary hazards then the risk of disease increases," said Enrique Heredia, director of social medicine for the province of Salta, who regularly visits the indigenous communities to provide free medical attention.
"A bout of diarrhoea or dehydration can kill them in no time."
The local authorities often do not register the fact that malnutrition is the underlying condition that links these deaths. Instead, they note down only the disease that is immediately responsible.

Local Wichi tribesman Florentino (right) with his son

Locals depend on government help, but that is not always enough

But doctors admit that malnutrition is an important element in explaining these deaths.
"Undoubtedly the lack of proper nutrients is a factor that contributed to these children dying," said Mr Heredia.
Marcelino Pérez welcomes us to his community, called Lapacho II, just outside a small town called Tartagal, near the border with Bolivia. He introduces himself as the tribal chief, leading around 300 Wichi and several stray dogs.
Marcelino knows the problem well. His grandson died of malnutrition just a few weeks ago.
'Silent killer'
"All I know is that we don't have food. Sometimes we can't get enough work or money to cover our needs. And what we receive from the government is not enough either," he said.
In Lapacho II we see many children playing in the dirt, with torn clothes and telltale signs of extreme poverty.
But this is not Africa. They are not extremely thin and do not have protruding bones.
Malnutrition can be a silent killer, we are told, as it weakens the system until a minor disease can prove fatal.
This community is an image of the refugee camps you see in places hit by natural disasters. No earthquake or tsunami has hit Lapacho II, but Marcelino says their disaster is deforestation.

Large fields of soy beans have been planted where forests used to grow

"We used to get our food from the forest and now we have had to adapt to the white man's food, which is not sufficient," he said.
Since ancient times the Wichi have been a tribe of hunter-gatherers. For centuries the forests in the area provided them with food high in protein, like fish and fruit, which kept them in good health. But all that has changed now.
The government of Salta says that between 2000 and 2006, at least 600,000 hectares of forest - an area four times the size of Greater London - was flattened in the region by farming corporations that harvest soy beans, corn or other grains and cereals.
Too lateTravelling to Tartagal this became evident.
The public road we took was flanked by miles and miles of soybean fields, which have replaced the forests that used to grow there.
However, these commodities are not going directly to the local communities, although they are what has kept Argentina's economy booming. Last year its GDP rose by 9.5%, a figure surpassed only by China and India.
"The deforestation was stopped a couple of years ago by a judicial ruling, but it has already changed the indigenous communities' way of life," said Claudia Lungu, a member of Asociana, a local organisation that deals with the social issues groups like the Wichi face in Salta.
"Although we see that these groups are now getting more help from the authorities, we believe that they are much poorer than before because of the problems created by deforestation, like malnutrition," she added.

“Start Quote

We have little ones dying here and next to us there are huge fields of food. All I ask is where is all that food going while we have this problem?”

End Quote Marcelino Pérez

Some of the places we visited were tiny indigenous communities completely surrounded by crop, like little islands of human life in the middle of fields of soybeans. The only way in or out is along the farmers' roads.
In places like this, the Wichi depend on government help for food, but this has not been enough to end the malnutrition.
"We know about the problem. We acknowledge it, but we also think things are improving compared to previous years. It is a difficult situation as there are many factors at play," said Salta's health minister, Luis Gabriel Chagra.
In some cases the communities are in such remote areas that if a child has health problems the local doctors find out about it only when it is too late.
"Also, many indigenous mothers are very shy and reserved and not willing to talk to a white-skinneddoctor, even if their child is dying. Therefore we are training people from their own community to become health officials," said Mr Chagra.
The local government has also called on the help of Unicef, the children's program of United Nations, to help the Wichi cope with this substantial change of life.
It might be too early to find out if these solutions will prevent further deaths.
In the meantime, the problem of malnutrition remains difficult to accept for the Wichi.
"We have little ones dying here and next to us there are huge fields of food. All I ask is where is all that food going while we have this problem?" said Marcelino with a stern face.

The answer is China. Most of the soybeans and corn goes there. But he could not care less about that.

Proverbs 30:14- [There is] a generation, whose teeth [are as] swords, and their jaw teeth [as] knives, to devourthe poor from off the earth, and the needy from [among] men.

Isaiah 1:7- Your country [is] desolate, your cities [are] burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and [it is] desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

Leviticus 23:22- And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I [am] the LORD your God.
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59 bodies found in Mexico mass graves

By the CNN Wire Staff

April 7, 2011 8:23 a.m. EDT

Soldiers in Honduras last year unload the body of one of 72 immigrants who died in San Fernando, Mexico, in August.

(CNN) -- Eight mass graves were uncovered in northeastern Mexico Wednesday, holding at least 59 bodies, the Tamaulipas state attorney general's office said.

Authorities found the graves during an investigation into a report of the kidnapping of passengers from a bus in late March. The investigation led them to the town of San Fernando, the same place where in August of last year the bodies of 72 immigrants were found at a ranch.
This time, authorities arrested 11 suspects and rescued five hostages, the state attorney general's office said.
They also discovered the eight mass graves. There were 11 bodies found in the first six graves, 43 bodies in the seventh, and five in the eighth, the agency said.
Forensic investigators will examine the bodies in an attempt to identify them and to see if they are the missing bus passengers.
Tamaulipas Gov. Egidio Torre Cantu condemned the violence, and said he would collaborate with federal authorities to locate and punish those responsible.
"These reprehensible acts underline the cowardice and the total lack of scruples of the criminal organizations, which generate violence in our country, and especially in the state of Tamaulipas," the office of Mexican President Felipe Calderon said in a statement.

Amnesty International also called on Mexico to fully investigate, and it criticized the country's efforts to protect its citizens and migrants passing through.
"The mass graves found yesterday once again show the Mexican government's failure to deal with the country's public security crisis and reduce criminal violence which has left many populations vulnerable to attacks, abductions and killings," said Rupert Knox, a researcher on Mexico at Amnesty International. "All too often such human rights crimes have gone unpunished, leaving criminal gangs and officials acting in collusion with them free to target vulnerable communities, such as irregular migrants."
The nationalities of the victims found in the mass graves were not immediately known.
Tamaulipas is one of Mexico's most active states when it comes to drug trafficking activity. The Gulf cartel and the Zetas cartel both operate in the state and have strongholds there.
The Zetas have been blamed for the killings of the 72 migrants who were found in San Fernando last year.
(UPDATE)

Suspect leads Mexican authorities to more mass graves

By the CNN Wire Staff

April 11, 2011 8:01 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

A total of 88 bodies have been recovered from mass graves
They were discovered in the northern Mexican town of San Fernando
A suspect led the military to the most recent find

Mexico City (CNN) -- Authorities located four new mass graves in northern Mexico over the weekend after the arrest of a suspect in the kidnapping and killings of bus passengers, the Mexican military said.
Sixteen bodies were discovered in the clandestine graves located in San Fernando, in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas. The most recent find brings to 88 the total number of bodies recovered from mass graves in the area.
The military announced Sunday that it had captured Armando Cesar Morales Uscanga the day before in San Fernando.
The suspect admitted his participation in the kidnapping and killings of bus passengers on two separate days in March, the military said.
Morales provided information that led to the discovery of the other four graves, the military said.
Along with his arrest, the military seized an assault rifle, nearly $3,000 and more than 20,000 pesos.
Authorities began finding the graves last week during an investigation into a report of the kidnapping of passengers from a bus in late March. The investigation led them to San Fernando, the same place where in August of last year, the bodies of 72 immigrants were found at a ranch.
This time, authorities arrested 11 suspects -- not including Morales -- and rescued five hostages, the state attorney general's office said.
Tamaulipas is one of Mexico's most active states when it comes to drug trafficking. The Gulf cartel and the Zetas cartel operate in the state and have strongholds there.
The Zetas have been blamed for the killings of the 72 migrants found in San Fernando last year.
Jeremiah 5:26- For among my people are found wicked [men]: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

Jeremiah 5:28- They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

Proverbs 14:12- There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death.
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Survival tools in Haiti: Truth and deception

By Moni Basu, CNN

April 9, 2011 4:08 p.m. EDT

Fritz Robert Pierre-Saint lives near the rubble of the Notre Dame cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Many people we interviewed wanted payment, simply for answering our questions
People have little documentation left of their lives, and journalists have to have faith in subjects
The man told us his daughter was born just hours before Haiti's massive earthquake

RELATED TOPICS

Editor's note: CNN's Moni Basu and Jim Spellman traveled to Haiti in December, to report on the one-year anniversary of the earthquake there. Among the stories they covered was the reunion of two survivors.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- We found him on a Sunday morning, as an outdoor service came to a close at what was once the Notre Dame cathedral. When the hymns faded, we picked through the carcass of the building, and there he was among the collapsed walls, his slender body framed by piles of rubble and blue sky attempting to peek through after a hard rain.
In his arms, he cradled a child, not more than a year old. Her name, he said, is Christella. Christ is here.
She was born, he told us, on January 12, 2010, just hours before Haiti's massive earthquake.
His story was stunning, even in a place where everyone has a tale of survival. We immediately thought of it as symbolic of Haiti's struggle this past year -- to go on living despite extreme hardship. But it would not take long for doubt to creep in.
It's difficult to believe people in the new world that is Port-au-Prince, where desperation prompts people to say anything if they think that it will bring them attention, and maybe help.
Not that trust was ever in abundance here during decades of dictators and despots. But now people have very little documentation left of their lives, and journalists have little choice but to place some faith in what the subjects of their stories tell them.
Many people we interviewed wanted payment, simply for answering our questions. It was not an agreement we could make. But we could understand the request, coming as it did in a place where meals are not routine, where grinding poverty has changed the rules of life.
The grim anniversary of the earthquake has long passed. This week, the spotlight fell on Haiti for a different reason -- Michel Martelly was declared the winner of a troubled presidential election. But for the most part, international journalists, like us, have packed their bags and gone elsewhere. Some are in Japan, covering that nation's earthquake tragedy.
But the story of the man in the rubble of the cathedral still haunts.
It is worth telling because it does epitomize something about Haiti: a new wave of misery in which truth, and deception, are both tools for survival.
A tale of desperation, resilience
This much is known to be true: The man asked nothing of me or my CNN colleague Jim Spellman when we happened upon him. Only when we remarked on his situation did he say he wished he had a tent to shield his baby from the rain and milk to fill her aching belly.
And this is the story he told.
Christella was born on January 12, at 9 a.m., almost eight hours before the ground shook for 35 seconds and dismantled much of Port-au-Prince.
His wife of five years, Carla Fleurival, gave birth in a small shelter they called home in the shadows of the cathedral. In all his 23 years, he has known nothing but poverty of the most extreme kind.
When he was 3, his mother brought him with her from Leogane to beg in the big city. He grew to manhood while living on the streets of Port-au-Prince. He had hoped for a different life for his own 3-year-old son, Christopher, and now, Christella.
Clinton returns to help in ongoing recovery
Then the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de L'Assomption came tumbling down. Dust billowed everywhere as enormous chunks of plaster and concrete roared like an avalanche, flattening everything in its path.
Instantly, Carla was crushed to death. She was buried with about 30 others behind the cathedral.
The man's friend, Marie Batiste, was cooking rice and beans on a small wooden stove. It toppled over and the hot water scalded Christella. The father scooped her up and ran with her to the general hospital.
As he talked, he showed us the scars on the baby's right leg.
These days, he enters the broken cathedral to shelter his baby from the searing sun, to seek refuge in the very building that wrought death in his family. Sometimes, he peddles for change from the foreigners who visit. He depends on the charity of others, he said.
He began believing that everything that befell him was God's will.
He has no money. When he finds food, he said, he feels guilty that he gives most of it to his infant daughter. His son goes without -- for two, maybe three days.
"I don't even know how to take care of her," he said. "I bathe her but I don't know how to braid her hair."
Single fatherhood is hard anywhere. Imagine the enormity of the task for a poor man in post-earthquake Haiti.
He wiped tears away with his dust-caked hands. It was difficult not to be moved by his story.
We photographed him, interviewed him further. But when we returned two days later, we were led to see him in a different light. Others cast doubt on his story.
"He is not telling you the truth," two men told us, indirectly, through our interpreter. "He has a wife. He wants your money."
If that was his ultimate goal, he put up an elaborate ruse, hoping we would find him amid the rubble and pity him. And he'd never asked us for money.
We made our way through the tents and plastic tarpaulins on the street near the cathedral, asking others who lived there about him. A blind man known for his guitar riffs and his willingness to talk to foreigners told us the story was true. So did Marie Batiste, the friend who was cooking that day and said she saw the quake throw water on the baby.
Spellman and I believed the man's story. So did other journalists. The Miami Herald's Carl Juste photographed Christella and her father four months ago for the anniversary of the earthquake. "I can only go by what he told me. I believe him," Juste told me. "If someone is lying to you, you would sense it. No one told me he is lying."
So why would some try to discredit him?
The man insisted he had not embellished his story.
He said others accused him of lying because they were jealous. "They all hate me because most often people who come to the cathedral give me money or food so that I can take care of the baby."
It is a sad fact that there is so much competition for attention in Haiti. That one man's need can be seen as another's threat.
In an odd way, it matters little whether the man's story is true. The fact of his existence is real, as are the dire circumstances in which he lives. He is not just a metaphor for Haiti. He is a man.
And I feel certain that if we return to the small city of tents and tarps that hug the cast-iron gates of the cathedral, we will find him there.
He says his name is Fritz Robert Pierre-Saint. I believe this to be true.
Ecclesiasticus 41:2
O death acceptable is thy sentence unto the needy and unto him whose strength faileth that is now in the last age and is vexed with all things and to him that despaireth and hath lost patience
Ecclesiasticus 31:4
The poor laboureth in his poor estate and when he leaveth off he is still needy
Job 24:4- They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.

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also is attached the UN sex ed guidelines, sir.

U.N. Report Advocates Teaching Masturbation to 5-Year-Olds

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

By Joseph Abrams

NEW YORK — The United Nations is recommending that children as young as five receive mandatory sexual education that would teach even pre-kindergarteners about masturbation and topics like gender violence.
The U.N.'s Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a 98-page report in June offering a universal lesson plan for kids ranging in age from 5-18, an
"informed approach to effective sex, relationships" and HIV education that they say is essential for "all young people."
The U.N. insists the program is "age appropriate," but critics say it's exposing kids to sex far too early, and offers up abstract ideas — like "transphobia" — they might not even understand.
"At that age they should be learning about ... the proper name of certain parts of their bodies," said Michelle Turner, president of Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, "certainly not about masturbation."
Turner was disturbed by UNESCO's plans to explain to children as young as nine about the safety of legal abortions, and to advocate and "promote the right to and access to safe abortion" for everyone over the age of 15.
"This is absurd," she told FOXNews.com.
The UNESCO report, called "International Guidelines for Sexuality Education," separates children into four age groups: 5-to-8-year-olds, 9-to-12-year-olds, 12-to-15-year-olds and 15-to-18-year-olds.
Under the U.N.'s voluntary sex-ed regime, kids just 5-8 years old will be told that "touching and rubbing one's genitals is called masturbation" and that private parts "can feel pleasurable when touched by oneself."
• Click here to see the report.
By the time they're 9 years old, they'll learn about "positive and negative effects of 'aphrodisiacs," and wrestle with the ideas of "homophobia, transphobia and abuse of power."
At 12, they'll learn the "reasons for" abortions — but they'll already have known about their safety for three years. When they're 15, they'll be exposed to direct "advocacy to promote the right to and access to safe abortion."
Child health experts say they are wary of teaching about the sticky topic of abortion, but stress that as long as messages stay age-appropriate, educating kids at a younger age helps better steer them into adulthood.
"The adults are more leery of [early sex-ed] than the kids are," said Dr. Jennifer Hartstein, a child psychiatrist in New York. "Our own fears sometimes prevent us from being as open and honest with our kids as possible."
Hartstein, however, who didn't see much harm in explaining basic concepts that kids of all ages will have questions about, was baffled by some of the ideas the U.N. hoped to introduce to kids as young as 5 years old, who will be taught about "gender roles, stereotypes and gender-based violence."
"I want to know how you teach that to a 5-year-old," Hartstein told FOXNews.com.
Despite those challenges, the U.N. insists that "in a world affected by HIV and AIDS ... there is an imperative to give children and young people the knowledge, skills and values to understand and make informed decisions."
UNESCO officials said the guidelines were "co-authored by two leading experts in the field of sexuality education" — Dr. Doug Kirby, an adolescent sexuality expert, and Nanette Ecker, the former director of international education and training at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.
Their report was based on a "rigorous review" of sex-ed literature, "drawing upon 87 studies from around the world," said Mark Richmond, director of UNESCO's Division for the Coordination of U.N. Priorities in Education, in an e-mailed statement.
Richmond defended teaching about masturbation as "age-appropriate" because even in early childhood, "children are known to be curious about their bodies." Their lessons, he added, would hopefully help kids "develop a more complex understanding of sexual behaviour" as they grow into adults.
But Michelle Turner, of Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, said that such roles should be left up to parents, and worried that children were being exposed to too much information too soon.
"Why can't kids be kids anymore?" she said.Proverbs 16: 30- He shutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass.

Mic 2:1- Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
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Why Cornel West And Rev. Al Sharpton Are Fighting [Video]

I just returned from the Measuring the Movement forum hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton in New York City. The forum was insightful and empowering as it pertains to getting members of African American leadership to see the value of accountability. NAACP President Ben Jealous gave time to the forum, and even President Barack Obama came through to give a speech.
In many ways, the convention was arguably the most successful gathering of its kind. I find Sharpton’s approach to action-oriented solutions to be refreshing, and as a person who sat on a panel with both Jealous and Sharpton, it’s a relief to be involved with a forum where the goal is not to simply provide the best sound bite. “Sound bite leadership” in the black community needs to die and be replaced with strong, direct action that recognizes the urgency of our deadly situation.
The day after the forum, I got off an airplane to hear that Rev. Sharpton got into a heated debate over the black agenda with Cornel West. I knew the conversation would be volatile, and I was concerned about the imagery of two black men going to war on MSNBC. Ed Schultz was the host of “A Stronger America: The Black Agenda,” a show that allowed a few voices to air their perspective on what a black agenda should look like in the age of Obama. Personally, I wonder why such a show was not positioned on a black network, or at least with an African American host.
As I expected, the argument came to a predictable boiling point. Consistent with the views of his close colleague, Tavis Smiley, Cornel West fought hard to short-circuit the partnership between President Obama and Rev. Al Sharpton. Sharpton, a man not known to back down from anyone, defended his positions well and also challenged those who “sit in the ivory tower” and talk without much action (I do not consider Cornel West to be one of those people; he believes what he says and acts on it).
I watched the entire exchange shaking my head, primarily because I knew that such a fight was simply inevitable. As I wrote on the Huffington Post a couple of weeks ago, the Obama Presidency has created a divide among black public figures that I pray does not cripple our community. I love both Rev. Sharpton and Cornel West, and it was sad to watch them get into such a personal and nasty fight on national television.
My perception is that Cornel is coming from a genuine place. I cannot say the same about Tavis Smiley, who seemed to have a problem with Barack Obama’s disrespect toward him during the 2008 presidential election. West’s statements about the elitism of the Obama Administration (he mentions that Obama would be glad to speak out if a wealthy banker were stopped by police, but not if it were a poor black man) are on point. He is also correct to note that the administration has been slow to readily acknowledge African American suffering.
In Sharpton’s defense, the truth is that having an African American figure on the inside of the Obama Administration gives our community a better chance to grab the ear of the president. What’s yet to be determined, however, is whether or not the president is listening to Sharpton’s concerns or giving priority to the issues being faced by other constituencies. Women’s groups, the gay community and the Latino community have gotten high priority from the Obama Administration, but African Americans remain at the back of the bus when it comes to our primary concerns, including mass incarceration and growing unemployment rates of over 15 percent. My belief is that Cornel West and Al Sharpton are both witnessing the community’s struggle up close, and Sharpton hopefully serves as a true and passionate surrogate for those who are frozen out of Obama’s big white house.
President Obama has reason to be concerned about losing much of his steadfast African American support. According to a recent survey conducted at YourBlackWorld.com, 34.4% of black respondents said that President Obama failed to meet their expectations after being elected. This disappointment may not translate to votes for the Republicans, but it can manifest itself in reduced voter turnout in the African American community.
Another survey at YourBlackWorld.com reveals that nearly two-thirds (62.3%) of black respondents do not see President Obama as a civil rights leader. Given that Obama is not a civil rights leader, we must be careful not to feel that his presence reduces the significance of true civil rights leaders like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and others. This means that we need genuine and empowered advocates within black America who can mobilize the people to put pressure on any administration that is in power so that our rights as Americans can be secured.
In other words, sitting around and hoping that President Obama will look out for our interests is not nearly as effective as pursuing our interests ourselves. Work must be done on the ground to lay out a black agenda, putting pressure on both Congress and the Obama Administration to see to it that our community is not left behind. Both West and Sharpton would likely agree with this assertion, and this can begin the quest for common ground.
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Skin Bleaching Is A Big Problem In Jamaican Slums

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Mikeisha Simpson covers her body in greasy white cream and bundles up in a track suit to avoid the fierce sun of her native Jamaica, but she’s not worried about skin cancer.
The 23-year-old resident of a Kingston ghetto hopes to transform her dark complexion to a cafe-au-lait-color common among Jamaica’s elite and favored by many men in her neighborhood. She believes a fairer skin could be her ticket to a better life. So she spends her meager savings on cheap black-market concoctions that promise to lighten her pigment.
Simpson and her friends ultimately shrug off public health campaigns and reggae hits blasting the reckless practice.
“I hear the people that say bleaching is bad, but I’ll still do it. I won’t stop ’cause I like it and I know how to do it safe,” said Simpson, her young daughter bouncing on her hip.
People around the world often try to alter their skin color, using tanning salons or dyes to darken it or other chemicals to lighten it. In the gritty slums of Jamaica, doctors say the skin lightening phenomenon has reached dangerous proportions.
“I know of one woman who started to bleach her baby. She got very annoyed with me when I told her to stop immediately, and she left my office. I often wonder what became of that baby,” said Neil Persadsingh, a leading Jamaican dermatologist.
Most Jamaican bleachers use over-the-counter creams, many of them knockoffs imported from West Africa. Long-term use of one of the ingredients, hydroquinone, has long been linked to a disfiguring condition called ochronosis that causes a splotchy darkening of the skin. Doctors say abuse of bleaching lotions has also left a web of stretch marks across some Jamaicans’ faces.
In Japan, the European Union, and Australia, hydroquinone has been removed from over-the-counter skin products and substituted with other chemicals due to concerns about health risks. In the U.S., over-the-counter creams containing up to 2 percent hydroquinone are recognized as safe and effective by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A proposed ban by the FDA in 2006 fizzled.
Lightening creams are not effectively regulated in Jamaica, where even roadside vendors sell tubes and plastic bags of powders and ointments from cardboard boxes stacked along sidewalks in market districts.
“Many of the tubes are unlabeled as to their actual ingredients,” said Dr. Richard Desnoes, president of the Dermatology Association of Jamaica.
Hardcore bleachers use illegal ointments smuggled into the Caribbean country that contain toxins like mercury, a metal that blocks production of melanin, which give skin its color, but can also be toxic.
Some impoverished people resort to homemade mixtures of toothpaste or curry powder, which can stain skin with a yellowish tint.
The Jamaican Ministry of Health does not have data on damage caused by skin-bleaching agents, though dermatologists and other health officials say they have been seeing more cases.
Eva Lewis-Fuller, the ministry’s director of health promotion and protection, is redoubling education programs to combat bleaching in this predominantly black island of 2.8 million people, where images of fair-skinned people predominate in commercials for high-end products and in the social pages of newspapers.
“Bleaching has gotten far worse and widespread in recent years,” she said. “(Bleachers) want to be accepted within their circle of society. They want to be attractive to the opposite sex. They want career opportunities. But we are saying there are side effects and risks. It can disfigure your face.”
Health officials are running warnings on local radio stations, putting up posters in schools, holding talks and handing out literature about the dangers. But a similar anti-bleaching campaign in 2007 called “Don’t Kill the Skin” did nothing to slow the craze.
The bleaching trend is sparking a growing public debate. Even dancehall reggae hits celebrate the practice, or condemn it.
The most public proponent of bleaching is singing star Vybz Kartel, whose own complexion has dramatically lightened in recent years. His ‘Look Pon Me’ contains the lines: “Di girl dem love off mi brown cute face, di girl dem love off mi bleach-out face.”
Kartel, whose real name is Adijah Palmer, insists that skin bleaching is simply a personal choice like tattooing.
Christopher A.D. Charles, an assistant professor at Monroe College in New York City who has studied the psychology of bleaching, said many young Jamaicans perceive it “as a modern thing, like Botox, to fashion their own body in a unique way.”
Others, however, say it raises awkward questions about identity and race.
“If we really want to control the spread of the skin-bleaching virus, we first have to admit that there’s an epidemic of color prejudice in our society,” said Carolyn Cooper, a professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of the West Indies, writing in The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper.
Felicia James, a 20-year-old resident of the Matthews Lane slum, said skin bleaching just makes her feel special, like she’s walking around in a spotlight. She was taught to bleach by her older sister and her friends.
“It’s just the fashionable thing to do. After I bleach, I’m cris,” she said, using a Jamaican term for cool. “Plus, a lot of the boys are doing it now, too.”
Jeremiah 2:33- Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.

Jeremiah 2:14- [Is] Israel a servant? [is] he a homeborn [slave]? why is he spoiled?
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Planned Parenthood, Abortion And The Budget Fight

Budget battle planned parenthood abortion

WASHINGTON – Republicans portray Planned Parenthood as primarily focused on performing abortions and — intentionally or not — using American taxpayer dollars to do it.
Not so, say Democrats who counter that the group’s 800-plus health centers nationwide provide an array of services, from screenings for cancer to testing for sexually transmitted diseases. Abortion is just one of many procedures, and the law bars Planned Parenthood from using tax money for it.
In the budget maelstrom Friday stood Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a 90-year-old organization now part of a decades-long congressional battle over abortion. Republicans wanted any legislation keeping the government operating to bar federal dollars for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortions. They wanted to distribute the money to the states.
“The country is broke and the vast majority of Americans don’t want tax dollars to take the life of unborn children,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., chairman of Republican Study Committee, told reporters in a conference call.
Democrats said they saw a radical agenda against women’s health, especially poor and low-income women, and wouldn’t allow it, even if it meant shutting down the government.
“It is appalling that Republicans would hold our economic recovery hostage for a ransom of denying millions of women Pap tests, breast exams, and birth control,” said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y. “It shows their top priority is not keeping our economic recovery on track — it is reviving divisive social issues.”
Late Friday, the White House and congressional negotiators reached a deal on the budget and a compromise on Planned Parenthood funds. Under the agreement, the Senate will hold a vote on the money, and it’s likely it would reject the House effort to cut off the cash.
Abortion nearly scuttled President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in the final hours of debate last March. A year later, the stakes were higher, the political rhetoric fierce and the claims in need of clarification.
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., wrote last month that the legislative fight is “Big Abortion vs. American taxpayers.”
Giving its version, Planned Parenthood said it performed about 330,000 abortions last year, 3 percent of its total health care services. The organization also said its doctors and nurses annually conduct 1 million screenings for cervical cancer, 830,000 breast exams and some 4 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases.
Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, said in a statement: “Attacking Planned Parenthood’s preventive health care hurts women, does not cut the deficit or fix the economy, and must be stopped.”
Nine of the Senate’s Democratic women stood together at a midday Capitol Hill news conference vowing to stop the House GOP effort.
“This is an opportunity for the right wing in the House to really sock it to women,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.: “These women are a mighty line of defense against cutting Planned Parenthood.”
The organization said it receives $363 million in federal funds, getting its money from both the Title X program and Medicaid. Title X provides grants for family planning and related health services under a law signed by Republican President Richard M. Nixon in December 1970.
Of the Title X money, Planned Parenthood gets about $70 million, some 25 percent of the $317 million in Title X spending. The organization’s annual budget is $1.1 billion and includes individual donations.
Federal law bars Planned Parenthood from using tax dollars for abortion. In 1976, three years after the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment which bars the use of taxpayer funds for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
It annually is attached to the congressional spending bills.
But Republicans argue that often all the money ends up in the same account for the organizations.
“Come on,” Jordan said. “It’s just common sense. We think that taxpayers understand this, particularly at a point in history when the country is broke.”
No matter what the outcome, the fight over federal money for Planned Parenthood will continue. Once Congress resolves the budget for the current fiscal year, it must decide on spending for the next budget.
“We have a long history of pro-life protection being part of an appropriation debate,” Jordan said.
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Daymaris Vazquez choked Florida boy and struck him with spatula over F on report card: police

By Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, April 11th 2011, 10:13 AM

Daymaris Vazquez is accused of attacking a boy because he got an F on his report card.

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A Florida woman beat a young boy with a spatula because he got an F on his report card, police said Monday.
Daymaris Vazquez, of Tampa, was busted Sunday for the alleged assault. The 35-year-old is also accused of choking and threatening to kill the child. She also struck him in the face and broke his glasses, police said.
The incident is being considered "domestic violence," according to officials. Vazquez and the boy are reportedly related, but authorities did not say how.
The woman is being held at Hillsborough County jail and was charged with felony child abuse.

Lamentations 4:3- Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people [is become] cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

Job 39:16- She is hardened against her young ones, as though [they were] not hers: her labour is in vain without fear;
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Planned Parenthood, Abortion And The Budget Fight

Daymaris Vazquez choked Florida boy and struck him with spatula over F on report card: police

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