Reason #4,283 why not to go to this country.

[catsidhe]

Do you know what sort of behaviour really says “Land of the Brave and Home of the Free” to me?

It's when a tourist is hospitalised, you then take her two children and imprison them in an orphanage.
For extra credit, make the mother discharge her self and track down her daughters herself, still clad in her hospital gown.
For the special prize, send them a letter when the get home saying that the mother is now under investigation (presumably for child abuse).

Nothing says ‘sane, functioning society’ like being institutionally incapable of telling the difference between healthy children temporarily cared for for innocent reasons (like their mother falling ill with pneumonia, for instance), and potentially abused children being cared for because of neglect or ill-treatment.



(via: BB)

Comments

No, not really surprised...

[bar-barra.livejournal.com]

... and you won't be surprised either when I tell you that REALLY HIGH-RANKING members of the last federal government thought, on the subject of health systems:

Yeah, we need price signals and competition and free enterprise stuff.

No, please let's NOT have a US-style health system!

It's broken. It's REALLY broken and it's hard to see it getting fixed again any time soon...

Re: No, not really surprised...

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

Like I've said before: A business's purpose is to make a profit, that's it. Delivering a service is one way to do it, but service levels will be cut if profit can be increased thereby.

Hospitals, on the other hand, are there because of the service they provide. The profit motive should be entirely absent. Sure, use techniques developed in business-land to improve the management of these services, but remember always that this is not a business, nor should it be run as if it was one.

Similar concerns go with other services, such as, oh what are some clusterfscks coming from services being mistaken for businesses... Public Transport? (several volumes of rant in its own right) Prison Management? (like the various prisons for 'Illegals' and other people we don't want here) Law Enforcement? (Met Cops come to mind).



Good to see you back, by the way

Re: No, not really surprised...

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

There's also the wider problem evidenced that the US and the UK especially are systematically reversing the burden of proof. Everyone who enters the attention of Law Enforcement is deemed to be guilty unless they can prove otherwise, and even then they merely win the right to be under suspicion until the next time they have to prove their innocence.

The Universal Surveillance being implemented in the UK.

The US FAA's increasingly Kafkaesque rules on what you're assumed to have made a deadly weapon out of. And the lists which are trivial to get on to (just use the wrong word once in hearing of the wrong person), and then impossible to find out if you're on it, let alone get off it.

This case where children entering the system (where there was no option for them to have not done so, and no place for human reason) were automatically assumed to be drugged-up gang members, and their mother an abusive monster.

I don't think they're isolated: I think they're all epiphenomena of a wider pathology.

a wider pathology???

[(Anonymous)]

Oh yeah. And a culture which has seriously lost its way. Have you ever seen this??

Scenario 1: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school
parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.

1967 - Vice principal comes over to look at Jack's shotgun. He goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.

2007 - School goes into lock-down, and FBI is called. Jack is hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counsellors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario 2: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.

1967 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends.

2007 - Police called. SWAT team arrives. Johnny and Mark are arrested and charged with assault. Both are expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario 3: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.

1967 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the principal. He returns to class, sits still, and does not disrupt class again.

2007 - Jeffrey is diagnosed with ADD and given huge doses of ritalin. Becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from State because Jeffrey has a learning disability.

Scenario 4: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his dad gives
him a whipping with his belt.

1967 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is placed in foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist convinces Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself, and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario 5: Mark has a headache and brings some aspirin to school.

1967 - Mark takes aspirin in lunchroom and headache goes away.

2007 - Police called. Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. Car is searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario 6: Pedro fails English in high school.

1967 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.

2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given a diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario 7: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a fire ant hill.

1967 - Ants die.

2007 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Homeland Security, and FBI called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates parents; siblings are removed from home; computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad goes on Terror Watch List and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario 8: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher who hugs him to comfort him.

1967 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2007 - Teacher is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces three years in state prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy.


OK, that was a bit long, maybe, and possibly a bit simplistic. But it fits your story pretty well.