Just Sayin'

Yue Yue, the two-year-old girl that was viewed by the world on you-tube as she was run over twice and ignored by 18 passers-by in a Chinese market place has died of the massive injuries she sustained. Reaction has ranged from shock and outrage to the simple statement of "That's China for you." One explanation for the seemingly total indifference to the little one's ordeal is that those who left her there were too afraid to help, too worried about having a lawsuit brought against them for supposedly causing injury in their attempt to help.

Bullshit.

Let's start with the person making the video, shall we? This person was not taping the agony of an injured child. This person was greedily pursuing their moment in the spotlight as the maker of a vid that could go viral. They did not even care enough about the little girl to move her out of harm's way after filming the initial hit-and-run. Like the videographer, the others who passed her by did so because they are all members of a society that values the male above the female.
Look at the great imbalance in female-to-male ratio at birth in China. "For every 100 girls registered at birth, there are now 118 little boys - in other words, nearly one seventh of Chinese girl babies are going missing." With China's one child policy firmaly in place and the technology available to i.d. the gender of a child in utero, one female after another has been aborted in order to facilitate the next attempt to conceive the much sought after male. It is estimated that the number of such abortions reaches one million a year. Females who do make it to birth are abandoned at an alarming rate. It is not known how many of these poor unfortunates there are yearly, but it is known that many of them are found tossed onto garbage heaps. They are usually found there by garbage pickers.
It has been said that Chinese tradition despises girl children. (click to see further detail) That is the reason little Yue Yue was ignored by so many as she lay in agony, in peril of her very life. She was nothing more than a despised female.
Just sayin', that's all.

How Wonderful It Would Be

British Prime Minister David Cameron went on record this week to say, "Forced marriage is little more than slavery. To force someone into marriage is completely wrong." Truer words could not be spoken.
Cameron announced he was making it a criminal offence to breach an order issued by the courts to prevent a forced marriage and is asking Home Secretary Theresa May to consult on making the practice an offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Earlier this year, the cross-party Commons Home Affairs Committee had called for forced marriage to be criminalised, but the Home Office rejected the recommendation in case it discouraged victims from coming forward. Cameron addressed that issue, saying, "... as a first step, I am announcing today that we will criminalise the breach of Forced Marriage Prevention Orders. It's ridiculous that an Order made to stop a forced marriage isn't enforced with the full rigour of the criminal law. And I am also asking the Home Secretary to consult on making forcing someone to marry an offence in its own right, working closely with those who provide support to women forced into marriage to make sure that such a step would not prevent or hinder them from reporting what has happened to them."
It should be noted here that I am not discussing the practice of arranged marriages. When someone's parents select a prospective spouse, so long as the intended bride or groom is given the final say on whether or not they accept the choice, arranged marriage does not rob an individual of their rights. It is not a problem. What is a problem is a marriage that is forced on someone whether they want it or not. Relatives who try to claim they were acting in the "best interests" of their child need a crash course in the concept of personal freedom and rights.
Forced marriages occur here in Canada, (details here) as well as in the UK and many other parts of the world, but perhaps most especially in the western world, the occurrence generally takes place under society's radar. Those perpetrating this form of violence -for violence it is -are usually quite aware that what they are doing is wrong. They know that if authorities became aware of the despicable deed, they would be stopped. This abhorrent act is not a part of any particular culture. It is, quite simply, an abuse of control and power that needs to be stopped.
Kudos to David Cameron, and to everyone that supports his measures. Canada needs to follow his lead, as does every other country, worldwide. How wonderful that would be.

Idiot Alert Files Updated

Ontario's provincial election is today, so out I went to my polling station to exercise my right to vote. I had just finished marking my ballot and fitting it into the designated slot, when I saw Little Miss Brain-Dead making a fuss at the door. She was standing at the table where voters are asked to show their registration cards in order to be directed to correct booth. In her arms was a puppy. He was just a puppy, much too young to be a service dog, and neither was he wearing any I.D. as a service dog-in-training. In other words, there was no reason for the puppy's owner was creating.
Just as I approached, the idiot threw her voter registration card down on the table and declared she "would be in touch with the party". The woman at the table apologized and said she could tie the dog at the door for a moment while she voted, but that she could not bring the dog with her to a voting booth. Says the dog owner, "He's just a puppy and I'm not leaving him anywhere."
Since I had a little time to spare and I thought it might help defuse the situation, I offered to stay with the puppy at the open doorway while the woman voted. Her response was a curt, "No. I don't need your help."
She then declared that she would be contacting her party to tell them why she hadn't been able to vote for them. Obviously, it filled more of a need for her to take umbrage and stage a dramatic stalking out of the place, with the puppy firmly in her arms, than it did to exercise her civic right to have a say in the government.
Women weren't even allowed to vote in Ontario until 1917, not even one whole century ago, but she probably wouldn't know or care about that. Aboriginal women (and all First Nations people, for that matter) were not allowed access to the voting booths of the nation until 1960. She probably wouldn't know or care about that either. She just threw away her right to vote in order to have all eyes on her for her moment in the spotlight, whether it was a valid one or not.
Idiot.