Mood:
energeticNow Playing: ...is he sure?
Topic: Science and Health
Has your kid been diagnosed with ADD or something similar?
Just to be sure, you might want to check out this article.
And don't forget this one:
Thomas Alvin Edison is cited more often than any other historical figure for exhibiting classic hyperactive ADD behavior. ADD and divergent thinking styles have even been dubbed "The Edison Trait."
http://borntoexplore.org/edison.htm
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Now that the big announcement has come in regards to child poverty in BC, and now, along with a recent report from UNICEF that Canada lags far too much for a developed country with such a strong economy to let children be left behind in poverty
..its just another final touch to add to an already un-pretty and muddled picture, to point out that the provincial government, here in the "best place on earth"
is also not coming along well with recommendations to enhance child
protection in BC.
With report and study after study, from the Gove Inquiry to the Hughes recommendations
to a tragedy in my former hometown of Prince George involving the death of a 3 year old named Savannah Hall.
and still after that a girl named Sherry Charlie,
....few people are left who are not shaking their heads and wondering, perhaps in silent contempt or brimming anger, as to why the government can't seem to get its kit and kaboodle together.
In my opinion, a national child and youth care advocate and Parlimentary Department and Minister is the best overall answer to see a longer term solution to these problems.
Critics want action on family violence
Child care advocates alarmed at Conservative proposals
By far and wide, the problem is not limited by any scope to just within my neighborhood, my town, my province or my country.
Heres a man right here, a man
who left the New York City Department of Welfare to go directly into a war zone of a fledgling country called Biafra (now in Nigerias wing) which literally vanished during a genocidal tribal conflict. A man who then returned to NYC to study law and then moonlight as an author in order to become a full time advocate and defender for kids in trouble with the law or suffering needlessly from abuse. And thats the very rough and short version.
In this interview he all but gingerly but succinctly points out that amidst all the issues that roust peoples concerns for election goodies and make for good election platforms, not one candidate is outspoken enough to come forward with a proactive approach to tell citizens and voters what they intend to do to enhance their countries child protection laws and programs.
And in this day and age of so much concern for the safety and well being of the children in the age of the Internet, with recalled
defective toys,
(See also : Thin line between kids and unsafe toys)
contaminated playgrounds
and calls to:
Canada.com, Canada - 4 hours ago
..while
Health Canada downplays fluoride fears for infants
Globe and Mail, Canada - 13 hours ago
...
...and all the other stories and news items in similar vein...., that is , to use a much hackneyed cliche; to not have your prime ministerial or presidential candidates being more putspoken on these issues is, frankly: a real crying shame.
As per recommendation of internationally prepared reports, both the US and Canada should have a nationally mandated child protection advocacy portfolio with dedicated full time jobs, money and departmental resources to tackle all of these disparate but connected issues, to draw the strands together cohesively, one by one and head on, answering to other departments too like health and education and even perhaps export divisions and foreign trade to break away from this throw everything at the fan mentality.
It may not be the only way to prevent stories like this one
No objections to revisiting child deaths, coroner say
but it certainly seems like one of the smart ones.
But, in spite of all of this negative scorekeeping, its unfair to sidestep and overlook what may bode well for the future so long as promises are kept.
Hillary Clinton Calls for Ensuring the Safety of Toys
Hillary Clinton has always suported the Children's Defense Fund and also has some strong supporters (Barbra Streisands Charity work)
If the number of autism diagnoses in the US has risen from one/10,000 in 1993, to one/150 in 2007
and Ms.HR Clinton pledges to help autistic families by boosting funding for research and education to $700 million a year, theres real reason for hope.
Ms. Clinton would also invest more than $1 billion in programs that identify and support at-risk youth
Meanwhile, back here in Canada, with just a tenth of the population of the US, we have proportionally smaller concerns
stories like: prison population climbs for first time in decade
and
youth violence as a national pastime ,
catch our eye but contrast so obliquely with ones like:
panic buttons and police: welcome to the school of the future.
- - -
When the publics faith in national institutions is put to the
test in one case after another with news stories of the mentally ill or merely disordered or overly-stressed dying at the hands of police with both guns and Tasers.
what can be left to be said for the current Federal Tory government when it is revealed that they cut programs for autistic children?
And that it was only after an outcry that funding was restored?
While kids in oil-overflowing and rich Alberta lack childcare spaces (Alberta spends less on childcare than any other Canadian province.)
and whilst bickering in the courts over who pays for the care and programs for such special needs kids,
a brand new report from America recommends earlier testing for the autistic condition in babies and children.
But, even if a question remains if this idea is
...what is left to be said by the current Tories in both action and word is basically: not much.
If we concede such politico-sophical questions are just too confusing, too disconcerting and too
mind numbing in this, a war ravaged world...
(Iraqi children bear the burden of an uncalled-for war)
...or too blasé to hold our interest or even if
were just too plain tired of it all and all energy sapped, it might all be just too bad in any case.
After all, just in case your child might get a false positive for lead, why bother with testing for early autism, right?
Bottom line is......
...beyond all of the talk, banter and care and concern over the well being of children, beneath the hoopla, rhetoric..
and electioneering, as thinking adults
we are still left to answer to ourselves.
- - - - - - - -
"What drives me is real simple, one word: anger. I'm absolutely, morally convinced in my mind and my heart that child abuse is a greater cancer in this country than cocaine or communism." - Andrew Vachss
Thanks for visiting.
BEFORE!
lazy
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blue
a-ok
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