Child Trafficking in Haiti

I’d like to touch on the topic of the recent earthquake in Haiti that Amanda had mentioned in her recent blog post regarding the predicament the children are in. I’d like to specifically touch on the subject of child trafficking and the fears there of.

In the aftermath of the January earthquake in Haiti, there has been much fear from aid agencies (such as Unicef, Red Cross, etc.) and the governments of Haiti and America that local gangs as well as “adoption agencies” and “ministries” are engaging in child trafficking, taking advantage of children whos parents died in the quake. Now, I am by no means singling out any individual group, but to me it seems very sickening that people would even think that they have the right to remove children from what “they” deem is a situation “unfit” for children even though these parentless children may perhaps have other living relatives. Who do these people think they are trying to intervene in other people lives, especially children’s?

I find myself very disturbed by one specific instance which was reported in the media a few weeks ago. It involved 10 American “missionaries” who tried to “move” 33 children who they presumably got from orphanages across the border into the Dominican Republic. They were arrested and are being detained by the Haitian government on charges of kidnapping. I find it very disturbing that people can go into another country and blatantly defy its laws and sovereignty just because they “thought” they were doing the “right” thing to them. It just frustrates me that after every major world tragedy (such as the Asian earthquake in 2004), certain people think they know what’s better for the native people of the devastated area rather than the natives themselves. I also realize that all governments have a certain level of corruption and Haiti is no different, but they have laws that govern their nation just like we have laws that govern our nation and we must obey them.

My question to everyone in the class is, “Who should decide what is best for these children?” Does the situation in Haiti dictate the intervention of people who think they are helping out regardless of a nations law structure? Finally, have we not learned anything from past human trafficking (Children in Poverty, African Slave Trade) to not realize the potentially damaging consequences of actions that are being taken now?

I think this issue is extremely important because as Amanda hinted towards, these events will directly influence the life and development of not only these children but perhaps the nation and even the world as a whole after a tragedy of this magnitude.

Please view the following pages to find out more information regarding these issues.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/31/haiti.border.arrests/index.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/22/haiti-warning-child-trafficking

- Chris Laatsch

COSLEEPING

This may be a controversial discussion among parents and/or professionals in regards to safety and health of the child, and on what is best for the child and parents.
For some of you who may be lost, I'm talking about the practice of letting child/children share the parent/s bed during the night.

Its the best decision to cosleep with your infant/child, done with precaution, at least till they are ready to be weaned off parents ' bed. My husand and I still cosleep with our three year old son since birth. I'm pregnant second time and we intend to do the same with our second son. As long as we understand we have to be careful about having a toddler who sleeps perpendicular in the same bed as a new born, we can work it out so the infant is safe and close to us as well.

I coslept with my parents till one day I decided to move to my own bed at around age seven. Worked out good.

There are numerous benefits to cosleep compared to the risks (naturalchild.org). One of the benefits is emotional security. Adjusting to this unknown big wide world full of variety of sensations, feelings and sounds would be a challenge I assume. Holding your baby close during feeding and in time of need is just a few ways he/she learns to rely on you.

The second benefit is convenience for nursing mothers. The child does not have to fully cry in order to get mother's attention. Therefore less disturbance for both mom and dad and baby.
Less disturbance means good night sleep which means everything else falls in to place next morning for everyone. The same would apply for bottle fed babies(naturalchild.org).

The third benefit is rate of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, SIDS is reduced. It may sound ironic especially when you read about infants being smothered, but when done with precaution cosleeping does stimulate the Babies' senses and reduce the unexplained death of infants in their sleep(naturalchild.org).

Fourth benefit is that research shows that children who coslept with parents grew up to be independent, confident and were comfortable with intimacy in their relationships. The same children also showed less disruptive behavioral issues and were overall happier adults(naturalchild.org).

The risks of cosleeping are smothering of infant especially if the parent or caregiver is under influence of any sort such as alcohol, sleeping drugs, smokes etc that would affect his or her judgement. Obesity and heavy sleepering are also factors that contribute to smothering an infant(naturalchild.org).

The other one is more of inconvenience to the parents. Intimacy and sex is limited to scrapes and left overs. Basically children come first. Over time this does affect some relationships to some degree and sometimes even separation and divorce. But its a situation that communication would help a whole lot(naturalchild.org).

I conclude that Cosleeping like anything in this world is about common sense and weighing risks and benefits before taking a leap. Especially ones's own child. May work for some and may not for others.




Iman Barton


http://www.naturalchild.org/cosleeping

Childhood Development.

It is really amazing to see children grow from childhood into adulthood and watch the different qualities in them. Even when children of the same parent are given the same training, some children come out to be like their parent and then we say "Like mother like daughter, or like father, like son". On the other hand, some children grow to be completely different from the training they were given and one wonders what really happens. My question is,"DOES CHILDHOOD TRAINING AFFECT CHILD DEVELOPMENT?". Sometimes it is very surprising to see even a religious man or a pastor's child grow to be completely different from the good works of the father as they grow. Those children who grow to be vagabonds are very difficult to change because they do not listen to any advice. This behavior is very disturbing to the parents from my observation.
When I look at the situation, I sometimes I think although the parents may give them good training, when the children leave home and go to high schools and boarding schools, peer pressure causes them to change from what they learned at home. However, I also wonder why children will choose to leave the good training to adopt something bad. When I take my training and growth into consideration, I must say that my father was a very principled man with himself but not compulsive on his children . I rather choose to admire his qualities and find myself thinking like him. This training followed me to high school and I won a prize for 'OUTSTANDINGLY GOOD BEHAVIOR'. I realised that I hate to be recognized for anything because it does not make me to feel natural but rather do things because that is what is expected. This quality seems to follow me everywhere I go and this makes me think that, childhood training have a role in child development. But why do some children still refuse to keep the good training from home. Is it their natural traits that makes them to be difficult?.

Patricia Nartey

Nature vs Nurture

Indeed, I do not think there is any condition under which natural characteristics can be manifested without nurturing, and no way of nurturing without bringing out natural characteristic's. However, considering many circumstances, I see that environment seems to play a major role in bringing out qualities in people with different genes. In a study made and published in (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), when a set of twins were trained under the same condition of environment, they developed to have different intelligence. The good environmental conditions helps to bring out the natural traits in people, but different environments bring out different traits. The twins grew to have different traits.
In the case of the children from Haiti, the situation will be more complex and combine with much emotional factors as well. Even though the good environmental factors in The United States are to help with with good development, conditions like the lost of the parental love, change in weather, and total change in environment will slow their development. Again, the children will continue to have post traumatic syndromes for some time because they saw their family members die in the earthquake. It will really take sometime before these children can forget what they saw during the earthquake. It is only after they have forgotten what happened, then will they begin to grow well.

Patricia Nartey

http://www,en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature versus nurture

Nature vs. Nurture

Due to the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti, there was an increase in adoptions of Haitian children in the United States. In class we briefly touched on the nature vs. nurture debate. This is the question of whether we are who we are due to our heredity and biological genes (nature) or if we develop due to the environment and circumstances around us (nurture). The adoptions that were successful provoke an interesting thought in my mind. Will these Haitian children develop as they would have if they stayed in Haiti or will they take a complete turn in their lives now that they are in a new environment? While I am sure we will never know the answer to this question, as it would be quite impossible to determine what would have happened, I decided to do some do some research by reading studies that do exist about this topic to assist me in creating an opinion.

A study called “Schooling, Family Background, and Adoption: Is it Nature or Is it Nurture?”¹ looked at the effect of nature and nurture on the education level attained between adopted children and children who live with their biologically genetic parents. It was found that 70-75% of school achievement can be attributed to genetic effects measured by IQ and the study concluded that nurture does not play a dominant role. While this was a reliable and valid study using intergenerational samples of families, I simply do not agree with the results.

I feel as though environment has everything to do with achievement in school. First of all, whether parents (adopted or genetic) have gone to college or not, there are numerous opportunities for all students to go to a two-year, four-year, or technical college. One study by Inside Higher Ed found that in 2006, one in six freshmen were first-generation college students, including 14.7 percent of all male students and 16.9 percent of all female students.² That is a good amount of people who did not have it in their “genetics” to go to college because their parents didn’t, but they did anyways.

While I cannot attest to impacts from the home environment, I feel as though the school environment played a great influence on first generation college students and will also be significant in the adopted Haitian childrens’ achievement. The opportunity for a higher education begins as young as in Kindergarten. As a teacher, I lead children to believe that school is a positive place to be and that they should make it a priority in their lives. Every day we talk about how important doing your work to the best of your ability is. There is a Dr. Seuss day called “Oh the Places You Will Go” where we will discuss college and higher education. Regardless of home circumstances, students are exposed to the idea that the natural progression of school is to do the best you can and keep going until you are what you want to be in life. The fourth and fifth graders even visited HCC to have the experience of what college is like.

The No Child Left Behind Act pushes teachers to provide an education for all students to achieve in school grades K-12, which will increase success in higher education. While children are not intrinsically motivated through genetics to go to school and would rather play their Wii and run around outside, I truly believe it is due to the environment provided to young children in the public school setting that teaches children to value education and make it important. With the public education opportunities now available to the adopted Haitian children, I am sure they will succeed in ways they never would have without the opportunities they have now.

-Amanda Mezei

1. Plug, Erik, and Wim Vijverberg. "Schooling, family background, and adoption: is it nature or is it nurture?" Journal of Political Economy 111.3 (2003): 611+. Academic OneFile. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. .
2. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/26/freshmen

Talking to Strangers

While grocery shopping last Wednesday evening in preparation for the upcoming snow storm, I noticed complete strangers engaging in conversation about the latest weather forecast and comparing notes on storm preparations. People were being friendly with each other. The cashiers were sharing information that they had picked up from other customers and everyone in line was sharing what they had heard. There was a sense of togetherness….as “we’re all in this together” mentality.

I recently heard from someone who experienced 911 first-hand how the disaster had changed the people of NYC. She told me how strangers were holding hands, hugging and consoling each other. She lived a few blocks from the World Trade Center and after realizing what was happening, she had run down the stairway to get out of her apartment building. As she ran down the street, she realized she was holding hands with a complete stranger and they consoled each other and stayed together the rest of the day and night as if they were best friends. She said it was like that for weeks after the disaster. People were kind to each other and life slowed down and everyone was taking the time to be nice to each other. Strangers would start talking to each other on the street corner and on the bus and subway. There was a shared sense of a community among them. Unfortunately this new community didn’t last very long and within weeks, people went back to standing in silence on the street corner or on the bus.

I guess a pending disaster puts everyone on an even playing field. We temporarily lose our place in society. It doesn’t matter what car we drive or how big our house is or how much money we make. We are all facing the same situation and there is comfort in togetherness and shared experiences….it helps us feel part of the community around us. It’s too bad it takes a disaster or pending disaster to create such a sense of community between us. I tend to be very introverted and normally would never think of starting a conversation with someone in line with me at the grocery store, but last Wednesday it felt very comfortable and no one thought I was weird and I didn’t think they were weird as we shared our news with each other. What a shame it couldn’t be like that all the time.

Welcome Spring 2010 class!

Hello everyone! This marks the beginning of the spring 2010 class entries! Please feel free to post your first entries anytime between now and next Tuesday. :O)