Native Children and Foster Care Money

[Zeke]

You see Zeke, it's not always about being a bad parent.

In the case you mention it would be "incompetent parenting."

Whether or not it is her fault, the child would be better served in an institution.

And?

[yaahl]

In the case you mention it would be "incompetent parenting."

Whether or not it is her fault, the child would be better served in an institution.

And?

Zeke, are you deliberately being obtuse? I knew you would default to blaming the parent. Your first action is always to blame something.. see the threads on rape, adoption, gourd dances etc. Your so called analysis is nothing more than what you accuse others of doing and that is to default to blaming something instead of entering into a open minded discussion. Since when is any child better served in an institution? Have you been in a coma for the last two decades while long term care facilities and government have been moving towards home care to reduce the costs to the tax payers? Closures of hospices, institutions, group homes, second stage housing and community independent living centres have been striped to the bare minimum and then closed one by one.

Zeke, if you truly believe that an institution over the care by a disabled mother with home help is better for this child... you are in a world of your own. I can't find one single article or journal/research that supports your conclusion. Remember, this particular child's mother is not saying she doesn't want to stop looking after him only that she needs help. The child, as with most Native kids, is caught in the cross fire of inter-jurisdictional red tape of who is going to help. I can find a plethora of articles that claim quite the opposite. Here's one just to open your eyes. http://www.comeunity.com/adoption/institutionalism.html

Your incessant arguing over spelling and what you consider a non-intellectual dialogue is only overshadowed by your willingness to lay blame at the first convenient target. How is that any different from the action you've stated ad nauseum that you despise? Blaming is easy, you've said so yourself. Finding solutions is much harder. Being open to the opinions of others is the mark of a real intellectual.

[Zeke]

Since when is any child better served in an institution?

When they can give better care than the mother.

Zeke, if you truly believe that an institution over the care by a disabled mother with home help is better for this child... you are in a world of your own.

Do you mean the world of equitable reality? Heck, it's better for BOTH parties and the common good.

Blaming is easy, you've said so yourself. Finding solutions is much harder.

I just GAVE you a solution.

Being open to the opinions of others is the mark of a real intellectual.

Then try being one.

[yaahl]

When they can give better care than the mother.

Can you provide the empirical data/research to back up your assertion?

I'll give you an example from a different perspective. I have a client who is a WWII vet. She's in her early 90s now and although she maintained a fairly healthy lifestyle, she recently developed wet macular degeneration in her eyes. She has a reduced field of vision. Her husband, also a veteran, has a neurodegenerative illness that is attributed to his exposure to chemicals during his war service. Now the Mrs, can look after her husband to a point. He requires assistance in entering the bath/shower and while Mr isn't a heavy weight, he is just a bit much for the Mrs to lift by herself ans she readily admits that if he were to fall, she could not pull him up by herself.

As the boy and mother in the other example, the mother has not said she does not want to stop looking after the child, only that she needs some help.

My clients, after a successful application to VAD, got their home help to come in and help with bathing tasks and they received some funding to renovate their home to provide for hand rails and lifts for accessibility. VAD and the province shared the costs. No one ever suggested the Mr head off to an institution because the Mrs is limited in what care she can provide.

The boy and his mother are simply caught in the red tape of who is going to pay for what. Your solution was not to address the inadequacies of health care for the boy but to default to assuming the mother's care was defective and have the kid shipped off to an institution.

Do you mean the world of equitable reality? Heck, it's better for BOTH parties and the common good.

Define your ideals of a common good? Are they premised on the notions that out of sight out of mind for those who are defective?

I just GAVE you a solution.

No, you regurgitated the recommendations of health folks. A solution would be more in line with considering both sides and wait for it... finding/offering a compromise to meet the needs of both parties.

Then try being one.

Now, you see Zeke, I never laid claims to be an intellectual as you have. I am many things but an intellectual is not on my resume. You on the other hand, have never failed to point out your levels of intellectualism. I'm calling you on that as set out by your incessant habit of defaulting to a level of blame in every discussion you engage in.

Now, let me ask you this; What is your interest in the subject of Native children's adoption/foster care?

Do you have a history of apprehension or adoption in your family circle? Are you considering adopting a child in the near future? Are you a social worker in the field of child protection services? Are you a professional who is required by state or federal law to report suspected cases of child neglect or abuse?
Are you a foster parent or adult mentor to a child at risk?

If none of the above, then explain why your contribution to this discussion should have any more weight attached to it than any other contributor? Please feel free to explain how your insights to bad parenting, institutionalizing and apprehension stem from a place other than a lay person's view and opinon?

[Zeke]

Do you have a history of apprehension or adoption in your family circle? Are you considering adopting a child in the near future? Are you a social worker in the field of child protection services? Are you a professional who is required by state or federal law to report suspected cases of child neglect or abuse?
Are you a foster parent or adult mentor to a child at risk?

1. Sure. Going back three generations.
2. Uh, "no." But I am VERY close to people that have.
3. I've managed them and supervised their work.
4. I have been.
5. I have been, readily taking children from unfit mothers and situations.

In nearly every troubling case, the actual issue was apologists.

In this case, "compromise" is so FAR from a solution as to be laughable.

[AmigoKumeyaay]

http://youtu.be/rpNSrqsU1eI

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.<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rpNSrqsU1eI?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[pigheaded]

Nice

[Toolbox]

What a touching song

[subeeds]

What a haunting song that is .

[Zeke]

It sounds like Robbie Robertson stuff from 12-13 years ago (Contact from the Underworld of Redboy).

[AmigoKumeyaay]

Archie Roach of Australia


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After a long absence, Archie Roach returns with a sublime but powerful new album - Journey.

'I thought writing the song Took The Children Away was, in part, a way of telling people that taking children from their families was not necessarily the best or only so-called solution concerning the child or their family's well being. I was wrong.
We thought the Bringing Them Home report would see measures taken to ensure it should never happen again. We were wrong.
We thought the Deaths in Custody report would help prevent such things happening. We were wrong.
The songs from Journey are a reaffirmation of identity, country, beliefs and spirit and how no-one listened to our recommendations on stolen kids or people dying in jails. So it continues.... but we are still watching and definitely taking note.'
Archie Roach. 2007

Produced by Shane Howard and Engineered and Co-produced by Nash Chambers, the new album Journey was a long time in the creation and preparation and a short time in the recording. Recorded live in Melbourne's Sing Sing studios after a journey that took Archie from the spiritual Ngurrarra paintings, south of Fitzroy Crossing, to the deaths in custody in the jails of Roebourne and Fremantle. It continued through the desert country of Central Australia and the inevitable connection back to Archie's home country of the Gunditjmara/Kirrae Whurrong of South West Victoria.
Journey is a companion piece to the recently released Liyarn Ngarn DVD, a compelling tale of racism and a plea for a new future in black/white relations in Australia.
Archie Roach has seen a lot, some would say too much hurt, but still these holy songs reach out to bridge the divide between black and white. They are prayers for forgiveness and understanding. Archie Roach turns suffering into hope....and art.
Australia needs these songs right now. Black and white. We all need to be healed and reassured by one of Australia's great songwriters and singers. And Archie Roach is a unique voice in the league of Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker or George Jones.
This album soars. It also stills you in the eternal moment of dreaming. Songs of pain, loss, racism, redemption and hope. These songs are a marriage of Aboriginal and Western philosophy from the heart and mind of an extraordinary writer and singer.
An elder statesman of Aboriginal music, Archie takes us on a journey of epic dimensions but the music and the message are absolutely clear and uncomplicated.

Journey due for release late 2007 features special guest appearances by Kasey Chambers, Troy Cassar-Daley, Paul Kelly, David Bridie, Shane Howard and The Pigram Brothers

[AmigoKumeyaay]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit-Proof_Fence_(film)
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.Set in Western Australia during the 1930s, the film begins in the remote town of Jigalong where three children, sisters Molly Craig (Everlyn Sampi), 14, and Daisy Kadibil (Tianna Sansbury), 8, live with their mother and grandmother, and their cousin Gracie Fields (Laura Monaghan), 10. The town lies along the northern part of Australia's rabbit-proof fence, which runs for several thousand miles.
Thousands of miles away, the 'protector' of Western Australian Aborigines, A. O. Neville (Kenneth Branagh), signs an order to relocate the three girls to his re-education camp. The children are referred to by Neville as "half-castes", having one white and one aboriginal parent. Neville's reasoning is portrayed as being that the Aboriginal peoples of Australia are a danger to themselves, & that the "half-castes" must be bred out of existence. The children are forcibly taken from Jigalong & taken to the camp at Moore River to the south. Half-castes that are of a certain age live at the camps and are taught to become servants for the whites living in Australia.

Molly, Gracie, and Daisy decide to escape the camp and walk back home to Jigalong. An Aboriginal tracker, Moodoo (David Gulpilil), is called in to find them. However, the girls are well versed in disguising their tracks. They evade Moodoo several times, receiving aid from strangers in the harsh Australian country they travel. They eventually find the rabbit-proof fence, knowing that they can follow it north to Jigalong. Neville soon figures out their strategy and sends Moodoo and a local constable, Riggs, after them. Although he is an experienced tracker, Moodoo is unable to find them.
Neville spreads word that Gracie's mother is waiting for her in the tower of Wiluna. The information finds its way to a man who 'helps' the girls. He tells Gracie about her mother and that they can get to Wiluna by train, causing her to break off from the group and attempt to catch a train to Wiluna. Molly and Daisy soon walk after her, finding her at a train station. They are not reunited, however, as Riggs appears and Gracie is re-captured. Knowing they are helpless to aid her, Molly and Daisy continue on. In the end the two sister make it home and go into hiding in the desert with their mother and grandmother.
The epilogue of the film shows recent footage of Molly and Daisy. Molly explains that Gracie had died and that she never returned to Jigalong. Molly also tells us of her own two daughters and that the three of them were taken, from Jigalong, back to Moore River. She managed to escape with one daughter, Annabelle, and once again, she walked the length of the fence back home. However, when Annabelle was 3 years old, she was taken away and Molly never saw her again. In closing, Molly says that she and Daisy "...Will never go back to Moore River. Never."

[AmigoKumeyaay]

[AmigoKumeyaay]

Here's the Canada connection:

"RelRaine" of the YouTube channel describes herself -

I should be GiskaastWoman, which means Killerwhale woman. LOL!

About Me:

I'm a mom of four/Gigi to one, I'm Tsimshian, Nisga'a, and Gitksan. I belong to two houses. We come from a Matrilineal/Matriachal society on the Northcoast of British Columbia.




She combined Archie's song with images from Canada's history, resulting in an amazing video that needs to be promoted EVERYWHERE.

[Zeke]

And, of course, if Native folks took care of their children -- or didn't have them in squalor -- we wouldn't HAVE this issue.