Enforcing hate crime law

An update on this case, in which two Fairfield residents attacked a man of Indian origin.  They were convicted of misdemeanor charges and were sentenced to six months and one year.  Subsequently, they were charged in federal court for civil rights violations.

They were sentenced to eighteen months.  It’s a start.

Freedom for … ?

The New York Times has begun a new series on online bullying.  The first article is titled Online bullies pull schools into the fray.  It raises a number of interesting questions about the role of the schools in addressing online bullying, especially when much of the bullying happens off school grounds.

In May, Governor Deval Patrick signed Massachusetts’ first anti-bullying statute into law.  Among other things, the law provides that school staff report all incidents of bullying, that anti-bullying intervention programs be established, and that students participate in anti-bullying curriculum.

One of the main criticisms of this law and other attempts to address bullying?  That they are an assault on free speech. 

“Dutch may use ‘decoy Jews’ to fight racism”

A hidden-camera video showing Jews being harassed on the street in a Moroccan neighborhood of Amsterdam has led Dutch authorities to consider combating hate crimes with “decoy Jews” — undercover police officers wearing yarmulkes. Enthusiasm for the unusual idea is a sign of the ongoing tension between the Muslim minority and the rest of the Dutch population over issues of immigration and crime.

The idea of using “decoy Jews” to detect and arrest bigots has been embraced by both a prominent Moroccan politician and by Amsterdam’s acting mayor, who is Jewish. Law enforcement officials say the idea is feasible but would only be of limited practical use due to entrapment concerns.

Story here. Thoughts?

To grow our souls

These are the times to grow our souls.  Each of us is called upon to embrace the conviction that despite the powers and principalities bent on commodifying all our human relationships, we have the power within us to create the world anew.

–Grace Lee Boggs

And the name means?

BALTIMORE, Maryland – Four Filipina ex-staffers of a Baltimore City hospital haven’t gotten over the shock of being summarily fired from their jobs, allegedly because they spoke Pilipino during their lunch break.

The hospital? Bon Secours. It has an English-only policy in the ER.

(Article link from Angry Asian Man.)

Lurker Wednesday

Sitting in shadow
Cup of coffee and donut
How I envision.

Eye on the media

We watch so you won’t have to.™ (Blame Harlow’s Monkey for the link.)

Friday’s episode of the View focused on international adoption.  I don’t watch the View because I would rather have a root canal.  My mother won’t watch the View because it is “too stupid.”  Yet I watched Friday.  So you wouldn’t have to.  Half an hour of my life, gone forever.  (Feel free to send cash in appreciation.)

The View started with an intro about celebrities adopting, and then proceeded to “regular folk” who adopt.  Adam Pertman was also a guest.  The five adoptive parents featured were all white.  No surprise there.  There was a straight couple (adopted a black boy from foster care and a boy from Haiti, also had two bio daughters), a single woman (Guatemala) and a gay male couple (boy and a girl from Guatemala).

Intercountry adoption

Article about British politician David Miliband adopting two children from the U.S.  His wife is an American citizen.  Various news reports suggest Miliband adopted from the U.S.  because the process is easier than in the UK and newborns are available.

The State Department reports that for 2009, 12,753 children immigrated to the U.S. with adoptions finalized overseas or to be adopted.  I suspect this does not include children who immigrated under humanitarian parole.  A majority of the kids from Ethiopia, India, the Philippines and South Korea immigrated without finalized adoptions.  Ethiopia had 2,105 kids with unfinalized adoptions and 164 with finalized adoptions.  India’s numbers were 276 and 21.  Philippines-227 and 53.  South Korea had 1,077 unfinalized adoptions and two finalized.

Overall, children with unfinalized adoptions represented 37.3 percent of all adoptions.  When I ran the 2007 numbers, it was 29.7 percent.  I’d guess the increase is due to the change in popularity of a specific country, most likely Ethiopia.

This suggests that citizenship may be a significant issue for children from these countries, since children who immigrate without finalized adoptions do not receive automatic citizenship.  Additionally, the large number of children who immigrated from Haiti with humanitarian parole are also at risk.

I’ve seen estimates that suggest around 500 U.S. children are adopted every year by citizens of another country.  This is a very difficult number to track and the 2009 report is the first time I recall seeing figures.  The report states, “From October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009 26 children emigrated from the United States for the purposes of adoption.”  (See the Fiscal Year 2009 Annual Report at adoption dot state dot gov.)

Because it doesn’t cross their minds

Remember this ad?  It’s still on the Evan B. Donaldson’s adoption institute site.  Apparently Spence-Chapin doesn’t want it on facebook, where angry adoptees might encounter it, but at a site frequently mostly by white people it’s okay.  Or something.

Got rice?

I grew up eating white rice.  We had rice every day, even if it didn’t seem to go with the rest of the menu (e.g., spaghetti with red sauce and rice).

As a kid I wanted to eat potatoes, probably because we rarely ate them.  My mother would occasionally splurge on tater tots, however.  She used them to adorn a casserole made out of hamburger.