The Protection Problem.
a request, and also the weekly news for 7/11/2023
Dear Readers,
I’m working on a project and need your help. Many of you work in organizations that serve and protect children and vulnerable adults. But even in organizations whose purpose is to protect and serve the vulnerable, we keep seeing abuse occur time and time again. Abuse is allowed to fester and then the situation blows up into a scandal. See, e.g., the Boy Scouts, the international aid group Oxfam, and the Southern Baptist Convention. In many instances, the scandal leads to an emphasis on safeguarding, protection, new policies, and a “zero tolerance approach,” only to see history repeat itself after a few years. How do we fulfill the promises we make to protect the vulnerable?
My interest in this issue has been renewed because of what’s happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the enormity of past abuses against the local peoples in the 1800s and early 1900s was described in detail long ago by Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness) and Roger Casement and more recently by Adam Hochschild in King Leopold’s Ghost. Those abuses resulted from exploiting workers to take the region’s rubber and palm oil. The same thing is happening now with regard to cobalt mining, as Siddharth Kara has documented in his new book, Cobalt Red.
Cobalt is essential to lithium-ion batteries, which are essential to our smartphones and electric vehicles. Kara points out that despite claims from vehicle and phone manufacturers that they have audited their supply chains and assured they are free from exploitative labor practices, he has personally seen children and poor families being injured and dying while slaving away in unsafe mining conditions to obtain the metal.
I’d highly recommend the book. In the meantime, here’s my question: assuming organizations (whether it’s a humanitarian NGO or Tesla) really do make valiant efforts to create, implement, and monitor policies designed to prevent and end abuse (of cobalt miners or humanitarian aid beneficiaries, for example), why do these evils persist? Other than implementing better policies and auditing compliance, what can we do?
I really would appreciate your feedback. Thanks!
I was very sorry to see that former AJC political reporter Bill Shipp died this week. They don’t make journalists like that anymore. It was watching newspapermen like him as I was growing up that almost got me into journalism. Speaking of which, here’s the news:
I learned a new word this week: “sharenting,” or oversharing on social media your children’s every action and accomplishment.
I feel like a broken record sometimes as I continue to highlight the problem of children with complex behavioral health issues being abandoned to foster care by desperate parents. But the problem continues. Lawsuits continue to be filed across the country challenging the practice, and everyone seems to agree (as the article states) that these children and youth need “an extensive range of care options . . ., from long-term residential facilities to short-term respite care centers. There would also be in-home aid, crisis prevention and intervention services, and training for families, caregivers, teachers and other members of a household’s inner circle.” But it seems progress is difficult, especially given complex Medicaid regulations and requirements to deinstitutionalize patients stuck in long-term facilities. We’re asking for intensive treatment with one hand and creating disincentives to provide it with the other.
Some state Attorneys General have complained that Target’s approach to Pride Month may have endangered children.
Chapin Hall’s Child Well-being Research Institute is moving from the U. of Chicago to the U. of Kentucky. There’s probably a punch line in there somewhere.
Wow! I was a bit surprised to learn that Texas child protective services workers will have to “Mirandize” families they are investigating beginning this fall, reminding the families of their rights to remain silent, to have a lawyer present and to decline home inspections without a court order.
An article in Vox argues that abortion bans will “strain an already-failing foster system.” Why?
Over at the Imprint News, Paul DiLorenzo muses on how Artificial Intelligence might affect child welfare. In light of which, I asked ChatGPT to “Please summarize news from the world of child welfare and child protection over the past two weeks.” To which, it responded:
“I apologize, but as an AI language model, I don't have real-time access to current news updates. My training only goes up until September 2021, and I don't have access to the internet to provide you with the latest news. I recommend checking reliable news sources or conducting an online search to find up-to-date information on child welfare and child protection news from the past two weeks.”
Looks like my work is not yet finished.
See y’all soon!
There's a lot of horrible ppl suffering cause of someone else's stupidity!!!! It's very sad and unforgivable!!!!!!