Gattica, here we come--or rather, here we are.
Bryan Hughes | 06.01.04 - 1:57 am | #

"Ah, yes, the "world." Here is an example of how the "world" behaves.

"But let's go to the next stage. What do the 'Bush's boast rings hollow' crowd want for Iraq? Usually, they want the UN to take over.

"Is the UN perfect? No.

"Is the UN good? Well, I'm not sure I'd even say that. But if you object to what's going on in those Abu Ghraib pictures - the sexual humiliation of prisoners and their conscription as a vast army of extras in their guards' porno fantasies - then you might want to think twice about handing over Iraq to the UN.

"In Eritrea, the government recently accused the UN mission of, among other offences, pedophilia. In Cambodia, UN troops fueled an explosion of child prostitutes and AIDS. Amnesty International reports that the UN mission in Kosovo has presided over a massive expansion of the sex trade, with girls as young as 11 being lured from Moldova and Bulgaria to service international peacekeepers.

"In Bosnia, where the sex-slave trade barely existed before the UN showed up in 1995, there are now hundreds of brothels with underage girls living as captives. The 2002 Save the Children report on the UN's cover-up of the sex-for-food scandal in West Africa provides grim details of peacekeepers' demanding sexual favors from children as young as four in exchange for biscuits and cake powder. 'What is particularly shocking and appalling is that those people who ought to be there protecting the local population have actually become perpetrators,' said Steve Crawshaw, the director of Human Rights Watch."

Maybe we don't have all that much to offer the "world" after all.
Tom Connelly | 06.01.04 - 7:02 am | #

Mark, how is this the US's fault?
Joel | 06.01.04 - 8:41 am | #

Sickening.

My nephew was born with a cleft palate and lip. Several surgeries later you can't even tell.

Good thing he wasn't conceived in Britain - though I'm curious if anyone has done a study on how often this happens over here.
Richard | 06.01.04 - 8:51 am | #

A very talented musician friend of mine was born with a cleft lip. Stevie Wonder is blind, as is Ray Charles. Johnny Winter is albino. Jeff Healey, a talented Canadian jazz guitarist, is blind as well. There are numerous examples in every field of gifted people who've succeeded in spite of physical problems. Thank God their mothers didn't have them aborted. As another comment has it, "sickening". God help us. Someone asked how all this is the US's fault. I think it's the fault of Western culture in general, its obsession w. image and youth. Sad ... much prayer needed here.
Patricia Gonzalez | 06.01.04 - 9:38 am | #

Looks like the Nazis won Britain after all.
R.W. | 06.01.04 - 11:20 am | #

My daughter was born with a giant nevi (essentially a very large mole that covered about two thirds of her back). About 6 sugeries later, she now has only a small scar across the middle of her back. But in England it appears that she might have been amoung those who are aborted (it took a lot more to fix her probem than it does to fix a cleft lip or palate)! I wouldn't trade he for anything, even if the nevi couldn't have been removed! What's the world coming to? And don't think for a second that things are that different in this country, its just that its easier to gather these statistics in England than it is here.
John Yesford | 06.01.04 - 5:02 pm | #

I wish that the world would stop behaving like an Aldous Huxley novel.
Gregory Bourke | 06.01.04 - 6:53 pm | #