Jabbing Needles Into A Child’s Eyes – The Other Side : Varalotti In The US 10

Some have started accusing me of reverse-bias. As many Indians are biased against the US, I have become too much biased in its favour. Bias is wrong, whether it is for or against. As journalists always say, I am now doing the balancing act, by presenting my take on the negatives.

A woman of Federal Way, Seattle, Chronice Y Kabbelliyaa, 34, punished her foster daughter by jabbing hypodermic needles in to her eyes, smashing her feet with 10 pound weights,. She beat the girl with an umbrella for handing her a mismatched pair of flip-flops. She burnt her tongue with heated forks. And she is a licensed foster care worker. She has pleaded guilty to all the charges.


As I was reading this news I was shaking in anger. I could not even talk properly for a while.


I know about the step-motherly treatment. Of course you can’t be showering love on your foster children; but I cant dream of any Indian woman jabbing a needle into a child’s eyes, even if the child was just a street-urchin.


Well, I hear people saying that she is suffering from a psychiatric illness. And that cloak of mental illness can be worn by anyone. The student who killed a professor and a lot of his fellow students. Or by a Police Office in Wisconsin who killed 6 students at point-blank range.

Counselling as a profession has developed to the highest standards here in the US. You get counsel for everything under the sun – from sex-positions to career options to gift ideas.


A 39 year old woman counsellor has been charged of having sexual relationship with a 17 year old boy, a juvenile delinquent, entrusted to her care. She admitted that she was sexually attracted to him. She abused his position to force the boy to have sex with her.


Ok, I can hear you talking about similar cases in our country. All said done these are instances of mental disease and should not be considered for this study.

Agreed. Tell me what do you think of this.

An American soldier raped an Iraqi civilian woman and killed her. I do not want to count this against the US because they say that there is a fair system of criminal justice.

Well this soldier was brought to trial before a court martial. He was sentenced to 7 months imprisonment in the army barracks.

Now my question is if the same soldier had raped an American citizen here in the American soil, what would have been the punishment. Death penalty where the States have that or imprisonment for life. (it could be even 75 years because there is both a rape and a murder)

Does it mean, then, that the modesty of an Iraqui woman is less than that of an American woman? Or does it say that an American woman has a lot more chastity than her Iraqui counterpart?

I hate the judge who gave this sentence more than the soldier who committed the crime.

And now let’s see what a dentist did. He was performing a minor surgical procedure on his lady assistant. When the patient was under anaesthesia he got fake boar tusks and placed them on the either side of the woman. Then he took pictures with his digital camera.

He showed that funny pictures to his friends whom he met in a party that night. All the great professionals had a good laugh at the expense of the poor girl.
The girl came to know of it and filed a case for damages. The Court awarded her $250,000 (Rs. 1 crore) as damages.


The Doctor filed a claim against his professional malpractice insurance. The insurance company denied the liability as the Doctor was simply playing a game and was not discharging professional duty, when he put the boar tusk on the lady. Now the Doctor filed a case against the insurance company and won $750,000 - Rs. 3 crores – in damages. He also got back the money he paid to his assistant as well as the attorneys fees.

Insurance is just a risk-pool. The nasty game played by the Doctor is going to increase the medical insurance costs of single mothers, working women, suffering families by a sizable amount. While I am not here to dispute the legal issue, I can almost touch evil, present in its ugliest form.

This case is worse.

Kitty and Shawn Sonnenschein, Portland, found that many guests for their wedding gifted Home Depot (a large supermarket chain for home items, furnitures and tools) gift cards.

But after the wedding, they found only 3 gift cards left. They did not want to ask their friends what did they gift for their wedding. But when many of their friends started asking them what did they do with the card they gifted, the couple got suspicious. Somebody had stolen most of the gift cards.

They suspected Rev. Shey Rima Silveira the lady-priest who officiated the wedding ceremony.

They found out from the Home Depot that most of the gift cards were already redeemed.

They complained to the police. The police got the video camera recordings from Home Depot (using the credit card numbers and bill references) and then the found that the minister (the priestess) was redeeming the gift card buying detergents and implements.

“If you can’t trust someone to officiate over your wedding, who can you trust in this world?” Detective Halliburton who is handling the case told the reporters.

When I read about this I was not sure whether I should marvel at their technological superiority in nabbing the thief or at the moral depravity of a priest herself stealing things. God save this country.

Sridhar Sir,
whenever the crime of that sort reported by you comes to the court
they say that the accused is under treatment for depression and so on coming up with medical excuses.
It is very disheartening to read and go through all these things and we get disturbed.
Even when a murder takes place, they get out easily raising the 'color factor' and get away with that.
Yesterday I was reading with my son the social studies lesson.
it was after the independance of Americans and when they also had a slave system.
A slave named Dred Scott appealed to the Supreme Court to ask for his freedom after his owner died, where he also lived in free states--where slavery is not allowed.
do you know what the judge said--'Slaves are properties' and after that he didn't grant the freedom to that guy. poor guy. But I appreciate his braveness in bringing forward such an issue at a crucial moment in US history.
The words the judge used, to my opinion is not human in nature.

i think wherever we are things like this are the same to some extent.

sriniketan

Hi Sridhar,

Ok I was expecting much worse....( and believe me, having lived here for more than a decade, i have read much worse). You Have just touched the tip of the iceberg so to speak. All i can say is that if every individual in each country is perfect, then we will never think of the "ALMIGHTY".

Then again , have to say that for every 1 demented foster mother, there are atleast 100 who do wonderful service for these kids. And yes, this is not the first case of fosterhomes illtreating the kids. I have read about the fathers sexually abusing the kids ( both male and female). The moms doing the same. Physical abuse is prevelant a lot. I do think that the Child Protection Services department need to do better screening, and may be have a clause that to be a foster home, one needs to be at a certain income level , so as to support the kids properly. A lot of times you will find that these abusive foster parents are usually from the lower economic strata....

As for the soldier, i fully agree with you. He got off lightly. But sex offenders in US are branded whereever they go. Please read up about Megan's law. I can go to the local state website and and find if there are any sex offenders living in my area. And if i happen to be in an apartment complex, the rights are mine to have that other soul evicted.

But all said and done. Yes there are more than the fair share of the other side too....I feel we hear it more over here due to the media coverage given . And even though there may be similar cases in India, we don't here about something happening in remote areas, unless it is really out of the ordinary.

I found the news about the priest too funny. They have been behaving worse. A few years back we had a huge scandal of priests right from the low heirarchy to the higher ups all involved in sex abuse . This happened all over the US and was in big time news.

This just proves that God does his balancing act too well . But I just wish they would bring stricter gun control laws here.

Vandhana

PS have you watched America's Most Wanted? Airs every saturday on Fox i think.

I had to leave the office early, so I could not post a part of this post.

These individual crimes do not make America a bad country. There is free press, better media coverage and above all very good policing.

There are crimes committed at the country level. Let me take a subject that is close to my heart.

In the US you can survive without a soul. In fact it is far easier to survive without it than with it. But you can never dream to survive without a car. You can live in the States with a broken heart, half a kidney and even without a mind, but not without a car.

A car in the US is not just a means of transportation but a personal statement. Car production is as much a vital statistic of the US economy as blood pressure is to the human body. In that away I am afraid US is suffering from a very high blood pressure.

At the individual level a car is an efficient means of commuting. But at the macro level it is a collosal waste of non-renewable energy resources with air pollution as a bonus. Not to mention the traffic snarls and the ever elusive parkig place. It costs some thing like 14$ to park a car at an important place. This is equal to the cost of more than 4 gallons of gas (16 litres of petrol, costing about Rs.800 in India).

Europe has a very efficient system of Rail service. Even millionaires love to park their cars at the station and take the train. US does not have such a facility. Public transport is not very dependable.

You are still wondering what is so bad about that? I was reading the automakers' history. In the earlier days there were railroads throughout the country. The auto companies were new. Petrol(gas) prices were very low. Many rail roads were struggling to survive.

At that time the three auto companies offered the Government to freely destroy all the railroads throughout the country. The Government also agreed to that foolish proposition. None of them had a vision of the future.

Now oil prices have gone up many times. And now it is feasible to go for a Railway project. But it is very expensive. And because the country is so dependent on oil it has to take part in every war which involves a oil-exporting country.

Please tell me what do you think of this.

Most Gracious ILites,

It's time to take leave. I will be travelling in the US for the next two weeks before boarding the plane to India. I am not sure of my Net Access during the time I am travelling as a plain tourist.

This Saturday's post is an emotional leave-taking. Pray for me, wish me and bless me.

Sharing my learning experiences with you and learning from your responses - well, it was a great pleasure to me.

Good-bye, till we meet again.

Love,

Dear Sridhar

I cannot agree with you more on the bad public transport system. I live in the motor city Detroit where the public transport is nearly non-existent. But, some cities like New York, Chicago are good. I definitely miss a reliable public transport in the city I live.

The other negatives are what you read about here - how about the ones you have experienced or encountered. That would be something very interesting to know.

-Gayathri.

Have safe journey inside US and also to India! Sridhar Sir!
We will wait for your threads!
Have a safe trip, Sir!

sriniketan

Sriniketan,

I also get furious on reading cases like that. A man accused of a gruesome murder of a child and then he pleads not guilty citing some peculiar sounding mental disease - like the MPD and goes scott-free to commit another crime.

I also keep hearing of mother killing her own children. And at times I lose faith in every thing.

About Dred Scott case, I think you should view that with reference to the conditions which prevailed in those days. At that time Slavery was real. A slave was one's property like one's house or car. Until slavery was abolished that was the law.

You might be surprised to know that till recently women did not have voting rights in the US and a man could marry many women.

It took a long time for the human history to grow out of slavery, polygamy and caste system. And we still have a long way to go.
regards,

Thanks, Sriniketan. But please visit this thread and read my farewell note.
Time To Take Leave! Good-bye Till We Meet Again! Varalotti In The US – Final Episode!

regards,

Hi Vandhana,

I have far worse cases up my sleeve but I didn't want to be so bad. I just pulled out a few cases from the surface.

Since you have raised the issue, another great troubling factor is the American obsession with guns. Citing the provisions of the Fourth Amendment the gun lobby has ensured that any one can carry a gun and use it in any way he likes. Mugging is a regular feature in the streets of New York. Muggers are armed with deadly weapons.

I remember reading about a sniper-killer. The sniper trained a black boy to kill from afar. He killed just for fun and on the top of it demanded a heavy ransom from the city to stop killings. He was killing his victims, indiscriminately.

Gun is not a weapon of self-protection, as its manufacturers would love to claim. It is one of self destruction.

I remember to have read a case about a couple watching TV at home. The wife wanted to see some other programme. The husband insisted that he would watch a football game. The wife went in to take a gun and shot her husband at pointblank range.

Media is full of reports of physical and sexual abuse. Today I read about a woman who put her son in dogs cage for a day for not doing home work.

As a visitor I think that the country has lot of wealth and does not have a strong value-support system to manage it. Indians do very well here in the US because they bring to the table, what is most lacking here - the family values.

I saw a TV show here. It was perhaps a serial. The girl sees that her boyfriend has an affair with her own mother. The girls father is shocked to see his wife carrying on with their daughter's boyfriend. When he tries to attack them, the wife kills her own husband with a gun. The girl then kills her mother. My God! I was shivering the whole time. May God be kind enough to forgive us!
regards,
sridhar

Vandhana, please visit my leave-taking thread by clicking the following link.
Time To Take Leave! Good-bye Till We Meet Again! Varalotti In The US – Final Episode!