What is rape?

 “Rape occurs when there is sexual intercourse where one party has not consented. Legally, consent must be clearly stated and not obtained through force, fraud intimidation or mischief. A person can only give consent when they understand what they are being asked to do. It is important to know that one has an option to say yes or no; writes the Kenya Standard Online

Do people understand this? Many when under the influence of alcohol are unable to understand that a no is a no, and a yes is a yes. The problem is when the victim is passive in saying no and in the process gets misunderstood by the one who wants the sex.

It is therefore to be understood that both parties have the responsibility when it comes to sexual activity. One who does not want sexual activity to take place must be clear in saying no. There is nothing between yes and no, because hesitation to be clear with a NO may be misunderstood by the other party, especially when one is not in the right sense.

There are those who actually want the sex to go on, but only with intent to use the other person to get orgasm without penetration and immediately they do, they start saying no and that may be too late for the other party to get it, leading to rape. Therefore, both parties should understand one another clearly before anything is started.

 By Chief editor Korir

Naming our newborn babies has become a joke. Some even name theirs “Sinister Trouble”, what a name!

And when asked why, they tell you that the baby gave them a lot of pain during birth and that they want to remember the birth. A nonsensical explanation to any thinking person.

“Many of us ignorantly christen our children names they shouldn’t be answering to, writes the writer in the Standard Online edition, Kenya.”

Yes we agree with the writer.

We seem to be carried away in giving children names, naming them without sense. When you watch American daytime shows, participants have names that makes no meaning. Some are Yviy, Linuol, Taffic, and so on and on, and I think soon we will have some naming their children, “911” to remind them of the terrorist attacks on New York Twin Towers. What a way to go. “Emotional name-giving” because it does not make sense. We can remember events in a different way rather than using our babies who are defenseless, babies who when they grow up realise that their names make no sense to them as persons.

Remember that names will follow your children through life after you have gone. Do not use children to remind yourself of your own earthly experience. And as the writer in the Standard has stated, think of the creator – God – when giving your child a name, – a name that makes sense for the child now, and in the future.

By Korir, Chief editor. 

Kenyans face problems in getting Director of Public Prosecutions, a position very important for the reforms.

Mr Keriako Tobiko, the now serving Chief Prosecutor – the man who was interviewed and cleared by a panel led by COTU Secretary General Atwoli, is now facing problems after being accused by a number of people that he had asked for a bribe of 5 million Kenya shillings and others accusing him of incompetence.

Others have come out claiming that the process led by Mr Atwoli interviewing the DPP applicants was not transparent because the public were not allowed to be present. It was done in camera, and not in the spirit of the new constitution, they say.

The Judicial Service Commission, on the other hand, allowed transparency during the interviews of the applicants for the positions of the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice, a very good thing that has earned praise.

These accusations have now turned the heat on Mr Tobiko, resulting in tribal politicking. The Maasai tribal leaders, Tobiko’s tribe are angered and are now warning leaders who are accusing their son that they will convince the Maasai tribe never to vote for political parties where such negative leaders come from.

According to the Kenya Daily Nation, reporting on Tobiko debate goes tribal, Kenyans may have to wait longer before getting a DPP.

Many, however, see the need to have a DPP as soon as possible in order to speed up reforms. Going tribal on appointments will not produce the much-needed reforms for the country.

By Korir, Chief editor

Barack Obama Has The Nation In His Hand But God’s Got the Entire World in His Hand

Greetings!

Barack Obama Has The Nation In His Hand But God's Got the Entire World in His Hand by By Rev. Lainie Dowell, Five-Fold Minister

The more we watch, wait, and pray, it seems the more things get worse. We need encouragement and reassurance that our living is not in vain. And, it is by faith that we do endure, with patience, and fortitude to go all the way to see what the end shall be. For only God has that answer. How can we not believe, when He has spoken and shown us He is real so many times. My faith is firmly fixed and my resolve is to go forth to be available to help others in their walk of life. Most people don’t think about whether God is real or not until death hovers so close they know their end is near. Then they (most) cry out to God to save them — to let them live another day. It is then they realize that, without God, we have no life or promise of better days to come. Yet, our nation wants us to leave God off of our waking and sleeping moments??? NOT SO! Our nation cannot give us life — not even those who profess to grant life can, of themselves, live without God in their life. Hold on to your steadfast faith in God alone, who is the life giver.

Here’s to God’s continued peace and blessings, with so much thanks!

——————————————————————————–

 A PROPHETIC WORD OF WARNING
Marvel not, for it is true! There will be no comparison between Barack Hussein Obama and God, for God’s Hand is mightier than his (Obama’s) and, with just one flick of His (God’s) little finger, Obama will be as a bug smashed on a windshield.

If all in this world paid attention to the way weather has caused a great upheaval all across the globe, then people must be aware by now that there certainly is a greater force than mere humans on the earth.

We have endured winds of monumental proportions coming at us from so many directions; and, as unexpectant as they were —

  a.. fill up the gas tank
  b.. fill up the refrigerator
  c.. grab the children and the pets
  d.. call on your relatives to flee the vicinity
These were all good and sound advice given, but where did it lead the masses of people? Although survivors could go to the aid of others who managed to escape, mankind was helpless, himself, to stop the oncoming disasters. And that ought to tell us something, especially when so many believed Obama when he told them in 2008 that he could stop the rushing waters. People learned shortly thereafter that was just one among Obama’s many other lies found to not be true.

Nevertheless, they act as if they still believe Obama can walk on water even as they watch him sinking out of sight before their eyes, although he is walking on dry land. History shows that Obama has broken every law in the book of God and mankind without repentence; and he wants to lead this nation of God’s people to do the same thing. Many have followed behind Obama forgetting that might does not make right and that money cannot buy health, wealth, peace, or life. What’s more, they have yet to learn that God and one more makes the majority. And that one is there as a witness to what God has done, is doing, and will yet do.

God’s way is our only hope of redemption

Mankind can’t want freedom all that bad, because the solution to the world’s troubles remain firmly before their faces and still they clamor and bicker among themselves about whether or not there is a God. And until this very generation, they fail to discern to know the truth of the matter. And, so, they remain enslaved and full of death and destruction, because they also failed to understand who they are, who God is, and their relationship to the one true and living God of all mankind who believe and who “are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ (knowing) it is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe.”

Everywhere you turn, people are scrounging around trying to find hope, help, faith, and to hear from heaven! However, when the Lord God speaks, people too often fail to hear His voice. Instead, they quickly turn to the false, fake pretenders whose voices come into their natural ears like soothing, melted butter and penetrate into their bone and marrow like a hot blade that seers all semblance of life and livelihood from their being. But they can never replace what they have removed with anything better, for mankind cannot do that. But Only God! And He has not failed mankind even when they have continued to be disobedient and, yet, blame God for man’s failures. For God is merciful and He warns many times before he metes out justice, when His warnings are not heeded.

Barack Hussein Obama deceives only himself and a helpless, hopeless mankind

Today, through the ungodly rule of the administration of Barack Hussein Obama with all of his ungodly, unAmerican self-made partnerships operating from within the United States of America and all around the world, Americans and the entire world recognize that there is a demonic force moving in the earth such as not many previous generations have experienced. And, yet, people remain hard pressed to believe that the One who alone is God is able to redeem and save them, and that God waits with outstretched, loving arms to receive them unto Himself.

Without a doubt, people all over the world want help, hope, love, life, and restoration. But mankind has become entangled and bogged down in bondage to humankind and their mundane idiosyncrasies for so long that they have become divested of their faith. They have no hope left within themselves which would allow them to believe that there is but One who, although sight unseen by human eyes and voice unheard by human ears, far exceeds anything mankind could ever imagine possible or that they could ever hope to achieve on their own apart from God.

All of mankind run to and fro’ lamenting their ill fate and putting their faith in one another instead of in God. He is the world’s only solution. He is the only One who can and will turn the hearts of mankind to those things that are pleasing and acceptable in His sight, and which would forever lead to a life of peace and blessings for them, their loved ones, and for the entire world.

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then shall I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land,” saith the Lord God Almighty. (2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV)

There is a lack within mankind that he alone cannot fill. For man is inadequate apart from the One who created him. And, not withstanding all of his eagerness to grow and to defend all of those he see in need, man is but a helpless and mere planted toad in the realm of Almighty God. Man can do nothing of himself for himself much less for anybody else apart from God who is “the author and finisher of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Americans have allowed the infestation of many cultures, creeds, and the very embodiment of every worthless and degenerate feature to infiltrate this nation. And, instead of keeping true to the Word, will, and way of the One who had the grace to bless us so richly, the more the filthy infestation crept into every area of life in America, the more Americans in leadership positions accepted it and pressed forth to press all of that ungodly filth and degradation into generations past, present, and those which are to follow all the ones who came before.

And, there is this!

Why does the American-Israeli relationship matter so much to God?

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob heard the cry of Israel and redeemed them out of bondage, for they are a chosen people and greatly beloved of Almighty God. But those who came and gave their life to God as a believer on His Salvific power through Jesus the Christ were grafted into the body of Christ; and, as members of the New Jerusalem above, they, too, became God’s Beloved.

Therefore, America is a Judeo-Christian nation by God’s own written decree and as enforced by our forefathers when they incorporated the force of our faith into the foundational documents, which includes the Constitution of the United States of America. And, anything less than belief on Jesus as God’s salvation, will never do. Yet, because of this, people have brazenly rejected the One who has given them life. In them is a death that shall never live! For it is the death which is not promised an awakening to life, but one which is destined to Hell and damnation.

Mankind heeds not God’s warnings but do so at their own peril

If man has not understood by now the awesome power of God, they shall not begin to understand the even more awesomeness of God’s love to save them from the power of sin and death. But we who believe must not take that route of unbelievers, neither can we afford to let strangers who sojourn in this land to detour our walk of faith in God through Christ Jesus — ” the name that is above every name that is named.” The name that makes all men and demons shudder who do not know Him in their unpardonable sins.

Mankind has had so many warnings from above and still they gave no attention. Nevertheless, at the time, place, and how of God’s final warning, they will surely see, know, understand, and believe the most powerful force of all time is truly real and does yet speak. But at that very moment of their recognition of the truth of the matter, it shall then be too late for them to repent; and, God shall not relent in his destruction. Neither shall He nor they be friends. But they shall be God’s enemies subject to the penalty of death — but without life — by the mighty hand of the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth and all things therein.

Covert and antithetical people are uncovered and now await the push of God to push them away from Him — no more to be assured of His great salvation. For they are, and have been, and shall remain reprobate, as declared by the mighty power from God’s own lips and as God alone is able to so declare and decree. And it is so. Amen.

Men and Women of Earth — hear ye the Lord God of all. Turn away no more. Be ye ready to receive of the Hand of the Lord. Shall it be pleasant or shall it be painful? Well?!

Prepare and be ready to know the Lord God is real and alive and that He does speak.

“Watch, for ye know not the day nor the hour when the Lord shall come. For He shall come as a thief in the night.” (Matthew 24:44; 2 Peter Chapter 3) The end!

Begin to fill up the soul and you shall find it useless.
Begin to fill up the spirit and you shall find it all the more useful.

Those who have believed not God shall fear and tremble in their beds, for they have made their beds; and, in them, shall they lie no more.

  a.. No more shall political correctness, or diversity, or disregard for the rule of law be tolerated.
  b.. No more shall words cease to have meaning but they shall remain meaningful.
  c.. No more shall people cease to fear God but they shall fear Him with a Godly fear.
  d.. No more shall evil be called good and good evil.
  e.. No more shall truth be called lies and lies made to sound truthful.
  f.. No more shall right be called wrong and wrong illegally made to seem right.
  g.. No more shall people hold life so cheap that murderers are rapped on their wrists and locked away for a season.
Life shall be respected so much that all life, even from inception, and be they male or female, they shall be appreciated and loved with Godly love and the spirit to know the difference.

Let this be that time right now, when all people who know and love God will cease to be fearful of standing up and speaking out to declare before all mankind that the time is now to “Let your light so shine (in this dark, sinful world) before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

This is the Prophetic Word of God from the mouth of God to the spiritual ear of this, His Servant, the one who so richly resides in “the peace of God which passeth all understanding,” (Phil. Chapter 4). The one who has no fear of any man, woman, boy or girl, knowing in whom I believe. The one who has dispensed all that the Lord God has placed within me to Preach it through me “for such a time as this.”

Therefore, I plead with the nation to come together and form a prayerfilled line to the Throne Room of God; and, I declare and decree that our God will surely turn this into a nation full of Godly leaders and a people after His own heart who will surely possess righteous moral clarity such that all things shall be done decent and in order and, most of all, they shall be done to the glory of Almighty God without apology or shame.

Discern and be blessed of God Himself.

By Rev. Lainie Dowell, Five-Fold Minister
God’s Preaching Warrior Woman
Wearer of the Iron Robe

Displaced persons crossing the border into Lebanon without any belongings

SYRIA-LEBANON: Displaced Syrians head back home

Photo: Serene Assir/IRIN

Many of those who crossed the border into Lebanon came without any belongings (file photo)

BEIRUT, 6 June 2011 (IRIN) – Nearly a half of the several thousand Syrians who recently fled violence in the southwest, escaping to northern Lebanon, have returned to their homes in Syria, local residents said.

“Fifty percent of the Syrian families have gone back to their home town,” said a sheikh from the region who preferred anonymity. Relatives and friends in the Syrian town of Hadath, he added, had informed the asylum-seekers that the situation in their villages was quiet.

Dana Sleiman, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said the situation in Syria’s Wadi Khaled region, where Hadath is located, was relatively calm.

“Though the state of affairs is serious, we do not consider it to be an emergency as of yet, because the number remains limited,” she said. “There is no major influx.”

A little over a month ago, Syrians, mostly women and children from towns such as Hadath, Arida and Tal Kallakh, began to trickle across the border into Lebanon, saying they were looking for a safe haven from what they say was a violent crackdown on their villages by the Syrian army.

A source said the sound of shelling was audible from the Lebanese side of the border two weeks ago. “Shabiha [the pro-government militia that has been cracking down on protesters] were raiding homes, coming in and arresting men, raping the women,” the source said. “We even saw them shoot an old woman in the foot.”

NGO Islamic Relief estimated that 6,000 fled into Lebanon. “They poured into north Lebanon… using illegal border crossings to escape the violence unleashed on protesters by security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad”. Most of them were being hosted in Akkar (northern Lebanon), mainly by relatives, thereby placing an additional burden on their already impoverished hosts.

“Most of the persons who have crossed the border in recent weeks are women and children,” the International Federation of the Red Crescent noted on 31 May. “Many of those who have crossed the border have come without any belongings. Most have found shelter with relatives or host families, and a small number are residing temporarily in a school in Tall Bire.”

The Lebanese Higher Relief Council, which is leading the response to the needs of the Syrians, said some 6,814 individuals had received some assistance.

The ongoing protests started in Syria in mid-March and are regularly crushed by the government. At least 1,100 people are estimated to have died, including more than 50 during protests after Friday prayers on 3 June. More than 10,000 have also been arrested, according to human rights observers.

On 4 June UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced alarm at the escalation of violence in Syria and called for an independent and transparent investigation into all the killings.

as/eo/cb source www.irinnews.org

Thousands of migrants survive captivity and torture in the Sinai desert

EGYPT/ISREAL: Tortured for ransom in the Sinai desert

Photo: Tamar Dressler/IRIN

The open clinic run by ‘Physicians for Human Rights-Israel’, has treated thousands of migrants who survived captivity and torture in the Sinai desert

CAIRO/TEL AVIV, 7 June 2011 (IRIN) – GA had looked forward to leaving Eritrea with her husband and living a better life in Israel, until they found themselves kidnapped for money by local Bedouins in Egypt’s Sinai desert.

“They threatened to kill me and my husband if we did not pay,” she said. “They did not beat me, but other people were told to take off their clothes and were beaten. At the end, they separated the women from the men; they came in the night and took two girls. When the girls came back they were crying. The others did not ask what happened to them because they knew they had been raped.”

GA, who spoke to IRIN in the Israeli city of Jaffa, is just one of the hundreds of asylum-seekers trafficked by international gangs every month from the Horn of Africa to the Middle East, mainly through Sudan, ostensibly in search of better opportunities. However, say human rights groups, many of them end up in captivity. Bedouin tribes in Sinai, which borders Israel, often hold them until their relatives pay a ransom.

“Over the past year, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel’s Open Clinic has treated thousands of victims of torture who have entered Israel after surviving captivity and torture in the Sinai desert,” said Shahar Shoham, director of the organization’s refugees and status-less persons department. “Out of 284 interviewed, 59 percent report being held captive in chains; 52 percent reported that they were subjected to serious violence, including punching, slapping, kicking and whipping.

“We salute our colleagues in Egypt working to protect and defend the rights of refugees and call on Egyptian authorities immediately to put an end to the horrific acts we have documented, to free the captives, and provide full protection to the victims.

Testimonies

Like GA, another captive, F, left Eritrea after a friend said there was a good job in Sudan. “Seven people were taken, but the employer took us to a house in Kassala [northeastern Sudan], where we found two girls chained,” he said in Jaffa. “He [the employer] kept us in the house for one month, before he brought the seven to Sinai. It took 10 days to enter Sinai. Here, they beat us severely.”

After three days, he escaped but was caught again by the traffickers. “They beat me until my body was swollen,” he told IRIN. “Then they told me to beat the others. An old man told me to beat the others because I had no choice. I was crying while doing this, so did the persons that I was beating. Then I was forced to build a house with the other men. The men were working while chained.

“We escaped from the smugglers again. I was weak and had swollen legs. The others ran, but they caught me again. I did not call my mother because she is very poor and I have no family abroad to ask for money to pay the ransom. They tied me for many months, and made me do dirty jobs. For 12 days I did not eat. I stayed 10 months with them, working like a slave. I lost sense of the days and months. Eventually, they sent me to Israel after friends I met in the Sinai paid US$3,000 for my release.”

We waited for 21 days but the traffickers did not come…five in the group died of thirst. I don’t dream of them but the words ‘give us water, give us water’ keep playing in my head. We drank our urine to survive.

Another victim was AD, who also now lives in Jaffa. “After we arrived in Sudan from Eritrea, we waited for 21 days but the traffickers did not come,” he said. “During this time, five in the group died of thirst. I don’t dream of them but the words ‘give us water, give us water’ keep playing in my head. We drank our urine to survive. After the traffickers came, I was moved between five different groups [of smugglers]. I was held in a camp for 20 days, chained. I witnessed others die. I was beaten, denied food and water and tortured by exposure to the hot sun.”

Like the other three, A went through a traumatic experience. “I saw four people die of thirst, after they were left without water for four days in the desert. They cried for water and for their mothers and there was none to give to them. I was really traumatized by this experience, and never thought I would get out alive. I could not speak due to thirst; it was a terrible experience and I suffered from nightmares long after.”

Some of the survivors of this ordeal, now calling themselves the Sinai Group, regularly meet in Neve Sha’anan in Israel to pray both for those who died and for those still in captivity. “Some of the members come every month, some don’t, but it is good if they come and talk together,” GA said, adding that not all traffickers treated their captives badly.

“There are more than 15 groups in the Sinai,” he added. “Some of them treat the refugees well, give them food, advise them. There are three or four that are bad.”

Forms of torture

According to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, the forms of torture used include burial in the sand, electric shocks, hanging by the hands and legs, branding with hot metal, as well as rape and sexual abuse. “Forty-four percent of respondents stated that they witnessed violence and/or fatalities of other asylum-seekers,” Shoham said. “Most mention being deprived of food or water during their period of captivity in Sinai.”

In Egypt, local human rights groups have called on their government to ensure the asylum-seekers are protected in line with May 2010 legislation which criminalizes people-trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation.

“Our government must have clear plans for dealing with migrants who try to cross the border from here to other countries,” said Ahmed Badawi, chairman of NGO the Egyptian Organization for the Rights of Refugees. “Egypt has signed many agreements in this regard and it must abide by the terms of these agreements.”

In December, 13 Egyptian human rights groups issued a statement calling on their government to intervene. The victims, they said, were being beaten, burned, and lashed with electric cables, while the captors communicated with their relatives to pressure them to pay ransom.

Photo: Google Maps

The Sinai Peninsula is a triangle-shaped region wedged between the Suez Canal and the Israeli-Egyptian border

“Women are separated from the men and repeatedly gang raped by their captors,” the statement said.

These groups say they have continued to get reports about the inhuman treatment the migrants receive at the hands of their Bedouin captors. A group of 200 Eritreans, they say for example, has been detained for months now in inhuman conditions in Sinai.

The Bedouin have traditionally occupied the Sinai peninsula, a triangle-shaped region wedged between the Suez Canal to the west and the Israeli-Egyptian border to the northeast. The Bedouin, a historically nomadic people, complain of government neglect and discrimination. As a largely demilitarized zone under the terms of the 1979 Camp David peace agreement, Sinai is only lightly policed by the Egyptian authorities.

Transit country

Egypt, according to the 2010 US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children who are subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically for forced labour and forced prostitution.

The report says Ethiopians, Eritreans, Sudanese, Indonesians, Filipinos, and possibly Sri Lankans migrate willingly to Egypt where they are sometimes subjected to forced domestic work.

A November 2010 report by the UN Refugee Agency said 39,461 refugees and asylum-seekers were registered in Egypt. Most of these, it noted, were Sudanese, followed by Iraqis, Somalis, Ethiopians, and Eritreans.

According to Human Rights Watch, a network smuggling sub-Saharan migrants through Egypt to Israel has been operating in the Sinai region since at least 2007. In addition to smugglers who guide people across borders unlawfully for money but who do not otherwise exploit and abuse them, there are also human traffickers operating in Sinai who abuse the migrants under their control and hold them for ransom.

The smugglers normally ask for $2,500-$3,000 for the trip to Israel border. But upon arrival in Sinai, the migrants often find themselves in the hands of traffickers who demand additional money – ranging from $500-$10,000. The traffickers threaten to kill or otherwise harm the migrants – in several cases, to remove and sell their kidneys for a large illegal market in Egypt – if they do not pay.

“Egyptian authorities frequently say they are cracking down on organized crime in the Sinai,” Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at HRW warned, in December. “But the government is slow to react when human traffickers are holding hundreds of migrants for ransom.”

td/ae/eo/cb/oa source www.irinnews.org

Selling children: Feeding them has become harder for impoverished families

PAKISTAN: Selling children to pay off a debt

Photo: Kamila Hyat/IRIN

Feeding children has become harder for impoverished families, some of whom can no longer afford to provide a decent meal for them

LAHORE, 6 June 2011 (IRIN) – Muhammad Ahsan gave his son away to his employer, a brick-kiln owner, after failing to pay back money he had earlier borrowed, but feels embarrassed that the boy has ended up working as a domestic helper in the latter’s home in Lahore.

“I owed him Rs.100,000 [US$1,176] I had borrowed and couldn’t afford to pay back,” Ahsan said. “He agreed to write off the amount if I `gave’ him my 10-year-old son, Sajjad, to work in his house as a domestic worker, washing dishes and cleaning floors.

“I am ashamed because I have in fact `sold’ my son, and ended his schooling to do so. But perhaps I can now afford to educate my two younger sons.”

His story is not unique. Despite laws that forbid it bonded debt labour is common in Pakistan. The US government, in a 2009 report describes Pakistan as a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labour and sexual exploitation.

Pakistan’s largest human trafficking problem, according to the report, is that of bonded labour. Concentrated in Sindh and Punjab provinces, it is particularly common in brick kilns, carpet-making, agriculture, fishing, mining, leather tanning, and production of glass bangles. Estimates of victims of bonded labour vary widely, but together with those in forced marriages and women who are traded between tribal groups to settle disputes or as payment, are likely to exceed one million, it said.

The Karachi-based NGO the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, in a 2003 study, found that over half a million people were working at brick kilns as bonded labourers. More recent data is hard to come by.

The Pakistani National Coalition Against Bonded Labour, which is made up of a group of local NGOs, describes the practice as “one of the least known forms of slavery today but responsible for enslaving millions of people around the world”.

Apart from paying debts, parents also sell, or attempt to sell, children for other reasons.

In the southern Punjab town of Vehari, Ghazala Bibi, once stood at a city square for over seven hours, seeking “buyers” for her three children, Mahnoor, aged nine, Abdullah, seven, and Masooma, four. “My husband is a drug addict and I can no longer manage to feed my children,” Ghazala, a domestic worker, said.

She said that by selling them, she hoped they would gain a better life.

In another case reported in November 2010, four children in Vehari put up a banner offering themselves for sale to pay for a kidney transplant required by their mother, Aqsa Parveen, 35. The provincial government of the Punjab intervened and arranged to bear the costs of the surgery.

“I believe some people stage `mock’ sales, simply to obtain charity. But even in such cases the people are generally desperate and believe they have no choice,” Sumera Jabeen, a community health worker, told IRIN. She also said more people were sending children out to beg for food.

More pushed into poverty

In a report released in April, the Asian Development Bank noted that a food price hike of over 10 percent in the first few months of 2011 had pushed another 6.94 million Pakistanis into poverty. It noted that the price of wheat had risen by 10 percent this year and rice by 13.1 percent.

“We can no longer manage to offer our five children even a single decent meal. Prices are too high, I was recently laid off from my factory and now do only odd jobs, earning around Rs. 6,000 [US$70] a month. Almost the entire amount goes on buying food,” Fareed Ahmed, a textile factory worker, told IRIN.

There have also been reports of parents attempting to sell children – in one case from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan Province, simply for a bag of wheat flour.

“There is no doubt at all economic conditions are getting tougher for people. Prices are indeed rising by the day and people struggle to manage. But persons who stand by the roadside, trying to sell children, are essentially staging a drama-seeking media attention and hoping someone will give them money,” Anwar Kazmi, a spokesman for the charitable Edhi Foundation, told IRIN from Karachi.

A member of the district administration in Vehari who asked not to be named, agreed. “The problem is that politicians rush to give money to these people and gain publicity, which is why people stage these stunts – but this is no solution. What we need is a strategy to create a social safety net for the destitute, generate employment and also to control inflation,” he said.

According to the National Coalition Against Bonded Labour, those affected essentially forfeit their right to employment, to move freely, and to sell his or her labour at market value. These actions violate internationally recognized human rights.

kh/eo/cb source www.irinnews.org