Hospital Forces Mother to Sell Child...Indonesia

Are you kidding me?

This is a crime, is it not? By my reckoning the Child Protection Law (No. 23 of 2002) would prohibit the buying and selling of children for any purpose. The idea of buying a child would also be in violation of the provisions of Law No. 21 of 2007 on Human Trafficking.

A hospital has forced a mother of twins to sell one of the twins to a hospital employee in order for her to pay her bills. This is just so wrong on so many levels. The fact that the hospital condones this as a method of paying patient medical expenses is criminal. All those involved must be punished to the fullest extent permissible under the applicable law. If there is no laws that make this kind of action criminally punishable, then parliament needs to focus on this issue immediately and put a legal framework in place that makes it impossible for hospitals and hospital staff to take advantage of, and exploit, the poor in this way.

I find myself shaking my head and thinking, why do seemingly educated people working in hospitals think that this is OK?

Let's "Save the Children"

Child Marries The Money Lender -- Dad Now Debt Free

This is one of those moments that you just sit back in your chair, shake your head, and say WTF is wrong with the world.

Being a father of a wonderful and cute son, I cannot fathom ever contemplating trading the little fella in to pay off a debt. Maybe I do not understand absolute poverty and the absolute desperation that comes with such abject poverty, but all the same my humanity does not allow me to consider my son as a chattel that can be bought, sold, or traded.

Yet, the police in Muladi in Southern Bangladesh are investigating the reports that a 13-year-old has been married off to a 75-year-old money lender as a way of paying off a debt owed by the father to the money lender. The police have yet to unravel the alleged financial arrangements and what the transaction involved.

However, it is reported that the debt was for about 4000 taka, which is about AUD 66. The debt apparently arose when the girl's father borrowed some money from the money lender for repairs to the family home after cyclone Aila in May 2009. It is also reported that the father of the girl also borrowed a cow from the money lender.

In Bangladesh's defense, it is a criminal offense to marry a girl under 18 years of age.However, the practice of child brides is allegedly rampant among Muslims, and many parents alter the age of their daughters on official documents in order to skirt this prohibition.

As I said, I cannot imagine the desperation that would lead one to, in essence, sell their child.

Human Trafficking -- One for the Good Guys

Australia made a request under the provisions of the extradition treaty that it has with Indonesia that sought Indonesia's help in arresting Hadi Ali Asgar El Ahmadi. El Ahmadi is an Iraqi citizen and he is alleged to have trafficked some 900 people from the Middle East and Asia to Australia in the period from 1999 through to 2001. Most of these people are thought to have made their way through Indonesia.

Indonesia police arrested El Ahmadi at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on 29 June. The arrest is only now coming to light.

The Office of the Commonwealth Attorney General is playing its cards close to its chest and refusing to make any comments other than they are considering an extradition request. It would seem to be a lot more than that seeing they have already gone to the trouble of making the arrest request. Nevertheless, the Australian government has 45 days from the date of arrest to make a formal extradition request.

With a bit of luck Indonesia's assistance will continue and El Ahmadi will be extradited to Australia to face an Australian court for the alleged crimes he has committed.