New Zealand Conservative

My title is chosen from within the article I've linked to. It refers to the child's pain of being different, of not having a mother or a father, and to have to put on a brave face to the world, because that is what is expected of them. This is personal for the writer, Robert Oscar Lopez, because he knows what it's like to be raised by two lesbians. He's one of the very few that are now grown and are able to talk and write about their experiences. He considers two men or two women bringing a child into their relationship on purpose to be abusive. Worst of all is a same-sex parenting home that arose because two homosexuals contrived the situation knowingly, in order to experience parenting . These are cases in which divorce was initiated by a gay spouse, with the explicit goal of setting up a new gay parenting household, and then custody was transferred (often in an ugly family court process). Or where lesbians went to a sperm bank. Or where two homosexuals ...

Who watches the watchmen? The Confidential Listening and Assistance Service was created in 2008 to hear stories about people abused under State Care before 1992. Why 1992? Some-one decided that the NZ Government has robust systems after that date to manage complaints of abuse. If this is the case, why limit the date - very few people should theoretically speak up about events after 1992 if they already have other channels that they feel will treat their story seriously. That's now 20 years ago - so the data should be in. Open the investigations wide open and let's test that assumption. Or is it harder to deflect blame when the historical abuse case is only a few years old? [ Like this one ] Already, 702 people have stepped forward to detail sexual and physical abuse whilst under NZ state care. This panel makes it clear that it is not a legal forum, nor a forum for compensation, but rather a forum to listen and advise what the victims might be able to do to move for...

I'm listening on the radio to people phoning up, largely in support for William Roache, aka Ken Barlow (RIP, 2013) of Coronation Street. This is in reaction to being arrested on two counts of rape of a child (I use the common terminology here) 40 years ago. From what I gather, being arrested in the UK can just mean "we want to talk about a credible accusation", but the media certainly makes it sound more serious than that. It may have been recent comments in defense of Jimmy Savile and colleagues on Coronation street that also have been recently accused of sex abuse: “But things were different in the Seventies. People were more tactile. You did things that today are regarded as wrong." He's right in that regard, things were very different in the seventies, and we are now judging events by different standards and different attitudes, which is partly why so many people come forward years afterwards. However, even with different standards, such things have ...

The indoctrination of the young continues in America, as children in a girls school in New York were told to ask each other for a lesbian kiss and to pretend they were on a lesbian date, all as part of a "anti-bullying presentation". Parents of children attending a Red Hook, New York, middle school are outraged after a recent anti-bullying presentation at Linden Avenue Middle School. The workshop for 13 and 14-year-old girls focused on homosexuality and gender identity. They were also taught words such as "pansexual" and "genderqueer." Parents say their daughters were told to ask one another for a kiss and they say two girls were told to stand in front of the class and pretend they were lesbians on a date. "She told me, 'Mom we all get teased and picked on enough. Now I'm going to be called a lesbian because I had to ask another girl if I could kiss her,'" parent, Mandy Coon, told reporters. Coon says parents were given no...

Whilst 20 children were gunned down in Connecticut, 22 children were also stabbed in Chenpeng Village Primary School in the Henan province. Thankfully none were killed, but some have apparently lost fingers and ears. If we take away guns, do we also need to take away knives? I suspect then that such people will turn to using explosives, poisons and improvised weapons. It's very disturbing in general that innocent children are being targeted. Perhaps that is the key question to answer, when we begin to search for answers. Although, I think the Boomtown Rats provided one possible answer to that riddle long ago: And he can see no reasons 'Cos there are no reasons What reason do you need to die, die?

According to a comment made by a female reader at another blog who works with troubled and abused children, the 50 Shades Of Grey book that is so popular at the moment may actually be a thinly veiled story of paedophilia where the older man is a Jerry Sandusky type of abuser. Although in the book, the woman's age is given as 21, the reader and her friend contend that this is a thin cover and the signs point to a much younger aged protagonist. Now I know after saying that, many female fans of 50 Shades, many of them mothers, will naturally put up a defense against that kind of description.  These women, being mothers, are naturally wired to protect kids.  People like Jerry Sandusky are viewed with hatred, revulsion, and disgust.  Rightfully so.  What mother would want to condone anything having to do with the sexual abuse of children?  Of innocents? [...] My professional experience centers around nearly 20 years with Child Protective Services.  Over...

Why am I not surprised that child abuse of this magnitude is happening. More than 70 children and young people were abused while in Child Youth and Family care last year and no central records are being kept on the abuse. Social Development Minister Paula Bennett revealed the information in Parliament today in response to a question from the Greens' Holly Walker. Ms Bennett said that of the 71 cases of abuse - 30 were by CYF-approved caregivers and the rest by "third party'' caregivers. " Thirteen have been prosecuted by police , the others have not. Even though they were substantial forms of abuse - they weren't at a level police were able to prosecute,'' Ms Bennett said. Can you imagine the difference in reaction to this if the Catholic Church was involved? "For an agency that's in the business of child protection it is astonishing that it didn't see fit to collect data on children in its own care who were subsequently abuse...

Contrary to what has been reported in the media, the Catholic priest found guilty of covering up child abuse wasn't actually found guilty of covering up child abuse as the media would have you believe.  He was only found guilty of "endangering the welfare of a child", one of the four charges against him. In the end, Msgr. Lynn was found guilty of only one of the four charges he faced . The cleric acknowledged that he knew that Edward Avery was ministering at a parish in the vicinity of children even though Avery had received a credible complaint years earlier of sex abuse. Avery was then accused of abuse in his new assignment, and it is because of this episode that Lynn was found guilty of a third-degree felony of “endangering the welfare of a child .” What's more, this verdict will most likely be easily overturned because the statue under which he was charged shouldn't have been applied to him. Again, the crime for which Lynn was convicted was endangerin...

The Hand Mirror are railing against Family First and their stance on sex education. Apparently, consent and pleasure is the main criteria for teaching children about sex. I suggested Consent isn't everything Their argument stems from these opening thoughts, and thus becomes somewhat irrelvant to me, as I got stuck on the idea that consent and pleasure are the defining criteria. You can see this flawed logic in action, with CYF condoning illegal behaviour, because it doesn't fit with their ideology. I think it shocking that criminal activity is endorsed by school councillors and CYF workers (who can then arrange an abortion without parental knoweldge and cover up their little "mistake"). Technically, 14 year olds cannot consent, so the 20 year old is guilty of statutory rape, or whatever new terminology for this has become. Either way, it was still illegal, and yet not just ignored by secular authorities, but condoned! Crazy.

In August last year, two brothers broke down after discovering their uncle had abused their young sister, and earlier abused the baby daughter of one of the brothers and raped their mother when she was a teenager. They bashed him. They got jail time. The uncle, a serial abuser, was given home detention. Society can rail all they like about the evils of child molesters, but the court system sends a very different message. The State will protect its monopoly on violence far more harshly than it would protect from violence being visited on the innocent. Sex Abuser Penalty Unjust

I saw an article in the Sunday Star Times (SST) yesterday that, among other things, mentioned that PHARMAC had recorded a 140% increase in antidepressant drug taking in children under 4 years of age over the last few years. Talk about a horrifying statistic - and at face glance - an abuse of medicine. I recall an earlier article on the increasing use of TV as a child-minding device and children not learning key skills on how to play and interact. An alterantive form of medication, destructive also. And in some other article, I noted that pre-school survey forms parents were completing turned out to be used to assess children for a myriad of "mental health" issues. Some parents did not realise ticking the box for "Johnny has had a temper tantrum" either made them bad parents or necessitated Johnny being drugged up and ready to glide through the stressful world of playgroup. And articles continue to hit the papers where child abuse is conflated with child disc...

Wow, the results of this study are explosive, especially since there is a worldwide push for gay marriage and adoption. Children raised in a lesbian household are 50% more likely to later describe themselves as homosexual, bisexual or asexual, than children raised by heterosexual couples. In a stunning new study, reported in the Washington Post newspaper, long-accepted assumptions that there were no differences between gay and straight parenting have been overturned with long term data. Among the other revelations, children raised in lesbian homes are more than twice as likely to be contemplating suicide, at a rate of 12% against 5% for heterosexual families. On the issue of child sexual abuse , the differences are horrific. While two percent of children in heterosexual households report being touched sexually by a parent or other adult, a stunning 23% of children in lesbian family units report sexual abuse by a parent or other adult – almost 12 times higher than the rate of ...

The Consumer's Voice NZ Blog has a post up naming a number of people involved in the under-age sex scandal aired on Close Up the other night, where a 14 year old girl was enabled in having sexual relationships with multiple older men. Statutory rape? Not in New Zealand it seems. Thanks, Chuck, for the link. Related link: CYF, Rosa Trust Counselling, an Albany Church, Youthlaw, two Schools, & Family Court endorse under-age sex with a minor (Close Up, 30/5/12) ~ Consumer's Voice NZ

David Farrar over at Kiwiblog has a post about an upcoming seminar on The Green Paper For Vunerable Children. While I am not against such seminars at all (it is good to talk), I fear that any solution will involve Nanny State government intervention, such as the Smacking Law, which did nothing. Below is my comment on Kiwiblog - As usual, they will address this problem from the wrong end. They’ll try to look at the symptoms and find a cure through possible government programmes and interventions, without actually looking at the source of the problem – the breakdown of families and the pushing of marriage off to one side as being irrelevant. Much of modern secular society has a mindset now that sees children as a bad thing. We have the pill, condoms, and other contraception so we can have all the sex we want without having babies. And if a woman does happen to get pregnant (horror of horrors!) and doesn’t want the baby, we have abortion to kill off that life. If the mindset is...

I've just been reading the Government's Green Paper on child abuse and had to stop and post on this doozy of a section that I just found on page 16. This is all about an action plan for helping vulnerable children (ie those likely to get abused). The idea is to legislate a "plan", but not the details of the plan. That way the details can be changed at any time without legislation. Here's the exact bit from the document. The New Zealand Government could make changes to legislation that would: • Set out the requirements for a Vulnerable Children’s Action Plan • Set out the purpose and goals of having such a Plan • Create cross-agency accountability for implementing the Plan by, for example, allocating responsibility for it to a group of government chief executives • Specifically recognise the needs of tangata whenua tamariki and include a process for a partnership with iwi, hapu - and other Ma-ori organisations to address those needs • Mandate regular ...

Average Kiwi families could be subject to greater state scrutiny if proposed rules around mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse are introduced. A Families Commission report, released today, says agencies' inadequate systems are putting vulnerable children at risk. It calls for better information-sharing between government departments and enhanced reporting by health professionals to safeguard at-risk children. But it also suggests controversial new measures that could expose innocent mums and dads to greater government intervention if child abuse is suspected. More than 22,000 children suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse, or neglect, in the last financial year. Every year an average of 10 children die at the hands of their family or carers. And how many of those abused children live with their biological married parents? That is the elephant in the room - children are far more likely to be abused if their parent is a single mother and she has a live in b...

The accused's mother has said that he had been portrayed as a monster by the media and angry locals had abused her family. Beating a sleeping five year old girl to a pulp and raping her in her own bed are the actions of a monster. I think we all agree. Source: Judge's words horrify victim's parents

Earlier, the detective leading the investigation into the attack said New Zealand society " needs to have another good look at itself ". I've already discussed this at length: If it's my problem, give me the power to fix it . The people of NZ, when this incident came to light have poured in messages of condolences and support, along with donations. Let's not disregard that as the various hand-wringers who wish to blame every-one but the actual perpetrator ask for more government intervention and raising the minimum wage by $3/hr to cure this evil. If society itself needs to take a look at itself, lets start by shining the light very brightly on the animal evil person that inflicted this horror. If we really must go one level deeper, then look at his upbringing. I suspect easy access to porn and violent movies from a young age might figure largely in his history. Possibly also a life of some level of abuse. Whatever the case, this should not deter u...

See the sculpture in the middle of all the people letting off green balloons? It's a giant hand holding a tiny little baby, that in real life if you were to use those proportions, the baby could not be anything other than an unborn child.  Born babies are never that small. The first time I saw the sculpture, I was amazed that a pro-life symbol was sitting in front of the local police station.  Later, I heard that it's purpose was actually to draw attention to the care we should give children, that it was an anti-abuse sculpture, not an pro-life one. Looks like I'm not the only one that thought it was the perfect pro-life sculpture, which has annoyed the group the commissioned the sculpture and surprised the artist. The ultimate child abuse is to kill children and abortion fits that description perfectly. Kapiti Voices Against Violence should embrace that aspect of it rather than get all huffy and say that the above use of it is "inappropriate". Relate...

Today's Dominion Post Idiotorial on child abuse shows very clearly why editors prefer to hide behind total anonymity. "One idea that should be explored is mandatory reporting...even though there is a risk that good parents are falsely accused...even though there is a risk abusers will not seek medical help for their victims to prevent being caught.." Before we dissect this Orwellian directive let's pause for the obligatory inversion of moral principles: "New Zealanders need to accept that it is better for 10 good parents to come under scrutiny than for one monster to be allowed to continue inflicting the worst cruelty" Aside from the rush to embrace the modern principles of political correctness before justice, the casualness of the use of the word "scrutiny" is the thing to note here. Because "scrutiny" means an army of social workers arriving on the doorstep to accuse good parents of being very good at hiding their presumed ev...