A Place of Nightmare.

[The Meromorph]

I found this link over at Koom Valley (they hated it, too).
Frankly, I will probably have nightmares about this...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,987172,00.html?=rss

Were you to glance up from the deserted beach below, you might mistake Tranquility Bay for a rather exclusive hotel. The statuesque white property stands all alone on a sandy curve of southern Jamaica, feathered by palm trees, gazing out across the Caribbean Sea. You would have to look closer to see the guards at the wall. Inside, 250 foreign children are locked up. Almost all are American, but though kept prisoner, they were not sent here by a court of law. Their parents paid to have them kidnapped and flown here against their will, to be incarcerated for up to three years, sometimes even longer. They will not be released until they are judged to be respectful, polite and obedient enough to rejoin their families.

Check out the link to read on...

[Aphos]

I found a lot of things disturbing in the article...the attitude of the people running it, the responses of the poor kids being kept there, the responses of their parents...

These kids will be scarred for life.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I read over most of the bit, right up until the "testimonies" near the end, then skipped to the last paragraph: "saddest girl in the world" said it all.

As I was reading the description, I kept going back [in my mind] to a short novella, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

It describes the way Soviet prisoners were treated in Gulag, and most folk consider that treatment heinous.

But, because Tranquility Bay houses underage kids, at their parents' behest, we let these sorts of things slide?

*bleah* sometimes I wish my ancestors had not climbed down out of the trees ...

[Griffin NoName]

Horrifying.

Is it legal?

It sounds like it has all the characteristics of a cult too.

[Sibling Spoffish]

Oh my god. That is PETRIFYING. Because I've read a book, fictional, which was definitely about that place. And I remember thinking, when I finished it, "Thank goodness there isn't a real place like that". But there is. And the scary thing is, no one can prove that it doesn't work. If a student comes out and tells all the scary things that happened to them, then the program can just say that they didn't try hard enough.


Now I just have to remember what the book was called....

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

There is coming out a new documentary about the Jonestonw Massacre.  I wonder how much of the same techniques were used at Jonestown ...?


IMDB link here Jonestown- The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

[DISCO GODZILLAJESUSZ]

No doubt that the girl who had to lay down on her face for 18 months is a delusional psychopath who probably killed her parents once she got out.

[Bluenose]

I read this with a kind of morbid fascination.  It is almost beyond belief.

The article skirts around the legal issues, but it occurs to me that this facility would surely be in direct contravention of the UN convention on the rights of the child.  It is a pity that so many countries put so little importance on fulfilling their international obligations.

Frankly I find the whole milieu of this place deeply disturbing.

Sibling Bluenose

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

In my experience both as a parent and when I used to work in summer camps, children misbehavior is exclusively attributable to the parent mis- or lack of thereof -treatment. IOW if a teen is a pre-delinquent it is the parent's fault. Now, to correct the problem you send the kid to a torture/brainwash facility?!

Reading some of the stuff to my kid, he mentioned the word 'suicide' very quickly, and I don't blame him, in the same situation I would consider it too.

I wonder what will be of the kids sent there in a few years after their parents influence stops, but something tells me that they will carefully look for a *suitable retirement facility* for their parents when their moment arrives...

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

In my experience both as a parent and when I used to work in summer camps, children misbehavior is exclusively attributable to the parent mis- or lack of thereof -treatment. IOW if a teen is a pre-delinquent it is the parent's fault. Now, to correct the problem you send the kid to a torture/brainwash facility?!

Reading some of the stuff to my kid, he mentioned the word 'suicide' very quickly, and I don't blame him, in the same situation I would consider it too.

I wonder what will be of the kids sent there in a few years after their parents influence stops, but something tells me that they will carefully look for a *suitable retirement facility* for their parents when their moment arrives...

One of the Biblical Universal Truths, I think, is "be sure your sins will find you out".

I always took this to mean, that, as you do, so it will be done TO you.  Eventually.

Or, more bluntly,

"What goes around, comes around."

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Classic karma: every action creates an opposite and equal reaction. It might not happen immediately, but it will certainly happen.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Classic karma: every action creates an opposite and equal reaction. It might not happen immediately, but it will certainly happen.

Speaking of karma - have you seen the TV show "My Name is Earl?"  It's pretty funny, but the basis of the show is all about karma.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I saw the pilot; it looked funny. With the little time I have for TV I only watch the stuff that my kid watches (Billy & Mandy, Naruto, Avatar), Battlestar Galactica (and often I have to tape it) and the Daily Show and Colbert Report when I'm around. Now my kid is interested in Discovery/National Geographic therefore I watch some... (notice a pattern?) Someday, I will be master of my own TV...

Back to Earl, with all the buzz when it launched, I haven't heard about it since, is the show still on, or just re-runs?

[ivor]

My Name is Earl and The Office are personal favorites of mine and my wife.

[Sibling Chatty]

We don't have TV. (No cable, no TV around here.) And i've managed to see some Earl.

Absolutely one of the funniest, sweetest things i've ever seen. Even if you don't quite make it, points for trying to do the right thing, Earl...

The episode with Christian Slater was priceless.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I have digital cable (courtesy of a roommate- cost is 1/2 ..) and the digital box has a hard-disk recorder inside.

And My Name is Earl is one of the ones I record each week.  I like it enough, that I watch the re-runs ...

The Slater one was good - I especially like the "stuff" the used to water-proof their walls ...

[Swatopluk]

 
I am no lawyer but the Tranquility Bay thing should be sufficient for pretty long jail* terms (in Germany at least)for all involved (except the victims). Btw, How do they get handcuffed children out of country (I doubt they run their own extradition airline in rivalry to the CIA)?

* for among other things abduction, child abuse, usurping powers reserved for state authorities...

[Sibling Chatty]

Google Melvin (and Betty) Sembler or Straight Foundation, Inc.

Sembler was GWB's Ambassador to Italy, BTW.

If you don't feel sick to your stomach soon after reading about this, you're stronger than anyone I know.

And he's not through being an ass yet, either...
http://media.orkut.com/articles/0145.html

Washington Post awarded Sembler the "Narcissism Run Amok" award. He'd made history by convincing a friend of his in Congress to quietly insert a line into an appropriations bill, renaming an $83 million building 'The Mel Sembler Building.'

"We don't do that, do we?" George W. Bush reportedly told the congressman. "We don't name buildings for ambassadors where they have served."

"Mr. President," the Post quoted the congressman as saying, "I introduced the bill and you signed it."

Zany fun. It was a first - even Ben Franklin never arranged for something like this, and he was full of himself.

Unimpressed by the Mel Sembler Building, a tribute to a man who doesn't speak Italian, the Italians decided several days later to leave Iraq.

Why should you care about the STRAIGHT story? Because there's been a national debate over whether torture is worth it if it gets terrorists to reveal their secrets. Some worry we've opened Pandora's Box, inviting torture and ends-define-the-means abuse into the rest of the American way of life. But it's old news. Turns out that in some states we've been using it on teenagers for years.

OF course, you'll remember that i'm all hateful and mean about Republicans...Boo Frickin' Hoo.

[Swatopluk]

Hm, Italy. I get some nasty fantasies about knee-cap shootings and hand-smashings (would be quite a handicap for a diplomat).
Honestly, breaking his every bone but keeping him alive sounds quite appealing. I doubt though that he will have to pay for it in reality (except a bit of money maybe, tax-deductible probably).
Aaaargh!