Teen mistress addresses relationship, pol's Cold War fears in memoir
By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
Last Updated: 12:08 PM, February 5, 2012
Posted: 1:49 AM, February 5, 2012
She always called him “Mr. President” — not Jack. He refused to kiss her on the lips when they made love. But Mimi Alford, a White House intern from New Jersey, was smitten nonetheless.
She was in the midst of an 18-month affair with the most powerful man in the world, sharing not only John F. Kennedy’s bed but also some of his darkest and most intimate moments.
In her explosive new tell-all, “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath,” Alford, now a 69-year-old grandmother and retired New York City church administrator, sets the record straight in searingly candid detail. The book, out Wednesday was bought by The Post at a Manhattan bookstore.
New York TimesTEEN LOVER: Mimi Alford, seen here in a 1963 portrait as a White House intern.
Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImageHORNDOG: JFK, here with Jackie in 1960, seduced the teen in the first lady's bedroom.
In the summer of 1962, Alford was a slender, golden-haired 19-year-old debutante whose finishing-school polish and blueblood connections had landed her a job in the White House press office.
Four days into her internship, she was invited by an aide to go for a midday swim in the White House pool, where the handsome, 45-year-old president swam daily to ease chronic back pain. JFK slid into the pool and floated up to her.
“It’s Mimi, isn’t it?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” she said.
“And you’re in the press office this summer, right?”
“Yes, sir, I am,” she replied.
Lightning had struck. Later that day, Mimi was invited by Dave Powers, the president’s “first friend” and later the longtime curator of the Kennedy Library in Boston, to an after-work party. When she arrived at the White House residence, Powers and two other young female staffers were waiting. Powers poured, and frequently refilled, her glass with daiquiris until the commander-in-chief arrived.
The president invited her for a personal tour. She got up, expecting the rest of the group to follow. They didn’t. He took her to “Mrs. Kennedy’s room.”
“I noticed he was moving closer and closer. I could feel his breath on my neck. He put his hand on my shoulder,” she recounts.
The next thing she knew, he was standing above her, looking directly into her eyes and guiding her to the edge of the bed.
“Slowly, he unbuttoned the top of my shirtdress and touched my breasts.
“Then he reached up between my legs and started to pull off my underwear.
“I finished unbuttoning my shirtdress and let it fall off my shoulders.”
Kennedy pulled down his pants but, with his shirt still on, hovered above her on the bed.
He smelled of his cologne, 4711. He paused when he noticed her resisting.
“Haven’t you done this before?” he asked.
“No,” she said.
“Are you OK?” he asked.
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Sunday, 5 February 2012
JFK’s teen mistress in explosive new tell-all
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Liam Neeson ate wolf stew for his latest role
I just feel sick to my stomach. Liam Neeson is one of my favourite actors but at the same time, I’m also an animal lover. This sounds kind of sickening that you had to eat an animal just to get into the god-damn character. And coming from Liam Neeson, it sounds all the more ugly.Anyhow, animal rights activists have demanded the boycott of his film The Grey. We even posted petition on it on our animal blog. At that time, I didn’t know anything about this stew story. Actually they have shown wolves as ferocious beings in the movie who are ever ready to devour anyone. In reality, this is just a stupid myth as wolves are scared of humans; they don’t even go near them. It’s wrong to paint them as man eater. In fact wolves have been targeted in these years like anything. They been murdering wolves even though they don’t pose any kind of threat to human kind whatsoever. In US, they have been regarded as endangered. In spite of that, they are being killed every day over there. In British Columbia, though there are just 8,000 left, it is still legal to kill them in traps.
Alright. Coming back to the main story - during the making of the film, the director suggested that cast members eat real wolf meat to ‘get into character’. But while some were reluctant, Neeson, revealed that he ‘went up for seconds of the wolf stew’.
I guess there was no need to reveal this kind of thing but since he’s Irish, he says he’s used to odd kinds of stews as well. Anyhow, that has annoyed PETA like anything.
Most of the wolf scenes in The Grey were shot using special effects, but Peta claims the film’s director Joe Carnahan ordered wolf carcasses from a trapper and that the animals would have suffered ‘horribly’ before they died.
‘Many animals caught in traps chew off their own limbs in order to escape,’ PETA spokeswoman Jane Dollinger told The Mail.
‘These animals go on to die of gangrene or other secondary infections, sometimes leaving nursing puppies abandoned to fend for themselves.
‘Wolves are intelligent, family-oriented animals who mate for life and live in tightly bonded packs.
Breaking up a wolf family causes loneliness, separation-anxiety, depression and grief.’
Despite the animal rights protesters’ anger, The Grey has topped the American box-office charts since its release.
It clearly depicts that movie goers either don’t like to be educated or they just don’t care about animals. Come to think of it, most people are only interested in entertainment. They just want to have a good time. I also think it was stupidity on the part of PETA to think that people would boycott this movie. Only animal lovers will stay away from it. But yes Liam Neeson has thoroughly disappointed me.
Source:
CBS 60 Minutes - PANETTA: “WHEN WE SAY SOMEONE IS A TERRORIST, THEN WE CAN KILL THEM, BECAUSE THEY’RE A TERRORIST.”
“[The] President of the United States obviously reviews these cases, reviews the legal justification, and in the end says, go or no go,” Panetta said. “So it’s the requirement of the administration under the current legal understanding that the president has to make that declaration, not you?” Pelley asked. Panetta replied, “That is correct.” The process by which national security officials determine whether or not American citizens suspected of terrorism can be killed remains opaque. The administration has leaked information about certain targets, but it has never released the legal justification for doing so, nor has it explained the system by which members of the National Security Council reportedly decide to put an American citizen on a so-called “kill list.” In October, Reuters’ Mark Hosenball wrote that the president doesn’t necessarily explicitly approve strikes—instead, the attacks go forward unless the president objects. Panetta’s explanation of why he believes killing an American citizen without due process is legal wasn’t exactly comforting. Here’s the exchange: PANETTA: Without getting into the specifics of the operation, if someone is a citizen of the United States, and is a terrorist who wants to attack our people and kill Americans, in my book that person is a terrorist. And the reality is that under our laws, that person is a terrorist. And we’re required under a process of law, to be able to justify, that despite the fact that person may be a citizen, he is first and foremost a terrorist who threatens our people, and for that reason, we can establish a legal basis on which we oughta go after that individual, just as we go after bin Laden, just as we go after other terrorists. Why? Because their goal is to kill our people, and for that reason we have to defend ourselves. PANETTA: If this person wanted to suddenly raise questions about whether or not they’re a terrorist, and they were to return to the United States, of course they would be entitled to due process. That’s something we provide any US citizen. And for that matter frankly any terrorist who is arrested; we provide due process to that individual as well. But if a terrorist is out there on the battlefield, and the terrorist is threatening this country, that person is an enemy combatant, and when an enemy combatant holds a gun at your head, you fire back. Panetta’s explanation isn’t much more complex than “when we say someone is a terrorist, then we can kill them, because they’re a terrorist.” The entire point of due process, however, is to determine whether or not someone is actually guilty. The defense secretary’s metaphor—that you can fire back when someone “holds a gun to your head”—might justify killing an American citizen who is fighting on an actual battlefield, like Afghanistan. But it suggests violence as an appropriate response to an imminent threat, rather than the actual circumstances under which say, radical cleric and American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki appears to have been killed. President Obama just signed a bill that, if not for its many administrative loopholes, would “mandate” military detention for non-citizen terror suspects apprehended on American soil, so it’s not accurate for Panetta to state that “any” suspected terrorist apprehended by the US receives due process. The vast majority of the nearly two hundred detainees at Gitmo have never been charged with anything, let alone tried and convicted. Osama bin Laden was the admitted leader of a group engaged in an armed conflict against US troops in Afghanistan; concrete evidence that al-Awlaki was more than a front for extremist propaganda has never been aired. There’s also an Orwellian element to Panetta’s argument that anyone on the US kill list should simply turn themselves in and get a fair trial. As Glenn Greenwald reminds us, we only know that al-Awlaki was on the kill list because his name was leaked to the press. Any other Americans who might be on the list have no way of knowing they’ve been targeted absent leaks from administration officials or the sound they hear right before they’re annihilated by a Hellfire missile. (Even calling friends, family, or a lawyer to turn yourself in could be the act that gets you killed.) If such an individual did know he was on the list, how exactly is he supposed to believe he’d have due process after giving himself up, given that he’s already been sentenced to death by the administration? Is a fair trial even possible under those circumstances?
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Veterans For Peace ~ Camilo Mejía
Mejía spent six months in Iraq (his first combat tour after enlisting), then returned for a 2-week furlough to the US after which he did not return for duty. He... was charged with desertion and sentenced to one year in prison for refusing to return to fight in Iraq. In March 2004 he turned himself in to the US military and filed an application for conscientious objector status.
Mejía was court-martialed, and claimed that he left his post in order to avoid duties that could be considered war crimes: more specifically, the abuse and torture of prisoners.
During his time in custody he was recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience and was awarded by Refuse and Resist with its Courageous Resister Award. He was also the recipient of the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award which was presented by his attorney Louis Font.
"I say without any pride that I did my job as a soldier. I commanded an infantry squad in combat and we never failed to accomplish our mission. But those who called me a coward, without knowing it, are also right. I was a coward not for leaving the war, but for having been a part of it in the first place. Refusing and resisting this war was my moral duty, a moral duty that called me to take a principled action. I failed to fulfill my moral duty as a human being and instead I chose to fulfill my duty as a soldier. All because I was afraid. I was terrified, I did not want to stand up to the government and the army, I was afraid of punishment and humiliation. I went to war because at the moment I was a coward, and for that I apologize to my soldiers for not being the type of leader I should have been."
Is the Super Bowl the largest child sex trafficking event in the U.S.? — The Good Men Project
Is the Super Bowl the largest child sex trafficking event in the U.S.?
February 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Big Game is known for the bacchanalia that surrounds it. However, we don’t typically think of the illegal prostitution of minors at the same time. It’s a buzz kill if ever there was one. But, the Super Bowl probably has a “demand effect” surrounding large events, often sports related, worldwide.
Last year Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, preparing for what he understood to be a major increase in forced, underage commercialized sex (these would be child sex slaves) called the Super Bowl ”the single largest human trafficking incident in the United States.”
Here’s an example from a previous year: A trafficker was arrested and imprisoned for selling two girls, 14 and 18, as “a Super Bowl special.” Or there’s the story of A.H., who was involuntarily taken to Dallas/Ft. Worth last year where she was beaten, raped and enslaved not far from Dallas Cowboys stadium. Bluntly speaking, these are lost and broken children whose profit value is magnified this week by the Super Bowl.
There is debate among organizations involved in stopping trafficking over the accuracy of claims that the “demand effect” is real. In 2011, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) concluded in it’s,report that “an increase in trafficking for prostitution during large sporting events is unlikely” and that a mythologizing of the issue actually distracts from legitimate and thoughtful consideration of other types of trafficking. Rachel Lloyd echoed this concern earlier this week, when she asked whether it matters if trafficking increases during the Super Bowl — isn’t the truth about trafficking bad enough?
Yet studies of events surrounding past Super Bowls, the Olympics and two World Cup games do showincreases in both prostitution and trafficking.
Whether you believe the Super Bowl numbers are exaggerated or underestimated, Sunday is an opportunity to raise awareness of and combat all sex trafficking of children.
Let’s define trafficking: It is the most fundamental of human rights violations which is comprised of involuntary servitude, slavery, debt bondage, and includes forced child labor, sex trafficking and involuntary domestic labor. Trafficking is not the same thing as sex work undertaken by, for example, adults able to consent. The trafficking I’m referring to here is the enslavement of minors, usually girls, for the purposes of selling sex to adult men. And it is a big business.
We don’t get a lot of information about domestic slavery — even calling it “trafficking” tampens the impact of the words. We would rather think of slavery as something strictly relegated to our past. It is not. The U.S. Department of State estimates that more than 50,000 men, women and children are trafficked into the United States every year (600,000 to 800,000 worldwide.) Of these, 80 percent are girls and women, 70 percent into the sex trade. Those numbers represent the number of people imported. Domestically, at least100,000 people, mostly girls, are trafficked, mostly for sex, every year. Although there is no clear consensus on the numbers of children, or of girls versus boys, exploited through prostitution nationwide there is consensus that the numbers are large and growing.
Last year, the Super Bowl Committee failed to respond to a Change.org petition requesting it to support an anti-trafficking “I’m Not Buying It” campaign. What would stop them from clearly condemning child sexual slavery loudly and clearly? This takes the idea of burying your head in the turf to shameful extremes. I understand that they are a) not responsible for the trade and b) the last thing they want to associate with the Super Bowl is “human trafficking of children for sex.”
This football season, Ashton Kutcher’s and Demi Moore’s DNA Project (a foundation still going strong despite their marital woes) has teamed up with Adrian Peterson to launch Football For Good, which is raising money to support at-risk kids. So far their campaign has raised $278,136 of a $500,000 goal. Minnesota Viking Adrian Peterson has committed to $5,000 per touchdown (Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore will match his contribution, and Victor Ortiz will donate $2,500 per Peterson touchdown). Other participating players include Michael Huff (Oakland Raiders), Roy Williams (Chicago Bears), Jermaine Gresham (Cincinnati Bengals), Dallas Clark (Indianapolis Colts) and DeSean Jackson (Philadelphia Eagles).
On January 5, in preparation for the game, the Indiana Senate passed a bill making it unlawful to arrange for a person to engage in any forced sexual acts. Until then, law only prohibited prostitution and forced marriage, not sexual slavery. The correlation between sex slavery and the Super Bowl isn’t just panicky speculation or a prudish morality play. “There are enormous economic benefits of hosting large sporting events such as the Super Bowl, but the disturbing reality is that such gatherings in other states have drawn criminal rings that traffick young women and children into the commercial sex trade,” said Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller.
If you’d rather not think about sex trafficking during the Super Bowl, if you just want to watch the game, eat some chili and drink some beer, that’s fine. But after the Super Bowl’s done, consider doing a few of the following things to help the people, individuals and organizations combating trafficking and help girls and boys live free from violence and sexual slavery.
- Raise your awareness and educate others.
- Organize to help. If you are particularly motivated, consider hold organizing against trafficking in your community, particularly if you live in a large city. The Womens Funding Network has an excellent, detailed Take Action checklist.
- Write editorials, letters to the editor, blog.
- Volunteer to help organizations that are working to end sex trafficking.
- Advocate for stronger laws. Find out what your elected representatives are doing to end trafficking and how you can help.
- Report suspected incidents of trafficking. You can call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 888-3737-888.
- Donate money: Football for Good, Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST)Coalition against Trafficking in Women, Child Wise, The Protection Project, Antislavery International, Free the Slaves, The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, Shared Hope International, The Rebecca Project, The Polaris Project, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Stop Child Slavery, are all good places to start.
Portions of this post originally appeared in related article in The Feminist Wire and in it’s entirety on Huffington Post.
Follow Soraya Chemaly on Twitter: www.twitter.com/schemaly
A SAFE WORLD FOR WOMEN CAMPAIGN is delighted to be a partner of Women for Women International for their Join Me on the Bridge Campaign on International Women's Day!
http://joinmeonthebridge.org/page/partners#
Partners
Last year over 30 organisations took part - sending the message out to their networks and joining on bridges in events across the world. There are many ways that your organisation or company could partner the world's largest women's rights campaign.
If you're an organisation that would like to find out how you and your supporters can get involved in the campaign please email Sarah, our Grassroots Campaigns Officer. If you're interested in getting involved as university or corporate partner, please email Vitra. Alternatively, call us on 020 7922 7767 for more information.
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| Soroptimist International Soroptimist International is a worldwide service organisation for women. We are committed to a world where women and girls together achieve their individual and collective potential, realise aspirations and have an equal voice in creating strong, peaceful communities worldwide. Visit us online or on our UK website. |
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Women for Refugee Women challenges the injustices experienced by women who seek asylum in the UK. We work to empower women who have sought sanctuary in the UK to speak about their own experiences to the media and to policy makers at public events. We aim to give a voice to women who are all too often unheard and unseen. |
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| The Royal College of Midwives The RCM represents the interests of midwives in all four UK countries individually and collectively promoting excellence, innovation and leadership in the care of childbearing women, the newborn and their families, nationally and internationally. The RCM campaigns for better support for women who are pregnant in prison, or suffering domestic violence or female genital mutilation. We promote breastfeeding, the improvement of neonatal care and helping new parents feel confident and supported, so that women can enjoy not just a healthy pregnancy, but increased quality of family life and well-being. |
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| UK Feminista UK Feminista supports people to campaign for a world where women and men are equal. Why? Because despite massive advances in the status of women, gender inequality remains rife in the UK and across the world. We believe that political, economic and social equality between women and men is possible – and it is a world that will be better for all.But progress doesn’t just ‘happen’. It takes ordinary women and men to stand up and be counted and create the world they want to live in. Our aim is to inspire and enable people to do just that. |
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| The Faith-based Regeneration Network UK The Faith-based Regeneration Network UK (FbRN) is a leading multi faith network for community development, community regeneration and social action. FbRN brings together practitioners for sharing ideas and good practice, to encourage each other and to enable them to link with the makers of public policy. It acts as a means of communication between practitioners and those who make and implement public policy. Set up in 2002, FbRN reaches faith-based organisations operating in communities, and is a key partner for government, and voluntary and community organisations, at national policy level. |
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| Women’s Resource Centre There are thousands of women’s organisations across the country working to support women and to achieve equality. The Women's Resource Centre (WRC) works to bring women’s organisations together, strengthening women’s networks and forums where they exist and nurturing new contacts and links. We work to identify areas of common ground and shared visions, to break down isolation and fragmentation in the sector, and to encourage peer support and self empowerment. |
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| The Women's Refugee Commission The Women's Refugee Commission is an expert resource and advocacy organization that monitors the care and protection of refugee women and children. We speak out on issues of concern to refugee and displaced women, children and adolescents, who have a critical perspective in bringing about change but often do not have access to governments and policy makers. We also provide opportunities for refugee women and youth to speak for themselves through briefings, testimony, participation in field assessments and international conferences. |
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| Positive Women Positive Women is a charity set up to empower women and children in Africa, starting with Swaziland. Our work focuses on supporting local groups and communities to change their own lives and circumstances, to alleviate poverty and make significant social change. To achieve this, they must have their basic needs met, choices in their lives and an understanding of their rights. Through funding primary school places for HIV/AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children, creating women-led income generation projects and through our legal work, Positive Women is empowering the women of Swaziland to secure a different, better future. |
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| The White Ribbon Alliance The White Ribbon Alliance is an international coalition which pushes for change to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for women and newborns around the world. Since its launch in 1999, the White Ribbon Alliance — now a rapidly growing global movement with members in 148 countries — has been amplifying the voices of women and their communities, and is now a leader among those holding governments and institutions to account for the tragedy of maternal mortality. |
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| WOW - Women of the World Festival 2012 WOW - Women of the World Festival 2012 is a celebration of the formidable strength and inventiveness of women, running 7-11 March. This annual festival presents and recognises women from all walks of life, acting as a conversation space for issues of all kinds. WOW includes lively talks and debates about politics, the arts, economics, fashion, science, health, sport and big ideas. Take part in mentoring andworkshops and hear from celebrities, politicians, artists and activists on the topics that matter to women worldwide. Evening highlights (ticketed separately) include comedy from Sandi Toksvig; music from Equals Live 2012, Sinead O’Connor and Emmy the Great; and film with Birds Eye View Sound and Silents. For full programme and ticketing information: southbankcentre.co.uk/wow 0844 847 9910 |
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| The Safeworld International Foundation The Safeworld International Foundation is an international NGO registered in the UK. Our webzine, Safe World for Women, provides a portal and resource, highlighting women’s issues and news throughout the world. Our Field Partners are central to our work. We partner with grassroots groups and organisations who work with women and children at a regional level, dealing directly with issues such as poverty, violence, health rights, child labour and trafficking. Through working with locally-based groups, we can help to make positive changes in a sustainable and culturally-sensitive way. |
The Holocaust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' genocide of millions of people in other groups, including Romani, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Soviet civilians, homosexuals, people with disabilities, Jehovah's Witnesses and other political and religious opponents, which occurred regardless of whether they were of German or non-German ethnic origin.[8] Using this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims is between 11 million and 17 million people.[9]
BBC iPlayer - Paper Clips - Documentary. A small rural school from Whitwell in Tennessee embark on a history project on the Holocaust, which develops into an impressive memorial for those that died.
Documentary. A small rural school from Whitwell in Tennessee embark on a history project on the Holocaust, which develops into an impressive memorial for those that died. Initally the children attempt to collect six million paper clips representing the six million Jews killed by the Nazis. (R)
Mind's May Skydive | Mind
Mind's May Skydive
Take to the skies in May and do a sponsored skydive for Mind.
All we ask is that you do your skydive in May. You then get to choose the airfield and the date.
What’s more, if you agree to raise £395 you can jump for free.
If you want to join in the fun this May it couldn’t be easier. Just register with us.Rebecca skydiving for Mind
We will then send you our skydiving pack, which is filled with everything you need to know about the jump, as well as a reservation form.
Once you have booked your skydive, we will send you our welcome pack and support you throughout your fundraising campaign.
Govt Ministers and the media are fuelling abuse of disabled people with their rhetoric say charities | Society | The Guardian
Benefit cuts are fuelling abuse of disabled people, say charities
Rising public resentment blamed on government focus on alleged 'scrounger' fraud and inflammatory media coverage
- guardian.co.uk, Sunday 5 February 2012 18.16 GMT
- Article history
Charities say an increase in public abuse towards disabled people is due to government focus on alleged benefit fraud and disability cuts. Photograph: INSADCO Photography/AlamyThe government's focus on alleged fraud and overclaiming to justify cuts in disability benefits has caused an increase in resentment and abuse directed at disabled people, as they find themselves being labelled as scroungers, six of the country's biggest disability groups have warned.
Some of the charities say they are now regularly contacted by people who have been taunted on the street about supposedly faking their disability and are concerned the climate of suspicion could spill over into violence or other hate crimes.
While the charities speaking out – Scope, Mencap, Leonard Cheshire Disability, the National Autistic Society, Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), and Disability Alliance – say inflammatory media coverage has played a role in this, they primarily blame ministers and civil servants for repeatedly highlighting the supposed mass abuse of the disability benefits system, much of which is unfounded.
At the same time, they say, the focus on "fairness for taxpayers" has fostered the notion that disabled people are a separate group who don't contribute.
Scope's regular polling of people with disabilities shows that in September two-thirds said they had experienced recent hostility or taunts, up from 41% four months before. In the last poll almost half said attitudes towards them had deteriorated in the past year.
Tom Madders, head of campaigns at the National Autistic Society, said: "The Department for Work and Pensions is certainly guilty of helping to drive this media narrative around benefits, portraying those who receive benefits as workshy scroungers or abusing a system that's really easy to cheat."
He added that ministers such as the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, were being "deeply irresponsible" in conflating Disability Living Allowance (DLA), which helps disabled people hold down jobs, and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), a payment for those unable to work. This "scrounger rhetoric" was already having an impact on people's lives, Madders said, citing a woman who rang the charity to say a neighbour who formerly gave lifts to her autistic child had stopped doing so following press articles about disabled people receiving free cars under a government scheme.
Some disabled people say the climate is so hostile they avoid going out, or avoid using facilities such as designated parking bays if they "don't look disabled".
The government has committed to making significant cuts to disability benefits, including a 20% reduction in the DLA bill by 2015/16. Much of its public focus has been on alleged fraudulent claims or cutting benefits to those whose conditions have improved.
Charities point to a series of ministerial statements arguing that the "vast majority" of new ESA claimants are able to work, while the disabilities minister, Maria Miller, said last month that £600m of DLA was overpaid each year, not mentioning that a greater sum is saved by others not receiving what they are due.
This is "playing directly into a media narrative about the need to weed out scroungers," said Richard Hawkes, chief executive of Scope. "Our polling shows that this narrative has coincided with attitudes towards disabled people getting worse.
"Disabled people tell us that increasingly people don't believe that they are disabled and suddenly feel empowered to question their entitlement to support."
David Congdon, head of policy at Mencap, said the charity feared where this could lead. "We are concerned that this narrative of benefit scroungers or fakers connected to the welfare reform bill does risk stigmatising all people with a disability," he said. "The worry would be that this could lead to an increase in resentment against disabled people, and even an increase in hate crimes."
There was "an incredibly strong focus on benefit fraud within the DWP", said Guy Parckar, policy manager for Leonard Cheshire. "It is mentioned at all possible opportunities. Of course, whenever there is fraud you want that to be tackled, but there should be some serious thought given to the long-term impact that this has. There is the impact of potential hate crime, and issues around that."
Neil Coyle, head of policy for Disability Alliance, said his organisation was being told of increasing levels of verbal abuse, and worried this could lead to attacks.
"There's a lot of concern that the level of abuse and harassment goes unrecorded because it's seen almost as a norm. It seems to be growing as a result of a mis-perception of much more widespread abuse of benefits than actually exists. That's being fed by the DWP in their attempts to justify massive reductions in welfare expenditure."
A DWP spokeswoman said the department was committed to supporting disabled people but needed to "do more to change negative attitudes", and had begun a cross-government consultation on tackling discrimination.
She said: "Our welfare reforms are designed to restore integrity into the benefits system and to ensure that everyone who needs help and support receives it."
David Gillon from Chatham in Kent, said: "I think we've lost all the progress we made in the last 30 years in terms of acceptance." Gillon, whose chronic back condition forced him to give up a job with British Aerospace, recounts walking on crutches past a pub in the middle of the day and receiving shouts of: "We're going to report you to the DWP." He said: "When there's a bad article in the press, the next day you think, 'Do I really need to go out of the house?' We're being forced back into the attic, locked away from society."
Fazilet Hadi, head of inclusion for the RNIB, said she also felt the tone was set by ministers: "I think they should be more careful. At the moment it feels like the government is not on the side of disabled people. Most people don't have that much exposure to disabled people. They don't see us in the lifestyle pages, they don't see us in the fashion pages. The only reference they see is in these stories. And that's why the language is so important."
Germany Decides Genetically-Modified Foods Are Not Welcome | Care2 Healthy Living
Germany Decides Genetically-Modified Foods Are Not Welcome
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- February 4, 2012
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German chemicals giant BASF is closing its biotech division in Germany. The move was prompted by massive resistance to genetically modified food among both the public and politicians. GM opponents are jubilant, while some researchers are complaining this is another case of German hostility to technology.
Read more: Conscious Consumer, Diet & Nutrition, Eating for Health, Eco-friendly tips, Environment, Food, Green, Green Kitchen Tips, Health, Natural Pest Control, Nature, Videos, Videos, Videos, Videos, Videos, Videos, Activists, agriculture, Annette Schavan, BASF, biotech, Biotechnology, food, foods, Friends Of The Earth, genetic-engineering, genetically modified crops, genetically modified foods, genetically modified organisms, germany, GM, GM crops, GMO, GMO Crops, GMOs, Greenpeace, Heike Moldenhauer, news, organic farming, organic food, science, Science News, Scientific Research, Scientific Research News, Stefan Marcinowski
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Chris is the Managing Editor at NewsLook, a curated video service delivering the world's best video news and lifestyle content.
Know Which Food is Genetically Modified
105 commentsSeeds of Deception: How To Avoid GM Foods
41 commentsHuman Genes Introduced Into Dairy Cows
258 comments67 comments
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11:31AM PST on Feb 5, 2012germany rocks! this is only one of the reasons that i love living here!!!
11:01AM PST on Feb 5, 2012I called the FDA, to see who I could talk to about the mandatory labeling of GMOs. I talked to Jeannie Ertter-Prego. She told me she could send me documents about labeling GMOs and I can then send in my comments to the address given in the PDF. The document ended up being a propoganda filled rant that made me even madder. So, please if you have 5 minutes, write a quick letter to this address and demand the GMOs be labeled.
Division of Docket Management(HF-305)
Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fishers Lane, rm. 1061
Rockville, Maryland 20852You have to mention the docket number FDA-2011-P-0723 in your letter so that it goes to the right person. The ONLY way for things to change is for people to start demanding it.
11:00AM PST on Feb 5, 2012Germans!!! U people are really lucky for that country of yours. Atleast you people can make your choices. Way to go. Be an example for other countries on what to follow & what not to.
10:27AM PST on Feb 5, 2012Good for the Germans, they made the right choice.
Sure wish we could make our own choices, rather than have our non-"representatives" do it for us--we always seem to lose, they always seem to win!
9:54AM PST on Feb 5, 2012Even if they don't like it, they will be healthier for their decision. Good choice, Germany!
9:52AM PST on Feb 5, 2012They have the right idea and the courage to say NO!!! and mean it. They care about their people, not so money driven like the USA!!!
8:58AM PST on Feb 5, 2012I would support labeling foods. Why can't we do a simple thing like that?
8:41AM PST on Feb 5, 2012Good for Germany....showing that they are way ahead of us.....we should follow the example...is our health and our childrens health!!!!!!
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