Posted on 01/11/2012 11:46:34 AM PST by traumer
Children are being abandoned on Greece's streets by their poverty-stricken families who cannot afford to look after them any more. Youngsters are being dumped by their parents who are struggling to make ends meet in what is fast becoming the most tragic human consequence of the Euro crisis.
It comes as pharmacists revealed the country had almost run out of aspirin, as multi-billion euro austerity measures filter their way through society.
Athens' Ark of the World youth centre said four children, including a newborn baby, had been left on its doorstep in recent months. One mother, it said, ran away after handing over her two-year-old daughter Natasha.
Four-year-old Anna was found by a teacher clutching a note that read: 'I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her. Please take good care of her. Sorry.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
What a horrible way for a society to die.
“In the depression people did the same thing here. A lot of folks had to park their kids in an orphanage until they could find work and get back on their feet. One of my mothers best friends who I have known all my life was put in an orphanage by his mother who could not take care of him. He was sent out to a farm to live with people who basically just worked him to death and starved him until he finally ran away and was living in the streets. He told me this was very common at the time. It could happen here again.
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Actually it has.....
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/triage/2008/09/father-leaves-n.html
Father leaves nine children at Nebraska hospital
Parents are abandoning teenagers at Nebraska hospitals, in a case of a well intentioned law inspiring unintended results.
Over the last two weeks, moms or dads have dropped off seven teens at hospitals in the Cornhusker state, indicating they didnt want to care for them any more.
They were tired of their parenting role, according to Todd Landry of Nebraskas Department of Health and Human Services, quoted in USA Today.
Under a newly implemented law, Nebraska is the only state in the nation to allow parents to leave children of any age at hospitals and request they be taken care of, USA Today notes. So-called safe haven laws in other states were designed to protect babies and infants from parental abandonment.
The most eye-popping case in Nebraska occurred Wednesday, when a 34-year-old father deposited nine children ages 1 to 17 at Creighton University Medical Center — and then walked away.
The mother died a year and a half ago after a cerebral hemorrhage. The father, Gary Staton, told KETV-TV, a local station, “I was with her for 17 years, and then she was gone. What was I going to do? We raised them together. I didn’t think I could do it alone. I fell apart. I couldn’t take care of them.”
The Omaha World-Herald reported that the man had a history of unemployment, eviction notices and unpaid bills and a psychologists determination that he lacked common sense.
The childrens grandmother told the World-Herald other family members planned to take care of the children, but the paper said their destination was still uncertain.
In USA Today, Landry said the children were struggling to varying degrees with whats happened to them.
The World-Herald wrote that state social service officials cautioned Thursday that leaving children at hospitals doesnt absolve parents of their responsibilities.
As if the events already recounted werent odd enough, the World-Herald said that in a separate incident, an 18 year old boy had turned himself in under the law Tuesday at a hospital in Grand Island, Nebraska.
The moral of this story appears to be that safe haven laws need to be very carefully and narrowly written to ensure theyre not abused by parents.
Making sure an unwanted baby finds a home where he or she will be healthy and cared for is one thing. Telling difficult teenagers or nine children youre not my responsibility any more is another.
:)
“It WILL happen here again.”
see post #43 it has happened.
The Greek government just added pedophiles to thier list of helpless people who need gov money to survive. The Greeks now pay pedophiles, exhibitionists, kleptomaniacs, pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists.
Greece is obviously a cesspool.
I saw that. Wonder if they have money to open orphanages?
Some weren't wanted, some were abandoned on streets, some had families who couldn't care for them, and some were taken from bad homes, but regardless of why, many had families.
The accepted estimate is around 200,000 children being rehomed in that time period.
Anne of Green Gables is a prettied-up, glossed-over version of an ugly story which happened to too many children to count.
Considering that the Greek economy only appears alive like a corpse twitching becuase of electric wires; who knows. The sooner they collapse the better; then they can start over.
This is what happens when a country spends more than they produce. It will happen to families, individuals, clubs, cities, counties, states, schools, on and on and on and on. It is a gauranteed outcome. Sadly we are on the path and it seems only us FReepers care....
The "new deal" was a lie, as is all forms of socialism. Government cannot take enough money from the people to make the people prosperous. The "safety net" was nothing more than a revenue raising ponzi scheme that is just now coming to its inevitable end.
Can’t agree with ya there bigdirty.
Ya hear how newborns are left at police or fire stations or hospitals by their parents.
That has to be painful. Can YOU imagine knowing you were not capeable of being a competant parent to said child?
Knowing that said child would be better off in whatever situation they arrive at instead of staying with YOU?
I thank GOD for the family that adopted my sisters son when she was not capeable. It took away from her ever day the rest of her life.
That's precisely the way extended families SHOULD work, and it's what we need to get back to, or at least having the better off members of the extended family assist, of course giving the children up should only be the last resort-still beats being a ward of the State.
Anastacia yes, Natasha... no...Splitting hairs, but there is a huge gypsy and albanian population there. No way, no how Greek women will abandon their babies in the streets. Sorry, ain’t buying, but you can if you want.
TWO illegal immigration amnesties.
A continuous FLOOD of illegal aliens.
a countryside FULL of gypsies who prey on anything not moving. (and not those TV cartoon types of gypsies)
It is no surprise that children to are too big to be of any use to scam artists are being dumped.
On the other hand, Melas, maybe things have changed there, since they’ve ventured off into the throngs of socialism all these years...nikos
My thought as well.
I bet the children aren’t Greek or even western europeans........
Hell will freeze before I dump my kid anywhere.
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