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What are they doing to our children?

Reactive Attachment Disorder is a condition that afflicts infants who are either cared for in institutions (ie children's homes) and who get no consistent affection from a carer, or who experience the loss of a primary caregiver for other reasons (death, imprisonment, separation). If a child is, say, adopted after no more than 6 months, the damage can to some degree be overcome; beyond that it becomes more difficult.

It can affect people throughout their lives, leading to problems with relationships. This can either occur through being inhibited and not knowing how to form attachments - if they lost their primary caregiver, or had a very inconsistent primary caregiver, and had no opportunity to form a good relationship with another one. Alternatively they can be disinhibited to such a degree that they form loose relationships with anyone - if they have had a series of carers throughout their young lives - fluttering on from person to person. Anyone who has worked with young people with a background of being passed around (think of children of drug users who regularly go to (different) foster carers as their parents go through crises) can recognize the signs. Actually, it's a form of child abuse, and the state pays for it in countries where children are put into orphanages easily. What's more, if people themselves had problems with attachment, they won't always appreciate the need of providing consistency to their children.

So I was rather surprised to come across the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a piece of research carried out by the Tulane Infant Mental Health Institute between 2000 and 2004. It was a trial of foster care in Romania, as an alternative to institutional care. Apparently 'one hundred and thirty children between the ages of 6 and 31 months were assessed at baseline and then randomized to routine institutional care or to placement in foster care'.

Read that again. An American research institute experimented on Romanian children to see if foster care worked for them, by placing them randomly in different scenarios. Now we know that generally fostering or adoption is better for children, which is why many countries no longer have infant homes (though consistently being with Mum or another permanent carer is nearly always best).

How dare they mess about with the children of other countries? Where's the consideration of 'in the best interests of the child' when making decisions on people who cannot give their consent? Where was the ethics committee that should assess all research? (I've written to the institute to ask!) I realise that much experimental research used to be carried out by causing distress to infants (apparently in the US 35% of infants [people] have insecure attachments) , which can only be identified by separating the infants from their parents for a brief period (minutes, hours [?]), and of course you can't interview a small child easily, but I would have thought that nowadays there are ways other than distressing experiments to assess such factors.

Utter brinkmanship - or the perrish cooncil at its best

(Looking west for a change). Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party and Scotland's First (ie Prime) Minister managed to get his budget passed, even though he has a minority government. For the opposition all I can say is 'wimps'!

He had threatened to resign and call a new election if his budget, the first of his period in office since last May, was not passed - and call a new election. Labour, in opposition, apparently had their own amendments, which were accepted, before the vote on the budget overall was taken. From which Labour, the Greens and some others abstained - getting the budget passed and keeping wee 'Eck in a job. (A vote on an amendment before a vote on the whole thing - is that quite the right sequence?).

Of course, what with oor Wendy (Alexander, leader of the Scottish Labour Party) having her own troubles over donations to her campaign (the prosecutor's office is looking at them), maybe Labour would not have been in a good shape to face an election.

Now we have (I don't, not living or paying taxes there) a budget which not only allows free traffic across the main firth bridges in Scotland (contributing nicely to global warming), but also vastly increases spending on health. Health spending has doubled since I was there (in 2000/2001).

But more than 4 weeks after having her back x-ray taken my friend is still waiting to hear what the x-ray said.

'Unpleasant with embassies'

Who translated this article (found in Jonathan Kulick's daily mailing)?

'The
Financial , February 1

According to Georgian news agency "Pirveli", president of Georgia
Mikheil Saakashvili is unpleasant with works of Georgian embassies abroad.

“Inter- action of embassies with internal and outward life of the country is
importantly reduced, what is not right resolution” –Saakashvili said at the
Foreign Ministry while today` s presenting of new minister David Bakradze.

“For today, the embassies do not face effective work, as they have been done it
before. Their financial supplement increased, staff is better salaries,
therefore we maintain them to try their best in work, but I am not satisfied
with work of no one diplomatic corpus” –Saakashvili said.

But he pointed out that “most effective works are provided by accredited
embassies to EU, UN and Washington D.C.”.'

Do we get the drift?

Funny, though, how the embassies doing the best work are those in those countries/organisations which Georgia wants to get married to most....

Had to smile today...

...when among a heaving crowd of skinny, chubby, old, young, heavy-bosomed, flat-chested, scarred, unscarred naked women in the sulfur baths I spotted a chubby little boy of about 4. Reminded me of the story some writer (Orhan Pamuk? - not sure - the hamman does not sound quite like his childhood world) tells of when he went to the women's hamman at about the same age, and his dad's friends afterwards asking him all about it. He did not accompany his female relatives for much longer after that....

Running's off!

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In these conditions - consider that these are semi-vertical surfaces covered in a thick layer of ice - there's no way I can go for a long run. The only safe place to run (for the feet) is in the middle of the road, but for the rest of the body that's incompatible with Georgian drivers!

First outing into town after my arrival; on Rustaveli Avenue, opposite the opera house, noticed artificial little trees that can be lit up. Did someone say 'that'll be a symbol of Georgian democracy, then'?

The woman at the opera house ticket office spoke English today and looked very proud. I was happy to indulge her.

Hyper Populi, the supermarket, is having a Kellogg's cornflakes season. Made the most of it, though the bill, also for replenishing the freezer, was eye-watering. The woman who guides people to the taxis appears to have a fractured wrist. Not surprisingly, really.

Brrrrr.....

Back in Georgia, and back into winter arrangements. Ohh, it's cold! Only minus 1 degrees C, but it's the flat that is freezing. After sliding into bed at about 6 am and never getting warm, found out that it might have had something to do with the open bedroom window, perhaps. Will be better prepared tonight!

The one thing that should really have been freezing, and was not, was the freezer. 'eck! When I left my landlady and I had a conversation and it might have involved the word 'elektra'. In my usual 'fake the understanding' way I must have nodded assent, and apparently, it now turns out, the question was 'do you want me to turn the electricity off'. When I first opened the (working) fridge last night, I thought I had left some chilli con carne in the fridge instead of the freezer. Then I spotted a tub of mouldy icecream in the fridge and some other stuff. Obviously someone has been along and rescued what was rescuable at some stage. But my nice frozen baked plums, which are still in the freezer, and some lumps of meat - how are they? Jeeez.

Outside it's nice and sunny, with a huge pile of snow in the garden. The three Alsation puppies seem to sleep outdoors and do the other dog(s). Not sure about the running - there are quite a few icy places; need to scout the situation out - as I go out to re-fill my freezer.....

(Everything looks very quiet...)