Monday, August 3, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Please sign and and send a copy of the following letter to the US Justice Dept. and/or your Representatives in Washington, DC
Thank you,
Quenby Wilcox
Catherine Pierce
Acting Director - Office on Violence Against Women (OVW)
US Department of Justice
800 K Street, N.W., Suite 920
Washington, D.C. 20530
tel: 202-307-6026
Dear Ms. Pierce; July 20, 2009
Statistics and reports abound on domestic violence and abuse in the USA and around the world, all coming to the same conclusion; there exists a global systematic torture and genocide of women and children. What these reports do not explore nor divulge, however, are the direct and indirect economical and social costs that this global violence creates for our societies, as well as its origins.
I myself am a victim of domestic psychological abuse, have studied this problem from a multi-cultural, multi-faceted perspective for most of my adult life and can conclusively attest that efforts by all of our societies are peace-meal and ineffective. However, it was not until my own divorce and ensuing research that I discovered to what extent judicial systems maintain and even encourage domestic abuse.
Domestic abuse and violence are so integrally a part of long-standing parenting techniques of “civilized” societies that the biggest obstacle in fighting this war is teaching people what constitutes abusive behavior. The second is holding judges, lawyers, law enforcement officials and therapists accountable for failures to uphold the law as well as constitutional, civil and legal rights of citizens.
In A Promise to Ourselves by Alec Baldwin, he correctly states “Family law is a racket. It is a racket within which the principal players have convinced even themselves that they are serving innocent children as well as the public. However, the only people they are truly servings are themselves… The people who are to blame are the lawyers, the therapists, the legislators, and, most insidiously of all the judges. They are the cogs in a closed system, one that they have allowed to evolve principally for their own enrichment, financial or otherwise…. How much of what we currently tolerate inside a family law courtroom is the result of institutional greed, bad legislation, corruption, and politics?”
Thank you,
Quenby Wilcox
Catherine Pierce
Acting Director - Office on Violence Against Women (OVW)
US Department of Justice
800 K Street, N.W., Suite 920
Washington, D.C. 20530
tel: 202-307-6026
Dear Ms. Pierce; July 20, 2009
Statistics and reports abound on domestic violence and abuse in the USA and around the world, all coming to the same conclusion; there exists a global systematic torture and genocide of women and children. What these reports do not explore nor divulge, however, are the direct and indirect economical and social costs that this global violence creates for our societies, as well as its origins.
I myself am a victim of domestic psychological abuse, have studied this problem from a multi-cultural, multi-faceted perspective for most of my adult life and can conclusively attest that efforts by all of our societies are peace-meal and ineffective. However, it was not until my own divorce and ensuing research that I discovered to what extent judicial systems maintain and even encourage domestic abuse.
Domestic abuse and violence are so integrally a part of long-standing parenting techniques of “civilized” societies that the biggest obstacle in fighting this war is teaching people what constitutes abusive behavior. The second is holding judges, lawyers, law enforcement officials and therapists accountable for failures to uphold the law as well as constitutional, civil and legal rights of citizens.
In A Promise to Ourselves by Alec Baldwin, he correctly states “Family law is a racket. It is a racket within which the principal players have convinced even themselves that they are serving innocent children as well as the public. However, the only people they are truly servings are themselves… The people who are to blame are the lawyers, the therapists, the legislators, and, most insidiously of all the judges. They are the cogs in a closed system, one that they have allowed to evolve principally for their own enrichment, financial or otherwise…. How much of what we currently tolerate inside a family law courtroom is the result of institutional greed, bad legislation, corruption, and politics?”
And, contrary to popular belief the same "racket" goes on in domestic violence cases, the consequence for the victims, however, go far beyond monetary concerns.
This is the reality of what is occurring in family law and no amount of legislation or federal grants will change this fact. The solution to the problem is quite simple and much more cost effective than present solutions. Laws should not be “interpreted” in legal decisions and proceedings, but rather applied.
“The world is a dangerous place; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” Albert Einstein
Sincerely,
Quenby Wilcox
Please sign and send a copy of the following letter to Vice-President Biden and/or your Representative in Washington, DC
Vice-President Joseph Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500-0004
Dear Vice President Biden; July 20, 2009
Statistics and reports abound on domestic violence and abuse in the USA and around the world, all coming to the same conclusion; global, systematic torture and genocide of women and children is occurring on a daily basis. What these reports do not explore nor divulge, however, is the reasons to why this phenomenon occurs and why the numbers are exponentially increasing rather than decreasing.
Unfortunately, governments and governmental agency’s only responses to this “cancer” is politically correct rhetoric, additional legislation and signing of international treaties followed by ineffective tasks force, commissions, and agencies.
You yourself were one of the authors of the VAWA-I Act and more recently of a global initiative under the same guise. Apart from the limited political success the VAWA-I enjoyed, the US Supreme Court’s decision holding part of the Act unconstitutional and limited ratification at State levels, its real impact on the eradication of domestic violence is doubtful.
If the impact of this Act has been dubious on a national level, it is unlikely that it will have much effect in an international arena. Passage of laws cannot and will not initiate change as long as government institutions fail to effectively uphold the laws which they passed.
The reality of the situation is that corruption, nepotism and antiquated judicial procedures are so integrally a part of judicial systems that new legislation means absolutely nothing in the entire matrix. As I have found in my research over the past 2 years, the victims of domestic abuse most exposed to injustice within the judicial systems are the wives and children of law enforcement officials, judicial civil servants, lawyers or anyone involved in the judicial process.
First, there exists a higher than average amount of violent, domineering men who seek employment within law enforcement positions and who consider domestic violence normal or light compared to the violence they observe on the streets. Second, there exists an enormous “old boys/family club” attitude amongst law enforcement officials and judicial civil servants making protection and cover ups of “indiscretions” by colleagues common place.
In A Promise to Ourselves by Alec Baldwin, he correctly states that “Family law is a racket. It is a racket within which the principal players have convinced even themselves that they are serving innocent children as well as the public. However, the only people they are truly servings are themselves… The people who are to blame are the lawyers, the therapists, the legislators, and, most insidiously of all the judges. They are the cogs in a closed system, one that they have allowed to evolve principally for their own enrichment, financial or otherwise…. How much of what we currently tolerate inside a family law courtroom is the result of institutional greed, bad legislation, corruption, and politics?”
Vice-President Joseph Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500-0004
Dear Vice President Biden; July 20, 2009
Statistics and reports abound on domestic violence and abuse in the USA and around the world, all coming to the same conclusion; global, systematic torture and genocide of women and children is occurring on a daily basis. What these reports do not explore nor divulge, however, is the reasons to why this phenomenon occurs and why the numbers are exponentially increasing rather than decreasing.
Unfortunately, governments and governmental agency’s only responses to this “cancer” is politically correct rhetoric, additional legislation and signing of international treaties followed by ineffective tasks force, commissions, and agencies.
You yourself were one of the authors of the VAWA-I Act and more recently of a global initiative under the same guise. Apart from the limited political success the VAWA-I enjoyed, the US Supreme Court’s decision holding part of the Act unconstitutional and limited ratification at State levels, its real impact on the eradication of domestic violence is doubtful.
If the impact of this Act has been dubious on a national level, it is unlikely that it will have much effect in an international arena. Passage of laws cannot and will not initiate change as long as government institutions fail to effectively uphold the laws which they passed.
The reality of the situation is that corruption, nepotism and antiquated judicial procedures are so integrally a part of judicial systems that new legislation means absolutely nothing in the entire matrix. As I have found in my research over the past 2 years, the victims of domestic abuse most exposed to injustice within the judicial systems are the wives and children of law enforcement officials, judicial civil servants, lawyers or anyone involved in the judicial process.
First, there exists a higher than average amount of violent, domineering men who seek employment within law enforcement positions and who consider domestic violence normal or light compared to the violence they observe on the streets. Second, there exists an enormous “old boys/family club” attitude amongst law enforcement officials and judicial civil servants making protection and cover ups of “indiscretions” by colleagues common place.
In A Promise to Ourselves by Alec Baldwin, he correctly states that “Family law is a racket. It is a racket within which the principal players have convinced even themselves that they are serving innocent children as well as the public. However, the only people they are truly servings are themselves… The people who are to blame are the lawyers, the therapists, the legislators, and, most insidiously of all the judges. They are the cogs in a closed system, one that they have allowed to evolve principally for their own enrichment, financial or otherwise…. How much of what we currently tolerate inside a family law courtroom is the result of institutional greed, bad legislation, corruption, and politics?”
And, contrary to popular belief the same "racket" goes on in domestic violence cases, the consequence for the victims, however, go far beyond monetary concerns.
If politicians wish to effectively address the problem of domestic violence it would be more effective to pass legislation that brings accountability and liability to corruption and irresponsibility within judicial systems, rather than inapplicable legislation against domestic violence.
In closing I quote Common Sense by Thomas Paine and by which I defend my right to question not only the long standing tradition of abuse of power towards women and children by governments, societies and perhaps most grievously within the home.
“a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason. As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the Means of calling the right of it in question (and in Matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the Sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry) .. and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpation of either…. As no Answer hath yet appeared, it is now presumed that none will, the Time needful for getting such a Performance ready for the Public being considerably past. Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the DOCTRINE ITSELF, not the MAN (WOMAN OR CHILD.) Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, That he is unconnected with any Party, and under no sort of Influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle.”
Common Sense by Thomas Paine, Philadelphia, February 14, 1776
Quenby Wilcox
US Secretary of State
US Department of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton
2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520
Dear US Secretary of State Clinton; July 20, 2009
Statistics and reports abound on domestic violence and abuse in the USA and around the world, all coming to the same conclusion; there exists a global systematic torture and genocide of women and children. What these reports do not explore nor divulge, however, are the direct and indirect economical and social costs that this global violence creates for our societies, as well as the origin of this violence.
Years ago while living in Bogota, Colombia I attended a conference at the American Embassy on the US State department’s policy of Plan Colombia, and at the end of the conference I stood up and asked the ever present question of “It is all well and good to eradicate the production of drugs here in Colombia, however, as long as demand and consumption is on the rise, eradicating it here will just make it “pop-up” elsewhere. So what is the American government doing to comprehensively reduce drug consumption in the USA?” And, the State Department civil servant responded “What do you care as long as we get rid of it here?”
I bit my tongue on my retort of “Well that’s just stupid, of course I care! I am sick and tired of seeing messed-up parents bring up messed-up kids with everyone needing their respective drugs (legal, illegal and prescription) in order to survive!!!”
While under Colombia’s President Uribe, drug production in Colombia has declined, this drug production has just moved into Venezuela with Hugo Chavez opening his back door to the industry, into Mexico and on to US borders. Pheonix, Arizona is now apparently the kidnapping “capital” of the world.
Additionally, while living in Colombia I attended a conference given by US Ambassador Anne Patterson’s husband, David Patterson, a reputed expert on the Sunni and Shiite factions in Iraq. At the end of the conference I stood up and asked another ever present question “Will these two groups ever be able to live in peace and harmony with each other?” And, his response was “Well that is what we will see in the future.”
It is consistently demonstrated that violence and corruption are integrally interdependent, and without peace, economic development and universal education within a country, true democratic process cannot and will not develop.
Iraq is perhaps the most recent, but far from the only, example of a country where a constitution and “democratic” process was installed before the society was economically, socially and educationally prepared for assuming that responsibility. It is clearly a case of putting the cart before the horse.
I am far from a fan of Saddam Hussein and his administration, and even supported the second invasion of Iraq, mainly due to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s conviction that it was a necessary evil. But, I ask you are the number of people who have died and continue to die on a daily basis in Iraq, Iraqis and American soldiers, less than those killed under Saddam Hussein? Is this not genocide under another name?
Dictators, whatever their nationality or political convictions, are a loathsome lot, but if one looks at history they have always have come into power due to a country’s desire to bring social and economic stability, Hitler and Franco, perhaps the most well-known amongst Westerners.
True democracy cannot be imposed, but must rise up from the people. Is not the American “experiment” over 200 years ago, and more recently the election of President Obama testament to that fact?
Unfortunately, my two questions of so many years ago remain applicable today. One of the things that I have learned during my life-time is that in order to come up with real solutions, it important to ask questions which may be painful and uncomfortable, and at times even question the very fabric of our being, our norms and society.
“Judge of a man (or woman) by his questions rather than by his answers.” Voltaire.
Sincerely,
Quenby Wilcox
US Department of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton
2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520
Dear US Secretary of State Clinton; July 20, 2009
Statistics and reports abound on domestic violence and abuse in the USA and around the world, all coming to the same conclusion; there exists a global systematic torture and genocide of women and children. What these reports do not explore nor divulge, however, are the direct and indirect economical and social costs that this global violence creates for our societies, as well as the origin of this violence.
Years ago while living in Bogota, Colombia I attended a conference at the American Embassy on the US State department’s policy of Plan Colombia, and at the end of the conference I stood up and asked the ever present question of “It is all well and good to eradicate the production of drugs here in Colombia, however, as long as demand and consumption is on the rise, eradicating it here will just make it “pop-up” elsewhere. So what is the American government doing to comprehensively reduce drug consumption in the USA?” And, the State Department civil servant responded “What do you care as long as we get rid of it here?”
I bit my tongue on my retort of “Well that’s just stupid, of course I care! I am sick and tired of seeing messed-up parents bring up messed-up kids with everyone needing their respective drugs (legal, illegal and prescription) in order to survive!!!”
While under Colombia’s President Uribe, drug production in Colombia has declined, this drug production has just moved into Venezuela with Hugo Chavez opening his back door to the industry, into Mexico and on to US borders. Pheonix, Arizona is now apparently the kidnapping “capital” of the world.
Additionally, while living in Colombia I attended a conference given by US Ambassador Anne Patterson’s husband, David Patterson, a reputed expert on the Sunni and Shiite factions in Iraq. At the end of the conference I stood up and asked another ever present question “Will these two groups ever be able to live in peace and harmony with each other?” And, his response was “Well that is what we will see in the future.”
It is consistently demonstrated that violence and corruption are integrally interdependent, and without peace, economic development and universal education within a country, true democratic process cannot and will not develop.
Iraq is perhaps the most recent, but far from the only, example of a country where a constitution and “democratic” process was installed before the society was economically, socially and educationally prepared for assuming that responsibility. It is clearly a case of putting the cart before the horse.
I am far from a fan of Saddam Hussein and his administration, and even supported the second invasion of Iraq, mainly due to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s conviction that it was a necessary evil. But, I ask you are the number of people who have died and continue to die on a daily basis in Iraq, Iraqis and American soldiers, less than those killed under Saddam Hussein? Is this not genocide under another name?
Dictators, whatever their nationality or political convictions, are a loathsome lot, but if one looks at history they have always have come into power due to a country’s desire to bring social and economic stability, Hitler and Franco, perhaps the most well-known amongst Westerners.
True democracy cannot be imposed, but must rise up from the people. Is not the American “experiment” over 200 years ago, and more recently the election of President Obama testament to that fact?
Unfortunately, my two questions of so many years ago remain applicable today. One of the things that I have learned during my life-time is that in order to come up with real solutions, it important to ask questions which may be painful and uncomfortable, and at times even question the very fabric of our being, our norms and society.
“Judge of a man (or woman) by his questions rather than by his answers.” Voltaire.
Sincerely,
Quenby Wilcox
Please sign and send a copy of the following letter to President Obama and/or your Representatives in Washington, DC.
Thanks you,
Quenby Wilcox
President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500-0004
Dear President Obama; July 15, 2009
Statistics and reports abound on domestic violence and abuse in the USA and around the world, all coming to the same conclusion; there exists a global systematic torture and genocide of women and children. What these reports do not explore nor divulge, however, are the direct and indirect economical and social costs that this global violence creates for our societies.
Unfortunately, governments and governmental agency’s only responses to this “cancer” is politically correct rhetoric, additional legislation and signing of international treaties followed by ineffective tasks force, commissions, and agencies.
The reason is as simple as the solution. Ineffective and corrupt judicial systems are failing to uphold existing laws and agreements, and if they were held systematically accountable for their incompetence and illegal actions they would stop doing it.
In A Promise to Ourselves by Alec Baldwin, he correctly states “Family law is a racket. It is a racket within which the principal players have convinced even themselves that they are serving innocent children as well as the public. However, the only people they are truly servings are themselves… The people who are to blame are the lawyers, the therapists, the legislators, and, most insidiously of all the judges. They are the cogs in a closed system, one that they have allowed to evolve principally for their own enrichment, financial or otherwise…. How much of what we currently tolerate inside a family law courtroom is the result of institutional greed, bad legislation, corruption, and politics?”
And, contrary to popular belief the same "racket" goes on in domestic violence cases, the consequence for the victims, however, go far beyond monetary concerns.
It is consistently shown that domestic abuse, in all of its forms, creates physical and mental illness, substance abuse (legal, illegal and prescription) and the violent and criminal elements of our societies, as well as untold economic costs. How many more generations of victims, often transformed into perpetrators and aggressors, must be created until we realize that it in ALL of our interests to comprehensively eradicate this cancer from our societies?
The greatest natural resource that exists on this planet is the human mind and its potential, and it behooves us to exploit, rather than destroy this resource.
I also wish to add that I followed your campaign closely, as well as your ensuing days as president, and while I certainly do not envy your position, I admire your convictions, and wish you all the luck in this world. However, with all due respect, do you realize the cess-pool in which you have chosen to swim?
I myself, after a short desire to enter the political arena, left saying “I am not working with these crooks,” but the joke was on me because I ended up working in the stock market in 1987, and left saying “these guys are worse.” Luckily I ended up with THE most important, gratifying, and interesting, albeit worst paid, job that exists in this world; that of being a mother to my children.
As a child I always admired my father’s dedication and integrity to his work and patients, and found the same satisfaction that I observed in him years ago, in my job as a mother and home-maker. Additionally, I have been fortunate enough to have once again found this fulfillment in my writings and ongoing efforts to assure that children EVERYWHERE may grow up in loving, caring, respectful and non-violent environments. This is not a “privilege” but rather a RIGHT that is being systematically ignored within all of our societies.
Assuring that rights of the children of this world are being respected includes much more than just eradicating genocides, global hunger, forced impressments and imprisonment of children in underdeveloped countries. Charity, and I add peace, begins at home.
Sincerely,
Quenby Wilcox
Thanks you,
Quenby Wilcox
President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500-0004
Dear President Obama; July 15, 2009
Statistics and reports abound on domestic violence and abuse in the USA and around the world, all coming to the same conclusion; there exists a global systematic torture and genocide of women and children. What these reports do not explore nor divulge, however, are the direct and indirect economical and social costs that this global violence creates for our societies.
Unfortunately, governments and governmental agency’s only responses to this “cancer” is politically correct rhetoric, additional legislation and signing of international treaties followed by ineffective tasks force, commissions, and agencies.
The reason is as simple as the solution. Ineffective and corrupt judicial systems are failing to uphold existing laws and agreements, and if they were held systematically accountable for their incompetence and illegal actions they would stop doing it.
In A Promise to Ourselves by Alec Baldwin, he correctly states “Family law is a racket. It is a racket within which the principal players have convinced even themselves that they are serving innocent children as well as the public. However, the only people they are truly servings are themselves… The people who are to blame are the lawyers, the therapists, the legislators, and, most insidiously of all the judges. They are the cogs in a closed system, one that they have allowed to evolve principally for their own enrichment, financial or otherwise…. How much of what we currently tolerate inside a family law courtroom is the result of institutional greed, bad legislation, corruption, and politics?”
And, contrary to popular belief the same "racket" goes on in domestic violence cases, the consequence for the victims, however, go far beyond monetary concerns.
It is consistently shown that domestic abuse, in all of its forms, creates physical and mental illness, substance abuse (legal, illegal and prescription) and the violent and criminal elements of our societies, as well as untold economic costs. How many more generations of victims, often transformed into perpetrators and aggressors, must be created until we realize that it in ALL of our interests to comprehensively eradicate this cancer from our societies?
The greatest natural resource that exists on this planet is the human mind and its potential, and it behooves us to exploit, rather than destroy this resource.
I also wish to add that I followed your campaign closely, as well as your ensuing days as president, and while I certainly do not envy your position, I admire your convictions, and wish you all the luck in this world. However, with all due respect, do you realize the cess-pool in which you have chosen to swim?
I myself, after a short desire to enter the political arena, left saying “I am not working with these crooks,” but the joke was on me because I ended up working in the stock market in 1987, and left saying “these guys are worse.” Luckily I ended up with THE most important, gratifying, and interesting, albeit worst paid, job that exists in this world; that of being a mother to my children.
As a child I always admired my father’s dedication and integrity to his work and patients, and found the same satisfaction that I observed in him years ago, in my job as a mother and home-maker. Additionally, I have been fortunate enough to have once again found this fulfillment in my writings and ongoing efforts to assure that children EVERYWHERE may grow up in loving, caring, respectful and non-violent environments. This is not a “privilege” but rather a RIGHT that is being systematically ignored within all of our societies.
Assuring that rights of the children of this world are being respected includes much more than just eradicating genocides, global hunger, forced impressments and imprisonment of children in underdeveloped countries. Charity, and I add peace, begins at home.
Sincerely,
Quenby Wilcox
DOMESTIC ABUSE IS TORTURE, GENOCIDE AND A HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS; IT IS NOT JUST ANOTHER DOMESTIC DISPUTE AND DISAGREEMENT
According to Amnesty International foreign women in domestic violence situations in Spain have ¼ of 1% chance of survival, and my personal case, as well as others that I have found, demonstrates why. In my investigations into what is happening within divorce courts and the judicial system in Spain, I found that traditional social norms, corruption and discrimination is encouraging and perpetuating the systematic genocide of women and children.
While in Spain widespread corruption, particularly in regard to real estate has been a historical fact. I have found that in towns south of Madrid, such as Coslada, Torrejon de Ardoz, Leganes, Mostoles, etc. where there are large immigrant and lower class populations, prostitution, drug trafficking and protection rings are an ever growing business and mafias are springing up everywhere with judges, civil servants, law enforcement officials, and politicians are financially benefiting from these illegal activities and covering up the consequences through corruption of judicial procedures.
Drug consumption in Europe has been on a steady rise for decades, with Spain the “doorway” to the distribution of these drugs. Spain historically has had a well-developed distribution system of contra-band items; before what was tobacco and alcohol is now cannabis and cocaine.
Apart from the ongoing scandal of widespread corruption in Coslada in the past two years, the head of the anti-drug trafficking department in Mostoles was arrested on charges of drug trafficking! Unfortunately, the custom in Spain, as reported by the UN Human Rights Committee, indicates that all officials involved will eventually be absolved of all wrong doing and might even receive a promotion.
Additionally, what I found was that immigrant populations, particularly black Africans are illegally detained, tortured, beaten, raped and/or murdered by law enforcement officers with total absolution from the law and judicial system. In January 2009 the US State Department publicly criticized the Spanish government for it’s continual Human Rights violations as reported in El Mundo.
However, this corruption is hardly confined to these sectors, it is also pervasive within divorce courts. One of the most well known cases in Madrid is within juzgado of Mostoles where a judge awarded custody of a young girl, Maria Luz, to her military father who had already served a jail sentence for sexual abuse of her and her older sister. The older sister finally committed suicide several years ago by throwing herself in front of a moving metro.
In my research during the past year not only did I examine surveys and studies conducted by human rights organizations on corruption and domestic violence, but I also “googled” these in my search for information, demonstrating that my case is not an isolated one. What I was to find was not just disquieting, IT WAS DISGUSTING….. I go on to provide several case studies in the article in it’s entirety.
“The family is the most dangerous place for women around the world.” To punish disobedience and discipline liberty, family tradition perpetuates a culture of terror that humiliates women, teaches children to lie, and spreads the plague of fear. Human rights should begin at home.” - Eduardo Galeano
While in Spain widespread corruption, particularly in regard to real estate has been a historical fact. I have found that in towns south of Madrid, such as Coslada, Torrejon de Ardoz, Leganes, Mostoles, etc. where there are large immigrant and lower class populations, prostitution, drug trafficking and protection rings are an ever growing business and mafias are springing up everywhere with judges, civil servants, law enforcement officials, and politicians are financially benefiting from these illegal activities and covering up the consequences through corruption of judicial procedures.
Drug consumption in Europe has been on a steady rise for decades, with Spain the “doorway” to the distribution of these drugs. Spain historically has had a well-developed distribution system of contra-band items; before what was tobacco and alcohol is now cannabis and cocaine.
Apart from the ongoing scandal of widespread corruption in Coslada in the past two years, the head of the anti-drug trafficking department in Mostoles was arrested on charges of drug trafficking! Unfortunately, the custom in Spain, as reported by the UN Human Rights Committee, indicates that all officials involved will eventually be absolved of all wrong doing and might even receive a promotion.
Additionally, what I found was that immigrant populations, particularly black Africans are illegally detained, tortured, beaten, raped and/or murdered by law enforcement officers with total absolution from the law and judicial system. In January 2009 the US State Department publicly criticized the Spanish government for it’s continual Human Rights violations as reported in El Mundo.
However, this corruption is hardly confined to these sectors, it is also pervasive within divorce courts. One of the most well known cases in Madrid is within juzgado of Mostoles where a judge awarded custody of a young girl, Maria Luz, to her military father who had already served a jail sentence for sexual abuse of her and her older sister. The older sister finally committed suicide several years ago by throwing herself in front of a moving metro.
In my research during the past year not only did I examine surveys and studies conducted by human rights organizations on corruption and domestic violence, but I also “googled” these in my search for information, demonstrating that my case is not an isolated one. What I was to find was not just disquieting, IT WAS DISGUSTING….. I go on to provide several case studies in the article in it’s entirety.
“The family is the most dangerous place for women around the world.” To punish disobedience and discipline liberty, family tradition perpetuates a culture of terror that humiliates women, teaches children to lie, and spreads the plague of fear. Human rights should begin at home.” - Eduardo Galeano
by Quenby Wilcox
DOMESTIC ABUSE GOES FAR BEYOND BROKEN BONES, IT BREAKS THE HEART AND SPIRIT, AND IS SO DESIGNED
In 2001 I attended the lancement of the Spanish version of Ingrid’s Betancourt’s book la rage au coeur, in Bogota, Colombia, and her ensuing presidential campaign speeches. While I was impressed with her convictions, enthusiasm, and desire for peace and change for her county, I felt that she could never achieve in Colombia what is unattainable in the United States and Europe. I followed her 6 years of captivity in the Colombian, Spanish, French and American press closely and admired Astrid and her family’s never ending persistent, to liberate Ingrid. I know enough about the dynamics and political backdrop of her liberation to know that without the efforts of Ingrid’s family, she and those freed with her would have been left to die in the jungles of Colombia by the “important” people of this world.
However, it was upon reading the following passage in her book Letter to My Mother that was published during her captivity, that I thought to myself “This is exactly the torment and fear that I have lived for the past 3 years, and that all too many women and children live for an entire lifetime. And, ABSOLUTELY no one cares, as I have learned the hard way! Ingrid this is where the true battle lies for peace and democracies, not in political campaigns and politically correct rhetoric!”
I owe an enormous amount of gratitude to Ingrid and Astrid. At the end of 2007 when I realized that my children would end up under the custody of their psychopathic father, and his and his family’s influence and mercy, while the American and French Consulates sat complacently by watching. I contacted anyone and everyone I have known during my life-time, who have any kind of “power,” (and I have known quite a few) asking for their assistance in protecting my and my children's rights. THE ONLY person who responded was Astrid Betancourt.
The amount of people who ignored me, hung up on me, or slammed the proverbial door in my face was amazing. The apathy and indifference of people over the life of a woman and her children stunned and disillusioned me more than I had even been in my entire life, and is precisely why what happened to me and my children occurs everyday, everywhere.
Additionally, for the first time in my life I was presented with a problem that I did not know how to handle or confront, and had no one to turn to for advice. It was in re-reading Ingrid’s book la rage au coeur that she gave me the advice and answer that I needed.
I will be indebted to these two women for the rest of my life, not only did they assist me in a practical way, but they have given me the strength to continue fighting day after day, by observing the courage and force that they had shown over the years.
The entire world would do well to look to these two women, their mother, their children and family to see where the true values of this world lie, whether it be of a family or nation. True values, morals and intregrity are not to be found on a slip of paper, whether they be on marriage certificates, birth certificates, constitutions, declarations of rights, or legal codes, but rather through love, honor and dignity. And, I have observed Ingrid and Astrid demonstrate all three of these on various occassions over the years.
Letter to My Mother by Ingrid Betancourt.
This is a very dense jungle where sunlight scarcely ever penetrates, and it is barren of affection, sympathy, or tenderness.
They separated me from the people with whom I had a good rapport and affection and put me in with a very difficult group. I am tired, Mamita, tired of suffering. I have been, or tried to be, strong. These nearly six years of captivity have proven that I am not as resistant, not as brave, not as intelligent, not as strong as I thought. I have put up many battles, have tried to escape several times, have tried to keep up hope like one keeps one’s head above water.
But, Mamita darling, I give up. I would like to think that one day I will get out of here, but I realize that what happened to the congressmen (in my case Sylvina Bassani, Maria Jose Carrascosa and so many other women)– which affected me so deeply-could happen to me at any moment. I belief it would be a relief for everybody. I feel that my children are on “standby” with their lives waiting for me to get out. Your daily suffering, and everybody else’s, makes death appear to me almost a sweet option….I keep thinking that at last I am going to cry no more, that it has now healed over. But the pain starts up again and attacks me like a vicious dog, and I again feel my heart breaking into pieces. I am tired of suffering, of bearing it all inside me all the time, of lying to myself, of believing that this will soon end and finding that every new day is the same hell as the one before. I think of my children…
We have gone through so much together, have lived our lives so intensely that terra firma seems to have disappeared in the distance. They are the same, and yet they have changed, and with every second of absence, of my inability to be there for them, to assuage their pain, to be able to advise them or give them strength and patience and humility in the face of life’s blows, all the lost opportunities to be their Mama, poison these moments of infinite loneliness for me, as if I were given an intravenous injection of cyanide. Mamita darling, this is a very difficult moment for me.
They demand a proof of life and here I am pouring my heart out to you on this sheet of paper, I am in poor physical condition. I haven’t been eating; my appetite has shut down; my hear is falling out in clumps; I have no desire for anything. And I think the latter is the only thing that is right-having no desire for anything. Because here in this jungle the only answer to everything is “No.” It is better not to want anything so as to be free, at least, of desires. I have been asking for an encyclopedic dictionary (in my case a functioning computer) for the last three years in order to have something to read, to learn something, to keep intellectual curiosity alive. I keep waiting for them to get me one out of compassion but it is better not to think about it. Thereafter, anything at all is a miracle, even hearing you in the mornings, because the radio I have is very old and damaged……
I would like to ask you, Mamita darling, to tell the children that I want them to send me three messages a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Ask them to send you a couple of lines to your e-mail address so that you can read them to me. Nothing world-shaking, just whatever they can think of to write, such as “Mamita, today is a marvelous day” or “I’m having lunch with Maria; I love her very much and I know you are going to be pleased with her” or ‘I am exhausted but I learned a lot today in class about new filming techniques that I’m excited about.” I don’t need anything more, but I do need to be in contact with them. In fact, everyday I wait anxiously to see if you are going to mention them or if you talked with them. That is what makes me happy, the only thing I care about knowing, the only vital, significant, indispensable information. All the rest doesn’t matter to me…..
Well as I was telling you, life here is no life; it is a gruesome waste of time. I live, or survive, in a hammock strung between two poles, covered with mosquito netting and a canvas that acts as a roof, which to keep my belongings, that is to say, the knapsack with my clothes and a bible (in my case my books and writings,) my only luxury. Everything is prepared for leaving on the run. Here, nothing is one’s own, nothing lasts; uncertainty and precariousness are the only constant……..
Everyday less and less of myself remains….. Everything is hard. That’s the reality. It is important that I dedicate these lines to those who are my oxygen, my life-to those who keep my head above water, who do not let me drown into oblivion, emptiness, and despair. They are you my children…..
Tell them that they have never ceased to be my source of joy in this harsh, captivity. Everything here has two sides, joy comes with pain, happiness is sad, love cures and opens new wounds; to remember is to live and to die anew…..
I was telling you that for years I was unable to think of the children because of the dreadful pain it cause me not being with them. Now I can hear them and feel more joy than pain. I seek them in my remembrances and sustain myself with the images I keep in my memory of the ages of each. I sing “Happy birthday” to them on every birthday …. I celebrate their birthdays in my heart…. And, if I were to die today, I would go satisfied with life, thanking God for my children…..
For a long time, we have been the lepers that mar the ball, we captives are not a politically correct topic…… We must think of where we come from, who we are, and where we want to go. I aspire to our having that thirst for greatness one day that makes people rise up from nothingness to the sun. When we are unconditional vis-avis the defense of the life and liberty of our own, that is, when we are less individualistic and more committed to the common good, less indifferent and more involved, less intolerant and more compassionate, then at that time we will be the great nation (world) that all of us would like to be. That greatness is there asleep in our hearts. But hearts have hardened and weigh so heavily that no elevated sentiments are permitted….
Thank you also to Alvaro Leyva (in this case President Obama.) He was close, but the wars waged against the freedom of a handful of forgotten ones are like a hurricane seeking to bring down everything. It is of no interest. His intelligence, his nobility, and his devotion have given pause to many, and here, more than the freedom of some poor crackpots chained up in the jungle, it is a matter of taking stock of what it means to defend human dignity.
Ingrid Betancourt
Until human dignity, honor and peace exist within our hearts and our homes, it will never exist within our communities, societies and this world.
Quenby Wilcox
However, it was upon reading the following passage in her book Letter to My Mother that was published during her captivity, that I thought to myself “This is exactly the torment and fear that I have lived for the past 3 years, and that all too many women and children live for an entire lifetime. And, ABSOLUTELY no one cares, as I have learned the hard way! Ingrid this is where the true battle lies for peace and democracies, not in political campaigns and politically correct rhetoric!”
I owe an enormous amount of gratitude to Ingrid and Astrid. At the end of 2007 when I realized that my children would end up under the custody of their psychopathic father, and his and his family’s influence and mercy, while the American and French Consulates sat complacently by watching. I contacted anyone and everyone I have known during my life-time, who have any kind of “power,” (and I have known quite a few) asking for their assistance in protecting my and my children's rights. THE ONLY person who responded was Astrid Betancourt.
The amount of people who ignored me, hung up on me, or slammed the proverbial door in my face was amazing. The apathy and indifference of people over the life of a woman and her children stunned and disillusioned me more than I had even been in my entire life, and is precisely why what happened to me and my children occurs everyday, everywhere.
Additionally, for the first time in my life I was presented with a problem that I did not know how to handle or confront, and had no one to turn to for advice. It was in re-reading Ingrid’s book la rage au coeur that she gave me the advice and answer that I needed.
I will be indebted to these two women for the rest of my life, not only did they assist me in a practical way, but they have given me the strength to continue fighting day after day, by observing the courage and force that they had shown over the years.
The entire world would do well to look to these two women, their mother, their children and family to see where the true values of this world lie, whether it be of a family or nation. True values, morals and intregrity are not to be found on a slip of paper, whether they be on marriage certificates, birth certificates, constitutions, declarations of rights, or legal codes, but rather through love, honor and dignity. And, I have observed Ingrid and Astrid demonstrate all three of these on various occassions over the years.
Letter to My Mother by Ingrid Betancourt.
This is a very dense jungle where sunlight scarcely ever penetrates, and it is barren of affection, sympathy, or tenderness.
They separated me from the people with whom I had a good rapport and affection and put me in with a very difficult group. I am tired, Mamita, tired of suffering. I have been, or tried to be, strong. These nearly six years of captivity have proven that I am not as resistant, not as brave, not as intelligent, not as strong as I thought. I have put up many battles, have tried to escape several times, have tried to keep up hope like one keeps one’s head above water.
But, Mamita darling, I give up. I would like to think that one day I will get out of here, but I realize that what happened to the congressmen (in my case Sylvina Bassani, Maria Jose Carrascosa and so many other women)– which affected me so deeply-could happen to me at any moment. I belief it would be a relief for everybody. I feel that my children are on “standby” with their lives waiting for me to get out. Your daily suffering, and everybody else’s, makes death appear to me almost a sweet option….I keep thinking that at last I am going to cry no more, that it has now healed over. But the pain starts up again and attacks me like a vicious dog, and I again feel my heart breaking into pieces. I am tired of suffering, of bearing it all inside me all the time, of lying to myself, of believing that this will soon end and finding that every new day is the same hell as the one before. I think of my children…
We have gone through so much together, have lived our lives so intensely that terra firma seems to have disappeared in the distance. They are the same, and yet they have changed, and with every second of absence, of my inability to be there for them, to assuage their pain, to be able to advise them or give them strength and patience and humility in the face of life’s blows, all the lost opportunities to be their Mama, poison these moments of infinite loneliness for me, as if I were given an intravenous injection of cyanide. Mamita darling, this is a very difficult moment for me.
They demand a proof of life and here I am pouring my heart out to you on this sheet of paper, I am in poor physical condition. I haven’t been eating; my appetite has shut down; my hear is falling out in clumps; I have no desire for anything. And I think the latter is the only thing that is right-having no desire for anything. Because here in this jungle the only answer to everything is “No.” It is better not to want anything so as to be free, at least, of desires. I have been asking for an encyclopedic dictionary (in my case a functioning computer) for the last three years in order to have something to read, to learn something, to keep intellectual curiosity alive. I keep waiting for them to get me one out of compassion but it is better not to think about it. Thereafter, anything at all is a miracle, even hearing you in the mornings, because the radio I have is very old and damaged……
I would like to ask you, Mamita darling, to tell the children that I want them to send me three messages a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Ask them to send you a couple of lines to your e-mail address so that you can read them to me. Nothing world-shaking, just whatever they can think of to write, such as “Mamita, today is a marvelous day” or “I’m having lunch with Maria; I love her very much and I know you are going to be pleased with her” or ‘I am exhausted but I learned a lot today in class about new filming techniques that I’m excited about.” I don’t need anything more, but I do need to be in contact with them. In fact, everyday I wait anxiously to see if you are going to mention them or if you talked with them. That is what makes me happy, the only thing I care about knowing, the only vital, significant, indispensable information. All the rest doesn’t matter to me…..
Well as I was telling you, life here is no life; it is a gruesome waste of time. I live, or survive, in a hammock strung between two poles, covered with mosquito netting and a canvas that acts as a roof, which to keep my belongings, that is to say, the knapsack with my clothes and a bible (in my case my books and writings,) my only luxury. Everything is prepared for leaving on the run. Here, nothing is one’s own, nothing lasts; uncertainty and precariousness are the only constant……..
Everyday less and less of myself remains….. Everything is hard. That’s the reality. It is important that I dedicate these lines to those who are my oxygen, my life-to those who keep my head above water, who do not let me drown into oblivion, emptiness, and despair. They are you my children…..
Tell them that they have never ceased to be my source of joy in this harsh, captivity. Everything here has two sides, joy comes with pain, happiness is sad, love cures and opens new wounds; to remember is to live and to die anew…..
I was telling you that for years I was unable to think of the children because of the dreadful pain it cause me not being with them. Now I can hear them and feel more joy than pain. I seek them in my remembrances and sustain myself with the images I keep in my memory of the ages of each. I sing “Happy birthday” to them on every birthday …. I celebrate their birthdays in my heart…. And, if I were to die today, I would go satisfied with life, thanking God for my children…..
For a long time, we have been the lepers that mar the ball, we captives are not a politically correct topic…… We must think of where we come from, who we are, and where we want to go. I aspire to our having that thirst for greatness one day that makes people rise up from nothingness to the sun. When we are unconditional vis-avis the defense of the life and liberty of our own, that is, when we are less individualistic and more committed to the common good, less indifferent and more involved, less intolerant and more compassionate, then at that time we will be the great nation (world) that all of us would like to be. That greatness is there asleep in our hearts. But hearts have hardened and weigh so heavily that no elevated sentiments are permitted….
Thank you also to Alvaro Leyva (in this case President Obama.) He was close, but the wars waged against the freedom of a handful of forgotten ones are like a hurricane seeking to bring down everything. It is of no interest. His intelligence, his nobility, and his devotion have given pause to many, and here, more than the freedom of some poor crackpots chained up in the jungle, it is a matter of taking stock of what it means to defend human dignity.
Ingrid Betancourt
Until human dignity, honor and peace exist within our hearts and our homes, it will never exist within our communities, societies and this world.
Quenby Wilcox
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