Child Abuse

choi

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(1) I myself was abused--both physically and emotionally--when I was a boy in Taiwan. By my parents. After I grew up, I have turned my back on them. I have no idea if they are alive or not. Go to hell, I say.

(2) What is wrong with Chinese culture, into which Taiwanese culture may arguably be subsumed?

subsume (vt): "include, incorporate"

YAN FAN ZHU gained notoriety in Boston. She could not speak English (media noted that she was from China), so when police arrived and found her girl covered with large bruises over the girl's body, she was arrested. The news was splashed across town, in both print and television. The next day, it was reported that what the girl had was Mongolian spots.*

Press release: Mother Charged With Public Assault on Child. Suffolk County District Attorney, 2011.**
http://www.suffolkdistrictattorney.com/press-office/press-releases/press-releases-2011/mother-charged-with-public-assault-on-child/

* A few months ago, a new mother lamented in the Nextgeneration board of Mitbbs.com that her newborn girl had ugly Mongolian spots all over her body. I chimed in and said no worry, for most Mongolian spots disappear in a few years. Now it appears that there is a risk for PARENTS of children with Mongolian spots to be cited for child abuse.
** Though the press release was undated, the incident and the arrest were on Aug 9, 2011 (Tuesday). The arraignment was conducted teh next day, Aug 10.

(3) After coming to US, I learned Japanese. (I always want to return to Taiwan, where Japanese language and culture are integral part of Taiwan's fabric. We literally live in it (Japanica).)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonica
("Japonica refers to things related to Japan")

Japanese mothers browbeat their children, speak to them (Japanese language is divided into formal and informal styles; an unhappy mother switches from the latter to the former.)

(4) Susannah Meadows, A Bond So Strong; How two orphaned sisters, born in China, separated at birth, and adopted by different American families, came to find each other. Reader's Digest.***

*** In the November 2010 issue of Australia, and the March 2011 issue of Asia (both in English).

My comment:
(a) Reader's Digest of Australia made the text only (but not photographs) available online. The photographs are critical in appreciating the story.
(b) www.scribd.com places online the entire issue of Reader's Digest (Australia) that month for free, but it takes infinity to download the file (I tried twice and neither download was complete, however long I waited.)

The best bet is to google the author and title, locate the search result from www.scribd.com BUT select "quick view" (html version, namely) which carried photographs.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:g78Q81fxxBEJ:www.memnison.com/images/twins-article-rd-112010.pdf+%22a+bond+so+strong%22+meadows&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjFNNqRUhhnMI8MIBDsdfKJ9LcjILkLRPqqxp8ewZNY4JrEAxPdK6504Tvz3tbWKVLaXaAIHSyXm09WPPBxWhNn2iMGJqyczJgdUmU-GW5QkV_j5G36bnH2Q4Ey2QSw7yabMdOm&sig=AHIEtbQ2taOdz4f8ai-gNYocfYzTsAQD_w

(c) The key:
(i) Jiangmen  广东省 江门市
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiangmen
(located on the lower reaches of the Xijiang or West River)
(ii) Jim and Susan Rittenhouse of suburban Chicago adopted Meredith Grace, who sported SHORT hair.  
(iii) Leigh Ann and Mike Harrington of Birmingham,. Alabama adopted Meredith Ellen, who wore LONG hair.
(d) I am a biologist, and my outlook is evidence-based. I am unfamiliar with identical twins. But fraternal twins have genetical makeup like that of two siblings. I do not believe for a moment that nature pre-destine Meredict Grace and Meredith Ellen, be it look, temperament, fate or else. Thus, the author was wrong in saying, "Here were two young children with shared DNA being raised apart, a near-perfect nature-and-nurture experiment." page 110  On average, two siblings of the same parentage share about one fourth (1/4) of genetic makeup; that is why a parent (1/2 identical) is a better organ donor than a sibling (however, immunity for the most part is decided by a few genes in various pairs of chromosomes; in some occasions, two siblings may be more similar in this aspect than between a child and a parent).

(e) The author further stated in page 112: "The term IDENTICAL TWINS is considered outdated because the DNA of identical twins, once believed to be exactly the same, has been found to have some variations. The word MONOZYGOTIC, meaning 'one egg,' is now preferred in scientific circles." (emphasis original)

The fact was known to biologist in mid-2010s but at the time, testing was cumbersome.

In chronological order:
(i) Tim Stoddard, ENG Prof: DNA Forensics Can Spot Guilty Twin. BU Bridge (Boston University), Week of 17 September 2004-Vol III, No 3.
http://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2004/09-17/dna.html

Quote:

"But because such tests could take between six months and two years to complete, and cost up to $100,000, the judge decided to forgo them and proceed with the [second] trial.

"Locating these mutations [random and accumulated throughout life] in the genome is daunting, because they could be within almost any of the 3.1 billion units in the genetic code.

(ii) Twin Faces Third Rape Trial; Two Earlier Trials Have Ended With Mistrials. Boston Channel, Mar   
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/7805270/detail.html
("The two earlier trials have ended in mistrials after jurors said they were unable to convict Darrin Fernandez because they could not be certain that he, and not his identical twin, left DNA at the scene of the rape")
(iii) Jonathan Saltzman, After Three Trials, Twin Is Found Guilty in 2001 Rape; Previous assault sealed the case. Boston Globe, Mar 23, 2006.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/03/23/after_three_trials_twin_is_found_guilty_in_2001_rape/
(iv) Anahad O'Connor, The Claim: Identical Twins Have Identical DNA; Really. New York Times, Mar 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/health/11real.html
("The specific changes that Dr. Dumanski and his colleagues identified are known as copy number variations, in which a gene exists in multiple copies, or a set of coding letters in DNA is missing. Not known, however, is whether these changes in identical twins occur at the embryonic level, as the twins age or both")

(f) Within months after I arrived in US, I was struck by teh caring and tenderness of American parents. I observed them when a mother helped a toddler crossed crosswalk in Manhattan, a mother in subway of New York City or Chicago (I can not recall). Taiwanese have an impression Americans parents are aloof and distant, that Western families were ruined, and were convinced of superiority of Asian value (though the term was not invented until 1990s, I think). Quickly I came to realize our notions of Western culture were all wrong.

Yes, some American parents abuse their own children, even kill them in frustration (think shake baby syndrome). But Many more American parents pamper their children, in ways and extent unimaginable in Taiwan. (The West enjoys advanced economy, which may be accounted for by its parenting.)


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