Letter to Colombian Government (Writing to Argue) Assignment

Letter to Colombian Government (Writing to Argue) - Assignment Example The situation is further exacerbated by the displacement of children due to the armed conflict and the forced recruitment of minors by armed groups, such as the FARC (IACH Report). The commission’s conclusion is clearly a clarion call for government action. Unfortunately, the Colombian government’s enactment of the 1989 Minor’s Code facilitates the exploitation of the very children it aims to protect. In Medellin, the Minor’s Code encourages contempt of the law, engenders child assassins, brings children under the control of exploitative bosses, pushes children into guerilla forces, and prevents the reintegration of children into society. The Minor’s Code’s position that those who are under the age of 18 will not go to jail on committing a crime, only gives carte blanche to children to break the law with impunity. While its provisions may superficially claim to protect the child, the ground-reality is markedly different: the Code, designed to protect kids from adult prisons, actually puts them above the law. It effectively absolves children from taking responsibility for their actions. This makes them effective instruments of crime, as they can easily evade the long arm of the law. Just as civilians are used as shields in unfair wars, the Minor’s Code is responsible for children being used as shields for crime on the streets of Medellin. There is widespread contempt of the law and crimes are delegated to children. The Code is as good as a license to kill.   As the Minor's Code allows kids under 18 to kill without being held responsible, the streets of Medellin teem with child assassins. Contract killings, which are common here, are largely executed by minors. The client contacts a boss, identifies the victim and pays the contract price. The boss then executes the contract using child assassins. Capt. Luis Francisco Marino Florez, a homicide detective in Medellin, perceives child assassins to be more dangerous t han adult ones. He says, â€Å"They're less predictable, and they know they can't be touched.† Minors literally thumb their noses at him. â€Å"In the cases of 12- and 13-year-olds, we have kids who we know have murdered 10 to 15 people, but nothing happens to them† (Griswold, New York Times). Secure behind the walls of the Minor’s Code, Medellin’s adolescent sicarios, or assassins, are the gang bosses’ preferred instruments of execution. The Minor’s Code puts children under the exploitative control of gang bosses, who keep their young charges on a tight leash. The gang leaders of Medellin are often affiliated with the paramilitary forces from whom they receive cash and weapons. The immunity conferred on children by the Minor’s Code makes them ideal as the bosses’ underlings. The bosses hire child assassins and equip them with weapons. The children are provided with drugs, as another way in which the bosses can retain control o ver them. They depend on the gang bosses for drugs, approval and money. In the frequent absence of fathers, these children even see the bosses as their role models. They get paid at the bosses’ whim. Once they are caught in this vicious circle, children cannot break out. They have to continue killing, or be killed. As the minor reaches the age of eighteen, which places him outside the protective umbrella of the Minor’

Epidemiology in Public and Global Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Epidemiology in Public and Global Health - Essay Example This was the country’s worst ever cholera outbreak, considering the fact that the country had never suffered any cholera outbreak for over half a century. The purpose of this paper is therefore, to examine the factors that led to the outbreak of this epidemic in Haiti, the health promotion/health protection strategies that can be used to successfully mitigate the outbreak, as well as the role of a BSN nurse in addressing the outbreak. Summary of article Piarroux e.t al (2011) article, ‘Understanding the Cholera Epidemic in Haiti’ seeks to establish the source of the cholera outbreak, as well as the health protection strategies to mitigate its spread. In mid-October 2010, the Haitian Ministry of Health reported the outbreak of cholera resulting from vibrio cholerae 01, a strain of cholera that is common in Asia. The epidemic came as a surprise because there was no incidence of cholera that had previously been reported in Haiti for more than half a century. Several hypotheses were drawn as to the likely causes of the outbreak, which included the hypothesis that the La Nina phenomenon experienced in the country was thus responsible for the growth of vibrio cholerae, and the other hypothesis of the importation of cholera disease from a country suffering from endemic cholera outbreaks (Piarroux e.t al, 2011). Through the use of advanced software, ScTScan, for field survey and the compilation of statistical data, the researchers were able to trace the source of the cholera outbreak that was now spreading rapidly across the communities living in the lower regions of the Artibonite River. It was thus confirmed that the source of the cholera outbreak was River Artibonite, but not the earth quake as was initially thought. Epidemiological studies carried out by the researchers also seemed to support the hypothesis that the cholera outbreak in Haiti was imported. This is because there was an established correlation of time and place between the eventual arrivals of the Nepalese military, which majority of their members came from a place experiencing a cholera outbreak (Piarroux e.t al, 2011). This hypothesis was further confirmed by the remoteness of the Merille region in central Haiti and the fact that there were no other incomers in the region. The importation of the cholera strain in the Artibonite River basin may be hugely attributed to the asymptomatic carriage of the bacterial in the soldiers’ stool residue (Piarroux e.t al, 2011). This is because one of the most common transmission modes for cholera is through the fecal-oral route. Fecal-oral transmission in the Artibonite region can be directly attributed to the dumping of raw sewage into the Artibonite River from the Nepalese army camp, from where it flowed downstream into the rice fields along the river. This is evidenced by the fact that the majority of the cholera infections were recorded from the rice fields where 67% of the population there drank the untreated water from the river basin and canals (Piarroux e.t al, 2011). Impact on nursing practice Nurses play an important role in the control and mitigation of any disease outbreaks. This is because a nurse, during the discharge of her professional duties, places not only her health at risk but also her security and welfare, so as to help administer the relevant medical treatment to a patient. It is thus the first and paramount