- Joined
- Jan 26, 2003
- Messages
- 22,209
Well...if you are an optimist who, despite Hurricane Katrina, the recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the genocide in Darfur (etcetera) has managed to see the glass as half-full, read this. I have had to edit the length of what I originally quoted in order to comply with the law on "fair use". Please use the link to read the entire story.
Bangalore, India
"Just as the painful ordeal of childbirth finally ended and Nesam Velankanni waited for a nurse to lay her squalling newborn on her chest, the maternity hospital's ritual of extortion began.
Before she even glimpsed her baby, she said, a nurse whisked the infant away and an attendant demanded a bribe. If you want to see your child, families are told, the price is $12 for a boy and $7 for a girl, a lot of money for slum dwellers scraping by on a dollar a day. The practice is common here in the city, surveys confirm."
There is more, a lot more. Maternity hospitals appear to be places that particularly inspire corruption and parents who have a baby also fear that if they do not pay bribes upon the birth of one child, that children born later will be hurt or killed. It is a time when families are very vulnerable to "authority". Their babies' lives depend upon their protecting them in the hospital.
A Cuddle With Your Baby Demands a Bribe
Bangalore, India
"Just as the painful ordeal of childbirth finally ended and Nesam Velankanni waited for a nurse to lay her squalling newborn on her chest, the maternity hospital's ritual of extortion began.
Before she even glimpsed her baby, she said, a nurse whisked the infant away and an attendant demanded a bribe. If you want to see your child, families are told, the price is $12 for a boy and $7 for a girl, a lot of money for slum dwellers scraping by on a dollar a day. The practice is common here in the city, surveys confirm."
There is more, a lot more. Maternity hospitals appear to be places that particularly inspire corruption and parents who have a baby also fear that if they do not pay bribes upon the birth of one child, that children born later will be hurt or killed. It is a time when families are very vulnerable to "authority". Their babies' lives depend upon their protecting them in the hospital.
A Cuddle With Your Baby Demands a Bribe
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