Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 19, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba Comment editor Gerald flood 697-7269 a15 Winnipeg free press saturday August 19, 2006 and beyond criminal Justice has limits with children by Billie Schibler Justice minister Vic Toews apparently believes the criminal Justice sys tem May have a role to play in managing the behaviour of 10 and 11?year-old children. This raises a number of issues for consideration. It is common knowledge that the youth Justice system which currently can Only Deal with children Ages 12 to 17, is overburdened with a backlog of cases. Also Worth noting is that the criminal activity of 10 and 11-year Olds is often rooted in social problems such As poverty the limited capacity of caregivers and fetal alcohol spec Trum disorder to name a few. To use a punitive approach with these children results in a situation that blames the victim. While their Behaviours and criminal activity Are undoubtedly concerning and must be addressed let us not forget that these Are wounded children who often do not possess the developmental capacity to form intent. This is Why they become easy tar gets for adults to coerce into stealing running drugs Etc. Its also an age when Young children Are very vulnerable to gang recruitment. Our correctional facilities Are filled with these wounded children who have become criminals As a result of being treated like criminals rather than being provided with More effective interventions at an Early age. Is something required to address the Behaviours of these 10 and 11-year Olds absolutely. Does it belong solely within the Justice system or the child welfare system i believe that rather than suggesting a system silo to handle the problem there May be More Suc Cess in having All of the systems come together in a collaborative approach similar to healthy child Manitoba. Healthy child Manitoba was recently acknowledged by the health Council of Canada As a program that is unique in Canada. It is a joint venture supported by eight separate provincial govern ment departments health education citizenship and youth family services and housing healthy living culture heritage and tourism Justice status of women and aboriginal and North Ern affairs. Joint strategies should focus on offering support to families the use of programs which have already demonstrated Success or the creative development of unique programs to engage Young people and keep them off the streets. Perhaps the strategies can begin from a strength based approach focusing on the child a gifts rather than deficits. If there is a role for the courts it should be As a mediation tool or a referral system to alternative Justice. Our Manitoba youth Centre already has a shortage of Beds. That is certainly not the answer. Instead of punishing them lets look at solving problems through building healthy families. Billie Schibler is Manitoba a children a advocate. Jewish state losing some of its oldest supporters than Iran North Korea and Pakistan. The economist t Why has Europe become so reflex ively anti Israel just when America he ugly Little mid summer War has become so reflexively pro Israel that has just ended in Lebanon Europe has no equivalent of Ameri spilled Over into the parliaments Cas powerful Ipac israeli lobby and streets television studios and dinner it also has a disgruntled and growing parties of Europe. By and Large Israel Muslim population. But neither is got the worst of it. Enough to explain All the difference in the Council of Europe said that attitude. Indeed Many muslims in Israel a response to Hezbollah a Cross Europe now feel beleaguered and can Border attacks was disproportionate Only dream of wielding ipacs clout. And accused Israel of indiscriminate some americans blame rising anti attacks on civilian semitism in Europe which they also Romano Prodi Italy a prime minis attribute in part to its growing mus Ter called Israel a reaction excessive. Lim population. But there in Norway Jostein Gaarder the author is a difference Between of Sophie a world accused Israel of being anti semitic and countries much of its Media feels a ethnic cleansing and murdering Chil being anti Israel. And in sense of betrayal which is that were Dren and said that the jewish state had any Case it is not obvious Why Many now attack forfeited its right to exist. That anti semitism is a Israel with All the Zeal of most culpable in Many capitals anti War protest big Factor. The convert. Ers marched under Hezbollah flags. In Central Europe for in the until the 1960s euro when Britain a Tony Blair tried to example there seems to Pean socialists Champi explain things from Israel a Point of be both greater anti holocaust one the cause of the jews View and failed to Call for an immedi semitism and More sup and Israel. Mid Century ate ceasefire his political Stock took port for Israel. And some tend to be socialists saw anti Semi another Tumble. Polls suggest that More Tim and fascism As prod staunches Gaarder was prodded into a half americans think jews acts of the right so they hearted apology. But the truth is that have too much influx became instinctively pro supporters far from being extreme these critic ence in their country Israel. In the 1950s it was isms of Israel convey the mood of Mil than do europeans. Of Israel left Wing French govern Lions of europeans rooted in what polls it is also often the right suggest is a hardening attitude. In Europe linked with a you gov poll in Britain taken in anti semitism in the past that is most the first two weeks of the conflict supportive of Israel today. Britain a found 63 per cent of respondents say conservative party for instance not ing that the israeli response to he Bol always known for its admiration of Lahs attack was disproportionate a jews or Israel is now the most pro similar German poll had 75 per cent Israel party. Saying so. In Italy which invented fascism Sil such reactions reflect a wider euro Vio Berlusconi Sforza italia and Gian Pean View of Israel that contrasts Franco Finis formerly Neo fascist sharply with americas. In a Pew glob National Alliance Are More pro Israel Al attitudes Survey earlier this year than the government. In Spain the Cen far More europeans sympathized with tre right opposition was highly critic the palestinians than with Israel. Cal of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero these findings come on top of a euro the socialist prime minister when he Pean Union poll in 2003 that had 59 per donned an Arab Headscarf to show sol cent of europeans considering Israel Darity during the Lebanon War. As a greater menace to world peace countries that were most culpable ments that provided Israel with nuclear Power and a modern air Force. This changed with the six Day War in 1967, when Israel launched a preemptive strike to defeat the Jordan Ian egyptian and syrian forces that seemed about to invade. It was a stun Ning Victory but it led to the occupation of the West Bank Gaza and Sinai. To european socialists who had ral lied to the underdog Israel in 1967, the palestinians were now the oppressed and displaced. Israel came to be seen As a Neo colonial regional superpower not the plucky survivor of the Holo Caust keeping powerful Neighbours at Bay. In the decades after 1967 israeli pol remember this we re better than dolphins w Hales at least in their photographs Don to look particularly intelligent. They Are big and fat and have Beady Blank sleepy eyes kind of like your sister in Law. According to a recent study it turns out that whales Are exactly what they look like ? As dumb As a mud Fence. Dolphins at least in their photographs Don to look particularly intelligent either. In fact they look pretty goofy like your other sister in Law. And according to the same study they Are actually dumber than goldfish. Goldfish apparently can think outside the bowl which is Why they frequently jump out of it but dolphins Are too dim to figure out that when they Are caught in a Fisher mans net they can actually jump out of it which is Why they end up in your tuna fish Sandwich More often than people wish. There is a reason that dolphins look their brains produce serotonin by the tonne. Serotonin is described by one of the authors of the report As the Happy human brains produce it too but not in such copious amounts which accounts for the fact that people some times use drugs to compensate for that and dolphins Don to. It is perhaps no coincidence that it was in the 1960s, when mind altering drugs were introduced into mainstream North Ameri can culture that people started to think that whales and dolphins were As smart As they were. And in fact they Are probably As smart As some people on drugs. The explanation for the misapprehension the Over estimation of cetacean intelligence is that Many people both men and women truly do believe in the myth that size matters. Whales and dolphins have Large brains and they Are Good at doing tricks so they May have a reputation for Intelli gence that they do not really deserve. Or. Ralph Manger of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa the author of the report says that the Only reason dolphins always High on Sero tonin jump through hoops in aquariums is that they know they will get a treat afterwards kind of like Guys High in the holocaust tend to be staunches supporters of Israel especially Ger Many. What was then West Germany became the main financial Backer of the new jewish state six decades ago with a first payment of $865 million in 1952. Aid continued throughout the 1960s, Long before America became Israel a main source of outside sup port. This weeks decision to commit Ger Man troops to the peacekeeping Force in Lebanon also reflects past guilt. If the right and the germans Are doing penance the left which now controls Many of Europe a Cha Ceries and certainly on booze in bars who jump through hoops to impress girls in the Hope of getting a different kind of treat at the end of evening. Dolphins and whales do have big brains but that is not really the Point. Neanderthals had bigger brains than Homo Sapiens but we made Short shrift of them. They Are believed to be extinct although occasional sightings Are reported at newspapers press clubs and animal rights meetings. It turns out that it in to the Actu Al size of the brain that matters ? what counts is what part of the brain is big. The cetaceans brains Are big not because they Are Brainy but because they Are warm blooded animals that live in cold water. All that Grey matter that we imagined for so Long turns out to be nothing More than insulation Good for staying alive in the Ocean but of no use in writing a critique of moby Dick. In humans the frontal lobe and the hippocampus the parts related to intelligence and memory Are disproportionately Large but in whales and dolphins they Are the size of a pea relatively speaking. This May come As a Shock and disappointment to anyone who collects records or cd of dolphins whistling and whales singing although it should not. Although they May be As thick As two planks in most respects they Are apparently highly social animals and do communicate through sounds. But then so do Many other animals. Even my dog per haps the dumbest and most pointless dog that Ever lived communicates through sounds. Whale watchers can keep their records and even cling to their fantasies if they want to but this study is useful in that it reminds us that most of us even scientists have a hard time look ing at animals objectively especially the attractive ones like whales and dolphins and dogs. Personally i have a weakness for crows which according to some tics also changed. The labor party which had largely ruled Israel since 1948, began to lose ground to right Wing parties notably liked. European left wingers who had idealized Golda Meir a Israel As a pioneering socialist collective of Happy Kibbutz Niks were shocked by what they saw As the militarization and racism of Menachem begins Israel and they began a Romance with the palestinians instead. This change can be chronicled Over nearly a Century in such Liberal papers As Britain a guardian. Chaim Weizmann the first president of Israel played a vital role in fostering the guardians Early advocacy of zionism and Israel but the paper is now one of Israel a harshest critics. The bbl a bastion of the soft left establishment has also been criticized for its Bias against Israel not least Dur ing the latest War. Attitudes to America have also clouded european views especially on the left. As Israel has drawn closer to America in the past few decades the left a antipathy towards the Behemoth of capitalism has spilled into dislike of Israel. Public opinion in Turkey the one Muslim country that was once pro Israel has turned against it in Paral Lel with its turn against America especially Over the War in Iraq. Emanuele Ottolenghi an expert on Israel and Europe at Oxford University argues that europeans see Israel As the embodiment of the demons of their own the european Union is supposed to have traded in War nationalism and conflict for love peace and federalism. But Israel now reminds europeans of Darker forces and Darker Days. Could attitudes change it seems unlikely not least because Israel is now so stridently critical of the euro peans especially of their Media. In this area at least the transatlantic Gap is widening. Biologists Are Way smarter than most Peoples Brothers in Law. The lesson is that there is a qualitative difference Between the intelligence of people and of any animal and when we forget that we Are not raising up animals we Are dragging Down people. On the other hand another news Story offers Hope for die hard senti mentalists and unreconstructed Ani Mal rights activists. A Marine research team in Florida recently came across a Dolphin wearing a Speedo. As you might imagine the Dol Phin which had inadvertently donned the discarded swimsuit after an Acci dental encounter was in some distress not just from the natural Embarrass ment that comes from being caught in Public in a Speedo but also physically because dolphins Arent naturally designed for that kind of attire. Nei ther of course Are humans but while the Dolphin was relieved to be relieved of his Speedo the fat Guys on the Beach were still proudly wearing theirs. Who a smarter Here perhaps we Are exaggerating the size of our frontal lobes too. ;