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JK Rowling urges students not to volunteer at orphanages
Author highlights evidence suggesting that ‘orphanage tourism’ drives families apart and makes children vulnerable to abuse
JK Rowling has called on students around the world not to volunteer at orphanages, pointing to emerging evidence that “orphanage tourism” drives family separation and child trafficking.
Speaking at the One Young World summit in London, the global forum for young leaders, the Harry Potter author and founder and president of children’s charity Lumos, said orphanages do “irreparable harm” and “perpetuate the abuse” of children and communities.
“Despite the best of intentions, the sad truth is that visiting and volunteering in orphanages drives an industry that separates children from their families and puts them at risk of neglect and abuse,” she said.
[...] Rowling was launching a three-year global campaign to challenge attitudes toward orphanage tourism and volunteering, #HelpingNotHelping. The campaign is backed by recently revised travel advice from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office warning of the potential harm of orphanage tourism and volunteering.
[...] Children in institutions are 500 times more likely to take their own lives, 40 times more likely to have a criminal record and 10 times more likely to be involved in prostitution, the charity claims.
[...] “Most children in orphanages are not even ‘orphans’ – they are placed there due to reasons such as poverty, disability, or to receive an education, and many have a family who could care for them, given the right support,” said Alex Christopoulos, deputy CEO of Lumos.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 27 2019, @06:03PM (2 children)
It sounds as if the problem isn't orphanages as such, but mismanaged orphanages.
Maybe we need more transparency? And getting these tourists involved in monitoring and demanding standards and checking returns on the efforts applied?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday October 27 2019, @06:11PM
Yeah, I'm guessing these stats vary wildly by country.
Article says:
Charity says:
You may have heard of Russian adoptees becoming a diplomatic/political issue. But how do the stats compare to Ukraine, Thailand, India, England, etc.?
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 27 2019, @06:36PM
Good ideas, really - but that "checking returns on efforts applied" would involve a life-long commitment. Not something I would expect from tourists.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 27 2019, @06:34PM (4 children)
So, orphanages create orphans? And, if no one volunteers to work at, or for, or with orphanages, that will cure the problem of the creation of orphans?
I see accusations, but I see no evidence. I see claims, but no verification. We might accuse Rowling of exploiting the kids, and/or the orphanages. I'm sure there are orphanages run by corrupt bastards who exploit the kids. Mother Theresa had her detractors, who made similar claims. But, to make a broad accusation that all orphanages are child traficking centers is pretty far out there, isn't it?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 27 2019, @08:57PM (2 children)
Rowling aggresively defends her "property rights". Orphans are mostly poor kids. I mean, if you manage to find a rich orphan, he/she isn't an orphan, but an heir. Poor kids are those kids most likely to download her stories without paying for them. THE ORPHANS MUST DIE!!! DEATH TO ORPHANS!!! It's like, they think Rowling owes them a story, or something!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by NPC-131072 on Monday October 28 2019, @12:07AM (1 child)
Hello fren, she is a fraud. She is not a true progressive [change.org] and never offered her home to oppressed Fulani tribesmen. [christianpost.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 28 2019, @06:47AM
Do they shit on the carpet?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 27 2019, @11:20PM
Plus, you have to compare apples to apples. Don't compare kids from orphanages to kids from all other homes. Compare orphanages with abusive or neglect homes, with poor homes, with full homes, etc. It is the same thing when people were arguing against the safe haven law. Yes, there is a small percentage of people who are going to have kids knowing that if things get bad, they can just dump the kid off. However, most people are going to get pregnant or have the kid and then try to figure out what to do as negative situations arise. Without orphanages, you will have abandoned kids (which have to go somewhere anyway), dead kids, or abused/neglected kids, as well as some that will be in good environments after all. But you are forcing parents to deal with kids they don't want; is it any surprise the outcomes will be less than great a large percentage of the time. And, many are already making the decision that no matter how bad being a ward is, the kids are better in that situation than staying with the parents. So don't go comparing the worst of outcomes on the one case with the best of alternatives you can imagine on the other.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 27 2019, @10:26PM (20 children)
Fuck off.
This from the woman who declared post hoc that one of her central characters (who was never depicted in an even remotely sexual or romantic situation) was gay. Strictly for the shock value and virtue signaling purposes. Pull smarmy bullshit like that and it disinclines me to pay you any attention no matter what you say.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 27 2019, @11:27PM (1 child)
And does it even matter? With the exception of Snape and a few others, literally every other character could be imagined as gay because their sexuality does nothing to affect the plot or is mentioned in even a roundabout way. If you want a gay character, have him do something gay or have it actually affect things in some small way. Anything less is just tokenism, which I vaguely remember those virtue signalers saying is worse than not having such a character at all.
Besides, "the death of the Author is the birth of the Reader."
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 27 2019, @11:53PM
Nah, tokenism is putting something in the story that adds nothing to the story. If you want a gay character, or a straight character for that matter, their sexuality has to actually be relevant to something besides "Look at how woke I am as an author!!!". Otherwise you're just a hack.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 27 2019, @11:39PM
http://www.bash.org/?111338 [bash.org]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday October 28 2019, @12:12AM (15 children)
Strictly for the shock value and virtue signaling purposes.
Did it score an uptick in sales? Then look no further.
I am more curious about her use of toilets as a central theme. Ogres in the bathroom. A dead girl lives in a toilet. Bureaucrats commute to the office by toilet. That's a weird one...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 28 2019, @12:29AM
One word: Coprophilia.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 28 2019, @12:42AM (13 children)
The bureaucrats getting to work via crapper is pretty legit satire. The rest tell me she got issues. I really doubt she saw any significant uptick in sales from bringing Dumbledore out of the closet a year or so after the last book hit the shelves though. Might have needed the progtard cred so establishment authors would take her seriously after making most all her female characters either damsels in distress or evil.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday October 28 2019, @12:58AM (12 children)
a year or so after the last book hit the shelves
Sounds like a move to get back on the front page after sales take a dive. "Plot Twist", right?
making most all her female characters either damsels in distress or evil.
On the contrary, the lead females stood strong, not submissive at all. Only one was really evil. The sister was only kind of evil.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Monday October 28 2019, @01:08AM (7 children)
The franchise consists of books, the main 8 films, the new Fantastic Beasts trilogy (w/ DVD releases), and a play. So even if the main book series was over, there were other things to advertise.
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(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 28 2019, @01:14AM
Good point. Forgot about the movies and disc sales.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday October 28 2019, @01:39AM (5 children)
People can make what they want out of "outing" the professor. I can't judge without seeing the books. On the face of it, it's just targeted marketing.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by Arik on Monday October 28 2019, @05:44AM (4 children)
But given that it's a children's book and people are nuts when children get involved, it was completely predictable a lot of people would be bothered by it. And honestly, it seems like a weird thing to do. Why would a novelist announce the sexual orientation of a character in a talk at Carnegie Hall rather than write it into the book?
I mean, if there was something in the books that established it, and everyone was missing it, sure, point it out. But it wasn't like that. She just outed him. As far as I know, there's still nothing in the books to show it's true, it's just a total side-channel assertion. Seems a bit odd.
The fact that these are children's books with no sex just makes it more odd. I mean, just by reading the books, we don't really know anyone's sexual orientation. We can probably guess that a few of the younger characters are either hetero or bi because there are a few suggestive bits to indicate some hetero pairings, at least a kiss here and there. But for most of the characters, particularly the adults, there really just is no trace of this aspect to be seen in the books and there probably shouldn't be. What child wants to read a book with a bunch of old people expressing their sexual orientations in any way? And if it's never expressed in a scene in any of the books, why announce it to the world?
Odd, odd behaviour.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday October 28 2019, @06:15AM (3 children)
Ron and Hermione finally got all mushy, and that scene with the visual and sound effects could not have been more obvious. Harry and Ginny weren't so subtle either. Lots one one liners in there too that were very funny. The movies were full of sex.
What gave the professor away? He took the knitting magazine ["I do love knitting patterns"]
I think everybody is reading too much into it. Looks like the gimmick worked.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by Arik on Monday October 28 2019, @07:04AM (2 children)
OK so far.
"The movies were full of sex."
WTF?
Nah. No sex at all. Some mild and funny suggestion of it, as you described above.
"Looks like the gimmick worked."
I'm not sure I follow you. How did it work?
It's boosted her reputation with people who tend to have relatively few children, while pissing off a bunch of people that tend to have a lot more children.
And she's an author of children's books.
That doesn't strike you as somehow counterproductive?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday October 28 2019, @07:31AM (1 child)
Some mild and funny suggestion of it...
Yes, throughout the series. It wasn't entirely a children's movie
That doesn't strike you as somehow counterproductive?
Only if the spreadsheets say so. She knows the crowd better than I do. From my point of view it was a gamble that may or may not have paid off. Nobody is saying how it went. It's strictly business.
And she's an author of children's books.
Yes, but she's perfectly aware that adults read the stories and watched the movies also. Much marketing is directed at them.
children's books... Doesn't the pairing of Dick and Jane imply anything?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by Arik on Monday October 28 2019, @07:49AM
Sure, sure, true enough. The best children's works are fine to stand on their own, deserve and get adult audiences as well.
The Hobbit. All of Heinlein's juveniles. The Princess Bride.
But there's still no sex in them. Little hints of it, that will not cause children viewing them any cognitive distress, cause the adolescents to giggle a little, cause the adults to remember and sigh.
You really think extra sales to adults will counterbalance the losses?
I doubt it. Even from a purely financial point of view. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it doesn't seem like a sound bet.
And an author, particularly one that is writing children's books to influence the next generation, might be more concerned with effects other than with $. Particularly after passing the world record mark on that anyway.
If that were my primary concern, and I wanted the young readers to understand that Dumbledore was gay so they would feel like they were allowed to exist... see that's not a far stretch for me to imagine at all. But I can't imagine going about it the way she has. I'd have just dropped little hints throughout the books. The sort of hints that a young gay man would notice.
And I'd leave it at that and let all the Mormons and Muslims and Orthodox and so on buy my book in bulk to hand out to their kids.
The LAST thing I'd do would be to announce publicly he was gay so that the most homophobic parents would quit buying the books!
Either to do money, or to do good, I just don't see it.
So I'm left thinking this is just seeking approval from the people she wants to think are her peers.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 28 2019, @01:13AM (3 children)
We have different ideas of strong women then. The only ones that I would have counted were Mrs. Weasley and Professor Mcgonagall.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday October 28 2019, @01:32AM (2 children)
Mrs. Weasley and Professor Mcgonagall were the obvious strong women, but Hermione and Luna Lovegood were far from helpless. And the two dead ones, well, you're not counting them, are you?
Who are the damsels in distress that you are talking about? The ones from the other school?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 28 2019, @02:25AM (1 child)
You're mistaking outer strength for inner strength. The former's flashy and interesting but without the latter they're still weak. Thus, I wouldn't count any of Harry's female classmates that I can think of offhand as especially strong, even for adolescents. I think I will make an exception for Luna though, at least relative to the competition. She had a much sterner core than any of the other pre-voting-age female characters and wouldn't have fallen behind in comparison to most of the adult women.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Monday October 28 2019, @03:02AM
No, I just don't use the cliched male standards. Hermione was quick on the draw and always shot straight. Ron was wimpier and clumsier. Of course that was the way it was designed to play off each other. But she was giving the orders more often than not. It was standard John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara stuff.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by Arik on Monday October 28 2019, @05:01AM
It was a screwy move.
But what about the message rather than the person?
I'm afraid my experience leads me to give it some credence though.
I don't know about 'most' and I don't know anyone that's done a thorough investigation of at least a good sample in every nation, worldwide, so I'm not sure how anyone could really know that. But I have no doubt that in many cases this is true. Children work the streets as beggars, on behalf of organized crime, and are taught to tell the lies that tug the tourist heartstrings, in most world cities.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?