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Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Jenna Bush Writing a Book
By VictorM: It's understandable if any kind of good deed coming from a Bush family member will be met with some skepticism, but the story of Jenna Bush working with poor kids in Panama and writing a book about it is one of those stories I'd like to believe is genuine.
[Jenna] Bush says she will donate her earnings to UNICEF. She says she "very, very modestly" hopes her book will have some of the influence of two books about girls caught up in the Holocaust: Lois Lowry's novel Number the Stars and Anne Frank's The Diary of Anne Frank.I know I shouldn't blame her for her father's deeds but I can't shake the impression that a picture of her holding a baby with HIV isn't just a photo-op. It would be easier to shake that impression if she hadn't come across as an acorn so close to the tree. But I'm rooting for her book to shine a light on an important topic and for my negative impression of her to be reshaped.
Labels: jenna bush, panama, unicef
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
It Sucks To Be a British Child
By VictorM: Hey, don't look at me funny, I'm not making this up. A Unicef report placed the UK last in the survey of 21 nations, which included Europe as well as the United States, Canada and Japan. These are just some highlights (lowlights?) of the report: they are at the bottom of a table examining the physical and emotional well-being of youngsters in the world's wealthiest nations. Despite living in the fifth richest country, they experience some of the worst levels of poverty. They regard themselves as less happy, and that they drank more alcohol, took more drugs, and had more underage sex than children overseas. They were also more prone to failure at school, to experience violence and bullying while suffering a greater number of unhappy relationships with both their families and peers. Maybe this explains why Wayne Rooney is so damn cranky.
Labels: british, children, unicef, wayne rooney
