How did the chicken cross the road? With four legs

POSTED: 7:59 a.m. EDT, September 23, 2006
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SOMERSET, Pennsylvania (AP) -- -- Henrietta the chicken was living inconspicuously among 36,000 other birds at Brendle Farms for 18 months -- until a foreman noticed she had four legs.

"It's as healthy as the rest," the farm's owner, Mark Brendle, told The Daily American.

Brendle's 13-year-old daughter, Ashley, named the chicken Henrietta after the discovery Thursday. The bird has two normal front legs and, behind those, two more feet. They are of a similar size to her front legs but don't function. The chicken drags her extra feet behind her at the farm in in Somerset, Pennsylvania.

In 30 years of farming, Brendle said, he's never before seen a chicken with four legs.

There's no definitive reason why such deformities happen, said Cliff Thompson, a retired professor of genetics at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. He said it could be an accident of development, akin to a sixth toe on a cat.

Brendle said he jokingly suggested to his family that it sell Henrietta in an Internet auction, but Ashley objected.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The dog wins (what am I doing with a dog???)

The dog that was so terribly abused by the neighbor and who moved in to the school 6 months ago has officially been adopted and moved to the new school. I'd given her to my father-in-law, but they never really bonded. She got her point across this morning when she killed the one of her pups (she went in to heat over a weekend, and by the time we got her to the vet, she was already pregnant). He delivered her to the front of the old school unannounced, and....ermm....she endeared herself to me when she took after a low level gangster and tried to rip him apart (errrm, she has a private courtyard at the new school the keeps her away from the kids). The WIERD thing is that she LOVES kids.

It was a choice between taking her and having her put down, or giving her run of the school (we needed better security anyway) when the kids aren't there and keeping her in a relatively small area 8 hours a day. I opted for the latter.

For SOME reason, this dog and I have always had a wierd bond. Of course, attacking a betelnut bubba really endeared her to me :-).

Face, Cameras, and Random Thoughts...

As I look down the road, a year or three, and ponder finding myself doing freelance writing and photography (again on the writing), I realize that my D70 is probably going to be at the end of its useful life about then (I've had it 2 years, 15,000 images.....ermm, the shutter is rated at something like 30,000? 50,000? I can't remember). So, its time to start to ponder its replacement.

I've always viewed a camera body as a light proof box from which you hang *spectacular* chunks of (hopefully not cracked) glass (or plastic) in the form of a lens. Its one of the reasons I sided ever so slightly with Nikon when I jumped to modern 35mm SLRs. BUT, digitals bodies are far more than lightproof boxes. The sensors are critical, and what seems to be happening is that the type of digital body you shoot is viewed by many as defining how good a photographer you are (the face aspect, someone with a D2X *must* be a better photographer, right?)(wrong).

So...the dilema...I realize that with digital cameras, the technology evolves so bloody fast that I *had* said that I'd never shoot anything but the lowest end digital body, because in 5 years it would either have a replacement that was so superior that it made SENSE to upgrade, OR (in the case of the D70 shutter), the shutter gives up the ghost and is makes little financial sense to replace.

Then a friend of mine sends me an email "Yes, the shots YOU will get with a D80 will be as good as a D200, but you need to get the D200 for *credibility.*" Hmmm. Face. Credibility. Wierd. The camera makes the picture, not the photographer. I see his point, I really do. *OF COURSE* I'd love to shoot Hassleblad medium format (I'm partial to the banana yellow bodies, tres cool....and seriously bulletproof, my grandkids would probably be able to shoot the same body and lenses). However, I ended up with Bronica instead (1/2 the cost second hand, and to be perfectly honest, the )@#$@#$ Bronica lenses can at time be almost TOO sharp). 35mm?? Yeppers, I'd be THRILLED to shoot F6, talk about a camera that has features and bells and whistles that WOULD make life easier, but....ermm....until 4 years ago, my 35mm didn't even have a LIGHT meter, let alone a battery.

To me a camera is simple. A shutter that goes slower and faster, and a hole in the lens that gets bigger and smaller. Simple. So, I ended up with an F80 and a grip/battery pack. Decent price, its the lens that's important anyway.

So. This friend replies "You'll probably want to replace your F80 with an F100 (note: The F100 isn't made anymore, but Nikon will probably have NOS of them around for years, lol) *if* you intend to continue shooting film. Errrm. Why? Okay, the F80 IS going to have to be replaced, the shutter is rated, I believe, about the same as the D70, and last count I'd run 500 rolls of film through it, so...ermm...hmm....about 15,000 frames.

So, here's the question. Does the body MATTER, or is the portfolio and photograph more important? I've always taken a black marker after the branding and model number of any camera I use (mainly to make it less of a target for theft, but later because I really *hate* the one upsmanship of "*I* have the F80Q Mark 14/GGG Xi, and YOURS is only the X version."

People ask "What kind of camera is it?" "Nikon." I reply. It makes people uncomfortable not knowing the exact model. When I point out that the sensors are the same in the D50/D70 series (the D50 wasn't available when I bought mine, or I might have looked at it), they look stunned. When I mention that the D80 has the same sensor as the D200, I get the "Yeah, but the magnesium body could take a BULLET." Errrm. Nope, it couldn't. Yeah, it DOES have better weather sealing, but...ermm....I don't shoot in downpours....correction, I DO shoot in downpours, and I have a US$15 raincoat for my 35mm/digital bodies that works BRILLIANTLY (and actually diffuses the flash nicely if I happen to be using it). SOME people actually recommend using disposable shower caps, so I'm already splurging on a luxury here :-)).

So. Do I plan to continue simply using the best tools/price ratio?? Or do I worry about face. Honor. Measurebating.

Image.

Does image really MATTER in the end?? Have we finally come to *that*??

Tainan’s Massive Labor Trafficking and Rape Case

Mr. Hong Minh Du, the owner of the broker company in Tainan, and his father Hong Khanh Chuong, have raped over 100 Vietnamese women within 3 years, according to numerous victims’ testimonies.
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On March 23 of 2005, VMWBO received a phone call from a distraught caretaker. Mai told VMWBO that she was forced by her Taiwanese broker to go to the mountains near Tainan and farm for his father. Moreover, the elderly man demanded that she performed sexual acts for him, otherwise his son will not find her work. Mai began to describe how the broker systematically beats, rapes and forces the women under his care. He threatens them with immediate repatriation if they tell anyone about the abuse. Mai refused and resisted his numerous advances and she was severely beaten for it. Mai spoke of many other women who have been raped and who are still living under the broker’s care.

VMWBO immediately arranged a ride for Mai to our office, 350 kilometers away. Once there, Mai helped VMWBO contact another woman, Thanh, who had been repeatedly raped and beaten by the same broker. Thanh has endured these atrocious acts since her arrival in February. VMWBO contacted Thanh and helped her and two other women escape from the broker. The women recounted horror stories of how they were beaten, sometimes with metal objects, and forced to serve as sex slaves at the whim of the broker. Some nights he would take some medicine then rape four, five women, one after another. Other times he would force one woman to watch while he raped another. Or he would force two of them to perform sex acts with each other while he watched.

All the women felt helpless and were terrified of the broker, since he has the power to find them work, as well as to send them on the next plane back to Vietnam. He was also their only contact in Taiwan. All four of the women left Vietnam with a legitimate contract to work in Taiwan, and paid on average US$1300 to a Vietnamese broker in the process. These women are desperate to remain in Taiwan to work since most of them have mortgaged their ancestral home to pay the brokerage fee.
Legally, they should only stay with the broker for a few days to process paperwork and get a health check. In this case however, the broker kept many of these women for days at a time to serve as his sex slaves and to do labor for him and his father. Sometimes he would leave them at other people’s homes to work for a few days, a few weeks or a few months, then collected them as well as their salary. As the case unfolded, two more women came forward and were taken by CLA to a government sponsored shelter run by another broker in Tainan, which houses male migrant workers from other countries and had no interpreter. After a protracted battle, VMWBO finally got permission to shelter them. There are also a number of victims who wrote to VMWBO from Vietnam, recounting the same horror story. Many told the Vietnamese broker what happened upon their return, but he refused to help them.

Since then, the VMWBO has unearthed dozens of other women who have been raped by the same broker. Over 20 have agreed to testify in court about their abuse. They are being represented by a pro bono lawyer via the Legal Aid Foundation. In May, the broker and his father were arrested. A search warrant was also issued at the broker’s company and his home, where many of the abuses took place. Both were eventually released after bail was posted.

In the meantime, VMWBO got all six rape victims living at our shelter to change from caretaker to factory work since they were all traumatized by their experiences working in the broker and other strangers’ home. But the victims had to wait 8 to 10 months before their employment paperwork was finally approved.

Also in February, VMWBO flew two Tainan victims from Vietnam to Taiwan to appear in court. They were raped and forcibly repatriated only after a few months in Taiwan, and faced extreme hardship upon their return. Both are losing their homes due to the debt they incurred to come to Taiwan to work.

Unfortunately, this case, though large in scale, is quite common. Many brokers – and employers and their extended family – routinely enslave migrant workers with no repercussions. Brokers send people back and forth across borders with relative ease. Once a worker complains, s/he is routinely beaten into submission, or when that does not work, forcibly repatriated and silenced. Even when the CLA gets involved, many of the victims are sent back to the brokers, who routinely force them to sign paperwork to drop their charges. Or if they are “lucky”, they are sent to government sponsored shelters where they languish for months waiting for their case to be resolved. These conditions create a big disincentive for victims to come forward. For those who are brave enough to do so, they continue to be victimized through the system.

VMWBO and many local grassroots nonprofit organizations have been advocating for years for the Taiwan government to include caretakers within the Labor Standard Law. This will at least provide them with some protection, such as set hours and minimum living conditions. This law currently applies only to migrant workers in other industries.

The failure to address the abuses at the systemic level has caused innumerable pain and suffering to thousands of migrant workers, as well as their dependants back home.

www.taiwanact.net/article.php3

Dao Thi Quynh: a Survivor’s Story: From Temporary Work to Trafficking

www.taiwanact.net/article.php3

Ha-Thanh Nguyen

From a distance, it is hard to imagine that the same young girl who loves to sing along to Phi Nhung songs while drifting off to sleep next to me, chatters away about her lifelong dreams of opening up an orphanage for homeless children in Vietnam, and gets excited about eating pizza is the same young woman who has endured a type of pain and suffering most of us will never encounter in all of our lives. Up close, one can see the physical deformity of this young individual’s left hand, right foot and leg, and the pain that comes from not knowing if her hand and leg will ever be the same again. Innocent yet fearless, maimed yet full of life, Dao Thi Quynh is a former Vietnamese foreign worker to Taiwan who has touched many lives, including mine through her amazing strength, survival, and bright outlook on life as she optimistically says things like, “ever since the second grade, it was my dream to open up an orphanage for the homeless children I saw on the streets where I lived”. Regarding her as my own little sister, the most difficult part of telling Quynh’s story is imagining that something so horrific could realistically happen to another human being, let alone someone I have come to adore and admire with the greatest affection.

At first glance, Dao Thi Quynh is like every other Vietnamese victim of Taiwan’s foreign labor exporting system that walks through the doors of the Vietnamese Bride & Migrant Workers’ Office (VBMWO)- exploited, cheated out of wages, misinformed, abused and finally forced to be repatriated back to her country. Aside from the physical damages that have left a permanent impression on both her mind and body, Quynh exemplifies an extremely common case of human trafficking in Vietnamese laborers arriving in Taiwan since 1999.

In brief, Quynh came to Taiwan in December 2003 under contract to work as a domestic helper after paying an employment agency a brokerage fee of $1,000. Instead of finding her employment as a domestic helper, Quynh was taken to the broker’s home to work as a caretaker for the broker’s father. This was the first violation of her contract to work strictly as a domestic helper for an employer, rather than the broker. Thus, the violation of the contract constitutes as human trafficking according to the U.N.’s definition of “trafficking in persons” as “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of...the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability...for the purpose of exploitation...[including] forced labor or services”. The second violation of her labor contract occurred when Quynh was taken to her new employer’s home to work in their plastics manufacturing factory. In addition to being trafficked and forced to labor in a factory rather than as a domestic helper, Quynh was also working excessive hours with very little information on how to handle the plastics machinery. Laboring from 5:30 am until 8:30 pm everyday without rest and forced to eat while working, Quynh continued to work for a full month and 17 days without pay. These conditions of fatigue and abuse led to an accident, in which her hand was caught in the machinery crushing her middle and index fingers, and thumb on her left hand. Her employer brought her to a doctor who performed a poor surgery on her hand, cutting off her toe from her right foot and meat from her right leg in order to repair the hand. Before her surgery was fully completed, the employer and broker intimidated Quynh and forced her to sign papers agreeing to return to Vietnam.

After appealing to the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) in Taipei and Taoyuan County Labor and Human Resources Department, Quynh’s employer admitted to forcing Quynh to illegally work in the factory and sign papers agreeing to return to Vietnam. Verbally abusing and starving her, the broker harassed, threatened, and forced Quynh to return to Vietnam claiming she volunteered to be repatriated. Almost a year after the surgery, Quynh’s hand, foot, and leg continue to cause her pain and she is now in need of further micro-surgery to enhance the aesthetic appearance and alleviate the physical pain she experiences. VBMWO also found legal assistance for her through the Legal Aid Foundation to press charges. Quynh is now back in Taiwan suing for additional compensation for her injury, medication, and loss of future income due to an injury that has left her physically maimed. While she is currently awaiting her next court date, Quynh is in urgent need of medical care and microsurgery in order to repair the damage done to her body.

Recently, Quynh revealed her story at a press conference in Taipei where many other foreign laborers, anti-human trafficking groups, and NGOs gathered to discuss Taiwan’s foreign labor issues. As Quynh told her incredible story between gulps of tears, it was apparent that there was not a single soul unmoved by her words, strength in character, and fearless spirit. Straining to hold back the tears myself, I realized in that moment that the host of intimately painful challenges Quynh and many other victims of trafficking face everyday include problems beyond simply the physical ones, such as loss of friendships, emotional stress, depression, post-traumatic disorder, and isolation. In addition, victims also endure the heavy burdens of financial, legal, and political ramifications of battling for their due rights. Not unlike many others at VBMWO’s shelter, Quynh often says in a matter-of-fact way: “When I go back to Vietnam, many in my neighborhood do not care to have anything to do with me because they say I am like a foreigner going away to work and of course because of my hand. But it saddens me because I can’t help my mom and dad, and I don’t have that much money to show for anything, I don’t have any work, and the friends I had before- there aren’t that many left who still want to talk to me.” As one of the most vulnerable members of our society, trafficked brides and migrant workers are denied the most basic aspects of human rights and individual entitlement to freedom.

In the overwhelming pile of other cases like hers that come through this office, Quynh’s story is not uncommon among the sea of other victims in that they all suffer from the lack of uniformity of Taiwan’s policies on foreign laborers and brides. For most of the brides and foreign laborers that come to Taiwan seeking a decent wage and a better life, many have chosen to endure the abuses of modern day slavery, while other trafficked victims seek assistance from offices such as VBMWO. Yet on both sides of the coin, there are disadvantages that restrict victims from achieving the goals they hoped for in coming to Taiwan. Many victimized foreign laborers endure illegal deductions from wages, domestic violence, abuse, trafficking, and a host of other human rights violations due to insufficient knowledge on their rights, pressure to send money back home, and fears of being repatriated or discharged from work. Thus, trafficked foreign laborers are often further entrapped into illegal working conditions for fear that assistance from offices such as VBMWO will cause them to be repatriated back to Vietnam, further abused, or incriminated by government authorities.

With over 300,000 foreign laborers in Taiwan, Dao Thi Quynh’s story exemplifies an explicit case of human trafficking and violation of basic human rights that cannot continue to be ignored. Beyond just a victim, Quynh is a survivor with hopes, dreams, and aspirations for helping others like herself as she says, “If I could tell everyone in Vietnam something, I would urge them not to come to Taiwan, there is no need to leave your homeland, just work and study hard there and you will be better off”. Yet unfortunately for those seeking temporary work in Taiwan to feed their impoverished families at home, the prospect of being trafficked into a position of extreme vulnerability and human slavery seem to be the furthest thought from one’s mind.

Third Feline????

Yep....third cat has started her integration into the dynamic duo. I was up in Taipei and saw a pet store. Pet stores are usually safe, they usually only have Persians and Himalayans, and they are usually incredibly expensive, with all the cats available free, INCREDIBLE cats, I've never bought one. And, I didn't start this time. There was this GORGEOUS female adult Persian. We looked at each other, and I started to scritch her through the bars of the cage. The pet store owner came over and asked if I wanted to try and hold her. What a question. Of course. So, I hauled this purring mass of hair out of the cage. The owner asked if I wanted her, and I told him that I already had two, and that I didn't want to spend money on a cat with so many incredible strays, and needed a cat like I needed a hold in the head.

"Free," he says, "this one is crazy, and you are the only other person who has held her without being bitten."

So. After getting to know her over the next two hours (and seeing how quickly her mood changes from incredibly sweet to incredibly vicious, I realized that this was a cat who had been abused, and was also a cat who would need people who were incredibly familiar with reading kitty signs. And, I realized that almost NO one else would want her.

After 3 days under the bed, she finally came out yesterday. The sweetheart was back, the skittish terrified cat was gone. I think this may be the first time in her 5 years that she's been out of a cage, and last night I peeled her off the drapes....found a NEW bowl, she was playing with the water dish, batting it all over the place. She may be a little nutz, but she's a delight :-).

Meet Buffy the Vampire Slayer :-)) (updated snapshots of The Dynamic Duo are in my pictures section)