After decades of exposés, it has become rather obvious to most people that warehousing human beings in archaic, decrepit institutions—still prolific across Central and Eastern Europe—is a grave violation of their human rights. So why do government leaders continue to ignore the plight of thousands of children and adults who have intellectual or mental health disabilities? Why do these institutions still exist?
In “Humans Null and Void,” the latest heartwrenching exposé by investigative journalist Yana Buhrer Tavanier, we get a simple, yet bleak, answer: it is because the people wasting away in these institutions don’t really count. They are null and void as far as governments are concerned, and the ugly truth is that they deteriorate in institutions from the mind-numbing boredom, the loneliness, and the lack of love.
As Yana so powerfully illustrates, the Macedonian government is failing its citizens. Hundreds of people are locked away in institutions across the country. Many people spend their entire lives in institutions because Macedonia offers no support to families and communities.
These are places, as Yana writes, “where the holes in the corroded walls are in fact dug by human fingers”; where a resident’s “daily route [is] between the filthy bedroom, the filthy bathroom, the filthy canteen and the filthy, empty day room; the stench being their constant companion, following them everywhere.”
Watch the video. Read the website. But how many more horror stories do we need to hear before governments take action?
Fung Grilled Before Divided Jury
Chicago Sun-Times April 14, 1995 | LINDA DEUTSCH LOS ANGELES Months before they'll be asked to decide whether O. J. Simpson is a murderer, jurors can't agree which movies to watch, how they should make phone calls and whether blacks and whites should exercise together, an ousted panelist says. moviestowatchnow.net movies to watch
In another development, prosecution criminalist Dennis Fung admitted Thursday that he tossed a vial of Simpson's blood into a plastic bag and left it unguarded on a lab table overnight.
"You put Mr. Simpson's blood on a table, unrefrigerated?" defense attorney Barry Scheck exclaimed in a tone of disbelief.
Fung, enduring his fifth day of brutal cross-examination, said he placed all evidence gathered from Simpson's estate on an evidence table in the police laboratory the night of June 13 and went home. The next morning, he said, "I did not detect any of my evidence from the night before being disturbed." Fung's startling statement came late in a day dominated by the explosive details about perceived turmoil among black and white jurors over matters as seemingly trivial as phone privileges and as serious as racial disrespect.
Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. said reports of kicking and hitting among the sequestered jurors could be sufficient to result in dismissal of at least one more panelist.
The 12 jurors and six remaining alternates, presumably unaware their infighting is being aired in public, listened intently as Scheck again went to work on Fung about how Simpson's blood was handled. Fung appeared rattled at times, pausing before answers and often claiming a faulty memory.
In an unusual investigation of a sitting jury, Superior Court Judge Lance Ito quizzed ex-juror Jeanette Harris about her widely reported claims that jurors are divided by race and stressed from three months of sequestration.
The transcript of Wednesday's one-hour hearing, released Thursday, showed that Harris, who is black, remained adamant that certain non-black jurors and sheriff's deputies are discriminating against the majority black jurors. And, she said, as a juror she often felt like a prisoner instead of a civil servant.
Among her newest allegations: A female Hispanic alternate sitting in a jury van with an elderly black panelist asked that a window be opened, as if to say, "I don't want to breathe the same air as that woman is breathing." Deputies were willing to track down a white juror when it was her turn to use the telephone, but blacks would lose their turn if they weren't already waiting. Whites didn't want to exercise with blacks, so separate gyms were set up. Blacks and whites couldn't agree on which movies to watch, so separate viewing rooms were set up. The Hispanic woman and a white female juror hit a black juror in the back of his head as they passed behind him while he watched a movie last month. go to site movies to watch
Near the end of the hearing, which Simpson and attorneys from both sides attended, the judge said, "It's my intention to speak to each and every juror who remains." Legal experts consulted about Harris' complaints said they would seem trivial if taken individually. But considered as a whole, they reveal a degree of dissension that may make it difficult for jurors to deliberate together, they said.
"If it's one or two people crying out in the wilderness, it's not that much of a concern," said Carol Chase, an associate professor of law at Pepperdine University.
On the other hand, if several people tell Ito they already are struggling to concentrate on the case, Chase said, it would be logical for the judge to declare a mistrial now rather than let the trial drag on. Lawyers for both sides have said they will oppose any effort to end the trial without a verdict.
Simpson is accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman on June 12, 1994, outside her Brentwood town house.
This institutions excist because they have no way to go. Here in Sweden they closed them but they could not take care of them selves.
It´s always seem to be a way of having some control or experience.
We will go on have them as long we have this control system, will we ever change????
today economy nothing is holy not even the dead.
Judith E. Klein, JD, has been the Director of the Mental Health Initiative since 2000, and has
worked for the Open Society Foundations on mental disability since 1995.
The Open Society Foundations work to improve the lives of the world's most vulnerable people and to promote human rights, justice, and accountability. This blog aims to bring that work a little closer by giving our experts and grantees a platform to reflect on their issues, sharpen their thinking, and engage in a conversation on how to advance open society values around the globe.
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This institutions excist because they have no way to go. Here in Sweden they closed them but they could not take care of them selves.
It´s always seem to be a way of having some control or experience.
We will go on have them as long we have this control system, will we ever change????
today economy nothing is holy not even the dead.
thanks Maria