28 baby girls found in suitcases

[pcysmith]

28 baby girls found in suitcases on Chinese bus
Police in southwestern China discovered 28 baby girls hidden in suitcases on a long-distance bus and apparently destined to be sold, police and a state-run newspaper said.

One of the babies had died by the time police, acting on a tip-off, found them Tuesday night on the bus at a highway toll gate in Bingyang, Guangxi province, the Beijing Morning News said.

Police at the Bingyang police station confirmed the case and told AFP more than 20 suspects had been arrested.



read the rest here.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/030322/1/399ul.html

How does something like this happen on the same planet we're living on?

[Biker]

Because there are people out there that are willing to buy. All involved should be strung up from the nearest tree.

[ethics]

Oh man... I am speechless.

[mikepd]

I am way past speechless except to say Biker's comment sounds like a plan to me.

[Violet1966]

Why????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:cry:

[Domh]

Because the human animal is such a massive dichotomy; still a brutal and terrible thing capable of such terror while able of such art and beauty.

:(

[cdw]

Because in some cultures, even in this day, girl babies are a burden on the family and worth only what you can sell them for.
This is just the tip of the iceburg. At least these little girls get to live. Many don't. They are killed at birth.
Because people are sick.
Sometimes I just wish that I was braindead and didn't give a shit.

[Coriolis]

A small consolation, but at least the'll never remember (and hopefully never know) what their parents did to them.

Sickening.

[melpomene]

omg............China's one child policy just aint working. omg again

how old were they? like if they were 3 months old, then they couldnt control their movements in the suitcases, their heads would be banging around against each other. and the nappy department too......................unbelievable horror would have greeted the person who opened these cases.

hope Amnesty is onto this one. :(

[Coriolis]

Originally posted by melpomene
how old were they? like if they were 3 months old, then they couldnt control their movements in the suitcases, their heads would be banging around against each other. The oldest one was about 3 mo, the youngest they think only a few weeks (or was it days?). Some were 2-3 per suitcase. Makes me fucking sick to even think about it.

[melpomene]

Jesus, so they had absolutely no control and they were virtually thrown around in the suitcases, because the roads in China are stuffed. Dirt tracks. and muddy dirt tracks.

Disgusting.

Off to make sure, Amnesty NSW Australia, are onto this. :(

[nitewriter]

The problem in a country like China is that human life is cheap.
Unfortunately to these smugglers money is more imprortant than human life.
These individuals don't have emotions like you or I, to them these smugglers children are just goods to be bought and sold, it is a common and disgusting practice.
Most likely some or all of these people will do little to no time in prison, they will simply buy their way out and the incident will get hushed up.
A friend of mine from China has told me many such stories.
To us these are horrific crimes (which they are) but to them these things are relatively common place, they are known to happen, but spoken of very little.

[Copzilla]

Right... but then refer to the US as a cowboy area rife with crime.

Crime is relative then, isn't it? There is no crime if people accept it. There is no rape in Afghanistan, is there?

The US is such a great country. At least here, when the people find out like this, we are enraged. I'd rather be where we are, with more reported crime, than a place where crime is accepted and hence doesn't exist.

[ethics]

I don't think the crime is accepted there. Let me tell you why.

People often tell me, "man, I know Soviet Union was horrible and all but there was little crime there, and kids could play out in the street, etc..."

My answer is this, crime WAS there, it was just not reported the way it is here. I played on the streets there, and guess what? When I came to this country I continued to play here the same way because we didn't see the news nor understand it.

In China, I am sure people are enraged, you just won't know about it.

[pcysmith]

But you have to assume that some if not all of those sweet little baby girls were given up willingly by their parents.

[Copzilla]

Perhaps, but some people accept the statistics as evidence that there are less crimes in other places. It's just not always correct. The statistics are only as good as methods gathering it.

"The Government are very keen on amassing statistics. They collect them, add them, raise them to the nth power, cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams. But you must never forget that every one of these figures comes in the first instance from the village watchman, who just puts down what he damn pleases." - Sir Josiah Stamp

In the case of governments, I much more trust our crime statistics than 90% of the rest of the world, in terms of accuracy, and don't believe a comparison to be an accurate representation of safety or quality of life. Just my $.02.

[Misu]

Originally posted by Biker
Because there are people out there that are willing to buy. All involved should be strung up from the nearest tree.

Actually, if you think about the alternative, being sold is a humane thing to do.

Usually, you'll find dead baby girl bodies laying on the streets of major cities in China. Families cannot have more than 1 child - and the demand for males is high. So when they have a baby girl, they usually just toss her out on the streets.

I have a magazine, a Marie Claire, with several pictures. The body of the child lay in the streets for several hours, until someone walking past it picked it up with some newspaper and dumped it in a trash bin. A newborn baby girl - wasn't more than a few hours old when they killed her.

That is what life is like over there. Selling children is awful, but compared to the alternative?

[Robert Harris]

It also is common in some Asian countries for teen-age girls to be sold into prostitution. But newborn babes? Given that girl babies are not valued and routinely killed as you note I am surprised that there is a market for buying them. It will be interesting to follow up this story to find out where they were to be sold.

[pcysmith]

Originally posted by Robert Harris
It also is common in some Asian countries for teen-age girls to be sold into prostitution. But newborn babes? Given that girl babies are not valued and routinely killed as you note I am surprised that there is a market for buying them. It will be interesting to follow up this story to find out where they were to be sold.
I would bet these little girls were going to be sold to brokers (God!) with customers in the West. They are a commodity. Like Misu said, they probably would have had a better chance for a good life had they not been found. Something, huh?