Topic: drug abuse
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - Movie Trailer
This has to be one of the strangest plots I have ever seen.
This movie is about Pippa Lee a seemingly perfect wife married with two children. The people who know her has no idea of her troubled past that is riddled with abuse, depression and drug abuse. Pippa was raised in a home where her mother hated her, she ran away to a her aunt Kat who is a lesbian. Her aunt saw her and introduced her to her world where she used in BDSM lesbian porn videos. Until she met her publisher husband twenty years her senior, who provided her stability for the first time in her life. But at fifty she started to question her life when her husband moves them to a retirement village. Pippa meets a man that is younger than her they become friends at first after a while have a affair. During the whole thing she relives her past trying to figure out who she truly is.
THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE
The Private lives of Pippa Lee is based on a novel written by Rebecca Miller. The cast is filled with a diversity of actors most of them award winners and nominee's.
Pippa Lee is played by Robin Wright Penn who is best known for her role in Forrest Gump where she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Pippa's character is a trouble woman in her fifties married to a man twenty years her senior. Robin has that sad look about her as if there is something more than meets the eye and that suits the role perfectly.
Blake Lively is in the role of Pippa Lee in her younger years when she runs away from home and gets involved in all sorts of trouble. Blake Lively starred in the movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in 2005 but is more known for her more recent role in the tv series Gossip Girl. Blake is a beautiful woman with lots of sex appeal with a vulnerable look to her. Her role in the movie is rather disturbing the things she had to do and went through takes talent and courage, it is not for everyone.
Alan Arkin plays Herb Lee Pippa's husband who is a accomplished publisher. Alan Arkin is a accomplished actor with 24 nominations and 19 wins one of those a Oscar for his best performance in a supporting role in Little Miss Sunshine.
This is the second film in matter of weeks that feature Mara Bello. Her role in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is much more 'dark' than in The Yellow Handkerchief, she plays Suky Sarkissian Pippa Lee's abusive mother.
Keanu Reeves is in the role of Chris Nadeau Pippa Lee's neighbor and lover. Keanu Reeves known for the Matrix is rather a stoic actor he reminds me of a robot. Not sure how he would play the lover of Pippa and is responsible for reawakening of her passions.
Then there is Kat, the lesbian aunt who takes in Pippa after she run away from home. She is played by Julianne Moore, they could not get anyone better for this role she is a great actress and has the ability to make you believe she is the person she is playing in the film. That is why it is not surprising that she has been Nominated 45 times four of those for the Oscars and 38 wins.
Kat introduces Pippa to Gigi Lee played by Monica Bellucci a socialite. Monica Bellucci is one of those woman who will still turn heads at 60 she is graceful and beautiful Italian actress who has played many roles in her life including Magdalen in Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ.
They even brought in Winona Ryder who has not been in a major role in years as Pippa's best friend Sandra Dulles. Who has her own troubles life and is in awe of Pippa's 'perfect' life. After Girl Interrupted and her shop lifting problem it would be hard to cast her otherwise. She suits the role of a heartbroken or troubled young woman.
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is not for everyone. If you have a aversion to bondage and lesbianism you should not watch it. The whole movie is set in a dramatic atmosphere and is not a light hearted movie that would leave you smiling. If you enjoy dramas, you will enjoy this.
Britain stealing children for higher adoption numbers
There has been a major increase in the adoption of children in Britain since Government's incentive to social workers. The more children they get adopted the more money they receive. This was to get the numbers down of children older than seven stuck in the care system but this has backfired. The numbers of children being adopted older than seven has decreased dramatically since 2002, where as the adoption of toddlers and babies has more than doubled. How is that possible? Some claim it's because of increase of drug abuse among young mothers but the numbers are to large to say that. Most of these adoptions are of babies seized from their mothers because they where apparently unable to care for them. The whole process is very secretive to 'protect' the identity of the child but thousands of children have been taken from mothers as soon as they are born. How can the social workers take a child before the parent has had the opportunity to show that they can be good parents? This makes no sense. All of these cases only the mothers mental state is taken in account.
For example one grandfather cried saying that they have one police officer, two nurses and a nanny in the family they all tried in vain to stop the authorities from taking his daughters little girl, not even the father of the child was taken in consideration. The council said the child is given up for adoption and the family should forget about her it's water under the bridge. Who in their right mind talks about a child in that cold manner? Telling the little girls whole family to forget she existed it's water under the bridge and then the judge put a gag order on the family. One woman claimed they took her son before her placenta even came out. The reason: she might get post natal depression and neglect the child.
How I came across this topic was I read about this normal loving couple in a small town in Fife. The girl is 17 and her fiancee 25 the day before their wedding the social workers arrived at her home saying she cannot be married because she is to dumb. Kerry Robertson has a minor learning disability and was raised by her grandmother with the help from the council. According to her fiancee Mark McDougall she is not stupid she just has a difficult time with school work. But if this blow was not bad enough Kerry is not 29 weeks pregnant and not allowed to marry. When the social workers found out they told her she might not be able to keep her baby. They told the couple they would have few hours with their baby before he would be placed in care and placed with foster parents. They have already named their baby Ben and have bought clothes and received a crib as a present. What heartless people will take a baby from such a loving environment because they say she is not intelligent enough to raise her child? What is worse they do not even take Mark into consideration who has a normal IQ and a sound family structure. So now the couple has fled their home town going to a safe house until the baby is born. They have been told if the baby is born out of the Fife council district the social workers cannot lay claim on the child. But there is still the possibility that the social workers will go so far as to contact their current local council and ask them to remove the child.
A family law expert said: 'If Miss Robertson gave birth in Fife and then fled with the baby, after the local authority had got a care order, she would be liable for child abduction. But by fleeing while pregnant, Miss Robertson has not broken any law, as far as I'm aware. If she has her baby outside the jurisdiction of Fife council, they no longer have any power to take the child into care. Rather, they would have to locate her and alert the relevant council who would have to apply for a removal order themselves. dailymail.co.uk
The good news in this particular case it that it has been brought to the European Human Rights Commission who is currently investigating that the Fife council has broken any human rights laws.
This is not just the overactive reaction of family members ' who are not willing to see that someone they love could harm a child'. No, this is a becoming more and more apparent that children are taken from loving mothers to fill the adoption quota. After Lib Dem MP John Hemming has raised the issue calling it a national scandal saying the policies should be revised. Some say it is dangerous to say that children are being taken without enough reason and that this is a increasing necessary to get the children out of the system and adopted. And that such talk will make it harder to get the older children out of care.
Here is a list of what happens to children taken in care
- More than 75% of care leavers have no academic qualifications of any kind
- More than 50% of young people leaving care after 16 years are unemployed
- 17% of young girls leaving care are pregnant or already mothers
- 10% of 16-17 year old claimants of DSS hardship payments have been in care
- 71% of our homeless spent time in care
- 33% of adult prisoners and 38% of young prisoners have been in care
- 30% of young single homeless people have been in care
- 90% of all prostitutes on our streets who have been arrested at least once have come from the care system.
Looking at what the care system is doing to the British children I cannot agree more, but this whole incentive to increase number of adoptions is not working. Mr Hemming has said that he has evidence from parents that children are separated from families without proper grounds and is unable to publicize this because fo the court laws. The increase in number of children under the age of one being adopted is alarming.
A thousand kids a year are being taken off their birth parents just to satisfy targets. It is a national scandal, said Lib Dem MP
This is something that needs to be looked at because counselors are taking more and more little babies from parents. The grown children already in the system has less of a chance of being adopted because given a choice very few people would pick a older child instead of a baby or toddler. I would be devastated if someone takes my children because of a learning disability. I applaud Mr Hemming for having the guts to say something for those who cannot. This is a scandal indeed which needs to be stopped.
Human trafficking & child prostitution on the rise for 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup
Molo Songololo a orginasation who looks out for childrens rights and welfare says that child trafficking has picked up for the Soccer World Cup especially in Cape Town. It has spread from the streets to shabeens even in homes.
The people from the Sex Worker Union has said that they have noticed a large increase of underage sex workers on the street. It has also been noticed that people are selling children to get hold of the drug Crystal Meth or locally known as Tik. This has become a problem in the Western Cape as the drug plays havoc on the communities. Users loose sight to what is right and wrong, there has been reports of drug dealers taking young girls as payment. The street children is also taken advantage of because predators knows that these children are defenseless. The biggest way of how this will increase at the 2010 is that most people need money and with the downturn in the economy these syndicates can just say they can give a person a job during the world cup and that person would just disappear into the human trafficking world.
The schools will also be out during the World Cup and experts have been warning people to keep a close eye on their children. They have also warned that children who want to make pocket money during the world cup should be careful about who approaches them. They should also be careful in going to places without family.
This is a modern form of slavery where they enslave or by force or they intimidate and abuse or the most commonly used drug abuse. A person on drugs would do anything for their supplier. They enslave these people not with chains but with the mind. That is why it is so misunderstood and people must be much more vigilant in guarding our loved ones.
What tourists and visitors need to be aware of:
- Visitors need to be made aware that South Africa is a ‘hotspot’ for human trafficking.
- Tourists and visitors need to be aware of the expectations of those who come from desperately poor circumstances, viewing 2010 as an opportunity to improve their members' economic conditions. These people are vulnerable. As there will be a natural attraction to the Host Cities to be part of the celebrations vulnerable people are open to exploitation.
- Tourists may also lack information regarding the trafficking of children for purposes of child labour and sexual exploitation.
- Prostitution is illegal in South Africa. However, very often traffickers intermingle trafficked girls among local prostitutes.
- Street children are particularly vulnerable to abuse.
How you can help
- Awareness raising
Many are not sensitized to the reality of human trafficking around the globe. Target possible visitors to SA finding ways to circulate information about the reality of human trafficking in Southern Africa and how the poor and destitute in the SADC region are used and abused and deprived of their human dignity.
Sr Melanie O’ Connor Co-ordinator from CTIP (Counter Trafficking in Persons)
Studies improve knowledge of underlying brain changes caused by addiction
CHICAGO — New research using animal models is enabling a deeper understanding of the neurobiology of compulsive drug addiction in humans — knowledge that may lead to more effective treatment options to weaken the powerful cravings that cause people to relapse. The findings were released today at Neuroscience 2009, the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.
Drug addiction is known to change the structure and function of the brain, affecting a person's self control and decision-making ability. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's latest survey, 23.6 million persons aged 12 or older needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol abuse problem in 2006.
These new studies have identified brain mechanisms that help explain how addictions form, as well as the cognitive problems associated with them. Additional research findings discussed could also offer hope against addiction relapses.
Today's new findings show that:
- Chronic alcohol consumption reduces the number of new brain cells that form in the hippocampus of primates. The hippocampus plays a key role in memory, perhaps explaining the association between chronic alcoholism and memory problems (Chitra Mandyam, PhD, abstract 30.17, see attached summary).
- After exposure to cocaine, rhesus monkeys developed impairments in learning, cognitive flexibility, and memory. This finding suggests that cognitive problems associated with cocaine addiction in humans result directly from the cocaine abuse rather than from a pre-existing trait or lifestyle factor (Charles W. Bradberry, PhD, abstract 158.4, see attached summary).
- A chemical already found in the body reduces cravings in addicted rats and appears to restore normal functioning in a brain circuit associated with cocaine addiction (Khaled Moussawi, abstract 346.14, see attached summary).
Other research findings being discussed at the meeting show that:
- Advanced neuroimaging technologies and behavioral research suggest that addiction disrupts the fine balance underlying reward, motivation, memory, and cognitive control. This research has important implications for developing therapies to treat addictive disorders (Nora D. Volkow, MD, see attached speaker's summary).
- Increasing evidence suggests chronic drug use may alter the brain's reward circuits on a genetic level, contributing to addiction. Focusing on the genetic effects of addiction may open new avenues for improved treatment (Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, see attached speaker's summary).
"The brain is the body's most complex organ and chemical alterations caused by drug abuse have significant overarching impact on neuroplasticity," said press conference moderator George F. Koob, PhD, of The Scripps Research Institute, an expert on addiction and stress. "Today's findings offer a better understanding of the impacts of this disease and provide a clearer approach toward treating addiction and guarding against relapse."