Norway takes children away from Indian parents because they don't eat with spoons....

This is not a joke:

http://truthdive.com/2012/01/18/norway-authorities-take-away-indian-kids-for-not-using-spoons-and-sharing-bed-with-parents.html

Video http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/fromndtv/221278

EDIT: For doubters, there are more stories about other people here: http://english.pravda.ru/society/st...way_children-0/

I have always felt that the governments of the Scandinavian countries have behaved like stupid nanny's, but this is so pathetically stupid that it makes my boil blood.

Basically what the Norwegian government is saying is "raise your child EXACTLY the way we want to or else....."

I mean I can kind of understand how sleeping with your child in the same bed as you do can be dangerous if the child is too small, but according to those images/video they are old/big enough to do so.

And I fail to see how not eating with spoons and forks counts as abuse.

According to that article I linked the UN is actually complaining that Norway takes too many children away from their parents for being "raised incorrectly". I wonder what all of the supporters of the "fantastic Scandinavian welfare states" are going to say now, I guess they aren't really as great as they made out to be, with the government being able to take your children away and all......

Thoughts?

Mind finding us a source that isn't an online tabloid newspaper? I can't find anything about these issues outside of really sketchy news sites.

Membrain said:

Mind finding us a source that isn't an online tabloid newspaper? I can't find anything about these issues outside of really sketchy news sites.

I find this hard to believe, I a quick google search revealed a number of sources almost at once:

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/indian-couples-norway-nightmare-kids-taken-away-for-feeding-with-hands-167660

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/norwegian-agency-takes-away-kids-from-indian-couple/1/165480.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088337/Norwegian-authorities-away-children-Indian-couple-eating-hands.html

In addition it was also in my own local (Icelandic) news paper: http://www.dv.is/frettir/2012/1/18/born-tekin-af-modur-matadi-thau-med-fingrunum/

Membrain said:

Mind finding us a source that isn't an online tabloid newspaper? I can't find anything about these issues outside of really sketchy news sites.

hardcore_gamer said:

(Daily Mail link)

lol

Just had a look myself, I can't find any reliable/respectable news sources to support this story. If it's true it's a horrible injustice, but I suspect that there may be more to the story than what the parents told the tabloids.

fraggle said:

lol

I can't find any reliable/respectable news sources to support this story.

I have already presented SIX different sources wiht a 5 min google search. And I also read about this in my news paper as I think I already mentioned.

Just what exactly do you consider to be a "good source"?

And what makes the sources I posted bad exactly? (well ok, I know that the dailymail has a bad repuation but what about the other ones).

Its also worth mentioning that the UN has been complaining about how draconian Norway's child protection is even before this happened.

Something stupid like this wouldn't surprise me if it were real.

Technician said:

Something stupid like this wouldn't surprise me if it were real.

Indeed.

Anyways, I found an article that talks more about some other bad shit that has happened in Norway because of things like this:

http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/07-07-2011/118418-norway_children-0/

This is horrible.

I am never moving to Norway.

"13 year old boy managed to send out some emails asking for help, to be rescued from his foster home. ""They give little food to me, and I am hungry. Nobody wants to talk to me or take care of me in the foster home, and I feel completely lonely here. Please help me get back home to my mother, or please help me find a lawyer so that I could sue the child protection services."

Ugh.

hardcore_gamer said:

Just what exactly do you consider to be a "good source"?

Well, not fucking Pravda, for starters.

Hey yo I saw a facebook page with a bunch of Icelanders apparently digging this nasty cheap bulgarian vodka (it's so "classy" that it comes in plastic bottles or even cans and is literally traded for less than $1 a bottle on alibaba).

Does that mean that Silver Horse is Iceland's best selling booze/all Icelanders drink great quantities of it?

Leave it to the Norwegian government to turn their country into a shithole. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment. >:(

hardcore_gamer said:

Just what exactly do you consider to be a "good source"?

fraggle's point was no doubt that the Daily Mail is a rabble-rousing shitfest of a "newspaper". If you were British it would be obvious to you that it doesn't qualify as a reliable source.

And then, without any hint of irony, you come up with Pravda...

Note that this isn't just quibbling - unless an account is available from a decent-quality source, we can't really pass any sort of fair comment on what happened here.

PS: If you're tempted to give the Onion or the National Enquirer as a reliable US source, think again.

HavoX said:

Leave it to the Norwegian government to turn their country into a shithole. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment. >:(

Well to be fair the US and Australian governments, and colonial rulers in general never had a light hand with indigenous people/aborigines whenever they went. Compare e.g. the infamous forced assimilation policy of Australia, or, as an example of excessive government meddling even with their own people, the "administrative detention" of Switzerland.

It's just that this sort of thing would be more acceptable maybe 30-40 years go.

fraggle said:

lol

Just had a look myself, I can't find any reliable/respectable news sources to support this story. If it's true it's a horrible injustice, but I suspect that there may be more to the story than what the parents told the tabloids.

Holy shit.... LOL indeed.

Hardcore_gamer, dude, sorry to break it to you, but those sources you gave us are total shit. It's like grabbing every cheap ass tabloid off the supermarket shelves and saying "Look, I found you so many sources!"

If it is true, then that is totally reprehensible, and it sucks a lot for Norway. Still moving my ass to Sweden ASAP.

Just checking the web for info on this, it appears that the only sources covering it are ones that are willing to publish a story when they only have one unverified side of it.

Grazza said:
If you're tempted to give the Onion ... as a reliable US source, think again.

I don't know, they did a pretty good job with this...

Grazza said:

If you were British it would be obvious to you that it doesn't qualify as a reliable source.

What exactly does being British have anything to do with being aware of what qualifies as a reliable source? I honestly don't see how nationality is even slightly related to the ability to judge such things.

Sodaholic said:

I honestly don't see how nationality is even slightly related to the ability to judge such things.

That doesn't stop people from associating Greeks with buttsex and Germans with coprolagnia, for example. Brits at most get hot water bottles.

Sodaholic said:

What exactly does being British have anything to do with being aware of what qualifies as a reliable source? I honestly don't see how nationality is even slightly related to the ability to judge such things.

maybe you should ask: "what exactly does being british have anything to do with being aware what british newspaper is considered tabloid trash?"
british people are obviously more exposed to it, so they develop a natural reaction to news from that particular source. capiche?

Sodaholic said:

What exactly does being British have anything to do with being aware of what qualifies as a reliable source? I honestly don't see how nationality is even slightly related to the ability to judge such things.

If dew's comment didn't make it sufficiently clear, it is a BRITISH newspaper. Well-known in BRITAIN, where BRITISH people tend to live, to be a trashy alarmist newspaper.

Maes said:

Well to be fair the US and Australian governments, and colonial rulers in general never had a light hand with indigenous people/aborigines whenever they went.

If this is intended to be at all relevant, then presumably you're referring to Norway's treatment of the Sami* people. Having been in Norwegian Lapland several times, it appears that things are reasonably good for the Sami, with abundant opportunities for their language and culture to be preserved, and to participate in modern Norway's prosperity. The policy of using subsidies and taxation to keep essentials affordable also has a tendency to benefit the Sami, since many things would otherwise be extremely expensive in the far north of Norway.

* Wikipedia is accessible today by simply blocking the dumb script.

Oh, I didn't click on any of the links after the first one (not too interested in the story), so I didn't know that you guys were talking about a British newspaper, so I thought the comment in question was about judging newspapers in general, not judging local ones. My bad.

Is eating hákarl considered child abuse, I wonder?

Sodaholic said:

Oh, I didn't click on any of the links after the first one (not too interested in the story), so I didn't know that you guys were talking about a British newspaper, so I thought the comment in question was about judging newspapers in general, not judging local ones. My bad.

Kinda proves the point, doesn't it? Not being British, you weren't even aware that it was a British paper, much less the kind of reputation it has.

david_a said:

Is eating hákarl considered child abuse, I wonder?

I wasn't aware that Icelandic food was so well known in other countries :)

And no, its not child abuse. Though I don't like the taste of hákarl myself. Some of the meals from þorramatur are good though.

hardcore_gamer said:

Just what exactly do you consider to be a "good source"?

Well known, and with a good reputation. The Daily Mail is NOT a good or reliable source for anything. The rest are websites I've never heard of.

Until then, I'll stick by my previous statement - "I suspect that there may be more to the story than what the parents told the tabloids". These articles are all one-sided and don't present anything other than what the parents claim happened.