Melania Trump is off to teach Africa how to look after children - hopefully better than the US

[niyad]

Melania Trump is off to teach Africa how to look after children – hopefully better than the US

The first lady is jetting off to promote her ‘Be Best’ child welfare initiative, but there is no word on whether it promotes locking them in cages or allowing them to get shot

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Melania Trump ... spreading a grammatically incorrect gospel. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Melania Trump has packed her bags and is heading far, far away from her husband. On Monday, the first lady is jetting off on a solo tour of parts of Africa; her first major international trip without the president. She is planning to visit Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt in order to promote her “Be Best” child welfare initiative. Months after it was first announced, it is still not entirely clear what the objectives of Be Best are, but Melania isn’t letting that stop her from spreading the grammatically incorrect gospel.At this point, the cynical reader may be grumbling: “I really don’t care about Melania’s travel plans, do you?” Well, I do. It is truly laudable that the first lady is taking time out from ignoring all the chaos in the White House to get on a private jet and pose for photos with smiling African children. We should all be so selfless.
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Of course, Melania is going to do a lot more than just posing. The US has much to teach the rest of the world about child welfare, you see, and I’m sure she’ll be passing on valuable advice. Such as: don’t try and seek asylum in the US unless you want to be separated from your parents, drugged and locked in a cage.The US also has important lessons to pass on about the value of education. This year, for example, a federal district court judge in Michigan ruled that “access to literacy” or a “minimally adequate education” was not a fundamental right. The judge used this decision to dismiss a class-action lawsuit filed by students at underperforming schools in Detroit, who argued that they had been denied access to literacy because of underfunding and mismanagement. According to the complaint, the schools lacked textbooks but were filled with vermin; the first thing teachers did each morning was clean up rodent faeces. Who says the American dream is dead, eh?


Another thing the US excels at, of course, is school shootings. There have been 36 shootings in schools or college campuses this year alone. But rather than implementing common-sense gun control, the US has simply shrugged and decided that active shooter drills are just going to be the new normal in American schools. Which is good news for bulletproof-backpack manufacturers; sales have soared since February’s Parkland school shooting, in which 17 people were killed. It’s not such good news for the kids. According to a report by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, an activist group, nearly 60% of American high school students say they are afraid of gun violence occurring at their school or community. I’m not sure how many kids in Ghana, Malawi, Kenya or Egypt live in fear of getting shot in their maths class. Perhaps Melania can find out.

It looks like Melania will be doing a lot of flying, so I hope she has packed enough reading material. She might want to start with the UN convention on the rights of the child, the landmark agreement that established global standards to protect children. The US is currently the only country in the world that hasn’t ratified the treaty. It used to share this dubious distinction with South Sudan and Somalia, but they both ratified it in 2015. You would think that the US’s failure to commit to a global convention protecting kids might preclude it from telling other countries how they can “Be Best” and champion children. But if there’s one thing the US has always been best at, it’s thinking it knows better than anywhere else.

. . .

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/30/melania-trump-off-to-teach-africa-how-to-look-after-children-be-best

[riversedge]

1. Recall Melania wore her green jacket I DO NOT CARE on the way to check on locked up kids in Texas...

Wonder if she brought it with her.

[niyad]

2. would not be surprised.

[matt819]

3. Really?

I think she ought to see how Africa raises its children and bring back those methods.

Try this one: DINNoedhjaelp - a Danish aid project focused on educating children.

Follow at FB: Anja Ringgren Loven.