Choice between starvation and Taser.

Financed by black money the construction industry is booming in India. A bunch of women labor arrive in the morning and sit at the roadside warming themselves. One woman sits behind another and starts parting her hair looking for lice. About half a dozen toddlers, between 2 and 3 years of age, have come with their mothers. A girl of about 5 carries a baby who looks about 1 year old. All children have thin limbs, lax skin and ginger colored hair, signs of malnutrition. Older children have probably gone to work at various homes, tea stalls or scooter repair shops around the city. As the contractor arrives the women get busy carrying bricks, cement or sand while the children play in the dirt by the road as Honda, Skoda and Volkswagen cars drive by. A daily scene across India everyday. It is a national shame that 45% of our children are malnourished. But surely children are much better off elsewhere? Surely British and American children enjoy paradise as they grow up loved and cared for? After the riots in Britain last year courts in Britain handed out long prison sentences to teenagers, not for committing any crime, but for being caught on CCTV cameras at the scene of rioting. Talk about kangaroo courts. Police filed false charges against suspected rioters and families were thrown out of council housing if anyone was convicted of just being seen. This, however, is nothing. Things are worse in the US, much worse. Police with guns now patrol schools. Children are given " Class C misdemeanor " tickets for being unruly. Last year 300,000 such tickets were given to children in the God fearing state of Texas for swearing, misbehaving on the school bus or getting into a punch up in the playground, in short for behaving like children. The Guardian Weekly, January 27. Even if parents of the children pay the resulting fines it is tantamount to pleading guilty and these children will not get government help with college tuition fees which are astronomical in the US. A little child branded, just like cattle. A 16 year old boy in Seguin, Texas was tasered for refusing to cooperate when asked why he was not wearing an identification tag. In California, a school security officer broke a girl's arm for refusing to clear up crumbs from her table. A 15 year old boy was shot dead in Brownville, Texas when he pointed an air gun at police. Brutalised children grow into brutal adults. The God fearing folk of Texas are right in one respect at least - the end of the world is indeed nigh.