Having trained and gained professional child care qualifications, and then having worked with children in a professional capacity for over 30 years I, like all concerned citizens, obviously want the best for children – and for this reason I will be voting ‘NO’ in the upcoming Children’s referendum.

I have spent 16 years as a Social Care Worker working with the most vulnerable population of children in residential care. I have fostered 5 young people and have also worked with the HSE in areas of Child Protection, so feel qualified to state my concerns as outlined below. To the question “Do I have confidence in this state to provide for 'the best interests of children”?

No. Unfortunately I do not.

Indymedia Links: Children's Rights referendum ?
External Links: Thoughts on the Children’s Referendum | The Children’s Referendum: Little to Write Home About | Legal Analysis of the Children’s Referendum: Article 42A Conclusion -Contains links to separate analyses.
Official & campaign website: ChildrensReferendum.ie | ChildrensRights.ie campaign page

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Map of Resource Thefts

€1,600 billion. That is the figure for Irish Oil & Gas reserves already licensed revealed last Tuesday morning (Sept 11th) in a detailed report from Shell to Sea using the energy corporations own reports and estimates. People in Ireland will see almost no benefits from this incredible wealth because the Irish state gives these reserves to the corporations at the cheapest terms in the world.

In these links, some from ShellToSea and some from Indymedia, one can get an idea of the scale of scandal that lies before us, the deep level of corruption, consequences and how we are all suffering now from the financial crisis -caused by a slightly different form of corruption from much the same layer in Irish society and yet we are being robbed not just of our resources, but the very fabric of our society is being torn apart (health, educational, social & civic) , national sovereignty given away, and our taxes increase to pay for the gambles and speculation of the bankers, developers and bondholders -i.e the elite.
Related Links: ShellToSea First find the oil, and then raise the taxes | Our oil and gas might as well be off the coast of Brazil for all the good it will do us | News release: Devastating report exposes State's mismanagement of oil & gas resources | News release: New evidence of Shell's covert surveillance emerges | News Release: Rabbitte's betrayal further exposed by Providence's 1.6 bn barrel oil find | Drillers to earn €53bn from Irish oil find | Norwegian Fisherman warns of destruction of seismic survey
Indymedia: Resource Wars: a feature of the 21st century? -shows how the resource theft is a global phenomena | One Gas Well to Secure Ireland's Energy Supply!!! | Business as usual for Gardaí – trying to smear women in ‘rape tape’ controversy - perfect illustration of how the corruption from the whole resource issue permeates into human rights abuses. | Review of the Corrib Gas Project Oral Hearing | Farmers group wants Ireland to follow Iceland and burn the bondholders | Mandate To Default On The Unjust Bank Debt That Is Sinking Our Economy - just like the resource theft, we've been fooled again by being landed with the banking bailout bill | Press Statement: “Wealthy Elite will still have political power after election,” says 1% Network -demonstrates nothing changes. | Shell to Sea distribute 1000's of 540 billion notes | The Unfolding Crisis and Ireland's Economic Ruin -Our descent into the financial black hole. | Students Occupy Department Of Finance -See how the govt brutally attacks our young people because they have to make cuts to save the bankers & speculators losses.
Fracking is the next diaster! Poland and Fracking - Lessons to be Learned - Ban Fracking In EU | Fracking in the Lough Allen & Clare Basins | Renowned Investigative Journalist Greg Palast Talks about Fracking in Enniskillen, Carrick on Shannon and Dublin -link to video of full talk.

Automatic facial recognition in action

Things on the global Police State front get more frightening and ominous by the day. This latest announcement serves to underline that. The FBI has officially started rolling out a state-of-the-art face recognition project that will assist in their effort to accumulate and archive information about each and every American at a cost of a billion dollars. It is known as the Next Generation Identification (NGI) program. This report comes from Russia Today (rt.com) and quotes an article in New Scientist magazine. The project itself was announced back in 2005 and was part of a project to upgrade the existing Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) that keeps track of citizens with criminal records across America.

Related Feature on TrapWire: Stratfor Hacked Emails Reveal the TrapWire System run by Private Corporations run by ex-CIA/NSA people

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Surveillance cameras everywhere now

A series of reports from Russia Today (rt.com) and other sites have explained how activists reading through last year's hack by Anonymous of the Strategic Forecasting Intelligence agency (Stratfor) have revealed a little known system already in place and run by the Abraxas corporation although hints of the system were known years earlier. The email have since been released on WikiLeaks. Global Intelligence Files

Related Feature on TrapWire: FBI begins installation of $1 billion face recognition system across America When you read this other story, it is evident that the capability has rapidly come together in the last few years for computer systems to now store billions of photographs and run continual analysis on them and other related data such as location info (GPS from your phone), phone call history, credit card & bank transactions, vehicle registration recognition and tracking by motorway + street overhead cameras etc

Related Links: Abraxas and Trapwire: the technology and personnel revealed | Trapwire Article on Cryptogon | (Guradian) Trapwire surveillance system exposed in document leak | (ACLU) What to make of the Trapwire Story | Leaked Microsoft intelligence document: Here's what Microsoft will reveal to police about you