*
January 27 / 30, February 1, 2012
Marianne Haslev Skånland:
Norwegian
CPS attacks an Indian family
The
Bhattacharya case in Stavanger
*
January 27,
2012
A ray of hope has at last
entered the lives of the Indian couple Mr and Mrs
Bhattacharya from Kolkata, living in Stavanger in the
south-west of Norway. Their two small children were
tragically taken away by the local "child protection
services" (CPS, "barnevernet" in Norwegian) and have been
kept from the parents for several months. But now the
Bhattacharyas' case has exploded in India, with numerous
detailed articles and reports in newspapers, with
television programmes, and action taken by Indian
authorities at a high political level (some references
given below).
Of course the Norwegian CPS and politicians talk their
usual "impressive" nonsense about being committed to the
best interest of the children and recite psycho-babble
about lack of "attachment" between the mother and the
children, but India is outraged and has not so far let
themselves be convinced by this tomfoolery pretending to be
deep science.
The result of the international concern about Norwegian CPS
is that something comes to the surface about the CPS in
general, since the way this Indian couple and their
children are being manhandled is familiar in every detail
to lots of Norwegian CPS victims also. All the publicity,
and the resolute attitude shown by India, has sent a
similar ray of hope into the lives of all the thousands of
families in Norway persecuted by the CPS too. The Norwegian
press, which normally pleases our authorities and rejects
the stories of families persecuted by CPS, have not been
able to keep quite so cosily quiet this time. Besides, the
case comes not long after Norwegian CPS's ill-treatment of
a Polish girl and her parents led to astute action by Poles
who succeeded in helping the girl escape back to her
parents in Poland, whereupon Norway had the incredible
impertinence to go to court in Poland(!) to have the girl
forcibly returned to CPS child prison in Norway(!). They
claimed that she would have far better living conditions
under their "care", kept away from her parents! They lost.
Catholic Poland apparently has not yet quite succumbed to
the ideas of the psycho-babble industry. Furthermore, the
Bhattacharya case comes smack on the new installment in an
atrocious case regarding two Turkish children, involving
the same CPS agency in Stavanger, under the same leader, Mr
Gunnar Toresen, who is well known to very many CPS victims.
Some more about this Stavanger/Turkey case below.
Some
articles in the Indian newspapers were open to comments,
and many of these asked very pertinent questions,
especially in the paper The
Hindu,
which led me to attempt a 'letter to the editor'. It is
almost identical to what follows here below.
January
29/30, February 1, 2012:
The Hindu has published the comment, just
very slightly abreviated, as far as I can see:
The iron hand that rocks the
cradle
by Marianne Haslev Skånland
Opinion, op-ed
The
Hindu,
Jan 30, 2012
Several interesting readers' comments have been added below
the article, dated January 31. The one saying "Unless the
partents' offence is huge enough for them to be jailed or
otherwise severely punished, there can be no ground for the
State to take charge of children." is of course close to my
heart, cf §11 in the Political programme for child protection
at local level I wrote a few years back for
some bright minds in a small party starting up. (I must
pull myself together and translate it into English one
of these days, I think.) §11 has the heading: "The CPS
should only be able to move to take a child into care in
cases in which criminal conduct on the part of the
parents towards the child can be assumed to have taken
place and be provable.
*
Here is a version of the original article but one which was
actually modified by me a bit later, after I sent the
article off to The
Hindu:
*
I must compliment Indian newspapers and not least
The
Hindu for bringing thorough coverage
of the case of the Indian couple deprived of their children
by the Norwegian 'child protection services' (CPS).
Very many of the comments to the articles, too, are exactly
to the point. But you all need to know that this is the way
the Scandinavian CPS carry on in general. Sweden is
actually the worst of the Scandinavian countries.
One commentator asks: "It would be interesting to see how
many other white Norwegian children are taken away from
their parents just because they don't have 'proper toys'."
The answer is: thousands, on exactly such a pretext, or any
other. Parents who are frightened or who protest, are
branded with a quack psychiatric diagnosis. Any "problem"
in a child's behaviour, even illness like autism, is
attributed to 'unfit/deficient/abusive parents'. There is
not much need of real social work in Norway and what there
is in families with children (helping out with practical
tasks such as washing and cooking in homes where the
parents are ill), CPS social workers do not want to do. The
CPS, in order to have work, want children and they attack
anybody who is vulnerable. That means mostly poor people,
Norwegians as well as foreigners, because they are helpless
to defend themselves. The general population chooses to
disbelieve and despise the families, to believe CPS lies,
and to believe that they themselves could never be hit
because they are such good parents. The truth is: Almost
all families attacked by the CPS are both good and loving
parents. Some need help, e.g financial, most of them need
nothing other than to be left in peace by this vicious
agency and its helpers. The CPS smash the family and
destroy the individuals. In their ideology family ties are
unimportant; they speak not of parents but of "care
givers".
CPS live by depriving children of their parents. It is an
industry, which pays incredible amounts especially to
psychologists for "reports" and to foster "parents" (they
advertise for people to be foster parents and announce a
yearly pay of e.g NOK 430.000 (≈ EUR 50.000) + paid
holidays and regular "time off" from the foster children +
allowances for building on to their house or buying an
extra car + pension entitlement). The business also, of
course, provides extra income and extra jobs for social
workers. Frequently the social workers themselves will take
as their own foster children some of the children they
remove from parents. Tens of thousands of teachers,
kindergarten personnel, health workers etc etc report their
"worry" over this and that child to the CPS. The court
procedures are those of kangaroo courts. No matter how well
those of us who fight against this are able to document the
disastrous effects on the lives of both the parents and
especially on the children, all the changes in legislation
and procedures keep going in the wrong direction: The
children are the property of the state and every parent who
questions anything is accused of being an ill-doer and a
danger to his/her children.
"What is this confidentiality about?" another commenter
asks, regarding the refusal of the CPS to say anything
about the case or about the agreement which is seemingly
budding. The parents' lawyer also will say nothing about
the terms of the agreement. The answer to the very
pertinent question is very likely: The Norwegian state is
trying to blackmail everyone to shut up about Norwegian
child "protection" atrocities as a condition of letting the
Indian children out of their clutches. That way Norway can:
a) have the case die down by letting the children return to
India, b) prevent outspoken comments abroad and avoid
several of these countries perhaps joining forces, c) still
continue to protect its social "services" - an industry
feeding tens of thousands of people doing unproductive
"work", and d) avoid having to face heaps of other cases
quite similar to the Stavanger/Kolkata one, some involving
Norwegian families, some foreign families.
Another case involving India, because the child's mother is
Indian (the father is Swedish), is that of Domenic
Johansson, taken by Swedish police on behalf of the Swedish
CPS off an aeroplane to stop him and his parents from going
to India, and then abducted by Swedish CPS. The charge
against the parents was that they wanted home schooling for
Domenic: "The Domenic Johansson Case. Home
schooled boy snatched from plane in
Sweden".
The cases with similar or identical details to this
Stavanger/Kolkata case are endlessly many. There are people
trying to fight against this criminal abuse perpetuated by
our state, of course, but they themselves are often
threatened. Anyone trying to help children who flee the CPS
is prosecuted and jailed. It is encouraging for Norwegians
trying to get publicity out about CPS abuses (the press is
very state-subservient and uninterested) to see, in the
bottom right hand corner of the large poster carried in the
demonstration in Kolkata (the photograph from the newspaper
Stavanger Aftenblad is shown on the front page of the
internet forum "Redd våre barn" (Save Our Children)
http://forum.r-b-v.net, a little way down from the
top), a picture of an ogre with the text "Barnevern"
(child protection). That picture has been taken
precisely from the r-b-v website. So, some intelligent
Indians seem to have discovered "us". It warms our
hearts.
Although CPS persecution in Norway happens mostly to
Norwegian families, foreign families are disproportionately
represented. One case, with the same head of social
services, Gunnar Toresen, as in the Indian case, concerns
two Turkish children, a case about which I have numerous
details. I wrote about it in 2006: The Manavgat case in Turkey - Norway is
the kidnapper on the website "Redd Våre
Barn".
The case has recently come to life again because at long
last a Stavanger newspaper has gone after some details of
the city of Stavanger having paid out half a million crowns
to be spent as graft to take the children illegally out of
Turkey. The man who engineered this is a private
investigator who previously worked for the Norwegian crime
force and now did this job for the CPS. But in my view,
there are far more important facts: The children had been
placed with a Norwegian foster "father" who had already
been accused by two previous foster girls to have abused
them sexually. (No attention was paid to this, of course,
since the CPS do not tolerate criticism of their
foster"parents".) The boys were kidnapped and taken back to
Norway, to the very same foster "father" and his partner.
This foster "father", Carsten Flo, has only now been on
trial for child pornography and child sexual abuse, and
been found guilty (Fosterfar tilstår overgrep og
barneporno "Foster father confesses to
sex abuse and child pornography", Stavanger-/Tyrkia-saken
"The
Stavanger/Turkey case"). Back in 2006, the social
services and their Norwegian lawyer derided the boys'
parents in a Turkish court for making such claims of
abuse, expressing contempt and irony towards the
parents, holding that the mother wanted her boys back
out of prestige and not out of love, since she made no
attempt at that time to get back her daughter, only her
sons. (The mother had been only 14 when her daughter was
born, and the CPS had immediately taken the daughter
because of the mother's "immaturity" and had never let
her know even where her daughter was. The sons were born
much later and had lived with their parents for several
years before they were taken, and besides, it was
possible for the parents to find them, whereas the
Norwegian authorities had made it impossible to find the
daughter.)
I am full of admiration about the actions taken by the
families of this Indian couple Bhattacharya and Indian
people and newspapers in general. You need to continue
being on the alert: You cannot trust a single thing said by
the Norwegian CPS the Norwegian Foreign Minister or any
other politician or official. It was foreseeable that
Norway might try blackmail in the form of making it a
condition for returning the Indian children to their family
that everybody must promise to shut up about the case. In
that way Norway can continue what they do, the kangaroo
courts can go on as before, foster "parents" and clinical
psychologists can go on earning money, the myriad social
workers trained each year can get jobs. Needless to say, I
hope Norway does not succeed with this blackmail.
So let me applaud another comment to one of your articles:
"The world should condemn Norway for its barbarity."
Yes indeed. It should. Please help more victims by doing
so.
Marianne Haslev Skanland (Skånland)
professor emeritus
Bergen, Norway
************************************************************
***********************************
"Free our kids"
Photos from the demonstration in
Kolkata
Forum
Redd Våre Barn, Jan 15 - 26
(cf the article 6000 demonstrerte for indiske barn i
Stavanger)
***
Articles about the Stavanger/Kolkata case:
***********************************
Norway cool to plea for custody of
children to Indian parents
By Aarti Dhar, New Delhi
The
Hindu,
Jan 21, 2012
Norway appreciates concerns over children
in foster home
By Aarti Dhar, New Delhi
The
Hindu,
Jan 22, 2012
Norwegian authorities list Bhattacharyas'
shortcomings
By Carima Tirillsdottir Heinesen, Oslo
The
Hindu,
Jan 25, 2012 (translated from the article in Ny Tid listed
below)
Norway agrees to hand over children to
their uncle
By Aarti Dhar, New Delhi
The
Hindu,
Jan 25, 2012
Grandparents of children in Noway
delighted
By Ananya Dutta, Kolkata
The
Hindu,
Jan 25, 2012
This is no way,
Norway
Opinion, editorial
The
Hindu,
Jan 26, 2012
Norway, yes, but let's also look
within
By Geeta Ramaseshan
The
Hindu,
Jan 27, 2012
Indian couple's children taken away by
Norway authorities
NDTV,
Dec 24, 2011
Norway snatches away children from Indian
couple?
NDTV,
Jan 21, 2012
Children's paternal uncle to get
custody
NDTV,
Jan 25, 2012
Uncle to get custody of Norway NRI
couple's kids
TNN, The
Times of India, Jan 25, 2012
Reunion with kids soon for Norway NRI
couple
By Indrani Bagchi & Debashis Konar
TNN, The
Times of India, Jan 26,
2012
India takes up with Norway issue of NRI
couple's children
Deccan
Herald, New Delhi, Dec 24, 2011
'Child snatch' spat with
Oslo
The
Telegraph, Calcutta, Dec 24, 2011
Norway officials 'kidnap' Indian
children
India
Blooms News Service, New Delhi, Dec 24,
2011
Separating kids from parents unjustified:
India tells Norway
Norway
News, Jan 06, 2012
Norway agency won't return
kids
Norway
News, Jan 07, 2012
Norway may hand over Indian kids to
grandparents
Norway
News, Jan 25, 2012
*
Fratatt barna – søsken
splittet
Av Carima Tirilsdottir Heinesen
Ny
Tid,
Oslo, Jan 12 / Jan 25, 2012
Begrunnelsene
Ny
Tid,
Oslo (no date)
Barnevernet har tvangsplassert indiske
barn
Av Dag-Henrik Fosse, Hans Petter Aass
Aftenbladet,
Stavanger, Dec 23, 2011
Indiske myndigheter går sterkt inn i
norsk barnevernssak
Av Jone Østebø
Aftenbladet,
Stavanger, Jan 02, 2012
India presser barnevernet i
Stavanger
Av Elisabeth Sagen
Aftenbladet,
Stavanger, Jan 06, 2012
6000 demonstrerte for indiske barn i
Stavanger
Av Hilde Moi
Aftenbladet,
Stavanger, Jan 09, 2012
Diplomatisk drakamp etter barnevernsak i
Stavanger
Av Klaus Holthe og Hilde Gran
TV2 Nyhetene, Jan 23, 2012
Millioner fulgte "marerittet i
Norge"
Av Philip Lote
TV2
Nyhetene, Jan 24 / Jan 25, 2012
Indiske barn tatt av norsk barnevern: –
Onkelen i India får foreldreretten
av Mirjam Pletanek
TV2
Nyhetene, Jan 25, 2012
***
Further articles:
*************
NRI couple to get back their
kids
By Saibal Gupta, Kolkata
Deccan
Herald,
Jan 25, 2012
End sufferings in Norway, activists urge
child rights panel
Special correspondent, New Delhi
The
Hindu,
Jan 27, 2012
Barnevernet skal intervjue
onkelen
Av Olav Rege Olsen
Aftenbladet,
Stavanger, Jan 27, 2012
Leave the kids alone,
Norway
By Anil Malhotra
The
Hindu,
Jan 29, 2012
Inhumanity in
Norway
By Swapan Dasgupta
Deccan
Chronicle, Jan 26, 2012
Indiadom: Inhumanitet i
Norge
av Swapan Dasgupta
Nyhetsspeilet,
Jan 28 / Jan 29, 2012 (translated from the article in
Deccan Chronicle above)
Family still waiting for official word in
kids' custody case
By Ananya Dutta
The
Hindu,
Jan 30, 2012
Children's welfare
Opinion - Letters
The
Hindu,
Jan 26, 2012
Childcare culture
Opinion - Letters to the editor
The
Hindu,
Jan 30, 2012
Child protection
Opinion - Letters
The
Hindu,
Jan 31, 2012
Norwegian child
laws
Opinion - Letters
The
Hindu,
Feb 01, 2012
A child's nightmare called
Norway
By Vanitha
Srinivasan
The
Hindu Business Line, Feb 2, 2012
The facts about child snatching can be
reported in Norway
– but not here
By Christopher Booker
The
Telegraph, Jan 28, 2012
Norway NRI couple urges media
restraint
By Susenjit Guha, Kolkata
The Sunday Guardian, Jan 29, 2012
Norsk lov i Norge,
takk!
Av Claudio Castello
Utrop,
Jan 25, 2012
- Norge må ta hensyn til
Barnekonvensjonen
Av Claudio Castello
Utrop,
Feb 01, 2012
Statens barn
Av Anita Apelthun Sæle
Norge
idag,
Feb 01, 2012
Fortvilte foreldre har engasjert polsk
"Rambo"
Av Dagfinn Dommersnes
Aftenbladet,
Stavanger, Jan 29, 2012
*
