Joe Madison
Monday, May 21, 2001

Where have all the children gone? Long time asking … There was a song more than 30 years ago that ask a similar question. Can you image the reaction of the world if AIDS orphaned the entire child population of the United Kingdom?

A recent report by Christian Aid cited that AIDS has orphaned more than 12 million children in sub-Saharan Africa - equivalent to the U.K.’s entire child population. By 2010, this number will have risen to 43 million and will have wiped out the economy of South Africa.

Local economies are crumbling. Many children are forced to live on the streets. Youngsters are often orphaned two or three times as their parents die, to be replaced by aunts, uncles and other relatives who fall victim to AIDS. Think about it: An entire generation is growing up without parents, teachers and a future. If this were England it would be a crisis.

The Black Eagle lands in Sudan … was the headline of a story written by columnist Nat Hentoff for the Village Voice last week. Hentoff, who writes for United Media, William Raspberry of the Washington Post, DeWayne Wickham of USA Today and columnists with NewsMax.com are only a handful of journalists who have consistently reported or written about the atrocities in Sudan. Why?

Last November 20 armed forces of Sudan national government executed seven African schoolboys after a midmorning slave raid on an elementary school in southern Sudan. Eyewitnesses reported that the boys were shot in the head to instill fear and obedience in the other children. All the children were forced to watch the killings. Government soldiers systematically gang-raped and enslaved black African women and girls after raids on villages in southern Sudan.

Where is Ted Koppel’s "Nightline" and Oprah? I admire both and many other journalists in this free society of ours. But there is only so much that the Black Eagle and others can do. I have a coffee cup someone gave me as a present that has the inscription, "Leaders are like Eagles: they don’t flock, you find them one at a time.” I guess the same can be said about journalists when it comes to Sudan. (For additional information about Slavery in Sudan go to www.joemadison.com).

Father Knows Best … The number of single–father households rose 62 percent in 10 years, according to the 2000 census report. Now 2.2 million households have children reared by a single dad. That is about one household in 45.

Finally more judges are awarding custody of children to fathers in divorce cases. Single fathers are also saying we can take care of children as well as the mother and we do want to be part of their lives.

Now if we can only find a way to keep the fathers and mothers together, get the single women who are having babies because they can’t find a good man to be a father and husband. The 2010 census report headlines might read, Both Parents Staying Together and Raising Children.

Final words from the Eagle’s Nest … Some one out there in cyberspace name Angela McKee sent me the following e-mail to ponder our world from a compressed perspective. She writes, If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same there would be:

57 Asians
21 Europeans 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans

52 females
48 males

70 nonwhite
30 white

70 non-Christians
30 Christians

89 heterosexuals
11 homosexuals

6 people would possess 59 percent of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death, 1 would be near birth
1( yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer

The need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent. Count your blessings.

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