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Earlier this month, in El Dorado, Texas, there was a raid on a massive polygamist compound. This compund is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect. It consisted of, not only of adults advocating polygamy, but of children that were apart of this movement. About 400 children we taken from this compound, and are being taken care of by authorities while investigations of abuse are being undergone.

So what has happened to the children since the raid?
These children have been growing up in an environment that most people will never experience. Of course, the way that these children were being raised may be inappropriate, but to take them out of their accustomed environment must be placing them into a huge culture shock.

After being taken into state custody, the children are on their way to different group homes, shelters and residences. Though foster children must have their own set of issues, the problems that these polygamy compound children must be that much harder. These children were raised to believe that everyone outside their community were harmful and toxic, only trying to contaminate their pure and holy beliefs.

Good news is that state officials are realizing how important it is to gradually expose these children to the world. According to Child Protective Services' spokeswoman Shari Pullman, "We recognize it's critical that these children not be exposed to mainstream culture too quickly or other things that would hinder their success. We just want to protect them from abuse and neglect. We're not trying to change them."

Though custody for each child is still left undecided, some may be sent to permanent foster homes, while others may even be allowed to return back to El Dorado, officials are doing things that are in the best interest of the children.

Are the Presidential Candidates Missing Something?

In all of the craziness  that has come about in the Presidential races, there seems to be one topic that has not made it on the national scene. I really don't know what more is a tragedy the fact that no one is talking about the destruction of the Gulf Coast or the fact that in 2005 one of the most powerful storms hit New Orleans, Louisiana.

In a debate that has been about who is more in touch with the problems of the country, it would seem that someone would mention rebuilding the Gulf Coast region. Yes, there was a candidate that did talk about the Gulf Coast, it was John Edwards. Senator Edwards built his campaign on poverty and the moral responsibilities of the country to combat these efforts. 

The real question is all the criticism the national media gave the U.S. Government for ignoring the people and the clean up efforts. Now it seems that the national media has forgotten the Gulf Coast. The campaigns are focusing on Health Care, the Economy, and the War in Iraq. The main arguments the candidates have been trying to make is that they are ready for the crisis moment of their presidency. It seems as though we have a red phone moment in that a city in the United States is devastated. Parts of the Gulf Coast are never going to be the same. People have lost jobs and homes and family members.

May be the Gulf Coast is opportunity for economic stimulus. Maybe the Gulf Coast is the answer to the countries energy crisis, or maybe the moral responsibility of the Country is not being upheld. Maybe if the candidates would stop trying tell the people about how much they can fight for America, or their solutions for change, they could really be in touch and ask the people of the Gulf Coast what they think. You want to talk about change ask the people of the Gulf Coast about how their lives had changed. Ask them how hard they fight every morning trying to piece together lives with little government assistance.

Shakira Shakes it for Education

Shakira recently teamed up with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to call more global awareness to help send poor children to school.  They are working together to help finance the Global Campaign for Education which strives to provide basic education for every child in the world.  Shakira says that "one of the group's goals is to get more help from world leaders in paying for primary education for 72-million children, ages six to 12, who cannot attend school because of poverty."  The group also wants to help some 226 million older children who also miss out on an education.  Shakira will meet with U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill to try to persuade them to pass a bill which would increase U.S.  aid for education in developing countries to $3 billion a year by 2012.  Shakira and the Global Campaign for Education hope to break the barriers and increase worldwide education even sponsoring an even which will include five million students from for then 100 countries in the worlds largest simultaneous lesson.  

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/04/21/verjee.shakira.int.cnn?iref=videosearch

http://www.voanews.com/english/images/ap_Shakira_175_eng_21apr08.jpg

The Pope & Bad PR

Pope Benedict XVI was met with mixed reviews when he arrived in New York. On the one side he had his fellow Catholics ready to here mass and receive communion in Yankee Stadium. The other side not so much; catholic rights activist planned vigils, demonstrations and news conferences to draw attention to issues ranging from the ordination of women and gay rights to sex abuse by priests and the Vatican ban on contraception.

Pope Benedict XVI may not have realized that he and the Catholic Church were facing a PR Crisis. Half the world has uncovered the Church’s dirty little secret of covering up sexual misconduct. The world wants this new pope to take action against these priests. His arrival to New York filled people’s hearts with hope of gaining justice.

However, these hopes were quickly dissipated because all Pope Benedict came to do was say he was deeply ashamed of priests who have been accused of sexual misconduct.

His did not go well with people, so now the Pope has been continuously under fire. Everyone is airing his dirty laundry from childhood to now.

Personally, I think to effectively manage this PR Crisis the Pope must send the message that sexual abuse will not be tolerated. Moreover, he must strategically take action against these priests to show the world that the Catholic Church does not condone sexual misconduct. Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church would really benefit from excommunicating those child-molesters, after all that’s what they are. The Catholic church and him would gain a new credibility from the public

Singer and songwriter, Alicia Keys, recently made headlines for her misinterpreted statement over "gansta rap" in America. According to the May issue of Blender magazine, Key was quoted stating "gangsta rap’ was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. ‘Gangsta rap’ didn’t exist.”

The 27- year-old singer defended her statement in the magazine as a misinterpretation on Blender's half of not clearly formulating Key's thoughts on the issue. In a recent press release Keys conveyed that her statement was not implying that the government was behind the formation of "gansta rap" in America. Instead she believes that rappers who fall under this genre of negativity and hate within their lyrics are in all honesty rapping about personal experiences. Furthermore, it is not only our country's leaders duties but also the public's as well to correct social issues of drugs, gang violence, and other crimes within America.

Though Keys was able to correct confusion over her thoughts on the creation of "gansta rap," her statement in Blender presented the public with a new outlook over the musician's beliefs and potentially jeopardized her career. The future will tell if Keys will be cautious of her wording in interviews over social issues or if her rant has just began.

The Internet as a PR agent since technological advances in Public Relations Theories

With the advent of technology like the Internet, almost anyone can employ public relations practices. World Pillow Fight Day (March 22) was hosted by a student-run organization called Newmindspace, who promoted the event via Facebook and Myspace. The group’s founders, Kevin Bracken and Lori Kufner, are students at University of Toronto, and want to promote unity through events in public spaces.
http://www.newmindspace.com/

For professional PR practitioners, technological advancements in the 1990s meant that they would have a new area to get in touch with their organization’s publics. It also meant that regular people at home could use computers to connect with others, as well. The textbook explains, “The advent of the world wide web, with its global reach and instant communication, meant that business became more transparent; increasingly, organizations were expected to make information about themselves available to publics on the web (Tench 160).”

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=114422510

With technology like the Internet, students such as Bracken and Kufner are able to expand on the urban playground movement with the public pillow fight. The event already exists in major cities from Paris to Shanghai. Through the Internet and other means of publicity, the founders of Newmindspace were able to find out about such an event and have their own in the United States. They’ve already organized two in Toronto and one in New York City. Because of exposure through Facebook, 5,000 people attended the pillow fight in New York, even though it had an original confirmed attendance of 12,000. Such a massive number of people were exposed and wanted to come to the event. Professional PR practitioners from major businesses have actually tried to gain promotion through Newmindspace for their clients. However, Bracken thinks the urban playground movement should be about regular, everyday people. He said, ‘We feel it is best unmediated by commercial transaction.’ He also acknowledges the importance of the Internet, and what is possible with the Internet as a PR agent. ‘We hope that urban playground events will become a large part of popular culture,’ he said. ‘Now that Internet culture has enabled it, there's no reason for these events not to happen forever.’



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120814163599712081.html?mod=yhoofront