"Kid Nation" Reality TV Show to Premiere Sept. 19th, Greased with a Bit of Scandal

Something to look forward to when I return? A new reality tv show about 40 kids electing their own government in Montana will premiere the week I return to the USA, and already a participant's parent is complaining that child welfare laws were not followed. I can't quite follow the kernel of the complaint (inadequate supervision? failure to register with the state film office? child labor laws?) and my cynical nature leads me to wonder if this isn't part of the advance PR for the show, since I certainly had not heard of it until this story. But I must admit, I am intrigued.

Obese Man Undergoes Bariatric Surgery for Kinship Adoption

A shocking story from last week just reached me. A 500 pound Missouri man, a licensed foster parent and adoptive father, has been found unfit to adopt his infant cousin, who has been shuttled into the state foster care system and away from the family chosen by his birth mother. We expect these kind of rulings from Beijing, where new adoption restrictions took effect recently and penalize obese adopters. Certainly no one is saying obesity "doesn't matter," but this is a sad and shocking story, and every day that baby spends in foster care makes it sadder.

"Benefit Thieves"

Something unexpected, the bus bench ad outside International House London and several others in the city are devoted to catching "benefit thieves"--"Can you tell which van is our surveillance van?" "Can you see our surveillance agent?" I assume benefit thieves are persons signed up for relief or unemployment whilst actually working (Do you like the "whilst"? I am learning already!). But at SSA and in American social policy circles we sometimes think that we are the only country to engage in this kind of surveillance or policing of benefit recipients, and the cheerful Orwellian nature of these ads was rather shockling to me.