I need help being a whistle blower, to make sure I get results

My son recieved a message in a bottle from across the world, in the form of a picture a little girl drew of herself on a production line, urinating on herself and a puddle in the floor under her, with tears in her eyes! The picture was tucked away, hidden cleverly inside the toy gun he bought at a discoiunt store, that I cannot name yet, because I do not want them pulling the toys and covering this up.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, well this one is worth a million tears.
My 7 year old son could probably draw a better picture, so I cannot guess how young this poor girl is. The chances of him receiving this message in a toy box from the other side of the world is mind blowing.

I am going back to the store tomorrow to buy all the guns they have left, in hopes that I can open one on camera and prove that we are not making a hoax. I feel that fate has put that little girl's well being in my son's hands, and I must help him help her and others like her. I will not name the toy company yet either. I am taking pics of the picture she drew, the box it came in, and how it was hidden inside the gun, but I cannot post them until I get some sound advice on how to go about this to make it successful as much as possible.

All I can tell you is the toy is from China, and it was bought at a discount store. Should I contact local media (newspaper, news channel) first, or try to go national? Or should I hand the evidence over to some affiliation that tries to help children like this?

This little girl probably risked her life to send us this message, and I want to bring this company down, and also maybe boycott stores that carry their brands. Before you ask, no, walmart does not carry this brand, I checked. I would be kinda scared going up against them, but I would still do it, I have to you see!

In the picture, she is smiling, revealing many missing teeth,(or that could be the product of it just being drawn by a child, i cannot say for sure)

What I can be sure of is the squiggly lines she drew coming from the crotch of her shorts that lead to the floor and she even tried to point an arrow to the stream and write "PEE" but because she probably has great trouble writing english, she left the top horizontal line off both capital "E"'s, so that they look like upside down "F"'s. The tears running down her cheeks broke my heart. I hear that they do not allow bathroom breaks, so I consider my interpretation to be 99% plausible, and the boox WAS SEALED, and the picture HIDDEN INSIDE THE TOY.

Here's our chance to make a difference ATS! Flag the hell out of this please, I don't care about points, I need exposure so that I can hopefully slam this companies profit margin at the very least, and best case scenario is they get shut down and this BRAVE GIRL'S one-in-a-million shot could actually work!!!!!! This can't (hopefully) be the ONLY package this was put in, if we can spread word too wuick for the store to pull it off the shelves, and buy them up, more messages are sure to be found! So we must act quick, I am begging you ATS'ers, truthers and skeptics alike to help make a REAL difference FROM YOUR COMPUTER!

Please give me advice on how to handle this! When WE (I want us to do this as a team to show others that ATS CAN make a difference) when WE all agree on the best case of action and the steps to be taken, then i will post the pics on here and thus reveal the company name on the box in the photos and then release the name of the store.

THIS IS NO JOKE. My son is pleading with me to call the cops, the newspaper, whoever I have to, but I want to make sure I don't go into this with impunity. So ATS, let's do something GREAT for this little girl and others like her, give me advice!!!!!!

[edit on 8-11-2009 by Enigma Publius]

[edit on 8-11-2009 by Enigma Publius]

reply to post by Enigma Publius



Contact an attorney. Sometimes "blowing the whistle" can open yourself up to lawsuits from the companies you want to expose. Large chain stores will go to extraordinary lengths to protect their reputation.

Perhaps your local paper could help direct you. This could be a big story.
Good luck!

S&F

reply to post by Enigma Publius


I am the grandma of Enigma's son. This is for real. I was so sad that my grandson had the reality of the bad things of the world come into his small world tonight. He now knows not all children have fun and a carefree life.

This picture broke my heart and somewhere there is a little girl that I feel much closer to and am afraid for.


Help us know what to do.



Peace to all,
Grandma




P

Originally posted by whaaa
reply to post by Enigma Publius

 

but getting an attorney may waste valuable time, what if the toys dissapear within a week or something like that?
Also, I am very close to being considered "poor" I feel so bad for this girl, she was so brave.



Contact an attorney. Sometimes "blowing the whistle" can open yourself up to lawsuits from the companies you want to expose. Large chain stores will go to extraordinary lengths to protect their reputation.

Perhaps your local paper could help direct you. This could be a big story.
Good luck!

S&F

Originally posted by whaaa
reply to post by Enigma Publius

 

Contact an attorney. Sometimes "blowing the whistle" can open yourself up to lawsuits from the companies you want to expose. Large chain stores will go to extraordinary lengths to protect their reputation.

Perhaps your local paper could help direct you. This could be a big story.
Good luck!

S&F

I thought about the legal ramifications, that's why I'm being so careful about it, but once we reach a decision on here, i WILL publish the photos and go full steam ahead with it.

reply to post by Grandma

Yes, you are another one who saw it be opened, at least to the doubters, a LOT of folks could pass a lie detector test on this, I almost hope it comes to that so everyone will believe, and this store and this company especially will go down in flames.

If it were me, I'd have chosen one network to go with (NOT FAUX news) and would let the chosen network canvas the store toys and filming instead of doing it myself. It will be a more professional 'shooting' (pun intended). I'd do it QUICKLY though.

My own television network manager offers immunity. There are two different types of immunity in public broadcasting. I forgot the difference; but, one is far better than the other.

Are you in US? Maybe ATSers can suggest which network they would go with on this. I'll try to see if I can find the two different immunity types and refresh my memory.

reply to post by Trexter Ziam

yes I am in America, please help any way you can, send this to your friends list, anything....I'm sending it to everyone on mine. And if anyone thinks I'm doing this for points, I promise that if need be I will ask for a perma-ban after we have made success. I am willing to whatever I need to, fate has put me and my son here, and we will do something about it. I bet there are so many of these messages that get tossed away, I wouln't have noticed it if my son hadn't shown me. She was quite clever about how she hid it.

I am mostly worried about time. If we can get this out there with perfect timing, maybe a special orginazation could pull all of these specific guns and examine them for more "messages in a bottle"
I am positive this wouldn't be the only one she would have made. But this may be the only TYPE of toy she tried it with, because it gives a GREAT ingenious way to hide the message yet still let it be seen.
She is so smart and brave I can't say that enough. If I could meet her someday I would remember it forever.

you could try UNICEF? or find out who the American importer of the product is... To be honest illegal child labor is prevalent through out the world, every time you buy something made south east asia or pretty much anywhere else in the 3rd world (Wal-mart/dollar store etc) you feed into the system that rewards this type of behavior. Those plastic guns you are buying are rewarding this little girls masters.UNICEF

[edit on 8-11-2009 by washingtonsghost]

why the lack of attention? I am getting worried!
Please ATS, this is a shameless request to make this big, I will not make a fool out of our site, this is VERY REAL.
I don't want this getting swept under the rug, If word gets out I am sure others will come forward who found similar messages!

Originally posted by washingtonsghost
you could try UNICEF? or find out who the American importer of the product is... To be honest illegal child labor is prevalent through out the world, every time you buy something made south east asia or pretty much anywhere else in the 3rd world (Wal-mart/dollar store etc) you feed into the system that rewards this type of behavior. Those plastic guns you are buying are rewarding this little girls masters.UNICEF

[edit on 8-11-2009 by washingtonsghost]

I know, I told my son that we are never buying anything from that company again, if possible, I will buy only American i soppose, but that doesn't leave my son with many choices for toys...he already asked about that, he IS pretty worried about not getting any more cheap toys. He's seven so don't hold it againt him, this is tough for him, he's kinda torn inside about it. He wants to play with the gun, but feels guilty about it also.

Any hints on how to help him cope would also be appreciated.
thank you for replying, I will research UNICEF tonight!

here's a form letter I am sending out to all my friends AND foes on here. You can copy it and replace a few words and then copy/paste to your friends to help bring attention to this IF YOU WANT TO.

It's only a request, and I hope it's not against the T&C on here. But if it is, I'll take a dock in points, like I said, the points don't matter to me.

here's the link to a horrible story, yet the most important thread I will likely EVER post here, it's a touching story, and WE, ATS can make a difference, but we have to act fast, you will understand when you visit the thread, in short it's about a little girl who in China who risked her life to put a message in a bottle (a toy in this case) for help. She is a child worker, and in the picture she drew she is urinating on herself and crying. Please bring attention to this, and give advice!


[edit on 8-11-2009 by Enigma Publius]


mod edit to remove link to starring another post

[edit on Mon Nov 9 2009 by DontTreadOnMe]

reply to post by Enigma Publius


Sorry I don't have any friends (well one but he hasn't been on ATS in ages).

I found what I was looking for and have two URLS for you.

One is in England and since you are USA then just basically scan this one on "Confidentiality" ... journalism.winchester.ac.uk...

And this WIKI one is more on the spot of what I was looking for. It's on Journalism Sourcing en.wikipedia.org... read this one well ... especially the areas with "off the record".

Yes, I could see the odd puzzled look in his eyes when he tried playing with the gun. He almost acted like he was scared to touch it, I wonder what his little head is making of all of this.

Originally posted by Enigma Publius

Any hints on how to help him cope would also be appreciated.
thank you for replying, I will research UNICEF tonight!

Here's one
stopchildlabor.org...

This is quite a newsworthy story. The right person got the note.

Good luck and I truly hope this little one's life can be different, that somehow things will change.

Will be following the thread.

Starred and Flagged.

Wow! That is a crazy story. I will try to help in any way that I can.
I just don't know how..
But if you figure anything out, I will be here to help you.

I would definitely contact a larger, more monied, and media savvy group. They could probably advise you and maybe assist with the release of the information. Here are a few I would think of:

Amnesty International
www.globalmarch.org...
International Labour Organization (a UN group focused on child labor issues) . See also the International Labour Organization’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)
Human Rights Watch
www.stopchildlabor.org...
www.laborrights.org...
As mentioned above, Unicef is also a very good place to start.

Check if this type of accusation has been levied against the company before, and who by. You might luck out and there could already be a campaign/boycott running which could use such a poignant image to gain more traction.

Best of luck to you.

reply to post by Trexter Ziam


I have already been switching back and fourth between the wiki you linked while posting here, i didn't expect ATS to do all the work for me you know, but you had no way of knowing I already was looking there. THANK YOU SO MUCH SIR for believing me and helping.

The one part of the wiki article that worries me is this:

Journalists are also encouraged to be skeptical without being cynical ("If your mother says she loves you, check it out."). As a rule of thumb, but especially when reporting on controversy, reporters are expected to use multiple sources. Outside journalism, sources are sometimes known as a "news source".

See, my mother (Grandma here on ATS) has already posted so this would seem to the reporter a red flag right away right? I DO NOT WANT MY FAMILY TO BE MADE A SPECTACLE OF LIKE THAT FAMILY OF HOAXERS IN THE BALLOON BOY INCIDENT that happened recently.

[edit on 8-11-2009 by Enigma Publius]