Hm ... I've got to work on my titles.

It's hard to believe I've been blogging here for so long, but almost a year and a half ago I wrote a couple of posts about the outcry (in the form of an e-mail petition) over the U.S. refusing to contribute to the U.N.'s population fund and about the reasons why: forced abortion, sterilization and infanticide in China (I was wary from the start, but Eric tipped me off to the last bit in a comment to the first post).

Journalists never seem to make the connections, but here's a story reminiscent of one I linked to back then about a family who was fined and whose house had been sealed up for having one too many children.

In the present case a blind activist and his family have been confined to their home by a group of hired thugs who watch the house around the clock and who have beaten the man several times for trying to leave. The reason? He exposed the practice of forced abortions which led to the firing of several local officials:

Club-wielding goons believed to be hired by local authorities have been posted outside Chen Guangcheng's one-storey brick home in Dongshigu, a farming village in Shandong province, since September 6 to prevent him, his wife and 71-year-old mother from leaving, Chen said.

"China is lawless," the 34-year-old activist told Reuters by telephone. "They're worried I will expose more of their crimes."

"Do (President) Hu Jintao and (Premier) Wen Jiabao know? If they know, why have they not done anything?" Chen asked.

Authorities have jammed signals to and from Chen's mobile phone but they could not block calls on Friday due to a power failure. His home phone has also been cut.
. . . . . . . . . .
His freedom was restricted with officials accusing him of providing "intelligence" to foreigners about forced abortions and sterilization's as part of strict family planning rules.

Several civil rights campaigners have been either beaten or jailed in the past year.

The U.N.'s money at work.