I don't know why I check my email fifty times more at my grandparents' than I do at home. Maybe I just don't have as much to do. maybe I'm bored.
I shouldn't be bored. I have a keyboard even, which is way more than usual. and books - good books. but I don't have any chores to do, and I have my laptop...not much else. What I mean is, I don't have a room to clean, or parents giving me things to do, or anything else like that.
Currently my grandpa is watching Dirty Jobs on TV. The dude's at a larva farm...where they raise larva for fish bait. it's revoltingly sick. and he's flirting with the daughter of the fly farm family. on television.
hmmmm......is this why I'm bored?
oh yes, I was talking about books. all the good books I brought. I can't seem to find anyone who's read Wuthering Heights though, so I will be the guinea pig. and I really should finish Dombey and Son this week too. considering I started it in August. Also, my mom is going to read A Christmas Carol to us on the way over.
"You keep Christmas in your way and let me keep it in mine."
"Keep it? But you don't keep it uncle!"
"Well let me leave it alone then."
I also recently found a number of titles on modern-day slavery, by modern-day abolitionists. It blows my mind that slavery still happens, in many places even closer to home than we think. Most Americans are raised with the idea that slavery was abolished with Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclomation. not so. and the sick part is that it's illegal in most parts of the world. it's corrupt or indifferent legal forces/justice systems that allow it to thrive. and it is thriving.
I just finished a book called Be the Change, by Zach Hunter. The title comes from a quote by Gandhi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Zach is a 16 year old kid who has started an organization dedicated to freeing slaves. He wrote this book last year, and though it focuses on slavery today, it also is an encouragement to others (especially kids) to find their passion, and their calling/burden from God, and run with it. It's a challenge to stop whining and complaining, get your priorities in order, and start acting instead of just talking. It was really good. lots of awesome quotes, verses, and stories about historical characters who personified character traits that Zach looks at in-depth.
Right now I'm reading a book called Not for Sale, by David Batstone. He really focuses on this organization called IJM, International Justice Mission, which was founded by a lawyer (I think a Christian guy) who devoted himself to emancipation of modern slaves. IJM teams up with local law enforcement to free slaves and prosecute slave traffickers and slaveholders. This book basically devotes each long chapter to a different country and the main problem in slavery there. The first one was on sex slavery in the brothels of Thailand and Cambodia. The second chapter is about forced labor in India, usually starting with a small loan held over a long period of time, with super-exhorbitant interest, adding costs of food and lodgings....powerful merchants have literally held people as slaves for 3-4 generations, passing the growing debt from parents to children. Then the chapter I'm in right now is about the child soldiers in Uganda. I already knew a little about this and it's still so crazy, so gut-wrenching to read about; kids who are forced to kill their own parents, or each other, or anybody the leaders tell them to. and the worst part is how little most of the world knows or cares (governments who should be acting, especially). one sentance totally stunned me though: "Perhaps if it was our oil instead of our children being take, people would care more."
how terrible is it, that that's true?
you say, "we do care about those kids. way more than oil."
but what do we talk about more? gas prices, political problems, the weather.
or these kids with no hope at all, in a country torn apart by war.
this book is amazing though. I started it last night and I'm halfway through it. The author basically starts with a real-life story of someone who used to be a slave, in one of these countries and in these types of situations. they tell a chapter of that person's life, then take little breaks to talk about what kind of work IJM is doing to combat things like that. you get so involved in the story, because it's so personal. this really happened to this person you're reading about, and it was recent. the book was only written last year. it felt so strange reading about these girls in Thailand who are literally my age right now, and are trapped in brothels. instead of hearing about it, you get it firsthand, like a slap in the face.
I guess I just decided that I've gotta stop stepping lightly around all this red-light type stuff. I should know about it, and so should the whole world. people need to care about this. Christians especially, more than anyone, need to care. after all, how would Jesus react to this? we watch documentaries about it on TV and talk about it, but what to we do?
I don't know about you, but I'm ready to be the change.
Honesty is hard attribute to find
When we all want to seem like
We've got it all figured out
Let me be first to say that I don't have a clue
I don't have all the answers
Ain't gonna pretend like I do
That is terrible about slavery. Do you mean that there are actually governments that still allow it?
ReplyDeleteyou know i'm passionate about child soldiers. they forceably recruit kids, make them kill relatives or other kids as "strength training", use them as deadly guerilla fighters, and what i hate the worst, make them believe that everything they're doing is for a good cause. uganda is on the social radar right now, but child soldiery is taking place all over the world. there are more than twenty seperate armed conflicts right now using child soldiers, and that's only the ones we can see.
ReplyDeletereality is, there was a Convention on the Rights of Child that countries were forced to adopt if they wanted to be in the UN (or something like that, i forget) but the part about not using under eighteen in conflict was "optional". as in, you weren't forced to adopt it if you wanted to become a world nation.
There aren't any governments where it's LEGAL, I don't think. but many, many countries in the world just look the other way. especially when it brings them profit.
ReplyDeleteThe Sudanese government even worked with the LRA, the army that uses the child soldiers, making deals with them and stuff. I think that's the worst. They gave them weapons and stuff in return for fighting Sudan's own rebellion.
That's really terrible about the UN. I think way too many people are willing to negotiate about this stuff.
So what can we do?
ReplyDeleteThats terrible. Things about kids makes me feel sick. I wish I could help, but where I am in life, makes it hard to help. The best thing to do is pray.
ReplyDeleteyes, prayer is super-important. there are also many other things we can do, as individuals and all together.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading lots of material and looking at tons of websites. there are many options...I will make a whole new post about it in the next couple of days so I don't have to leave a super-long comment, ok?
Sounds good, I'd really like to hear more on this.
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty awful. NU gives to stop human trafficking (in India, I think), so I've heard more about it than most people. Did you know there are even brothels here in Seattle?
ReplyDeleteI heard about Zach Hunter's book. Have you read Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris? Or been on their blog?
YES!!! I just read that last month. that's one of the most amazing books I think I've ever read. I went to their blog a few time, yeah.
ReplyDeleteit took forever to get it from the library though, ha-ha. I think every teen should read that though. it's so nice to have an inspiring and challenging book that's not condescending, because it's actually written by someone like us.
Yeah, India has more slaves than any other country today; at least that's the estimate. most of them are bonded laborors, trapped in slavery by debts they can't repay.
but anyway, I'll get started on a new post about that. I feel bad going on and on forever in a comment!
yesh. it's these kinda posts that make me and my fantasy books feel small and insignificant. *cowers*
ReplyDeletebut i think that answer as to why we don't talk about this subject very much is kinda obvious. . . .
A) most of the worldly peoples are selfish, and don't want to talk about something they could change if they were to sacrifice the things they have
B) as you said, reading that one book was like a slap in the face. well another human charachterictic right there; we as humans shirk from pain and suffering. so why dwell on horrible terrible things when you have gas and weather, things that you can't change?
or basicaly, you could just blame it on sin. which of course is the easy answer . . . lol.
i'll be curious to see your next post.