2 Buried News Stories from June
1. Mahar Arar and Monia Mazigh are giving a $20,000 scholarship to Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia. It is meant for a student pursuing studies in social justice. They are moving back to Ottawa next month so this was their thank you gift to Kamloops.
2. This second story is depressing in this day and age: a crackdown – after months of lobbying by parents with missing children – in China on brick kiln factories using people – including kidnapped children and mentally impaired adults – as slaves. Forced to work from 5 a.m. to midnight, they subsisted on pickled vegetables and were prevented from escaping by dogs and guards. They were not allowed to wash or change their clothes. When rescued, their bodies were covered with burns and bruises; some reported fellow workers being beaten to death. One of the factories was owned by the son of the local communist party boss.
Please watch the trailer for Stolen Childhoods, the first documentary on global child labor and trafficking ever made. One of the saddest parts is watching the boys left for months on a platform in the middle of the ocean to fish for shrimp. Alone. Death is frequent due to heavy winds, falling off and the visiting foremen just pushing them off into the water in anger.
These things which won’t leave our minds eventually drop leadenly into our hearts. We can carry them around there heavily or we can let it soften and transform our actions, our prayers and our thinking. Can anyone bear to look at the picture below and not cry?
The photograph is soul-changingly haunting.
Talking about slavery, I came across “Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American” by Jean-Robert Cadet recently. It is a story that is as much gripping in its inhumanity as it is compelling in its optimism and human endurance and strength. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, I would recommend it. It certainly is not light summer reading.
Good for Maher and Monia. I’m glad to hear they’re moving back to Ottawa too; it’ll be nice to see them around.
And yes, I heard about this slave story a couple of weeks ago on CBC Radio… nearly cried getting ready for work. It’s very sad, and very disgusting…
Just look at the AJE channel and you’ll find plenty of people to be sorry for!
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=AlJazeeraEnglish
Thayyiba, thank you for letting me know about Restavec. And not to worry if it’s not light summer reading – just what I need, actually!
Noha, cbc radio always delivers…I guess it was a buried news story for me as I was buried under wrap-up-the-school-year stuff and only got to read the newspapers a few times and was surprised to see that this story was so deep into the front section.
Manas, let’s hope we move beyond just “being sorry” for others. Thanks for the link.
OMG Saji- I never saw the show, but I am horrified just from the trailer alone.
It’s a real eye opener. It also shows us how distorted our sense of reality becomes. I personally am guilty of complaining too often when things get a little tough by saying “why me?” or “why do we/our children have to suffer so many problems/issues/hardships?”, but this is a reminder that many of us have more to be grateful for than we think, and that we need to focus our energies on helping those who are truly in need rather than complaining about our smaller/insignificant issues.
Thank you for allowing me to see how ungrateful we/I can be. I’ll try to remember this the next time I personally feel like life is tough. Our children/families/friends have no suffering in comparison to this.