The Ernest Chronicler

Several weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon, I went to a movie called Call+Response with my youth group.  This movie put me into a state of shock.  Call+Response is about modern day slavery.  It was put together buy a singer/songwriter turned director/abolitionist named Justin Dillon.  Throughout the movie various musical artists, the Cold War Kids, Five For Fighting, Natasha Bedingfield, Imogen Heap, and a Jewish reggae singer called Matisyahu to name a few, perform songs and the awesomely crazy Cornel West talks about how oppression is related to music and how music is related to justice.  All of the songs and moments with Cornel West supplement information and statistics on slavery.

The most effective part of the film though, were the stories and clips of brothels where girls as young as three are forced to pull tricks for their master.  There are stories about teenage girls selling their best friends to traffickers that will take them worlds away.  There is a story about Nicholas Kristof a NY times reporter who bought two girls from a brothel owner and brought them back to their families.  After three days, one of them returned because her addiction to meth wouldn't allow her to be anywhere but the place where she could get her fix.

The movie didn't just talk about sex slavery, but also about child soldiers, forced laborers, and other forms of child slavery.  One of the performers is a rapper named Emmanuel Jal.  His father joined the Sudan People's Liberation Army and his mother was killed in civil war.  When promised education in Ethiopia, he (seven years old at the time) along with thousands of other boys accepted.  It turned out to be a ploy by the SPLA to get fresh recruits.  He eventually got away and now shares his story with the world through his book, cd, and film, all entitled War Child .

I don't want to give away all of the stories, but there is one are two more I want to share.  A very common situation in India as well as many other places is people working to cancel the debt they owe someone.  One person may have owed someone five dollars, so he goes to work on that person's farm.  After working off that $5, he then has to work to pay the "employer" for the cost of housing and food.  This goes on and on and on.  In one story, three or four generations of women all worked for the same person to pay off $5.  In the last story, one person pays himself off, then goes to work somewhere else in order to pay off someone else.  They together work together to pay off a third and so on.  Ten thousand were eventually freed because of the efforts of one person.



So here are the facts:
-27,000,000 are currently modern day slaves.  This includes child laborers, sex slaves, labor slaves, and child soldiers.  This is more than any time before.  This is like more than 1 out of 10 people in the U.S. enslaved.
-As many as half of these are children, and most are female.
-The movie is amazing, and you need to see it. Yes, that's a fact.

Sites:
Call + Response
Not For Sale Campaign
The Redlight Children Campaign
International Justice Mission
STOP THE TRAFFIK

Please read up and post on the subject if you've got a blog.

All right folks, its time to play "Word Verification"!
This is a game where I find one of those human verification codes we have to type in order to prove that we aren't some machine trying to hack onto the internets and write rude things.  Actually I'm not quite sure why we have to do them, but thats alright.  Anyway, I post a number of them, and you have to write definitions for them. The ones used on Blogger are just screaming out to be defined.
1.sestedly
2.spolo
3.tureo
4.sewadehe (my personal favorite)
5.dismet

I will then announce the my favorites.  Have fun!

After a long period of blogging laziness I've popped out to write one or two posts.

Snow days, yes.  I remember when I used to live in New Hampshire, five and a half years ago now, that on snow days I'd wake up, check with Mommy or Daddy to see if it was a snow day or not, and if it was I'd put on my snow pants, cumbersome coat, and mittens Grandma made for me and run outside, through the backyard to Jake's house to see if he wanted to play in the snow (I'm sorry for the grotesque amount of commas in that last sentence.)  Jake lived on a dead end and whenever it snowed, all of the plows would dump the snow right there:  to the front right of his house.

If you aren't familiar with New Hampshire winters, they can be pretty brutal.  In one of my favorite winters, we got twenty-four inches in one storm.  After it was over, I walked outside (in proper dress, of course) and I was now able to climb trees because of the crazy amount of snow.  You can imagine how large Jake's pile of snow was that week.  It was twice the hight of me at least.  When the pile grew that large, Jake, Matt (Jakes little brother), Kenny (lived across from Jake), and I would burrow through it and make mini caverns or play king of the hill.  In one king of the hill episode I pushed Jake off the mound and he fell and got his nose all bloodied.  He got revenge eventually.

We also had some pretty intense snowball fights.  Depending on what kind of snow fell, the game would change.  Slush can sting really badly but is harder to through.  Ice hurts badly so we usually outlawed it.  Powdery snow can't be thrown at all.  The perfect snow is packing snow that is moist and heavy.

On snow days I would also make snow angels with my sister in the front lawn and throw snowballs at Dad while he shoveled the drive.

These days, on snow days, I wake up and watch the local news to see any delays.  If there is a snow day or two hour delay, back to bed!  It will be a day of sleeping and general laziness.  And I now have figured out some fool proof rituals that ensure a snow day for the next day if performed right before bed:
1. Run around the table five times (the dog gives me funny looks)
2. Flush three ice cubes down the toilet.
3. Throw three ice cubes at a tree outside from the porch.
4. Wear pajamas inside out.
5. Sleep with a spoon under my pillow (I've only tried this once, but it worked in combination with the other four)

As you can see, I don't do any silly "Snow Dances".

At the beginning of the year, I was signed up for two trimesters with teachers known to be bipolar and mean to students (of course I try to form my own opinion, not just listen to my friends).  But I have reason tto believe that the rumors are true; I trust my friends.  After first trimester was over, the school switched around the classes so I have two different teachers for the courses.  And the one I got this trimester is pretty cool.

On the first day of class, like most teachers he gave us a syllabus to sign, but his had a "Code of Virtues" or something like that requesting all students be kind, courageous, or who knows what (I can't find it now).  He also for writing prompts has us write about his cousins in Alabama who live in the country.  Their names are Jimmy-Boy, Jethro, two other guys, and Dee-Dee their sister.  They have dogs named Kicker, Skipper, Jumper and a whole slew more.  They are summoned to eat by the banging of a barrel nailed to a tree.  I'm no fool, mind you, so I'm highly suspicious of the reality of my teacher's cousins.

I learned that he has a band(!) called Potato Moon from a friend of mine.  We had a canned/boxed food drive recently and if anyone brought in 20 items, he/she got a free CD from our teacher.  I brought in 114 with a friend so we each got a CD.  Potato Moon is folk music, and its pretty cool.

So I think this all turned out quite nicely.

My love life started in Kindergarten, when I kissed a girl named Macy on the cheek.
...
...
My love life ended in Kindergarten, when Macy slapped me and ran away.

This experience didn't scare away from girls forever, but right now I am single.  I think I am at an age where this is perfectly acceptable.  Not that there aren't certain someones who I wouldn't mind dating later.  I joked to a friend of mine last year that I need someone/thing to hug: a girlfriend or a dog.  I got a dog, (an Irish Terrier, for those of you who don't know).

Ever since I remember really (or since third grade), people in my grade have been "going out".  The use of this term is ironic because until this year, when some get their drivers licenses, there has been no "going out", maybe walking out of the school building with each other.  Suzy and Jimmy started "going out" on Friday, but broke up on Tuesday the next week.  I found this very pointless throughout elementary school and middle school.  The relationships that developed between the couples were (from what I could tell) shallow to nonexistent.  The couple would be "together" one day, "broken up" the next day, and the "back together" or with someone else.  And people wonder why the divorce rate may be above 50%.

Another factor in me thinking about dating is I don't have time.  Between homework, AP homework, violin practice, violin lessons (receiving), violin lessons (giving), church/youth group, and the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, I think I would be a negligent boyfriend.

Thanks to AVI's wife for the idea of this post.

This post is a reminder post for me with possible topics to blog on:

Salem Witch Trials
Snow days
The Game

Feel free to add some, I'm in a bit of a creative dry spell.