Trafficking and Traditions.

"We are poor people. ... What are we to do?" she said.
[from CNN.com]

The quote is from the girls mother, who has 'leased' her daughter as a kamlari, or, slave. [whole article here.]

The article highlights a form of slavery that has existed in Nepal for generations. It baffles me.

It struck me... the value of this girls life is $25-$50 dollars a year? For $100 bucks a year, the family would have enough of an incentive to keep their daughter at home.

Where can we draw the line? Is there even a line to be drawn? Do we draw it in the sand? Do we etch it in stone? Do we even posses the tools to draw this so called line?

What do you think?

Tagged: Trafficking, News, Thoughts

Google Calendar... And why you should submit to Google World Domination...

I've had a Gmail account nearly as long as I have been blogging. Google has owned blogger for a little longer then that, and one thing I always wished was that I could use my Gmail username to login here.

Well... Google expanded Gmail into full fledged Google Accounts. Yay! Some of you have already seen me use Google's Picasa Web Albums, and I have also played around with Google Spreadsheets. And, just today, I have integrated Google Calendar into my sidebar.

Blogger.com has now officially launched a Beta program, for the past few months, people who have signed up for the beta needed to create a Google Account. My favorite part of this is that Gmail's super sweet spellchecker has replaced blogger.com's cumbersome java applet. This blog will be making the migration soon, but for now, I am testing the Beta out with a new blog. [ssshhh its still a secret!]

Gmail itself is now over 2.7gb of personal email storage for FREE! Accessible anytime, from anywhere, as long as you have a computer with the Internet. If you need a Gmail invite, send me a message... In the U.S. (and selected locale, but not Russia) currently, you can get an invite code via SMS here! Sign-up for your FREE everything from Google today, maybe they will spare you when they take over the world.

I love you Google. And, I am not even signed up for AdSense...

Tagged: Google, Thoughts, The Road

Whole Article

Click Here to see article

Come back here and tell me what you thought.

Tagged: Lost Coin, Thoughts, The Road

Quote of the Day

"Models are Kleenex, there's always another pretty 17-year-old girl just dying to be a model. They're infinitely replaceable so the people in the industry don't care. They're not people, they're hangers."

"The modeling business is what it is -- it is not evil, there is no grand conspiracy. It doesn't care about anything except selling frocks. The only thing a young girl can do to protect herself is to be prepared to do the best she can to keep her head screwed on straight.

"It's a world full of temptation. Young people tend to be tempted and beautiful young girls tend to be exploited and any beautiful young girl who doesn't understand that has not been well prepared for this world."

Michael Gross, author of "Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women," [from cnn.com]

What the hell are we thinking!? I simply don't understand.

Also... Some thoughts provoked by The End of Poverty, by Jeffery D. Sachs:

Why doesn't the 'rich world' spend more money investing in the 'poor world?' I mean in terms of typical aid money, but more specifically, in terms of argricultural and technilogical education? Why don't we spend some money now to help stimulate a healty trade relationship for the future. We can get quality goods for cheap, and at the same time, we can influence living conditions, working conditions and wages. We can help people who live in moderate and extreme poverty ($2/day and $1/day, repectively) today.

One other thought that impacted me. Americans often forget that not long ago, we lived in similar conditions. Our benevolent government has heavily invested in our countries infrastructure, making living conditions and trade conditions much better. We also often forget that we have a great wealth of resources in our country. We have two separate sea boards for trade. We have many navigatiable rivers that go far inland. We have a land that is vast, areas that are great for farming many different kinds of crop. We have land for livestock. We have a huge headstart in terms of availibe resources then say a landlocked country like Malawi, who has a yearly per capita income (how much each person makes in a year) of $596. I'm not trying to be over critical of Americans in my last statements. I simply think we should be ever concious of God's blessing on us, and as he has filled our cup to overflowing, we should try and spill some of it on those in less fortunate situations.

Tell me what you think?

Tagged: Politics, Thoughts, The Road

Overwhelmed?

Here is an expert from a response I am writing to my experiences the last few weeks in Greece. Also, the photo is my attempt at an artistic response. Feedback is always appreciated. Leave a comment, or send me a note chrismwarren@gmail.com.

Overwhelmed?

How do I begin to describe the way I was feeling as the two '‘guards'’ we had upset was yelling at Jennifer and ignoring me? One of these pimps was extremely upset and was looking for a reason to physically get rid of us. I couldnÂ't understand a word of the Greek, and yet, we had prayed for protection, and I felt a peace that I can'’t fully explain. Just as I thought things might get really dangerous, the other pimp simply asked us guys to stand at the end of the block while the girls continued, and he calmed his friend down.

Welcome to Felis Street in downtown Athens Greece. Bare white light bulbs serve to distinguish regular apartments from those that are used as legal brothels. Dozens of men mill in and out of the doorways in the following 15 minutes. Some are clients who are done with their transactions, some are window shopping, and some are looking for the shortest line. The street is really busy for a Monday night. I count 11 white lights, and 15 doorways that these men are coming and going from as I observe from my vantage point at the corner near a gas station that is closed.

Download the above image as your wallpaper (1024x768) from Flickr.

There are a few other photos up at IT Russia's Flickr page as well.

Tagged: Prostitution, Human Trafficking, The Road