Oct. 29, 2006 - 18:57 MST

VERY FRUSTRATING

It is terrible to me to be able to read the injustices afoot in this world and be unable to a darn thing about any of it.

An article in this morning's The Denver Post highlights one of the sickening things that takes place in our world of today. Written by Sharon Lafraniere of The New York Times In full it is quoted here:

TIDE OF CHILD TRAFFICKING RISES

A U.N. agency says 1.2 million kids are sold each year. West and Central Africa are seeing a boom

KETE KRACHI, GHANA -- "Just before 5 a.m., with the sky still dark over Lake Volta, Mark Kwadwo was roused from his spot on the damp dirt floor. It was time for work.

"Shivering in the predawn chill, he helped paddle a canoe a mile out from shore. For five more hours, as his co-workers yanked up a fishing net, Mark bailed water to keep the canoe from swamping."

"He had last eaten the day before. His broken wooden paddle was so heavy he could barely lift it. But he raptly followed each command from Kwadwo Takyi, the powerfully built 31-year-old in the back of the canoe who freely deals out beatings."

"Mark Kwadwo is 6 years old. About 30 pounds, dessed in a pair of blue and red undrpants and a Little Mermaid T-shirt, he looks more like an oversized toddler than a boat hand."

"He is too young to understand why he has ended up in this fishing village, a two-day trek from his home."

"But the three older boys who work with him know why. LIke Mark they are indentured serants, leased by their impoverished parents to Takyi for as little as $20 a year."

"Until their servitude ends in three or four years, they are as trapped as the fish in their nets, forced to work up to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, in trade that even adult fishermen here call punishing and, at times, dangerous."

"Takyi's boys -- conscripts in a miniature labor camp, deprived of schooling, basic necessities and freedom -- are part of a vast traffic in children that supports West and Central African fisheries, quarries, cocoa and rice plantations and street markets."

The girls are domestic servants, bread bakers, prostitutes. The boys are field workers, cart pushers, scavengers in abandond gem and gold mines."

"The child trafficking trade is not uniquely African. Children are forced to race camels in the Middle East, weave crpets in india and fill brothels all over the deveoping world."

"The International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency, estimates that 1.2 million chldren are sold into servitude every year in an illicit trade that generates as much as $10 billion annually."

"Africa's children account for roughtly one-sizth of the trade, according to the ILO."

"In February, UNICEF said child trafficking is growing in West and Central Africa, driven by huge profits and partly controlled by organized networks that transport children both within and between countries."

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It rankles me to see and read about grown folks in servitude - - but children ? OH Good Lord, how can countries spend billions of dollars on military things when the need is so very great to alleviate conditions like that.

I see no "preemptive action" that would help, but some action should be taken by countries of this world, cooperating with all other countries to set up some sort of system to keep things like that from happening.

It particularly grinds me to think that after their servitude is over, there is probably little in the way of productive employment for them to work at, thus leaving them totally disadvantaged for life, unschooled, untaught, and going back to an impoverished family is no solution either.

It would take a great amount of time, effort, money and super-organization to take care of those children, house them, feed them, teach them and raise them as children should be raised. But surely it would be well worth it for us all.

I well understand that there are many missionaries and religious organizations trying to help overseas, but obviously there are just not enough of them to help very much in many of those countries, and possibly difficulties with the ruling class puts stumbling blocks in the way of people trying to help people.

Makes me wonder, is this what our whole world is coming to ? Will my great grandchildren's children, or theirs, have to subsist this way ? Something to think about.

So, being old, deaf, crippled with an iffy ticker and broke to boot, what can I do ? Guess about all I can do is rave about how it is VERY FRUSTRATING . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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