Webzine first draft

Rachel Wallace

Word count: 677 w/o sources

June 18, 2014

WEBZINE

Romania has become a modern day human trafficking hot spot. Here it is common, yet illegal to purchase a man, woman, or child on a backstreet in Bucharest. This is known as the Romanian "Black Market".  The market was made around its street children.  To either sell to them, or worse sell them. The problem of human trafficking in Romania is one of huge proportion.  60% of all trafficking victims found in Romania were nationals.  Of the children trafficked 75% of them were used for sex trafficking.  The other 25% were used for labor, such as being forced to beg on the street, petty theft, or as pick pockets.  

GOVERNMENT

    The problem in Romania involving the trafficking of its street children is directly related to its past and present governments. From 1965 until 1989 Romania was ruled by a communist government.  This government felt the need to build up its workforce by implementing strict laws banning contraceptives and abortion. As well as implimenting an adittional 20% tax for all woman, single or not, who were childless.   All the while giving huge tax breaks to woman with large families, giving huge exemptions for each additional child had.  The governments ploy to make a huge workforce was in full effect, yet the income generated was not enough to supplement most Romanians incomes for caring for multiple children.  Because of this alot of Romanians were forced to give their children up, and by the fall of the communist regime over 100,000 Romanian children were in poorly run, low funded orphanages.  When the government change from communist to democratic happened, Romanian's currency plummeted, government jobs vanished, as did grants for public assistance. This caused an over pour of additional children being abandoned on the streets or runaway children, who either  broke out of their abusive orphanages or left home for similar reasons. Most of these children are left without any documentation.  Here a human rights expert from the University of Nebraska writes, "Street children who lack identification validating their citizenship in Romania are stateless persons, despite jus soli eligibility. Their human rights are not only violated by this status but they are at high risk of falling victim to multiple other forms of human rights abuses, including trafficking."  The government is letting these innocent children fall thru the cracks, leaving them undocumented, a national of no country, and a son or daughter to no one.  The police seem to be little to no help with the stations "Often understaffed and struggling to attend to all sectors of law enforcement, police are overwhelmed, leaving street children ignored."  

 

ROMA

Roma or Romani is the correct term for what some once called gypsies.  These are a group of people who originated from northern India and have been "traveling" since the 11th century.  Because of their Roma blood,  Romanian citizens, choose to willingly do nothing to help them.  This is in result of a severe ethnic prejeduce.  Although some government agencies and GMO's  feel that, "Roma street children are not favorable to pimps or clients because they are “dirty” and “unclean” and are therefore unfit for prostitution, the precarious socio-economic situation of Roma street children suggests that they are among the most vulnerable groups to sexual exploitation and abuse."  These people are oppressed by their society just for their race, making them an additional target for human traffickers.  When in a family unit they are usually "traveling", have had little to no medical care, and are almost always undocumented.  The Roma hold a gender bias against its woman and because of this the woman are more likely to be taken advantage of due to their lack of education.  Roma children are more likely to be street children because of the oppression and poverty their nationality endures.  Also because, "Children from families or backgrounds lacking healthy affection and love are susceptible to traffickers and recruiters who will, perhaps for the first time in a child’s life, give them affection, praise, and attention though they are used at the same time for sexual abuse and trafficking."

SOURCES

Gamble, Meredith, "Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Street Children in Romania: Catalysts of        Vulnerability and Challenges in Recovery" . Second Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, 2010. Paper 17. 01 Jan. 2010. Web. 17 June 2014. 

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/humtrafconf2/17 

Andromache, Christina. "Index of /class/e297c/trade_environment." Index of /class/e297c/trade_environment. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2014. <http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/trade_environment>.

Buffalo girls webzine

    The documentary Buffalo Girls may seem like a simple portrayal of rural adolescent life in Thailand.  But it all actuality it is a unbiased look at the exploitation of children. These children are being used not only for the money they make engaging in traditional Mui Tai fighting, but for immoral entertainment purposes. This "entertainment" seems to bring the main focus off of the children and onto their money, the Baht. These young children's families get a taste of the fallible success and quickly become dependant upon the uncertain income generated by their child's winnings as well as the bets placed on their fights. Quickly turning a once fun hobby into an intensely pressured career.  Buffalo Girls focuses on two adolescent girls named Pet and Stam.  At first glance they both seem to enjoy fighting but once the documentary progresses it is obvious that they are enjoying it for reasons most would not find morally or ethically right. They do not like to do it for the same reason yor child likes to go to gymnastics class, they get pride from feeding their families.  These girls, who are under ten, would be considered "Head of Household" on any United States tax form. The once fun sport has turned into a job for them. One unfortunately, where if you don't win the fight, your family doesn't eat.  That is a harsh reality with extraordinary amounts of pressure to be placed on two small children.  These girls should be having fun, they are children.  They should be able to go out and play.  They shouldn't have to intensely train from dusk until dawn, or put fighting before their schooling.  But they both do, both girls are put in dangerous situations, both are treated poorly if and when they loose, and both feel sorrowfully guilty when they loose because like Stam sobbed after a loss, "My family needs money".  

    Although their families are in need for different reasons, This directly violates Article 19 (protection from all forms of violence) Under the convention on the rights of a child.  That article clearly states that all children deserve to be free of emotion or physical harm.  Thailand ratified this into their government in 1990, yet nothing has been done to help these poor children.  The emphasis on these children's income is too great, and without a watchful eye from the government their families have taken advantage of their temporary "wealth".  This has been a running theme with parents of children involved  in the entertainment industry.  It seems that most of the cases involved, where a family is reliant soley on a childs income, follow a steady pattern. All the cases are ones where these children's very own parent or family member squandered their independently earned fortune.  This not only is happening in Thailand, but all over the world.  A brief local example would be the children who worked in Hollywood, CA shooting motion pictures during the begining to mid 20th century.  The pressure to be successful was so great many child stars reported to have been abused by parents if they were not seemingly perfect at their craft.  Were these not cases of children's rights being taken advantage of, or even away? The similarities are all to scary once one takes into account that these parents once reliant on  their children's income will seemingly do anything to keep the money train rolling.  They become reliant on thier child, creating immense pressure on a fragile growing mind and body.  They may do this because they can't find work or they don't want to.  Or because they can only see money at the moment.  The really scary part is that because of their parents actions, in some cases,  if these children can not provide for their families they will all go hungry.  This problem has got to be solved.

Lab exercise 6/13/14

(0) Some might say that human rights have done little for these children. (1) Even though the human rights agreements may seem to have little immediate effect in the short term, they may still have value in the case of child labour. (2)+(3) As stated by Jack Donnelly the author of  International Human Rights, "Human rights initiatives that bring no direct change in a government’s practices may nonetheless have positive effects by supporting local human rights advocates or delegitimating repressive regimes." (143). (4) Here Donnelly is saying that although it may be too soon since the initial drafting of the initiatives to see any drastic changes in human rights, they are still beneficial because the initiatives support local human rights movements as well as suppressing negative governmental regimes. 5) Because of this the advocates in Calcutta benefit in a more subtle way.

Annotated bibliography

Rachel Wallace

Professor Jordan Hayes

English 1A

June 13, 2014

Word count: 954

I have chosen to study street children worldwide and investigate how this will affect our world's future as well as globalization.

1. North Korean street children

Park, Madison. "Orphaned and Homeless: Surviving the Streets of North Korea." CNN.  Cable    

   News  Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 12 June 2014.  

   http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/13/world/asia/.  north-korea-orphans/

This piece discusses children who are homelessness originally from North Korea.  It discusses their migration mainly to China although some make it into South Korea. This article also discusses shortly life while homeless in North Korea. It also discusses what happens to the children once they leave. This is an article that talks of abandoned children, giving personal accounts of their family stories as well as stories of survival in a sometimes fatal transformer shed through the harsh winters.

This information is useful because it gives in depth details on the children once they leave North Korea. Also of their lives in North Korea.  It discusses some dangers that are involved with these children's everyday survival.

2. Overview on street children's common rights violations

"Orphans." Humanium for Childrens Rights. N.p, d. Web. 13 June 2014.

   <http://www.humanium.org/en/orphans/>.

This website consists of recent statistics such as the estimate of around 120 million street children worldwide. With 30 million children being in Africa, the same amount in Asia, and 60 million in South America. It also discusses the amount of orphans, the numbers being, 31 million orphans in India, 71 million in Asia, 59 million in Africa, and 9 million in Latin America and the Caribbean combined. The amount of orphans caused by AIDS/ HIV is 15 million. HIV kills a parent every 15 seconds worldwide. This information is crucial to my project because it holds a lot of valuable, reliable statistics which are extremely helpful and informative.

3. Romanian Street Children

Andronade, Christina. Romanian Street Children. N.p, d. Web. 12 June 2014.  

    <Http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/trade_environment/wheeling/hromania.html>.

  In this essay it gives a detailed history of Romania.  The street child epidemic that happened there is directly related to the countries somewhat recent history.  It gives details of the government structure and really spells out for you why this happened from a few different viewpoints.  The essay also gives an analysis to what should be done, as well as a description of the children and prostitution. These children are homeless and sleeping outside because of laws placed on the people.  They were forced to have at least four children to keep the work force strong, as well as the outlaw of abortion and contraceptives.  The government's regulation on so many children and the outlaw on abortion and contraceptives led to many children being born who could not be taken care. The ones born after the regulated four were given up as well as numerous other children, once the government collapsed in the end of the 80's. Not all children were given up though a lot flee their families because of hunger, abuse (both sexual and physical) , and poverty. But all is not lost, the new government launched a "strategy for protection of children's rights".  Romanian street children were what led me to become passionate about this topic.  Their government has failed them in the worst way.  This has led me to research all street children. The Romanian "angels" are the perfect example of what happens when a country's government fails and how it's citizens suffer.

4. Street children homelessness / world statistics

"Street Children and Homelessness." Street Children and Homelessness. N.p, p. Web. 13 June     

   2014. <http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0904-Homelessness.html>.

This group discusses child poverty around the world but it connects everything to children's Rights. It talks about article 27 of the CRC.  Talks of India and Latin America being known for having the largest populations of street children.  It discusses that a lot of children are abandoned because of a disability, and around 90% of all street children use narcotics (includes alcohol and cannabis) most huff glue or paint.  An interesting thing this article brought to my attention was that in 1996, 5.5 million children were considered homeless living in the U.S. And that these children were worse off than homeless in other western societies because the U.S. Is less generous with social programs, the huge income gap between the rich and poor, and the high percent of immigrants and teen mothers. This information is important because it gives me a more in depth look at the rights of a child and how they correlate to the world today.  Also it gives me a bigger picture of the huge problem that is street children today.

5. Indian street children

"Charity for Street Children (Kids), Based in Jaipur, India - Teaching, Volunteer, Voluntry Work -

   Jewellery Making." Charity for Street Children (Kids), Based in Jaipur, India - Teaching,

   Volunteer, Voluntry Work - Jewellery Making. N.p, d. Web. 13 June 2014.

   <http://www.i-indiaonline.

This Indian based group discusses the many problems of Indian street children. It offers personal accounts of children they have personally helped, which is over 3,000 children daily. They cover the topics of child labour, gender discrimination, health, homelessness and poverty.  They also provide an extensive list of programs one of which is a child rights program made just for the street kids. The topics covered by this organization are perfect examples of why these children face what they do. It gives an inside, clear view of what is going on in the life of Indian street children, but with a solution, since it is a NGO.  

Sentence craft

The paragraphs were not indented because it was taken from the blog. It becomes unformatted in doing so.

1) wrong word-benefactors turns into factors

Wrong: These forms of slavery exist because of three major benefactors,

Right: These forms of slavery exist because of three major factors,

2) sentence level error- redundant

Wrong: all the while

Right: cut out 

3) sentence level error- all need to end in ing

Wrong: sharing, offers, presents

Right: sharing, offering, presenting

4) sentence level error-  not sure 

Wrong:gaining a more intimate knowledge of slavery in the 21st century, which he expresses in his speach. All the while backing it up with data from seasoned professionals.

Right:

5) grammar- no noun?

Wrong: Gives an example of when it hasn't, and moves on.

Right: she gives an example of when it hasn't , and moves on.

6) punctuation

Wrong: audiences 

Right: audience's

7) spelling

Wrong: promising

Right: promising

I usually take a whole day to proofread, when I can. Sometimes it can take hours, because I go over the same paragraph repeatedly.  I find proof reading to be a very crucial step in writing an essay. It is where you fix all errors and fing the best way to order and phrase your essay. 

Buffalo Girls

    The documentary Buffalo Girls may seem like a simple portrayal of rural adolescent life in Thailand.  But it all actuality it is a unbiased look at the exploitation of children. These children are being used not only for the money they make engaging in traditional Mui Tai fighting but also for immoral entertainment purposes. This "entertainment" seems to bring the main focus off of the children and onto their money, the Baht. These young children's families get a taste of the fallible success and quickly become dependant upon the uncertain income generated by their child's winnings and the bets placed on the fights. Quickly turning a hobby into an intensely pressured career.  The documentary focuses on two adolescent girls Pet and Stam.  At first glance both girls seem to enjoy fighting but once things progress it is obvious that both girls are enjoying it for reasons most would not find morally or ethically right.  Both girls would be considered "Head of Household" on any United States tax form, being the main bread winners for their entire families.  The once fun sport has turned into a job for them. One unfortunately, where if you don't win, your family doesn't eat.  That is a harsh reality with extraordinary amounts of pressure to be placed on two small children.  These girls should be having fun, they are children.  They should be able to go out and play.  They shouldn't have to intensely train from dusk until dawn.  Or put fighting before their schooling.  But they both do, both girls are put in dangerous situations, both are treated poorly if and when they loose, and both feel sorrowfully guilty when they loose because like Stam sobbed after a loss, "My family needs money".  This directly violates Article 19 (protection from all forms of violence) Under the convention on the rights of a child.  That article clearly states that all children deserve to be free of emotion or physical harm.  Thailand ratified this into their government in 1990, yet nothing is being done to help these poor children.

Planet of Slums: Book Club

Word Count: 241

Planet of Slums by Mike Davis

1) Planet of Slums by Mike Davis is A work of non - fiction.  It is an exploration of the dramatic     differences growing between the North and the South.  Focusing on how most of the worlds population live in shanty towns.  He also explains how the majority of the worlds population are being affected because of Western societies.

2) This book relates to the class through its discussion of human rights, and globalization.

3) This book is 228 pages with the actual novel accounting for 199. (strong content)

4) I came across this text for the first time today. I have never read it.

5) The content is strong in this book, giving a lot of detailed statistics and information in the first 80 pages.  The rest of the book is an analysis.  The pages I sampled were very informative as well as heart wrenching.  An essential book to read from what I have been told.

6) This book is easily accessible online, as well as being available at Barnes and Noble.

7) This book was written in English, with its author hailing from Hawaii.

Nomination:
   
This book is the perfect example of how non productive globalization is affecting our world and what to expect in the future because of our actions in the North.  It describes the hardships of the majority of our world.  Giving us a peak at how our brothers and sisters of the South are forced to live.