Dirty Pretty Things

When we imagine London we automatically see beautiful places in our head. Big Ben. London Eye. Tower of London. Tower Bridge. The Parliament. Piccadilly Circus. Whatever. For us this is London, an amazing city with tons of amazing places. Many dream to come here for living or just for holidays. But for others this dream is a nightmare.

In hope for a better life, many people come to London. But it gets complicated when you are an illegal immigrant.

Always running away from the police, illegal immigrants have to work clandestine many hours a day or have a couple of jobs to earn some money to buy their documents to be a normal citizen. However documents are very expensive and they receive very low salaries.

These men and women live in permanently danger, they are blackmailed every time by their bosses, if they are hurt they cannot go to the hospital, if they have kids they cannot attend school, they cannot use public services and they hardly have food to eat. Women are even in a harder position, once they are sexually abused, and they cannot do anything about it.

Many of these clandestine immigrants are so desperate that they don’t mind to swap a kidney for a forged passport. Organ trade is one of the main business of the Black Market, dealers get a lot of money by selling inner organs such as hearts, livers and kidneys. So they “help” illegal immigrants in getting them a false passport, but immigrants have to give them a kidney or another organ. As these operations cannot be found, they are not performed in hospitals; instead people do them under careless ways. This may result in complicated infections for the clandestine people, or even their death.

If you want to become aware of this reality and realize how terrible this situation is, I suggest you to watch the movie ‘Dirty Pretty Things’, which tells a story of two illegal immigrants, a Nigerian man and a Turkish woman, who live in London and who face horrible atrocities. I must say that I got inspired in this movie to write this article, although I’m perfectly conscious that this not only happens in London, but all over the world. 

Strange Fruit

“Southern trees bear strange fruit”. That’s how some people feel. Strange. They feel like they don’t belong to the society. This song by Billie Holiday was produced in the 30’s with the main aim to protest against discrimination that people from the southern countries were facing in America. It is simple, spare but effective poetry. It portrays the atrocities that these minorities were suffering in America: “The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth”, “then the sudden smell of burning flesh”. 

It was not easy to record this song at that time. The mentality of Americans from the 30’s was really close and they didn’t accept differences. “Strange Fruit” was played only rarely on the radio. 

“Here is fruit for the crows to pluck”, I think nobody who never faced any kind of discrimination cannot understand what those people felt, that feeling they are considered nobody, that nobody cares about them, that they didn’t have a voice.

“Here is a strange and bitter crop”. And after all, they are like everybody. We are all equal.

Native Americans

It happened a long time ago, in the 16th/17th centuries, probably. In America people were living happily and peacefully for many hundreds of years before Europeans reached America. They usually hunted animals, gathered plants or fished in order to survive. They were approximately 10 million people living there.

When Christopher Columbus arrived in North America he thought he had reached India, so he called Indians to the native people. Native Americans were pretty amazed by the arrival of the Europeans, because they brought new things from Europe that Americans totally didn’t know, such as metal cooking pots, cloth, guns and alcohol. Not only this, but diseases as well. As Native Americans weren’t strong enough and had no resistance to those viruses, many of them died and others became extremely ill.

But Europeans wanted their land. For Native Americans, land wasn’t supposed to be own, once they were nomads. Consequently, as Americans didn’t know the effects of alcohol, Europeans gave them a lot of drinks, and then it was easy to negotiate their land as well as low prices for their goods. When the chiefs of the tribe got sober, they started to fight against the settlers. Some white people died during the fights and it constituted a proof for Europeans that natives were “wild and had to be controlled”. So America no longer belonged to Native Americans. And according to the article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property”.

Today only 550 tribes remain, which is about 1.2 million people. They live in reservations, where they have the right to fish and hunt as they wish, while other Americans have to get a license. Although Native Americans are US citizens, who have the rights and responsibilities of any US citizen, reservations have their own governments. But it’s difficult to live the traditional life for these people, once activities of other Americans affect the way they live and also their resources.

It’s wrong to call these people Indians, because this name is based on a mistake. However Americans don’t care, once they have little interest in Native Americans and most ignore them. Besides, the natives are often used in films and in books about the “Wild West” to represent the enemies of the cowboys.

The point is that the America that so many people dream with was built on a land stolen from the people who lived there first. And these people are suffering from discrimination because of their race.

The silent reality

I’m going to tell you a story. It’s an unpleasant one, but everyone must be aware of this situation. It’s a story about a woman, Daphne Pratt, who was forcibly circumcised by a cult which defends women circumcision. It happened at night, like so many other cases. They accused her of spying on their activities and later on, divulge their traditions. They grabbed her and cut her genitals with no anesthesia. After leaving her in the middle of the street, she went to his uncle’s house, who took her to the police station. The police couldn’t care less about this issue, instead they told her to go to a tribal court, because it was a “tribal matter”. Weak and unprotected, she went to the hospital. She had to stay there for a month. According to the gynecologist, she needed 15 stitches and a blood transfusion. Daphne is 28 years old and she lives in Sierra Leone. In this country, 90% of women are circumcised when they are young, in order to deny them any sexual pleasure during their lives. Every society has its own rules and traditions, but this one, female genital mutilation is totally harmful and it can lead to death, in some cases. Some of the instruments they use are broken glass, for example, and they use them in a great number of girls, which increases the risk of blood transmitted diseases. There are different types of female mutilation, but in all cases if the child or woman dies from complications, nobody is not held responsible, rather the death is attributed to evil spirits or just fate. Imagine all of those women worldwide who had been circumcised. How do they feel psychologically? Probably incomplete or depressed, they may have lost their self-esteem or trust in themselves. They must be weak and they don’t have any mean of expressing their fear or look for help. They suffer in silence. And looks like nobody cares.

Violence against women

Even though we are in the 21st century, violence against women is still a common issue in our society. Women's rights aren't being respected and nobody cares, not even the governments take any action in order to protect women and punish their batterers. And this is totally wrong!

Violence can be physical, psychological or sexual agression, and the most shocking fact is that it is commited by a man who is really close to the victim. In the developing countries not only due to a great lack of education allied to the totally wrong mentality of the people, but also because of religion matters or traditions, women are not valued and they are treated as garbage. In some situations women are trafficked to work in forced prostitution or to marry and have sex with a person they don't desire.  

In the developed countries women are more valued, but they don't have the same rights as men. Yet, most of the victims prefer to hide themselves instead of sharing their stories with friends or family or looking for help, because they are ashamed of what happens to them. 

In Europe domestic violence is the biggest cause of death and disability for women between the ages of 16 and 44. Every year 6-10 per cent of the women in Europe suffer domestic violence. In the USA one woman is battered every 15 second, usually by her partner. 45% women and 26% men had experienced at least one incident of inter-personal violence in their lifetimes. On average, two women a week are killed by a violent partner or ex-partner.

The following real story is about Michelle, a woman who has suffered from domestic violence for four years. She said in an online website that her husband used to make her feel useless, as if she couldn’t do anything properly on her own and he called her bad names too often. Their relationship took that long because every time he kicked or punched her, he said he was sorry and he always told her how much he loved her. But then she got pregnant and it got ten times worse, she stated. In the end he kicked her so badly that she lost the baby. Time come to leave him.

To conclude violence against women is an entire disrespect of human rights, and in my opinion men who keep with this practice should be severally punished or sent to jail. In the future I hope the number of the victims will diminish and women can have a voice, defend their opinions and take full control of their bodies because they aren't property of man at all!

Dalits

The term "Dalits" stands for broken people, people who are denied all possible human rights, and consequently they are victims of social discrimination. More than 160 million people in India are considered "Untouchable"—people tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure, less than human. Dalits have been oppressed, culturally subjugated, and politically marginalized.

Dalits face pain and violence every day. They live in constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded naked, beaten, tortured, burnt alive and raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place. Merely walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense.

Dalits are not allowed to eat with other caste members, to marry with other caste members, to enter into village temples, to ride a bicycle inside the village, to wear sandals or holding umbrellas in front of dominant caste members.

This broken people are forced to perform the most disgusting jobs that nobody wants to do. Some are forced to clean toilets, transport human excreta manually, clear animal carcasses and human remains, while others are forced to work in the hazardous leather and tanning industry.

If a Dalit enters a tea shop and request a cup of tea, they are served in a clay cup rather than a glass or metal cup that others receive. After drinking their tea, they are expected to crush the cup on the ground so that no other person risks being polluted by the cup the Dalit touched.

The Dalits are history’s longest standing oppressed people group. The only parallel to the practice of untouchability was apartheid. In a country where everybody is supposed to have equal rights and opportunities, one out of four people is condemned to be untouchable.

Every hour two Dalits are assaulted; every day three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and two Dalit homes are torched.

Child Marriage

Although both girls and boys can suffer from this violation of human rights, there are mostly girls who are forced to marry an older man. According to Universal Declaration of Human Rights, people have the right to free and full consent to a marriage. Anyone under the age of 18 is not able to make a fully informed choice whether or not to marry; even if a young girl consents to marry, she has no idea about her decision. 

Child marriages occurs due to poverty, in the majority of the cases. Parents who have few resources cannot afford school for their daughters, instead they see marriage as a way of giving them a better future by providing male guardianship, protect them from sexual assault, avoid pregnancy outside marriage, and hope they can benefit from it financially. However, girls who marry young have an increased chance of being poor and remaining poor.

The consequences of child marriage are several. Girls are sexual abused and exploited. They have to face a separation from family and friends and become social isolated. They cannot count on anyone except on themselves. 

Child marriage compromises the girls' development once they are forced into sexual activity with her husband at an age where the bride is not physically and sexually mature. This has severe health consequences. Furthermore they are exposed to such serious health risks such as early pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, like HIV/AIDS.

They are constantly under pressure, they always have to perform large amounts of domestic work, take care of their children while still children themselves, and they have no opportunities for employment and self-realisation.

Child marriage is a worldwide phenomenon but is most prevalent in Africa and Southern Asia. It is estimated that in the next decade more than 100 million girls are likely to be married before the age of eighteen. That is 25,000 new child brides every single day for the next ten years. 

Due to these facts governments must take immediate action! For example they can establish 18 as the legal age of marriage for girls, as well as boys, and ensure its implementation. Promoting birth and marriage registration will help enforce these laws. Besides expanding children’s knowledge and empowerment is crucial, particularly for girls once educated girls are less likely to agree to marry at a young age.

Couple guilty of trafficking children

Mohamed and his wife Petra were arrested yesterday by the national police cooperation, because of the selling of children in an auction in Mirjapur, India. They are the founders of an employment agency, which the main objective was negotiating children to work in factories, earning money with their pass.

Their employment agency hired children both from India and China. They used to talk to parents in a very difficult economic situation, and say that if their children went with them, they would get good education in order to have better job opportunities in the future. They made parents sign a document and Mohamed told them it was said that their kids would have a better life. Because parents were illiterate they did not understand what was really written in the document and they actually signed it. Then kids went with Mohamed and Petra, and they sold them to factories.

In the factories, children were forced to work too many hours a day in very poor conditions, doing very hard tasks and receiving very low salaries. Sometimes they only got a bowl of food during a whole day. They were kept working with threats to death if they tried to escape.

"They used to hit us if we have done something wrong. We are only kids, we cannot do everything perfect. Nobody does.", said one of the children when asked about the life in a factory. "It was not a school at all.", another one accomplished.

As child labour is prohibited in India and in China some people have joined together and created a foundation against this kind of human rights violation. It is called "Children are not slaves!" and has done a lot of progress recognizing children's rights by the government and making it take action in these situations by punishing people. The members of this association are currently organizing an operation to alert the most number of parents as they can so that in the future the number of children trafficked will diminish.

Who is Emmanuel Jal?

Emmanuel Jal is nowadays a hip hop star who sings about what happened to him. He was born in Sudan and at the age of seven his mother was killed by soldiers. Then he decided to be one of the ten thousand children who went to Ethiopia because they had been told they would be educated there. But it was a totally lie and they were forced to fight in Second Sudanese Civil War.

Fortunately he was very lucky and he survived, but many of the children who were fighting along him did not. After the war he went to school in Kenya and he started a completely different life. Then he went to America to tell his story to the world through the messages conveyed in his music. 

"Music is powerful. It is the only thing that can speak into your mind, your heart and your soul without your permission," he says. He feels the responsability to help kids who fight in war because he was once one of them. Approximately 250,000 children under the age of 18 are thought to be fighting in conflits around the world. 

His album "WARchild" was the first lauched in America and it describes war and his desire of changing mentalities, specially the clear message that children have no place in wars.

He also participes in several campaigns of non-profit African's organizations, besides he has found a charity named Gua Africa. "Gua" means "peace" in Sudan's language. That organization is dedicated to educating children affected by war and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.