Kate's Place

Old Snake in a New Skin: Slavery

Kate — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:53:28 +0000

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude …shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. — 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

This morning’s news about allegations that the father of “Slumdog Millionaire” child star, Rubina Ali, tried to sell the 9-year-old for $290,000 appears to have come as a shock to the world. While the act, if true, is reprehensible and deplorable it should come as no shock to anyone who has been paying attention.

Those who are shocked by this story, need to know that slavery did not end in 1863. Slavery was officially abolished worldwide at the 1927 Slavery Convention, yet it continues to thrive throughout the world. Experts estimate that today, there are 27 million people enslaved around the world. 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked internationally every year. It is believed that women and children account for approximately 80% of them. The majority of the slaves can be found in India and in African countries. But don’t stop reading!

Here, in the land of the free, the CIA estimates that up to 17,000 people are trafficked into the US every year. I am encouraged that President Obama, in August, 2008, stated:

”This has to be a top priority… What we have to do is to create better, more effective tools for prosecuting those who are engaging in human trafficking… Sadly, there are thousands who are trapped in various forms of enslavement here in our country… It is a debasement of our common humanity.”

A difficulty in making Americans aware that this is such a widespread problem is the sanitation of the language we use to discuss it. It has become common to use “trafficking” (brings to mind nothing more than an annoyance, right?) rather than “slavery,” a word which moves us to anger and action. People who wish to keep their head in the sand, or who have an agenda other than fighting for the freedom of all people, will make arguments against the use of the word “slavery.” Frederick Douglass warned us about this.

It has been called a great many names, and it will call itself by yet another name; and you and I and all of us had better wait and see what new form this old monster will assume, in what new skin this old snake will come forth. — Frederick Douglass (regarding slavery)

I strongly recommend reading Kevin Bales’s book, “Ending Slavery” (link to google preview) as an introduction to modern slavery. I found it to be the most enlightening book I’ve read in the past two years and made me want to learn more and do more.

You can learn more about the subject, and how you can make a difference, by going to Free The Slaves. Another good resource is iAbolish , from the American Anti-Slavery Group. A site that I just found and haven’t had much time to explore (but my first impression is very positive) is Love146, dedicated to ending child sex slavery & exploitation.

“The first step in ending modern slavery is teaching the public that it still exists.” -The AASG website

Butterfly 10 Years Later

Kate — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:43:12 +0000

Butterfly & Luna - 1998

April 22nd is Earth Day, which got me thinking about Julia “Butterfly” Hill, who spent from Dec 10, 1997 to Dec 18, 1999 (yes, 738 days) living 180 feet up in a Coastal Redwood tree she had named Luna. She did this to save Luna, who is over 1,000 years old, and other surrounding trees, from destruction by loggers. That kind of passion is rare and admirable.

I lived in Humboldt County at the time, not far from where Butterfly (her forest name) perched in Luna. Just knowing she was up there was part of the whole magic of living there. I could not even begin to imagine how a North Coast winter storm felt when perched 180 feet up in a redwood tree. We had some fairly fierce storms during which I prayed for her safety. That’s not to say my cynical side didn’t rear its ugly head as well. It did. And still does, I am learning. This started out as a distinctly cynicism-free post, I swear, but all it took was to read her recent interview in the SF Chronicle to change that, I’m afraid.

Julia - 2008

A Chronicle staff writer asks Julia such questions as:

“What girl were you in high school?” (Didn’t fit in.)

“Ever look up an ex on faceBook?” (No.)

“When you Google yourself, you feel…”

“I refuse to Google myself. I just don’t engage in that reality. … If I were to read all the media that’s been done on me, I would no longer be me … But my manager and executive director have a Google Alert for Julia Butterfly Hill, and they check it out.”

Over the cliff of cynicism I fall once again.

(Read the full article)

4/21/09 Update: After some time, discussion with my husband (who is the most reasonable man I know), watching the birds compete over nearby nesting spots, and admiring how the baby rabbit in my back yard is growing, I have climbed back out of the depths of cynisicm. I have also learned of an organizaiton, cofounded by Julia Hill, called “What’s Your Tree?“ Here is a quote from their website:

What’s Your Tree builds on Julia’s story and asks the question: What calls YOU to be bigger and more powerful than you ever imagined? What cause is so important to you that you will go outside of your comfort zone to achieve it? What purpose are you willing to use your life to fulfill? In other words: What is YOUR tree?

Most notably, they have developed a curriculum designed for small groups with the aim of helping “individuals discover their deeper calling and to create one’s life around that calling.” Then, they work on moving “from an ‘individual’ point of view to a community point of view:”

Ultimately, we are building communities of people who are lit up by purpose, living their life powerfully and making choices that call them courageously forward into creating the kind of world they want to live in.

Whatever each person’s individual pathway is, we want to see them connected, cared for, and in community — because at the end of the day, being in community is the best (and funnest) way to change the world.

Now how can anyone be cynical about that?

CuriousHeart.com: Your Source for Heart Health Information

Kate — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:57:37 +0000

Original Curious Heart logo

Well… not exactly! But there are still a number of links I keep finding out there to the original CuriousHeart.com site. If you found this site from such a link, and were hoping to find heart health information here, please let me know so I can ask the referring site to delete the link.

I first developed the website back in 1999. As a cardiac nurse, and as one who enjoyed patient teaching, I developed the site to provide health information about the heart. It became one of the best places on the Internet to get information about various cardiac illnesses, diagnostic tests and treatments. The forum and e-mailed questions I received from people outside of the US really opened my eyes about the availability and quality of care in countries with nationalized health care! I heard from many people who had to wait for months to get a cardiologist appointment for a potentially life-threatening problem. They turned to a complete stranger on the Internet for medical advice, which I could not give them. But more about that in another post (rant!) someday!

By 2002, I was no longer working in a cardiac clinical area and the website updates became less and less frequent. I finally took the site down the following year and have used it just for my e-mail address until recently.

I recently saw that Britney Spears began marketing a Curious Heart perfume a couple of years ago. Maybe instead of just using the domain name for e-mail the last few years, I should have tried to sell it to her! Poor thing–she’s had enough on her mind lately. It looks like the site she did have for the perfume is gone now too.

Curious Heart Perfume

So, to sum this post up, if you are looking for heart health info or perfume, I’m sorry to disappoint you! There is a nice little gift shop in Nashville by the same name that you might like to visit though.

Hopefully, this solves the mystery of the “missing link”!

Quotations

Kate — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:49:29 +0000

These pretzels are making me thirsty. — Cosmo Kramer

I collect quotes. Then I lose the quotes. Then I collect them again. Then I lose… It’s been happening like this since I was about 5 years old. You would think computers would make it easier, but I treat my computers poorly and they strike back by crashing and corrupting or losing my files.

I found a random quotation plug-in for WordPress called Quotes Collection. Look to the right and you’ll see it display a random quote from my current collection. You can call a new one by clicking “next quote.” I was surprised to find out I had 327 quotes that survived since my latest quotation loss. It took me most of the day to enter them all! The Plug-in is amazingly easy to figure out.

It seems the majority of my quotations are about Liberty or Nature, but there are many different topics covered. I am trying to figure out how to allow searches of the various tags or authors, in case anyone is looking for something specific. {Edited: You can now search on tags, like Beauty, Peace, Love, Liberty, etc. and I’ll work on finishing those soon, as well as adding authors. I’m afraid the plug-in does not allow for searching of the actual text of the quote though.}

Another day, more learned about WordPress! Pretty cool!

New WordPress blog

Kate — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:13:49 +0000

Howdy, I’m just playing around with WordPress to learn some new things.

I’ve been working on my husband’s website, www.deviantdollarstore.com. It used to live here on my site until it moved into its own home. I’ve been learning a lot. Dreamweaver, some PHP, Javascript… I even did my first animated gif! Let’s see if I can place it here….

: My first animated gif and ad banner!

I think I’ve caught the website bug again!

This MIGHT turn into a real blog someday. For now, in case anyone wanders in, it’s just me learning!