life for rent

I've had this like REALLY long week last week. Three exams, on tenterhooks about my CPA results for that last part I did last December [everyone else seems to have gotten theirs, but on the bright side I hear if they come late there's a greater chance that I've passed. Hey, maybe I've even gotten an award - na, who're we kidding? Im still same ol me!] Anyways, when weeks like the last one end, I just wanna get out and do something crazy. Keyword - want. Turns out I don't have ANY bad habits. At all! So I pass my time and release the pent-up pressure watching TV.

So I was watching this documentary on CNN, The World's Untold Stories. They were running this story about women being hawked in West Africa someplace, think it was Nigeria and Mali. Literally being sold, to pimps or something in Copenhagen. For a thousand euros. The people who sell them prey on all the same types of chicks - anguished, deserted, without families or friends, and desperate for a place to stay. And the worst part is, these women know exactly what's gonna happen to them but they still come along. The pimps spin this spiel about a better life, security, money, food, maybe even a family down the line. And the girls eat it all up, hook, line and sinker.

This specific chick who was being interviewed, she was about 18, but the places she'd been, the things she'd done, she looked 40 or something. Her dad left her when she was like two. She's always lived on the streets and has never known what it's like to come home to a hot plate and a warm hug. So naturally when she heard about this new life, in Denmark noless, she jumped at it. Now she's facing deportation, probably had an STD or five and back home was probably gonna face criminal charges for prostitution. I remembered what one of those old New York mayors, before his days in public office when he was still a judge, back in the 50s or something - there was this one case about a guy who'd stolen bread from a convenience store. So when he heard it, he asked the guy why he stole, and the guy said he hadn't eaten for three days. So naturally, the judge sentenced him to pay a fine of 10 dollars, coz that was the law, but then paid it in himself. And then he fined everyone in that courtroom a dollar - for living in a town where someone had to steal to eat. A hat was passed round and the money collected was given to the delinquent. Story kinda touched me, you know, that life should be a communal affair, not that whole every man for himself we see around. The girl got a hundred euros I think from the Danish government to start her off once she got back home, and given cops in third world African countries really dig bribes, no prizes for guessing where that money went.

From the perspective of a person like that, sometimes I feel I can't blame people for not believing. Surely God can't always serve people up like that, not if He loves them, right? Anyways, her story did have a happy ending - the church took her in and where the documentary ended she was trynna find her family and reconnect. But still, should one person really have to go through all that? To be sold like a pound of flesh? How can they have self esteem after that? The average Beemer is about 3.5M shillings, a flat panel TV costs about 200K, and a smart phone is about 25K. So how much for a person? Really.

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