God's Children Reflection

This documentary "God's Children" shows people in the lowest levels of poverty fighting to survive; taking the most desperate measures. Before the landslide that killed thousands living on the garbage dump, the Smokey Mountain dump used to be a place of refuge where people can escape to once they're found out that they can't make a living in the cities. But after the typhoon loosened the ground on which the massive garbage mountains stood on and collapsed it to a heap, it ended and destroyed many people's lives. After that, the government thought it was too dangerous for people to be living there. Not able to physically force people out of their little shacks they called homes, the government issued an order to shut down the dump; garbage was not to be sent there any more.

Not only did it take away the garbage, but also the reason for people to be staying there. The government, however, didn't bother to think about where these people would go if they had to evacuate the dump. The many that remained on the garbage dump had to scavenge even harder for scrap that was lessening each day. Many large families went days without food because they had no money. When they did who says is was clean? It is very easy to fall sick with the lack of hygiene and the families have no money to afford clean and proper food, let alone medicine.

There is a scene where the refugees try to protest to the Philippine parliament to re-open the garbage dump. You see here that even though they already have nothing, they still have hope to go up to the authorities and ask what is rightly theirs. Even pregnant women traveled from the dump all the way to the city's government office to protest. They need this dump. To us, we might shield away from the very thought of living in a dump site, but these people are desperate to get it back.

The documentary features a family of 5 children, with the oldest of 12. Fighting to survive, the oldest child took on the burden of hard labour like the parents and helps support her large family. Before, they used to live in the city and she used to go to school. But once their family started loosing money, she had to give up education for hard manual labour. Education in these times was a privilege. One 50 year old man with a sick child and two other children told interviewers that the only education he got was from 1st grade of elementary school. He didn't get a math education and he's illiterate. The only thing he know how to write is his name.

I think that this documentary is very touching and it makes you realize how lucky you are. In other documentaries about animal cruelty and global warming, the directors like to show the lowest levels of these problems. In this documentary, the director didn't have to; it had been already done by him. He could have taken a simple video camera and taped a walk-through of the whole garbage dump and already it would have been disturbing for others. It's is very important to cherish what you have already because if you think that you have it bad because you're failing a class or your parents argue with you, one must always remember that someone else in this world-- maybe even at your age-- has it even worse.

Current Events - Protesters Clash With Police in Greece

Outside an Athen's courthouse in Greece today, a riot broke out just as two police officers accused over a fatal shooting of a teenager were due to testify. There was a big clash of the riot police and the protesters outside this Greek parliament building. Police were seen wearing body armor and holding riot shield to help stop the protesters; officials had to fire tear gas at the protesters to stop them, but not to harm them.
However, this incident is not only occurring outside this particular building, but many other protests occurred all around Athens after the death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos during these 4 days. Alexandros was killed by a ricochet warning shot fired by a police officer. Thousands came to his funeral while another ten thousand protested on parliament.

Because of these riots banks, schools, and even hospitals were closed on Wednesday. Roads were closed, and buses and the subway were shut down. Also, many flights were canceled.

I don't really think that the people should act like this. Some many have been injured because of the riots. I don't think Alexandros Grigoropoulos would have wanted that on his head while resting in peace. They shouldn't shut down roads and close hospitals. What if there was a major crisis and many people were injured. It takes time to re-open the roads and have the hospitals up and running again.

December 10, 2008
CNN.com

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