Now is the Time for Running

 I am reading Now is the time for running which is about a boy named Deo and his brother innocent. Their village is in Gutu Zimbabwe where they had barely had any food and was extremely poor. However, this situation is still occurring sadly. Nearly everyone is unemployed and their economic situation is plummeting. I couldn't imagine being in Deo and his brother’s shoes I am not sure exactly how I would handle that situation but I probably would handle it as well as Deo. Even now it must be extremely hard to live in such conditions. How would you deal with living in such a harsh and poor way?

Sweatshop Shoppers

For a BBC show they took a hand full of people who shop for clothes often. They agreed to join a factory in Mumbai where some of their clothes were made to see how poor the life was to make their clothes. One of the shoppers, named Georgia (20 years old), was disappointed. While the factory was technically not a sweatshop and all the workers were adults, the conditions were the same. The room was hot, the salaries were low and you had to sleep at your desk. A line of 30 workers had to complete a total of 300 garments a day! Believe it or not, the worst part of the factory was the money you got. You got about 2 euros for a normal job, but it can go down to 1.50 euros as well. This money was just enough for food and clothes for the worker's family. Georgia thought the first thing she should get was toiletries, the cheapest thing was deodorant, but she couldn't afford it with her salary.
This story is similar the Boys Without Names. In this book; the main character tries to get a job. The boy who he thought was helping him, drugged him and sold him! Now he is in a factory/sweatshop like this. In the book, Gopal (the main character) has to make about 12 frames a day, 4 before lunch, 4 before dinner, and 4 after dinner. Though, unlike the BBC story, Gopal can't leave, he eats and sleeps there. Gopal doesn't get paid either. If I was Gopal I would have brought Aai (mother) the the tea stand where Gopal got drugged. That way Aai could have been there and the other kid wouldn't drug me. There fore I wouldn't be sold. As well I would always bring Aai or at least Jama (his uncle) because they are in Mumbai, which I picture as a bigger version of New York City. So what do you think of these "sweatshops"? Do you think we should take them down or keep them, but raise the conditions?

Iqbal Masih

This is Iqbal, a boy who was sold to a carpet factory in Pakistan. He disobeyed his masters and ran away several times, but he was beaten and treated terribly. The carpet factory owners beat the children if they disobeyed the littlest thing. They are trying to stop this by, passing a freedom right to the people. So, no more child labor. This is where I found the law being passed. I would hate to be in that situation. Being worked to the bone, then not eating enough food, being threatened that, if I don't finish, I get whipped. I feel super sorry for them, but I am happy that I was not in that situation.

Sudan News

Currently in Sudan there is still much bad going on. People are still poor, still starving, and still dying. Although, Sudan has been improving quite a lot even though they're in war right now. I think Sudan will only keep improving as the economy gets better and people start finding jobs over there. Even though people are fighting and dying, Sudan will make a comeback in the future. Sudan is still searching for water, food, money, and jobs. With the right changes Sudan can overcome most of these problems. What do you think Sudan will be like in the future?

Sweatshops in modern times

That shirt you’re wearing where did it come from? No i do not mean what store you bought it at, i mean where did the shirt come from? There is about an 80% chance that that shirt you are wearing was produced at a sweatshop. What is a sweatshop? Well according to the dictionary Sweatshop definition a sweatshop is a shop employing workers at low wages, for long hours, and under poor conditions... This sounds bad right? The conditions of these sweatshops are horrid. 22 million innocent children die each year due to poor conditions at sweatshops. That is more than the population of New York! The government of the countries  that these sweatshops are in are  trying to stop these factories by passing law that give an age limit to the people who work there, setting a minimum wage, and setting a maximum  number of hours people could work. However they still break these rules and get away with it. In the book i am reading The Boys Without Names, Gopal an 11 year old boy is forced to work in one of these sweatshops. Reading this book you feel so much emotion towards this. Maybe a little boy named Gopal never existed but many kids with the same stories are trapped in these dirty and scary place. Not knowing if they will have enough food or if they will ever get out of these places all these kids have is a hope. How do you think we can end this? 

School or No School, that is The Question

                        The schools in Africa are new in the villages in the more sheltered parts of the region. Many people think it may be bad to introduce schools to the nomads, because they think there religion may fade to nothing at all. They want the kids to do the normal jobs they did when they were kids, but now they cannot because they go to school now. The good thing is that the kids may have a better future, to become doctors, vets, or even a teacher them self’s. They could use the knowledge they learned to help with daily life to become more “Civilized”. What do you think about the schools in Africa? How would they help and how would they do no good?

Sweatshops In Mumbai, India

India still has lots of children in child labor, especially in big cities like Mumbai where Gopal in Boys Without Names is working in a sweatshop. The children in India that suffer from Child Labor usually don't get paid but they get bad food which they are forced to eat. Some people think the cause of child labor is the increasing gap between the rich and the poor. 30,000 kids work for 11 dollars per month in Mumbai. The last thing India has done to stop child labor is ban kids from If  working at homes or restaurants, which was active since 2006. If I was Gopal in this situation I would be dead or I would of escaped already. If you were in Gopal's shoes what would you do?