A New Life

I can't believe I've already been married for more than 6 months. Perhaps this is not such a big deal for the average person, but for me it is. Time is slipping away so quickly. Six months have already passed since my wedding! How many more days until my body completely falls apart? How many more days until I am dead?

It is interesting to me how the perception of time changes when one gets older. Time has always been a frustrating concept for me, even more so after briefly studying relativity in a university astronomy class just over a year ago. Is time real? What makes our bodies age and molecules degrade over time? These are questions I continue to ponder on occasion, but I need the time to sit down and study it. I need time to think it over and full comprehend it. I haven't yet been able to find that time. I have been consumed for the past 5 years in my studies at university. Though I despise the whole system, I somehow found myself trapped in it. Though I do not regret how it has opened my mind and has taught me so many things, the way that it is set up is torturous to me, and I will be glad to be done with it.

My non-academic readings lately have been about human trafficking. Strangely enough, it has been within the past 6 months that my interest in this area has been perked, and I have brought myself to read the following books so far:

On the Side of the Angels: Dr. Joseph D'Souza
Invisible Chains: Benjamin Perrin
Ending Slavery: Kevin Bales
Not For Sale: David Batstone
The Natashas: Victor Malarek

I must admit that I am quite overwhelmed by the whole thing. I have been reading articles, studies and other things on top of these books. The first one I read was overtly religious, but I didn't know that when I read it. I read it anyway, and only found it slightly practical. Invisible Chains was great because it deals with the problem specifically in my own country, Canada. Ending Slavery was quite a to deal with. It is a very thick book crammed with facts, statistics, stories and ideas. For a detailed understanding of modern-day slavery, I would recommend this one. Not For Sale was a much easier read considering that I had read Ending Slavery just before it. The stories in it are quite brutal, but it is formatted in a reader-friendly way. I am on the conclusion of The Natashas right now. It makes me so mad at the corruption that is happening in the world, and the lust of women and money that fuels it. I wish I could do something, but I feel so powerless. I have been trying to volunteer for some agencies in my area, but this has been an uphill process. It is such an old concept, but new to be battling slavery in these days, and there isn't much structure in Canada with which one could place himself. It won't stop me from trying, but it is quite defeating knowing that these rapes, murders, and horrific crimes are happening every day and I am doing nothing to stop it because I don't know how.

The first thing that I decided to do is educate myself on the issue, because the worst thing to do is to go in fighting while remaining ignorant. In one of my linguistics classes this past semester we were given an anecdotal story at the beginning of class:

Somewhere on an island, way out in the middle of the ocean, there was a monkey. The monkey was a happy monkey, eating his bananas, climbing trees, and spending his days soaking in the rays of the sun. One day a storm came. The wind was howling and it was raining really hard. The waves in the ocean were large and rough. He noticed a fish swimming against the current. It was having quite a difficult time getting anywhere. The monkey climbed a tree and went out on a branch and scooped the fish up into his hand. He quickly put the fish on dry land, cheering that he had saved the fish. The fish squirmed around in a panic, but because the monkey didn't understand the fish, he thought the fish was wiggling in delight. Soon the fish was quiet. The monkey thought he had gone to sleep, resting after the difficult battle against the waves a few minutes earlier.

The best of intentions can have disastrous results if one walks into a situation in ignorance. There is so much to learn before action is taken. Though this may seem ridiculous because so many bad things are happening RIGHT NOW, action should be taken immediately, and things figured out along the way. As history has taught, this approach actually does more damage than good. Yes, sometimes immediate action does need to take place, but if possible, it is best to understand and then do the work rather than think that one knows enough and make things worse.