Warning: Heavy Content.
We have "On Demand" with our Verizon Fios TV service, and through that, HBO has some "free" movies. Many of which a documentaries, which I LOVE.
However, I think these true stories are going to be the end of me.
Last night I watched 90 minutes about the human trafficking in China, called "China's Stolen Children". 70,000 children a year are being kidnapped and sold to the highest bidder. China's "one child" policy has left the country with families desperately wanting sons (this we have known for years), but now, needing women as suitable wives.
Hundreds of thousands of female fetuses have been aborted (abortion is part of life in China, the clinics actually place ads on the sides of buses.) When I heard this, my first thought was, "How do they know it's a girl?" Yes, they are waiting to abort at the 20 to 25 week point. Can you imagine that choice for a mother? Have a girl, and your husband's family line ends. Or, abort a baby you have been carrying for 5 months. I would imagine many times the choice her husband's, not hers.
Now, this blog is not to discuss abortion. Period. But, when I heard the account of a women in a small village who went into hiding with the pregnancy of her 2nd child (additional children incur a LARGE fine, that could leave a farm family devastated), she was hunted down by the authorities and given an "abortion medicine"- AT EIGHT MONTHS PREGNANT, I was absolutely horrified.
Needless to say, she delivered a baby. A boy. Who survived, only to grow up and have his five year old son kidnapped. The story of this couple 7 months into the search for their son was devastating to watch. The boy's mother just traced his face on a photo with her finger over and over again. And the fact that its a common occurrence in China is making me nuts.
The Chinese government has forbade the parents to speak to foreigners about it. They will not allow the parents to post fliers, concerned that tourists will catch on to the number of children missing.
The documentary also told the story of a lone detective trying to help these families steal their children back. During the filming, they saved a teenage girl who had been sold to a brothel. He has recovered around 100 victims, but the stress has taken its toll and he has decided to leave the profession, working only on the cases he currently has open.
While the Chinese government will not admit that the one child policy has created a black market for human trafficking, they have stated that the law has left an unbalanced society and will re-evaluate in 2010.
I am outraged. Totally and completely outraged. I know I can pray for them, but what else? What else can I do?
Comments
Heavy........but worth saying and then some!
I am hoping now that the Olympics are over, the media will quit cutting China the slack it does not deserve.
EM
I can't imagine not even having the choice of having more than one baby. I know that right now we'd be hurting pretty bad financially if we had another one but it's not illegal (and we don't get fined for it). Those poor mommies.
I don't know what you/we can do. It seems like a problem a big organization like the UN should care about, but it doesn't seem like anyone has done anything (except that nice man and I'm sure a handful of others).
This documentary shows that the Chinese Government should be held to the standards of the UN's Human Rights laws and something needs to be done now.
Thank goodness this documentary was made.
Thank goodness HBO aired it.
Thank goodness you decided to write about it Tiffany.
If I were to watch I'd worry myself into a breakdown.
That is terrible. Terrible just doesn't seem to cut it. I know this might be wrong but that is the reason, I don't watch the news, Oprah, or things like that. I like living in my little bubble.
But I to am outraged!
I have not seen the documetary, and probably shouldn't until I am a little less hormonal.
Thanks for sharing.
You are right, pray we should!
We are all blessed beyond belief.
I am reading a book about China right now - and it has a humorous bent to it - but some of the things that go on over there are unreal - "Lost on Planet China" by Maarten Troost.
Wish I had an answer for you regarding what we can do...
You just touched on what makes me see red, more than anything else. Human sex trafficking...I hate it. That and cancer are my two most-hateds.
I cannot even bear to think of this kind of atrocity. I just have to pray...
Everytime I saw Mao's picture during the Olympics, I wanted to wretch.
Sick, just sick.
I actually came over to tell you that I ordered all the other books in the Twilight series after reading the first one. I even ordered them in hardback...free shipping only two bucks more than soft cover. I am so sucked in now. I just loved Twilight and told my husband we have a date for the movie in November!
Then with the earthquake killing a lot of children, it makes it that much more horrible. It's hard to bury my head in the sand and pretend it's not real. Prayer is our best option.
One story...I can only tell one because it is so sad.
A Chinese woman had a baby girl as her first child. Of course her husband and his family wanted a boy, so she was forced to give up her daughter to an orphanage. Each day this woman would stand outside the orphanage hoping to get a glimpse of her daughter.
Finally after about three days, one of the orphanage workers came out to talk to the woman. She told her..."you cannot come here each day, it is not allowed and it is not safe for you".
I can only imagine how this mother's poor heart was breaking. Having her daughter ripped from her right after she was born. To carry a child for nine months and then nothing.
This is a sad, sad, sad situation. Every time I watched the Olympics this past month I thought of their awful culture that would allow this to happen time and time again.
My heart hurts for these people. It really does. When you figure out what else we can do, let me know. I'm in.