I'd love to say this surprises me. (P-13)

Okay, we all knew this was coming...I watch Dateline, I get angry about stuff. So I apologize ahead of time for the predictability of this entry (I hate it every time I read it, but don't have time to redo it just yet), but even if it's predictable, the subject I'm talking about still bothers me.

So without further ado...it's Buss's Rant About the Tsunami Disaster. :-)


Wow. An example of human nature at its finest.

One of the most horrific natural disasters anyone could imagine, and while many people have pulled together and donated (might I suggest Amazon.com's donation option for an easy way to help out?) or went over to help Tsunami victims...there will always be people out there ready to think with the wrong head and take advantage of the poverty and devastation the tsunami caused to satisfy perverse pleasures.

Yeah yeah, I know this has always been a problem. Buying and selling girls as young as 6 for sex slaves or prostitution has been a problem in that part of the world for a long time now. We just dont' think about it normally. But pair it with a disaster of this magnitude and once again it hits Dateline and every other major news media service out there.

The problem is that there are so many children who have lost their entire families just walking around, that people can just grab them, stuff them in a building and nobody ever hears from them agian, because nobody bothers looking for them. This really isn't the authorities' fault. There are thousands of these orphans just walking around.

I think we can't deal with the tsunami on a lot of levels. We can't even look at it how it really is. One person dies, that's easy to assimilate and be horrified and outraged...but when the death toll grows to tens or hundreds of thousands...we just can't deal with the magnitude of that (credit goes to Eddie Izzard for that philosophical idea). It makes us almost numb to it all. But I'm sure it is only too poignant for the survivors....

The thing that really makes me sick is the thoguht that for a child to have survived all that, to have lost everything they own and everyone they love only to be snatched into a life as a prostitute or, even worse, sold into that life by the reminants of their own family...people they should be able to trust.

Okay, how the hell does one look their own son or daughter in the eyes as they are pulled away, knowing that they are going to be someone else's work or sex slave?

But this isn't a simple condemnation of people in that area of the world...ohhhh no. They have the flimsy but present excuse of being desperate. Take a look at a lot of the accounts. You think it's the same impoverished people who buy these children?? Sorry...no. Unfortunately all too often it's us. Obviously not just Americans, but foreigners in general. People from Better Places that don't have to worry about their next meal that are taking advantage of the poverty and what some people there are willing to do to get out of that poverty in order to satisfy desires that would normally not be easy to satisfy. It'd be sick and wrong to take an American child and molest them, so they take a plane ride, some of them under the guise of relief workers.

I believe with all my heart that child molestation is the single biggest sign of decline in our society, and their children are no less innocent or deserving of safety than ours. When you can feel lucky that you've made it to 18 without being whored out or outright sold into slavery....that's just....sad.

I really have no good way to end this. I understand that feeling like this now of all times shows more than a little hypocrisy. I understand that if I feel this strongly about it, I should be on a plane headed for Indonesia right now to help. Honestly? If I could scrape together the money for a plane ticket and wouldn't lose my wife and job by going, I'd consider it. But the demand for these kids has been created by the rest of the world. That guy busted on Dateline who left his cushy job and life in America twice a year to "Vacation" in that area of the world (and sleep with a few teenage prostitutes while there)? His life is probably ruined now, and all I could think was "GOOD!!". Screw him and everyone like him that thinks of themselves as morally above anyone else because they have a better lifestyle. Screw his rationalization that because the youngest girl he'd ever slept with was fourteen that he was better than most people who do this sort of thing.

Sorry if this is not one of my better entries. Not even one of my better rants. I don't have words to put this all in to. I don't even think I'm the one who should be complaining about this, given my butt is on my comfortable chair in front of my expensive computer in a temperature controlled building with Old Navy jeans on it and not helping these people I profess to care so much about.

Ah well. That's why I have the advantage of being able to write whatever I want in here and not have to worry about how it sounds and even (like in this case) if it has a lick of cohesion or makes any sense whatsoever.

But if you read all this drek and agree, cool. Please consider donating somewhere in the very least. It helps. If you don't agree and think I'm an ass for saying all this....well you're probably right. Please still consider donating. These people need your help, and it's also in human nature to help one another.

Thank you.