Modern Day Slavery

Do you know Ashton Kutcher? The main punk from "Punk'd"? Well, that was him who was the first to tell me about modern day slavery. No, of course, I haven't had a face-to-face conversation with him, it was through Twitter, silly.

Ashton Kutcher, @aplusk in Twitterverse and whose twits, surprisingly to many, bear a lot of important messages to his 4 million audience, came a long way from Punk'd, as you can now see. Yes, I am shamelessly using his popularity to attract attention to global slavery. After all, that's exactly what he and his wife, Demi Moore (@mrskutcher), are doing. In January 2010 they have founded DNA Foundation that aims to eliminate child sex slavery worldwide. Yes CHILD sex slavery; we are not talking about teenagers here, but about tiny 8, 9, 10 year-olds! "More than one million women and children are trafficked across international borders every year. In just the United States, between 150,000 and 300,000 children are enslaved and sold for sex." Why on earth would somebody do that? Because it is nothing but a business and it is all about business in this world, isn't it? "Child trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world-a $39 Billion a year industry!" And it will remain just another ( yet extremely profitable) industry, as long as we, ordinary people, and along with us important decision makers continue to look the other way (Demi & Ashton Foundation: http://demiandashton.org.)

The next time I heard about slavery was during the showing of "Call+Response" documentary at my university. The creator of the project actually brought it to ODU himself and had Q&A session after the showing. His name is Justin Dillon, a musician himself, he once found himself saving a Russian girl from becoming a sex slave. After this close-encounter with the industry he did some research and realized how big and omnipresent the slave trading industry is and that he had to do something about it.

Did you know that there are 27 million slaves in the world? That there are more slaves today in the world than ever before in human history? Did you know that in 2007 slave traders made more money than Google, Nike, and Starbucks combined and 8 times more than UN budget?! I didn't know either, but knowing is not enough, we have to take action! As much as I loved and was inspired by "Call & Response", I was even happier that my friend who is an art-therapy student was so influenced by the documentary that she considered being a rehabilitation specialist for victims of slavery. Talking about Response here!

Nevertheless, forced prostitution is not the only form of slavery, there are also child soldiers and labor slavery. The latter maybe the most preventable, because each one of us through our consumer choices can make a difference so easily! By simply sending a letter to the companies, you show that you don't want to buy products made by children or slaves and can force the big corporations to change their practices and become more aware of human right issues in the lowest levels of their supply chains. Go to http://chainstorereaction.com/, choose a company and send a letter- you don't even have to write it, the letter is ready for you to sign it! Put your name and email address just once and then all you have to do is to choose again and click! See the real difference you can make: companies as Kenneth Cole, Gap, Banana Republic, and BCBG Max Azria have already responded to the plea and changed their policies!
Finally, check out Call+ Response website http://www.callandresponse.com/ and you will find out everything you need to know about slavery and how you can make a difference.

Be aware, take action, see the results, help people gain their freedom, because "justice is what love looks like in public," and because the problem is not as far from you as you might think.

P.S. I will continue writing about global slavery in my review of the book by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, luminaries on the issue and proponents of women's empowerment.

What Faux Pas is really all about

I started a blog because I wanted to talk about something that really matters to me, something I want for others to matter. But then I somehow deviated from this mission and wrote lightheartedly about anything that came up to my mind, which is not bad at all, but not good enough either.

So, from now on I will concentrate on what matters to me and what I would like to matter for everybody else. I will write about the global problems that we, enveloped by the comfort of our lives, do not notice or choose not to notice.

I will write about the modern day slavery (yes, it still exists!), the water crisis, (yes, it is already here), poverty (it is as strong as ever and very much preventable), and the climate change (yes, it is happening now and our day-to-day activities is the reason for it.)

... Because the biggest faux pas there is to ignore all of this, pretending we have nothing to do with it.

Inception

If the success of the inception into Robert Fisher's dream could be doubted, the originality of Inception, the movie, cannot. If you have watched the movie, you'll know what I am talking about, if you haven't yet, you better do it soon. Yet, despite my absolute satisfaction with the movie, my admiration to lead actor, Leo DiCaprio, and my love for mind boggling films, I am ready to accept that some people might actually not like it... Unsurprisinly though, I haven't met anyone like that so far, even in the wide Internet universe.

So, first the satisfaction. Although, I HAVE been totally satisfied with the movie, I must say that I expected more. It sometimes happens to me, when I build my own anticipation about something to such a level that in the end this something is never able to stand up to my expectations.

But, is there anything more to expect from Inception that has everything there is to be in a great movie? First, Leo DiCaprio. I know it's very lame of me to be constantly praising him, but he was my childhood crush and then grew into my favorite actor, not because of his good looks, but because of his amazing movie choices. And, may I mention this, Leo is a very big environmentalist, which I greatly respect. After all this leomania craziness, he showed that there is so much more to him than just a cute Hollywood heartthrob, even than just one of the best actors of our time!

However, Leo's great acting didn't leave unnoticed one of the best supporting actors cast ever! Marion Catillard, the French Oscar-winner, who's acting is getting really acknowledged in US ever since the big win, Ellen Page, the famous "Juno" Oscar-nominee, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the guy you remembered since "500 Days of Summer" and may have remembered since "10 Things I Hate About You," Ken Watanabe, probably the most famous Japanese actor in Hollywood and the supporting actor from "the Last Samurai" and "The Memoirs of a Geisha," and finally you've got Michael Caine anyone, yes he was in "The Dark Night" and in "The Prestige", "Miss Congeniality"... this guy has a separate wikipedia page for his movie list!

Finally, my love for sci-fi, mind bogglers and cinematic riddles making you think throughout the movie. Well, that's quite self-explanatory and unexplainable at the same time. You either love it or not. The same goes with the fantasy genre. You either take a leap of faith or do not...

If you have watched Inception, you know what I am talking about or you may soon. It's all up in the air and in the moment as a whirligig!

Quote of Our Lives

"The question which divides the men of our day, is no longer a question of political forms, it is a social question-that of deciding whether the spirit of selfishness or the spirit of sacrifice will rule, if society will be nothing more than a great exploitation for the profit of the strongest or a consecration of each of us for the good of all and, above all, for the protection of the weak. There are too many who have too much and who still want more; there are many more who do not have enough."

St. Francis Ozanam