Exhausted (in a manner of speech)

Phew! I just completed my IH essay, my art project, and my math practice. I absolutely fail to see how humans manage to survive the process of growing up through secondary school. There is still work to be done tomorrow, like my AAP photo montage, my music project, and also my IH comparison between the solutions and problems that Chinese immigrants faced while staying in Singapore. But there is still something to rejoice at: the weekend is coming!! Thank the Lord for his grace and mercy.

Awooo...

Hey there, all. I hope you like my new blogskin. If you have seen this post, that means you have figured out where my posts will be found in the future. The unfortunate thing is, this blogskin does not, however, allow you to comment on my posts. Therefore, my posts will have to remain "commentless" for a period of time.

So far I'm curious about this book titled Twilight and what it is about. I know that it is roughly a romance story involving vampires and werewolves, and the latter is my speciality! So will anybody kind enough deprive me of my cluelessness?

Child slavery in India

One might think this is not possible in real life, but then you would be wrong.
Many children in Asia are kidnapped or tricked and trapped in servitude, where they work in factories and workshops without being paid, instead receiving constant and unreasonable beatings from their “masters”.
But how were these children separated from their parents in the first place? Well, this is how the scam works.
An agent arrives in town. He shows great sympathy for the child’s parents and seems to understand their financial plight. He purchases gifts for the child’s parents: two dresses for the mother and purchases a cow for the father (but the cow is an old sick cow which dies after a few months).
The agent gives them a little piece of paper with the name and address of an employment agency that does not exist, and leads the child off to a life of slavery.
This is all a cover. The children are, in reality, locked away from prying eyes in sheds or dens. Furthermore, they endure tortures such as branding with red-hot irons, burnt with cigarettes, starved, whipped, beaten while hanging upside-down, chained up, and locked in cupboards most of the time.
“We were poked with burning cigarettes on the back and legs. If we cried for our mothers we were locked in a room without air or enough light. We were forced to work for 20 hours a day without pay. We were kept half fed and beaten up severely by our masters if we were found talking or laughing among ourselves. One night I jumped into the nearby River Ganges to kill myself to escape from this painful life. We were never allowed to go back to our parents, to our villages,” says Shankar, describing his own experience.
The sweatshops have doors and windows barred in order to prevent escape. The factories are usually guarded by thugs with cudgels and occasionally, guard dogs.
But how about the child’s parents? Will they not get suspicious?
The child’s parents hear nothing from him. If they get suspicious, they might go to the address of the agency, only to discover that it does not exist. If the child’s parent finally tracks down the factory or den where the child lives and works, the master tells them: “I paid for his food and medicine”, and claims that the child cannot leave until the enormous fictitious “debts” which he incurred in keeping the child are repaid. When, eventually, the police arrive, they throw the parent out.

“I was beaten for even scratching my skin and my father was beaten when he came to see me. Ever since I started working, I haven’t been given either a wage or a single day off”.
— Ashok, 8 years, who worked a 21-hour day from 3 am until midnight in a carpet factory in India.

“I was not allowed to meet my parents for the 7 years that I worked, though I would often ask for permission. The only response was more beatings”.
— Dilip, India

“Two of my friends were killed. They were wrapped in jute bags, which were tied to heavy stones and thrown in the river”
— Dilip, India

As the governments and police forces of many countries are corrupt, the Anti-Slavery Society works to rescue the children from dens or factories by organizing and also funding rescue missions to rescue these enslaved children.
SOURCE: http://www.anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/slaverysasia.htm