Desert Wind Club

One.org

kerryb — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:54:40 +0000

Last night I re-watched Diane Sawyer’s interview with Brad Pitt about poverty (particularly in Africa). So I would like to remind everyone to visit one.org and at least register your name. By now, over 2 million people have. They are not asking for money, just your support – the more people, the more political clout. We are trying to convince the world’s wealthier nations to donate a small portion of their prosperity to help others. How small? Well, in the Brad Pitt interview it was mentioned that $16 will send one of these children (orphaned by AIDS) to school for a year. Simple over-the-counter drugs readily available in the US could improve the life of a child considerably for the annual price of about a sandwich and a soda.

Take a look at http://www.one.org

Thanks

kerryb — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 19:55:00 +0000

We were happy to see America’s Most Wanted doing a segment on child sex slavery on Nov. 25, ’06 and publicizing Daryll Hannah’s efforts to bring attention to this tragedy.

Thailand is often thought of as a pedophile’s dream and children as young as 6 or 8 years old are available, I understand, for hire or purchase. These children are sex-slaves and organizations attempting to aleviate their plight should be supported.

However, older Thai girls often regard prostitution as a “bearable choice” because they feel obligated to repay their parents for past sacrifices and to improve the familie’s financial standing. They willingly, and with their parents knowledge and consent, join the sex trade – often in Japan -for a few years to accomplish this purpose.

(It seems to me that “schoolgirls” seems to be a Japanese national obsession. The age of consent is 13 and it is estimated that 20% of Japanese schoolgirls have older men as benefactors who pay them – with gifts and money – to hang out with them. Google the Japanese art known as Anime and Hentai to see this obsession first hand.)

Rescuing the older, but still underaged girls in this part of the world involves creating key job positions that are held in high esteem by villagers. These include bookkeeping, government administration, and research for international companies targeting the Thai market. Young girls holding these positions could stay in their own communities while bringing status and income to their families. See: http://www.desertwindclub.com/slavery02.html

The child sex-trade in the US is still among us despite the efforts of law enforcement, NBC Dateline, and countless child-porn vigilantees (at least that’s what they say they are doing). Everyone should be aware that such exists and where to report it if suspected. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking

kerryb — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 23:32:43 +0000

Helping can sometimes keep you jumping. ) I didn’t get much work done yesterday. There’s this girl, Rochelle, 19 years old and suffers from Dandy Walker Malformation (or syndrome) so she’s slightly handicapped. She has the mentality of, I’d guess, about a seven year old. She’s trying to live on her own – got a rental home, actually a trailer. So I get a call that she has an appointment with Health and Human Serv. for food stamps. The appointment is in 45 minutes and about 9 miles throught city traffic, so I take off (I’m the only transportation she has) and get her there only five minutes late, but she has to stand in line for about 10 minutes, so they will never know she was late – except, when she gets to the window, she apologizes for being late. heh, heh…. Oh, well.

They want her work history – she was an usher for a theater, but was laid off – and a note from her landlord testifying that she lives at the address she gave. So I run her by the theater but they don’t open ’till noon, so I take her by my house and offer her something to eat while we are waiting. Then we to get the employment info. and go by the landlords’ house where he signs a statement I had written out. Then back to the Human Services where we turn this in. They will notify her by letter. Ha. They asked her what grade in school she finished and she answered “12th”. What was not said was that her whole time in school was in “special education” and the school district chose to “mainstream” her so they promoted her to the next grade’s special education each year until she finally “graduated”. No, she cannot read or write. Well, maybe at a first-grade level.

All this took five hours. I took her back to her home and slipped her $20 which I hope she will spend on something usefull, like food, maybe. She gets $600 a month from SSI but has little concept of saving some of it back to use during the month.

I no sooner get back home, than another girl I have helped , Heidi, about 34 years old, I’d guess, was at my door. She had $10 for me. She’s paying me back for money she borrowed, she says. That was nice. It makes her feel better, but I’m afraid she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Actually, I’ve loaned – actually gave – her hundreds of bucks. But I didn’t expect to get anything back. )

There’s a girl I’m letting stay in my rent house for free – while she gets on her feet from a divorce where the deadbeat dad refuses to pay any child support and has moved to Colorado.

This girl is named Tress, she appears about mid-thirties, but has four kids – two of which are next to grown, a girl high school senior, and a girl 6 years old. One of the almost-grown kids, a boy, is an exemplary kid – plans to join the navy. The other, a girl- 17 - is not so nice. She had showed up under the influence of marijauna and mom had kicked her out of the house and some older gal who claimed she had her bed was camping on my renthouse front porch demanding to be let in to get her bed, and Tess was not going to let her in. Tess had to go pick the 6 year old up from school. Then she would give the gal her bed. The gal refused to leave the property, said she didn’t care if Tess had to pick up her daughter, and demanded to be let in. I went over and told her to leave the property, that Tess would get her bed when she got back from school. The old gal said no. So I called the cops. Of course they didn’t show up. Well, after 35 or 40 minutes an officer arrived. During that time, Tess has called a friend to pick up her daughter, has disassembled the bed – which the daughter should have done- and carried it outside. The old gal, the daughter, and the daughter’s friend taunted her while she was doing it. Finally the officer arrived and talked to the perpetrators, but not to Tess. The old gal and gang assured the officer that they were the wronged party and the officer left. So I called the police again and asked why they didn’t talk to the complainant. They’d call me back. 7:00 pm the police sargent called me back and said he would talk to the officer about why she didn’t talk to the complainant. Actually, that’s what I expected from the police.

Like I said, helping people can sometimes keep you jumping.

kerryb — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 23:17:17 +0000

Several cautions the DW Club mentions about helping people. First, help yourself first. Don’t try to help others unless you are sure you can. Secondly, be aware there is an entire subculture which tries to exist on the goodness of others – these are often druggies and other crimnals as well as simply moochers. You cannot take them to raise – even if you were so inclined, there are too many of them. Which brings us to another concept: be very cautious about doing really big favors for individuals. Most of the time, they will just end up being mad at you for eventually having to quit doing them the favor. Does that make any sense? They will slip quickly and comfortably into you helping them into perpetuity. A better way to help may be through organizations. There are many great philanthropic organizations – pick one… and use the cautionary notes at http://www.desertwindclub.com/help02.html to help you select.

kerryb — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:25:15 +0000

It’s the 21st century and the 3rd millenneum. Slavery should have disappeared in the far reaches of history. But it hasn’t. We consider rescuing slaves the ultimate altruism.

Kerryb

kerryb — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:20:07 +0000

There are only two legitimate ways to have more money: (1) make more, and/or (2) spend less. And, let’s face it folks, before we can help others, we have to be financially secure ourselves.

Kerryb

kerryb — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:16:39 +0000

Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by those – individuals and companies – who are pursuing their own agenda at our expense. Identifying them helps.

Kerryb

kerryb — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:13:59 +0000

Making life easier for others is a nobel goal and contributes to happiness. As Red Green is prone to say, “We are all in this together.”

Kerryb

Welcome

kerryb — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:05:03 +0000

Welcome to the Desert Wind Club weblog where we share ideas and information. We are just learning how to use this and are learning together, but I’ll bet we manage! :-) When perusing the DW (Desert Wind) website at www.desertwindclub.com, if you want to make comments, tell a story, or share an idea, here’s the place to do it. This is not a place to spam your wares and certainly not a place for bigotry or hatred, but rather a place to pursue happiness.Welcome.

Kerry