Dec. 29, 2006 - 21:04 MST

OVER THE LIMIT

Between family doings, helping Heather as much as I could while she ailed a bit I kind of blanked out and wasn't up to much of anything. Last night on Dec. 28 we went out to Country Buffet for a birthday dinner with our daughter who lives in the Denver area. Snow to the max, slushy slick, but we made it safely. Today I rode the sofa after getting up late. Feel rested pretty much and am looking toward an early bedtime tonight too.

I did read the paper this morning for a bit and ran onto an article from The Associated Press by Muneeza Naqvi, quoted here in full:

INDIA FREES 50 KIDS FROM TWO YEARS OF SLAVE LABOR

NEW DELHI, India -- "For two years, 12-yiear-old Bohla worked more than 15 hours a day without being paid or allowed to visit his parents."

"On Thursday, a local non-governmental organization freed him and 49 other child laborers like him."

"The children -- all boys aged between eight and 14 whose parents are poor farm laborers in the eastern Indian state of Bihar -- had been brought to New Delhi to work in small factories making elaboratedly embroidered fabric called "zari."

"The embroidery requires working with very fine needles on which children often hurt themselves."

"We freed these 50 children after some frantic parents came to us saying that they were unable to get in touch with their children," said Kailash Satyarthi of the "Bachpan Bachao Andolan," or "Save the Children Mission." The children were held captive in the factory and not allowed to visit their parents."

"On Thursday, the children described how they were slapped and beaten with leather belts."

"Despite India's growing economic power, child labor remains wide spread. An estimated 13 million children work in India, many of them in hazardous industries, such as glass making, where such labor has been banned since 1986."

"Earlier this year, India banned the hiring of children under 14 as servants in homes or as workers in restaurants, tea shops, hotels or spas."

"Critics of India's child labor laws say the bans have limited impact becuase they do little to address the poverty at the root of the problem."

"For the children themselves, the issue is not clear cut. They come from bitterly poor families and have little or no access to even a primary education."

"In many cases, they are their families' sole breadwinners."

"Charges have been filed against the owners of the factories where the children worked, but all three have absconded."

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My little electronic Franklin Dictionary says -- "abscond (verb)- - - to depart secretely and hide oneself,"

Thus leaving children in the lurch, with no means to earn any money at all to help their families. The fact that some of them are the sole breadwinners gives me an idea of how poor the families are, trying to exist on what a slave kid can earn.

And they'd still be working there if the employers had let them visit with their families, of course the beatings with straps and slapping would have come to light.

Things like this keep showing up from places all over the world. Abuses like this have happened here in our country, in my state just recently. A young nanny, maid was pretty much a slave to the family she was working for. They held her passport and paid her little. From the claims made the man forced sex on the young lady, which I personally don't doubt.

This is all beyond my understanding, how people can do this to others, and makes me wonder why all of us aren't doing something to put a stop to such activities. But then, "He who is without sin, cast the first stone," makes me understand that I can't cast a stone, because I haven't done very much to prevent these things from happening.

What little I have done over the holidays for my wife and the family have put me totally OVER THE LIMIT . . . . . . . . . .

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