unjust

I´ve been to the film festival in Rotterdam and there were lots of movies depicting different ugly situations in society. One was about a girl from Zimbabwe, whos mother died of AIDS and she and her little brother and little niece went to the nearest city to live with the aunt. She did not have much money either, so Zimbabwe, the girl, immigrated illegally to South Africa, via a "company" that smuggles peiple and gets them a job. She got a job as a housemaid. She had to give her earnings to the "company" that threatened her to turn her in as being illegal. The husband of the house where she worked raped her on a regular basis. She burned a shirt by accident and the wife made her pay for it from her salary (note that she easily said that she would just have to buy a new one). In the end she hit the husband to unconsciuosness when he raped her again. The one friend she had there adviced her to go back to Zimbabwe, what she happily did.

Another movie was about a Maroccan child that moves from a village in the mountains into the city and becomes a street kid. Stealing and selling stolen stuff is a way of making a living than a crime. Basic knowledge of the tourists languages would help to do other things.

A third one was about a prison for children in Russia. Kids younger than 14 years go there. Some had murdered a person. They liked the prison better than their home because they could go to school and got basically everything they needed, food, education, a bed. But they don´t get psychological help. The movie maker was the first one to ask them how they felt about what they had done and how they think they would continue their lives. Asking simple basic questions like this already made them think into a different direction.

Of course it is not this easy as it sounds to tackle these issues. But maybe we find ways to do some small change on a small scale and build in some elements that make it spread.