Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

Black History: Did You Know?

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

 

February is Black History Month. Which means it’s a great time to stir up reminisces about some of our country’s African-American greats.

 

DID YOU KNOW THAT:

 

  • In 1773, slave poet Phillis Wheatley wrote Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,” the first published book by an African American?
  • Nat Turner, an enslaved African-American preacher, led the most significant slave uprising in American history?
  • George Washing Carver, agricultural chemist, discovered 300 products that could be made from peanuts?
  • Fredrick Douglass founded an abolitionist newspaper called the North Star?
  • Harriet Tubman, best known for her work on the underground railroad, was never captured?
  • In 1870, Hiram Rhoads Revels (R-MS) became the first African American U.S. Senator?
  • Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier when he is signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947?
  • Howard University’s first female law student, who also became the first black woman lawyer in 1972, was Charlotte Ray?
  • 5,000 Blacks, both slaves and freemen, fought in the Continental Army on the Patriot side during the American Revolution?
  • African slaves combined elements of several African tribal languages with English to creat their own unique language known as Gullah?
  • The Father of Gospel Music was Thomas A. Dorsey?
  • In 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize?
  • A nuclear-powered submarine is named after inventor George Washington Carver?
  • The Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott lasted throughout the year of 1956?
  • School segregation was determined to be inherently unequal and in violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)?
  • The first black person to hold a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court was Thurgood Marshall?
  • Colin Powell, former Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State was born in Harlem?
  • Barack Obama became the first African-American president and the country’s 44th president in 2009?


Can you add to this list? Let’s make it pages long!

Easy, Free Way to Fight Human Trafficking

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

I know, I know.  Everyone wants a donation from you.  Well, not everyone.  This just in from International Justice Mission (IJM):

Over the last year, you’ve stood with IJM in advocating for the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPRA) – the foundation of our country’s efforts to combat human trafficking and slavery around the world. You have helped secure broad bi-partisan support in the House and Senate for this critical legislation, and the bill passed out of key committees in both bodies in October.

Since that time, however, the bill’s progress has become mired in the highly charged debates that are typical of election year politics. The Senate bill, S. 1301, is stronger than its House counterpart and is the closest to passing — it just needs to be brought to the Senate floor for a vote.

This is why I want to ask for your help again. Please take two minutes today to call your Senators and ask for their help in getting the TVPRA passed as soon as possible. Feel free to use the sample script for your call, and let us know how it goes by contacting us at justicecampaigns@ijm.org.

If passed, this bill will make a difference for children and families who need help. We are deeply grateful for your ongoing support!

Eileen Campbell
Director of Justice Campaigns

P.S. You can see whether your Senator has co-sponsored the TVPRA here.

Feel free to use this sample script for your call:

 

“Hi, my name is [YOUR NAME] and I’m calling from [YOUR TOWN, STATE] to voice my support for the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, S. 1301. I’d like to ask the Senator to do everything in [HIS/HER] power to get this important bill passed. This legislation helps to combat human trafficking around the globe and right here in [YOUR STATE], an issue I really care about. Would you please pass my message on to the Senator? Thank you!”

The Call of Zulina–FREE!

Thursday, January 12th, 2012
Haven’t yet gotten into the Grace in Africa trilogy?
Now is your chance. Today and tomorrow, January 12 and 13, book 1–The Call of Zulina–is free on Kindle.

National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

 

Shortly before Christmas, President Obama declared that January 2012 would be National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Thank you, Mr. President. Not a moment too soon!

Did you you know there are over 27 million slaves worldwide?  Sadly, it’s true.  And it is in our power to help put an end to this scourge.

Nearly a century and a half after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, President Obama issued this proclamation:

 

Presidential Proclamation — National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, 2012

 

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

 

Nearly a century and a half ago, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation — a document that reaffirmed the noble goals of equality and freedom for all that lie at the heart of what it means to live in America. In the years since, we have tirelessly pursued the realization and protection of these essential principles. Yet, despite our successes, thousands of individuals living in the United States and still more abroad suffer in silence under the intolerable yoke of modern slavery. During National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, we stand with all those who are held in compelled service; we recognize the people, organizations, and government entities that are working to combat human trafficking; and we recommit to bringing an end to this inexcusable human rights abuse.

 

That’s how it begins.  To read more, follow this link National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

 

 

Blessed Christmas

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn,

to console those who mourn in Zion,

to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,

the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

That they may be  called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

Isaiah 61:1-3

The Savior has come!

Blessed Christmas

Can’t Do Everything? Do Something.

Monday, December 12th, 2011

 

Taped to my computer is the picture of a small girl in a ragged blue dress.  I first saw her in a huge trash dump in India where she lives, busily searching for something her father could sell… or she could eat. 

I tried to talk to her, but she stared in silence with her huge brown eyes.  Then I blurted out the question I ask of children everywhere:  “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The little girl continued to stare.  As I turned to walk away, she whispered, “I can’t be anything.”

The world might look at that little one, standing ragged and barefoot in the garbage dump with a tattered collection bag over her frail shoulder, and agree with her.  But they are wrong.  Two Christian Indian women have started a school in the dump, and I’ve seen the options education can open up.  Donors support the women.  Other donors send school supplies.  Caring people in diverse places pray for both the teachers and the children.

None of us need do everything.  We only need to do our part.

Blessed Christmas!

A Gift of Choice

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

 

For two weeks Wardo walked, her 1-year-old daughter on her back and her 4-year-old son trudging at her side.  They were fleeing Somalia’s horrible famine.  They had almost reached the end of their journey when the little boy collapsed.  The child didn’t even have the strength to drink, so Wardo poured the little water she had left over his head to cool him off.  She begged other struggling people to help her, but no one dared stop.  They were too worried for their own survival.

Wardo had to make a horrible choice:  Which of her little ones had the best chance of survival?  Too exhausted to cry, she left her son lying on the road.

I know, I know.  Too much knowledge of horror is overwhelming.  On the other hand, if we don’t know we can’t act.

Have a blessed Christmas.  Give the gift of rescue and restoration to moms like Wardo and their little ones.  Check out www.ijm.org/giftsoffreedom.

 

 

“Finally, I decided to leave him behind to his God.”

 Wardo Mohamud Yusuf

Top 10 Once Again~!

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Breaking News Flash: I was just notified that The Triumph of Grace, book 3 in the Grace in Africa trilogy, was named in Booklist’s top 10 Inspirational Fiction books of the year. It was featured in the November 15 issue of the American Library Association’s Booklist Magazine.

Cool, huh? Especially since book 2 of the series, The Voyage of Promise, received the same honor last year.

In celebration of this, I will be giving away a signed copy of The Triumph of Grace. My impartial husband Dan will draw a name at random from all who stop by and leave a comment to this post. We’ll have one drawing on this website, which is built around this trilogy and dedicated to social justice and 21st century abolition, and another on www.kaystrom.wordpress.com . Visit both, leave a comment on each. You will double your chances of winning!

Yay for Grace!

Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Friday, November 11th, 2011

This Sunday, November 13, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  As you consider the many areas that need prayer, please add Afghanistan to your list. Last month the U.S. State Department reported this devastated country now has no church buildings left.

That is not to say that the church doesn’t exist in Afghanistan.  Only that each believer exists alone. Can you imagine the fear?  Can you imagine the isolation?  Can you imagine the discouragement?

This is just one of the desperate places, of course.  Please join with Christians around the world who will be in prayer for the more than 100 million believers now suffering persecution.

We are, after all, family.

The Iraqi Soldier–A True Story

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

He was an Iraqi soldier fighting under Saddam Hussein in Desert Storm, one of a privileged class who lived well and wanted for little.  Amazingly, he was a Christian.  When Saddam rained poison gas down on the Kurds as punishment for their lack of support, the soldier saw it all—the terrified parents rushing terrified children forward, the young men running with their grandmas on their backs, the families tossing aside the last of their worldly goods in their struggle to escape the poison gas. 

The soldier gathered his own family together.  He locked the front door of his lovely house and tossed the keys to his luxury car to the neighbor.  Then he joined the crowd of running Kurds.  He would not be back.  He knew it.

Saddam Hussein is no more.  The Kurds are living a better life.  The soldier?  He and his family have cast their lots with the Kurds. 

The soldier’s compassion brought his family to the Kurds, but it is their faith that sustains them there.  His family are all Christians.  But not they alone, for day by day, more Kurdish Iraqis join them.   It is the family of God at work.

Lest We Forget

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

I just received an email from an Egyptian friend.  She said, “We have gained so much.  We are so hopeful for the future.  But I am frightened, too. What if we are like the Israelites after they finally got freedom?  What if we, too, forget?”

Great question. 

Something amazing happens after such a momentous time.  Or maybe I should say something terrible.  Or terribly amazing.  We think, “This is indelibly engraved in my mind and on my heart.  I will never forget it.  Never ever!”

But time goes by.  Other things happen.   The memory fades.  And, just like the Israelites, we do forget.

I turned off my email and prayed for my Egyptian friend.  I prayed for all the Christians in that land.  I prayed for the entire country.

Lest we all forget.

 

 

Saudi Women, Don’t Give Up!

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s reformer king, took a good big step for women’s rights.  He decreed that women would actually be allowed to vote. For the very first time.  They can even run as candidates in municipal council elections.

Yay!

But the very next day, he had a woman arrested for defying the kingdom’s ban on women driving.  That’s right, she will stand trial for daring to drive a car.

Evidently there is a deep chasm between the image the king wants to show to the world and the reality inside Saudi Arabia.

So sad.

26 Interesting Facts About India

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

I just finished The Love of Divena, book 3 of the Blessings in India trilogy.  People often say to me:  Tell me about India.  I hardly know anything about it.

Okay.  Here are 26 interesting facts about the country of India:

1. India is about 1/3 the size of the United States, yet with a population of 1.16 billion people it is the second most populous country in the world. It accounts for 16% of the world’s population.

2.  India is the largest democracy in the world.

3.  Although India has 22 officially recognized languages and almost 2000 dialects, it is the largest English-speaking nation. The official language is Hindi. Sanskrit is considered as the classical language of India. English is the language of business and education.

4. The first and greatest civilization in ancient India developed around the valley of the Indus River (now Pakistan) around 3000 B.C. Called the Indus Valley civilization, this early empire was larger than any other, including Egypt andMesopotamia

5. After the Indus Civilization collapsed in 2000 B.C., groups of Indo-Europeans called Aryans (“noble ones”) traveled to northwest India and reigned during what is called the Vedic age. The mingling of ideas from the Aryan and Indus Valley religions formed the basis of Hinduism. The Aryans also recorded the Vedas, the first Hindu scriptures, and introduced a caste system based on ethnicity and occupation

6. Christopher Columbus, attracted by India’s wealth, searched for a shorter route to get there.  Instead, he mistakenly discovered the Americas. Hence, American “Indians.”

7. It is illegal to take Indian currency (rupees) out of India.

8. Because of a preference for sons over daughters, India has one of the world’s highest abortion rates—and a growing deficit of girls.

9. While most Indians live on less than two dollars a day, more than a million are millionaires.

10.  Cows freely wander the streets of India’s cities. They are considered sacred and will often wear a tilak, a Hindu symbol of good fortune.

11.  The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system. It employs over a million people

12.  The game of chess was invented in India. In fact, the word “chess” comes from the Sanskrit chaturanga, meaning “four members of an army”—which were mostly likely elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers

13.  The Indian flag has three horizontal bands of color: saffron for courage and sacrifice, white for truth and peace, and green for faith, fertility, and chivalry. A Buddhist dharma chakra, or wheel of life, is in the middle.

14.  The fold and color of clothing are viewed as important markers of social classification in India. And a woman can be seen as either a prostitute or a holy person depending on how she parts her hair.

15.  The Bengal tiger is India’s national animal. Once found everywhere in the country, fewer than 4,000 tigers are left in the wild.

16.  Tradition holds that Jesus’ disciple Thomas first brought Christianity to India and was martyred there by Brahmins.

17. Alexander the Great of Macedonia helped bring India into contact with the West. After his death, a link between Europe and the East would not be restored until Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed in Calcutta in 1498.

18. The British Raj, or British rule of India, lasted from 1858 to 1947. It influenced everything from Indian architecture to its education system, transportation, and politics. India’s worst famines are associated with British rule.

19. According to the constitution of India, the country is a secular republic. Indian citizens are free to follow any religion. Over 80% of Indians are Hindus.  Muslims, at 13%, are the largest minority. Officially, 2.5% are Christians, though this is certainly underestimated.  Many Christians masquerade as Hindus to keep from losing their benefits.

20.  India won independence from British rule on August 15th, 1947. The freedom struggle involved various political organizations and non-violence movements. The agreement was a country split into India and Pakistan. The partition displaced 1.27 million people and resulted in the death of at least a million people.

21.  Mohandas K. Gandhi is known around the world as Mahatma, which is a title of honor that means “Great Soul” in Sanskrit. He devoted his life to free India from British rule peacefully and based his campaign on civil disobedience. He was assassinated in 1948.

22.  India has the world’s largest movie industry—Bollywood–based in the city of Mumbai. The B in “Bollywood” comes from Bombay, the former name for Mumbai. Almost all Bollywood movies are tear-jerker musicals.

23.  Mumbai (Bombay) is India’s largest city, with a population of 15 million.

24.  The decimal system was invented in India in 100 B.C. The concept of zero as a number is also attributed to India. Indians made significant contributions to calculus, trigonometry, and algebra.

25.  India’s national fruit is the mango. The national bird is the peacock, which was initially bred for food

26.  Most Indians rinse their hands, legs, and face before eating a meal. It is considered proper to eat with the right hand.  Women eat after everyone is finished. Wasting food is considered a sin

South Sudan–Hooray for You!

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

Quote from Time.com:

 

“If a new country is
born and no one sees it online, does it really exist?”

Ask the people in South Sudan.

They celebrated their first independence day on July 9, 2011.

Have you heard much about the hard-fought new country?

Me either.

What a shame!

Interview with Ashish’s Father

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

Ashish:  Would you like to know more about me?  Read Margaret Daley’s interview with my father, Virat.

Free E-book Download: “The Faith of Ashish”

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Free Kindle edition

“The Faith of Ashish”

Wednesday, September 14, through Friday, September 16.

If you love the book, please write me a glowing review!  If you don’t like it, please give me your scathing comments in private. :)

Hey, Candidates~!

Saturday, September 10th, 2011

Okay, question here:
How would you respond to a presidential candidate who went off topic and expressed real concern for people who are starving to death in Somalia?

Whose heart was truly broken for the 750,000 men, women, children, and especially babies, who are in real danger of dying between now and New Year’s Day 2012?

Whose tears honestly flow for women who must bury their little ones beside the road as they flee a horrific situation?

Who, along with railing over the debt and fighting for party priorities, also presented a plan to respond to a situation to which the world’s governments and private donors have provided less than half what is so desperately needed?  In a country with no oil?
What would you think of such a candidate?

Me, too.

Grace Says: Meet Ashish!

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Reader Kavita Wrote:

Is this site only about Africa?  I just read an entry about our Indian fight for Dalit Christian rights.  Is it about India, too?

Grace Says:

That is a good question, Kavita.  This blog is about freedom from all kinds of slavery, as well as social justice.  Two or three hundred years ago, slavery mostly meant Africa.  But when we talk about 21st century slavery, South Asia leads the pack.  That’s because of the problem of bonded labor, mainly in India.

The Grace in Africa historical fiction books (The Call of Zulina, The Voyage of Promise, and The Triumph of Grace) revolve around slavery of the past.  But the new Blessings in India books are more about slavery today.  The newly released book 1, The Faith of Ashish, is set in 1905 and begins the epic.

So, no, this blog is not just about Africa.  In fact, I want to introduce Ashish, the main character of The Faith of Ashish. Ask him anything you want.

But, please, don’t stop asking me questions!

Calling All 21st Century Abolitionists!

Friday, August 12th, 2011

Last month, a bi-partisan group of Senators introduced the 2011 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) , a bill that renews and strengthens the legislation that established U.S. programs to fight slavery at home and abroad. Time is running out: The 2008 TVPRA expires at the end of September. We need your help to ensure the life-saving programs it established ten years ago will continue.

There is still time to lend your voice!

Members of Congress, home for the August recess, are eager to hear what their constituents care about.

Please, will you urge your Senators to co-sponsor the TVPRA?

So, so many will thank you!

 

Bonded Labor: Truth in Fiction

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Every day, from dawn until dark, Kumar labors in his landowner’s field. His wife and ten-year-old son work by his side.  Even so, his debt is greater today than when he inherited it from  his father.

Kumar is just one of the millions of people enslaved as bonded laborers, especially in India—particularly Dalits, members of the untouchable caste.  Their enslavement begins with a moneylender’s loan, perhaps as little as a few rupees to buy medicine for a sick child.  But with an exorbitant interest rate, it quickly grows.

Laborers must work long hours in the fields or factory or rock quarry, seven days a week.  And they must acceptt he moneylender’s meager shelter and food—the cost added to their bill at an inflated price.  No matter how hard they work, no matter for how long, the debt is never paid off.  Some families are enslaved for generations.

Today the International Labour Organisation estimates that at least nine and a half million people are enslaved as forced laborers in South Asia.  Most are in debt bondage.

That is fact.  My newly released book, The Faith of Ashish, is fiction… but just barely. The first in a trilogy, it show how a family
becomes enslaved.


Read more about this book on my website: www.kaystrom.com.

 

Justice in Cambodia?

Monday, July 4th, 2011

Finally.  At long last.  Thirty years and 2 million people too late.

Four top-ranking officials of the Khmer Rouge, led by the murderous Pol Pot, are scheduled to be tried by a U.N.-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Never mind that the accused are all now doddering and sick. (The youngest is 79, the oldest 85.)  Never mind that they have been allowed to live and thrive for a lifetime among the haunted survivors of the country they destroyed.

When I was in Cambodia several years ago, I walked through the burial grounds of countless thousands and saw pieces of fabric and shards of bone sticking up through the haunted ground.  The Cambodians whispered of the restless ghosts of those who cannot be at peace until the guilty are brought to an accounting.

Now, at long last, that is to happen.  The heinous four are to be tried for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Maybe.

If the Cambodian government—which counts former Khmer Rouge cadres in its ranks—stops meddling and delaying the process.

Then perhaps those ghosts in the killing fields of Cambodia will at last be able to rest in peace.

Starving Indian Girls?

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

The room is large and airy, the stone floors clean and cool – a welcomer espite from the afternoon sun. Until your eyes take in the horror that it holds. Ten severely malnourished children - nine of them girls. 

The starving girls in this hospital ward include a 21-month-old with arms and legs the size of twigs and an emaciated 1-year-old with huge, vacant eyes. Without urgent medical care, most will not live to see their next birthday.

“My mother-in-law says a boy is necessary,” says Sanju,holding her severely malnourished 9-month-old daughter in her lap in the hospital. The woman, who goes by one name, doesn’t admit to deliberately starving the girl but only shrugs her own thin shoulders when asked why her daughter is so sick.

For the full article: Yahoo News

What of Syria?

Friday, June 24th, 2011

A  couple of years ago I made a solo trip to Egypt to observe and write* about a great program designed by an Egyptian physician who taught adolescent boys to respect girls and girls to respect themselves.  Revolutionary, actually, in a society where the abuse of girls and women is both extensive and tolerated.  Where the female is always assumed to be at fault.

In London, while waiting for my connecting flight, I chatted with an Egyptian woman on her way home from Arizona.  Something of an activist herself, she was intrigued that such a program was being taught through Egypt’s public schools.  Of course I took care to shroud my words… to use no names… name no contacts… give no details at all.  She, on the other hand, poured out abuse statistics and studies that demonstrated the fear that kept women in silence.

When our flight to Cairo was ready to board, I bid the Egyptian woman good-bye and got in line.  A slight young girl of fourteen or so sidled up next to me and whispered, “Can you bring your program to the schools in Syria?”

I stammered that the program wasn’t mine.  That I actually didn’t know all that much about it; I was just traveling to observe.

Tears filled the girl’s eyes.  “Please!” she pleaded.  “You don’t know what it’s like for us.  Please come and teach us!”

Every time I read of the atrocities in Syria I think of that slip of a young girl.  Where is she?  What has she suffered?  What will happen to her?

 

* Information on this innovative program is in my book with Michele Rickett Forgotten Girls: Stories of Hope and Courage.

Give Them a Voice

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Back in September of 2009, when the world was still solvent and such things could be done, my husband and I agreed to go to India and lead a workshop for an eager group of writing students.  And what an ambitious group they were!  Dan and I called the workshop a Give a Voice seminar.  Four Christian publishing houses gave scholarships to students, and Christianity Today assigned an editor to look at the work of promising writers.

Of course, a five-day course isn’t enough time to accomplish all one would like to accomplish, so when the course was over we
paired each student with a published writer in the U.S. who agreed to act as mentor for six months.

Some of the attendees got busy with other things—such as surviving a wave of horrific persecution—and we didn’t hear much from them after the class.  Some dedicated their writing to the Indian marketplace.  Some are still working on their books.  A few have been published in the U.S.

One eager fellow by the name of Rajan was published in the devotional booklet The Upper Room. Millions around the world have read his work.

Just got a message this from Rajan:

hope u are in the best of health and things are well with u. I  am very much delighted to mail with heartfelt
gratitude because, with ur support.  My devotional has published in Upper Room on 19 ,Nov.2010.  I really
thank u both for made my devotional to be published. I received Rs.1300 (Indian Money) and spent it for the orphan children and unwanted old people here.

I remember u alwys in my prayers.  Pls remember me too and pray for us here.

 

“When you pray there, things happen here.”

Rajan

 

 

 

Drive on, Saudi Women!

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Yay for the Saudi woman who defiantly drove though Saudi Arabia’s capital last Friday.

Yay for the other women who put their feet to the pedal and cruised right past police patrols.

Yay for the road rebellion that seems to be igniting in the ultraconservative kingdom.  The only nation in the world
that prohibits women from driving a car.  In fact, from moving about in any way without the consent of a man.

According to news reports, these women are unnerving the state.
Great!  The state needs a bit of unnerving.

Drive on, Sisters!

 

Be Careful What You Wish For

Friday, June 17th, 2011

What good news! India’s wealth is increasing and the overall literacy in the country is improving.

What bad news! These factors are contributing to a national crisis of “missing girls” in India.  That’s because sex-selective abortions are up among those who can now afford to pay for it.  What was once confined to a handful of conservative northern states has spread steadily across the country.

Indians want boys, not girls, and that’s what they are having.  The recent study showing this good news/bad news is the latest evidence of India’s worsening imbalance of boys versus girls.  The 2011 Indian census found that, among children six and younger, there were 914 girls for every 1,000 boys.

Evidently India didn’t learn from China’s let’s-have-boys disastrous experiment!

“Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.”
~The Tale of the Monkey’s Paw~

Did You Eat Today?

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Interesting statistics I read today:

Percentage of the food produced in the world for human consumption (about 1.4 billion tons) that ends up lost or wasted:

33%

The amount of food wasted annually by consumers in the wealthier countries of the world:

244.7 million tons

Did I say interesting?  I meant wrong.  Humiliating. Horrifying.  Sinful.

“If you are planning for a year, sow rice.  If you are planning for a decade, plant trees.  If you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.”

Chinese Proverb

Yay For Africa’s Women!

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Poor Nigeria.  Independent, yes, but so much wasted potential.  Sub-Saharan Africa’s most populous country, possesser of
the continent’s biggest oil riches, and yet its people live in poverty.  That’s the fault of the autocrats who have ruled the country with so plundering a hand.

Unfortunately, the story is not unique when we talk about Africa. So many of the continent’s states have suffered at the hands of the men in charge.  Which is why Senegal’s Bineta Diop is so refreshing. First, she’s a woman. Second, her concern is to give to the people, not take from them.  What a concept!

Here’s the thing: Women are Africa’s economic drivers.  On average, they work twice as many productive hours as men. They also are the ones determined to live in peace.  So, what would happen if a woman was in charge?  A woman like, say, 61-year-old Bineta Diop?  Here’s the thing about Bineta:  She focuses on women-led peace initiatives, and in building them up in the most fragile of African states. Such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.  And Burundi.  And Liberia.  Her fight for equality of Africa’s women and men empowers women to step up into a leading role in the development of African continent.

Yay, Bineta!  Maybe Nigeria will be next on your list!

“If you can talk, you can sing; if you can walk, you can dance.”

African Proverb

Free ebook Download: The Voyage of Promise

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

Oooops!  This should read:

 

The Triumph of Grace: Grace in Africa Book 3

The Voyage of Promise: Grace in Africa Book 2

Free ebook download through June 7!

Check:  www.Amazon.com , www.CBD.com , or www.Barnes&Noble.com

Latest Review of The Triumph of Grace:
GoodBookStall Review (UK):
I was looking forward to this final book of the trilogy but it has not been
comfortable reading from the start and this is no different. Compulsive yes, you
have to keep turning the pages, but this is the raw telling of what slavery
meant to all who were involved in the trading of African slaves to America, as
if they were animals with no human feelings, just commodities to be treated
however their white masters willed. Sadly it also brings into the light how
Africans treated their fellow Africans.
Grace is working in the Foundling Hospital in London, when she is arrested
on false charges on the direction of her friend Charlotte’s evil husband Lord
Reginald. It is an exciting development that sees her on a ship bound for
America, but the avarice of an evil white man enslaves her yet again.
The title of this book is what kept my hope of a happy ending alive, but so
much happens to Grace and to her husband Cabeto before then. Their separate
stories are told, as are the stories of those in England and Africa that we have
come to know through the previous books.
Despite my reluctance to be confronted by the issues raised, I am so glad I
read this trilogy and highly recommend it.http://audioplayer/player.swf
Reviewer: Mary Bartholomew (UK)
“Straight from the nightmare of the eighteenth-century African slave trade come the robust
story of Grace Winslow.  A truly inspirational story that will grip your heart from start to finish.”

~Booklist Magazine~

Grace Says: Slavery Right Here?

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

In Response to the last post, reader Sharon wrote: 

For heaven’s sake! People are sex slaves is the USA today! Most of them very young women – some of them used by their own families as part of the family income!

Grace Says:

If we only look away… to the far-away and long-ago… we will miss what is right before our eyes. 

An article in this week’s newspaper told of 69 child prostitutes who were rescued in a national crackdown on sexual exploitation.  The leader of the offending cities?  No, not New York.  Not Chicago, either, or Miami.  It was Seattle.  For the third year in a row.

Most of these little local slaves were abused children.  Mostly poverty stricken.  With few opportunities for education.

Fortunately, the three-day sting that hit 40 cities across 30 states and Washington, D.C. saw 884 adults arrested. Unfortunately, that’s but a drop in the bucket.

Shocking facts about this type of slavery:

  • Between 100,000 and 300,000 American children are at risk of commercial sexual exploitation at any given time. (Report—University of Pennsylvania)
  • “The United States is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor, debt bondage, and forced prostitution.”  (2010 Trafficking in Persons report)
  • Popular forms of sex trafficking in the United States are Asian massage parlors, Mexican cantina bars, brothels, and street prostitution.

Sad to say, Sharon, what you say is right.  Slavery also exists right here at home.