Respect

Money in our cities, money in our towns.

Money everywhere, it’s bringing us down.

All these corporate clowns…

 

Exploiting nature reserves for fresh printed cash,

They cut down nature with a bash.

They say for money they strive,

But shouldn’t we be content and thrive?

We know these plants are alive!

Killing animals is their occupation,

They turn the creatures into decoration,

Burning down trees for a living,

Yet they pray for nature at Thanksgiving?

Respecting the world is our duty,

We must bring back it’s beauty.

We can’t postpone this much longer,

We have to get stronger,

And clear this huge mess –

A stain on nature’s special dress.

Iqbal

The novel ‘Iqbal’ by Francesco D’ Adamo is loosely based on Iqbal Masih’s real life.

In Pakistan, thousands of children work long, grueling hours in inhumane conditions so that they can pay off the debt their family owes. The carpet factory, where this story is set, houses 20 children who receive one rupee for one day’s work.

The novel is narrated through the voice of Fatima, a girl who works in this carpet factory. Their master, Hussain Khan, oversees their work and, if the work done is sufficient, Khan erases a line of their slate. Each line represents one rupee, and all the lines on the slate are their debt. Hussain Khan is a mean master and terrifies the children No one is willing to stand up to him in fear of abuse and time in ‘the Tomb’. The tomb is a small room with no light, ventilation or rations. This all continues until the day Iqbal arrives.

Iqbal is a brilliant worker. He weaves the most complicated patterns in a short time. Young Iqbal is brave and stands up to Hussain Khan. Iqbal weaves one of the rarest and most beautiful carpets in the world – The blue Bukhara. All the children think that Iqbal lines will be erased because he is making Hussain Khan so much money. However, Iqbal believes that the lines will never be erased. Therefore, on the day that foreign buyers come to the factory, Iqbal purposely cuts the Blue Bukhara to pieces as an act of defiance. He is sentenced to four days in the tomb; regardless, it is a huge loss for Hussain Khan.

Daring Iqbal takes another huge risk; he runs away from the carpet factory. Hussain Khan and his friends search the city for the fugitive but fail to find him.

Meanwhile, Iqbal goes to the market to look for work, when he hears some men from the Bonder Labor Liberation Front of Pakistan speaking about how the Supreme Court has ruled that bonded labor was illegal. Hope sparks up in Iqbal. He grabs a pamphlet that the volunteers are handing out. Iqbal tells a police officer his story, and the officer takes him back to Hussain Khan. They are going to arrest Hussain Khan, when Khan bribes them with money and he is let off. Iqbal is sentenced to 6 days in the tomb. He comes out starved and sunburned, but alive.

Iqbal tells the rest of the children what happened in the city and shows them the flyer. However, none of them know how to read. Then, the children hear a strange voice, one they had never heard before. It turns out that Maria, a girl who they had always thought could never speak, can actually read. Over the course of a year, Maria teaches them how to read, and they can finally read the flyer. Iqbal memorizes the address and, during a large punch up, escapes.

A day later, Iqbal returns with Eshan Khan, the leader of the Bonded Labor Liberation Front of Pakistan and a magistrate. They arrest Hussain Khan, no matter how much he tries to bribe them with. The children are free and are taken to the headquarters of the Liberation Front.

Slowly, all the forced workers return to their families, except Iqbal, Fatima and Maria. They continue to work to stop bonded labor. However, the opposition has grown stronger and many people are throwing bricks and rotten tomatoes at the headquarters.

After a while, Iqbal is told he has won the Reebok “Youth in Action award”. Iqbal is invited to international locations to deliver speeches on child labor and bonded labor.

Soon after, Iqbal Masih is murdered in his village on Easter Sunday. His murderers have never been found.

 

The Victim

It was a wild, dark, stormy night. But no rain could penetrate through the thick canopy; nor could the moonlight. Not even satallite rays could go through. For that reason, no one could see what was happening in the jungle. No one dared to go in, the jungle was too big and had many poisonous insects. This became the perfect training ground for Lioness.

Lioness was an agency which did mainly two things – smuggle all sorts of goods through countries, and assassinate people. Anything you wanted from cocaine to plastic explosives was sold by Lioness. They were brutal and leathal, and only wanted one thing: money. They had recently blown up a powerplant somewhere as a training drill. They didn’t care how many people they killed, how much harm they caused, as long as they got the money. “Give us the money, we’ll do what you want!” General Alberol had once said.

Blam! Blam! Blam! A chirping of birds came from the heart of the forest, then stopped. A young boy, only 9 years old, had shot his first target with a foreign made AK-47. He was another victim of the Lioness’s ‘youth training’ program. He was exploited from his family when he was only two years old. The boy was told that pistols were toys and killing people was a game. Anyone put through the Lioness’s ‘youth training’ would not lose a night’s sleep over firing a real bullet into live flesh and bone. “This is the best toy in the world!” The boy had said, when he was six, while firing a hundred bullets into the jungle, killing hundreds of animals.

The victim was ready, to claim victims. It was wild, dark, stormy …

Migrations in the Serengeti

For miles around, there are grasslands, dotted with a few trees. The baking sun glares down onto the greenish brown grass. The cool breeze makes the heat just tolerable. The sound of wildebeest marching can be heard; it is their annual migration. The zebras and gazelles are on their annual expedition too.Embedded in their genes is the instinct to migrate, at approximately the same time every year. The zebras, along with most migratory animals in the Serengeti, are in pursuit of the jewel of life: water. While the zebras are in search for water, the wildebeest have a different goal. They are searching for lush, green pastures to feed on.

As the animals journey along, they face a grave danger – death from exhaustion, or being hunted by predators. The mother wildebeest aim to protect their babies. Often, the youngest animals are hunted down, because their flesh is softer than that of the adults. As the herd travels to find pastures, the lions, too, are on the move. They are observing the pack of wildebeest very carefully, to try and spot the one which is slower than the rest. After a couple of minutes, they notice a struggling baby and implement their hunting tactic.

Meanwhile, trudging along, the zebras are now forced to cross the Mara river. This river is infested with Nile Crocodiles. But, the herd must continue. It is vital that they reach their destination before the rains in the south begin. Many of the zebras are killed by the crocodiles, but the herd is relentless. The zebras run into the river just as if there was nothing there. Many zebras and crocodiles get trampled on, in the stampede of more than 200,000 animals; 800,000 hooves.

The wildebeest, in the interim, continue to be vigilant. After stalking the pack for an hour or so, the lions run at the wildebeest. Lions usually hunt at night, but, being opportunists, can also hunt, if the occasion arises, at any time of the day. The pack split up and run helter-skelter. In the chaos, a calf is separated from his mother. The lions are fast, but the wildebeest is faster. If the young wildebeest manages to stay strong and run, it can outrun the lions. But, the calf loses its footing and falls down. The lions sink their teeth into their fresh morning meal…

Elsewhere, the zebras are nearing their goal. Their journey encompasses 500 miles of travel, numerous attacks by hyenas, lions, cheetahs and crocodiles and no water for months. They have come to the end of their hardship, but will soon have to start the journey back when the rains arrive.

Finally, the pack of wildebeest has found their rations in the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The grassy pastures of the north will feed them for a few months, before they return, in time to catch the rains in the south. The eldest now have one more journey under their belt, and the youngest have gotten a feel of how tedious this seemingly impossible, yet highly important journey is.

Millions of animals in the Serengeti and around the world have to face the ordeal of migrating. These journeys are rough and brutal with thousands of animals dying along the way. Yet the wonderful creatures of our earth pull off this amazing feat year after year.

The Jump

A gush of breeze blew past me as I stood, atop a diving board. Six meters under my feet was the icy, cold Green Lake. As I took in my surroundings, my fear of heights kicked in. I could hear the splash of other people diving. The occasional chirping of birds. I could feel the water running down my skin.

I inched forward. I looked down. All I could see was the shimmering water. My heart was pounding concrete. I could almost feel the little pulses of energy racing up and down my body. My eyes were closed, my knees bent, my heart pounding away. My feet left the diving board. My body was airborne…

I went slightly up, and then came plummeting down like a bullet. Those five seconds I was airborne, were the longest five seconds I have experienced in my life. It felt like I was watching a ‘super slow motion’ video. The adrenaline was rushing through my body. I was coming down straight.

After what seemed like an eternity, my two toes touched the water. I came crashing down into the lake, at full speed and went deep down. My lungs felt like they were going to explode from the sudden change in pressure. I could hear nothing, only gurgling sounds. I could see nothing, only the greenish water.

I slowly bobbed up to the surface, with a huge grin on my face. I quickly swam back to the platform, where my dad was waiting for me. I felt great, not only because I had jumped, but because I had overcome a challenge.

I quickly ran to the queue and waited for my turn again. I could not believe that I had spent so much time convincing myself to jump – it was so fun. The time I had wasted, up there on the diving board, I could have enjoyed the jump multiple times.

Earlier that day, I had wanted to go kayaking. We stood in the queue for ten minutes and decided it was not worthwhile. We had also never swum in Green Lake before, so my dad persuaded me. We seized the opportunity and got into the water. If it was not for the wait or for my dad, I would never have been able to overcome my fear of heights.

That jump changed me forever. Whenever I feel scared to do something, I think about how I persevered in this incident and it always reassures me that everything will be fine.

Now, whenever I go back to Green Lake, I will always make that jump. After all, that may have been the most important leap in my life.