Inspiration.

I hate the fact that everyone is always so depressed. I mean seriously come on. Why bother being sad all the time when you can be happy? I guess its not even the persons fault if u really look at it. At work i constantly ask people how they are and the main reply is either A. nothing or B. "yeah not too bad."

NOT TOO BAD. why are they bad in the first place? huh. you're buying food loser! food to eat. and keep you content and happy. Sigh. i just don't understand society sometimes. I really don't. Why can't society accept the help of people anymore. it's gota be all like. YOU'RE A TEENAGER AND HORRIBLE. CANT BE TRUSTED, CANT BE TRUSTED!

My outlook on life is to be positive. Be happy & smile, i think more comes out of life if you are happy and always looking for the positives in life. It just annoys me so much when people are ALWAYS UPSET! i just want to shake them until they see some sense and see how lucky they are and they should be happy!

Because we are really lucky. Honestly. Well i am. I can walk, talk, see, hear. i have everything going for me. When i see people that don't have these things we take for granted its like why me? why am i so lucky? why can i live in a house with running water? why do i get to go to school and have such amazing friends? Why can i walk? and breath on my own?! When there are people in other places in the world with no food, they have to walk miles and miles for anything close to fresh water... gosh. i could go on for days. But it reminds me of a blog i posted on myspace once. i think im going to try and find it. i was so inspired by it. yep. im going to go and find it now.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

i am going to change this world. Current mood: inspired Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes ok so the really interesting stuff is here. I know it's long… but please just give 10mins to look at what I have so much passion for. Maybe it will change the way you think? Yesterday I went to a Global Leadership Convention in Dapto. It was one of the worst things ive ever been to. Bad in the way that I am so shamed by the world, and what they do to children. Good in the way, that it was one of the most inspirational, confronting things I have ever been to. To start the day off we were all separated into groups and lead into a room. Inside that room we were instructed to go and sit down by a bag after our hands had been stamped with "sold". Long story short, we were now to become child slave labourers. We had to create matchboxes with the contents inside our bags. We were verbally abused by the "factory owners", picked on and had no rights at all. At times we could not make a sound, or we would be punished. Our matchboxes were stomped on and ripped up if they were not up to "standard", and we would be given more dept to pay off. After about 30mins of this it became obvious that we were not going to be able to pay this dept off anytime soon. This belittling, horrid and awful labour act went on for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Honestly this was one of the best experiences of my life. This was not just some activity that was "fun", in no way would I call it fun. It made people feel worthless, unwanted, helpless and almost imprisoned. It helped me to open my eyes to the reality. Around the world there are about 218 million children aged 4-17 who work as child labourers. In India alone there are 60million child labourers.. That is 3TIMES the population of Australia. Many children get caught up in child labour when their families go through a financial crisis. The amounts loaned, really are nothing compared to our economy (they can be from something like AU $41 - $100) Think about it, these children are being taken away from their families, their educations, they are denied of a childhood. So lets just skip all those awesome kid memories you have. Lets set out to work at the age of 4. Lets start work at 6 and keep working for 12 or 15hours. And no, its not a joy ride, its excruciating labour with little or no pay, in dangerous places such as busy city streets, huge garbage dumps overrun with pigs, dogs, monkeys, and you have no shoes for protection. Factories operating such as cocoa bean factories, firecracker factories, matchbox factories, textile factories, and factories in the sex industry which includes prostitution… you have no option to disagree with it. Your family needs the money. Oh and another fact... you will most probably be paying of this debt for the rest of your life. Did you know that most of our clothes, our sports balls (an eg. Nike) are made by these child slave labourers? Kids slave away, under harsh conditions and make products that you might be wearing right now. Appalled? I was. Check out Etiko FAIRTRADE .. they make sure that their products aren't made by these kids basically. (I'll put a link at the bottom) Ok so back to your jobs… You have a task to complete, wether it was like me- creating matchboxes- or something else like rummaging through rubbish for things to sell, weaving mats, making clothes, soccer balls... if you do not do your job fast or efficiently you will be punished.. beaten, stabbed or even sexually abused. Here we are in my nice warm houses in Australia whinging because we dont want to go to school, for the what? 6 and a half hours? 5 out of the 7 days? Complaining because we don't happen to like whats on the menu for dinner tonight. Whilst there are kids over the world working an average of 13 hours a day with only ONE meal, consisting of a single bowl of rice and water. Think about it, these kids did not choose their destiny did they? What did they do to deserve this? I'll tell you what, they just happened to be born there. Imagine if you weren't born here... how different would your life really be? This is where you come in. Sure you can go back to listening to your music, commenting your friends, organising the next party... and forget what these kids are going through as you read this. but that doesn't solve anything. It just makes you feel better, because its not being shoved in your face, right? Well how about you do something about it. If this has touched you.. how about you tell someone else? Re-post this even. Think about it... we are the people who will be in charge of this world one day.... why cant that day come now? Lets put an end to child labour. http://www.worldvision.com.au/"><> =) Do the 40hour famine with some friends.. how about you run it in your school? http://www.worldvision.com.au/40hourfami ne/"><> If we dont do anything to stop this, then who will? Give it some serious thought... and please help. Thanks guys... Taylor .

ok well. i think thats about all for now. But im sure in a few days there will be another exciting blog to read about. (: haha