Remember me rescue me
Remember me Rescue me
Reviewed by Derek McMillan
written by Matt Roper
published by Authentic Lifestyle
ISBN 1-85078-479-5
Website: http://www.mattroper.com

"I stormed over to the blue police cabin and entered without knocking. Inside, an inspector was lounging, watching football on a portable TV.
"'Have you any idea what is going on out there? A ten-year-old child is being sold to the tourists!'"
"He waved me towards the door, not unkindly. 'There's nothing I can do, you see, senhor. My job here is to protect the tourists.'"
Matt Roper dropped out of a journalism course...in order to become a first class journalist recording the lives of street girls in Brazil.

The book accurately records the grinding poverty which drives these girls into prostitution and the attitude of the authorities. "Protecting the tourists" including those tourists who have come to Brazil for the sole purpose of picking up underage girls. This is a pattern which emerges in one country after another. As the authorities crack down in Thailand the "sex tourism" trade moves to other areas where the police will "protect the tourists."

The result is that "working girls" will go to great lengths to appear younger. The economics are simple: the gringos come to Brazil for underage sex which is illegal in their own countries...and the gringos will pay the highest prices. The prices are still much lower than in their own countries and they do not risk prosecution.

The very real risk of AIDS is the price these children pay. Many also end up addicted to drugs as a matter of deliberate policy on the part of the rich men who control them.

In cases which he documents girls are enticed from Brazil with promises of marriage only to find they are virtually imprisoned in European countries and forced to work as prostitutes there - never seeing the money which changes hands. About 75,000 girls are estimated to be "imprisoned" in this way in Europe.

All too often books and TV programs about child prostitution are either voyeurism or they attempt to patronise the victims. Matt Roper's book does neither of these things. He places the blame clearly enough: "Once Recife was the centre of the Brazilian slave trade. More than one hundred years after the abolition of slavery very little seems to have changed, At Boa Viagem dark-skinned girls are bought and sold on the marketplace, taken from their homes and locked up in foreign countries. And the people who are operating this immensely profitable trade are white Europeans."

As a journalist, Matt Roper is not required to provide a political solution to the evils which he brilliantly exposes in this book. However, he does make clear both in the book and on the website that he believes the answer is Christian charity.

Socialists believe in freedom of religion but recognise the role of the church in the past in defending slavery This is exemplified by Jefferson Davis, President, Confederate States of America "[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God...it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation...it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts."

Likewise the Christian church remains an important ideological pillar for capitalism, supporting the very system of exploitation which Matt Roper is exposing. Far from rescuing the victims of exploitation its main role has been to add to their burdens a further burden of guilt for their "sins". The Church has also directly assisted in the spread of AIDS by banning condoms.

Indeed Matt Roper himself recognises the fact that for every child who is saved from prostitution by charity - another one or two are recruited by iron economic necessity. He instances a rural village where people can either work in a factory producing farinha or by selling their bodies at the border post.

The wages at the factory are so low that when there is a drought a day's wages will not buy a litre of water. The dangerous and degrading work of prostitution is better paid.

He concludes "It is always children who bear the brunt of Brazil's unjust society, Girls like Adeidiane, with her scarred and roughened hands and troubling chest pains, are forced to choose between 12 hours of backbreaking work in a sweatshop,and selling her young body in the street. It is a choice no eleven year old should ever have to make."

Remember me, rescue me is compelling reading and the reader is certain to remember these smallest victims of exploitation. It is a tribute to those who, often at considerable personal risk, are trying to stem the tide in Brazil and around the world.

Fight them on the beaches?
I am sure you remember the speech someone wrote for Churchill :
"we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

Whenever the BBC talks about the resistance in Iraq they are painted as "muslim extremists" and no doubt the "muslim extremists" are taking advantage of the situation.

But ask yourself if we were invaded, if our natural resources were stolen, our children killed with high explosives, men and women tortured, shortages of water, shortages of electricity, shortages of food and medical care. What would we do?

How would we respond to the arrogant invader strutting and boasting, the quisling government which grovels to the invaders? Would we grin and bear it? Or would we "fight on the beaches, fight on the landing grounds, fight in the fields and in the streets, fight in the hills; and never surrender?"

And nobody in their right mind is going to call me a "muslim extremist" are they?

Changing times
I visited a website in the states which has silly shoot-em-up games for kids...the main targets these days are Bush and members of his admin and sometimes Kerry. Older versions of the game however featured Osama Bin Laden. So I wonder who is public enemy number 1 now?
There is also a website http://www.democracynow.org which provides a counterweight to fox news...but without the millionaire backing obviously.

Naomi Klein Crosses Picket Line
Naomi Klein is now arguing for a vote for Kerry in the presidential elections. Her arguments appeared in the Guardian in the UK.
The question is at what point do we stop voting for the "lesser evil." The answer of the union leaders and the "Demogreens" in America would seem to be "never." It is never a good time to break away from the two party system. In reality, as Naomi Klein acknowledges, it is a "one party system"...one party for the rich and powerful.

The Republicans will always field some unconscionable travesty and therefore the Democrats will expect to profit from this....so the "other team" batting for capitalism will be elected.

Nader/Comajo are anti-war and anti-corporation. Kerry is not. A movement against the parties of the corporations can be built around the Nader/Comajo campaign. Naomi's only argument for voting for Kerry is to expose him: it is not good enough. This is not a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party. Big business has bought and paid for the soul of the Democratic Party.

Nader detailed some of the dirty tricks which the Democrats have used against him in an interview with Amy Goodman
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/07/1354230

No saviours from on high are going to deliver us and Nader does not believe that any more than I do. People who vote for Nader/Comajo are rejecting the doctrine of the lesser evil for good and all. People in this country ought to understand this - is Blair less evil than Howard? It is a time for "difficult decisions" ....In this country the time is ripe to oppose both parties of war, both parties of the corporations - and the same is true of America.

Knave or fool?
"I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

Politicians (ahem) fail to tell the truth all the time. The issue with Blair is the enormity of the consequences of his utterances over Iraq.

I once had to apologise to an OFSTED inspector who had made a blatantly untrue statement because I could not prove that he knew any better. I had to concede that he might not be lying, he might be unbelievably ignorant.

Likewise we cannot prove that Blair didn't actually believe that Iraq had Weapons of Mass destruction which posed an immediate threat. Perhaps he thought that they had these weapons which they would use as a last resort if invaded so the best thing to do was to invade them.

So either a liar or criminally insane

How political correctness is used
Godfrey Bloom was given a seat on the European Parliament's women's rights committee on Tuesday.

But he told the media: "No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age." He then smiled at the camera and said "That's not politically correct is it."
Media stories - often invented or exaggerated - pretend that there is a "climate of political correctness" or that "it has gone too far." And this is the consequence. The most disgusting opinions are OK so long as you can smile and say, "That's not politically correct is it."
I wonder how many women will vote UKIP next time around :)

A senior moment
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: Madonna
"You know you're just like your sister."
"But Sir I don't have a sister!"
"Yes but if you had a sister you'd be just like her."
(The older girl's surname was Pigg, the younger girl's surname was Hogg)

Fahrenheit 9/11
Now Playing: Aimee Mann
The White House has taken Osama Bin Laden off the "Ten Most Wanted" list.
They have put on Michael Moore instead.

Moore's film which smashed its way through a cordon of corporate censorship is an astonishing work of film journalism. The job which a good journalist or an honest politician (hah!) ought to be doing is being done by a TV comic and done brilliantly.

Understandably the establishment has pulled out all the stops to rubbish Michael Moore but the facts in the film speak for themselves and the Republicans have failed to address a single one of those facts.

The links between Bush and the Saudi Royal Family - undisputed.
The assistance given to the Bin Laden family to flee America - undisputed.
The pressure on the intelligence services to "prove" Iraq the villain of the piece and exonerate Saudi Arabia - undisputed.

There are two points in the film where anyone not made out of stone (or New Labour!) would be moved to tears. They both show mothers crying out in anguish against the war...one Iraqi and the other a patriotic right-wing democrat from Moore's home town of Flint.

Another memorable figure is the army corporal who said "he would not go back to Iraq to kill other poor people" on behalf of the corporations who are then shown gloating about the wealth which they can reap from Iraq.

In a priceless sequence Moore approaches US politicians to see how many of them will sign up their sons to go and fight in Iraq......guess how many takers he gets.....

Moore is not a socialist but he is an excellent film-maker and the hatred of the Bush camp against him exceeds any feelings they may have for the lacklustre Democratic candidates

Go and see the film. Take the family.

Songs about OFSTED
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: Mariah Carey - I can't live without you
Nothing is good enough
(The chorus says it all)

Once upon a time is how it always goes
but I'll make it brief
what was started out with such excitement
now I'd gladly end end with relief
in what now has become a familiar motif:


That nothing is good enough
for people like you
who have to have someone take the fall
and something to sabotage--
determined to lose it all


Critics at their worst could never criticize
the way that you do
no, there's no one else, I find,
to undermine or dash a hope
quite like you
and you do it so casually, too


Cause nothing is good enough
for people like you
who have to have someone take the fall

and something to sabotage--
determined to lose it all


Ladies and gentlemen--
here's exhibit A
didn't I try again?
And did the effort pay?
Wouldn't a smarter man
simply walk away?


It doesn't really help that you can never say
what you're looking for
but you'll know it when you hear it,
know it when you see it walk through the door
So you say--
so you've said many times before


But nothing is good enough
for people like you
who have to have someone take the fall
and something to sabotage--
determined to lose it all

Hilarious consequences
Yesterday was, let me think, fun is not the word which springs to mind.
I have been having a lot of angina lately,
I chatted with my GP,
The GP ref'd me to cardiologist
The cardiologist ref'd me to casualty,
I spent the day in casualty with ppl coming in and out of the cubicle asking
me the same question and getting my name wrong; putting an oxygen mask on
me; taking my ECG under the impression I was Mr Benson.......Then they lost
my blood test results (labelled McMillan or possibly MacMillan) with
hilarious consequences.
It was a whole comedy of errors. I spent my time reading Arabian Nights so it was not so bad.
And in the end....well they suggested I keep taking the tablets!
Laugh!

(and at this point I will say that Crawley Hospital have been very good to me over the years and they saved my life 5 years ago when I had a heart attack. This is just a funny story.)