Children of the Night- RESPONSE

When reading this, of-course I was in horror of Carissa’s terrible life story, but I was also delighted. Very often when I read news stories online they talk very little of actual people going through prostitution, instead they speak of harsh statistics and startling facts. Yes, these make you open you eyes and say “wow! really?! I didn’t know that!”, but personally I find it much more moving when you hear right from the source. I understand that one does not have to see to believe, but after hearing stories such as this, it really sets in about what it truly go on around the world and how we have no other choice than to fix it.
My favorite part of the news story from USA Today was when Carissa’s mother explains why she left her daughter. At first it sounded like her mom just threw her out of the house. Yet as it was explained more, Carissa’s mother just wanted the best for her daughter and she thought that she was making the strongest decision.
I can’t wait to read more stories such as this and I hope others do the same.

Children of the Night- NOTES

>in Fresno a women, Carissa Phelps, remembers standing on the chilly street sides ‘eyeing costumers’ as she sees girls do to this day on the same streets
    + Carissa’s story is quite similar to others; while wondering around she found     herself starving. A man was quick to notice this and consequently bought her a     hotdog and a pepsi and brought her into her living hell
    +”it was the beginning of a like she never though she’s survive”
    +now she is 31 and a graduate of a law and business school
    +she is currently starring in her own documentary about her life of prostitution     growing up
    + Carissa has made it her life goal to mentor girls and boys who have gone     through similar horrors as she and to create a safer neighborhood
        ~one of the places she is currently volunteering is at a series of non-profit         houses that house and counsel children who wish to get off the street
            *this place is called “Children of the Night”
            *the founder of “Children of the Night” said that children being             forced into prostitution is “America’s dirty little secret”
    + Carissa says that although it may not seem like a big deal she hopes that one     day the world will call children forced into prostitution ‘prostituted children’ rather     than ‘child prostitutes’, this is because saying ‘child prostitutes’ places the blame     on the innocent child

How Carissa’s sex story began:

>the horror began when Carissa’s mother dropped her off at a Fresco Juvenile Hall, about 70 miles from her home
    + Carissa states that at this time ‘her life was a blur’
    +all she truly remembers is feeling hopeless
    +when asked why her mother chose to do this she said “I was desperate for her     to be somewhere safe and not to run away from me anymore”
    + Carissa recalls having a criminal record and being rebellious as a child, a     product of a dysfunctional family
    +what Carissa mother didn’t realize was the group home she left her daughter at     was only for children who had severally broken the law, thus they brought her to     a group home. Here she hated it and instantly ran away
        ~the pattern of being brought into group homes and then running away         continued for years, until she eventually made the street her home
>at 13 Carissa stole a car and was thus placed in a juvenile facility
    +here she met a counselor who she began to realize truly cared about her. from     this she learned that she could trust men. the counselor encouraged her to go to     school, and she did!
> Carissa dreams for her community include:
    +organizing community leaders
    +buying and then converting abandoned buildings
    +fundraising
    +talking to community officials and neighbors
    +and much, MUCH more
   
>"I shine a light on the problem. If that's all that I do, it's worth it."
But is she ever too haunted by the past to move forward? "Only when I'm not working on and trying to fix it," she says. "I want to somehow change the situation that I came from so that if there was another Carissa following 30 years behind me, something different would happen for them."

>is has been estimated that around 100,00 to 300,000 children in the USA have willingly turned to prostitution
    +this number is much higher then most realize

Our Selfishness- RESPONSE

While reading this report I had many reactions to it, mostly anger. The first thing that struck me was the fact that the Buddhist Monks are allowing this to happen under their noses. I know Buddhists as amazing and spiritual people, some of the last to OK the exploiting of the next leaders of our world. Consequently, this is something I do not understand.
Next, I was quite intrigued about the idea of changing your name to relieve yourself from the, what shall I call it, horrors of your life. I wonder why Lin Lin and Thin Thin are such popular names. I wouldn’t be surprised if it meant something like ‘Hope’ or ‘Joy’ so when someone said their name the girls would be reminded that there is still beauty in the world.
What also struck me was the idea that men will not wear condoms. I cannot think of a reason why they wouldn’t other then because they are, and excuse my french, total assholes.
Lastly, I would like to state how selfish our government must be to purposely not help these girls so they continue being paid the big bucks to ‘help’. If this is true, I want  the government and our police officials to step back and think about why they’re really in the position they are in. If their reason is money, I hope to G-d they pick a new job because money will NEVER over shadow lives as long as their is love in this universe.

Our Selfishness- NOTES

In Burmese the military is struggling with the child prostitution problem and thus is trying their best to shield the problem from the public’s eyes. The following is what they wish for you not to see:

> 13 and 14 year old girls being paraded, modeled, marketed, at a nightclub while men stare and pick their next rape victim
>these girls, staring at the floor pulling on their short pleather hemlines and pulling up their low cut shirts, trying to hide what little cleavage their young bodies have
>girls being sold at 100$ a night, like meat
>why is this all happening? the Burmese government, mostly Buddhist Monks, have decided to tolerate such horrors as what is stated above “for now”.
>the high sex trafficking rate in Burma is so high due to the ongoing plummeting of the economy
>when girls are taken into prostitution they most often call themselves by a name not their own. The thought process behind this is that if (for example) Jackie committed a wrong doing under the name of Jenny, it would not truly be Jackie. The most popular names girls change their names to are Lin Lin and Thin Thin
>One girl spoken to in particular, Lin Lin, told the reporter that she chose to go into sex trafficking to support her mother, father, and younger brother. She states “it was not a hard decision to make”
    +the irony behind this is during the day she is studying to become an advocate of     the law
>Another girl, Thin Thin, says she was originally a hairdresser, but sleeping with foreign men (called sex tourists) got her 3 times more money
>because of this sexual epidemic, around 360,000 people in Burmese are living and thus dying from HIV as of 2005
    +this means that 1 in 3 sex workers are infected with HIV
>Many girls say they want the men to wear condoms, and even supply them with such, but rarely do they men accept the protection
>Other nearby countries with similar problems to the ones listed above include China, France, India, and Thailand
>one of the scariest possible facts being estimated at this date is the military may not being doing much about this world wide problem because they get paid so much to stop it. thus as the problem continues to grows and they continue to work (or not for that matter) their wallets get bigger still while innocent girls struggle on the streets to live.