Etikettarkiv: documentary

Kids for cash

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We’ve got to see this documentary, my husband told me. So we did. Last night. It’s called Kids for cash, and it’s well worth a watch. But if you’re anything like me, you will be horrified at what you will witness.

If you’re in Sweden, the documentary is available another month on SVT Play. Otherwise you can find out how to watch it here on the official website for Kids for cash.

I won’t tell you the details, because I’d rather you watch it yourself, but honestly, how in the world can anyone believe that what doesn’t work with adults will work with teenagers, whose brains aren’t even fully developed yet?

What I am talking about is deterrents. Hard punishments. Putting people behind bars, to scare other people not to head down that road. It doesn’t work. It never has worked, as far as I know, but it certainly doesn’t work now. And if it doesn’t work for adults, why on earth would it work for children?

Oh these poor children, and their families. What were they put through, and for what? For WHAT?

kids for cashAs the credits are rolling at the end of the movie, Creep playing in the background, I sing along to:

But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here
I don’t belong here

… with two cats in my lap, and I think:

What kind of a world are we creating? Surely this isn’t as good as it gets? Surely both you and me can do better than this, be better than this?

In tears; determined!

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Have you seen The internet’s own boy about Aaron Schwarz? It’s an amazing documentary. A tear jerker. It touched me deeply, and I’m almost ashemed of being a part of the culture that makes a person with gifts like Aaron, kill himself.

If you haven’t seen the documentary, I urge you to do it. Immediately! And then you reflect on the choices you can make, small or large, that can help create a better world. Aaron believed in questioning, asking why, and not settling for what is. Question in your way.

Because I believe in a better world, just like Aaron did. Throughout the documentary that’s the message that shines most brightly for me, this enormous urge to do good, and help in making the world a better place. All similarities between me and Aaron end there, because in no way do I want to compare myself to his brilliance. But then again, I don’t have to. Because we are all needed. Each and every one of us has something unique, and when that unique core is used to create a better and more loving world, we will be able to level up, both as a society and as individuals.

Aaron believed in questioning, asking why, and not settling for what is. He questioned in his way. Watching the documentary has me in tears, but I am also more determined. I am strengthened in my belief that we can change the world, in the power of asking why, that one person can make a difference and that we are all needed.

I urge you to question the structures of the world we live in, your way, and I’ll keep on questioning in my way. Deal?