The Boys of Baraka

Most people know about my affinity for Netflix. I rarely watch television. I just queue DVDs and watch movies (cuz Im not found of going to theatres), catch up on shows (cuz like I said, I rarely watch tv), and watch documentaries (netflix has got a great selection). So last night I watched The Boys of Baraka. This is a must see film for all black males, anyone concerned with the plight of black children, or anyone who doesnt understand the conditions facing poor children in America.
As the blurb reads: "In an experimental program to reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency, the city of Baltimore sent a group of 12-year-olds deemed "at risk" to a boarding school in Kenya, affording the boys the rare opportunity to turn their troubled lives around. Focusing on four of the youths, this compelling documentary follows the students as they struggle to overcome the obstacles of their past in their hopeful bid for a shot at a brighter future."

With as much exposure as I've had to inner city youth and scholarly research I've done on their plight, this documentary still revealed a great deal to me. I am still unable to fathom the fact that in order to face a brighter future, these young men are taken out of the streets of Baltimore and taken to Kenya. The educational system in most of sub-saharan Africa though rigorous is severely lacking in resources. However, these boys ended up learning in one year in Kenya more than they did throughout years of schooling in Baltimore city schools. I was also impressed by the level of determination the children showed. They were aware that their environments were conducive to failure and were willing to move to a completely foreign environment in order to better themselves. I found many of the children to be smarter than their parents, who were not working nearly as hard as their sons to improve their quality of life.

However inspiring this film was for me, it was still troubling in many ways. I was disappointed that though the Baltimore recruiter for the Baraka school was a black woman, all but one of the teachers, counselors, and administrators of the program were white. These boys were in need of more than educational and psychological counseling. They needed to see Black men as role models encouraging them to make it because they had as well. This was lacking in the program and is lacking overall in most communities. Most of the boys did not have their father's or even other males in their households and this most definitely has an effect on their outlook of their future.

Overall, this is a great documentary and everyone needs to see it.

Viva Chavez!!!!

If you don't stay up on world news, you must see this video. Bush is a devil.

I think Chavez summed things up perfectly and I admire his courage.

Where Do the Children Go?

In one of my classes, we examined the theory of reciprocity in societies; the absence of capitalism in societies because the communities function largely through family and kinship relations. People do things for each other in order to help and community members do not assign market value to their labor or services.
In all of this the issue of orphans in Africa emerged. There is a growing number of orphans due to the effect HIV/AIDS related deaths. When their parents die, some children have family members that will take them in and they are able to continue living supported lives. However, with the high rate of HIV infects (surpassing 30% in many African nations), many children have no where to go. The western approach to this dilemna would be orphanages, but you see, many African countries never had to build orphanages because the concept of children without parents or even family was completely foreign. So today we have an unsupported number of children living on the streets and providing for themselves because enough state systems have not been created to provide them with basic needs.

In an earlier post, I told of my visit to Sanyu Babies Home. These abandoned babies were fortunate enough to be rescued by this organization and able to be brought up in a loving environment. However, after the age of two, they were no longer able to live in this orphanage. When we asked the workers where the children went once they turned 2, they replied by saying that they hoped they could be adopted. But what if they weren't...the children could only hope to be placed in another orphanage.

And so the next question asked is adoption? Why isnt that an option. Well it is, but rarely used. Most families have so many of their own children to care for, that the thought of adopting a child that is not related to them is not even considered. Also, many countries do not encourage international adoption and make it virtually impossible for someone not related to the child to do so.

So once again I ask, "Where do the children go?"