Look at the two photos:
- What do they have in common?
- What are the main differences?
- What are the feelings they engender in you?
Look at the following booktrailer and say what elements you can single out of it.
Look at the book covers.
- Which one do you find most appealing?
- Which one catches your attention most? Why?
· What kind of book is it?
· What new elements can you spot that add up to the trailer?
After reading the novel think of the bookcover you would draw if you were asked to.
What do you expect life to be like on a rubbish dump?
These children may tell you their stories, if you are interested in listening to them. What questions would you like to pose them? What do you think they are thinking of? They are looking directly into your eyes, what are those eyes telling you?
Watch the videos and see whether your thoughts of how children live on a dumpsite were right.
Unfortunately there are lots of dumpsites in the world, places where people are turned into “recycling machines”, where their dignity is stripped off. They are there because they must survive.
The novel “Trash” is based on first-hand experience of the writer in Manila in the Philippines. Click here, watch the other videos and jot down your feelings, your thoughts.
Choose two of the pictures and do the following creative writing activities:
Picutre One: Give the child/ren a name, an identity, write who their parents are, why they are on a dumpsite, what their relationship is like. Then write a postcard to them being yourself. What image would you choose for them? What words would you write?
Picture Two: Choose your identity and write a page in your diary. Say what your are feeling like today; What is crossing your mind; What your plans for the day are; What your aims for the future are; What you are going to do to accomplish them; Who can help you fulfil your objectives.
Look at the video and say whether you are interested. We could raise some money and help these children. We can write a strong message of hope and most of all show our support. You can all make a difference.
Would you like to partake this project? Why (not)?
Many times I wonder whether you ever think of your own destiny. I ask myself: what are the merits I can really account for myself in life? What is it that I really had to work hard to achieve and I did it by myself?
The money I inherited or I will inherit from my parents? NO, obviously not. They worked for it, I didn’t.
The place I was born? NO, definitely not. That is just destiny.
What would my life be like if I had been conceived in a developing country by a family with no means? This question it is impossible to answer, but it forces me not to take things for granted and be thankful for what the destiny has had in store for me up to now.
What are your considerations? Are these just mental rumblings of mine?
Read about Michelle, the same age as yours, and take notes. What have you learnt about her life? What are the main differeces between her life and yours? Can you spot any similarities?
Look at the Trash website and listen to the interview to the author and read the Frequently Asked Questions.
Read the questions to the author. Which one do you like the most? Why?
What other question would you pose the writer?
Watch and find out by yourself:
- How did Andy Mulligan come up with the idea of writing “Trash”?
- What strategies did he use to write it?
- What are the things he wants to find in fiction?
Creative writing activities
There are two written tasks I would like you to do. The first one is the diary page of a dumpsite boy or girl. On the basis of the videos we watched, what is the daily life of a scavanger? Guiding questions: Does s/he go to school? Does s/he get washed? What does s/he eat? Where does s/he get food? What does s/he find in the heaps of rubbish? What season is the most difficult and why? What does his/her house look like? How many people are there in his/her family? Who helps them out? (Is there anybody who does?) What dangers does s/he face everyday? Does s/he feel lonely? Does s/he have the time to play with his/her friends? What are the hopes for his/her future?
Then write a poem dedicated to dumpsite children. Give a title to your poem (possible suggestions: Dumpsite Boy, Dumpsite Girl, Thinking of You, Little Scavanger, This is For U, Two Worlds Apart)
This is a poem by someone called Alison I found on the web and I loved it.
(source: http://untiledalison.blogspot.it)
We Dumpsite Boys. Trash poem.
Sickness death stupp and rubbish
mud dumps death and hunger
this is the life for the homeless children of Behala
for we are the bottom of the steaming heap of trash that is the world
we are down with the bits or plastic and poo
everyday the same
pick it up pick it up pick it up
pick up the things that one one else wants
things they throw out
but to us it is a living
we dumpsite boys of Behala
everyday the same
pick it up pick it up pick it up
I asked the students to work in groups and outline a file for all the main characters in the story. The students sent me the work and I checked it at home, teaching them how to improve their file and make it more challenging for the reader (e.g. If the writer decided to remove you from the story, how would you defend your existence as a character? Why are you important in the development of the story?)
These Padlets contain the files for each character. Which description do you like best? Why?
This is one of many different booktrailers you can find on the Net. Do you find it effective? Why (not)? If you were asked to create a booktrailer what would it be like? If you were asked to review the book (you are a v-logger) what would you say. Do you like the way the girl recommends the reading of the novel?
What a great luck: I was born here, in Italy, in a family with money, like millions of children in the more developed countries in the world. My future is safe and I know I will not have problems of hunger. But for other children this is not so expected. There are children that work half a day only for have a dish of rice for dinner and they did not deserve this: it is only destiny. I think I cannot punish me for the differences in the society, but I have to be responsible for my fortune. This is a gift given me at birth and it does not imply I am better than a poorer guy, instead I admire a lot who can live and reach his goals regardless of the burden she/he has had since she/he was born. This is why I want to honour this fortune, trying to use it for the common good and for who really needs this money.
I think that these children don’t deserve their condition. The fact isn’t that they’re poor, thay they don’t have a shelter over their head, the fact is that they live in a dumpsite. It’s such a dreadful circumstance that leaves you broken-hearted. I simply couldn’t imagine what living in a junkyard means. I can only imagine what it implies: you’re sorrounded by piles and piles of garbage and rubbish, that are your only possible sources of profit, you live in a small hut, made of pieces of wood, branches, heaps of metal and scraps leftover, if you’re lucky you’ll be having dinner with a tin of expired beans or with fruits donated by the only charity cooperation which helps you.
Those eyes pass a significant message: “We’re not invisible. We’re not invisible and we want to be considered. We want to be considered not as a problem, but as needy people who deserve to be helped”.
Those eyes tell you that they haven’t lost the will to try to improve their life, to try to get people to know their situation.
Those eyes should prompt in you some considerations about how lucky you are. How lucky we are, because of our houses, because of our families, our friends, our hygiene, our education… But we should all be aware of needy peole, as those children.
If I had the opportunity to speak with a dumpsite boy I would love first to ask him how can he survive every single day since his working conditions are extreme, his salary is nothing and he has to struggle for everything. Maybe his answer would be: “I know life is difficult, but there is nothing worse so every happy event make my day wonderful! I am also with my friends therefore I am not alone. I can rely on them” I would also know what are his thoughts, his dreams, what does he think about the rich part of the world. One other thing I would ask him is if the money that charity projects gather are really going to the poorest, because I cannot know if the promises made in our country are kept.
I think during the day the guy worries about his family and if that evening they would have dinner. I hope for him that he have also to think about his morning school lesson, because school would change his life.
In the two photos I can see the pain of the guys that have to fight to survive. In the second the bond between the two friends(or brothers) has particularly touched me. It represent that union make you strongest and make you optimistic. Their eyes seem to say: “Why do I have to live like that while there are people around the world that live a life of comfort, over-paid work and happiness. It is not fair!”
The first image shows some children of different etnies that are running on a big green park. All of them are smiling, so the people who see this photo could think that they are friends, maybe they are, instead i think that it seems artificial beacuse the emotions it makes you feel are not the true happiness of the children or the vitality of them. As matter of fact, on my opinion, it seems like the photographer before shot that told to the kids what they should do.
The second photo is very truthful because every children feels different: some of them are smiling, others are very shy, especially the little ones. This photo shows the condisciones of their life: they are surround by trash, some children don’t wear a simple t-shirt maybe because they can’t afford it. Althought their life is not simple they are smiling, they won’t give up; this is the thing I like most of this image.
Personally, I don’t believe in destiny. I belive that people can build their own destiny if they’re willing to. If you want to achieve a goal, to reach an objective, all you have to do is to keep trying and trying, working harder and harder, until finally you get it.
Of course, there are many different paths that lead to the achievement of your goal; the ones who live in a wealthy family are far more advantaged than the ones who live in a impoverished family. I agree with the fact that is casual whether you have born in a kind of family and society or in another, because nobody could have decided it.
So, honestly, I think people can build their destiny, they can fight against the hurdles of life, some of them more advantaged by their social-economic condition, others, less advantaged, will have to struggle more.
Our Destiny
I think we should be thankful to our destiny, because we are not more worthy than show mas born in a developing country. I think we are lucky and we should take care of our contition and of our situation, improoving our country and ourselves, so we can ameliorate developing countries. I also think it’s not our fault if we are born here and if they are form underdeveloped countries.
It isn’t Aldo their fault if the are in that situation,it is because of the leaders that are running their countries or who did it pecore, or maybe because they have no resources. We must project them form multinationals and rich people greedy of power
I think these considerations are true. Our future is in part dictated by some randomnesses which can’t be decided from the start: for example, who are our parents and what is their economic state. This doesn’t mean that all our future is already decided from the start, though. We can still manage to become who we want if we work hard enough and if we believe in ourselves. This could mean that we must sacrifice something to reach a goal, maybe a weekend without meetings with friends or dedicating a whole lifetime to reach our objective.
I think that most of the time we want to live a better, simpler, happier life but we don’t want to change ourselves first, believing that the world has to change according to our demands.
Unfortunately, we can’t just hope that a day our dreams come true. We have to work hard, not just for ourselves, not just for our dreams, but also for all those who can’t change their lives.
We have to be the ones working hard who make aware that changing is possible and that our destiny is in fact in our hands.
I do not often think about my own destiny actually, but I agree that there are certain things in life that are destiny’s works, and other things that we have to draw by ourselves (even if maybe they are already written in the big destiny book…)
For example, I agree completely that the place we were born is a matter of destiny. But I think that between your personality, your character and things like where you were born, things that characterize the places where you live and all things that destiny decided you to be surrounded of every day or one minute in your life there is a connection: in my opinion, those things and happenings are functional to better your person and delete your weaknesses, they’re suitable for you.
At the moment, in my life I’ve never really worked hard. I know in school I work less than I can do, and I’m not that happy, I’m going to work harder because I know I won’t make it like that. So what I’m saying is that, in my opinion, achievements depends on you. On how you behave in front of things, how hard you work, which in turn though depends on how much you desire, how much you dream that one thing, how big is your wish of achieve that goal. And this last factor is enormously important, it is fundamental!
Maybe what you like and what you don’t like, you interests, what facilitates or obstructs your work are matters of destiny, yes, but you have to work hard if you want to achieve a goal, and this depends on you.
However we should not disappoint destiny with taking for granted what he gave us (and this happens very often nowadays): let’s talk about food squandering, for instance. Destiny makes us live in a State where food fortunately isn’t missing, and we squander it, sign of taking it for granted. But writing, it jumps out at me that maybe what destiny is giving us is not food to gorge ourselves, but food to give us the capability of helping people with no food. How can they possibly help themselves? We are up to do it. This was just an example.
I think that I did nothing special to deserve the life that I’m living. I’m here in Italy, and not in a poor country, just because I am lucky, and because, how ancients Greeks would say, the fate choose that this has to be my life and I have to live it with the awareness of being lucky and moreover enjoying what the destiny gave me. If I was born in another country and in another family it is sure that my life would have been completely different. Things that now I take for granted, like food everyday, water, clothes and school may be wouldn’t be taken for granted in another life. We should think a lot about our life and poor people life, and think if everything we own is really necessary and if it is right to be sad if we can’t afford the newer pair of shoes of an important brand or the last smartphone on the market, while there is someone in another part of the world, who can’t even afford an hot-dog, an apple or some drinkable water, and who can’t buy the right medicines if they are ill and who dies even for a temperature.
There are a lot of things that I did by myself and there are a lot of goals I achieved by myself, but all of this things that I did alone without the helping of someone are just consequences of the good life that the destiny has had in store for me up to now.
I think a lot about destiny. Why am I here? Why not in some different places, where there are more problems or where there are less. Why here, why now? What have I done? Maybe it’s because I’m going to do something and I need this exact story to achieve my goals, to do what is already planned for me. I believe in destiny, in fate. Everything happened for a reason, bad things and good things. I’m not sad because I’m luckier than others, but I’m quite angry because there are too many people suffering all around the word. But I do believe in changes.
Have I done anything to be born in a family that loves me? Have I done anything to live in a house and not in a dumpsite? Have I done anything to go to school everyday? No, I haven’t. But I can do something to show the world I appreciate my luckiness and I don’t want to waste it. Am I doing my best, right now? I don’t think so, and I hate it. I want to do something better, I need to. Am I going to better myself? Of course I am.
I believe in that kind of destiny you can change a bit if you don’t like it. So, yes, I think a lot about destiny and I think I’m meant to be here, fighting for changes and for equality in my daily life because I have the chance to study, to live and to do something great.
I consider myself a really lucky person: I live in a comfortable house in an advanced country, I have two parents who work for me and help me in every need and a little brother who always makes me laugh, and I go to school so I’m having an education.
If I had been conceived in a developing country, my life would probably be like this: I wouldn’t go to school because my family wouldn’t be able to pay the cost of my education, so I would be working all day to earn some money or something useful for my family and I; I would live in a shack without beds, furniture or bathrooms, and I’d eat everything that is given to me, not minding the quality or if they are healthy or not; I wouldn’t have technological devices, like phones or computer, but that might be a good thing for me: I feel like my generation, who lives in wealthy areas, is way too obsessed with technology; for example at school or in other public places we always tend to stay on our phone instead of meeting and knowing new people.
So living in a developing country isn’t the best, but I think there are a few things that we could learn from people who live there.
I am aware of the fact that I haven’t done anything to have what I have, I just have to thank my parents and God beacuse they gave me everything. I know that there are people who were borned in families where there are difficulties or in places where life is hard and I also know that they have done nothing to deserve that, just like me. This thing is unfair, everybody should have all the opportunities I’v been given, everybody should live at least a decent life, but this doesn’t happens and I know that. That’s why I must feel responsable for these people, I must act as a responsable person: i shouldn’t waste anything, not food nor opportunities, I should always do my best, it is not enought to be grateful for what I have, I have to proove it and to do something about it. I can’t even imagine a life without all the facilities I have, I think I wouldn’t survive without my mobile phone or my PC, but it would be difficult for me also to live without cleen clothes to wear or dishes to eat on. This situation helped me thinking about my life and what I have, how important are the opportunities I face every day, how beautiful it is to have a family and many friends, how lucky I am beacuse I eat every day and i go to school. Now I know that I have to work for a better future for everybody because I’m happy and it is unfair that there are people, who has done nothing worse than I have, who are not.
Destiny and dumpsite guys
I personally think that we sometimes have thought about our life and what our destiny had in store for us up to now, so those questions aren’t just mental rumblings of a person, they aren’t even metal rumblings. Humans had always needed to justify special weather conditions, births, deaths or strange events; so, they needed also to justify their existence and their life conditions. It means that all those questions are a normal and usual thing. Obviously, it’s difficult to answer some of our questions, someone mentioned his or her religion, someone – especially from Greeks to Romans’ ages- mentioned the Fate, now we all refer to the destiny; everyone tried to answer the better he or she could do. Considering those people who live without economic problems, often they’re sad about their life, not as fantastic as they believed in, and didn’t approach seriously to life, and sometimes they take away their life; but they should consider themselves fortunate, because they could have been conceived in those places where poverty is a daily routine and most of the families that live there are suffering of diseases, illnesses, poverty, durst and famine. In those places, even children of our age work to help their families, and I think that they ask themselves why the destiny wanted them to live there, but they approach to life differently, they are so happy to be born and wanted to live the best they could. We can’t influence on our destiny, we can only do our best in our life, even in the worst conditions, we have to approach to life with enthusiasm and to help people in our world that could be like us, but live in poor countries. This is my consideration.
In my opinion, until we are adults and we have done something important in our life, we won’t be able to answer and to understand questions like “why we were born in the place we were born?”, because these questions are very difficult and it is impossible to be sure of the answer.
I think no one knows exactly why he was born and why he inherited a certain amount of money from his parents, maybe he has been lucky or unlucky, but more probably that was his destiny.
Probably if I was born in a family with no means I wouldn’t have all things I have now and I couldn’t afford to go to school and to eat good food every day, so I can consider myself very lucky to have a family and to go to school. There are children younger than me that have to work to live and this is very sad, but this is their unlucky destiny and maybe there is a reason why they live in different conditions than other children. No one can forecast his destiny so we have to live our life without worrying too much about what happens in our lives and without trying to predict the wrong things we will do because we can’t change our future and no one is able to change it.
This is a very difficult topic to understand and it made me thinking a lot about my life and about my luck, even if sometimes I don’t remember there are poor children in bad conditions and I think to be unlucky for things of little importance.
Many times, I wonder how lucky I am. I have a big house, good family ready to help when I’m in trouble, a soft bed where I can rest the night, food whenever I want… But is all about lucky? Or we must do something with what fate gave us?
I think every person in this planet is born to complete a very specific mission, a task you can achieve only where you are born. Of course, we mustn’t take everything we have for granted but, if we are luckier than dumpsite children, we should use our extra resources to help who, for destiny, is poorer then us.
Now, as I said before, everyone has a mission, even dumpsite children: they mustn’t be oppressed by the task they’re entrusted, even if we all know how difficult it is. All the smiles I’ve seen in many photos, this is the best way they can reach their goals: happiness! Many times, I wonder how they can be so happy having so few… it seems like ours is the hardest goal to achieve!
The answer of this paradox comes to me every time I help someone in trouble; when I really help him, and he thanks me, then I feel happy, with a smile of true happiness. How many people we can help with the means destiny gave us? How much happy we can be? All the things we have, and we take for granted, must be used for our neighbour. There are many examples you can see in our everyday life, I know people gone to Bolivia to help the poorest children there; my cousin leads the scout department in my city; again, my grandma is a volunteer helping immigrants in our city: these are heroes of our lives, as well as those happy, dumpsite children we can see in many phots! Only once we’ll adopted this as our lifestyle then, well, we will be truly happy to have reached the goal, I think, destiny gave us.
Giovanni Basaglia
LEONARDO BUDAI
I think I’m very lucky to live here, in a beautiful country like Italy, where I can go to school, always eat something or see a doctor if I’m sick. But this is only luck. Millions of people aren’t as lucky as I am and live in very poor countrys, where every day they have to fight to eat something only because they were born in the wrong country. I’m very thankful to God because here I have a great family, lots of friends and every day I can go to school ( even if sometimes I’m a little bored), but some children like me can’t. I think the less I can do is try to help them, because they have to yearn for the life of a normal Italian child. I want a future were all the people have the same opportunity, where the word become the only biggest country and where everyone can study, eat, have some friends, a family or someone who love them and take care of them.
In my life I learnt that the biggest fortune we can find are people. I know that today we can’t live with no money but even much money makes us felling happy. The beauty of life consist on sharing with others, because it’s the only way to be happy with yourself and everyone in the world can do that.
I agree with all this sentences.
If I was born in a developing country my life wouldn’t be the same… all the things I take for granted in my real life wouldn’t be foregone.
Maybe I wouldn’t be the same person because all the things I own in this life I couldn’t have them in that life, I wouldn’t have the same education, I wouldn’t have the same goals that I have now…. It would be all different.
In my opinion the society nowadays is based on money if you are poor you are less important than the other people so if today I can afford all my need or in other words I can live a life with no economic problems is because when I was born I was enough lucky to be born here, in Italy.
I was lucky and I am grateful for this but sometimes I am disappointed with myself because I know that I squander money for stupid things even if I know there are people can’t even afford a meal
All people like me should be grateful for how much we are lucky, all of this is because I have fantastic parents that give me everything I need: new clothes, food, the opportunities of doing holiday all over the world, especially they gave me a home, my home, our home. Some people do not even have it, some people also can’t even afford, not new clothes, just simple clothes; we should always think about that.
I know that my life is easier than others, my parents pave the way for me, but it doesn’t mean that I do not work hard just I work less than disadvantage people do. Because I’m advantaged, I have to understand how this opportunity can be used better, for example my family and I adopted a young child to contribute to the support of poor people. If I had been conceived in a developing country by a family with no means, it would be very difficult, I can’t even imagine how is this type of life, but having my personality I would overcome every obstacles because I will never give up.
Both images are so similar but yet incredibly far away from the other one. Both images are about childhood; in those photos you can see a group of children, probably between three and seven years old. Talking about what is different, you have to spend more time to talk about it. First of all, the environment, clothes. A green and spacious turf, well-dressed kids are compared to a crowd of offspring, who does not have neither shoes nor some piece of clothing, living in a place covered with plastic containers, bottles, every day-to-day trash and more. Moreover, you can see that in the first photo the kids are running or kind of walking toward the camera, with a big smile printed on their faces, all together one beside the other, whereas in the following, the children are all grouped together, standing still, with their hands up in the air, calling for someone to help them. In my opinion, to be honest, I think the photographer intentionally uploaded to cause in the observer a strong felling of injustice which had happened and still has happened, even though it may be justified by the honourable motif, I still think this peculiar match is a little bit too pushed, too extreme, even if I can see the reason why they did it. When I first saw these images I felt dizzy and grateful, as a really sympathetic self-centred person, I was not born in one of those poor states but in one relatively developed country. It also made me thinking that we have “The Human Rights” – to, officially – protect us, but it implies that the government has to do something as well, and sometimes it prefers not to see or to tell the fact and to avoid the discussion.
Mulligan designed more than a single cover for his book. Among the three proposed, the second one looks to me simpler – with only the essential traits, realized using only dark colours and much more centred on Raphael and Gordo -, whereas the first and last one are more sophisticated. I suppose the most appealing to me is the third cover, because it keeps the same title style as the first, but it gives you an idea of loneliness of the protagonists (standing on top of a hill, their scarves floating in the air starring at the horizon and beyond), who must act on their own not trusting anyone else suitable for this task, and I cannot find that feeling in the first cover, which focuses on the landscape of the town and has too many objects for our eye at first glance. If I were to draw a cover for this book, I would keep pretty much the general art style of my favourite book cover, maybe giving more emphasis on the policemen or kids on the background or the situation during which they found the wallet.
If I had the possibility to meet and talk to those children, I honestly would not know what to ask them. I could inquire their personal story, it would be moving, but I think it would be painful to say it out loud. Speaking about his or her feeling would be moving, but not strictly shared by everyone or a major part. A good question could be: “By any chance, do you notice your school and your parents do something for you? What & How?”. In the pictures, their looks tell me “Hi. I am here. I exist. Please, do something”. They may be excited because of the opportunity they got, since they have been chosen for an interview, but they may also be thinking about the time they are “spending” doing the interview, taking it away from the usual sifting of the trash.
(Picture n. one-postcard) Hi my little fella,
How are you doing? Now I’m going to do a quick recap and so you can tell me if I understood something wrong so that you’ll correct me. If I got everything right, your name’s Banayat, you’re six years old and you live on the outskirts of Baguio with your family and your little sister Makoto. One thing I didn’t tell you in my latest letter is that I have known your parents because they lived in Pordenone, my little and cosy city, before they would transfer to Benayat because there there were some relatives of yours who were in need of help. So, according to what they told me, they transferred to your homeland and put up a company all by themselves, but they couldn’t afford the costs of that kind of lifestyle thus they decided, for their own and their relatives sake, they would dwell for that day forward in the dump land. I’m really very sorry for you. It isn’t your fault. If they had known they were about to give birth to a baby, you, they maybe they would have considered the idea of fleeing that place for you to grow in a better environment. But, at the end, they couldn’t leave your relatives, knowing in which direction they would have gone to. Enough of the negative stuff. Have you bonded with any new children I hadn’t known of? And about you “peculiar” situation with Futaba, have you been getting closer to her, is it the case? Because I wanna see you happy, if you catch my drift… By the way, have you seen the image of this postcard? Yet again? Or not? It is extremely enticing. I had to look all over every store to find it. It is special: do you still remember the thing you once told me? By now you’ll already have noticed it. It represents the blue, infinite ocean beyond Banayat. The place you seek every day and the inspiration of you name with its calm and peacefulness. I have nothing more to say let alone: Write me soon, I’m waiting your answer. Your dear friend, Francesco.
I would join the proposed project to try to help them out. First of all, because the objective is more than worthy to be supported, and also because I would feel self-satisfied if I have taken a part in it and help them. Nonetheless, like it might happen to any project of this quite huge size, there might be somebody who is not really honest who could take a share of the money and keep it for themselves; but I suppose it would not be that high of a chance, and thus I would still partake.
Because of personal beliefs, to simplify and to get confused, I will not consider the “destiny” connect itself. Talking about your consideration, which dealt with your merits in life, we first have to divide merits you consider to be so, and the “others” do. If you are not a psychopath and you have a general knowledge background, you should not be caring too much about it. So, I deem that your merits in life are everything you do. As trivial as it may seem, I think merits are “whatever you remember yourself for”, both positive and negative. If you do something, not that hard indeed, that you deem as “bad” or “a heartless behaviour”, in your lifetime and maybe after, you shalt atone somehow. I consider this to be “a merit”, not a negative one, because it makes you grow and think. On the other hand, if you do something ““good””, it still is a merit due to the effort you put into it and the feelings you were able to broadcast to your surrounding ones.
Your native state affects this reasoning. The less instruction and ways to improve, the less you can objectively create your own thinking. I can only suppose that if I were born in a developing country, I would follow my ancestors’ footprints, continuing the dynasty. If an opportunity from the outside did not show up…
I read Michelle’s story. Personally, not to be racist, I was surprised by the fact that she and some of her friends have been studying until our correspondent High School. Actually I had thought that they would only a few be studying until the end of our Middle School, since every source I had read till that instant claimed that most of the families does not have enough money to afford their children an education. Moreover, I was astonished that there are even some gang wars; at the moment I am writing I can see why perhaps, because they are able to subtract, or steal, materials gathered by the other group. Differences between her life and mine are easy to spot, from the environment to the supplies of food and electricity, whereas similarities are harder. I can tell that we may both have the will and power to study.
Shifting toward the author, on his FAQs website I found a question about the setting of the novel. I liked it not for the question itself but for the answer. As a matter of fact, Mulligan wrote he did not name any country because the phenomenon is vastly, and miserably, common; thus, to underline this, he kept it open to let the readers fit in any possibility they wanted to. If I were able to meet Mulligan and ask him a question, it would be: “In your opinion, why is the situation in those countries (or at least some of them) not changing, although the rises of awareness of the global population? Do they prefer not to see? Or is it for political reasons?”
He had the brilliant idea of writing Trash, after having a trip to the Filipino dumpsites during which he met some special children who gave him the ideas for the characters. He highlights that his novel is not meant to change the world, but to tell about “extraordinary children in an extraordinary situation”. To be able to pull it through, he decided to lock himself up in a small room of his flat with no windows and, after thinking it through he wrote it as it came down to his pen.
From his interviews, we can deduce that he does not like books that goes slowly, hence setting his novel as a thriller. Furthermore, he deem that a good plot comes naturally with satisfying settings and great characters. In the end, he states that it is necessary for a minute and think to get your mind clear, knowing what to write.
While reading Trash I actually thought a lot about how lucky I were being born here, with all the comforts that children in Behala could only dream about, but I didn’t focus on the merits I should have account for myself to have this fortune.
I didn’t do something big, something special, something extraordinary whereby I wasn’t born in a dumpsite, or in any other place where human rights are not respected for young people, well, for all people.
Maybe I won the Nobel Peace Prize in my previous life, but I highly doubt it, and I certainly didn’t corrupt the sorting-birth-department’s guards to be lodged in Italy… Honestly I would have chosen a better place.
But, seriously, what have I really done to be so lucky? What are my merits? Because, in the very end, I don’t have any.
I guess it’s all destiny’s “fault”, or rather credit.
Not to mention money: I don’t even work! I just go to school, a privilege not everyone gets.
And I often take it for granted.
Many times, when I sit on my desk, I just think why couldn’t I be somewhere else, I say to myself “I would do everything not to listen to another boring lesson”. But of course I don’t really mean that, because I wouldn’t spend my whole childhood rummaging through trash to survive and to provide my family, instead of studying to become a smart and aware woman.
I don’t think I would be able to live how Behala’s guys do, without knowing if they will get though the day.
I need to have certainties in life, and some of them are to have family, instruction and future. But what if suddenly one, or worse more, of these certainties falls. What would I do? Would I manage to survive, knowing what I’ve lost? I think that sometimes underprivileged kids “accept” their lives because they don’t know how is the World outside, what they’re missing, what they could have.
It’s all a question of luck. We are lucky, even if we don’t deserve to be. The least we can do is helping those that haven’t all the privileges we have.
What a great luck: I was born here, in Italy, in a family with money, like millions of children in the more developed countries in the world. My future is safe and I think I will not have problems of hunger. But for other children this is not so expected. There are children that work half a day only for have a dish of rice for dinner, and they do not deserve this: it is only destiny. I think I cannot punish me for the differences in the society, but I must to be responsible for my fortune. This is a gift given me at birth and it does not imply I am better than a poorer guy, instead I admire a lot who can live and reach his goals regardless of the burden she/he has had since she/he was born. This is why we must honour this fortune, trying to use it for the common good and for who really needs this money.
This is not the only luck I have: for example I can go every day to school, I can express my opinion, I can be protected by the police when I need it, I have the supermarket, the school, the basketball court near home. These things must not be taken for granted, they are a precious opportunity we have to take, otherwise it is like despise it. There are people who work hard in order to reach them, to have a better life. The problem is that for us all is already done, there was when we were born and we think there will always be. We do not worry about anything. The destiny made us lucky and we think it will always be on our side. This situation make us thinking only at our “problems” and not opening our eyes on the others’ (that maybe are more real).
Since i read Trash I thought about those children that work all the day on the dumpsites just to earn money with which they can live. I know that I’m lucky, because I have a house where I can live, I’ve got a family and a lot of friends and I can go to school; they don’t have these things, and we take them for granted but we did nothing to have them; the destiny has given us all these important things. We don’t know the meaning of working to live, we cannot even imagine how hard it is working in dumpsites and living in those “houses”. I’ve never thought about my destiny, but I have to thank it for the life he gave me, because it wouldn’t be the same if I was born in those countries, I wouldn’t be a “normal” boy but I would be a dumpsite boy and I would have to work all day every day just to make two euros or less. When I think about these things I understand that I shouldn’t take them for granted, and that we all have to do something for these children that, in 2017, cannot live without working in dumpsites between mud and illnesses and collecting rubbish every day.
I think we have to be pleased to live in countries that our grandparents and their fathers before created, we must take care of that and we should help people with some difficulties, because they have no fault of their situation.
We should out one hand on our heart and sensibilize the population. We also mustn’tthink that, only if we are in a developed country we’re better or we are luckyer or what, bug we have to think we are equal, that we have to support and help them all, because Itas only a joke of our destiny.
I also think we must help each other, because we have lost our valors stayed at the base of our society and so they can help us refinding them and we leave better with ourselves.
In my life I only achieved a couple of things, the best was test for the C.L.I.L.
I think I am too young to be a resource for the dumpsite boys or for people who need help, I only have to study and sensibilize other people opinion.
You can make a difference regardless of your age. Look at Malala, she was your age when she won the Nobel Prize. I am 50 and I won’t ever win it! So, making a difference is not a matter of age, but a matter of what you truly believe in and what you are committed to. The very fact that you read “Trash” and that you investigated the issue of childlabour make a difference, so you are definitely a resource. You have become aware of a problem and you can promote this awareness in people who surround you. The more we all know about these injustices we more we can try to stop them.
Sometimes I think about this question. I think I haven’t achieved nothing since now.
I suppose the only little goal I reached is studying every day to find a work and make a better world.
I don’t know how would have been my life if I was born in a developing country by a family with no means. I think the solutions are two. I would have become a slave in a factory or a slave in a dumpsite. Children who live in certain places are indeed often hired by companies to work without labor rights.
In the second case I would have gone to a school opened by Priests or by international communities that help poor people and my life would have been a little better.
I don’t know which would have been my dreams because when you live somewhere where there are not good prospects of doing what you want and where you can only try to survive another day you just want to live and hope that the people that you love will too. However, people that live in extreme conditions have a big advantage: they are hungry and they want to emerge and that could help them but they are not angry enough. The solution of their problem is especially in them, they have to revolt against the current system.
Maybe the dream of a child conceived in a developed country should be helping children who are born in a developing country although I think we can’t do this if we don’t change our habits that are destroying our planet to satisfy our constant desire of owning new things.
They could instead teach us the secret of happiness that we’ve forgotten a lot of time ago. They smile for everything, we aren’t moved by a dish of hot soup like them and I think our approach to life is meaningless compared to their one, after all money can’t buy emotions yet.
Money can’t buy “true” emotions, definitely. Be careful not to overgeneralize. Not all children who were born poor in a developing country become slaves. Not all children who were born in Italy are free of all possible economic constraints or problems.