For a reality check on what is being done to the worlds children, I suggest you read the annual report of UNICEF, THE STATE OF THE WORLDS CHILDREN 2005: Childhood Under Threat ( http://www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/index.html). The 2005 edition was released yesterday, and the link leads to a highlights page with further links to sections or to the full report. The full report is 164 pages and is a 6.3 MB download in pdf format.
The report is painful reading, but a valuable reminder that real children are being destroyed daily around the world. There may be some horrific stories on the Archive, but reality is AS horrific, or more so.
An older UNICEF report, Profiting from Abuse: An investigation into the sexual exploitation of our children, can be downloaded from the UNICEF web site as well. It paints a picture of the real sexual abuse of children that makes the fictional world of Larry seem almost mild by comparison.
Larry
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JesusA (imported)
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Re: Larry
Despite being asked to read Larry by the instigator of the story in order to proffer comments, Ive so far failed to do so because Im frightened. Although Im sometimes the author of my own dark tales, such as perhaps the rather similar The Institution, Im rarely ready to experience other peoples nightmares, especially when they are based on fact.
My emotions have still not fully recovered from hearing about the Monster of Lahore, about which my own eponymous tale was, similarly to 'Larry', cathartic, and watching the waking nightmare of the horrific culmination and aftermath of the Beslan siege live on television. Im therefore not ready to read in depth about the real woes of other children in this allegedly better and more humane modern age.
Please, Jesus and Paolo, therefore forgive me for being such a coward but Im not going to read Larry until I summon up sufficient courage to do so, probably aided by hefty consumption of Christmas wine. Ill instead continue to bury my mind in the supposedly less civilised past and simply write my next chapter of Nero and the one-off tale, based in ancient Egypt, that Im spinning off from the episode.
Meanwhile, I sadly suppose that many children will continue to suffer worldwide, even in Bushs America.
PUEROS
My emotions have still not fully recovered from hearing about the Monster of Lahore, about which my own eponymous tale was, similarly to 'Larry', cathartic, and watching the waking nightmare of the horrific culmination and aftermath of the Beslan siege live on television. Im therefore not ready to read in depth about the real woes of other children in this allegedly better and more humane modern age.
Please, Jesus and Paolo, therefore forgive me for being such a coward but Im not going to read Larry until I summon up sufficient courage to do so, probably aided by hefty consumption of Christmas wine. Ill instead continue to bury my mind in the supposedly less civilised past and simply write my next chapter of Nero and the one-off tale, based in ancient Egypt, that Im spinning off from the episode.
Meanwhile, I sadly suppose that many children will continue to suffer worldwide, even in Bushs America.
PUEROS