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Teen Book Club prep
Jul. 15th, 2008 08:37 amThis month I'm staffing/coordinating a teen book club. Like most teen events, I get extremely nervous about these, because, y'know, teens often just don't want to do these things and don't show up, because you designed it wrong. This is, at least by my definition, 0% the teens fault and 100% my fault as coordinator.
*sigh*
This month's book is "Sold", by Patricia McCormick. It's a free verse novel about a young child/woman from Nepal who is sold into prostitution in Calcutta. (I did not select the books for the book club. It's been sorta hard on me reading so many depressing realistic novels.)
In prepping questions, I Googled "Nepal living conditions" and ended up reading a bunch of development reports on Nepal. There was some cheer to be had in the form of reports that talked about programs meant to bring solar energy, safer water, more diverse and nutritious food, better cooking facilities, increased access to first aid etc.
The depressing part, actually, was that the AFTER photos on some of these projects (which looked, I'll say, a whole lot better than the before photos) still looked so impoverished. The difference visually and health wise between a small room filled with smoke and a small room not filled with smoke is pretty huge, but once it's smoke-free it's still a tiny dim room.
Can we come up with a world economic model that allows everyone equal rights and gives everyone a pleasant living space with tasty food and lots of economic choices and pretty things to own and have and leisure time to think and dream? I'd like this utopia without ecological catastrophe or war, please. Also without crushing conformity, weird secret police, or robot overlords. kthxkbai.
*sigh*
This month's book is "Sold", by Patricia McCormick. It's a free verse novel about a young child/woman from Nepal who is sold into prostitution in Calcutta. (I did not select the books for the book club. It's been sorta hard on me reading so many depressing realistic novels.)
In prepping questions, I Googled "Nepal living conditions" and ended up reading a bunch of development reports on Nepal. There was some cheer to be had in the form of reports that talked about programs meant to bring solar energy, safer water, more diverse and nutritious food, better cooking facilities, increased access to first aid etc.
The depressing part, actually, was that the AFTER photos on some of these projects (which looked, I'll say, a whole lot better than the before photos) still looked so impoverished. The difference visually and health wise between a small room filled with smoke and a small room not filled with smoke is pretty huge, but once it's smoke-free it's still a tiny dim room.
Can we come up with a world economic model that allows everyone equal rights and gives everyone a pleasant living space with tasty food and lots of economic choices and pretty things to own and have and leisure time to think and dream? I'd like this utopia without ecological catastrophe or war, please. Also without crushing conformity, weird secret police, or robot overlords. kthxkbai.
