A  10 –YEAR  OLD  MAY WORK  -   BOSCONET THOUGHTS

The law in Bolivia used to allow children to start working from the age of 14. A new law passed this last week allows children as young as 10 years to start working under parental supervision provided they also go to school. From the age of 12 they may work under contract.

A sponsor of the bill says, “Child labour already exists. Rather than persecute it, we want to protect the rights and labour security of children.” The president of the country also worked as a boy, herding llamas. He says there is no alternative in a society where half the population is poor.

The opposite opinion is that “Child labour may be seen as a short-term solution to economic hardship, but is actually a cause of poverty.”

It is a pity Bolivia has decided to march in a direction directly opposite to that of the rest of the world. May all children all over the world have opportunities to study and be allowed to enjoy their childhood.

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STEPHEN  HAWKING’S  SUICIDE  ATTEMPT   -   BOSCONET  THOUGHTS

In 1963 doctors diagnosed Stephen Hawking as suffering from Motor Neurone Disease. He had only months to live. About 5% of its victims do survive over a decade. Hanwking is alive even today.

In 1985 Hawking had pneumonia. He had a tracheotomy and a tube was inserted through his throat into his windpipe. He could not speak any more. “I admit that when I had my tracheotomy operation, I briefly tried to commit suicide by not breathing. However, the reflex to breathe was too strong,” he said in an interview to BBC the day before yesterday. At present he cannot even breathe on his own. He is permanently on a ventilator, but he has no desire to end his life on his own.

Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist on a par with Albert Einstein. The 72-year-old is a professor at Cambridge. His contribution to our understanding of the universe is immense (I hope you have read his book – A Brief History of Time).

The discussion on euthanasia or “mercy killing” is a very complex one. Do we let God – or nature – decide how long people live or does the person in question or the people around her decide when she can no longer have a productive or ‘happy’ life? To what extant should we use medical science to prolong a life that seems to have become merely vegetative?

TOO  FAT  TO  DIE !   -   BOSCONET  THOUGHTS

A 50-year-old woman in Nanjing, Jiangsu province of China, was facing a lot of problems. Finally, last week she decided to put an end to it all by committing suicide. She went and jumped into a two metre deep river.

Seeing a body floating in the river, the locals called the police. They were happy to find that the woman was still alive. The woman was so obese that she could not sink into the water. She could not drown herself.

Obesity does seem to have this ONE benefit but, that is certainly no reason whatever to aim at being obese. It could kill you in many other ways!

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WAR  AS  ENTERTAINMENT   -   BOSCONET THOUGHTS

“Sderot Cinema” is the caption the journalist gave to a photo he took in Israel. He shot a picture of about a dozen people lounging in plastic chairs outside the town of Sderot, and eating popcorn while they watched and cheered Israeli soldiers bombarding the plains of Gaza.

As we walk the streets of our cities and towns, we do not even ‘see’ the people living on the footpaths, the children working in tea-stalls, men, women and children looking for scraps of paper, cardboard and pieces of metal, and a hundred other similar scenes. We have been passing by such things from our childhood and we have become immune to them.

When people sit – popcorn in their hands – and watch live the bombarding of human habitations, we realize to what depths our insensitivity can go.

May God forgive all of us; may He help us become more human; may He enable us to put ourselves in the shoes of people who suffer within our sight.

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A PRAYER  FOR  WEST  AFRICA   -   BOSCONET THOUGHTS

West Africa is facing a serious crisis, and it will probably get worse before it gets better. Ebola has broken out and by Friday 539 had died. It started in Guinea. Since it had never been seen in West Africa earlier, people thought the high fever was the result of the familiar malaria. When deaths occurred they saw no reason not to touch their bodies, as is the custom in the local culture.

Ebola is the most terrible and frightening disease known to humanity. Patients bleed from the ears and nose, and in some cases from the skin all over the body. A touch of the sick person’s body or corpse could be sufficient to get infected. I remember watching on Belgian TV in the 90’s doctors and specialists from the WHO in space suits, dealing with bodies, clothes, bed linen and hospital equipment that had the slightest possibility of having had contact with patients. That was somewhere in East Africa then.

This outbreak has spread from a village in Guinea to its capital and to two more nations – Liberia and Sierra Leone. 

The people of these countries need immediate help from experts to prevent a disaster for the entire population, including all of us in all countries, however far from them. We are not experts. We do our share – PRAYERS.

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WOMAN  OF  STEEL, RUPA   -   BOSCONET THOUGHTS

Rupa’s origins are in Ghasoli Village of Muzaffarnagar. Her mother died and her father remarried. They made her leave school when she was in class VI so that she could “help them with the house work”. When she was 15 her step-mother poured acid on her face! Was she envious of her step-daughter’s beauty?

Rupa is now 21. She lives in a shelter for acid attack victims in Lakshmi Nagar of East Delhi. She is helped by a “Stop Acid attacks” volunteer, Atul Kumar, the founder Alok Dixit, and a group of students of fashion design.

Rupa has stitched a few clothes, and each new one is better than the previous one. She is at the point of opening a boutique of her own where her clothes will be displayed and auctioned. She is determined to earn her own living, and pay for the numerous reconstructive surgeries she still requires (She has already undergone 11 of them!)

A woman of courage. What a waste of the gifts God bestowed on her. What a waste of her courage itself. Why should she have to use her courage merely to live a normal life when she could have used it to tackle many other challenges that face our nation! Why do we hurt people who can do no harm to us, and hurt them in such terribly inhuman ways?

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WHISKEY  FOR  LOYALTY  TO  GERMAN  FOOTBALL    -   BOSCONET THOUGHTS

Putul Borah from Karbi Anglong District of Assam is loyal to his favourite team – Germany. He has followed their play all the way from the 1980’s. In 1994 Germany showed all promise of winning the world cup. Borah happened to be in Kolkata (Calcutta then!) days before the finals. He bought a bottle of Passport Scotch whiskey (for Rs 630 even in those days!) to celebrate the expected win.

Germany lost to Bulgaria, 2 -1. Disappointed, Borah buried his bottle of scotch in his backyard. Borah is now all set to exhume his Passport (without any court order for this exhumation!). He has constructed a special pavilion in his home, from which he watches the games along with his wife, 10-year old daughter (who are supporters of Argentina!) and his friends.

Will he get to enjoy his 20-year-old scotch? Whether he does or not, we can’t but admire his loyalty. If only we could be equally loyal to our wife/husband, to our family and our values!