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I was listening to NPR one night, and a woman came on who had made a movie about the millions of street children in Romania. I can't remember her name, or the name of the movie, or the name of the show, but I do remember that the movie won an award or two at the Camden film festival. Any info on this is welcome.
So, (as the creator of the movie told me) about thirty years ago or so, the Romanian government decided that it needed a larger workforce. So it banned all contraceptives and abortions. The population increased dramatically. Unfortunately, it turned out that the economy could in no way support that many people.
Unwanted and unsupportable children were thrown in orphanages, or just thrown out into the street. It also turns out that a good many orphanages were corrupt, and so more children began living in the streets (or under them in the subway tunnels). So an incredibly large amount (something like tens of millions) of children are living in the streets of the cities of Romania, literally struggling to live. There's never enough food, so the kids decided to huff paint instead, as it makes the hunger go away. I think it was something like forty percent of these kids sniff toxic paint fumes every day. Children as young as eight.
So I hear this, and after thinking the usual "damn, that sucks. I don't think there's really a way out for these kids coming down the road anytime soon.", I have this fantasy of someone or a lot of someones going over there and, living in the streets with them, teach the kids Zen. Giving them the way of No Way, the direction of No Direction. I fully realize that food and medical supplies would probably be a much greater benefit, but I couldn't help but wonder, "what if it took? What if it spread like wildfire? What if all the kids were into it, setting up some system not unlike that of Bushido (a seemingly rigid set of rules leaning on Zen. I'm not suggesting some sort of soldier class to go with it)? Millions of kids studying Zen, growing up on the streets and greatly outnumbering people their age who grew up in stable homes. What would they be capable of?"
Man, think of what could happen. And again, any info on the movie or writer of said movie is greatly appreciated.
[ 05-03-2002: Message edited by: Johnny the zenarchist ] |
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