Stolen

Stolen was a drama by the BBC that was on BBC1 last night. It is on the iplayer if you didn't see it and want to. It is 90 mins long btw...

It was a hard hitting drama about child trafficing in the UK today. It was based in Manchester but no doubt could have been any large town/city and showed the story of three different kids brought into the country for slavery.

Yes I use the word slavery I don't hold back as there is nothing else to describe it. Children bought and sold, forced to work without pay, forced to keep out of sight of others etc.

Following from yesterdays post where I spoke about how lucky I am - it doubly re-enforced that and also made me realise this stuff is happening all around us now. Do I see it - No I don't. However I live in a nice suburban environment where most of the families around us have all lived there since we moved in... in fact I think we are still the "new lot" after 19 years! I actually like that - we know people, they know us - we notice the change in patterns around us. If one of them suddenly had a little girl there who wasn't going to school I'd hope I'd notice... I also hope I'd ask the right questions if they needed to be asked.

There was a great quote from Nelson Mandela (along with Martin Luther King and Gandi one of the true heroes of the last century) "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."

In the 60s a powerful drama (
Cathy come home) exposed little talked about issues in the country at that time - i.e. homelessness, unemployment, parental rights. I was 4 when that was shown but as I grew up it was still a much talked about play. 12 million people watched it. I don't believe Stolen will have been watched by as many last night... however I do hope it has a similar effect on the country. Time to stop accepting and time to start exposing.

Comments

  1. Nic 4 July 2011 at 11:55

    Coming from somebody who has experienced, witnessed and has exposed some of the nastier parts of life concerning children, as much as I can, in the past five years or so, I have certainly come to recognise the importance of things like this programme. Though you would be surprised, or perhaps not, that even when you personally shout about it, as long as the bare minimum has been done by the powers that be, that seems to suffice - certainly in my experience.

    I didn't watch it, I watched a tiny bit in the middle and thought I would catch up with it today at some point.

    Even if it makes people think, just for a while, then that is a start, I think.

    :-) P

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gerry Snape4 July 2011 at 17:43

    We watched and were really moved and like yourself felt so priviledged to have what we have be where we are. I saw children in the 60s in Dublin barefoot and in gangs to beg and steal for masters... and then again this jan. in Goa on the beaches where the saddest was a 2 year old learning the ropes from I assumed a father...maybe.We need to be thankful!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Four Dinners4 July 2011 at 22:16

    You don't have to be 'stolen' to be treated like shite mate.

    I didn't watch it.

    Didn't need to.

    Humanity eh?

    What a bunch of wankers we can be...

    Still...if there's a few decent one's then all isn't lost.

    Stay decent old bean.

    Cheers

    4D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Suburbia7 July 2011 at 22:17

    Will take a look on iPlayer

    ReplyDelete

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