"Batang Mansisibak"/"Batang Kalabaw": Documentaries featuring Child Labor

Batang Mansisibak

When I watched the documentary "Batang Mansisibak" by Cesar Apolinario, I was filled w/ pity towards the children who earn their living by scavenging in the garbage of Manila bay, these children are called "mansisibak" or garbage collectors. I can't really imagine how they can swim in a pool of trash just to gather plastic or "sibak" that can be sold in the junk shop.

I really pity their situation because in such a young age, they are already exposed in to this dirty work, they are forced to do such a thing in order for them to help their parents. These children are willing to wake up early, dive into dirty water (and there's even instances that they accidentally drink the water) and collect junk that can be sold. They don't care if they need to go naked just to get the trash they need, they don't mind if people look at them. Although they get wounded because they don't have any protection against the sharp objects that hit their feet and their body, they have no choice because it's the only way for them to easily move in the water.

Because the children are exposed to different kind of waste, no wonder that the the doctor who checked them found a lot of complications in them. Because of their activity that their body weakens and their health gets poor. There is a saying: "May pera sa basura" but if health and life is at stake, money earned from garbage would be useless because it will just have to go to treatments and medications to treat the illnesses and diseases that they got from swimming in garbage.

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Batang Kalabaw

I felt the same piteous feeling in "Batang Kalabaw" by Jay Taruc. it also features children who do hard labor just to earn money. These children carry heavy loads of logs down the mountains of Agusan Del Sur, their job is the same as and as difficult as the job of a carabao, hence the title, Batang Kalabaw.

These children join illegal loggers go up a steep mountain and after getting the lumber, they have to carry the logs and go down the mountain. It's really not an easy task because they have to walk for hours just to go down the mountain, carrying heavy lumber on their back, shoulder or head. Plus, the mountain is very wet and slippery and there is a tendency for them to slip, fall and drop the logs (the cameraman even slipped while going down the mountain and nearly broke the camera).

It's really a pitiful situation they have there, I can't believe how these children do this kind of hard labor, even a 6-year old boy is already involved in this kind of work. It's really hard to carry logs down a slippery mountain without damaging or even scratching the logs because if any faults were found in the logs that they brought, it would be deducted from their wages. I really pity the 6-year boy Randy because as we all know, he is to young and he can't properly handle the wood because his body is not capable enough. It's not surprising that a fault would be found in the logs that he brought and it would be deducted to his pay.

I also pity the 14-year old Cherilyn, the eldest of the group who also acts as mother, father and breadwinner of their family. Her father was imprisoned and her mother suffers from a mental illness that's why she is left to take care of her 5 younger siblings. There's some people who want to help her or even adopt her but she refuses because she can't leave her siblings.

The contributions of the Byzantine empire

There are a alot of contributions that the Byzantine empire brought. Although it is not as great as the great Roman empire, it prove to be a worthy successor. First contribution, Emperor Justinian determined to re-establish the roman empire in the entire Mediterranean world. Under Belisarius, Justinian's army fought hard and long battles against the Ostrogoths. 2nd contribution, Justinian's most important contribution, the codification of roman law. " The body of Civil law" or "Corpus Juris Civilis" The backbone of the law consisted of Code, the digest and the institute. 3rd was the secret invention, greek fire, w/c helped during the battle w/ the Arabs. it sets enemy ships ablaze. Byzantine culture also brought a lot of contributions like in religion, The patriarch being the highest prelate of the Eastern church. in Art and architecture, Church of Santa Sophia w/ a dome to a building of square shape and the mosaics, design of pictures produced by fitting together small pieces of small glass or stone. In commerce, Jewish Muslims and Italian merchants enjoyed domination in overseas trading.

Triumph of Christianity

Isn't it amazing how Christianity changed the whole roman empire?

As you can see, Paganism has a lot of influence in the Roman world. It has influenced most of its culture. The new religion of Christianity gained a lot of followers w/ the problems w/in the Roman Empire. Christianity became the only hope of the Roman people.

The catholic crusades

Because of the invasion of the Muslims, the christians( or catholics) were threathened. The pope called for a crusade w/c means holy war and they waged war for the recovery of the holy land. They created a fighting force to fight the Muslim Arabs or Turks. The pope himself was the one to call for the first crusade and it showed how crusades showed the importance of papal leadership. As Sir Noel had said, " the end doesn't justify the means" it means that the results or the motives of the crusades are right( to recover the Holy land) but the means are not( waging war w/ the turks). What's wrong also is they did not consult the eastern orthodox church about making a decision w/ this that's why there is a lot of divisions among the churches.

My perspective about Oedipus Rex

My own perspective about Oedipus Rex is that many factors affect the outcome of something, one after another.It turns into a chain reaction, If something bad happens to you then you add another bad thing to it, it will worsen. His father, did something bad to someone and he is cursed and doomed to him. Now, he will escape the oncoming curse by killing his own son.

interference of gods and goddesses to the lives of mortals

Since gods and goddesses are capable of malevolence and benevolence, they tend to interfere w/ the personal life of people. They make the people fight battles against their enemies, They mingle w/ them and they even have offsprings w/ humans that turned out to be "Demi-gods", half-human, half-god. They can do anything to the humans whether they did something good or bad or they did none. No wonder that they can't establish better relationships w/ the humans because the gods will do whatever they want, whenever they want no matter what the matter is.

The discrimination of the nazis against the jewish people

During world war II, Adolf Hitler and the nazis declared a massive killing and discrimination of jews, He calls it as '' the final solution''. They began to hunt down all the jews all over Europe. They promoted discrimination and hatred of jews. The jews were forced to were yellow stars of David to identify them. All the Germans and the non-jews followed what the nazis want: They reported the jews who were in hiding, they broke in jewish shops and they gave the jews harsh treatment. The Nazis taught of the jewish people as "parasites". they taught of them as a threat to their society. Jews were sent to concentration camps to do forced labor. They were to die in the concentration camps either by exaustion or sickness. The ones that survived were sent to gas chambers to be executed. How can this genocide of jewish people happen? The holocaust is not a solution and did not solve anything! It brought scare, lost lives, broken homes, orphaned children, traumatized victims, discriminated people. The taught of killing the jewish race for no reasonable cost is just a state of mind, a disturbance in the mind and part of the nazi's imagination. What kind of strong influence have caused this to happen? The devil whispered to Adolf hitler to this holocaust. You don't believe? The swastika symbol and his suicide is enough proof.