I was perusing the latest issue of National Geographic and read a paragraph that truly squicked me out. "This city has a jumpy, addicted feel to it. The hotel garden shrieked with bird life, and there were crocodiles in the courtyard pond; the fountains on either end of Cairo Road blustered with frsh water, and the street children were mad-eyed (those who can afford it sniff glue or gasoline, and those who can't sniff jenkem, fermented human sewage kept in a plastic bag for a week or so until it gives off intoxicating fumes).
I did a bit of searcing on the net and found this article from the BBC News.
quote: At the Lusaka sewage ponds, two teenage boys plunge their hands into the dark brown sludge, gathering up fistfuls and stuffing it into small plastic bottles. They tap the bottles on the ground, taking care to leave enough room for methane to form at the top. A sour smell rises in the hot sun, but the boys seem oblivious to the stench and the foul nature of their task.
They are manufacturing "Jenkem", a disgusting, noxious mixture made from fermented sewage. It is cheap, potent and very popular among the thousands of street-children in Lusaka. When they cannot afford glue or are too scared to steal petrol, these youngsters turn to Jenkem as a way of getting high.
"It lasts about an hour", says one user, 16-year-old Luke Mpande, who prefers Jenkem to other substances.
"With glue, I just hear voices in my head. But with Jenkem, I see visions. I see my mother who is dead and I forget about the problems in my life."
I am continually apalled at the depths to which we will sink to escape reality.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
Wow. That must be some reality they need to escape, to go that far.
Posted by monteverdi (Member # 2896) on :
Further
Posted by monteverdi (Member # 2896) on :
further and further and further
Posted by JaimeBenlevy (Member # 6222) on :
If they can't afford glue, then it must be a pretty bad reality.
Posted by calaban (Member # 2516) on :
They do have the misfortune of living in certain areas of Africa. I imagine it gets bleak.
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
What would you rather these kids do? Embrace the reality that they are starving, unloved, and will most likely be dead in ten years? Embrace the reality where prostitution and theft are two of their only options for survival? I don't think this is a good example of people needing to embrace reality.
Posted by Tresopax (Member # 1063) on :
Collecting and sniffing sewage is pretty darn disgusting, but then again so is laying on the ground vomiting on yourself - an activity many college students have done here in America in the name of escaping reality.
Neither is the extreme though. Some people commit suicide. Others waste their whole lives lying to themselves and suffering.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
The situation will never get better if they are committed to escaping it through denial.
Posted by A Rat Named Dog (Member # 699) on :
quote:Neither is the extreme though. Some people commit suicide. Others waste their whole lives lying to themselves and suffering.
Wait ... suffering and lying to yourself to help deal with it is a more extreme reaction than doping yourself into oblivion?
Posted by punwit (Member # 6388) on :
I made no judgement as to how embraceable thier reality might be. I'm curious as to why you seem to be on the offensive. Aren't you appalled that people would harvest and inhale fermented human waste?
Edit to direct my comment to Amanecer
Posted by Tresopax (Member # 1063) on :
quote:Wait ... suffering and lying to yourself to help deal with it is a more extreme reaction than doping yourself into oblivion?
Spending one's whole life doing so is.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
I've never heard someone make the argument that escaping reality is less extreme than living it.
I guess you learn something new every day.
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
Punwit- you're right. There's no reason for me to be on the offensive and that is quite gross. I just got back from a funeral and am feeling edgy. I guess I should get off for the rest of the day. See you later, Hatrack.
Posted by calaban (Member # 2516) on :
I don't think that any form of denying the full truth of your situation in life is healthy.
I can empathize, hoping to understand why some people resort to the measures they do for ephemeral escape.
A lack of percieved future is probably a common feature among all escapists. It's funny to me how much some escapists have materially.
I can't judge a boy in an african shanty town any more than I can judge a prosac dependant mother or a superstar that lives for blow.
I'm just glad that the form escapism takes in my life is through fiction.
On the note of human waste being disgusting, that's somthing that is culturally defined. Disgust or lack thereof for the smell and the substance is ingrained in an individual. Alot of the world has no plumbing. The smell becomes familiar after a while. And they have to deal with the rest of it on a more consistant basis than just when thier toilet overflows.
Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves?
Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
I haven't. I'm right here. And even if I can't find me for a little while, I'm certain I'll turn up sooner or later.
--Enigmatic
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
I don't know Stone Wolf, but, I think somewhere we live inside, somewhere we live inside.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
That's horrible. Just horrible. Those poor children! I weep.
Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
LoL
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Stoney, I wasn't meaning to be funny. I'm sincere.
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
That's disgusting. How sad for those children. I can understand why they'd want to try to escape from reality. I don't agree that it's wrong to do that, now and then--if I did, then I couldn't watch movies or read books for pleasure, could I?--but doing it all the time seems a little extreme. And using human waste to do it...ew. It must be a pretty horrible reality.
Regarding calaban's comments, I would like to point out that depression can actually screw up your sense of reality. Therefore, that prozac-dependent mother may actually have a more accurate picture of reality than she did before she was on medication. Antidepressants are not narcotics, and they do not make you happy all the time. Rather, they allow you to be happy when circumstances warrant it.
I don't mean to be picky, but it bothers me that people sometimes think that antidepressants get you high, or that the those who take them are emotional wimps who are looking to escape from reality. For those of us whose brains don't work quite right, those drugs are a miracle that allows us to live like the rest of you.
Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
Tante...sorry, I don't mean to make light of other's problems.