Through a very cold winter, we ride a few more days to the Virginia State Line and start our run to Washington DC. Some days of riding the temperature doesn't clear 20 degrees. With a good few hundred miles to DC and a couple more weeks to the UN at New York, reflections are already coming to mind on this year long trip across the US by Horseback, Hitchhiking and Bus.
One thing seems clear, the US is bankrupt. Town after town, the downtown areas are empty, factories are closed, weathered buildings, torn up parking lots, mildew, broken signs, broken glass, collapsed roofs. Health care reform will not fix this.
One lady asked me, "..being to China, what do you think about everything in Walmart being made in China?"
"Well, you can't survive as a nation and continue to do that, have someone else make everything you use." Not only does it create a trade deficit, the very people who KNEW how to make this and that, disappear as does the material supply line.
It should be a matter of national security. It probably isn't listed as such.
The Akha story keeps going out in town after town, most people never heard about the Akha before they saw the bus, or stopped to talk about the horse. Hampton is a LOT of fun for a lot of people, a super friendly horse with a big heart and a big appetite.
In Thailand the missionaries continue their march, taking thousands of Akha kids away from their families. The state department isn't interested and in a recent conversation with the Australian Federal Police about one man David Stevenson and the 500 Akha kids he has pressed into child labor, well they aren't interested either.
Maybe the Aussies just can't kick their Aboriginal Kid Removal habit.
While Rotary International appears to have stopped support of CGT Mission, Australian Rotary chapters continue to support taking away Akha kids.
http://www.childrengoldentriangle.org/
Course, with repeated attacks on their project for removing the children, they have dressed it up a bit, but no mention of why they can't better learn their culture and life with their parents rather than being a money makeing machine for David and Asa. Multiply monthly sponsorship by 500 and see what you get.
http://www.whitetara.org/...
I turned out a video that explains a bit what happens, and what these websites like http://www.vernonjournal.com leave out when they send out their Jesus newsletters.
You can see the video discussion here: http://www.youtube.com/...
It is encouraging that with all the attacks on these sites, bad PR, they have had to make it look like they are REALLY interested about the culture, glad I have helped employ a lot of webmasters working late at night on text and code. But the job is not done.
As we ride on Washington DC to visit with members of congress and Sen. Leahy about Drug War aid to Thailand and human rights, we hope to bring more attention to the removal of Akha children by missions including but not limited to YWAM, River of Life, Camillion Social Center and many others.