Monday, April 26, 2010

Putting It Together

Societies today are decorated with numerous Non-Profit Organizations, Charity Groups and Activists that attempt to serve different causes for humanity. Some are moved to fight poverty, others are moved to eradicate diseases. There are also groups of people who believe in and dedicate their lives to save the earth, 'The Green People' is what I call them.

In a contemplation of A2G concentration of its philanthropy ends, I had found myself curious about the causes of death and their statistics. Death toll is hardly accurate as it is usually intricate when it comes to deciding what or which are the true causes of death in relation to the number of people actually died in course of event. Parts of the causes had been those that were considered man-made or contributed by actions of men, and those that were considered to be natural causes such as earthquakes, flood, cyclone, typhoon, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.

In my discoveries, some major man-made causes of death were wars, genocides, mass suicides, famine due to political oppression, some diseases, and murders. Each have its own various definitions. Spanish Flu (a disease), for instance, annihilate millions of people in 1918 - around the same period as World War 2. To decide which deaths are caused only by the disease and which are casualties of the war were perplexing. Some wounded soldier might survive the Spanish Flu attack if they weren't wounded.

As I perceive it, there is always the possibility of any natural causes of death to be contributed by human activities. Chopping of trees and pollution are the two major reasons why the Green Peace activists exist since the past century. Global warming is an imbalance state of the Planet Earth, which it requires to eventually balance back somehow. Earthquakes, floods, cyclones, typhoons, volcanic eruptions and drought could be what is necessary to happen for Planet Earth to sustain its balance. We, the humans, are all contributing to the maturity of Global Warming, even the 'Green People', and the planet simply does not care about humanity.

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Another cause of death that I find most intriguing is murder. Since young, I have always wonder how a person can take the life of another person. What could be in their minds before they kill, when they kill, and after they take somebody else's lives? Sometimes I would even try to recall the moments when I feel so angry or hateful that I might kill a person, nothing seems to pop up in my imagination. During my research, I have encountered the reading of some serious killers. I thought, these people could be the worst type of killer ever exist so if I learn about them, I might learn something. I did.

A famous U.S. most prolific killer in the past century, Ted Bundy, who confessed to more than the murder of 30 people grew up believing that his mother was his sister. FBI suspected that he is responsible for hundreds of murders, whose victims' bodies are not yet found today. 'No wonder he's a sicko', we might think. A young girl who were brought up at her mother's house with her sex-offender-step father ended up killing 7 men within a year as an adult, during her prostitute career. This girl was Aileen Wuornos, whose story was made into a movie played by Charlize Therone and Christina Ricci called "The Monster". When caught by the police, Wuornos genuinely believed that she had to kill the 7 men because of self-defense. Apparently, both Bundy and Wuornos had dark childhoods. They were not happy as children and they weren't brought up properly by their parents. And perhaps they might be those children who we might often judge as 'weird', and their so called weirdness escalate to murder. Not to mention other famous serial killers of our time who had taken hundreds of lives accummulatively and to name a few there were: Jeffrey Dahmer, David Birnie, Erik Edgar Cooper, The Ken and Barbie Killers.

Between 1932 and 1933, humanity has found Joseph Stalin responsible for the death of some 6 to 10 millions in the famine that he has caused. Now we need to ask, did Stalin's mom and dad raised him right? Or did they raise him so rightfully as a child that he grew up with a great intelligence to 'kill' people? The event of Stalin in power fell into the definition of genocide. Genocide, is it a form of murder? Similarly, Mao Ze Dong in power has caused the death of 20 to 30 Million people in a course of three years between 1959 to 1962. Twenty to Thirty Million died because of starvation, in agony and cruelty comparable to torture and mutilation. It was never disclosed in his official biography, but how did his personalities and identity formed in his early life that let multimillion people died from starvation under his nose without remorse given his power to do turn the situation at the time? Sure, many families and relatives of the casualties had cursed him a big time murderer at that time.

It was not merely the stories of serial murder or the case of murder that caught my interest, it was the thrill of knowing what can become of a child who was not brought up as a decent non-murdering citizen of the society. Jeff Dahmer, a homosexual cannibalistic serial killer, was never taught about religion or beliefs about superior being when he was a child (according to his father's claims during an interview after Dahmer repented before his execution). You can find in Youtube, a question raised 'what would have happened if Dahmer believe in God earlier?' The root of the sinister minds that these remorseless individuals posses, the way I see and believe it, is in family. It was learned that most criminals have some sorts of family malfunctions. 

Coming from a broken home myself, I understand how a form of darkness was developed inside me that nobody would know (neither I can express it) while growing up. Being constantly and continuously belittled by my parents, it gave me a reason or a drive to prove something. Many times, there is a rage inside that needs to be manifested out and without conscience and tenacious determination to control it, I would've been dead by now. In my case, instead of needing to manifest such rage into violence or murderous thoughts, I had found myself in a suicidal state of mind a few times. From my own stories, I have formed a passion to help other children who need to be nurtured, cared for, educated, nourished and fulfilled both physically and mentally.

The hypothesis is, how many lives can be saved when a child is saved from being a victim of family malfunction? Yes, the odds are very little that he or she will become like Stalin or Hitler or Dahmer or other intellectual culprits who deliberately created deadly viruses, but the chance is alwasy there if not prevented from young.

A2G is focusing on children in need, as well as the women (who will become their mothers) who are often victims of family malfunction or often the weaker victims of man-made conflicts such as war, infidelity, and domestic violence. Of course, the focus of family welfare is included.

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