Thursday, September 29, 2011

I'm not crazy, watch this - (Famous, Rich and in the Slums) - and see!

It IS easy to be so secure in our own lives, that we don't have to think about other people's lives.

While we sit and read this by the monthly paid internet, on the expensive computers, in our large heated houses with SUV's parked in the garage, sipping a hot cup of espresso, waiting for our spa appointment - these people are dieing! Oh, wait... they are living a life of hell in squalor and then they die. I know... who cares. I don't have to think about it - it's out of my realm, a world away. And what the heck can I do about it anyway? Well if everyone would get off their leather couches, away from from their flat screens, ipods and computers - and give this some consideration, we can collectively do something about it. Even one changed life is HUGE! You have the ability to change someones life! YES, all of us... rich or poor. If you are reading this, you have the means to support a child to go to school or to get AIDS meds.

I am riled up, so you will have to excuse me. This video is the most profoundly moving show I think I have ever seen. Perhaps more so because it is close to my heart... taking place in Kenya. However, I challenge all of you to please watch this and see if it doesn't move you too!

*insert sidetrack*

A while ago, I was made aware of a comment that a distant relative said about me. "What is 'Jo' thinking!?"

For some reason, this has really bothered me and I think about it often. Not that I give a rats arse what this person thinks - but I think the fact that they are so incapable of 'getting' it, is what really bothers me. It bothers me that the human race can not only be so self indulgent that they can not see beyond their lives, but that they are unwilling to as well.

People think I'm (we're) crazy. Well to all those people that stalk my blog because they think I'm crazy - I have one thing to say to you.

Watch this video and then honestly tell me that I am crazy. You know what I think is crazy? Not doing a damn thing to help people who are in this position! ...You're crazy!

Let's get on with the show... Famous, Rich and in the Slums is a documentary made by Comic Relief about 4 UK celebrities who are stripped of all their possessions and are left in Kibera for a week to experience life in one of the worlds largest slums. Life, where 1 in 5 children will die before the age of 5! They sleep with cockroaches, use the very stinky and unsanitary latrines, and work their fingers to the bone to afford one meal all the while witnessing the famine, illness and heartbreak that surrounds them.

It is shocking. It is heartbreaking. It will make you cry. Like a baby.

Here is a sneak peak.

The problem is that this show aired on UK television in March and is not available on youtube, or even for purchase (that I could find anyway). You have to download it. I have never pirated before, so I had to download UTorrent just for this. If you already have UTorrent etc, you are halfway there. If not, please download it (it's free!) and look for this show on Pirate Bay. There are 2 parts to the show. I was able to download the first part in a day, and the second part took me 2 weeks because there was only a couple seeders. However, part 1 is the most important. In part 2 they get a little sidetracked and the show takes more of a focus on helping the people they stay with rather than experiencing their lives.

If you have an interest in Africa through adoption etc... you will most certainly love this show. But, everyone really should see it. Please watch it and let me know how it affected you, or if I really am the crazy one after all...

**Further pirating instructions

After you have successfully installed utorrent, you will go to this piratebay page with the download for part one. DO NOT click any of those big green download buttons - that is where I went wrong many times. Click the small green downward arrows and "download this torrent" on the left side. My computer operates on Vista, browsing with Google Chrome. When I click download - it downloads or saves it to a file called 'downloads'.  Open utorrent. Click on File then Add Torrent. Browse, locate file and double click. Utorrent should then start to download the file. If you click on this file in the top window, the details will pop up in the lower window. This will tell you how fast the download is happening and how much has been downloaded. When I just looked, I noticed there was only one seeder - this means it will take quite a long time. If the seeder (the person who is uploading the movie to leechers) shuts his computer off, the downloading stops unless there are more seeders. The key is to keep your computer on so it can download when the seeder has his computer on.

Once it is complete and says ' finished' in the top window... click it, so the details appear in the bottom window again. Then double click the first file in the bottom window (the file with 550+ mb). On my computer the VLC media player popped up and started to play. You may have a different media player... This is an avi. file. Most players should play this type of file.

Go here for the second part.

I hope this helps. You may need to be patient - like I said, it took me weeks to get the second part....... but it is so worth it!!

4 comments:

Jacquie said...

Jo,
I've never pirated before either. When I went on Pirate Bay and searched for the documentary, About 5 results showed up. Do you know which ones I download for part one and two? and what does the "seeders" and "leechers" mean?
Jacquie

Jolene said...

HI Jacqui, let me get back to you tonight... I'll make an edit to the original post. A seeder is someone who is uploading the film (whom you get it from). A leecher is someone who is downloading it (like you). The more seeders, the faster the download.

Jacquie said...

I watched them. Absolutely amazing. We take so much for granted in our little corner of the world. It's one perspective to know nothing about it (or ignore it), another to know that people somewhere out there live like that but not think about it too much, another to be aware of it and do what you can to help it, and yet another to live in it (or near it). What a life changing experience your adoption in Kenya will be for you, and I think especially for your children! I would love to give my children an experience like that.
I love how aware you are of the people in the world. Keep sharing these videos.
p.s. I just watch "If the world were a village", loved that one too.
Thanks Jo!

Jolene said...

You are so right Jacquie! I used to fit into the 'know that people somewhere out there live like that but not think about it too much' category, until I had children.
It's much too easy for me to imagine them being in that situation. It would kill me to see them not being loved on, go to bed hungry, sell their bodies at the age of my daughter now, or to carry the burden that no child should ever have to. Each orphan, or child of a slum etc. IS someone's child, and if it were mine - I would desperately want someone to help.

Thanks for hanging with me in bloggerland!!

Jo