- Santa barely misses the tower!
It seems Santa needs new eyewear, or maybe those lead reindeer of his do. In any event, buzzing the castle in Shengri La, he had a near miss with a turret and lost a bunch of candy canes out of his gift sacks.
Candy Canes & Loot!
These aren’t the usual high-calorie sort, though, these are extra special candy canes because they each contain wonderful loot – jewelry, boots, gowns, and more. Some of the loot is retired Prim & Proper gowns & jewelry- not available anywhere else on the grid; some is retired Flash & Trash accessories (ditto); and some of the loot is never-released items (very much ditto only more so). All, of course, high quality fun stuff. Each Candy Cane is a mere $25L, which bags you whatever has been stuffed in the cane.
All proceeds from these scattered candy canes go directly to the CRY-America representative, Kosmik Guru (you’ll see the script whine a bit when you buy it – that’s why. It hates $0L transfers, which is what I get, with $25L going directly to CRY America). We’re supporting CRY-America through a series of fundraisers for the following reason: they are a nonprofit approved by the US IRS as a legitimate 501 (c) 3, which works to protect children’s rights in the US developing countries. They do this by developing programs that will lift these children out of poverty and make it worth while for them to be educated rather than consumed by the greed of corporations and the need of their parents.
Children’s rights abuses tend to occur for complicated reasons. It is tempting to be simplistic and to point fingers at multinational (and even domestic) corporations which run on the backs (and fingers) of child labor. It’s tempting to assume that greedy parents heartlessly sell their children for mere tens of dollars into systems of slavery that devour these kids for their childhood years, then spits them out when they are too old to fit into or under the factory machinery or no longer nimble enough to work the fields or handle the silkworm coccoons, or whatever they have been hired to do. Making an assumption like that makes it easy for those of us who live comfortably in developed countries to not look at our choices and how we ultimately support these systems of repression. The clothing we buy; the cars we drive; even the food we eat may all contribute to the harsh repression and abuse of children. As long as it is commercially viable for companies to use labor systems that require inexpensive labor, children will be fed into this monster to be chewed up. It is ultimately up to us to educate ourselves about companies that use the cheap labor of children as part of their business model. And then we need to decide if we will support these companies with our dollars, yen, euros, francs, or trade beads. As long as we show we do not value childhood by buying products from these companies, we enable this horrific system.
In the spirit of the winter holidays – peace, love, joy, hope – I would ask you to take a few moments out of your day. Visit Shengri La Peace, and spend a couple of hundred Linden on candy cane. You’ll feel good, knowing you are helping those who cannot help themselves, and you’ll look good doing it. I wrote about some of the abuses children suffer in the apparel industry working to create things such as beaded sweaters. You can read about it here. Let’s help turn this tide of wasted lives and broken humanity. We can make a difference – a huge difference for some of these children – if we work together. Please come, spend a little time with your friends, meet new friends, and spend a little – or a lot. Your financial support can and does make a difference when you bring friends. These micro-donations add up – sometimes in a big hurry.
Boring details about the goodies: Permissions on these items: By and large, copy/mod/no transfer. So while not suitable for gifts, you can play Aunt or Uncle Moneybags and bring your friends in for a little pre-holiday binge. If SL is not playing fair, note your transaction from your transaction history, jot it in a notecard, and drop it to me. I’ll take care of you within 24 hours. If you don’t see me accept the notecard, it means Idid not receive it, so try again.
Please come and support this effort – SLurl here. These kids have no one to advocate for them if we do not step up and help, and those kids who get put into this soul-destroying system will end up perpetuating it because they have no way to crawl out of the poverty pit. Your virtual world microdonations for virtual goods do make a very real difference to a regrettably very real problem.
~Shenlei Winkler
ne Shenlei Flasheart in SL
Shenlei Winkler 