January 13th

Last night I watched a BBC production called Oranges and Sunshine. The story horrified me. From the end of the World War II to the early 1970s, the British government forcibly relocated British children who had been placed in a children’s home and sent them around the world to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the former Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

When the parents in England returned to the children’s home to retrieve their youngsters, they were told that they had been adopted by a good family in England. The children who were sent to Australia had been told that their mother or father had died and they were going to live the good life, filled with oranges and sunshine and a perfect family in Australia.

Instead, some of the children were sent to orphanages usually run by Roman Catholic brothers in Western Australia or Queensland, where they were abused and forced to work in the worst possible conditions.

Losing their mother and identity had a terrible affect on the children, which they carry to this day. The most poignant stories were about the victims seeking the love they lost and holding memories of their mother.

In the latest news, there is concern about the rise in child sex trafficking. Barnardo's, a child charity, said that a quarter of the 1,452 victims it had recorded had been trafficked for sex within the country. There is an alarming rise in the number of children being moved around the country by abusers.

The Home Office said significant progress was being made implementing an action plan to tackle the problem.  A Home Office spokesman said: "Child trafficking and child sexual exploitation are both abhorrent forms of child abuse and the UK government is committed to combating this crime in all its forms."

How can adults exploit children this way? And how can we, as a society, eradicate the warped outlook and tendencies in these criminals? I don't know the answer. Were the perps. born that way or did they develop their penchant as they matured? With both the exploited and exploiters on the increase, humanity is heading for a catastrophe.

I could cry for the children. With these life experiences, they can't dance with joy. I dread to think how  the loss of love from their mother will affect them.

January 11th

What makes a person the way they are? Pretty broad question. Is it life experiences or were we born with our personalities intact? My husband and I were both the first children in our families. Two sisters were born after me, and he had one younger brother.

Me: I'm an eternal optimist, a Pollyanna. I spent most of my youth encouraging those around me and creating plays and dances to keep them amused--a trait I use now in novel-writing. At the tender age of seven, I learned that my father had left my mother. Although unhappy, I coped in my own way when he took me to stay with his new wife for weekends. My sisters didn't fare so well; one became rebellious towards him, and he picked on the youngest until she no longer joined us. I remember a time when my middle sister refused to eat her meal in their beautifully decorated dining room. He said, You must and you will eat it. She picked up a handful of meat and gravy and flung it at him. The food landed on the red flock wallpaper and slid down the surface.

My husband: A natural leader, he grew up in London during the war. At the tender age of four, he would take his brother on train trips to what he thought was the country. Don't ask me why the conductor allowed two young boys to travel on their own. He learned to cook during the air raids. His mother worked as a bus conductress and his father was away at the war. As a five-year-old, he would prepare the meal and have it ready for his mother to heat up when she returned at night. To this day, he makes lists, shops, and cooks wonderful meals during our retirement.

The way people turn out could be their position in the family. Only Children have a hard time and are used to certain reactions when they meet new people. A new study has just been released about the traits of children born after 1979 after China's One Child policy began. They found the children were less trusting, less trustworthy and less competitive, but more pessimistic. Needless to say, China is thinking of reversing the ruling.