How we are seen/described

[pecunium]

Ryan, the guy whose been providing amusement to people; feels harried.

So harried that he talks about it. (h/t killslowly)

Me, I made the grade, I think we should all feel flattered as some people who come here because of our Critics, Christian, Ian…. We’ll your the big two and not forgetting one man in the Army, who I actually forget his name, due to the fact he doesn’t use a real one.

Which is funny, because he used it, as though we were friends or something.

I also liked the attempt to tar me as a moral failure, "While the last, simply does his job and plays soldier in Iraq."

I did a lot of things in Iraq, none of them was, "playing" soldier.

I do have to say, Ryan was one of the more amusing things to happen here. None of the vituperation which comes of discussing the right-wing wurlitzer; no risk of injuring the comity of the place from heated words.

He has such a relligious fervor. He has the recieved wisdom, and those who see flaws in the plan, or the logic, or the financing; who wonder at the risks vs. the benefits; who see some problems in the messages that are sent, if one looks at the whole, are blind fools who are against his ends; instead of having doubts about the means.

Never mind that we link to his sites, let people look at that whole, weigh his plans, means and ends against what they know.

Anyone who questions the value of kidnapping girls, and taking them to an island off the southern tip of Chile, is interested in seeing them raped; doesn't want to see an end to the sex trade.

Never mind that none of that has been said. What matters is that instead of keeping our thought to ourselves, we are going into those flaws. That's what bothers him, because to question "The Dream" or plan, or whatever it is, is to be against him.

Which is wrong. If it could work, I wouldn't care. But it can't, and there are people spending time, money and effort to try and make it happen.

But it's OK, because the lurkers support him in e-mail.

Comments

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

"Playing soldier in Iraq"? Saying that about any service member who has served Iraq is profoundly disrespectful, indeed offensive, be that you or anyone else. Whatever I may think of that ill-gotten mess, the men and women over there are not "playing."

Otherwise... this man sounds so delusional. I have been hoping, as you had mentioned earlier, that this was just some sort of scam. Clearly not.

Come to think of it, I see a strong resemblance between the way Ryan reacts to people questioning his plan, to how our Fearless Leader and his cohorts reacted to people questioning the plans for Iraq.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

And he doesn't see anything wrong with an "island off the southern tip of Chile".

Clue, Mr. Ryan, it isn't called Tierra del Fuego because it's warm and pleasant.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

I have a few words for him, but I think the most important has to be delusional.

DV

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

Good lord. I've been reading along in your blog but only just saw the actual site. Has it ever occurred to him that it might be better to do his humanitarian work in situ, rather than dragging victims of the sex trade halfway across the world, away from whatever family they have, into a culture that's completely foreign to them? Apart from that, whatever girls they do rescue will immediately be replaced by others (sadly). If he wants to make a lasting impact on the sex trade he'd do a lot better by tackling the problem where it really exists - at the level of those who think it's ok to use these kids for sex, and the officials who turn a blind eye.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's bad. But see, if they stay in the country, then they will have to abide by silly things like laws and rules.

On his "Island" they get to start ab initio and things will be better.

The cynic in me says that doing the drudgery of working in a foreign country (where he's not the head honcho of a romantic enterprise, which is going to change the world) is too mundane, and he'd have to learn the local language, and it would be small scale.

He wants to end the sex trade entire. A noble, it augean task.

My more cynical self says it's a case of Johnson's, "Every many thinks meanly of himself that he was not a soldier" and this is Ryan's chance to be one, and not the run of the mill soldier, pawn to gov'ts and slave to duty, but rather the heroic soldier of myth and legend.

And every time the real world bumps into the mythic, well one of them has to give, and it's not the real world.

This isn't his first adventure into this. He had a concept (I can't call it a business, and now it seems to be dead) called, "Living Legends.", which was the same idea.

Some background

If (and it's a very big if) the structural flaws could be overcome, there's something to be said for the idea; not because kidnapping children is a good thing (no matter what the reason) but because having a group who can talk about it; can put a human face on the scale, and scope, of the tragedy, might help to stop it.

But this isn't the way. Want to build a safe haven? As you say, the place to do it is where the shit is happening. Make a visible statement, right there. Make the people turning a blind eye look at it.

Ghosting them away to some distant place, that's just a different form of sweeping things under the rug.

TK

(^_^)

[killslowly.livejournal.com]

But... what about the boy whores? They are victims too!!!

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

Came across this story (http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/mum-to-14--at-just-21/2007/08/25/1187462583449.html) today in the Sydney Morning Herald, and thought you might be interested. This seems much more the way to go about saving the world (or at least, a small part of it). And a pretty impressive thing for a 21-year-old to do (well, when I think back to what I was doing at 21...).

They have a website, Cambodian Children's Trust (http://www.cambodianchildrenstrust.org/).

Hope your trip is going well! It sounds amazing.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

He wants to end the sex trade entire. A noble, it augean task.

I was thinking more King Canutesque.

The danger here is that he'll get obsessed with your attention to him, hate you, and start some sort of stupid vendetta.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. He's got other bêon;tes noire.

And what can he do? Clog my inbox with anon I have to ignore? He's in Southhampton, so an ocean, and a couple of thousand miles of the US are between us.

I am merely the newest. If he could recall my name, then I'd be more concerned.

TK

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Antonia Tiger has an important point. The man's grasp of reality seems so fragile that he doesn't understand what "an island off the southern coast of Chile" means. This is not the half of the world where "south" = "more tropical".

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I've recently glanced at Ryan's sites, and noticed an interesting point. He mentions his age -- 26. I have to admit that between the ages of about 16 and 26 I sometimes dreamed of living on an island -- some place rather like Tahiti, perhaps, or Morea -- but I wasn't nearly Imaginative enough to envision owning all of it, or getting other people to pay for it. Young people today seem to be much more Ambitious than they used to be back in my era.

But then, it would be another ten years before I discovered Science-Fiction Fandom and heard the name of Claude Degler.