Friday, June 09, 2006
Tropical Snow
what better to do on a lazy and rainy afternoon than to lie on the sofa and watch a good movie? well, i was just doing my usual channel-surfing a couple of hours ago and I came across this show called "Tropical Snow" on HBO.
If you're a HBO subscriber, u'll know that they show boring oldie shows in the afternoon coz it's presumed that most people dun watch HBO in the afternoon. So initially, I was quite turned off my the movie scenes on the telly - everyone had big hair (think the 80s) and the setting was in Columbia. But since there was really no other shows to watch, I decided to read the synopsis (the one that comes with the Digital Cable TV thingy). It kinda seemed intriguing so I carried on watching the show even though the English spoken was heavily accented with Espanol and there weren't any good looking leads. haha..
The story is actually a very sad one. It's about this young Columbian couple who had to resort to swallowing drugs so that they can make enough money to leave poverty and start a new life in New York. The movie showed the sad truth about how poverty-stricken Columbia is and how the young people there had to do things they dun wanna do just to earn meagre wages to put food on the table and shelter over their heads for them and their families. Such things include prostitution, waitressing with 'extra' services, learning how to be a pickpocket (yea, there are actually lessons..)
K, so back to this couple. Actually swallowing drugs was their last resort. Initially, the guy tried to enter a border state illegally by hiding in one of those cargo planes. But as luck would have had it, he got caught and was thrown into prison where he was tortured. So his gf agreed to swallow drugs and carry them to NY for this drug middleman in return for money to hire a lawyer and get the guy outta prison. When in NY, they'll start afresh, find jobs, send $$ home etc.
Gosh, the swallowing of drugs looked REALLY painful and torturous. She was gagging and stuff.. Initially, she had to practise by swallowing grapes as a whole. Then only did she progress onto swallowing little bags of drugs (similar sized compared to the grapes). Both she and her bf had to swallow 130 bags EACH!! it's really terrible... But eventually, they both did it and flew to NY. Once there, the girl got caught but the guy managed to go past the customs. Sensing something was amiss after not seeing her at the baggage collection (coz they acted separately) , he made the rash decision to go back to the immigration counters to look for her. There, he was caught and got sent away in a police van.
As told by the drug middleman, both of them were told to vomit out the drugs by that night coz if not the little bags will burst in their stomach and they'll die. As the girl got caught at the immigrations, they sent her to get her stomach washed out. For the guy, he died in the police van. It is a really sad ending and apparently, i think it's a true story.
It just made me feel how fortunate I am to be who I am today. Can't imagine what my life would be if i were one of them. Treasure what you have, my friends..
Kel ♥
3:39 PM
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