Mica Mines: Darkened Faces ( The Dark Secret Behind Your Makeup Documentary)

When the documentary begins, the first words that greet us are ‘Ugly secret behind the beauty.’ The subsequent footage of children working in dusty conditions made me question why this is a secret. Perhaps it is humanity’s fault that this remains a secret when there are so many lives experiencing the world's ugliest reality. When people accept that there will be no change even if they are heard and seen, they stop trying to express themselves. This is a resigned helplessness. Most of us have had to wrestle with this feeling at significant points in our lives. But as children, the world progresses as we imagine it. Our dreams create our world. The times I felt the strongest were in my childhood. For instance, my reality would mold like clay into whatever shape I gave it. As children, we have the power to create our own reality. In the documentary, a girl with eyes reflecting her experiences says that dreams cannot come true (24:12). I would never want any child to meet the ugly face of humanity so early. When you imprison a child, whose wealth consists of dreams, in despair, what expectations from life can they have left? When I first greeted death at a young age, I felt it would make me different from others, but I encountered a different result than I expected. I had become realistic. Even though I knew dreams would keep me connected to life, reality was pulling me down like gravity. Taking away a child's dreams has become one of the greatest sins in my eyes.

(2:45) "Sparkly, shimmery, radiant" — these are all adjectives our consumer society uses for makeup products. They are empty embellishments crafted to sell a few more items. As if there weren’t enough makeup products already, it's just propaganda to lure consumers into buying yet another product to conceal themselves. Humanity is somewhat like this. It is pulled, without question, in the direction it is pushed. Masking oneself is so important in this society. We choose not to see even our own faces because we are afraid to see the reality of the world. But what adjectives will we use to describe the children working in dusty conditions? I could list countless adjectives that would break our hearts, but this won't change the fact that we prefer not to see them. No matter how starkly we show the reality, people will not abandon the comfort of the familiar.

(9:22) We hear about an eight-member family living in a makeshift tent, collecting mica to feed themselves. They don't even need to explain that there is no other way out. Some forms of helplessness are most evident in the eyes. In psychology, there is a term known as 'survival mode.' Even people living stereotypical lives can find themselves in this mode when triggered. In this mode, the focus is on getting through the day rather than living life. People who see no other options are condemned to rely on themselves for survival. Hoping to be sufficient enough just to eat every day is survival mode for an eight-member

family. What is the difference between living and surviving? If we feel sufficient just because we got through the day, that's not living, it's surviving. We don't even think about seeking other solutions. Our brains are conditioned only to ask, "Am I alive? Am I standing?" But living is one of our most fundamental needs and rights. While solving our problems becomes more difficult in survival mode, the fact that this family doesn't even have the option to sit down and find a way out hits us in the face.
(11:10) A woman dressed in black appears on the screen, and her words reveal the need to be seen. "If no one is listening, what is the point of saying all these?" When a person believes they cannot escape their own cycle, they start looking at others. Even though the world has many sufferings, making someone's pain more visible will heal the world. This woman, who wears her helplessness like clothing, tells us about the need to be heard and seen. She explains that we need to face it, even if it hurts, instead of turning away because she faces it every day. This is a sentence I can empathize with, as I have felt unheard and unseen since childhood. No matter how much one tries to express themselves, those who don't want to hear will reject them. The woman actually has a story she wants to scream out loud. She has a life that would shake the ground, worthy of being told. But she has given up on telling her story due to learned helplessness. It seems that accepting helplessness begins with giving up.

(19:18) During a brief tour of the mine, one of the workers talks about the risks. The cave they enter every day, risking their lives, has already become their grave while they are still alive. What would we risk our lives for? What motivates these people to risk their lives every day? It is the desire to live. They are aware that if they don't enter that cave, they are already as good as dead. They risk their lives to survive. But sometimes, a person cannot find enough motivation for themselves. The reason these people face death every day and keep going is not just for themselves. They are thinking about their families. If I were to define heroism, I could start here. Heroism might seem like not fearing death, but it is actually the fear of death. If someone is selfless enough to think about what will happen to those left behind even when they die, I can define this person as a hero. Everyone who chooses to descend into that cave continues their life as a hero. The fear of death comes not just from concern for oneself but from fear of what will happen to those left behind. Caring so much for the people around us may be the most beautiful display of courage. It is with great sadness that, even though we know this is not a choice, this selflessness deserves to be seen and appreciated.

(15:53) We see the destructiveness of the inevitable. The mines collapse, leaving behind debris. The shrouded bodies of people who went into the mines just to find something to eat. Lined up side by side, they might be remembered only as a number, but their lives, now ended, are wrapped in cloth as if to protect them. This image reminded me of my recent visit to Hatay. As I wandered through the city, I couldn’t help but think about how many people were buried in the debris I saw everywhere I turned. The thought that the dust and dirt were both their graves and homes consumed me. Even when we feel a little bit of that sense of entrapment, we look for a place to escape, but the thought of people experiencing this tangibly terrified me. Hatay was trying to heal, but the help coming from outside was not enough. Even though I went there a year after the earthquake, the same issues from that day persisted. I couldn’t help but wonder if all the aid and news coverage had been in vain. How would this grieving city heal? People couldn’t move on with their lives while seeing the ruins of their homes every day. Despite all the campaigns and attention, it was hard for me to grasp that the healing process was still at its beginning. The same was true for the mica mines. (25:59) Documentaries on child labor and mica made the problem visible. But visibility wasn’t the only thing needed. People did the same thing they did for Hatay. They saw and then turned away. No one realized they were in a

cycle. Even though they desperately wanted to escape their paradoxes to heal, the system couldn’t offer them a solution. This is where our humanity ends. We know a certain truth. There are thousands of places, people covered in dust and dirt, children with bruised and battered hands, families without water. At the entrance of the school, there is a picture of 19 children who died under the rubble. There are shrouded lives in front of a collapsed mine. Sometimes I wish people could do more than just pity. I want them to come up with solutions for helpless lives, to take action, and most importantly, to understand.

(22:18) Sometimes seeing a concrete piece of data can make it feel more real. Like the fact that there are 10 million child laborers. Like a 14-year-old girl having worked for nine years. I know that having their childhoods taken away pushes people to mature early. I can’t help but wonder if children in an alternate universe are happy with their own dreams. There are children who act like they are grown-ups, wanting to hide from the filth of the world. This is how they protect themselves from what they see. 10 million children protected themselves this way. Without even having their own judgment formed, without having their motor skills developed, they fell into the battle of life. How can children who learn the struggle for life from birth still remain children? I keep the sorrow of every child forced to grow up in my heart. This sorrow started when I met my 10-year-old student from Sakarya selling tissues on the street. He hadn’t come to school that day. When I asked him why, he said he didn’t have shoes and needed to work to afford to come to school. His eyes were filled with tears from the shame of meeting me that day. In my eyes, there was a great shame too. The shame that in such a system, a child has to work to be able to attend school. My shame slowly grew. It didn't fit into my eyes; it spread through my whole soul. It’s not just for Nazire, I now have a shame that encompasses 10 million children.

My hope for humanity is that no one's life is darkened so that someone else's face can sparkle.

References:

YouTube. (2023, August 18).  The Dark Secret Behind Your Makeup Documentary YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS_CR7UwhRs