Dearest Jesse,

I hate to break it to ya, but it seems your love affair with a particular Youtube video that you blogged about earlier in the summer is about to end.

According to a story by ABC news, the jaw-dropping rendition of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" by inmates at a Filipino prison may not be the product of honest to goodness hard work by reformed souls so much as forced labor that might include human rights violations.

Byron Garcia, a security consultant at the prison and the mastermind behind the jailhouse dance troupe, is treated as a bit of a demigod by the prisoners, some of whom have his name tattooed on their bodies.  But it seems he may be taking his power too far.  Although it's not in the article, the ABC TV report alleged that Garcia is accused of working his prisoners until their feet bleed in their shoes.  The report comes to no conclusions about what's actually going on behind those bars.

Some people, like Dennis Abbarientos, from the Filipino human rights group Karapatan, refuse to watch the videos so as not to add to the viewer count on Youtube and encourage Garcia's supposed abuses.  I admire his nobility, but as there's no proof that Garcia did anything inhumane, and as I doubt the rest of the bored-at-work-or-home-ADD-youtubing world cares, the only person Abbarientos is denying is himself.