I'm Aware Official Blog

I recently asked followers of this blog to submit different posts on topics that may concern them. My good friend David wrote one, which is an interesting musing on the issue of pornography, and I would like to share it with everyone here.

This blog post is an opinion post, and it covers a variety of issues that either currently are or could be related to human trafficking. I liked his post because it's a good discussion starter - he discusses so many different facets of society and life, and one could dissect it for many more blog posts.

I also want to note that guest blogs are not reflective of the views and opinions of I'm Aware, but are the opinion of the writer, and we also ask that you be respectful of the author of the blog. We like to have community contribution and want to provide an opportunity to have your voices heard, but if you disagree with anything on this post, please be respectful.

If you would like to write a blog for I'm Aware, please message us and we would love to consider your contribution.

Pornography, by David D.

So I was asked to write on the subject of human trafficking, sex industry, or really anything pertaining to it. I chose pornography, and today I want to write about it from a couple of different, and maybe fresh, perspectives. Firstly, I am a man. That alone is uncommon enough in the circles of anti-porn that It warrants at least a casual jaunt through my monologue. The other angle I want to approach from, besides personal experience, is that of addiction. Not a popular starting point, I am aware, but to tackle porn, which I believe to be a massive “gateway drug” for full blown sexual trafficking and purchase,  you must look at both sides, and with different glasses.

Let’s start with the different ways we can view this.

First of all, we have the obvious, “porn is bad” idea. Why? Because it is immoral, it is people being paid to have sex, and it is wrong because it falls into adultery. A lot of people think things like this, and it doesn't go further. Maybe they say things like, “women in porn were probably abused,” or, “that poor girl, she must have not had_____,” or how about, “what a slut.” Lots of opinions, but sadly, I hear very little about why a man is selling himself as well. That is what it is after all, the man and woman are both consenting adults, agreeing on something beforehand (in the more “civilized” pornography), so they are both adults making that choice. What’s the big deal? I don't know if I can answer from a political stance, as in America at least, freedom is supposedly the ideal. Why can’t these people get paid to have sex? They legally can, but only on camera, which provides a nice double standard. Why is prostitution illegal? Lots of ideas people have on that one, so I won’t go into it, but it raises some questions about peoples standards of morality. It is very well known at this point that the internet separates you from the things you are doing to others. Facebook is rife with insults and arguments, online gaming is full of profanity and hateful speech, pornography online is easy to justify, and hide. So if porn is bad, why is it legal? Well, it used to be nude magazines that where detached and acceptable, but going to the strip club may have still gotten you in trouble. Now, whether housewives or outwardly stand-up men may look down on porn, a staggering number of men and women watch it. It is very easy to hide, maybe easier than a magazine, and your kids can’t pick it up from under your bed. But strip clubs are still looked down on, and many men who condone porn would never be caught dead in a strip club. Perhaps because they know they could be. That's my first point. Men, and even women will do what they can successfully get away with. It is not new, or exclusive to sex. If there were no laws, men and women alike would run rampant, until someone became powerful enough to create laws. So my first point really is, morality is not what this is about. It is what some say it is about, but in the end, it is about what people can get away with ultimately. If it was socially acceptable for married men to go to strip clubs, they would.

  Let’s pause and question my credibility. I am a man, I have been hooked on porn, and started at around thirteen. I knew of it because my dad told me how bad it was, and I found it because I knew. I knew it was “wrong” according to another’s definition, and it felt good anyway, which led me to question my parents. The same went for drugs, and everything else my parents told me was bad. I no longer watch it, but it is insane how available it is now, and how acceptable. I can pull out my phone, and watch endless pornography for hours for free. Why would it be free? Because it is a gateway, and there is more money to be made in a strip club, and for that matter, if we track it all the way, sex slaves.

On to point two: Victims. This is a slippery slope. I see three main ideologies about this in the public. The first is that there are clear lines between full blown victims and predators, and they are different.

Second, that there can be victims, such as a child born in a war torn country with no means to leave, but that for the most part, personal choices must be taken into account. So if I walk around the inner city, shirtless, with a swastika tattooed on my chest, and I a victim? In a slight way. Idealism says I should be able to do that, and as long as I am not hurting anyone, it is my right and freedom. Realism says, we all know what happens. So I can pretend to live in a world that does not exist, or I can live. Extreme case yes, but that's the middle. Thirdly, there are those that say there are no victims, only volunteers, and this is usually based on spiritual ideals, such as reincarnation, karma, after-life philosophy and beliefs, and the like. So for the sake of staying reasonable and coherent for this, we will adopt number two. If there are victims, but most must take some sort of voluntary action, who are these people in this web of the sex industry? Everyone, for the most part. Small girls, children, women kidnapped, we will remove them. Women who were abused and later chose to work in the industry, we will include them, with the disclaimer that they were at some point victims. Women who never had that happen, and choose to involve themselves, they are not victims. Men, who choose to act on impulses, they are not victims. But let’s draw a distinct line here, they make choices which place them in a mental and emotion and even physical place to be further victimized. The women who pay for school by working in a strip club, or doing mild porn, they start there, but the pressure to go further and continue is staggering, and at that point, willpower, mental fortitude, and conviction all start to be worn down. Anyone reading this probably is very familiar with these ideas, so let’s not dig too deeply. More, I want to address what I see as a very large problem in the world: viewing humans as objects.

Men are usually seen as perpetrator. He is, and there is no way around that, but it is more fragile than that. I wish life was as black and white as sometimes we all try to make it, but it is not. So let’s talk about what is done in this case. Usually, men are branded as bad, and women as victims. This implies that men are stronger than women mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, which is false. Boys grow up thinking they are bad, and women, that they are objects. But the end result is the same; men are objects to the sex industry, and in porn, just as much as women. I won’t be ridiculous here and say that woman’s pain and suffering does not outweigh the men’s in this sick equation, so that's not where I am taking this. But if we trace the use of porn, to the strip club, to the hooker, to the sex slave, to the child molester, we find a pattern. Men are cows, to be milked. For what you may ask. For money. Women are cows to, to be eaten, so the consequences are far greater. But to stop women from being consumed, we can fight and fight to stop men from doing this to them with force, or we can cut off the consumer. It sounds like cannibalism, and rightfully so. These boys, from young age, are told what a “man” is supposed to be, to look like, to speak like, and to act like. Now it looks like six pack abs and a bruiser mentality, but more than what they are told is what they see: Sex, everywhere; their fathers, telling them one thing, doing another; their peers, telling them they are weak for not having done the same things, basic peer pressure. So what happens when peer pressure changes from daring a kid to jump off the town bridge into the river, to daring that kid to look at his dad’s 1960 playboy, to watching porn, to coercing a girl to kiss him, to collage date rape? Not that this sequence is mathematical, but it’s a vague idea of the different things these kids get pressure to do. The bottom line is, these boys are trained by an entire society of consumers, to view women as a product. Let’s even get audacious here and ask why men are not only expected to, but shamed, if they do not buy a proper wedding ring, house, and Valentine’s Day gift? Is there anything loving, thoughtful, or compassionate about those things? Sure, for a lot of people, but for a lot of others, nothing at all, it is status, and it feeds it. Men are taught to purchase women, even in casual dating. He didn't buy her flowers? He only got her a ring with one diamond? He didn't take her to Ruth's Chris? Now I am all about chivalry, but only when done from the heart, and not in a condescending way. So women are taught to treat themselves like objects. If they don't look good enough, they won’t get the date, or the right ring. They must act a certain way, be something they are not, to satisfy a sickening and self-loathing feeling in a man who somewhere in his gut knows that he doesn't really want those things. But after you see so many clean shaven, anal loving, fellatio enthusiasts who only beg for more, it becomes very hard to desire a real woman.

Let’s talk about Psychology 101 for a moment.

Men!! As a biological creature, what is his primary directive? Well, find food, find water, and find a way to perpetuate his species. Obviously we are a little more complex than a wolf, so our mating season, calls, and cues are very different based on everything from culture to religion to morals to size to personality. So it’s not so cut and dry, but it is traceable. Men in cultures past were closer to soldier ants. They had no guns, or electricity, so they spent their considerable energy, speed, strength, and strategic minds completely to fulfill some basic prime directives. Imagine a clan of almost prehistoric humans. The men hunted, or fished, or herded, which meant they must constantly be alert of newer grazing lands, hunting grounds, and stocked waters. They had competitors, other tribes that they must fight or parlay with, giving them a beautiful outlet for aggression, energy, and mental need for conquest. That's psych 101. Men always find something to be good at, unless in modern society they crumple themselves into a ball and hide. But while men were doing all of this, the women were making very tough choices back at camp. Which children get to live, was actually common. Was there sickness, and how do we deal with it. How do we make fine instruments? They allowed men to run things externally, but like lions, the men needed to look large, intimidating, and in control. But the old saying that the man is the head, and the woman is the neck that turns him goes a long way here. Let’s fast forward to a time when hunting, fishing, and farming are done with ease, and you now have Renaissance. Then more, to combine farming and machines doing almost everything. It seems to me that all of men’s prime directives are in the bag, and he has lost a lot of use. Now I'm not talking about scientists and doctors, I'm talking about the average working man. He suddenly had lots of spare time and energy. Where should it go? Well, opinion here, but I think men turned that aggression and energy towards women.

Back to the point.

Porn eats men and women alive. Men are not all strong willed when it comes to this, in fact, the wonderful drive to make babies is now saturated and watered down beyond recognition, and the energy that once made children and built empires, is now directed towards satisfying primitive needs. A few men are intellectuals, and they choose not to live in baser things, but let’s not pretend that they are the majority. I don't know a whole lot of men who can turn down such masterful instinct manipulation. In fact, few people. McDonald's is very good at triggering all of those, when you see all that salt and fat and sugar and your body says, “Well, this is all of the best stuff in nature, right here.” Most people don't get far enough to know they are being tricked. And speaking of Tricks, why are men called that by the sex industry? Because they are 50% of the game, maybe more. Probably more. How many men have been crushed, families ruined, because of this. How many women, bought and sold. How many slaves were? Well, it’s easy now, you don't have to look in their eyes until you get jaded enough and saturate yourself to the point where you have no compassion. And that IS the result. The sex industry and all of them for that matter, abuse humans. It’s not fair to say that the guy running a porn factory is worse than the guy who makes an executive and removed decision to destroy a mom-and-pop shop, or the guy who sells diabetes to the common folk. They are all hurting humans, for profit. The people who allow this, receive what they want, on a primitive level, instant gratification. But I don't believe for a second that this is what people truly want. So if we don't look at that, how can we look at Trafficking? This is not only about sex, in fact, it has almost nothing to do with it. Sex is simply a very easy thing to sell. And it takes only a few generations of supporters and justifiers to bring us here, where porn is acceptable, and drinking raw milk is not.

A man claiming to be the leader of Islamic militant group Boko Haram says that he will sell kidnapped school girls.

These girls are being sold as wives to members of Boko Haram for $12 each. This is such a heartbreaking incident, and just one more example of how females are considered property to be bought and sold. I am hoping that these girls will be rescued soon, and that the UN actually does something about this issue.

Hurricane Katrina took everybody by surprise.  There had been storms before and many Louisiana and Mississippi natives didn’t think twice about remaining where they were.  Nobody could have predicted the chaos and fear that followed in the hurricane’s aftermath.  How could such a powerful country be so unprepared to help its citizens?  Then President George W. Bush hastily hustled the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) into action and many wondered why there was a delay in the first place. The agency buckled and rap artist Kanye West famously called them and the president out for not doing more for the people that need help the most.  FEMA’s readiness was again called into question two years ago when Hurricane Sandy plowed through much of the Northeast and left many without heat or electricity.  No country is immune from natural disasters and though, some question FEMA’s efficiency, its existence is mandatory and other countries should create similar departments if they haven’t already.

The case in the Philippines is especially heartbreaking.  As a small coastal country, they are exclusively susceptible to natural disasters and they have, in fact, weathered many in the past.  It would be ludicrous by now not to have a national protocol as to how to proceed when a disaster strikes.  And yet that is exactly what happened when tropical Typhoon Haiyan hit the country on November 8, 2013.  Pure anarchy ensued.  The country simply wasn’t ready for the deadliest Philippine typhoon on record.  With winds up to 147 mph, it was one of the strongest storms ever recorded at landfall.  More than 6,000 people died, and nearly 2,000 are still missing.  Millions were displaced when their homes were destroyed or washed away.  Almost three months later the authorities are still struggling with the simplest tasks, such as clearing away debris, rebuilding houses and burying the dead.

The biggest crisis, however, has already taken place.  Thousands of victims, especially children, have already been human trafficked.  Left homeless and exposed, many are vulnerable to traffickers who prey without fear of prosecution.  In the aftermath of natural disasters, whatever pretense of rule of law existed before, it is completely destroyed along with promises of later justice.  Authority is reserved only to those who have more means than you.  Looting, rape, and violence are all too common in the dark hours following the storm’s wake.  Those who can get away with their crime do.  Traffickers, especially, use this disorientating time to select and bribe their victims.  They promise food and shelter, perhaps a job.  “They were recruited to work as sales ladies in a Manila bakery, but what kind of bakery is open only from 6pm until midnight?” asked Shirley Vastero, the anti-trafficking project officer for Plan International Philippines.  Her agency is seeking help in finding five high school girls who were trafficked shortly after the typhoon.

Though traffickers look for victims who will not be missed, sometimes they even bargain with families.  “They will try to talk you into selling your oldest child so that you’ll have enough money to feed the other four,” said Reverend Ron Davidson, President of the nonprofit Gleaning for the World, which focuses on disaster relief.  As someone who had witnessed the same phenomenon in Haiti and Sri Lanka, he is adamant that child sex traffickers are the first feet on the ground in many countries following a major disaster, exploiting those families left homeless, without food, or water.  “If they don’t have these things, they’ve got to make that choice; of either selling their child or letting all of them die.  That’s not a decision I think any parent should ever have to make.”

Getting aid supplies to victims as soon as possible, therefore, is of upmost importance and one that was tragically hindered by the incompetence of the Philippine government.  As countless aid agencies deployed to help the typhoon victims, few could even enter the country due to the disorganized national infrastructure.  Many have criticized President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and his administration for the apparent lack of preparation and coordination in the outcome of the storm.  Up to five days after the typhoon struck, survivors continued to struggle with basic necessities such as food, water, and shelter, and several towns continued to be isolated from aid efforts.

I’m clueless as to how the Philippines have functioned so far without a central and efficient natural disaster emergency agency, especially given their vulnerable geographic location.  In addition to being more prepared to handle inevitable natural threats, they should also do more to raise awareness to their citizens about the human trafficking that takes place afterwards.  It is in those bleak times that most traffickers strike.

Sources Used:

Human Trafficking Prevalent in Post-Typhoon Philippines

https://www.devex.com/en/news/human-trafficking-prevalent-in-post-typhoon/82576

Typhoon Sparks Philippine Child Trafficking Fears

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/typhoon-sparks-philippine/951076.html

Gleaning for the World Aims to Fight Sex Trafficking in Post Typhoon Philippines

http://www.wset.com/story/23920934/gleaning-for-the-world-aims-to-fight-sex-trafficking-in-post-typhoon-philippines

‘Nothing is Fixed’: Recovery is Slow in Typhoon-Hit Philippine City

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/26/266696789/nothing-is-fixed-recovery-is-slow-in-typhoon-hit-philippine-city?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook

Philippines Has Third Worst Bureaucracy in Asia—Survey

“Over a century and a half after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, millions remain in bondage—children forced to take part in armed conflict or sold to brothels by their destitute families, men and women who toil for little or no pay, who are threatened and beaten if they try to escape.  Slavery tears at our social fabric, fuels violence and organized crime, and debases our common humanity.

Now, therefore, I, Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 2014 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, culminating in the annual celebration of National Freedom Day on February 1.”

No sweeter words were spoken than to have the recognition and support of our President as we continue our fight against human trafficking.  In observance of January being named National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, I would like to highlight five other organizations, who like I’m Aware, share a common goal of educating the public, aiding the victims, and eradicating the existence of human trafficking around the world.

The A21 Campaign The A21 Campaign is a nonprofit aimed at “abolishing injustice in the 21st century.”  They focus on combatting sex trafficking in Eastern Europe and provide services such as medical and psychological treatment as well as legal and vocational assistance.  They have offices in Ukraine, Greece, Bulgaria, Australia and the United States.  Founder Christine Caine was recently featured with musician Matt Redman in the single “Twenty Seven Million”, which was written in light of the estimated 27 million worldwide slaves. http://www.thea21campaign.org/index.php#.Usu6ZltDtqU

Destiny Rescue Destiny Rescue is dedicated to rescuing children from human trafficking and sexual exploitation.  They also help protect vulnerable children from being trafficked.  They offer them financial assistance, vocational training, and education.  They are doing amazing work mostly in Asia in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), India and Mozambique. http://www.destinyrescue.org/us/

Free The Girls Free The Girls is a nonprofit organization that provides job opportunities for survivors of sex trafficking.  They collect gently used bras and donate them to the women as starting inventory for their own bra selling business.  Second hand clothing is a profitable market in many countries around the world and bras are sought after items.  In partnership with CNN’s Freedom Project, they’ve collected and shipped thousands of bras to Mozambique. http://freethegirls.org/

Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) GEMS’ mission is to empower girls and young women, ages 12-24, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the commercial sex industry and develop their full potential.  They provide educational opportunities, transitional and supportive housing and court advocacy.  Their founder and CEO Rachel Lloyd is a nationally recognized expert on the issue of child sex trafficking in the United States and played a key role in the successful passage of New York State’s groundbreaking Safe Harbor Act for Sexually Exploited Youth, the first law in the country to end the prosecution of child victims of sex trafficking. http://www.gems-girls.org/ Made In A Free World They are the nonprofit organization and design team behind slaveryfootprint.org.  Founder and CEO Justin Dillon directed Call+Response, a documentary filled with famous politicians, philosophers and musicians giving their take on stopping human trafficking.  The U.S. State Department took notice and together they launched the innovative website that simply asks “How Many Slaves Work For You?”  The project allows consumers to visualize how their consumption habits are connected to modern day slavery and also provides them with an opportunity to have a conversation with the companies that manufacture the goods they purchase.  President Obama acknowledged this organization in his speech on slavery to the Clinton Global Initiative that we’ve covered in an earlier blog post. http://madeinafreeworld.com/

In the words of President Obama, “This month, I call on every nation, every community, and every individual to fight human trafficking wherever it exits.  Let us declare as one that slavery has no place in our world, and let us finally restore to all the people the most basic rights of freedom, dignity, and justice.”

Sources Used:

President Barack Obama’s Full Speech

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing

Maya Angelou was 41 when she penned her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969.  She had already had a teenage pregnancy, two husbands and an illustrious career as a dancer and calypso singer.  She also made her mark in history as the first African-American female cable car conductor in San Francisco.  Her friends included Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. and she was active in the civil rights movement.  But instead of lauding the many personal and professional accomplishments she had achieved thus far, she focused her first autobiography on her childhood and the memories she had growing up with racism.  When she was eight years old, her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, sexually abused and raped her.  When she confided the atrocity to her brother, Mr. Freeman was later murdered by her relatives.  Fearful his death was her doing, Maya refused to speak for almost five years.  Books became her sole companion and the written word was what ultimately saved her.

Dr. Angelou borrowed the title of her famous book from nineteenth century African-American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, who often wrote about the weight of slavery.  The caged bird is a symbol of the chained slave, who unable to escape can only scream his agony and misery.  Survivors of human trafficking are not unlike the caged birds Maya Angelou and Paul Lawrence Dunbar allude to.  In fact, it is a perfect metaphor.  Human trafficking is often called “the invisible crime” because it is so hard to detect and identify the abuse taking place.  As a result, victims do feel like their cries for help echo in silence and that they are trapped in an endless cycle of intimidation and violence.  Caged birds long for their freedom and so do they.

Once victims are rescued, however, their road to recovery is no less arduous.  On top of the self-blame they already feel, more blame may come from law enforcement and relatives.  In fact, many human trafficking victims get diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  Just like soldiers coming back from the war trenches, survivors can experience flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, depression, irritability and intense anxiety.  Going to counseling is strongly recommended and many turn to writing just like Maya Angelou did.

Expressing your thoughts through writing has long been part of the cognitive therapeutic process.  What you can’t communicate to others, you can articulate on lines of paper.  When writing, no one is there to judge you or there to pretend they understand what you’re going through.  You are only addressing yourself.  And that’s why when human trafficking survivors and others choose to share their innermost self with the world, it is so monumental to their healing process.  It signals the barbarity that they experienced will not define the rest of their life.

Holly Austin Smith is one such person.  Trafficked at just 14 years old, she is now an anti-trafficking advocate and the author of the upcoming Walking Prey: How America’s Youth Are Vulnerable to Sex Slavery.  She is joined by another child trafficking victim, Carissa Phelps, who in 2012 founded Runaway Girl, an organization that provides resources to human trafficking survivors.  Carissa has also published a book about her horrid experience titled Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Streets.

In 2011 mtvU launched their Against Our Will Campaign, which aimed to educate their massive viewing public about the perils of modern day slavery.  It now includes a section dedicated to poetry written by human trafficking survivors.  Alicia Keys, Pink, and Jada Pinkett Smith have made videos of them reading the poems with titles like “Pimps”, “Children of the Night”, and “I Remember”.  One includes the lines:

I believed his stories, which turned into lies He was a smooth talking master of disguise. I was left with broken dreams… court date after court date I started living this life at the age of sixteen. Looking back now I see I was a victim of Circumstance in this life on the streets. My only advice for other girls is be careful who you meet.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is noteworthy in that it not only chronicles the life of an extraordinary woman, but it also highlights the transcendence literature can have on the soul.  Through prose, wounds can be healed and life can be restarted.  She persevered despite the many obstacles in her way.  She’s a survivor. 

Sources Used: 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, full poem by Maya Angelou

http://allpoetry.com/poem/8511445-I-Know-Why-The-Caged-Bird-Sings-by-Maya-Angelou

Holly Austin Smith, child trafficking survivor and author

http://hollyaustinsmith.com/

Carissa Phelps, child trafficking survivor and author

http://carissaphelps.com/

mtvU Against Our Will Campaign Survivor Poetry

When the trailer for Fast and Furious 7 came out, more than a couple of eyes were rolled.  After six movies already in the franchise, what could they possibly do that they haven’t done before?  The entire project, however, is currently in hiatus as everyone involved in the movie deals with the tragic loss of actor Paul Walker, who played one of the main characters.  He died late November in a twisted car crash.  And as fans and colleagues came together in their grief, Walker’s life outside of the movies came to light.  Though he is best known as Brian O’Connor, the undercover cop who enjoys drag racing himself, Paul Walker also quietly led a life of a great humanitarian.  Always humble about his commercial success and cognizant of the problems in the world, in 2010 he established the non-profit organization Reach Out Worldwide, which provides assistance during natural disasters.  Eulogy after eulogy highlighted Walker’s big heart, his constant willingness to help and his generosity.  He truly believed his purpose was to aid others and he dutifully tried to fulfill it.

Celebrities enjoy an outreach many of us wish we had.  They are the trend setters, the supporters and critics, the ones with the power to get issues noticed.  Human trafficking is one that needs desperate and relentless attention.

Jada Pinkett Smith has been at the forefront of the fight with her amazing foundation Don’t Sell Bodies.  At first, she, like many others, did not believe that human trafficking took place on American soil.  She knew about it, but she always thought it happened in other places like Latin America or Africa.  One day, however, her young daughter Willow challenged that conviction and Smith did a quick internet search.  The results stunned her and her organization was born soon after.  In her fight to combat human trafficking, she has testified in front of Congress about the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and attended numerous academic conferences.

Three years ago Demi Moore and then-husband Ashton Kutcher launched a foundation to fight child sexual exploitation and sex trafficking.  Today the organization continues under the name Thorn, with a refined focus on the role technology plays in crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children and the potential of technology to help stop the trade of children on the Internet.  When Moore was asked what individual story stayed with her as she continued her charity work, she said, “I met a young girl from the Los Angeles area who was taken in by her trafficker at 11 years old.  He promised her McDonald’s and trips to the mall.  Her trafficker was called ‘Daddy Day Care’ because he was known for keeping such young girls.  Her trust was quickly betrayed and she was given a nightly quota of making $1,500.  If she did not deliver her quota, she was put into a tub of ice or physically beaten with whatever large object was close by”.  The Thorn Technology Task Force is composed of more than 20 technology companies including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Facebook.

Another organization aimed at stopping child trafficking is the Ricky Martin Foundation, created by the Latin pop singer Ricky Martin.  He says he was moved to join the fight after rescuing two girls from being trafficked on the streets of India.  In partnership with the University of Puerto Rico and the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, his charity has researched and published a report titled “Trafficking in Puerto Rico: An Invisible Challenge”.

A slew of other celebrities have also used their status to bring consciousness to the issue.  Academy award winner Mira Sorvino starred in last year’s thriller Trade of the Innocents, highlighting the sex tourism trade in Thailand.  Her support for immigration rights has also brought attention to those most vulnerable to trafficking.  In turn, Mexican actress, Kate del Castillo, who’s appeared on CSI: Miami and Weeds, has helped raise awareness about trafficking in Latin America.  She starred the documentary Invisible Slaves, which featured individuals who endured exploitation and abuse in Mexico and Guatemala.  There are also the numerous celebrities headlining Call+Response, another documentary aiming to end human trafficking.  They include Talib Kweli, Imogen Heap, Ashley Judd, Julia Ormond, Cornel West, Switchfoot, Moby and Madeleine Albright.

Celebrities and all the fame that comes with their very being can be a great tool to emphasize humanitarian causes.  In many ways, they have the biggest podium in the world and the ones mentioned above are doing their part to combat modern slavery.  I encourage you to follow them on social media and learn about their projects.

Sources Used:

Don’t Sell Bodies

http://dontsellbodies.org/

Thorn

http://www.wearethorn.org/

Ricky Martin Foundation

http://www.rickymartinfoundation.org/

Free the Slaves—this anti-trafficking organization includes high-profile fans like Camilla Belle, Desmond Tutu, Helena Christensen, Jason Mraz and Esperanza Spalding

Is online privacy dead?  Tailored ads created by your online searches follow you as you go from website to website.  Facebook can track your location based on your restaurant pictures.  Personalized email offers from retailers flood your inbox.  As data collecting becomes more and more mundane (and inevitable), whether for marketing purposes or by the National Security Agency, keeping your online profile anonymous has become a struggle.  So much of our identity is tied to what we do online and no matter how many times you delete your browsing history or erase your cookies, your individual thumbprint still remains.

It didn’t always used to be like this.  Through much of the 1990s, the Web promised people a second life.  They could be whoever they wanted to be online, with almost no consequences.  With the arrival of social media, particularly Facebook, however, our online persona once again mirrored your real life.  Perhaps predicting this, in 1996 the U.S. Navy established a system within the Internet where users could browse the Internet completely anonymously.  They called their idea “onion routing” because of the layers of encryption that surround and obscure the data being passed back and forth.  Nowadays, it is simply known as Tor and just like Spotify or Dropbox, the program software is free to access and it takes less than three minutes to download and install.  With this tool, you can enter the Deep Web, going entirely off the grid.

Technically the Deep Web refers to a collection of all the websites and databases that search engines like Google don’t or can’t index, which in terms of the sheer volume of information is many times larger than the Web as we know it.  In fact, the Web we know is only 19 terabytes.  Everything else is 7,500 terabytes.  And Tor allows users to surf it without leaving a trace.  In essence, the creation of the Deep Web and Tor is a blessing and a useful tool for law enforcement.  The police could use it to solicit anonymous tips online, set up sting operations and explore illegal websites without tipping off their owners.  Military and intelligence agencies could use it for covert communications.  The State Department could train foreign dissidents to use it.  Indeed Tor is downloaded 30-50 million times a year.  There are 80,000 daily Tor users—a jump of 20% in the past year.

But Tor also offers an electronic haven for thieves, forgers, peddlers of state secrets and loose nukes, assassins, child pornographers and human traffickers.  Human trafficking is already known as “the hidden crime” and exchanging human bodies online in an untraceable way makes it even more heart wrenching.  It’s the work of a minute or two to find weapons or child pornography on the Deep Web.  In August, the FBI took down Freedom Hosting, a company specializing in Deep Web sites, alleging that it was “the largest facilitator of child porn on the planet.”  Its owner, a 28-year-old named Eric Marques, remains in Irish custody and has a potential prison sentence of 100 years.  Two months ago, the FBI cracked down and arrested another notorious Deep Web figure.  Known online as the Dread Pirate Roberts, Ross Ulbricht, was the owner and administrator of Silk Road, a wildly successful online bazaar where people bought and sold illegal goods—primarily drugs but also fake IDs, fireworks and hacking software.  Dubbed “the Amazon.com of illegal drugs” or “the eBay for drugs” this underground website offered user reviews and was insanely popular.  Part of its appeal was that unlike its similar counterpart The Farmers Market, which also sold illegal drugs, Silk Road used bitcoins.  Bitcoins is a form of digital currency.  Users can transfer them from one digital wallet to another without banks brokering the transaction or imposing fees.  The currency is completely decentralized and is based on sophisticated cryptography.  Bitcoin is fundamentally cash for the Internet, virtually anonymous and extremely difficult to counterfeit.  And when you purchase something off Silk Road or another Deep Web site, the products simply arrive by regular mail to your home address, just like any other online order.

Like Tor, Bitcoin has legitimate reasons for existing and is in fact, used by regular websites such as Howard Johnson, OKCupid, Reddit and WordPress.  NPR recently did a piece on how carpet merchants in U.S.-sanctioned Iran use bitcoins to sell their products around the world and make a living.  So it does have some benefits.  But overwhelmingly, criminals use Tor and bitcoins to engage in illegal activities.  As a human trafficker, I can safely secure fake passports and fake IDs for the people I’m trafficking.  I can even take pictures or record them, sell it as porn, or straight up sell them online.  In return, I’m paid in completely undetectable digital currency that’s regulated by no one.  I don’t have to worry about exchange rates or finding a safe place to store it.  It simply exists in my digital account.  I can buy drugs to make my victims complacent and weapons in case they try to escape.  If a competitor moves on to my turf, I can hire a hit man and take care of it.

Though the Deep Web offers reprieve from the constant scrutiny most of us suffer daily as we surf the Internet, it must be supervised, at least in the name of the countless victims it exploits.  Tor can access 6,500 hidden websites and counting.  It takes the FBI months to even get a whiff of a perpetrator’s true identity in real life.  Though it was created by the U.S. government and receives funding from the State Department and the Department of Defense, Tor is unbreakable and uncontrollable.  Silk Road 2.0 already went up as if nothing happened.  Congress is in talks about regulating Bitcoin, but more needs to be done.  Human trafficking will continue to be a hidden crime as long as Tor continues to exist.

Sources Used:

The Secret Web: Where Drugs, Porn and Murder Live Online

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2156271,00.html

Tor

https://www.torproject.org/

Eric Eoin Marques Remanded into Custody for Two Weeks

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24913385

Silk Road Competitor Shuts Down and Another Plans To Go Offline After Claimed $6 Million Theft

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/12/01/silk-road-competitor-shuts-down-and-another-plans-to-go-offline-after-6-million-theft/

Bitcoin Makes a Pitch for ‘Safe and Sane’ Regulation

“It ought to concern every person, because it is a debasement of our common humanity.  It ought to concern every community, because it tears at our social fabric.  It ought to concern every business, because it distorts markets.  It ought to concern every nation, because it endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime.  I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name—modern slavery.”

                                                          —President Barack Obama

One year ago, President Obama announced the Administration’s commitment to lead the fight against human trafficking during a seminal speech at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York.  His speech was passionate and he implored everyone to help.  To highlight the issue of human trafficking not only to the Clinton organization, but also to those in attendance, and to the press was significant.  He didn’t choose climate change or food security or AIDS.  He chose human trafficking and within his speech, helped introduce new initiatives to further combat the epidemic. 

Recognizing that trafficking victims often move through the healthcare system while seeking treatment for injuries or medical conditions resulting from trafficking, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a national campaign to strengthen screening, increase training, and develop service protocols for healthcare workers to better identify trafficking victims and provide assistance.  They want to furthermore implement a database to help identify potential victims and link them to appropriate, trauma-related organizations that can help with counseling and housing.  Awareness is key and educating more people about the issue is paramount.  Had the nurse known about the horrific domestic servitude Ima Matul was experiencing, her rescue would have happened sooner than it did.

Also earlier this year, the U. S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Transportation, along with Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Allegiant Air, Silver Airways and North American Airlines, created Blue Lightning—a voluntary training program aimed at educating commercial airline flight crews and other airline staff about human trafficking indicators they may encounter on the job and how to report them to the proper authorities.  It’s estimated that 17,500 people are bought to the United States each year for the purpose of being trafficked.  Can you imagine if even one of those individuals was intercepted and helped before they even got off their plane?  Just one.  It could make all the difference. 

Another of President Obama’s initiatives was to strengthen awareness and response to child trafficking, which according to the recent report by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center has showed increase.  Its national hotline has received reports of 9, 298 unique cases of human trafficking across the United States since its inception five years ago.  Children were referenced in 2, 668 of them.  Callers reported children in 33% of sex trafficking cases and 20% of labor trafficking cases.  It also exposed that a significant portion of child victims of trafficking interacted with the child welfare system in some capacity.  Training and education are necessary so our children can be saved from the horrors of exploitation and slavery.  At the President’s urging John Hopkins University has signed on to study and investigate the best treatment for child victims and already held its first symposium in May.  Similarly the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council have released reports summarizing existing research and evidence on the topic and recommending approaches for addressing this issue in the future.

Additionally, anti-trafficking “TechCamps” were launched by the U.S. Department of State.  The TechCamps take place in locations around the world, emphasizing vulnerable regions with historically high rates of trafficking.  They are designated to bring together expert technologists and civil society organizations that are working with victims on the ground to discuss and strategize effective solutions.  They are not traditional conferences or workshops.  There are no panel discussions; only applicable case studies of how technology has worked in other regions, interactive small group brainstorming, and concrete tech-solutions that emerge at the end of two days.  To date, the U.S. Department of State has hosted 23 TechCamps, training 1,400 civil society groups from over 90 countries.  Each event is geared toward a topic: Open Government, Youth Empowerment, Social Inclusion, Internet Freedom, Education, Crime and Security, and Disaster Response.  This initiative is important since traffickers engage with many of their victims online first.

Combating human trafficking is hard, but many people believe that President Obama’s speech on September 25, 2012 was the longest speech about slavery since President Abraham Lincoln’s abolition of it in 1865.  Like he says, “For we know that every life saved—in the words of that great Proclamation—is ‘an act of justice’; worthy of ‘the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God’.”

Sources Used:

Remarks by the President to the Clinton Global Initiative

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/25/remarks-president-clinton-global-initiative 

All Hands on Deck: Renewing the Call to Combat Human Trafficking

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/09/25/all-hands-deck-renewing-call-combat-human-trafficking

Yes, I Was a Modern-Day Slave in America

http://wtvr.com/2013/11/21/yes-i-was-a-modern-day-slave-in-america/

Report Spotlights Human Trafficking Trends in the U.S.

http://www.polarisproject.org/media-center/news-and-press/press-releases/915-report-spotlights-human-trafficking-trends-in-the-us

TechCamp Phnom Penh

When Janet Napolitano announced her decision in August 2013 to resign her post as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, shock reverberated through much of the country.  Created in 2002 by former President George W. Bush as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the third largest department in U.S. politics.  As its first female secretary, she helped oversee a budget of $48 billion, a staff of 240,000 and 22 agencies, including FEMA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Secret Service and cyber security.  It’s no wonder that last year she was named the ninth most powerful woman in the world by Forbes Magazine.  Upon her resignation, she also became the first female president of the massive University of California system.  One of the lasting effects of her four year tenure as DHS secretary, however, is her creation of the Blue Campaign to combat human trafficking.

The Blue Campaign was established in 2010 with strong support from the U.S. Department of State and Interpol.  Working in collaboration with law enforcement, government, non-governmental and private organizations, the Blue Campaign strives to protect the basic right of freedom and to bring those who exploit human lives to justice.  DHS is responsible for investigating human trafficking, arresting traffickers, and protecting the victims.  DHS also provides immigration relief to those that are foreign-born victims.  That is especially important since many human trafficking victims are lured to the United States with promises of work and better life opportunities.  Once they come here, however, and are initiated in the commercial sex trade or in the illegal labor force, their international papers and documentation are seized by their culprits and the traffickers use that to control their lives.  Many of those trafficked don’t report their situation to authorities for fear of deportation.  DHS, however, can provide temporary legal status and eventual permanent residency.  They also employ interpreters and victim assistance specialists so victims can communicate effectively and be taken care of.  Forensic interview specialists are also there to help.  Because victims are crucial to investigations and prosecutions, the agency uses a victim-centered approach.  Instead of blaming the individual trafficked, they focus on the ways their perpetrator can be caught and prosecuted.

The founding of the Blue Campaign by DHS is monumental.  Its first accomplishment is that it recognizes human trafficking as a serious threat to national security.  A terrorist can use more than a detonating bomb to terrorize and dehumanize a group of people.  It also brings the issue to the national arena and to the public’s consciousness.  Already they have created several PSAs to warn and educate the public about the signs of human trafficking.  A new alliance with Western Union will help train employees and display posters to raise awareness.  Janet Napolitano also spearheaded the “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign and partnered with Wal Mart and other major retailers to encourage shoppers to report suspicious activity to store management.  The Blue Campaign and its inception solidify human trafficking as a domestic issue, not just an international news piece we hear about on CNN.  Human trafficking does take place here and it happens more often than one can imagine.  As many as 100,000 U.S. children are victims of domestic human trafficking, according to estimates cited by a 2013 Congressional Research Service report.  In addition, about 17,500 people are brought by traffickers into the U.S. each year.

With so many different agencies under its command, it makes sense for DHS to highlight this issue and create a task force to tackle it.  Everybody within the department, from border control agents to immigration officers to Amtrack employees, can be instrumental in identifying and rescuing someone from human trafficking.  The Blue Campaign also provides training at the local level.  Just a few days ago, Blue Campaign Chair Maria Odom and Training Advisor Scott Santoro met with Los Angeles County Fourth District Supervisor Don Knabe to discuss further partnerships.  Los Angeles is one of the highest cities for child sex trafficking.  The more awareness there is the better.  Modern day slavery does exist within our borders and thankfully our Department of Homeland Security has recognized its severity.

Sources Used:

The Blue Campaign by DHS

“Rosemary/ Heaven restores you in life/ You’re coming with me/ Through the aging, the fear and the strife.”  So go the lyrics to the song “Evil” by indie rock group Interpol.  It’s an eerie song and many fans speculate it was written about Rosemary West, the British serial killer who tortured and murdered 10 young women in the 1970s and ‘80s.  She was finally apprehended in 1994 and is currently still carrying out her life imprisonment sentence in a maximum security prison.  Her arrest could have been made with the aid of the real Interpol, the world’s largest international criminal police organization.  Established in 1923 and with headquarter offices all over the world, 190 countries are proud members.  The organization helps coordinate international police efforts to make this world a safer place.  With their impressive infrastructure of technical and operational support, they battle everything from fighting organized crime to tracking stolen art goods to stabilizing peace and security in recently toppled Arab countries.  They are the only organization in the world that forces law enforcement from different countries to cooperate together in the name of a common goal.

One of their goals is to combat human trafficking.  They have a whole division at their offices committed to preventing and stopping the trafficking of human beings, particularly the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation; trafficking for forced labor; commercial sexual exploitation of children in tourism; and trafficking in organs.  Though these are all different types of trafficking, the one consistent aspect is the abuse of the inherent vulnerability of the victims.  They have helped organize numerous raids of brothels in Indonesia, where the child sex tourism trade is dominant.  By coordinating local police efforts, they have helped rescue hundreds of children.

Operation Bia II in May 2011 was also very successful.  .  Interpol joined forces with national authorities in Ghana to rescue child victims, ages five to seventeen, who had been trafficked from other parts of the country to work on fishing boats.  116 children were rescued and 30 suspects were arrested.  A year later, Operation Spartacus, carried out in 13 countries in South America and Europe, resulted in the rescue of 365 victims and 197 arrests.  There was also Operation Tuy in October 2012.  Police in Burkina Faso rescued 400 children who had been trafficked from the region to work as forced labor in illegally-operated gold mines and cotton fields.  Officials arrested 73 individuals connected to the crime.  Just three months ago in August 2013, Operation Usalama took place.  The Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organization and the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organization with support from Interpol rescued 328 human trafficking victims.  38 suspects were arrested in Ethiopia and 15 more in Uganda.

Interpol functions as a giant crime fighting database available to all member states.  Through their Notices and Diffusions system they can track criminals and suspects, report and locate mission persons or collect information.  Especially relevant is the Green Notice, which countries use to issue warnings about known child sex offenders and other criminals.  Technical solutions known as MIND/ FIND also enable frontline law enforcement agencies, like border police and immigration, to run checks against Interpol’s database of stolen and lost travel documents and receive an instant response.  There’s also the newly unveiled International Disaster Victim Identification project, aimed at creating the first ever global police database to identify and link missing persons and unidentified bodies during times of tragedy, when trafficking could take place.  Also at their disposal is the I-24/7, Interpol’s secure global police communications system, as well as human operatives if needed.  Furthermore, Interpol conducts conferences and workshops in order to raise awareness of emerging issues, promote preventive programs and initiate specialized training. 

Like the United Nations, Interpol is there to encourage global partnerships.  Sometimes its neutrality is called into question and there have been allegations of corruption.  Its existence however is absolutely mandatory.  Human trafficking is a world-wide problem and all countries must participate to collectively solve it.

  Sources Used:

Interpol

http://www.interpol.int/en

300 Trafficking Victims Rescued; 38 Arrested in Ethiopia: Interpol

http://www.tesfanews.net/300-trafficking-victims-rescued-38-arrested-in-ethiopia/

Who Holds Interpol to Account? A Case for International Parliamentary Oversight

Many psychologists say that our society is becoming too desensitized.  They argue that there is too much violence, too much sex, and too much drug use in everything from movies, TV shows, video games, music videos, and books.  With every celebrity posing naked on magazine covers, even nudity didn’t have the same shocking effect it had in the ‘90s.  The horror movie genre alone has complained that it has to up in the ante just to keep consumers content and in their seats.

One of the hardest industries hit by cultural desensitization is, of course, advertising.  The industry strives on compelling us to take an interest in their product.  And when there are millions of competing images and slogans, that can be quite a challenge.  Many ad agencies have employed “shock advertising” to try and separate their product from the rest of the herd and more often than not, it works.

Such is the case of StrawberryFrog, the ad agency responsible for The Girl Store campaign.  The whole concept of The Girl Store is that you can physically buy an Indian girl and her life back through purchasing her and her school materials.  It’s all there in their website intro.  All of the girls are 100% genuine.  They are all young and innocent and range from ages four to twelve years old.  They all have names and they fidget as you scroll to have a better look at them.  All of them come from real impoverished families all over India and they all have been denied the chance to get an education.  Now through a stranger’s contribution, they can all have that opportunity.  Otherwise they are susceptible to being sold in real life into marriage or sex slavery.

Forbes Magazine asked readers if the concept was “too provocative” and Mediabistro.com, a site dedicated to all things media related, heralded it as “startling” in a post.  Can you really place a value on a little girl’s life?  That question, however, just highlights the general public’s ignorance about the issue.  Indian girls are being sold and bought every day, a transaction performed by relatives sometimes.  A notion we Westerners interpret as “primitive” and “indecorous” takes place daily all over India.  From birth, Indian girls are treated as second class citizens.  Their worth is often associated with a dowry when they get married, so poor families often don’t even want to have girls in their family.  Femicide is quite common in India and if the woman hasn’t already aborted her female fetus when it’s time to give birth, newborns can be killed right afterwards.  The girls that are spared their lives are kept at home doing chores and not going to school.  Only 3 out of 10 girls who enroll in Grade 1 complete Grade 10.  That leads to a large disproportion of India’s population being illiterate and at risk to exploitation.  Girls are treated like currency in India and they can be bought and sold at a whim.  Many end up human trafficked to brothels and clothing factories.  India alone has 13.9 million slaves, the highest number of trafficked people in the world.

Buying a girl isn’t shocking.  Buying her life back is and that is purpose of The Girl Store.  The whole idea of the project and its vexing message took a year to sell internally and another year to produce and since it was pro bono, the team at StrawberryFrog worked tirelessly to complete it.  The campaign was created for Project Nanhi Kali, a nonprofit aimed at providing underprivileged girls in India with quality education so they can improve their situation and escape being another statistic.  Currently the project supports the education of over 78,000 girls in nine Indian states and continues to increase its outreach.

When an actual, physical store location for The Girl Store opened two years ago in New York City, it was a huge success.  Their “stock” was sold immediately and they brought awareness to the value of a girl’s life as well as the issues of child marriage and human trafficking.  In our world of indifference, they were able to strike a chord, to shock us into action.  Please consider buying a girl her life back today.  With every purchase, even with the $5 lunch set, free tutoring is given so that the girl can catch up and continue to make a difference in her life. 

 Sources Used:

The Girl Store

http://www.the-girl-store.org/shop

Project Nanhi Kali

http://www.nanhikali.org/

The Girl Store: Is it Too Provocative?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2011/02/04/the-girl-store-is-it-too-provocative/

Startling “Girl Store” Opens Its Doors

http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/startling-girl-store-open-its-doors_b13252

Provocative “Girl Store” Campaign Wins Cannes Lion

http://blog.miamiadschool.com/posts/provocative-girl-store-campaign-wins-cannes-lion

Thirty Million People are Slaves, Half in India: Survey

As the Greek police raided the Roma camp for drugs and weapons in Farsala near the city of Larissa in central Greece last week, they noticed something strange.  Among the habitants with dark skin and black hair, there was a little girl, about four or five years old, with fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes.  Convinced that she was abducted and taken to a place where she obviously did not belong, the Greek police took her away from the camp and contacted Interpol.  Her rescue was soon picked up by the media and the global speculation began.  Who was this little girl and how did she end up living with a family so unlike her?  The Greek media started calling her “Blonde Angel” and eventually “Maria”.  Her real name is still a mystery and this is still an ongoing story.  It has highlighted, however, the growing tensions between the Roma community and the rest of Europe and once again brought attention to the issue of child trafficking.

As a native European, I am very familiar with the Roma people.  With no land of their own, they roam the continent, normally settling down in the periphery of cities and villages.  They are a nomadic people who came to Europe centuries ago from India, and who are also widely known as Gypsies.  They are normally recognized by their dark skin and black hair.  They have their own language and culture.  Many of them are illiterate.  They are often caricaturized as fortune tellers, palm readers, and dancers.  People think of them as mischievous, clever, and sly.  One is not to trust a Gypsy for they can curse you.  They are associated as performers of a travelling circus, dragging bears on a chain and playing the violin.  They are also widely believed to be thieves and criminals, using their guile and whatever means possible to deceit you.  Every European child is told never to trust or help a Gypsy.  Gypsies steal babies and children.  Gypsies rape grandmothers and burn houses.  You can see a Gypsy in the night because they have gold in their teeth.

With such debilitating stereotypes, the Roma community is ostracized.  In fact, they are relegated even below the homeless.  At least the homeless form a part of the fabric of the city and are often nationals of the country.  The Roma have no country and they are always unwanted.  Because of their nomadic nature, they move around a lot and often fail to learn the language of their habitat.  Their children are not enrolled in school and even if they wanted to, there’s great resistance by the state and the children are naturally bullied.  They are refused residence into the city and so must live in makeshift camps or campers around its outskirts.  It is very difficult for the Roma to find work therefore they live off seasonal work and other manual labor; collecting scrap metal and animal hides; and whatever handouts the state where they temporarily live gives out.  They have no education and almost no support network.  There are some global nonprofit organizations and national welfare programs trying to integrate them into society and at least improve their situation generation from generation, but it’s challenging.  Old attitudes die hard and xenophobia is growing in Europe.  France made headlines last year and continues to do so for the president’s mandatory expulsion of the Roma encampments in the country.

The Gypsies in Europe are often filthy and found digging in a trashcan or begging on the street.  With limited career outlets, it’s true: many of them do turn to a life of crime.  Not all, but those that do fervently reinforce their already negative stereotype.  Child trafficking among the Gypsy community is not unheard of, but it also goes the other way.  Cases of Gypsy children being abducted are frequent, but very rarely investigated.  The Roma community has very, very few advocates and unfortunately, law enforcement is seldom one of them.  Human traffickers target those most vulnerable in society and the Roma community is one of the most voiceless people in Europe. 

Some human rights activists have even questioned the legitimacy of the Greek police raid last week.  Did they have any evidence of illegal distribution of drugs and weapons or were they simply there to harass the Roma encampment into leaving Farsala and going somewhere else?  Whatever the motive, the “Maria” case fueled Roma prejudice.  The Roma couple accused of abducting Maria and trying to traffic her insist that she was given to them by her birth mother voluntarily because she herself could not take care of her.  They maintain that they loved and raised her as one of their own five children.  Nevertheless, “Maria” was taken and placed with a Greek children’s charity.  Through DNA tests, investigators were able to prove that a Bulgarian Roma woman is her biological mother and she does verify that she willingly gave up her daughter, but whether the girl will be given back in her care is still unclear.  European discrimination against the Roma people is strong and can cloud the judgment of policy makers.

Sources Used:

An Angel Kidnapped by Gypsies?  In the Absence of All the Facts, Age-Old Libels Are Replayed

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/22/angel-kidnapped-by-gypsies-libel-replayed

Greece’s Child-Trafficking Problem

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24613781

Europe Ponders a Centuries-Old Dilemma: Can the Gypsies Ever Fit In?

http://www.smh.com.au/world/europe-ponders-a-centuriesold-dilemma-can-the-gypsies-ever-fit-in-20131026-2w8kg.html

Do Roma “Gypsies” Really Abduct Children?

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/peter-mcguire/roma-gypsies-children_b_4152869.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Human Rights On the Margins: Roma in Europe

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_21165.pdf

Abductions of Roma Children Receive Little Attention

http://balkanist.net/roma-children-abducted-europe-receive-little-attention/

Roma, Feared as Kidnappers, See Their Own Children at Risk

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/26/world/europe/for-the-roma-fears-of-kidnapping-in-europe-only-mirror-their-own.html?pagewanted=1

Romani Children in Europe—The Facts

On December 16, 2012, an atrocity happened that shocked and rallied people around the world.  In a suburb of New Delhi, India, a 23-year-old woman and her male companion got on a nearly empty bus after going to see a movie.  It was late and all they wanted to do was go home.  The only people besides them on the bus were five other men and the bus driver.  But instead of going to their requested destination, the bus driver deviated and the men began to yell and beat the male friend.  They dragged the young woman to the back of the bus and routinely began raping her.  She screamed and fought and even bit some of them, but they beat her and began inserting a long metal rod between her legs.  Finally, after several hours of abuse, the group dumped the couple on a street corner and drove off.  The young woman sustained such severe injuries to her abdomen, intestines and genitals that she had to be flown to Singapore for emergency surgery.  Several days later, she died.

Her case, unfortunately, is all too common.  India, like most countries in Southeast Asia, has a long history of human rights abuses especially against girls and women.  In a country steeped in tradition, women are viewed as property and treated and handled as such.  Child brides and arranged marriages happen daily even though it’s against the law on paper.  Girls and women are bought and sold and are synonymous with currency.  A young girl can buy you land and cattle or used to pacify a neighborhood dispute.  Often, they are denied education and are relegated to the lowest roles in society.  Thus many fall prey to human traffickers.  Indeed the brothels in India are numerous and the girls are easily expandable.  Many brothels are even run like a family business with some of the girls being inducted into the trade by family members.  There is rarely an escape from this horrid life.  Law enforcement officials are often the patrons and business partners in these places of misery and even those that do not participate, often do not believe the victims who escape and speak out.  Depending on your caste in society, you may automatically be perceived as a liar and not even admitted to the police station to file your claim.

Many rural girls are lured to the city with promises of work and opportunity, but instead are trafficked in the sex trade either domestically or across the border to Sri Lanka and Pakistan.  And if they are not seeing up to 25 men a day, they are entered into the labor traffic market where they are dispensed to clothing and other factories.  These occurrences are so frequent, they are borderline mundane.  The world has accepted that this is just how life in India is.  Everybody has become complacent that this is just how it is and this is how things will continue to be.

And that is why it’s so interesting what happened in the days and weeks following that horrible December 16 incident.  The details of the abuse were so repugnant, it shamed the country into action.  The men were arrested the next day and prosecuted.  One hanged himself in his cell block, the others sentenced to death by hanging at their trial months later.  Thousands protested outside the Parliament of India and outside the President’s home.  It was as if the entire country had had enough.  The protests turned violent and the families of the accused men said they feared for their lives.  India was angry and for the right reasons.  This young, bright woman died for no reason.  She just wanted to go home.  In the aftermath of her death, laws were introduced in Parliament seeking harsher punishments and a 24 hour hotline was established so victims can report cases.  Some buses were even assigned “women only”, where female passengers could feel safe and not worry about being ogled and groped.

It seemed that India was finally paying heed to its women and their complaints.  The spotlight was finally highlighting the country’s many human rights abuses and international aid organizations were thrilled.  Human trafficking could be the next issue tackled.  But mere months later, not much has changed.  In March of this year, a Swiss tourist was raped by a group of men while camping with her husband.  Three months later, another tourist, an American young woman, was raped by three men in a van.  In August, an Indian photojournalist was raped by five men in a ditch while her male friend was tied up and beaten.

I recently finished The Boy in the Suitcase by Agnete Friis and Lene Kaaberbøl, a book I’ve been wanting to read for the past six months.  Much like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, this crime thriller is set in Scandinavia and has a sinister and impending tone.  It is the story of single mother Sigita, who lives with her three year old son Mikas in Lithuania.  One Saturday, after taking Mikas to the playground, Sigita wakes up with a concussion and a broken arm at the hospital.  She is told Mikas is with her ex-husband, but she soon discovers that is not the case.  Desperate, she goes to the police and is told her son might be a victim of child trafficking.  In Denmark, another woman, Nina Borg, picks up a suitcase at the train station and finds Mikas inside.  Why is he in a suitcase and where was he going before Nina intercepted it?  Even more addictive than the interesting plotline was the authors’ subtle social commentary.

As a Red Cross nurse, Nina travels to and helps many in war ravaged countries.  She is used to witnessing atrocities abroad and continues to do so when she’s at home as she works in an underground network aimed at helping illegal immigrants.  She helps provide housing, medical assistance and paperwork for those who are supposed to remain invisible.  But the more invisible you are, the more vulnerable you are as well.  Through Nina we encounter refugees who are abused both at their workplace and at their aid agency.  We meet Natasha, a young Serbian woman, who is engaged to a man who sexually abuses both her and her daughter.  But she stays with him.  After all, he is offering her papers to stay legally in Denmark.  When Nina realizes Mikas doesn’t understand her, she goes to a brothel and seeks the help of prostitutes, many of which are young, Eastern European and African.  Though not the main focus of this novel, all these details paint a realistic picture of modern day Europe.

It’s no coincidence that Mikas is taken from Lithuania, a former Soviet Union state, where such abductions are commonplace and are rarely fully investigated.  Human trafficking for the purpose of labor, sex and organ trafficking is booming in Eastern Europe, with many of the recipients in Western Europe and other wealthy developed nations. The authors hint at how little is being done to combat this underground scene and how powerless everyone involved seems to be.  If you’re illegal, you can’t go to the local law enforcement.  They’re more concerned with how you entered the country illegally and whether this will end up in the news than arresting your perpetrators.  There have been numerous accounts of human trafficking victims being prosecuted as criminals, being fined and deported back to their home countries only to be introduced in the system again.  Law enforcement officials are sometimes even ingrained in the operations, either by accepting bribes to look the other way or becoming the customers themselves, thus creating the demand for the seemingly endless supply of human bodies.

The book won the Harald Morgensen Award for Best Danish Thriller of the Year in 2011 and a film adaptation is being discussed.  Though I’m glad this enthralling work will be brought to the masses, I hope the topic of human trafficking is not glamourized and underscored for the sake of making the issue more palpable.  One can only look at Taken 2 to see that Hollywood envisions economic success with action scenes and explosions instead of viable public policy.

The movie 12 Years a Slave is creating Oscar buzz this year.  Granted a lot of it is focused on Brad Pitt’s performance and that of the protagonist played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, all of which is noteworthy and well deserved.  But this movie is also creating a lot of buzz within academia and the general public as Hollywood once again highlights a dark period of American history.  Unlike most conventional movies about slavery, this movie focuses on the rare story of Solomon Northup, a black man who was born free, but was drugged and sold to a slave owner in Louisiana.  Never having been subjected to this sort of prejudice and abuse before, he must struggle to survive and escape back home to his family.  A lot of African-American scholars and people are talking about the racism portrayed in the movie and how it continues to live on today.  The point of me bringing up this movie, however, is not to enter that debate.  It is to accentuate that the story of Solomon is not a period piece.  It is not fiction.  In fact, it is the story parallel of 27 million people across the globe.

Many think of slavery as a thing of the past, anecdotes in history books.  It’s that brutal thing that people did to bring laborers to man their crops and take care of their plantations.  It’s the thing that caused the American Civil War and the thing that Abraham Lincoln ended.  It’s the thing we commemorate the abolition of every February with Black History Month.  Slavery though, even with our primitive imaginations of it, is not extinct.  It hasn’t even been diminished.  In fact, we trade more human beings today than we did in the nineteenth century when Solomon’s story took place.  Human trafficking is rampant and is defined as the exploitation of women, men and children for use as commodities in conditions of sexual and labor servitude.  You become a possession for somebody else and do not have control over your body or your life. You become expendable.

The majority of the American public is not aware of this epidemic and those that are often have misconceptions about it.  They often think that human trafficking only exists in third world countries or only against women and children.  Unfortunately, that is not so and I would like to address some of the most common fallacies I’ve encountered.

First, oftentimes, people think that trafficked persons are anything, but citizens of their own country.  We connect the problem with a happening outside of our own borders.  We say “That will never take place in our country.  It only happens in other countries.”  That thinking is so pervasive that it wasn’t until 2010 that the United States finally included itself as a country to be analyzed by the Department of State’s annual Traffic in Persons Report.  Human trafficking happens to everybody and it is, in fact, much easier to orchestrate within the borders of your country than it is internationally.

Because of the word “trafficking” people also often assume that some sort of transportation must take place.  A person is abducted and then moved somewhere else via a vehicle or a plane.  However, that is not always the case.  A victim can be “trafficked” just by being forced to do something they don’t want to do.  It is more accurately characterized as “compelled service” where an individual’s will is overborne through force, fraud or coercion.

 Human trafficking is also not human smuggling.  Smuggling is a crime against a country’s borders.  Human trafficking is a crime against a person.  When you pay someone to unlawfully get you into another country, that is considered human smuggling.  Both you and your conspirator have committed a crime against the state.  When a victim is moved into another country or to the next state or even to the next room over, that is human trafficking.  No consent was given whatsoever.  You had no power over your movements or subsequent actions.

Furthermore, people often have this morbid image of slavery as people bound in chains.  Although that does happen, human trafficking does not require physical restraint, bodily harm or even physical force.  It can be as simple as a threat to harm you or your family.  Psychological means of control are sometimes way more effective than a bruise will ever be.

 And just like there were Northern abolitionists fighting for the freedom of the Southern slaves, there are modern abolitionists as well.  They are people who are aware of the epidemic and are providing awareness and resources to rescue and rehabilitate survivors as well as prosecute the perpetrators.  I strongly encourage everyone to see 12 Years a Slave and be reminded how far we actually haven’t come.  As I said, Solomon’s story is all too familiar to millions in the world today.  Let’s do something to change that.

Sources Used:

12 Years a Slave Theatrical Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYYtS9KSWNg