trafficked

This Inhuman Trade

2008-11-26T19:49:00.000-08:00

Written by KJ Thomas

When one hears the word slavery, what is the first thing that comes to mind? African men, women, and children - young and old - standing on a wharf-side platform, cowering under the whips of the slave trader? Harriet Tubman leading a family across a river to freedom? Maybe the Israelites building the pyramids in Egypt? Those are all examples of slavery. But one important detail is missing. That is the old face of slavery. The new face of slavery is quite different, and even more depraved.

The year 2007 was not the 200 year anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. It was the anniversary of the date slavery was dealt a blow and recovered well. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." What this means is slavery is illegal everywhere in the world, yet, it exists in nearly every country in the world. Slave-holders act illegally and governments only have a tiny fraction of law enforcement recourses directed towards slavery and trafficking.

There are many more people enslaved today than there were in the entire transatlantic slave trade. There is an estimated 27 million slaves worldwide. Of those 27 million, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders into slavery yearly. The reason slavery is such a booming industry today can be explained with four factors : rapid social and economic change, population explosion, rapid urbanization of the world, and governmental corruption. The changing face of slavery is also a problem. Old slavery is quite different than the new slavery today. While legal ownership was required in the 1800s, legal ownership is now avoided at all costs. The slaves now are cheap to buy and make a high profit, in contrast to old slavery, in which slaves were costly to buy and made a very low profit. Slaves today are disposable and short-term, while the slaves used to be maintained and kept for a long-term relationship. A big factor in the old slavery was ethnic differences, but now, ethnicity is not important. Slave-holders will enslave anyone.

There are four main types of slavery; chattel slavery, debt bondage, sex slavery, and forced labor. These take the form in anything from domestic servitude in Mauritania, families enslaved in brick kilns in India, charcoal making factories in Brazil, and brothels in New York City. As you can see, slavery exists in nearly every country in the world today. The majority of the world's slaves are in South Asia - in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. Africa and South America's slave rate is high in some areas, and human trafficking is bring thousands of slaves to countries in Europe, North America, and South East Asia. Currently, there is an estimated 200,000 people enslaved in the United States, with 17,500 new victims trafficked across the United States border each year.

I have mentioned a few times the word 'trafficking.' One might ask - what is the difference between human trafficking and slavery? Slavery is when one person completely controls another person, exploits them economically, pays them nothing, and they cannot walk away. Human trafficking is the modern day slave trade, the process of enslaving a person. It happens when one person is tricked or kidnapped or coerced, taken across borders (whether it be international, national, state, or even cultural), then taken into slavery. If moving a person across borders does not result in slavery, it is not human trafficking, but more than likely smuggling.

The form of modern day slavery I would like to focus on is sexual slavery of children, specifically in Asia. There are 10 million children enslaved as sex slaves worldwide. Every year, 1 million children are lured into prostitution all over the world. The children are sold by family members, tricked by distant relatives, offered a well paying "job" in the city, offered an education, and kidnapped into this work. Upon their arrival at the brothel, the trafficker hands the girl off to the brothel owner, who then sets his or her mind on breaking the girl's will. It is not easy to crush a human mind, but with enough brutality, time, and indifference to suffering, it can be done. And it is done. A week or so after the girl arrives, she is told she has to repay her debt to the brothel owner. This "debt" is the expenses for food, rent, clothing, what it cost the trafficker to bring her to them, and more. It increases daily. If rent for a room at a brothel is 30,000 baht (Thailand currency) a month, a girl must have 300 customers at 300 baht a month.

The governments in South Asia turn a blind eye, cooperate with slave-holders, and even enslave people themselves. In the United States and Europe, the police fight organized crime. In countries like Thailand, the Philippines, and India, the police are the organized crime. Most of the officers have visited the brothels - and some of them are regular customers who are bribed by the pimps. As well as the police force, regular men from these countries visit the brothels. Over 80% of men in Thailand have been to a brothel with child sex slaves enslaved there. But those are not the only customers. Many are wealthy tourists from the Western world. It is an industry that thrives on exploiting the innocent. The girls are chained to beds, abused daily, threatened and tortured, punished for no wrong doings, beaten and bruised, and made a toy for the depraved. No longer are the slave auctions the wharf-side platforms. They are now young girls parading in heels too big and makeup too heavy.

What can be done about this problem? There is no one size fits all answer, it is far too big for one person to take on by themselves. Governments are more likely to suffer penalty for burning a Hannah Montana CD than for exploiting children. The presence of a few hundred Ukrainian girls in Japanese brothels does not affect the balance of profits, so the government is not interested in doing anything about it. Christians must lead the way. Christians are the people believe in the transformation of the human heart. On one side of this global problem, slave holders are making a ton of money off of the exploitation of other human beings. On the other side of this problem, activists spend more time battling ignorance than the slave holders themselves. Our battle will be on it's way to being over once people stop asking "there is still slavery today?"

If one person in the world is enslaved, not one of us can say we are truly free.

Pimp.

2008-10-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

what is a pimp? let's look at two different definitions for this.

pimp
As an adjective: If somethin' is pimpin', it's pretty darn cool. It's probably something "normal" that's tricked out ghettolicious and gawdy. Basically, you look very ghettofab and blingbling.

However, as a verb 1.) to pimp something out is to *make* it look very ghettofab and all that nifty stuff in the above paragraph. 2.) to pimp is to advertise (generally, in an enthusiastic sense) or to call attention in order to bring acclaim to something; to promote. -from urban dictionary

pimp
–noun
a person, esp. a man, who solicits customers for a prostitute or a brothel; pander; procurer.
- from dictionary.com

in our culture, the term "pimp" is an acceptable term. it's fine to use, and about anything. "pimp my ride" or "that's pimp" are phrases commonly found in everyday language in america. rap and hip hop music glorifies being a pimp. we need to THINK about what this means!! do we really want to glorify people who put girls into slavery? i just went to a lyrics website and put in the word "pimp" for a song title search. do you know how many results it brought up?

116. i don't know about you, but that's not ok with me. the number one halloween costume is a pimp. that makes me sick. honestly sick.

our culture needs to stop glorifying pimps.

join me in changing the culture by telling everyone you know. and reposting this - or writing your own.

Shakti Samuha

2008-10-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

Shakti Samuha is a home run by Nepali women who have once been slaves themselves. In 1996, they were rescued from Nepal – only to help other trafficking victims by providing shelter, legal aid, vocational training and counseling. They have set up Adolescent Girls Groups in the poorest villages of Nepal to raise awareness about the danger of trafficking and make a stand against the traffickers.

Shakti Samuha knows that only a small amount of girls are ever rescued from slavery. So their emphasis is on prevention. They target the same locations as the traffickers: for example, the slums of Kathmandu and the carpet factories surrounding the capital, and now expanding into more remote rural districts. Ten Adolescent Girls Groups, including approximately 200 members, organize awareness-raising events in their own slums and squatter communities. Shakti Samuha also reaches out to schools through training social studies teachers on trafficking and human rights.

Shakti Samuha, which means "an empowered group", is different from other groups that help trafficking survivors. Its goal is to give a stronger voice to women who have been exploited and are now in danger of being rejected by their own communities.

Facts from Shakti Samuha:

They counsel the women about their experiences and provide legal support to those who may be able to prosecute the trafficker. (25 women were helped in this way during 2004).
They organize trafficking survivors and other women in Kathmandu who are living with HIV/AIDS.
When they are ready, the women work with Shakti Samuha to obtain vocational training such as electrical work, beauty salons or office work.
Shakti Samuha has also helped some of its members by providing loans to start small businesses such as goat-rearing, a stationery shop and a grocery shop.
Shakti Samuha now has its own shelter home for up to 24 survivors of trafficking or other sexual violence.

Modern Slavery.

2008-09-23T18:59:00.000-07:00

Google is a site with a lot of people viewing it daily. So, it would only make sense that one would go to google to get some information. And that is just what I did. I went to www.google.com and typed in the keyword 'slavery' and hit go. There were about 26,300,000 hits. One of the first ones is "The 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade". But in reality, that is not true. Far from true, actually. 2008 is not the 200 year anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. It was the date slavery was dealt a blow, but it recovered well.

Modern slavery is a lot different than the slavery that people think of when you say "slavery". The old slavery was about keeping the slaves for generations. New slavery? The girls in brothels are disposable. If they gets HIV/AIDS? They're out. They're pregnant? They get an abortion - and in these third world countries, that is as good as killing the mother anyways. No longer are the slave auctions ocean side platforms lined with suffering slaves, wincing under their masters whips. Now, the slaves parade in high heels a few sizes too big, wincing behind their makeup.

"No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Slavery is illegal in every country in the world, yet it exists in nearly every country. Everyone knows what slavery is, but no one KNOWS what's going on today. Governments and businesses are more likely to suffer penalty for burning a Miley Cyrus cd than for abusing these girls in the brothels. A few years ago, a trade organization sued the UN for not allowing some meat to be shipped into England because it had some steroids in it. This is the mindset : block the free movement of dead cows between countries and be penalized; buy and sell live girls across borders? No one cares.

It's all about the profits and if they are affecting the government. The presence of a few hundred Ukrainian girls in Japanese brothels doesn't affect the balance of profits, so the govement isn't interested in doing anything about it. The police and government in Thailand are ambivalent about the sex trade and not interested in making slaveholders comply to the laws. In the USA and Europe, the police fight the organized crime. In Thailand, the police are the organized crime. The governments turn a blind eye, cooperate with slaveholders, and even enslave people themselves. Some officials profit from bribes not to tell about the brothels, others frequently use the brothels.

If we cannot choose to set these slaves free, how can we say that we are free?

New York City to Calcutta.

2008-09-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

At 2:00 PM in New York City, it is 11:30 PM in Calcutta, India. Hundreds of girls are being prepared to be sold.

At 12:00 PM in Chicago, it is 12:00 AM in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The first girls are being sold.

At 2:00 PM in Denver, it is 12:00 AM in Moscow, Russia. Girls are being told they can get jobs as "waitresses", and then they are sold to brothels.

At 4:00 PM in San Diego, it is 7:00 AM in Manila, Philippines. The brothel is being closed down for the night.

Take a moment and imagine the horrors these girls are going through nightly, while we go through our normal routines.