Sunday, February 28, 2010

Former NBA All-Star Robertson accused of sex trafficking


Dear Friends:

Shocking! Appalling! The link between sporting events and the demand for commercial sex is even stronger than we already knew.

Abolition!

Lisa

Former NBA All-Star Robertson accused of sex trafficking


SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Former NBA All-Star Alvin Robertson has been charged with sexual assault of a child, trafficking an underage child for purposes of sex and forcing a sexual performance by a child.

The charges were contained in an arrest warrant Friday. Robertson has not been apprehended.


Authorities claim the 47-year-old former Spurs star was part of a ring that kidnapped a 14-year-old girl from San Antonio, forced her to have sex with clients and to dance at a Corpus Christi strip club last year.

The girl escaped her alleged captors, prompting an investigation. Seven people have been charged, including Robertson's girlfriend, and he's the only one who has not been arrested.

The seventh overall pick in the 1984 draft, Robertson averaged 14 points over 10 seasons and was voted to four All-Star Games.


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Legislative Triumphs and Trials in Combating Demand for Commercial Sex

The Comparative Urban Studies Project of the Woodrow Wilson Center

invites you to the second discussion the Demand Dynamics of Sex Trafficking Speaker Series

co-sponsored by Hunt Alternatives Fund:


Legislative Triumphs and Trials in Combating

Demand for Commercial Sex



Tuesday, March 9, 2010

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

6th Floor Auditorium
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW (Ronald Reagan Building)


Featuring:



TainaBien-Aime

ExecutiveDirector, Equality Now



Eleanor Gaetan

LegislativeAdvisor, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women

SamirGoswami

PolicyDirector, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation



Moderated by:


AmbassadorSwanee Hunt

President,Hunt Alternatives Fund




The panelists in thissecond meeting of the Demand Dynamics of Sex Trafficking Speaker Series will discusslegislative efforts to elevate the rights of victims of the sex trade. Taina Bien-Aime will discuss legislation inNew York, including the Safe Harbour Act; Samir Goswami will discuss the IllinoisPredator Accountability Act and other efforts currently underway in Illinois;and Eleanor Gaetan will discuss federal legislation, including the TraffickingVictim Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000, and the Trafficking Victim ProtectionReauthorization Act 2003 (TVPRA 2003), the TVPRA 2005 and the TVPRA 2008. Please visit www.wilsoncenter.org/cusp for moreinformation.




RSVPacceptances only, cusp@wilsoncenter.org or by calling (202) 691-4289


Location: Woodrow Wilson Centerat the Ronald Reagan Building,1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW("Federal Triangle" stop on Blue/Orange Line), 6 th Floor Auditorium.A map to the Center is available at www.wilsoncenter.org/directions . Note: Due to heightened security, entrance to the building will be restricted and photo identification is required .Please allow additional time to pass through security.


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Labour to ban massage parlor adverts in newspapers

Dear Friends:

Here is some news to lift the spirits. Government leaders in the UK are proposing a ban on massage parlor and escort agency advertisements!!! If this measure passes it would be a huge success for the anti-sex trafficking movement. It's also an idea that should be replicated elsewhere.

Abolition!

Lisa

From The Sunday Times
February 14, 2010
Labour to ban massage parlour adverts in newspapers
Marie Woolf, Whitehall Editor

Advertisements for massage parlours and escort agencies are to be banned in a government assault on the sex industry.

Ministers plan to “disrupt” the sex industry by banning newspaper advertisements for prostitutes and brothels in a new law put forward in Labour’s election manifesto.

Failure to comply with the law could carry a £10,000 fine.

Ministers are concerned that many of the ads offer women who are the victims of trafficking and have been forced into prostitution. The clampdown is being led by Vera Baird, the solicitor-general, and Harriet Harman, the equality minister, who has said that the demand for trafficked women must be stemmed to stop “teenage girls being bought and sold by criminal gangs”.

They are concerned that a request to remove the adverts has had only partial success. Although The Newspaper Society succeeded in persuading some newspaper groups to stop carrying them, ministers are concerned that many others have failed to do so.

A 2008 survey of London’s sex industry that was commissioned by Poppy Project, a government-funded group that helps trafficked women, estimated that the 921 brothels it examined made at least £86m a year through their newspaper ads alone.

The Crown Prosecution Service has already studied a similar law in Ireland and concluded that it would work in the UK.

The new law would also inform publishers which kind of ads will be banned by defining, for example, the difference between a massage parlour which is actually a brothel and spas offering therapeutic massages. Sex phone lines, carried in many tabloid newspapers, would not be caught by the law unless they are a front for arranging prostitution.

It would also make it a criminal offence to print or distribute telephone-box cards advertising prostitutes. Under the current law, it is an offence only to be caught in the act of posting such a card.

Baird said: “It is now appropriate to move against people who make money from advertising prostitutes. The Newspaper Society tightened its guidance on taking such ads but there is still a market that we now have to look to legislation to disrupt.”

Read more!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Moody Radio -- Ministry to Women in the CSI

Dear Friends:

Earlier today Moody Radio hosted a program on Christian ministry to women in the commercial sex industry. To listen go to
http://www.moodyradio.org/middayconnection.aspx and click "Listen Now."

Abolition!

Lisa

Ministry to Victims of the Sex Industry
Air Date February 25, 2010

Summary

Our 2010 Ministry Focus is "Just Walk Across the Room and Make a Difference" and on this Midday Connection we’ll talk to some women who have done that very thing. They’ve walked across the room in a strip club to help women caught in that lifestyle to walk out of it.


Featured Guests






Dawn Herzog Jewell
Dawn Herzog Jewell is media and publications manager at Media Associates International, and a freelance journalist. She has worked for World Relief and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.







Harmony Dust
Harmony Dust is the founder and Executive Director of Treasures Ministries, a Los Angeles, CA, based nonprofit organization for women in the sex industry.

For more information about Treasures Ministries, please visit their
Web site.







Deb Van Thiel
Deb oversees a lay counseling ministry at Christ the Rock Community Church. She started ministering to women who are working as exotic dancers in "gentlemen's clubs" after attending what is now known as the International Christian Alliance on Prostitution (ICAP) conference held at Green Lake Conference Center in Wisconsin in 2004. Deb lives in North Eastern part of Wisconsin, has been married for 34 years and has 8 children and 6 (nearly 7) wonderful grandbabies.

For more information about a ministry to those working in the sex industry, please visit the This One's For The Girls
Web site.

For more information about ICAP, please visit their
Web site.

Hosts







Anita Lustrea
Anita Lustrea is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and has worked for Moody Radio since 1984. She is a sought-after conference and retreat speaker and loves to connect with Midday Connection listeners face-to-face. Anita lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, Mike, and her son, John. To learn more about Anita, please visit her
Web site.







Melinda Schmidt
Melinda Schmidt is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and holds a Broadcasting/Bible degree from Calvary Bible College. She has served with Moody Radio since 1980 in various hosting capacities. Married with two teens, Melinda lives outside Chicago, loves reading and developing her creative interests, and hopes to be a life-long learner! To learn more about Melinda and her speaking schedule, please visit her
Web site.
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Two articles: 1) Actress and Muslim philanthropist promote women & 2) Director Michael Winterbottom defends film's extreme violence

Dear Friends:

Two interesting articles follow. The first reports on encouraging international efforts to promote equality between men and women, with an emphasis on combating violence against women. Please make particular note of Geena Davis' comments about how women are portrayed in the media.

The second article describes the very type of media that Davis' is against -- a film by Michael Winterbottom with depictions of violence against women so horrifying and graphic that audiences are walking out and booing (good for them!). Unsurprisingly one of the victims of the violence is a woman in prostitution. Winterbottom claims that the violence isn't supposed to be entertaining. He is as naive as a new born babe if he thinks the film won't be entertaining to men who already perpetrate violence or will encourage men on the brink of doing so.

Abolition!

Lisa


Actress and Muslim philanthropist promote women

By EDITH M. LEDERER Posted: Monday, February 22, 2010 7:42 pm

What do actress Geena Davis, Britain's Duchess of York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the head of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists have in common?

They're all committed to empowering women.

At a U.N. event Monday promoting gender equality, they were joined by heads of foundations, corporate leaders, academics, diplomats, representatives of voluntary organizations and several other celebrities, including Miss USA Kristen Dalton and Sweden's Princess Madeleine.

The U.N. Economic and Social Council chose International Corporate Philanthropy Day to focus on women's rights and generate support for one of the U.N.'s Millennium Development goals _ promoting equality between women and men.

Ban told several hundred participants that "full empowerment requires more progress in two key areas: expanding economic opportunity and ending violence against women."

"Our goal must be clear," the U.N. chief said. "No tolerance of the use of rape as a weapon of war. No excuses for domestic violence. No looking the other way when it comes to sex trafficking, so-called `honor killings' or female genital mutilation."

The secretary-general also urged the private sector to promote women at all levels of corporate responsibility and the philanthropic community to "make sure that female beneficiaries are treated equally."

Davis, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for "The Accidental Tourist" in 1989 and starred in "Thelma & Louise" and the ABC television series "Commander in Chief" where she played the first female U.S. president, called for a radical change in the way women and girls are portrayed in the media.

"At the dawn of a new millennium _ in a world that is over 50 percent female _ the message the media sends is that women and girls have far less value than men and boys," she said.

Davis said research shows that there are three male characters for every female character across all film ratings and that the vast majority of female characters "are stereotyped and hyper-sexualized."

"What message are we sending both boys and girls about women's role in society?," she asked.
Davis said that's why she founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and its programming arm, See Jane.

Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, who is divorced from Britain's Prince Andrew, said the key to equality is "good mothering" because mothers promote education.

She announced a new initiative called "the Mother's Army" to "harness the collective power of mothers" to enable women and girls to "dare to dream."

Mary Quinn, senior manager of the Avon Foundation for Women which has already given $1 million to the U.N. Trust Fund to combat violence against women, announced an additional $250,000 pledge to the fund for a project to tackle gender-based violence in Mexican communities.

Maria Borelius, CEO of the nonprofit organization Hand in Hand International, pledged to create 10 million additional jobs among the world's poorest women. Francine LeFrak of Fair Sky, a company that promotes women artisans in Rwanda, announced that she would start a similar program for women in Haiti.

And Tariq Cheema, founder and chair of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, announced the launch of a global initiative called "Empowerment Through Enlightenment."

"This initiative will raise awareness among the male population as well as offering skill-building opportunities to females to enhance their competitiveness in the society," he said to loud applause.

*****************************************

Director Michael Winterbottom defends film's extreme violence
Walk-outs and boos as The Killer Inside Me is shown at Berlin film festival


Kate Connolly in Berlin
guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 February 2010 19.15 GMT

The British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom today defended scenes that portray extreme violence against women in his latest film, saying that he felt the need to stay true to the pulp fiction novel on which it is based.

The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the 1952 novel by Jim Thompson that Stanley Kubrick famously described as "probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I've ever encountered", depicts brutal scenes of rough sex and murder.

One scene sees the main character, deputy sheriff Lou Ford – played by Casey Affleck – bludgeon his prostitute girlfriend (Jessica Alba) almost to death until her face is unrecognisable, while later another woman (Kate Hudson) is punched repeatedly. She chokes to death as her killer and lover slips on her urine.

The attacks, accompanied by the music of Gustav Mahler and the opera Norma by Vincenzo Bellini as well as jaunty swing tunes, are captured in close-up camera shots. Those and the sound of gurgling blood and cracking bones leave little to the imagination.

Speaking today a press screening of the film at the Berlin film festival, which saw people walking out and booing, Winterbottom said he had deliberately intended for the film to shock.

"It was intentionally shocking. The whole point of the story is, here is someone who is supposed to be in love with two women who he beats to death, and of course the violence should be shocking. If you make a film where the violence is entertaining, I think that's very questionable."

He defended the film from the mounting charges that it is misogynistic because the violence is directed at women by saying that the character who carries it out is weak and not a hero to be looked up to.

"To say it's misogynistic is tricky. Anyone who says that is watching it in a very perverse way. Clearly there is violence against men and women in society, in films and books, and in this case I think it's important that the violence is ugly. No one can watch it and believe that Lou Ford is a role model or a glamorous guy you'd want to be like, or that beating up women is a good thing."

The Killer Inside Me tells the story of a respected Texan deputy chief of police who has a secret liking of sadomasochistic sex and who, because of a troubled childhood, demonstrates a destructive streak to those he loves and towards himself.

Winterbottom, a favourite of the festival who has won prizes before for The Road to Guantánamo and In This World, appeared to be mildly irritated by the criticism, which observers in Berlin say may lead to scenes being cut before it can be made available to a wider audience.

Winterbottom said: "Loads of films promote violence as entertainment, but I don't think this one does and neither would I want to do something that's going to encourage violence."

He said he had been inspired to make his first foray into the film noir genre by the novel, which "stayed with me for a long time and made me think about the way we behave. It's very Shakespearean, very shocking and pushes everything to the extreme and I wanted to make a film that was a very literal version of the book".
Read more!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Pornography Harms Website Launched

Contact: Patrick Trueman, 703-938-1776; pornharms.com

MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 17 / Christian Newswire / -- The devastating harm from pornography is becoming more evident with each passing day. Now a website has been launched to provide ready access to credible, peer-reviewed research documenting that harm. " Pornography Harms , is a one-stop location for sound research, news articles and opinion pieces demonstrating the harm from pornography," said Patrick Trueman, creator of the site. The site will be of great help to researchers at all academic levels and the press and concerned public.

Trueman, the former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, expressed strong concern for the direction of America due to the prominence of pornography in the daily lives of our citizens. "Since the advent of the internet, pornography has flooded homes, businesses, public libraries, and even schools. The results have been devastating to the social and family fabric of America," Trueman said.

Trueman observed that, for nearly two decades, a large segment of America's children have had ready access to internet pornography. In the latest trend called, "sexting", children are producing and distributing cell phone child pornography. This phenomenon may well be an outgrowth of the viewing of internet pornography over long periods of time by children resulting in diminishment of their natural inhibitions against such activity. "Pornography, in other words, is altering minds, destroying taboos, and reordering society," Trueman said.

Addiction to pornography, Trueman noted, is now common among men, women, and even many children, bringing life-long consequences. Pornography use is a significant factor in divorce; a contributing cause of the spread of prostitution and the sexual trafficking of adults and children.

Trueman credited a multi-disciplinary group of professionals and concerned citizens from around the country for the research work on Pornography Harms.

"Pornography is a neglected pandemic and it will remain so until knowledge of its destructive forces is widely understood and disseminated. The Pornography Harms website is dedicated to this task of education," Trueman said.

__________________




In the short time that the website PornHarms.com has been up – the site just went live late yesterday – we have had an incredible response. We have had nearly 2000 visitors and from every state and 39 countries including Hungary, Japan, South Africa, Germany, New Zealand, Malaysia, Israel, etc. More importantly, I have received numerous emails through the contact form on the site from people telling their personal stories, asking for help and offering to spread the word about the site.

Could you help spread the word (if you haven’t done so already)? The press release announcing the site is attached. Please forward. The PornHarms.com blue button you see above, links to the site and can be copied and pasted to emails you are sending.

Several organizations have included the blue button on their own website so people have easy access to the PornHarms.com site. This will provide great help to those caught up in pornography as well as their families.

Patrick A. Trueman
Attorney At Law
10350 Southam Lane
Oakton , VA22124
703-938-1776
703-303-4777 (cell)
703-938-1770 (fax)
http://www.PatTrueman.org
Read more!

Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

Dear Friends:

Here is a forwarded message from Luis CdeBaca, Ambassador-at-Large of the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. For those of you not in the D.C. area be sure to watch the webcast.

Abolition!

Lisa

Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
Luis CdeBaca, Ambassador At-Large
February 22, 2010

Dear Friend:

This week I will be testifying before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law in a hearing entitled, "In Our Own Backyard: Child Prostitution and Sex Trafficking in the United States." The hearing will take place on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 10:30 AM in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226. I will be joined as a witness by Beth Phillips, United States Attorney Western District of Missouri. To see a Webcast of the hearing, please visit http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=4389.

This hearing is timely because, as the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti demonstrates, children are often the most vulnerable to exploitation. By working hard to eliminate this crime in “our own backyard,” we gain credibility with our foreign counterparts and can better encourage a truly global response that includes partners like you. Together we can ensure that trafficked children receive the care they need, while the traffickers receive the justice they deserve.
Thank you for being a part of this effort.

Sincerely,



Ambassador Luis CdeBaca
And here is the rest of it.
Read more!

Friday, February 5, 2010

German brothels raided in trafficking probe

Search of 600 establishments turns up 100 women from West Africa
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 11:30 AM ET Comments7Recommend16
CBC News

German authorities say they have searched around 600 brothels across the country in an effort to track down women who may have been smuggled from West Africa as part of an international human trafficking ring.

The Federal Criminal Police Office said Wednesday that Tuesday evening's raids turned up more than 100 women from West Africa and that there were indications that some were victims of human trafficking.

German investigators say the nationwide crackdown follows investigations that suggest a network of West Africans active in Germany and other European countries is involved in prostitution, human trafficking, passport forgery and other illegal activity.

About 63 per cent of the roughly 400,000 sex workers in Germany are migrants, the majority arriving from central and eastern Europe, according to 2008 figures from the European Network for HIV/STI Prevention and Health Promotion among Migrant Sex Workers, known by the acronym Tampep.

While prostitution in Germany is not illegal, migrants cannot obtain entry into Germany as a sex worker, meaning many who enter the country do so illegally.


This makes them more vulnerable to exploitation, Tampep said in their latest report on working conditions in the country. [Friends, any woman in prostitution is vulunerable to exploitation whether it is legal or not. - Lisa]

Africa is the source of about 12 per cent of all migrant sex workers in Europe and accounts for about six per cent in Germany, according to Tampep.

Nigeria, Morocco, Cameroon, Sierra Leone and Algeria are the African countries most often cited by European officials as the countries of origin of migrant sex workers, some of whom are believed to have been brought into the countries through illegal means. [Friends: if a person is trafficked for prostitution they most certainly are not a so-called "migrant sex worker." - Lisa]
Read more!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Haiti/US: Strong on Zeal, Thin in Knowledge

Dear Friends:

Below you'll find an absolutely brilliant article on the recent orphan adoption scandal in Haiti. Here is a quote from the piece we should all keep in mind:

Passion alone is simply not sufficient; it must be consistently paired with wisdom. Zeal without knowledge can be a destructive force. A compassionate impulse may indeed be God's nudging, and certainly should not be ignored. But the hard work of education, preparation, and planning most always stands between us and a job well done.

Abolition!

Lisa


Strong on Zeal, Thin in Knowledge
Lessons from Haiti's arrest of American Christians trying to take children out of the country.
Jedd Medefind posted 2/03/2010 09:56AM

Newswires buzzed recently with reports that a group of ten Americans from an Idaho-based Christian charity were arrested trying to transport 33 Haitian children into the Dominican Republic contrary to the rules of Haiti's government. Although details are still emerging, the story thus far suggests a potent mingling of good intentions with ill-advised plans. Fellow Christians embarrassed by the incident should have the grace to withhold the abuse many observers are now piling on the group, but we can still take a strong lesson on the need to match zeal with knowledge in every effort to "care for orphans in their distress."

According to their website, the group's goal was to "rescue Haitian orphans abandoned on the streets … and bring them to New Life Children's Refuge in Cabarete, Dominican Republic." This "Refuge" is at present a 45-room hotel the ministry leased to house the children as an interim measure. Ultimately, they planned to construct an orphanage that would provide long-term care, and also the potential of adoption for children that could not be reunited with relatives.

These rickety plans, along with the decision to remove the children from Haiti without approval, were a recipe for trouble. Adding further to the impression of sloppy do-goodism, it now appears that some of the children had living parents and were not in need of rescue at all.

Appropriately, many relief organizations have voiced strong concern over the incident. Meanwhile, others in the foreign aid world—which often tends to be dismissive of volunteer efforts and highly critical of international adoption—have sought to make the situation a cause célèbre. Private blogs and even some nonprofit websites now venture beyond the known facts, implying gross neglect of the children by the Christian group and even worse. No doubt some hope to harness the situation to foster broader criticism of adoption, and to emphasize the superiority of large-scale, government-centered models of aid to smaller acts of private charity.

Even as we apply strong words to the group's actions—"reckless" and "irresponsible" come to mind—we should first be reminded what this debacle does not tell us:

First, it does not tell us that Christians have the market cornered on well-intentioned but poorly-devised attempts at aid. Far from it. As writers like William Easterly and Dambisa Moyo lay out in disturbing detail, the history of efforts to help the needy—both government and private, religious and secular—is rife with failed largesse. A brief survey of public welfare programs in the U.S. alone would dwarf this situation in both size and foolishness for examples of benevolence gone awry.

Second, it does not tell us that compassion motivated by Christian faith is somehow peripheral to "real" disaster aid. Thousands of committed Christian organizations, churches and individuals—both foreign and indigenous—were effectively meeting deep needs in Haiti even before the earthquake. Today, these entities and recently arrived allies are central to relief efforts on the ground in Haiti, as are Christians in every catastrophe. The actions of a single small group certainly don't define the Christian response, nor should we feel embarrassed of our faith-inspired efforts in response to future disasters.

Finally, it does not tell us that the significance of adoption in caring for orphans should be marginalized. Although the press played up reports that the group had mentioned adoption to the U.S. as one potential way to eventually help some of the children, this was clearly not the group's primary focus. Nor could such adoptions have happened on any scale without massive amounts of U.S. and local paperwork, as any adoptive family knows. The group's errors to date were actually examples of on-the-ground orphan care gone wrong, not of mishandled adoptions. Yet no one is suggesting we should now shun orphan care, nor should they. The Christian community should stand strongly behind a full spectrum of in-country orphan care efforts, as well as the option of international adoption for children who'd otherwise grow up without families.


Amidst all this, what this situation does tell us is much more straightforward. Passion alone is simply not sufficient; it must be consistently paired with wisdom. Zeal without knowledge can be a destructive force. A compassionate impulse may indeed be God's nudging, and certainly should not be ignored. But the hard work of education, preparation, and planning most always stands between us and a job well done.

For those freshly woken to the needs of orphans, one other reminder will be helpful as well. Prior to the earthquake, Haiti had an estimated 380,000 children who had lost at least one parent. Tens of thousands lived in orphanages, on Haiti's streets, and as household slaves. These tragic situations are mirrored in many developing countries worldwide. So while the current crisis adds urgency to the biblical call to "defend the cause of the fatherless," the need to respond did not start with Haiti's latest anguish. Nor will it end when the television cameras no longer bring their images to mind.

Thus, in this moment—stirred as we are by Haiti's pain, and freshly reminded of the hazards of poorly-directed zeal—the most significant reminder is that knowledge-guided love is always needful. The emotion we're feeling is one that can be acted upon for the rest of our lives. Amidst the current crisis, we must help as best we can: giving generously, praying seriously, and even working on the ground alongside trustworthy organizations and local churches. Meanwhile, it's never too early to begin readying ourselves for a longer journey, joining passion with preparedness, and compassion with commitment, to serve wisely and well for the distance.

Jedd Medefind is President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans, which will host Summit VI in April 2010 to help churches and organizations seeking to engage in adoption and orphan ministry. He previously served as a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and led the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
Read more!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

SEC workers investigated for porn-surfing

Jim McElhatton

The work computer of one regional supervisor for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed more than 1,800 attempts to look up pornography in a 17-day span: "It was kind of distraction per se," he later told investigators.

But he wasn't alone. More than two dozen SEC employees and contractors over roughly the past two years have faced internal investigations after they were caught viewing pornography on their government computers, according to records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and other public documents.


The activities of porn-surfing SEC workers, a small fraction of the overall work force, have been serious enough to warrant a mention in each of the past four semiannual reports sent to Congress by the SEC's office of inspector general.

In response to the open records request by The Washington Times, the inspector general's office provided more than 150 pages of records and transcripts on the investigations, but declined to identify the employees involved. The office noted that disclosure of the employees' names "could conceivably subject them to harassment and annoyance in the conduct of their official duties and private lives."

Allan Bachman, education manager for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, said such problems are hardly unique to the SEC. He also said the findings are troubling aside from "the egregious nature of what they're doing."

"They're simply just stealing time," he said. "They're getting paid to do something that they're not supposed to be doing."

SEC officials said the inspector general's investigations began as a result of the agency's "sophisticated surveillance and filtering system" aimed at uncovering abuse of government computer resources.

"Any level of misuse of government resources for inappropriate purposes is a matter of serious concern, which is why the SEC provides regular and comprehensive training on the proper use of the Internet," SEC spokesman John Nester said.

"Indeed, each of the cases investigated … was detected by our surveillance systems and referred to the inspector general for investigation," Mr. Nester said.

In the case of the regional supervisor, the inspector general found that during a 17-day period, he received about 1,880 "access denials," wherein the computer system blocked his attempts to view Web sites that were deemed pornographic.

The supervisor later told an IG investigator that despite the blocked attempts, he still had been looking at pornography at work up to twice a day and it had "probably occurred for a long time."

SEC records also provide insight into how some employees were able to bypass the Internet filters inside the SEC that were supposed to keep pornography off government computers.

One worker said the computer system blocked him from visiting some Web sites but that he was able to look up blogs containing pornographic images.

"I would click on it and it went to a blog and it wasn't blocked," he told investigators. "And that's how it started."

While the inspector general recommended disciplinary action up to and including dismissal, the SEC ultimately gave the employee a reprimand instead, records show.

Mr. Nester declined to discuss individual disciplinary decisions, saying supervisors examine the situations on a case-by-case basis and that sanctions generally range from counseling to dismissal.

He said disciplinary action isn't based on the number of "access denials" alone. He said denials are just one of several indicators of abuse and don't always reflect the number of times an individual seeks to view inappropriate Web sites at work.

"In fact, a single click onto one Web site that itself may not be blocked can trigger up to dozens of 'access denial' hits, one for each banner or ad on the Web page that might be blocked by our software, even if the individual has not clicked on to any of the banners or ads on that page," Mr. Nester said.

Still, fraud specialist Nicole Bocra, a former special investigator for the National Association of Securities Dealers who owns and operates a private investigative firm in Virginia, said even the most sophisticated Internet filters won't work all the time.

"People are always going to find a way around it," she said.

Aside from the obvious lost productivity, companies also have an incentive to block employees from perusing such sites because of the risk of potential computer viruses, she said.

One employee caught snooping estimated that he had been spending part of his workday looking up pornography for more than a year, though he added that he tried not to let it affect his work.

"I justified it because I would work late and I rarely would put in for any kind of comp time or anything like that," he said.

In another case, investigators found that an SEC headquarters enforcement employee had received 406 access request denials for pornographic sites from February to April last year. He was suspended for three days, records show.

Managers proposed a one-day suspension in another case involving a regional office branch chief who had received 271 access denials for pornographic sites during work hours.


Other employees resigned before being formally disciplined. One was a worker who told investigators he'd looked up pornography at work about twice a week for up to two years.

It's unclear what, if any, post-employment benefits that employee or other SEC workers caught looking up pornography at work are entitled to receive after retirement.

"We are not aware of any law that permits us in these circumstances to reduce the benefits of an employee who resigned in lieu of termination," Mr. Nester said.
Read more!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Lost children: Why they should stay in Haiti

January 31, 2010
Nicole Baute

There is no fool like the one who wants to be fooled.

Professor David Smolin wrote those words in 2005 referring to adoptive parents in the Western world. Eager to believe they are saving orphaned children from poverty, he wrote, they are easily fooled into accepting laundered children from the developing world.

He knows first-hand how such a thing could happen.

In 1998, Smolin, who teaches at Samford University's Cumberland School of Law , and his wife, Desiree, adopted two girls from India who did not take kindly to joining their large American family in Birmingham, Ala. "They had a very, very difficult time from the very moment that they arrived," Desiree Smolin says.

The sisters, roughly 10 and 12 years old, had been living in a hostel – what most North Americans would recognize as an orphanage – in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, until their adoption. But they were not orphans.

It was not until 2004, after a series of scandals halted adoption in that part of India, that the Smolins were able to confirm the story their adopted daughters had told them six weeks after their arrival – that their parents had sent them to a hostel for an education, and they had been adopted out, without their consent.

For the last several years, the Smolins have been researching international adoption to try to figure out whether their case was a tragic fluke, akin to an airplane crash, or whether there are systemic problems within the inter-country adoption system that make it inherently vulnerable to corruption and abuse.

"The answer has unfortunately been it is systemic," Desiree Smolin says.

David Smolin argues that children have been commodified and often made into "paper orphans." In one scenario, poor parents send the children to live in a hostel or orphanage to receive food, care and education; in others, developing world recruiters use false statements or money to separate kids from their parents, or persuade them to relinquish a child to repay a debt. Sometimes extended family members or strangers simply take them. Other times lost children are taken in and little effort is made to find their families.

The children in orphanages in many countries (including potentially Haiti, UNICEF warns) are not necessarily parentless children, orphans in the Western understanding of the word.

"Our assumptions are all off," Desiree Smolin says. "We assume that every child in an orphanage is an orphan."

There are opportunities throughout the expensive adoption process for recruiters, adoption agencies, orphanages, officials and attorneys to pocket thousands of dollars – and unless we limit the amount of money Westerners can spend on foreign adoption, the financial incentive will continue to fuel corruption, David Smolin argues.

"When my wife and I first began talking about this we got very negative reactions, overwhelmingly," David Smolin says. But he says that has changed in more recent years, with well-publicized scandals in countries such as Cambodia and Guatemala and fewer foreign adoptees coming into the U.S. since 2004, when the figure peaked at 22,884.

And the media have indeed started paying attention.

In 2008, E.J. Graff published an often-cited award-winning investigative piece in Foreign Policy called "The Lie We Love," describing international adoption as a corrupt industry driven by poverty and Western demand.

And just last fall, for example, the L.A. Times reported that instead of levying fines for failing to comply with one-child policies in some rural parts of China, officials were snatching babies for adoption, turning a $3,000 per child profit in the process.

COULD THE international adoption system be inherently flawed? The idea is understandably unsettling for people in Canada, a country that saw 1,908 international adoptions in 2008 – and in the past two weeks, has ushered two planeloads of Haitian orphans into the arms of Canadian families.

In 1993, Canada became a part of the Hague Convention on inter-country adoption, which was formed to better protect children from abuse and trafficking. Although it has a lengthy adoption approval process, Haiti is not a part of the Hague Convention.

Because of stricter regulation in many countries, it became more difficult for Canadians to adopt from abroad; between 2003 and 2006 the numbers dropped. They have since been edging back up.

Karen Shadd, a spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration, says adoption can be a lengthy process because of the need to ensure children are not being trafficked. "It's really not red tape ... the best interests of the child come first and we have to ensure that everything has been done, that the children have been legitimately placed for adoption," she says.

Even the system's skeptics and critics will say international adoption can be a good alternative for poor children in poor countries – if governments, parents and adoption agencies are vigilant.

The threat of trafficking for the purposes of adoption or prostitution becomes much graver during disasters like the current one in Haiti, which has left thousands of children orphaned or unaccompanied. Even before the earthquake, trafficking and kidnapping of children was a problem in the Western hemisphere's poorest country, and the post-quake chaos has reportedly made things worse.

In one case, a Canadian pastor told reporters that a man offered to sell him a little Haitian boy for $50. He refused.

Concern for the children's well being led Canadia and the U.S. to expedite adoptions already underway – Canada has welcomed 76 children and counting.

But it is not a time for haste. The Haitian government has since decided that the prime minister must sign off on every child that leaves the country. The U.S. government has asked its citizens for patience.

"We've heard quite a few who have suggested, `Why don't we just bring these children out (of Haiti) until things are better?'" says Patrick McCormick, an emergency communications officer with UNICEF. "Our problem with that is that it makes the whole registration, tracing process difficult to impossible, if they're kind of gone."

McCormick says UNICEF supports the decision to fast-track adoptions that were already approved, provided the paperwork is in order. But he says: "Now, post-earthquake, just because there is this disaster there's no reason to take any short cuts."


Sandra Scarth, president of the Adoption Council of Canada, agrees that the inter-country adoption system is flawed. She signed the Hague Convention as a non-governmental representative – and says, like the Smolins, that because it does not place a financial limit on adoption fees, tragedies will continue.

"I think until there is some agreement that no more than the actual cost plus a reasonable compensation for people doing the work (is allowed), I think we will continue to see people rush from one country to the next country," she says. "Then practices will be poor, they will then close that country down and start over."

KAREN DUBINSKY, a history professor at Queen's University with a 10-year-old son adopted from Guatemala, says the corruption in international adoption is a symptom of systemic poverty.

"Global poverty and political economy creates desperate people," says Dubinsky, whose book Babies Without Borders: Adoption and Migration Across the Americas, is due this spring. "One desperate person might snatch the child out of the arms of another desperate person, or one desperate mother might make her own set of decisions about needing to relinquish her child. I don't think it's adoption that creates that stuff – I think adoption responds to it, and it sometimes doesn't respond all that well."

Dubinsky says we must not assume that orphaned children in impoverished countries are isolated and alone – as if they live in cabbage patches, like the popular dolls of the '80s.

"When I see the imagery that comes through, sometimes in the media and certainly the imagery of adoption agencies, it's always children alone," Dubinsky says. "Children aren't alone. They may or may not have parents, but they have communities and they have extended family and they're not waiting for Western people to rescue them."


Dubinsky believes international adoption can indeed be done ethically. She knows her son wasn't stolen – she has met his biological mother and his foster family in Guatemala. She believes that in the "good" adoption scenario, we must respect the mother's decision to relinquish her child, whatever her reasons might be.

There is a lot of potential loss involved in international adoption, says Rachel Wegner, a board member on the international policy advocacy team of Ethica, a not-for-profit dedicated to ethical adoption. "There's a loss of culture, there's a loss of family and there's also a loss of friends and support networks the child has developed in the orphanage."

In an ideal world, Wegner says, foreign adoption would be the last resort for children – they would ideally be placed with extended family members first, and then in domestic placements to unrelated caregivers.

"Our fear in a lot of this is that those two steps are skipped."

Desiree Smolin puts it in starker terms. "I'll give you an analogy," she says. "Amputations are sometimes necessary, but you don't want every doctor that you see when you go in with your toe hurting, you don't want an amputation."

You need a doctor, she says, who is careful enough to know when the amputation is needed and when it isn't.
Read more!

Haiti detains Americans taking kids across border

By FRANK BAJAK and PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writers Frank Bajak And Paisley Dodds, Associated Press Writers Sun Jan 31, 6:21 pm ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Ten U.S. Baptists detained trying to take 33 children out of earthquake-shattered Haiti without government permission say they were just trying to do the right thing, applying Christian principles to save Haitian children.

But their "Orphan Rescue Mission" is striking nerves in a country that has long suffered from child trafficking and foreign interventions, and where much of the aid is delivered in ways that challenge Haiti's own rich religious traditions.


Prime Minister Max Bellerive on Sunday told The Associated Press that the group was arrested and is under judicial investigation "because it is illegal trafficking of children and we won't accept that."

The Americans are the first people to be arrested since the Jan 12 quake on such suspicions.

The government and established child welfare agencies are trying to slow Haitian adoptions amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to being seized and sold. Without proper documents and concerted efforts to track down their parents, they could be forever separated from family members able and willing to care for them. Bellerive's personal authorization is now required for the departure of any child.

The orphanage where the children were later taken said some of the kids have living parents, who were apparently told the children were going on a holiday from the post-quake misery.

The church group's own mission statement said it planned to spend only hours in the devastated capital, quickly identifying children without immediate families and busing them to a rented hotel in the Dominican Republic without bothering to get permission from the Haitian government.

Whatever their intentions, other child welfare organizations in Haiti said the plan was foolish at best.

"The instinct to swoop in and rescue children may be a natural impulse but it cannot be the solution for the tens of thousands of children left vulnerable by the Haiti earthquake," said Deb Barry, a protection expert at Save the Children, which wants a moratorium on new adoptions. "The possibility of a child being scooped up and mistakenly labeled an orphan in the chaotic aftermath of the disaster is incredibly high."

The church members, most from Idaho, said they were only trying to rescue abandoned and traumatized children.

"In this chaos the government is in right now, we were just trying to do the right thing," the group's spokeswoman, Laura Silsby, told the AP from inside Haiti's judicial police headquarters, where she and others were being held until a Monday hearing.

Officials said they lacked the proper documents for the children, whose names were written on pink tape on their shirts.

The children, ages 2 months to 12 years old, were taken to an orphanage run by Austrian-based SOS Children's Villages, where spokesman George Willeit said they arrived "very hungry, very thirsty, some dehydrated."

"One (8-year-old) girl was crying, and saying, 'I am not an orphan. I still have my parents.' And she thought she was going on a summer camp or a boarding school or something like that," Willeit said.

The orphanage was working Sunday to reunite the children with their families, joining a concerted effort by the Haitian government, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other NGOs.


In Idaho, the Rev. Clint Henry denied that his Central Valley Baptist Church had anything to do with child trafficking and said he didn't believe reports that some of the children had parents.

He urged his tearful congregation to pray to God to "help them as they seek to resist the accusations of Satan and the lies that he would want them to believe and the fears that he would want to plant into their heart."

As the poorest country in the western hemisphere, Haiti is in a difficult spot — it needs aid, but deeply resents foreign meddling. Many have a mixed feelings with American evangelical Christian groups that funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into their missions in Haiti.

"There are many who come here with religious ideas that belong more in the time of the inquisition," said Max Beauvoir, head of Haiti's Voodoo Priest's Association, which represents thousands of priests and priestesses. "These types of people believe they need to save our souls and our bodies from ourselves. We need compassion, not proselytizing now, and we need aid — not just aid going to people of the Christian faith."

Many religious groups run legitimate adoption agencies and orphanages in Haiti. Some of the children in them aren't actually orphans, but have been left by relatives who can't afford their care.

Other adoption brokers offer children to rich Haitians and foreigners in return for processing fees reaching $10,000, according to the intergovernmental International Organization for Migration.

For many poor Haitians, giving up their kids for adoption is the best hope for their children's future.
"Foreigners have come here a lot asking if we would be willing to have people abroad adopt one of our kids," said Joseph Emmanuel Amazon, 53, a former concrete laborer who helped build many houses crushed in the earthquake and now struggles to support seven kids.

"I've said yes — I see all these kids running around and I can't do anything for them. They would be better off in another country. I'd like one of them to go to the United States."

His wife, Marie Rita Pierre, agreed: "I would allow one of these groups to take one of my children. My youngest daughter wants to go to university. We can't help her. I think its good groups come here to take kids, even though most of the time they will lose touch with their families."

About 20 other Haitians interviewed Sunday echoed the same desperate conclusion.

"Some parents I know have already given their children to foreigners," said Adonis Helman, 44. "I've been thinking how I will choose which one I may give — probably my youngest."

Some were less convinced.

"If their parents are dead that's one thing, but there is no way I would give my three up," said Juliet Victor, 32, a jeans seller who is surviving for now on the few pairs that weren't destroyed in the rubble.

Silsby told the AP that she hadn't been following news reports while in Haiti, and didn't think she needed Haitian permission to take them out of the country. She said they only had the best of intentions and paid no money for the children, who she said were brought to a Haitian pastor by their distant relatives.

Child trafficking "is exactly what we are trying to combat," Silsby said.

The 10 detained Americans include members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, and the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho. They are part of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is America's largest Protestant denomination and has extensive humanitarian programs worldwide.

Another detainee is a parttime youth pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Tokpeka, Kan.

The Idaho churches became involved with the Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission because the founders, Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter, were members of its congregation in southwestern Idaho, Henry said.

The Idaho churches had elaborate plans before the earthquake to "provide a loving Christian homelike environment" for up to 200 Haitian and Dominican boys and girls in the Magante beach resort, complete with a school and chapel as well as villas and a seaside cafe catering to adoptive U.S. parents.

"One of the reasons that our church wanted to help is because we believe that Christ has asked us to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world, and that includes children," Henry, the senior pastor, said.

The 500-member church, where signs taped to large bins outside the pastors' offices read "Donations for Haiti," gave several thousand dollars to the mission, Henry said.

When the quake hit, they decided to move faster. Silsby, who runs an online shopping site in Idaho, quickly put their plan on Web site, soliciting tax-deductible donations while preparing their trip. "Given the urgent needs from this earthquake, God has laid upon our hearts the need to go now, versus waiting until the permanent facility is built," the group wrote.
___
Associated Press Writers Carolina Correa in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jessie Bonner and Keith Ridler in Idaho and Rachel Zoll in New York contributed to this story.
Read more!

Monday, February 1, 2010

UK: My Minx adopt an "orphan accessory" game - poking fun or just offensive?

Dear Friends:

I know I shouldn't be surprised, but honestly I am. Even after all these years of anti-trafficking/anti-exploitation advocacy I am sometimes surprised that fellow human beings are so lacking in decency, in common sense, and yes, even morality, that they invent things like this revolting game targeting young girls while intentionally embedding hypersexuality and racist stereotypes; and then have the audacity to call it all fun and harmless!

Just in case you are drawn into Chris Evans' "we're just letting kids make choices" hogwash, remember that pre-teen girls' minds are not fully developed. They do not have the cognitive capacity to analyze all that's going on in "the game." It is wrong to send such strong messages to children and then expect them to realize it's supposedly "satire."

Abolition!
Lisa
http://www.my-minx.com/
http://jezebel.com/5457525/my-minx-enraging-parents-lampooning-celebrity-culture http://tildabattersby.livejournal.com/12005.html

My Minx adopt an "orphan accessory" game - poking fun or just offensive?
Posted by [info]tildabattersby *
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 at 04:50 pm

A new online game aimed at pre-teen girls encourages players to buy orphans as “virtual fashion accessories”, administer contraceptives, and select from a range of character statuses including “preggers”, “horny” and “looking for rumpy pumpy”.

The My Minx game, developed by British firm Blighty Arts, requires players to choose highly sexualised features for their “minx” alter egos (including breast and waist size) and clothe them in revealing outfits and lingerie.

Once a “minx” has been created players can choose their “orphan accessories” from a virtual orphanage populated by children based on so-called “celebrity orphans” including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s children Pax, Maddox and Zahara.

The orphans’ characteristics are racially stereotyped: Cambodian Maddox is said to be fan of eating cockroaches while Ethiopian Zahara’s favourite food is “guinea pig”; and Monglian Jamiyan, modelled on Ewan McGregor’s daughter, apparently enjoys eating rats.


Players can go binge drinking, clubbing, pull men and then decide whether or not to take the morning after pill – and with players as young as seven-years old it is understandable that parent groups including Parentkind have expressed disapproval.


Blighty Arts claims on its website to “create artistic well researched and engaging on-line entertainment [with] a guiding set of principles that drive our business and influence our actions.”

The company’s director Chris Evans told The Telegraph: "It is nonsense to suggest our game is a bad influence on young …We should let them grow up making their own decisions about the games they play. The game teaches children about the world while poking fun at celebrity adoptions.”
Read more!

Haiti: USG Public Statement -- Operation Protect Children

OPERATION PROTECT CHILDREN
A Whole of Government Response to Haiti’s Most Vulnerable Children
January 27, 2010
Public Statement

The United States Government is deeply concerned about the welfare of children affected by the earthquake in Haiti and has pulled together its best and most experienced child protection and care personnel from Washington and the field. Under the leadership of the US Government Special Advisor for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, this team is developing and initiating Operation Protect Children to shape and guide US Government action and to ensure that our efforts are coordinated with that of the international community and that they are implemented in close consultation with the Haitian Government. This team is working on both immediate response issues as well as planning for the coming weeks, months, and years.

The US Government is committed to ensuring that every child who survived the devastating earthquake in Haiti is safe and protected. There are several groups of children who, due to their increased vulnerability, are receiving particular attention. These include children who have been separated from their families during the earthquake and children who were living in orphanages prior to the earthquake.

Many orphanages are caring for large numbers of children. However, it is important to note that most children living in these orphanages were placed there as a result of poverty, not necessarily because they are without a family. Until the status of parents and close relatives of children in orphanages can be determined, the US Government is assuming that family members or relatives are alive.

International and local partners, together with the Haitian Government, have come together to form the Child Protection Sub-cluster in Haiti, led by UNICEF. The US Government is linked into this coordination mechanism, which is working actively to ensure that all available resources and capacities are used rapidly and effectively to improve the safety and well-being of the most vulnerable children. The Sub-cluster is carrying out a rapid assessment of orphanages in the earthquake affected zone, with the aim of addressing security and subsistence needs. Safe Spaces have been established to provide nutritional and psychosocial support and activities for displaced children living in camps. In addition, interim care centers have been established to provide 24-hour care for children who have been separated from their families and are unaccompanied by an adult caregiver. As of January 26, UNICEF reports that at least 40,000 children had been reached through these activities. Twenty child Protection Brigades with the Haitian National Police have also been deployed to the airport and borders in an effort to prevent child trafficking.

In addition, the US Government’s Response Management Team in Washington is receiving and channeling requests for help to orphanages and directing this information to responders in Haiti. The priority in responding to children affected by the disaster in Haiti is to assist them in the location where they have been living, if possible, and if not, in another part of the country that is as close by as possible. After securing their safety and immediate welfare, efforts will be made to trace family members and assess whether, with assistance, they would be able to provide an adequate level of care. Experience in many other emergencies has shown that rapidly evacuating children to another country, though done with very good intentions, can separate families and is not the best way to ensure children’s safety and longer term well-being. It is the United States’ view that a child’s safety and well-being depend primarily on the protection and care their families are able to provide. In line with this principle, the US Government has made strengthening the capacity of families in Haiti to care for their children one of its highest priorities.

The Child Protection Sub-cluster has initiated a family tracing and reunification program with the aim of reuniting children with immediate or extended family members. It is in the process of setting up a 24 hour help line to facilitate the identification of separated children and tracing of their families. The International Committee of the Red Cross is also providing tracing services in Haiti, in partnership with the Haitian Red Cross. Until every effort has been made to reunite children with their families, adoption cannot be considered. However, the United States is expediting processing for orphans who were in the process of being adopted by American families before January 12, in order to unite them with their adoptive families in a manner that ensures proper safeguards.

What is the US Government doing to protect Haiti’s most vulnerable children?

The US Government has established Operation Protect Children to respond to the emergency and long-term needs of Haiti’s most vulnerable children, including those who are living in orphanages, unaccompanied and separated from their families.

Operation Protect Children is being led by the US Government’s Special Advisor on Orphans and Vulnerable Children, Gary Newton. Mr. Newton has been in Haiti since January 25th.

Operation Protect Children is supported by the US Government’s Response Management Team and the Interagency Working Group on Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Haiti in Washington, DC.

Operation Protect Children is working hand-in-hand with the Child Protection Sub-cluster in Haiti. The Sub-cluster is led by UNICEF and includes partners from 29 international organizations and non-governmental organizations. Many of these organizations, including UNICEF, are receiving funding from the US Government.

To date, the US Government has channeled $14 million through USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance to support the immediate needs of Haiti’s most vulnerable children and families, including emergency relief assistance, identification of separated and unaccompanied children, family tracing and the establishment of child-friendly spaces. US Government assistance to Haiti following the earthquake has totaled $379 million to date.

The Child Protection Sub-cluster is assessing children’s needs at orphanages, camps for internally displaced persons, crèches and hospitals in Port-au-Prince other earthquake-affected areas. Availability of food and services is uneven and the Child Protection Sub-cluster is working with international partners, including the World Food Program, to ensure immediate responses.

The Child Protection Sub-group is establishing a 24-hour public hotline to facilitate the identification of unaccompanied and separated children and family tracing.

UNICEF, in cooperation with the Government of Haiti, is establishing sites for emergency interim care for unaccompanied children. These sites will accommodate 900 children.

Child friendly spaces for 200,000 children are being established with US Government support.

Twenty child Protection Brigades with the Haitian National Police have also been deployed to the airport and borders in an effort to prevent child trafficking. Identification verification bracelets are being issued for separated and unaccompanied minors.

Needs are greater than current capacity to respond. The US Government is working with UNICEF and other actors to ensure that needs are met efficiently and effectively.

The US Government is developing an operational plan to meet the needs of Haiti’s most vulnerable children. The operational plan is being developed on the basis of internationally recognized principles, including the Interagency Guiding Principles on Unaccompanied and Separated Children.

For more information on the US Government’s response to Haiti’s most vulnerable children, please contact
HaitianChildrenUSAID@usaid.gov or (202) 712-0550.

For information pertaining to pending adoptions, please contact
AskCI@state.gov.
Read more!

UK: Green and Black's to go 100% Fairtrade

Dear Friends:

Here is news from the UK of important progress in the fight for Fairtrade chocolate. Let's hope for similar developments in the U.S. and the rest of the developed world.

Please note: "The average American eats almost 12 pounds of chocolate a year, supporting an industry that saw retail sales of more than $16 billion in 2006. If you’re among the 46 percent of Americans who say they can’t live without chocolate, you can avoid the well-documented problem of child slave labor in the cocoa industry, and direct your share of that $16 billion toward chocolate that helps communities and the environment. Look for candy bars, baking cocoa, hot chocolate mix, chocolate chips, chocolate coins, and miniatures."
(excerpt from:
http://www.greenamericatoday.org/PDF/GuideFairTrade.pdf)

Abolition!

Lisa


Green and Black's to go 100% Fairtrade
Move will make Green & Black's the world's leading manufacturer of organic Fairtrade chocolate

Organic chocolate maker Green & Black's today pledged to switch its entire worldwide food and beverage range to Fairtrade by the end of next year, in a groundbreaking move that will make it the world's leading manufacturer of organic Fairtrade chocolate.

The company's Maya Gold chocolate was the first official Fairtrade product to go on sale in Britain 15 years ago. Its extended range of chocolate bar and beverage products in the UK will start to carry the distinctive blue and green Fairtrade logo from late 2010, and it is hoped that full conversion of the entire chocolate bar and beverage range in more than 30 countries will be achieved by the end of 2011.

The move to Fairtrade certification will build on the original Fairtrade relationship with cocoa farmers in Belize through guaranteed funding. It will also significantly increase Fairtrade sales in the UK. Green & Black's annual retail sales are approximately £65m.

The Fairtrade market, which now covers products from developing countries ranging from chocolate and coffee to cotton, was worth £22m in 1999, according to a recent survey from the Co-op. Last year, sales of Fairtrade products grew to £635m and the Co-operative is predicting it could break the £1bn barrier in 2010.

The company, founded by the organic pioneer Craig Sams, was controversially sold in 2005 to confectionery giant Cadbury for a reported £20m. Providing a shareholder revolt does not stop Kraft's takeover of Cadbury this month, it will become wholly owned by the US company in February.

The Fairtrade funding, approximately £300,000 a year, received by farmers in the Dominican Republic will be spent on sustainability initiatives which will include improving quality, yields and education, which in turn will increase income for farmers, ensure the cocoa industry becomes more sustainable and secure the supply of high-quality organic cocoa beans to support the brand's international growth.

Dominic Lowe, managing director of Green & Black's, said: "We buy quality, organic Trinitario cocoa beans from co-operatives in the Dominican Republic, and have done so for 10 years. Up until now we have committed US $500,000 in local initiatives to improve quality and availability, but we wanted to do more to support farmers."

The Fairtrade Foundation (UK) executive director, Harriet Lamb, commented: "This newest commitment to Fairtrade will enable producers to benefit themselves, scale up their businesses and invest in their communities, not just now but for the future."

The move represents another major coup for Fairtrade, which last year certified Cadbury's Dairy Milk, and means chocolate is now a mainstream Fairtrade product alongside bananas, tea and coffee.

It was also announced in December that the UK's best-selling chocolate biscuit bar, Kit Kat, is to receive ethical certification through the Fairtrade quality mark, from this month.


The Co-operative switched all their own label block chocolate to Fairtrade in 2002, resulting in a 50% sales volume uplift in the 12 months following the move. The Co-operative's milk chocolate bar was the UK's first own-brand Fairtrade product launched in 2005.
Read more!