JUST Thoughts

Act to prevent release of Kayne West monstrous women hating music video

2011-01-12T22:48:00.001+11:00

Dear Friends:

Melinda Tankard Reist, author of Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualization of Girls, has put out a call for the public to respond to the forthcoming release of the music video for "Monstrous" a song by Kayne West.
The outcry is in connection to a video teaser leaked by HipHopConnection.com. The leaked video is now being blocked, but you can get a sense of some elements of the video by watching this behind the scenes video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuZ_VR6nLdw&feature=related. This behind the scenes video shows a "dead" woman laying spread eagle on a table in front of Rick Ross as he eats a plate of raw meat.
In just 30 seconds the leaked (but now blocked) video showed viewers image after image of eroticized violence against women:

· Dead women, clad in lingerie, hang by chains around their necks
· West makes sexual moves toward dead or drugged women propped up in a bed
· A naked dead or drugged woman lays sprawled on a sofa

The victims in this video are clearly women. Only women. And the men, Kanye West, Rick Ross, and Jay-Z are far from bothered by the female corpses. They seem to quite like being surrounded by lifeless female bodies, apparent victims of a serial killing. It is likely we can expect more brutal images in the full-length video.

For more about the video and efforts to stop its release (there is a petition you can sign) see Melinda's blog at:
http://melindatankardreist.com/2011/01/act-to-prevent-release-of-kanye-west%E2%80%99s-monstrous-women-hating-music-video/
Abolition!
Lisa

US/Sudan: Book Release -- Passport Through Darkness

2011-01-04T09:25:00.005+11:00

Life on the Edge
One Woman’s Extreme Journey to Finding a Life That Matters

Click here to view the Passport Through Darkness book trailer!

Each one of us longs to know we matter. We hunger to know that we have purpose, our life has meaning, and God dreams great dreams for us. In Passport Through Darkness: A True Story of Danger and Second Chances, Kimberly Smith invites us into her own struggles as an ordinary woman who feels those aches, asks those questions, and stumbles through a quest to find her place in a broken world.

Kimberly L Smith, co-founder and president, of Make Way Partners a non-profit mission agency that goes where women & children are at highest risk of human trafficking, forced prostitution and other forms of modern-day slavery and where little to no other help is available because it is considered either "too" dangerous, "too" expensive or "too" remote for most people to go.

Smith was an average American woman—a wife, mother, corporate executive, and faithful church member. But she knew something was missing from her life. When a bone-chilling experience awakened her desire to find true purpose, Smith and her family began a lifelong adventure serving those who never knew a greater purpose could exist.

Traveling around the world and deep into the darkness of her own heart, Smith’s worst fears collided with her faith as she and her family discovered the atrocities of human trafficking. But in that broken place a self-centered life was transformed into an international effort to save thousands from modern-day slavery, persecution, disease, and genocide.

As Smith and her husband risk everything for orphans at-risk to human trafficking in Eastern Europe and Africa, they see God work again and again in impossible situations, especially in their own lives and marriage. They see God change them—even in their exhaustion, marital struggles, and physical limitations. They see the beauty of living out God’s dreams.

This is a book of hope for anyone who longs to see God’s redemptive power heal broken hearts, fill empty bellies, and shelter uncovered heads. It is a call to take one more step on your own journey to know God’s heart and purpose for your life. It is a guide from one ordinary person to another to find a life that matters.

Smith writes, "My prayer is that God will use my wounds and my transgressions to encourage you to risk losing everything to discover the life God dreams for you. It’s life on the edge, where so much is uncertain, maybe even scary, certainly out of our control. But it’s also where true freedom lives."

Your story may be different from hers, but God’s hopes for you are just as big. "Your destination," Smith writes, "is the same as mine—an intimate encounter between you and your Creator. But your route will be filled with adventures, both mild and wild, made just for you. It will lead you to where God’s pleasure and your purpose meet."

Let Kimberly’s remarkable story show you the grit, the pain, and the beauty of letting go of it all to find the dream God dreamed when He shaped you in His Hands.

About the Author: Kimberly L. Smith is the president and cofounder of Make Way Partners, a mission organization committed to ending human trafficking. She is currently leading Make Way Partners to build the only private and indigenously based anti-trafficking network in Africa and Eastern Europe. A devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, Smith lives with her husband, Milton, in Sylacauga, Alabama.

Passport through Darkness: A True Story of Danger and Second Chances by Kimberly L. Smith
January 1, 2011/ISBN 978-1-4347-0212-8/224 pages/softcover/$14.99
http://www.kimberlylsmith.com/

What others are saying about Kimberly L Smith’s new book Passport through Darkness:

"Kimberly Smith voluntarily walks through the gates of hell. If you can read her accounts without being affected, you should check for a pulse."
- Philip Yancey, author of What Good is God? And What’s So Amazing about Grace

"I appreciate your efforts and those of Make Way Partners to rescue and care for the orphans of Sudan. I respect the ministry you lead and the fact that it cares equally for all children, whether Christian, Muslim, African, or Arab. By eliminating the divisors of religion and skin color you exemplify Christian peacemaking."
- Jimmy Carter, former US president and founder of The Carter Center

"Kimberly Smith has seen the desperation and powerlessness of people caught up in the struggle for life and survival. Her experiences in Darfur bring home the brutality and pain of those who suffer and the indifference of the world beyond. Yet the central message of this book is not despair, but hope. It is a powerful reminder that God forgives and renews and that His love stretches into the most hopeless situation in life and draws us into truth."
- Dr. Elaine Storkey, author, broadcaster, president of Tearfund, and ambassador for Restored

"If I didn’t know Kimberly well, I would have thought she was writing fiction. Passport through Darkness is real, raw, full of vulnerability—and is infused with much hope and love. But I do know Kimberly well and I know that she has experienced the darkest sides of humanity—and the brightest piercings of the light of God’s redemptive love. Reading this book will propel us all beyond our self-imposed boundaries, to the ultimate risk of finding and following Christ’s call for our own lives."
- Rev. Dr. Lauran Bethell, global consultant, Ministries with Victims of Human Trafficking and Prostitution, International Ministries, ABC/USA; coordinator, International Christian Alliance on Prostitution (ICAP); and former director, New Life Center, Chiang Mai, Thailand

"From her camp in the desert Kimberly L. Smith pulls back the canvas of her tent to show us the good, the bad and the ugly of our world today in Passport Through Darkness. She allows us to see into her ‘tent of meeting’ (Exodus 33:7) with God. The level of transparency and intimacy she reveals in her walk with God and her husband is encouraging, inspiring, motivating, and challenging. This book challenges Westerners about their contentment with insulated ‘secure’ lives—as we sit and sing our polite little songs in our pristine churches. How do we not stand up for our brothers and sisters thousands of miles away where human beings are treated without dignity—trafficked, bought, sold, and traded like animals."

- Tomi Lee "T.L." Grover, PhD, anti-trafficking consultant and founder

http://www.traffickstop.org/">www.TraffickStop.org

Charlie Sheen's life provides WRAP Week object lesson . . . .

2010-11-04T09:55:00.001+11:00

Dear Friends:

Here is an important message from our friends at Morality in Media relating WRAP week to tragic current events.

Abolition,

Lisa

NEWS RELEASE from MORALITY IN MEDIA, INC.475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1264, New York, NY 10115
Contact: Robert Peters 1-212-870-3210

Charlie Sheen’s life provides WRAP Week object lesson in how addiction to pornography can harm marriages, children and some careers

NEW YORK (11/3/10): According to press reports, on Monday the 45-year old actor Charlie Sheen filed for divorce from his third wife, just days after an alleged alcohol and drug-fueled rampage at New York City’s Plaza Hotel. The rampage began after his 22-year-old “porn star date” for the evening allegedly refused to have sex with him until he paid her $12,000. Coincidentally, this year White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP) Week runs Sunday, Oct. 31, through Sunday, Nov. 7. The goal of the annual WRAP Week is to heighten public awareness of the harms associated with pornography and the need to enforce obscenity laws to curb the proliferation of hardcore adult pornography online and elsewhere.

Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, had these comments:

Following Mr. Sheen’s alleged rampage at the Plaza Hotel, I did a “Google search” for information about his use of pornography. What I found at http://www.thesmokinggun.com">www.thesmokinggun.com was a “Declaration” (dated 4/19/06) that his second wife, Denise Richards, filed in her divorce case. It stated in part:

“Although Respondent told me that he only used prostitutes during the time he and I were separated, I didn’t believe him...Respondent promised that he would not be with prostitutes; however, he told me that he was not going to give up his...pornography habit and that I had to accept it[at p.10]...Respondent came into the house...I told him that I discovered some pornography websites that he belonged to which I found very disturbing (websites which promoted very young children, which looked underage to me with pigtails, braces and no pubic hair performing oral sex on each other). I also told him about other websites I discovered that he accessed involving gay pornography and also involving very young men who also did not look like adults. I also discovered that the Respondent belonged to several sex search type sites, which he looked for women to have sex with...When I confronted Respondent with this information, he did not deny it. I told him that as a mother, I found this information very disturbing because we had two young daughters and that I believed he had a serious problem...I later had an AIDS test which he was upset about[at pp.11-12]...Respondent and I spoke...on April 9, 2006...I told the Respondent that I was very concerned about the children spending the night at his house because of the activities he was involved in with prostitutes...and pornography...I confronted him with information...that he was still having prostitutes at his house. He did not deny this[at p.15]...”

If true, Ms. Richards’ account of her marriage to Charlie Sheen may illustrate several harms commonly associated with addiction to pornography, namely:

Acting out pornography fueled sexual fantasies with prostitutes
Progression from viewing hardcore adult pornography to viewing pornography that depicts actual children or performers who look like children
Children being exposed to a parent’s pornography
A wrecked marriage

Under normal circumstances, such behavior could also result in loss of a job, but Sheen is a Hollywood celebrity; and these days outrageous behavior often serves to increase an actor’s popularity and promote a career. According to a story in Sunday’s NY Post, a CBS “network insider” told the Post that Sheen’s bosses were “quietly thrilled,” thinking that his behavior will boost ratings for “Two and a Half Men.” And sure enough, according to a report in Tuesday’s LA Times, ratings for Monday’s program “soar[ed].”

In Hollywood’s Golden Age, there were standards for entertainment content and for actors’ off stage behavior. Today, content is often a moral stench, and actors’ off stage behavior often smells worse.

White Ribbon Against Pornography Week

2010-10-27T09:23:00.003+11:00

Dear Friends:

This is a friendly reminder that this coming weekend begins White Ribbon Against Pornography Week. I hope many of you will take advantage of this opportunity to share about pornography's harms with your family, friends, and congregations.

For inspiration, here is what Captain Mark Czanderna of Gaffney, SC, plans to share about with his corps:

"This Sunday, I plan to talk about how Christians are not only to abstain from works of darkness, we are to EXPOSE them (Ephesians 5:11). Psalm 97:10 says that those who love the Lord are to hate evil. My primary objective is to thwart people from going down the porn road and to rescue those who are on that road (a road to destruction). My secondary goal is to expose how monstrous and enslaving the porn and trafficking business is... just as William, Catherine and Bramwell did so many years ago. While many media outlets normalize the pornification of people, our media outlets seek to protect them and uphold their dignity. We need to keep hitting this giant head on and trust like David did that one small person with God can take off a giant's head."

Additionally, Captain Mark has developed a terrific sermon outline that may be of help to those of you who want to attack this issue but feel ill equipped to do so. You can find his sermon notes (developed with resources from http://www.porn-free.org/) and the 2010 WRAP flyer attached below. For additional resources please visit: http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/anti-pornography.

2010 WRAP Flyer

Sermon Notes

Abolition!

Lisa

Highway killers are target of FBI

2010-10-13T12:07:00.001+11:00

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Highway serial killers may be responsible for 459 killings in the last four decades on U.S. roads from Alaska to Key West, FBI statistics show.

The victims are often prostitutes, abducted in one state and killed and dumped in another, authorities say, and the suspects are almost always long-haul truck drivers.

READ MORE: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/10/05/Highway-killers-are-target-of-FBI/UPI-62641286299749/

U.S. infected Guatemalans for STD tests

2010-10-11T09:44:00.002+11:00

Dear Friends:

The story is disturbing on multiple levels: unethical medical experimentation on human beings is utterly appalling. However, I'm sadly not surprised that the study involved such experimentation on women in prostitution. As this article makes clear minorities, the mentally impaired, the imprisoned, and prostituting women are tragically often viewed as expendable.

As for the women in prostitution, not only is it outrageous that men in prison were supplied women for sex, some of these same women were purposefully infected with syphilis by putting "infectious material on the cervixes of uninfected prostitutes before they had sex with prisoners.

"This is a shame to our nation, and a tragedy for all those who these ruthless doctors exploited for their own ends.

Abolition!

Lisa

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 2, 2010

The United States revealed on Friday that the government conducted medical experiments in the 1940s in which doctors infected soldiers, prisoners and mental patients in Guatemala with syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The experiments, led by a federal doctor who helped conduct the famous Tuskegee syphilis study in Alabama, involved about 1,500 men and women who were unwittingly drafted into studies aimed at determining the effectiveness of penicillin.

The tests, which were carried out between 1946 and 1948, infected subjects by bringing them prostitutes who were either already infected or purposefully infected by the researchers and by using needles to open wounds that could be contaminated."

Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a joint statement apologizing for the experiments. "We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices.

"President Obama had been briefed about the revelations and called Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom to "personally express that apology," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said."Obviously, this is shocking. It's tragic. It's reprehensible," Gibbs said.

The Guatemalan government planned to investigate, saying it "deeply deplores that these experiments affected innocent people," according to a statement issued late in the day.

In addition to exposing another episode of unethical medical experimentation, officials said the revelations were concerning because they could further discourage already often-suspicious minorities and others from participating in medical research. They also come as U.S. drug companies are increasingly going to poor, less-educated countries to test new drugs and other therapies."

At a time when so much medical research is global, it behooves us to take account of what has been done in the past by American researchers in other countries," said Susan M. Reverby, a professor in the history of ideas and professor of women's and gender studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts who discovered the experiments while investigating Tuskegee for a book.

In Tuskegee, perhaps the most notorious medical experiment in U.S. history, hundreds of African American men with late-stage syphilis were left untreated to study the disease between 1932 and 1972. In the Guatemala case, the subjects were treated, but it remains unclear whether they were treated adequately or what became of them.

Reverby discovered the experiments while reading papers in the University of Pittsburgh's archives from John C. Cutler, a doctor with the federal government's Public Health Service who later participated in Tuskegee. He died in 2003.

"I almost fell out of my chair when I started reading this," Reverby said in a telephone interview. "Can you imagine? I couldn't believe it."

The studies were sponsored by the Public Health Service, the National Institutes of Health and the Pan American Health Sanitary Bureau (now the World Health Organization's Pan American Health Organization) and the Guatemalan government. The goal was to assess whether taking penicillin right after sex would prevent sexually transmitted infections.

Cutler, Guatemalan health official Juan Funes and colleagues decided to study men in Guatemala City's Central Penitentiary because its prisoners were allowed to have sex with prostitutes. Some of the prostitutes tested positive for syphilis; in other cases, doctors put infectious material on the cervixes of uninfected prostitutes before they had sex with prisoners.

But because so few men were getting infected, the researchers then attempted "direct inoculations made from syphilis bacteria poured into the men's penises and on forearms and faces that were slightly abraded . . . or in a few cases through spinal punctures," Reverby wrote in a synopsis of the experiments.

They conducted similar experiments involving gonorrhea and chancroid and on soldiers in an army barracks and on men and women in the National Mental Health Hospital. In some cases, the subjects drank "syphilitic tissue mixed with distilled water," Reverby wrote in a synopsis of the testing. Doctors used needles to scrape the arms, faces or mouths of the women to try to infect them.

A number of high-ranking U.S. government officials knew about the research, including Thomas Parran Jr., who was then U.S. surgeon general, the documents show. "You know, we couldn't do such an experiment in this country," Parran said, according to Cutler. Parran died in 1968.

The gonorrhea studies involved 772 subjects, 234 of whom became infected and 233 of whom received treatment, according to an investigation by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The chancroid studies involve 142 subjects, including 138 who became infected and 129 who received treatment. The syphilis experiments involved 497 subjects who were exposed to the bacteria that causes the disease, 427 of whom became infected and 332 of whom received treatment. A total of 443 of the subjects actually developed syphilis; 331 received treatment, although only 85 could be documented to have received full treatment, the CDC found.

Gonorrhea can cause a variety of complications, including infertility. Chancroid can cause painful ulcers. Syphilis can cause blindness, major organ damage, paralysis, dementia and death.

Seventy-one of the syphilis subjects died during the study, including one from a fatal epileptic seizure, but it was unclear whether any were caused by the studies. The fates of the other subjects will be investigated, officials said.

The researchers also took blood samples from 438 children at the National Orphanage, but in that case, they did not purposefully infect anyone, Reverby said.

Cutler discontinued the experiments "when it proved difficult to transfer the disease and other priorities at home seemed more important," she wrote. The results were never published. Cutler died in 2003.

Reverby shared her discovery last spring with David Sencer, a retired director of the CDC, who notified current CDC officials, leading to Friday's public disclosure. Reverby describes the tests in a 29-page paper that will be published in January in the Journal of Policy History.

NIH Director Francis S. Collins condemned the experiment and said strict prohibitions are in place to prevent such abuses from happening today.

"This case of unethical human subject research represents an appalling example from a dark chapter in the history of medicine," Collins told reporters during a telephone briefing Friday.

Although Collins said it was important that the experiments had been made public, he acknowledged that the revelation could deepen entrenched suspicions about scientists and doctors. The Tuskegee experiment continues to be blamed for making many minorities reluctant to participate in medical studies or even seek medical care."

We are concerned about the way in which this horrendous experiment, even though it was 60 years ago, may appear to people hearing about it today as indicative of research studies that are not conducted in an ethical fashion," Collins said. "Today, the regulations that govern research funded by the United States government, whether conducted domestically or internationally, would absolutely prohibit this type of study."

The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine will also investigate the experiment and the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues will form a panel of international experts to "ensure that all human medical research conducted around the globe today meets rigorous ethical standards," officials said.

One Phone Call from Truck Driver Rescues Nine

2010-09-02T08:39:00.000+10:00

One truck driver who noticed two young girls being worked at a truck stop, made the 911 call to police and an amazing set of events took place. The two girls, 15 and 14, were seen going in and out of the trucks and appeared to be distraught and at times, just simply afraid. Feeling something was not right, the alert trucker called police, informing them that the two girls "appeared pretty young."

Not only were the two Ohio girls minors, but they also turned out to be kidnap victims of human trafficking. The two minors were saved and returned to their families, but the story did not end there. Because of this one phone call from this one truck driver, seven other minor children were saved leading to the conviction of thirty one human trafficking offenders and led to the shutting down of a thirteen-state prostitution ring.

One phone call from one trucker . . . 9 lives saved . . . 31 offenders convicted . . . 13 state ring shut down . . . from one phone call.

READ MORE & WATCH A VIDEO AT: http://www.askthetrucker.com/one-phone-call-from-truck-driver-rescues-nine/

ICAP Global Conference

2010-09-02T08:33:00.003+10:00

May 22-27, 2011

You will go out in joy and be lead forth in peace.
Isaiah 55:12

The conference will focus on caring for and resourcing the practitioner. The conference will also benefit anyone interested in issues regarding sexual exploitation of adults:

Those involved with ministries to women and men in prostitution.
Those who want to start a ministry
Churches and individuals seeking to learn, support , become involved
Missionaries, charities, foundations and other organizations who are involved and/or want further resources in this area.

Objectives of Conference:

Unite
Equip
Empower
Journey Together

Workshop Emphases:

Self-Care: Grief & Trauma, Secondary Trauma, Contemplation,
Meditation/Prayer
Working with Men/Women: Prevention; Rehab, Reintegration,
Restoration
Relationships: Collaboration with Governments, Churches and
other organizations

Co-Sponsored by Green Lake Conference Center www.glcc.org and International Christian Alliance on Prostitution www.icapglobal.org

Facilitating the conference is Lauran Bethell, coordinator for the leadership team of ICAP. Lauran is also a Global Consultant with International Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA, and is internationally recognized for her work among victims of human trafficking and prostitution.

SPONSORSHIPS NEEDED

Help is needed with the cost ($1000) to bring practitioners and others from developing countries to the conference. To participate in sponsoring someone who could not otherwise afford this opportunity, contact Marion Kobow.

This conference serves as a catalyst for creating and cementing regional and global networks, while offering emotional, spiritual and physical renewal.

READ MORE: http://www.icapglobal.org/pdf/ICAP%202011%20Flyer.pdf

Spain Breaks Up a Trafficking Ring for Male Prostitution

2010-09-02T08:30:00.001+10:00

By RAPHAEL MINDER
Published: August 31, 2010

MADRID — The Spanish police said Tuesday that it had dismantled for the first time a human trafficking network bringing men rather than women into the country to work as prostitutes.

The police said 14 people, almost all of them Brazilian, were arrested over recent weeks as part of an inquiry into the network’s activities begun in February.

The sex workers were recruited in Brazil, with their travel costs to Spain initially covered by the trafficking network’ organizers in return for a pledge to work subsequently for them, according to a police statement. Most of the recruits, however, expected to work as models or nightclub dancers, although some allegedly knew that they were coming to Spain to offer sex.

The police estimated that between 60 and 80 men were brought to Spain by the network, most of them in their 20s and originating from Brazil’s northern state of Maranhão. They reached Spain by passing through third countries.

The network covered the whole of Spain, with the sex workers placed in, and then switched regularly between, apartments whose landlords received half of the money earned by them, as well as €200, or about $255, to cover food and lodging, officials said.

The police released a video of one of the apartments in which some of the arrests were made, with bunk beds and mattresses cramped into neon-lit rooms. The gang, meanwhile, advertised pictures of the men on Web sites as well as in classified newspaper ads. The sex workers were allegedly provided with Viagra, cocaine and other stimulants to help keep them available for sex 24 hours a day. Most of their customers are suspected to have been men.

The bulk of the arrests occurred on the island of Majorca, including that of the Brazilian accused of being the ringleader, whose identity was not disclosed by the police. The prostitutes ended up owing the network as much as €4,000 each and were sometimes threatened with death if they refused to pay the debt, according to the Spanish police.

READ MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/world/europe/01iht-spain.html

Zurich planning drive-in sex-boxes

2010-08-27T16:16:00.003+10:00

Dear Friends:

More proof that truth is stranger than fiction, and that men will stop at no lengths to protect prostitution. I mean really -- prostitution would diminish if we actually demanded that men started controlling themselves!

Abolition!

Lisa

One of the German Sex-Boxen that Zurich police are planning to implement

Police chiefs in Switzerland are planning to build a series of drive-in sex-boxes to enable prostitutes to conduct their business with punters without disturbing the neighbourhood.
The idea - imported from German cities like Essen and Cologne - is being proposed by Zurich police chief Daniel Leupi as a way to let prostitutes work in a more discreet way.

The idea comes after thousands of complaints by householders whose homes overlook the thriving red light district in Zurich.

'They get up to all sorts in broad daylight - and we're sick to death of looking at it,' said one.
Police spokesman Reto Casanova (his actual name) said: 'We can't get rid of prostitution, so we have to learn how to control it.'

Attorneys general call for Craigslist to get rid of adult services ads

2010-08-27T16:13:00.002+10:00

By the CNN Wire Staff
August 25, 2010 7:57 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Attorneys general in 17 states have banded together to call on Craigslist, the online classified ad website, to discontinue its adult services section.

"The increasingly sharp public criticism of Craigslist's Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution -- including ads trafficking children -- are rampant on it," the attorneys general said in a Tuesday letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark.

The letter continued: "We recognize that Craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads. No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist."

A Craigslist spokeswoman said Wednesday that the site agreed with at least some of the letter.

"We strongly support the attorneys general desire to end trafficking in children and women, through the Internet or by any other means," Susan MacTavish Best, who handles media inquiries for Craigslist, told CNN Wednesday.

"We hope to work closely with them, as we are with experts at nonprofits and in law enforcement, to prevent misuse of our site in facilitation of trafficking, and to combat such crimes wherever they appear, online or offline."

In their letter, the attorneys general highlighted an open letter, which appeared as a Washington Post ad, in which two girls said they were sold for sex on Craigslist.

When the ad came out, Buckmaster wrote a blog post in response that said, "Craigslist is anxious to know that the perpetrators in these girls' cases are behind bars."

The letter also highlighted a report in May by CNN's Amber Lyon, who posted a fake ad in the adult section. She received 15 calls soliciting sex in three hours.

Earlier this month, Lyon interviewed a woman named "Jessica" who sells sex on Craigslist. She told Lyon a Craigslist ad was "the fastest, quickest way you're for sure going to see somebody that day."
In a later blog, Buckmaster said Craigslist implemented manual screening of adult services ads in May 2009. "Since that time, before being posted each individual ad is reviewed by an attorney." He said the attorneys are trained to enforce Craigslist's posting guidelines, "which are stricter than those typically used by yellow pages, newspapers, or any other company that we are aware of."

Attorneys general from Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia made the request a week after accused "Craigslist killer" Philip Markoff committed suicide in jail.
Markoff was charged with the April 2009 killing of Julissa Brisman. Boston Police said that Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, and Markoff might have met her through the website.
In 2008, under pressure from state prosecutors, the website raised the fees for posting adult services ads. In 2009, it started donating portions of the money generated by adult ads to charity.

A CNN investigation of Craigslist's "adult services" section, which replaced "erotic services ads" two years ago, counted more than 7,000 ads in a single day. Many offered thinly veiled "services" for anything from $50 for a half hour to $400 an hour.

Newmark has defended his site, saying it is doing more than any other site that hosts adult ads to help filter out underage prostitutes and report them to police. Best, the Craigslist spokeswoman, said that fewer than one ad in 10,000 meets the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's guidelines for anti-trafficking action.

"Only Craigslist has the power to stop these ads before they are even published, and sadly they are completely unwilling to do so," Kansas Attorney General Steve Six said in a statement.

Egypt: Trafficking continues, young girls at risk

2010-08-25T08:46:00.002+10:00

CAIRO: An Egyptian report published earlier this month by the Unit for the Prevention of Trafficking Children of the ministry of state for family and population, revealed the many challenges facing this growing phenomenon. The report said there is a new subculture of brokers existing in Egypt that are promoting the benefits of marrying off underage girls, but the statistics remain the government’s biggest shortcoming.

There is little "accurate information about the size of the actual and the various dimensions of the issue of child trafficking at the domestic and international levels in Egypt because it is a secret trade that takes place."

The ministry’s report noted that it is difficult even to call it a phenomenon due to the overall lack of quantified statistics.

However, the report said Egypt is attempting to prevent trafficking "due to the success of brokers and this is one of the top priorities" of the ministry.

The report, which was conducted from June 2009 to June 2010, said "there were no controls to regulate the employment of children and domestic workers, despite the adoption of the Children Act and that there were no accurate statistics available on them in addition to child labor, which is one of the issues intertwined with the issue of trafficking in children, marriage and require coordination with various parties."

Yussra Abdel-Ghany, a ministry spokeswoman in Alexandria, told Bikya Masr that in order to fully gauge the situation, "we must start to correlate all the available information into hard facts so we and other institutions know how to tackle the issue."

She added that the use of hotlines has "increased dramatically and this is a sign that the problem is not going away and that there are many young girls out there that need our help."

Read more: http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=15991

Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban

2010-08-23T11:10:00.003+10:00

Dear Friends:

As many of you know, I sometimes circulate articles pertaining to women's human rights on this list. Accordingly, below are brief excerpts from a Time Magazine article discussing women's perilous situation in Afghanistan. I strongly encourage you to read the full article, and view the photographs. Be forewarned: some of the images are brutal and haunting.

For those of us reading this article in the West, let's not take our right's for granted. Let's also not forget that the raw misogyny that produces disfigured faces like that of Aisha's is the expressed throughout the world -- in ways like sex trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, domestic violence, and rape as a weapon of war.

Please keep Aisha and the women of Afghanistan in your prayers.

Abolition!

Lisa

video link: http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,308943282001_2007270,00.html

Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban

The Taliban pounded on the door just before midnight, demanding that Aisha, 18, be punished for running away from her husband's house. They dragged her to a mountain clearing near her village in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, ignoring her protests that her in-laws had been abusive, that she had no choice but to escape. Shivering in the cold air and blinded by the flashlights trained on her by her husband's family, she faced her spouse and accuser. Her in-laws treated her like a slave, Aisha pleaded. They beat her. If she hadn't run away, she would have died. Her judge, a local Taliban commander, was unmoved. Later, he would tell Aisha's uncle that she had to be made an example of lest other girls in the village try to do the same thing. The commander gave his verdict, and men moved in to deliver the punishment. Aisha's brother-in-law held her down while her husband pulled out a knife. First he sliced off her ears. Then he started on her nose. Aisha passed out from the pain but awoke soon after, choking on her own blood. The men had left her on the mountainside to die. . . .

Traditional ways, however, do little for women. Aisha's family did nothing to protect her from the Taliban. That might have been out of fear, but more likely it was out of shame. A girl who runs away is automatically considered a prostitute in deeply traditional societies, and families that allow them back home would be subject to widespread ridicule. A few months after Aisha arrived at the shelter, her father tried to bring her home with promises that he would find her a new husband. Aisha refused to leave. In rural areas, a family that finds itself shamed by a daughter sometimes sells her into slavery, or worse, subjects her to a so-called honor killing — murder under the guise of saving the family's name.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2007238-1,00.html

Human Trafficking Webinars set for September

2010-08-23T11:07:00.002+10:00

Dear Friends:

Here is some exciting news from Truckers Against Trafficking. They will be hosting a series of webinars to engage truckers in anti-trafficking efforts. This is a great idea that can be replicated in countries around the world.

Please forward this information to any truckers you know.

Abolition!

Lisa

Human Trafficking Webinars set for September
via AskTheTrucker by Allen Smith on 8/19/10

Truckers Against Trafficking

Truck drivers across the country have been called on by Chapter 61 ministries to be the eyes and ears for the human trafficking crisis in America. The partnership between the Transport for Christ and Chapter 61 organizations, the Truckers Against Trafficking, along with many others, have led to a much greater awareness of this problem, not only in the United States but abroad. Recent headline news is focusing on this $32 billion a year business, which destroys countless lives and enslaves its victims . . . the majority of whom are women and children:

Global human trafficking roundup (August 18, 2010)
US-Philippines project to combat human trafficking
Ohio in "Dirty Dozen" because of lax anti-trafficking effort
6 arrested in human trafficking case involving teen girl in Jacksonville, FL
Human traffickers supply nail-salon workers

These are just a few of the most recent cases involving human trafficking. Most Americans are aware of the problem in Asia and Africa, but are oblivious to that fact that it is big business here in the United States. Chapter 61 ministries will be presenting another set of online informational webinars in September, 2010. The webinars are set for the following dates :

09/01/10
09/02/10
09/07/10
09/15/10
09/16/10 and
09/23/10

All webinars will begin at 9 p.m. EDT. Because members of the trucking and travel plaza industry represent the eyes and ears of America on those highways, they can play a critical part in fighting this crime and those who perpetrate it. They simply need to know what to look for, what questions to ask and what steps to take.

If you would like to attend one of these webinars, please send your name and the exact email address to : tfcio@transportforchrist.org – (this will be the address you use for the webinar). For more information, please contact Scott Weidner, President and CEO of Transport for Christ at (717) 426-9977. Please title request "Trafficking webinar."

'2,600 Sex Workers Trafficked' Study Says

2010-08-23T11:04:00.000+10:00

Dear Friends:

The news item below merits a couple of comments: 1) If you are trafficked for prostitution you are a victim of serial paid rape, not a "sex worker." Thus the title of this article is yet another offense against the victims. 2) I'm surprised at the lack of recognition of domestic sex trafficking (trafficking of a country's citizen's within its own borders) that is implied by this report. Perhaps the focus was only about international sex trafficking; should that be the case please be aware that in many countries -- including the U.S. -- there is a very serious problem of domestic sex trafficking.

Abolition!

Lisa

'2,600 Sex Workers Trafficked' Study Says
Thursday, 19 August 2010

The number of migrant women trafficked into Britain to work as prostitutes is lower than previously thought, a report has claimed.

Around 2,600 migrant women have been trafficked into England and Wales and forced to work as prostitutes, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). A further 9,600 sex workers were judged to be "vulnerable migrants", many of whom were abused and exploited, but researchers could not be sure they had been trafficked.

This is far lower than previous estimates, which have ranged from 4,000, according to a 2003 Home Office study, to the 18,000 announced by the then Chief Constable of Gloucestershire, Tim Brain, in 2008.

The latest Acpo study found that 17,000 of the 30,000 women involved in the off-street sex trade are migrants, mostly from China, Thailand and eastern Europe. They said at least 2,600 of these were trafficked into the country and made to work as prostitutes, often with threats of violence.

15 Men Arrested in Undercover Sting

2010-08-18T08:29:00.002+10:00

Dear Friends:

The story below reports on the arrest of 15 men in central Florida on charges related to their attempts to have sex with a 14-year-old child. I strongly encourage you to follow the link and view the arrest photos of the men. They are haunting images to say the least. As much as we may harbor feelings or rage or even hatred toward such men, please remember that they were once innocent little boys themselves. Somewhere along the line someone or something corrupted their hearts and minds.

I have a strong feeling that a major component of that "something" was pornography. Pornography grooms young boys and men to become offenders. Exposure to pornography is linked to such things as: believing a rape victim enjoys rape, more using physical coercion to have sex, more sexual attraction to children, etc.

Look at the eyes of these offenders; look at their faces. . . imagine instead of these faces you saw one belonging to your husband, son, brother, father, boyfriend. It's high time we started fighting back against the tide of pornography.
See: http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july072010/porn-politics.php
and http://www.pornharms.com/ to join the battle.

Abolition!

Lisa

P.S. Don't miss the craigslist connection.

15 Men Arrested in Undercover Child Sex Sting in Florida

Fifteen men allegedly looking to have sex with underage girls were arrested in an undercover sting in Florida over the weekend, law enforcement authorities said.

The suspects were arrested between Thursday and Sunday and charged with traveling to meet a minor for sex or related crimes, during an extensive undercover operation conducted by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, along with state and federal officials.

Police said 12 of the 15 suspects responded to ads authorities posted on Craigslist that shared the common theme "mom or dad seeking guidance for my daughter" for girls between 10 and 14 years old. The other three used chat rooms.

After the suspects answered the ads, they engaged undercover detectives in e-mails, instant messages and telephone calls, during which time the detectives told the suspects to come to an undercover location in Polk County, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.

"These men expressed specific desires to prey upon who they believed were innocent children," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Monday at a news conference.

One of the suspects, Brandon Cashen, 31, asked a detective if she had a daughter younger than the one advertised, and when she said she had an 8-year-old, expressed a desire to have sex with the younger daughter, the sheriff's office said.

"Some of the men even sent pornographic images of themselves to the detectives and made very specific requests about what they wanted these children to do to them," Judd said.

When the suspects arrived at the undercover location, they were met not by children wearing lingerie, but by undercover agents in vests, who placed the men under arrest.

"It's still a shock to me …when we have a predator show up with condoms in one hand and candy bars in the other hand," Judd said at a press conference Monday afternoon.

Judd said one of the agents was shocked to discover that a suspect, 33-year-old Tommy Dupre, had been his son's former baseball coach. . . .

For the full story see: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/08/16/arrested-undercover-child-sex-sting-florida/?test=latestnews.

Pimps force Mexican women into prostitution in US

2010-08-10T16:47:00.001+10:00

By KATE BRUMBACK and MARK STEVENSON
The Associated Press
Monday, August 9, 2010; 12:01 AM

TENANCINGO, Mexico -- In this impoverished town in central Mexico, a sinister trade has taken root: entire extended families exploit desperation and lure hundreds of unsuspecting young Mexican women to the United States to force them into prostitution.

Those who know the pimps of Tlaxcala state - victims, prosecutors, social workers and researchers - say the men from Tenancingo have honed their methods over at least three generations.

They play on all that is good in their victims - love of family, love of husband, love of children - to force young women into near-bondage in the United States.

The town provided the perfect petri dish for forced prostitution. A heavily Indian area, it combines long-standing traditions of forced marriage or "bride kidnapping," with machismo, grinding poverty and an early wave of industrialization in the 1890s that later went bust, leaving a displaced population that would roam, looking for elusive work.

For full article go to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/08/AR2010080801654.html

Brazil's sex tourism boom

2010-08-09T08:50:00.001+10:00

Young children are supplying an increasing demand from foreign tourists who travel to Brazil for sex holidays, according to a BBC investigation. Chris Rogers reports on how the country is overtaking Thailand as a destination for sex tourism and on attempts to curb the problem.

Her small bikini exposes her tiny frame. She looks no older than 13 - one of dozens of girls parading the street looking for clients in the blazing mid-afternoon sun. Most come from the surrounding favelas - or slums.

As I park my car, the young girl dances provocatively to catch my attention.

"Hello my name is Clemie - you want a programme?" she asks, programme being the code word they use for an hour of sex. Clemie asks for less than $5 (£3) for her services. An older woman standing nearby steps in and introduces herself as Clemie's mother.

"You have the choice of another two girls, they are the same age as my daughter, the same price," she explains. "I can take you to a local motel where a room can be rented by the hour. . . .
For the full report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-10764371

China police rescue 22 abducted women, children

2010-08-09T08:49:00.000+10:00

BEIJING

Police rescued 22 women and children abducted by a human-trafficking ring that operated in southern China for two decades, state media reported Thursday.

Eighteen victims were reunited with family members during an emotional ceremony Wednesday in Nanning city in southern Guangxi province, the official Xinhua News Agency said. . . .

For the full report: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9HD9LN80.htm

Fifth Annual International Weekend of Prayer and Fasting for Victims of Sexual Trafficking

2010-08-03T08:38:00.002+10:00

Dear Friends:

Here's a reminder that the Fifth Annual International Weekend of Prayer and Fasting for Victims of Sexual Trafficking is fast approaching -- the dates are Sept 24-26. To register and for resources please go to: www.traffickingprayerandfasting.org.

Resources include items such as Bible studies, a code of conduct for men, 2010 flyers, an intercessory prayer station guide, community prayer guides, a fasting fact sheet, etc. There are also prayer guides in English, Dutch, French, Korean, Romanian, Russian, and Spanish. Please check out the website for these and other materials, and don't forget to register!

Abolition!

Lisa

Former Swedish police chief is jailed for rape

2010-08-03T08:37:00.000+10:00

By Allan Hall in Stockholm
Saturday, 31 July 2010

A former chief constable in Sweden, who was known for lecturing on gender equality and sexual harassment, has been jailed for six and-a-half years for rape and other sex crimes.

Goran Lindberg, former head of the country's police academy, was found guilty on 17 out of 23 charges including one of aggravated rape, three charges of rape, 10 charges of pimping and eight counts of paying prostitutes for sex. He was cleared of "preparing to rape a child". What made Lindberg's crimes so shocking to Swedes was that he was the police force's top expert on morality and ethics and had been described as "the face and future of policing".

The court in Stockholm heard how Lindberg had been under police surveillance in January this year when he was stopped as he drove to meet a 14-year-old girl he had groomed for sex online. The court was told that Lindberg had a bag full of sex toys he had taken along for the encounter.
He was then arrested. . . .

For the full article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/former-swedish-police-chief-is-jailed-for-rape-2040046.html

Portland's dark world of child sex trafficking

2010-07-30T09:30:00.002+10:00

By Michal Elseth - The Washington Times

Portland, Ore., is widely featured as a young, green, hip city; it also has gained a reputation as a national hub for child sex trafficking.

State police report encountering three to five trafficking victims a week. Although the Sexual Assault Resource Center, an advocacy group that offers services to Portland-area victims, estimates that it handled 75 cases in 2009, it also says that for every girl in its system 10 more are still being exploited.

"I just believe with my whole heart that people across the community would be appalled if they knew what was going on," said Sgt. Mike Geiger, who heads Portland's sexual assault detail.

Portland's legal commercial sex industry is the biggest per capita in the country, according to a report by researchers at Willamette Law School's International Human Rights Clinic. Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather once called the city "Pornland." The city has more strip clubs per capita than glittery Las Vegas, and a tolerant attitude toward sex, both legal and illegal.

Combining those facts, a demand for sex workers, the city's geography that provides easy access for traffickers, and its reputation as a progressive youth-oriented community attracting runaways creates a toxic brew rivaling the notorious red-light district of Amsterdam.

"It's nonstop. It's every day," said Sgt. Doug Justus of the Portland Police Department's vice squad.

Victims of domestic minor sex trafficking have been picked up in every major city in the country and in many rural areas as well. Those "walking the track" on Portland's 82nd Avenue are often children exploited in their hometown.

For the rest of this article see:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/28/portlands-dark-world-of-child-sex-trafficking/print/

Linda Malcolm offers a different kind of policing

2010-07-29T08:54:00.000+10:00

Pamela Post

Vancouver — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday,
Jul. 26, 2010 11:00PM EDT
Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 27, 2010 5:00AM EDT

It’s a Tuesday afternoon and Constable Linda Malcolm is patrolling the streets of the Downtown Eastside in street clothes. Today it’s a Beatles T-shirt and beige pants.

A police uniform, says the sex industry liaison officer for the Vancouver Police Department, is a huge barrier to building relationships with people down here. Her badge and gun are discreetly concealed. On the streets, Constable Malcolm is regularly approached by women who know her simply as Linda, who hug her before launching into a litany of woes and grievances.

One, whose face is badly disfigured, speaks urgently in the breathless staccato of the drug-addicted, telling the officer about being hauled in by police. Constable Malcolm listens carefully, offering assistance – before the woman runs off, propelled by the force of what seems like the unrelenting daily drama of life here.

"She was savagely gang-raped," the officer says afterwards. "Caught up in a dispute between two sets of drug dealers. They cut her with a knife, they disfigured her."

Constable Malcolm, 51, has become something of a legend on the streets of the Downtown Eastside – the cop more likely to bake cookies for women than bust them. She often works on her days off, takes bad-date calls in the middle of the night from the WISH Mobile Access Van that patrols the streets, buys countless lunches and dinners for sex workers out of her own pocket. She makes crafts for them, drives them to a detoxification clinic, takes them on ferries to rehab, accompanies women going to court against predators, and finds ones who have dropped out of sight.

For the rest of the article go to:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/linda-malcolm-offers-a-different-kind-of-policing/article1652671/

Teenage Girls Undergo 'Breast Ironing' In Cameroon

2010-07-28T08:28:00.002+10:00

Dear Friends:

Unfortunately we bring you another report on the tragic consequences of the practice of "breast ironing" in the west Africa country of Cameroon. If you follow the link to watch the video, be forewarned that there is brief nudity and, too, that it will bring you to tears.

Abolition!

Lisa

Teenage Girls Undergo 'Breast Ironing' In Cameroon
First Posted: 07-23-10 11:56 AM Updated: 07-23-10 04:50 PM

Affecting one out of every four girls, the brutal practice of "breast ironing" is on the rise in the African country of Cameroon. The procedure -- which involves the flattening of a young girl's growing breasts with hot stones, coconut shells and other objects -- is considered a way to curb the country's staggering number of teenage pregnancies, particularly high in rural areas, as well as limit the risk of sexual assault.

According to a new report by CurrentTV, Cameroonian mothers believe breast ironing will protect their daughters from becoming pregnant and being assaulted in that it will postpone their development and men will not be enticed by their breasts. With dietary habits in the country improving, girls are beginning to hit puberty as young as 9, and are subject to the practice around at the same age. . . . .

For the rest of the story and to view a moving video follow this link to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/23/teenage-girls-undergo-bre_n_656965.html

News from The Salvation Army's World Youth Conference

2010-07-26T09:09:00.002+10:00

Dear Friends:

Here are two items that I believe you'll find of special interest. First, below you'll find a brief report on Commissioner Helen Clifton's calling on women within The Salvation to join the fight again human trafficking. It's wonderful to have such support for anti-trafficking from the highest levels of Salvation Army leadership.

Additionally, I'm providing a link to The Salvation Army's World Youth Conference where you'll find an exciting message from General Shaw Clifton about God's call to The Salvation Army. To view the video: http://www1.salvationarmy.org/ihq/www_wyc.nsf

Select - Day 4 (red tabs)
-Final Meeting (you have to scroll down)
-Chapter: General Shaw Clifton (select from the arrow part)
Advance to 1:44:00 to hear about The Army's commissioning
2:04:00 be Cross conscience people
2:05:00 be dedicated to the unexpected
2:05:45 to hear about TSA being raised up by God
2:07:00 He will find somebody else
2:10:18 be Advocates for Justice/Sanctified Risks/War Against Sin & Hell!!!

Abolition!

Lisa
*************************************

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/religiontoday/11635254/

Young Salvationists Hear Call to Tackle Human Trafficking

Christian Today reports that The Salvation Army is calling on women within its ranks to join the fight against human trafficking. Commissioner Helen Clifton delivered a "wake up call" to the youths at The Salvation Army's World Youth Convention in Stockholm, Sweden, on Saturday. "We need to be wiser and better trained, but without losing the deep passion for those who have lost their innocence and succumbed to what is a sad and lonely life," said Clifton. "The work involves prevention, prosecution, protection and prayer." Clifton spoke to about 1,000 young women at the event. Commissioner Christine MacMillan, the director of The Salvation Army's International Social Justice Commission (ISJC), addressed the convention via DVD. "Our journey of faith needs to be disturbed by all these injustices in the world. If it isn't then our hearts are either numb or hardened and we need God to renew our sensitivity," she said.

UK/India: Unilever's hypocrisy over skin-lightening

2010-07-23T10:57:00.002+10:00

Dear Friends:

First, a thank you to author Melinda Tankard Reist (Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualization of Girls) for alerting me to the article below. In follow up to yesterday's posting about Dove's "Real Beauty Campaign" this important article provides a larger, and sadly more honest perspective of what Dove's parent brand, Unilever, is up to. That agenda is apparently the "whitening" of humanity -- for profit of course.

Also please follow the important discussion about Unilever's Lynx/Axe brand. It would appear Unilever is of two minds on the matter of women/girls/beauty. Be advised: talk to your daughter before Unilever does!

Abolition!

Lisa

By: Layla Sayeed
guardian.co.uk, Friday 16 July 2010 10.00 BST
Stand up to Unilever's hypocrisy over skin-lightening

Unilever's backing of whiter beauty in India while its Dove brand urges self-esteem makes me ashamed to work in advertising.
Vaseline's homepage asks: "Do you see your skin the way we do? Your skin is amazing."

Well, it's clearly not so amazing if you're brown. Vaseline, a sub-brand of Unilever, has just launched a Facebook app in India that allows users to whiten their profile pictures. The app, which is designed to promote Vaseline's range of skin-lightening creams for men, promises to "transform your face on Facebook with Vaseline Men" in a campaign fronted by Bollywood actor Shahid Kapur. According to Pankaj Parihar of Omnicom, the global communications group behind the campaign, "the response has been pretty phenomenal".

The fact that the response has been "phenomenal" is sad but not surprising. While it might be hard for the tanorexics among us to understand, skin lightening is a huge, and extremely lucrative, industry. According to a report by Global Industry Analysts, it is predicted to reach $10bn by 2015.

And while skin-lightening products have traditionally been targeted at women, the beauty industry is growing increasingly excited about the financial rewards to be had by drumming up a bit of self-loathing in men. It's expected that sales of male skin-lightening products could reach similar levels of value sales as their female-targeted counterparts within five to 10 years. But men aren't the only demographic on the marketeers' strategic horizons: children are also fair game. An Indian Readership Survey in 2008 found that 12 to 14-year-olds accounted for 13% of the market.

It makes for pretty sickening reading. But what makes it even more nauseating is the fact that Vaseline is a sub-brand of Unilever, which also own brands like Dove. Dove, if you remember, set about saving our little girls from the beauty industry with their Campaign for Real Beauty. The much lauded campaign included inspirational films like Onslaught, which suggested "you talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does".

Hypocrisy is nothing new with Unilever. While Dove's multimillion-pound campaigns shunned stereotypes of women, Lynx (another Unilever brand) turned stereotyping women into something of an art form. In 2007, film-maker Rye Clifton created a mashup [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwDEF-w4rJk (note this starts out like the Onslaught ad circulated yesterday- Lisa)] of Unilever's Axe (Lynx) and Dove communications, which juxtaposed the different messages the two Unilever brands were putting into the market with disturbing effect. Apologists made the excuse that Dove and Axe are very different entities with different targets, different voices and, so, different values. . . .

For the rest of the article go to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/16/unilever-hypocritical-promoting-skin-lightening

Texas Supreme Court Rules: Children in Prostitution are Victims, Not Criminals.

2010-07-22T11:06:00.002+10:00

Dear Friends:

Here is some terrific news out of Texas from our friends at ECPAT. No more treating child victims of commercial sexual exploitation like criminals.

Lisa

Posted By: Carol Smolenski
To: Members in End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes

Texas Supreme Court Rules: Children in Prostitution are Victims, Not Criminals.

"Because a 13 year old child cannot consent to sex as a matter of law…B.W. cannot be prosecuted as a prostitute
--SupremeCourt of Texas decision "In the Matter of B.W.", June 18, 2010

Thirteen-year-old B.W. was arrested for prostitution when she flagged down the car of an undercover officer and offered to engage in oral sex for twenty dollars. She was tried in Family Court, where she admitted that she had "knowingly agreed to engage in sex…for a fee," and received a sentence of 18-months’ probation. The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment and the Texas Supreme Court agreed to review her case.

Although the federal government, under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, classifies sexually exploited children as victims, many states, including Texas, have contradictory laws that permit the prosecution of children for prostitution: One law establishes the age of sexual consent as 16; a different law sets no minimum age for the crime of prostitution, leaving the state prosecutor to determine which law to follow.

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of Texas addressed this issue head on and reversed the Court of Appeals by a 6-3 decision.
http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/historical/2010/jun/081044.pdf It said that "…transforming a child victim of adult sexual exploitation into a juvenile offender was not the legislature’s intent when it enacted the laws on prostitution" and "delinquent conduct of a child." … "As a 13- year-old, B.W. cannot consent to sex as a matter of law, and therefore cannot be prosecuted as a prostitute."

The Texas decision supported several arguments that advocates of sexually exploited children have been pressing.

1. Children cannot consent to sex because they lack the maturity to understand the consequences.
Responding to the prosecutor’s argument that B.W. "pleaded true" to "knowingly engaging in sex for a fee," the Supreme Court cited longstanding common law, Texas statutes, and numerous cases affirming that children below age14 cannot understand the significance of agreeing to sex. This makes it difficult, the court said, to see how a child’s agreement could reach the ‘knowingly’ standard required by the statute. Referring to the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that juveniles "are more vulnerable or susceptible to negative influences and outside pressures," the majority opinion held that even expert psychologists find it difficult to differentiate "between the juvenile offender whose crime reflects unfortunate yet transient immaturity and the rare juvenile offender whose crime reflects irreparable corruption." The Court further ruled that legislative intent was clear enough and did not need bolstering. Although it did not rule on children above the age of 14, the court did cite legislation saying that "compelling a child under 18 to commit prostitution was a second-degree felony."

2. Prohibiting the adjudication of children for prostitution will not encourage more exploitation.
While the State argued that judging a child innocent of a crime would also make a pimp immune from criminal liability and free him to seek out even more children, the Court held that the exploitation or prostitution of a child below the age of 14 is already a crime. "It is unclear how the prosecution of a child for prostitution would serve as any further deterrent, especially in the case of children on the streets." Removing children from arrest and prosecution will also remove the opportunity for pimps to play on their fear of police.

3. The inability to prosecute children for prostitution does not let adult offenders off the hook.
The Court rejected the State’s assumption that prohibiting the charging of juveniles for prostitution prevents prosecutors from bringing cases against adult offenders. In doing so,it identified several statutes under which pimps and traffickers can be held criminally liable for exploiting children without their being present to testify. Addressing the intent of the legislature, the Supreme Court said that children cannot be considered guilty of an act that involves their own sexual exploitation. "It is far more likely that the legislature intended to punish those who sexually exploit children rather than subject child victims below 14 years to prosecution."

The case also demonstrates how traffickers and pimps are usually the last to be arrested, while children bear the brunt of the scrutiny and punishment. As the State’s litany of B.W.’s criminal offenses (prostitution, assault, drug possession, failure to attend school, sexually transmitted diseases, and two abortions) read like a clear indictment, the prosecutors acknowledged but made no effort to even investigate her "32 year old boyfriend with whom she lived with and had sex." The Supreme Court did not address this issue.

4. Placing a child in detention does nothing to keep her safe, force her recovery, or prevent her running away.
Dismissing the argument that prohibiting the criminal prosecution of an exploited child would leave the State with no option but to put her back on the street, the Court cited many State alternatives to protect a child’s health and safety by a police officer or child protective services.

At the same time, the prosecution argument has some merit. Service providers are in desperately short supply and many children do wind up back on the street in the arms of their pimps. But the solution is to ensure services that help children to heal, not detention that may further traumatize them or mark their future.

Texas Decision Complements Safe Harbor Laws

Citing Texas state law and interpreting its intent, the Supreme Court decision shows that efforts to protect the child from prosecution are firmly grounded in legal precedent. Safe harbor laws passed in four states so far – New York, Connecticut, Washington, and Illinois – complement the court’s intent to shift the focus from criminalizing to protecting a child, and to punishing the pimps and buyers, even without a child’s cooperation. Aiming to protect and prevent any person below age 18 from being charged, prosecuted, or incarcerated for prostitution, safe harbor laws refer exploited children to special services and shelters to support their recovery, and require special training of law enforcement, judges, and first responders.

A giant step forward, the Texas decision and passage of safe harbor laws by four states is just the beginning. Much more is needed to combat the increasing demand for and exploitation of children. Across the country, media increasingly report on U.S. children being sexually exploited on the streets, over the internet, in strip clubs and brothels. All states need to follow this new precedent through the courts and legislatures to protect children from prosecution for prostitution and to ensure adequate and appropriate services for their recovery.

Dove's Real Beauty Campaign -- The Onslaught Ad

2010-07-22T09:19:00.001+10:00

Dear Friends:

In case you are unfamiliar with Dove's "Real Beauty Campaign" below are two links to short ads related to the campaign you should watch. I especially like the one that points out what an onslaught little girls face from the so-called "beauty industry," which works every day to teach them how "imperfect" they are. It's a big fat lie, but when it comes at you from the cradle girls find it hard not to believe.

Abolition!

Lisa

See also: http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report.aspx

U.S. policy a paper tiger against sex trade in war zones

2010-07-20T09:33:00.000+10:00

By Nick Schwellenbach and Carol Leonnig
Sunday, July 18, 2010; A04

An eight-year-old policy that forbids government contractors and employees to engage in sex trafficking in war zones has proved almost impossible to enforce amid indications that such activities are occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The policy, instituted eight years ago by President George W. Bush and still in effect today, calls for the prosecution of government employees and contractors who engage in trafficking and the suspension or disqualification of companies whose workers do. Bush's get-tough language also threatened criminal prosecutions for solicitation of prostitutes because many of the women are forced into the work.

Agencies say the cases are difficult to pursue because of limited investigative resources and jurisdictional questions. But some experts and lawmakers believe that authorities are turning a blind eye to evidence of such crimes.

"Zero prosecutions," said Martina Vandenberg, a lawyer and former Human Rights Watch investigator, "suggests zero effort to enforce the law."

The State Department reported recently that allegations of contractors' employees procuring commercial sex acts were "well publicized" but that no contractors have been prosecuted and no contracts terminated.

Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), author of a 2000 U.S. anti-trafficking law, questions whether agencies vigorously pursue allegations. He suggested that if authorities really cared about the women being exploited, they would not look away "when those we are paying to do jobs for us are exploiting them."

Justice Department spokesman Alejandro Miyar said the agency "investigates all credible allegations of human trafficking."

An Army report

Nearly a decade after Dyncorp International employees were accused of buying and selling women from throughout Eastern Europe -- and were not prosecuted -- the State Department alerted the U.S. Army to allegations made by a freelance journalist. The journalist said she had interviewed women held in Iraq as involuntary servants in debt slavery.

The February report, posted online as part of an Army PowerPoint presentation, alleged that supervisors of an Army subcontractor in Iraq had sexually assaulted some of the women.

"The women were recruited from their home nations with promises of well-paying beautician jobs in Dubai," said an Army summary, "but were instead forced to surrender their passports, transported against their will to Iraq, and told they could only leave by paying a termination fee of $1,100."

The subcontractors work for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which runs restaurants and other commercial operations on military bases.

An Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman, who declined to discuss specifics, said the allegations "were investigated and not substantiated."

In another allegation, a former guard with the Blackwater security firm said he saw colleagues and U.S. soldiers paying Iraqi girls for sex acts. The allegations surfaced in a federal lawsuit filed last summer in the Eastern District of Virginia that alleged wrongful death and abuse on behalf of families of Iraqi victims. But the anonymous statement detailing the allegations was withdrawn by the Iraqi families, who agreed to a settlement in January.

The former guard, who asked that his name not be used out of concern for his safety, said that in 2005, he watched older boys collect dollar bills while Iraqi girls, some as young as 12 or 13, performed sex acts. The former guard said that he reported what he saw to his Blackwater superiors but that no action was taken. "It sickens me to talk about it even now," he said.

The former Blackwater guard also said he provided the information to a grand jury, but the Justice Department would not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.

Stacy DeLuke, a spokeswoman for Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, said the firm "vehemently denies these anonymous and baseless allegations." She said Xe policies forbid human trafficking.

Brothels in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, evidence of trafficking came to light when 90 Chinese women were freed after brothel raids in 2006 and 2007. The women told the International Organization on Migration that they had been taken to Afghanistan for sexual exploitation, according to a 2008 report.

Nigina Mamadjonova, head of IOM's counter-human trafficking unit in Afghanistan, said the women alleged in interviews that their clients were mostly Western men.

In late 2007, officials at ArmorGroup, which provides U.S. Embassy security in Kabul, learned that some employees frequented brothels that were disguised as Chinese restaurants and that the employees might be engaged in sex trafficking. A company whistleblower has alleged in an ongoing lawsuit that the firm withheld the information from the U.S. government.

James Gordon, then an ArmorGroup supervisor, alleged that a manager "boasted openly about owning prostitutes in Kabul" and that a company trainee boasted that he hoped to make some "real money" in brothels and planned to buy a woman for $20,000.

Gordon said he warned his bosses and also alerted Heidi McMichael, a State Department contracting officer.

Months later, Gordon said, he asked McMichael why no action had been taken, and she told him that the matter had been referred to the FBI. She declined to comment, as did the bureau. Gordon said that the trainee was fired but that no other action was taken.

Susan Pitcher, a spokesman for ArmorGroup's parent company, Wackenhut Services, said in an e-mail that the company would not respond to Gordon's allegations. She stressed that ArmorGroup policies prohibit trafficking.

An internal corporate investigation in November 2007 found that a Kabul program manager knew that some workers had violated company policies by "seeking out prostitutes."

The report disputed allegations that the manager frequented brothels but concluded that he knew about activities "that could bring discredit upon both the company and the client." A letter of reprimand was placed in his file.

A difficult mandate

Justice Department prosecutors privately complain that the zero-tolerance policy is nearly unenforceable -- partly because it makes little distinction between organized sexual slavery and voluntary prostitution. [Once again the government shifts responsibility from sex buyers, pimps and traffickers to instead attempting to ascertain what degree of culpability the women may have. The fact that any personnel/contractor representing or acting on behalf of the U.S. government in overseas missions are engaging in commercial sex acts is a disgrace, and is certainly a vital national security interest. Such behavior foments resentment, anger and hostility from the very citizens we are trying to help. Why? Because the local residents know that by such actions these contractors take advantage of and exploit the very women/girls they are there to help. Further the actions of these contractors fuels the impression (or is it the reality?) that the U.S. is debauched. -- Lisa]

"Are we interested in chasing every contractor that gets a hooker or using our resources to go after the guys who force people into modern-day slavery?" asks one former trafficking investigator, who requested anonymity. [This attitude lets the sex buyer (e.g. the demand generator) off the hook and focuses only on the supplier (e.g. trafficker/pimp). It also seems to me, that the attitude presumes the women are so-called voluntary prostitutes. Any trafficking investigator worth their salt knows that the vast majority of women in the sex industry have been coerced at some point, but overtime be come conditioned to their exploitation. It takes a nuanced understanding of the dynamics of power and control to discover trafficking victims. -- Lisa]

Laura Dickinson, an Arizona State University law professor, said law enforcement authorities face two main challenges in pursuing such crimes: gathering evidence and legal jurisdiction.

The FBI has 35 to 40 agents in war zones, but they are focused on investigating fraud and corruption. The military's law enforcement agencies have about 150 agents in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait handling all types of felony-level crimes.

Some experts say investigators and prosecutors will probably decline a trafficking case if it proves time-consuming and manpower-intensive.

Gordon, the former ArmorGroup manager, questioned whether agencies take the allegations seriously.

"If it's so serious," he said, "if you have a zero-tolerance policy, why aren't you doing anything?"

This report is a collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity and The Washington Post.

Johann Hari: So that's OK then. It's fine to abuse young girls, as long as you're a great film director

2010-07-20T09:30:00.000+10:00

The Swiss government has admitted "national interests" may be a factor

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

So now we know. If you are a 44-year-old man, you can drug and anally rape a terrified 13-year-old girl as she sobs, says "No, no, no," and pleads for her asthma medication – all according to the victim's sworn testimony – and face no punishment at all. You just have to meet two criteria – (a) you have to run away and stay away for a few decades; and (b) you need to direct some good films. If you do, not only will you walk free, there will be a huge campaign to protect you from the "witch-hunt" and you will be lauded as a hero.

Roman Polanski admitted his crime before he ran away and, for years afterwards, he boasted from exile that every man wanted to do what he did. He chuckled to one interviewer in 1979: "If I had killed somebody, it wouldn't have had so much appeal to the press, you see?

"But... f**king, you see... and the young girls. Judges want to f**k young girls. Juries want to f**k young girls. Everyone wants to f**k young girls!"

But this is not enough, it seems, for the Swiss government to return him to the US to face trial. They have found a legalistic loophole that enables them to let him go – while admitting "national interests" may be a factor. This may be a reference to pressure from neighbouring France to free their citizen. As a Swiss citizen, I think I can say without being offensive, we all remember the bargains Swiss governments have made in the past to preserve their "national interests". This is in a long tradition of helping criminals and calling it Swiss hard-headedness.

The campaign to release Polanski has leeched into the open a slew of attitudes I thought were defeated a generation ago. Whoopi Goldberg said it wasn't "rape rape".

Others hinted darkly that she wasn't a virgin. So if a 13-year-old has been abused before, she's fair game for all future rapists? The French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levi, who led the campaign, said a little bit of child molestation isn't his problem when Great Art is at stake. He wrote: "Am I repulsed by what he got up to? His behaviour is not my business. I'm concerned about his movies. I like The Pianist and Rosemary's Baby."

That's worth saying again – this campaign was led by a man who thinks the drugging and raping of a child is "not my business", when compared to a film about Satan inseminating Mia Farrow.

The novelist Robert Harris, who is a friend of Polanski's, said: "It strikes me as disgusting treatment." He wasn't talking about the child-rape. He was talking about the attempt to punish the child-rape. He said Polanski was being subjected to a "lynch mob"? Where is this lynch mob? All I can see are people patiently suggesting the law should be enforced and he should be given a fair and open trial. This is the opposite of a lynching: it is sober justice.

Do these defenders of Polanski understand what they are saying? Harris has four children. If a great film director drugs and rapes them tomorrow, will he call the police, or will he say it would be "disgusting" to do so? Would he say the police and prosecutors trying to protect his children were a "lynch mob"? If the rapist ran off, would he say that after three decades on the run (boasting about his crime) he should walk free?

Now the campaign has succeeded. So congratulations to Whoopi and Bernard and Robert: an unrepentant, bragging child-rapist won't face his day in court, thanks in part to you. Have fun at the victory party. But you may want to leave your daughters at home.

Love146 Employment Opportunities

2010-07-14T09:46:00.000+10:00

Dear Friends:

Love146 is a fabulous anti-trafficking organization. Here are some opportunities to join their team. Please spread the word to anyone you think may be interested.

Abolition!

Lisa

Join the Love146 team! We currently have 2 full-time job openings. Go to www.love146.org/employment for full details and application.

Vice President of Programs
Posting Date: July 5, 2010
Closing Date: August 31, 2010
Job Available Date: January 1, 2011 (or earlier depending on the successful applicant).

Overview: The Love146 Vice President of Programs, a full-time position based out of the New Haven, CT office, works with Program Directors to plan, design, develop then initiate approved new projects. The VP of Programs oversees key US office programs staff, manages the programs budget and serves as key liaison between Global Programs Directors/field/local program operations and the Love146 New Haven office. Good benefits provided. Salary based on experience. Please note: Interviews will be held in Singapore and New Haven, CT depending on successful applicant's location.

The Collective Shout Officer
Posting Date: July 6th, 2010
Closing Date: July 31st, 2010
Job Available Date: August 2010

Overview: The Collective Shout Officer, a full-time position based out of the New Haven, CT office, creates advocacy communications to mobilize Love146 Task Forces and other Love146 supporters. Based on rigorous, ongoing monitoring and evaluation of existing anti-trafficking efforts, the Collective Shout Officer selects specific action opportunities to be highlighted on the new Love146 Task Force Community Site. They provide daily forum updates on the Task Force site and implement online community building and social media strategies. This position organizes the yearly Love146 Collective Shout Conference and the summer internship program.

Good benefits provided.

A life lost is found again: The Felicia Delgado story

2010-07-14T09:30:00.000+10:00

Dear Friends:

This lovely and hope filled. Please read and lift your spirits.

Abolition!

Lisa

Edward Achorn: A life lost is found again: The Felicia Delgado story

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Providence Journal
By EDWARD ACHORN

One of the most beautiful aspects of the Christian faith is its strong message of redemption. Jesus of Nazareth recognized that all human beings are prone to fail, but he taught that we can admit to our wrongs, make amends and move on, making the best of the gifts we have been given.

Some critics huffily brand it hypocrisy when those who express their support for high moral values fail to live up to them. Jesus, more attuned to the reality of human frailty, recognized that we will all stumble many times, but that does not make it wrong to believe in doing good. We pick ourselves up and try again. And we forgive others who have failed.

The idea permeates the Gospels, repeated many times, in story after story: rising from death to a new life. As the father says in the tale of the Prodigal Son: "This brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and now he is found."

I read a very moving story in the paper the other day that could have come straight out of the New Testament, right down to the headline ("In court, her life, once lost, restored," July 2, by The Journal’s estimable Katherine Gregg).

It told of Felicia Delgado, 45, a former prostitute who whooped with joy in court when the record of part of her life on the streets was erased from the state’s criminal-record books under a year-old Rhode Island law that makes indoor prostitution illegal, while shifting the emphasis from punishing prostitutes to stopping prostitution.

Under the law, "loitering-for-prostitution" charges may be expunged from the record, at a judge’s discretion, one year after completion of that person’s sentence. Though I remain strongly opposed to sending adult crime records down the memory hole, if there ever was a case for expungement, this was it.

Ms. Delgado’s record still includes evidence of her miserable life as a streetwalker: Shoplifting, check fraud and heroin possession. But it mattered to her that the prostitution charges were removed.

Why? "Because I am a mother, a woman, a daughter . . . a sister and, hopefully, I will one day be a wife and I do not want ‘prostitute’ the word because it exiles me."

Yet she has not forgotten or tried to hide her past which is why a Pawtucket police major, a Miriam Hospital nurse, a probation officer and others were on hand to advance her cause and applaud when the judge ruled in her favor.

As her lawyer, Andrew Horowitz, noted in a court memorandum, Ms. Delgado has turned her life into a "remarkable success story."

"From her teenage years until her mid-30s, she lived a life that was dominated by drug abuse, prostitution and other criminal behavior. Then, through faith, perseverance and dogged determination, she turned her life around . . . [then] devoted her life to the project of rescuing others who were suffering her same fate."

As the outreach worker for the Pawtucket-based Project RENEW (Revitalizing & Engaging Neighborhoods by Empowering Women), she has steered prostitutes to classes on prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, substance-abuse treatment, housing, employment and other services. Her own experience obviously makes her much more effective.

Ms. Delgado’s group did not support the new prostitution law, ironically. But some of those who argued, in trying to keep indoor prostitution legal in Rhode Island, that prostitution is a "victimless crime" seemed unacquainted with the hellish and dangerous lives prostitutes endure. Many are driven into it by addiction, and by violent pimps who exploit their problems. This kind of abuse of our fellow human beings is not something society should condone and assist.

Rhode Island can be proud that it finally made it illegal last year. Rep. Joanne Giannini (D.-Providence), a compassionate woman who fought this scourge for years and found herself smeared and targeted for defeat as a consequence, is retiring after 16 years in the legislature. Her law, which will help combat much cruel exploitation, particularly of addicted women and runaway children, is a wonderful legacy.

It was vitally important that the state work to stop prostitution, because of the severe human cost in lives destroyed and associated crimes. Rehabilitation is also very costly women on the street need extensive social services to break free but tax dollars would be better spent helping the least fortunate among us than going into early retirements and fat pensions for those with political clout.

And we can be deeply grateful for people like Ms. Delgado, who refuse to give up, who take the suffering and wrongdoing of their past and turn them into service to others, especially those who are among the most scorned in our society. She is saving lives and helping her neighbors through her caring.

As I say, a very moving story, just as powerful today as it would have been 2,000 years ago.

Edward Achorn ( eachorn@projo.com) is The Journal’s deputy editorial-pages editor.

How fruit trees in Indian village save girls' lives

2010-06-30T12:25:00.000+10:00

Dear Friends:

Here is an encouraging article you'll definitely want to read!

Abolition!

Lisa

Tuesday, 15 June 2010 02:40 UK
By Amarnath Tewary

Bhagalpur, Bihar

In India, where traditionally boys have been preferred over girls, a village in backward Bihar state has been setting an example by planting trees to celebrate the birth of a girl child.

In Dharhara village, Bhagalpur district, families plant a minimum of 10 trees whenever a girl child is born.

And this practice is paying off.

Nikah Kumari, 19, is all set to get married in early June. The would-be groom is a state school teacher chosen by her father, Subhas Singh.

Mr Singh is a small-scale farmer with a meagre income, but he is not worried about the high expenses needed for the marriage ceremony.

For, in keeping with the village tradition, he had planted 10 mango trees the day Nikah was born.

The girl - and the trees - were nurtured over the years and today both are grown up.

Dowry deaths

"Today that day has come for which we had planted the trees. We've sold off the fruits of the trees for three years in advance and got the money to pay for my daughter's wedding," Mr Singh told the BBC.

"The trees are our fixed deposits," he said.

The village looks like a forest or a dense green patch In Bihar, payment of dowry by the bride's family is a common practice. The price tag of the bridegroom often depends on his caste, social status and job profile.

The state is also infamous for the maximum number of dowry deaths in the country.

But the mango trees have freed Nikah's parents of undue worries. And their story is not unique in Dharhara village.

With a population of a little over 7,000, the village has more than 100,000 fully grown trees, mostly of mango and lychee.

From a distance, the village looks like a forest or a dense green patch amidst the parched and arid cluster of villages in the area.

'Great value'

And most residents can be spotted sitting in the cool orchards outside their homes.

"Now, we've stopped doing traditional farming of wheat and paddy. We plant as many trees as we can since they are more profitable and dependable," said villager Shyam Sunder Singh.

The villagers have been planting trees for generations Mr Singh paid for the weddings of his three daughters after selling fruits of trees he had planted at the time of their birth.

"One medium-size mango orchard is valued at around 200,000 rupees ($4,245; £2,900) every season.

These trees have great commercial value and they are a big support for us at the time of our daughter's marriage," he says.

The villagers say they save a part of the money earned through the sale of fruits every year in a bank account opened in their daughter's name.

The tree-planting has been going on in the village for generations now.

"We heard about it from our fathers and they from their fathers. It has been in the family and the village from ages," says Subhendu Kumar Singh, a school teacher.

"This is our way of meeting the challenges of dowry, global warming and female foeticide. There has not been a single incident yet of female foeticide or dowry death in our village," he says.

His cousin, Shankar Singh, planted 30 trees at the time of his daughter Sneha Surabhi's birth.
Sneha, four, is aware that her father has planted trees in her name; the child says she regularly waters the saplings.

As yet she doesn't know what dowry is, and says the trees will bear fruits for her "to eat".
The village's oldest resident, Shatrughan Prasad Singh, 86, has planted around 500 mango and lychee trees in his 25 acres of land.

His grand-daughters, Nishi and Ruchi, are confident the trees mean their family will have no problem paying for their weddings.

"The whole world should emulate us and plant more trees," says their father Prabhu Dayal Singh.

Lawrence Taylor indicted on NY rape charges

2010-06-30T12:08:00.000+10:00

Jun 23 12:59 PM US/Eastern
By COLLEEN LONG
Associated Press Writer

(AP) - Pro football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor was indicted Wednesday by a suburban New York grand jury on charges of third-degree rape and patronizing a prostitute.

The indictment follows his May 6 arrest at a Holiday Inn in Ramapo, N.Y., where prosecutors say he paid a 16-year-old girl $300 to have sex with him.

Taylor had been charged previously in Ramapo Town Court, but the indictment transfers the case to Rockland County. He is scheduled to appear July 13.

The former New York Giants linebacker also was indicted on charges of endangering the welfare of a child, and sexual abuse and criminal sexual act in the third degree. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted. He has denied the charges.

Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said the 16-year-old told investigators that she had been verbally threatened and physically assaulted by a pimp who drove her 26 miles north to the hotel where Taylor was waiting.

"One of the most effective ways to target prostitution is to go after the johns," Zugibe said. "This indictment underscores our serious commitment to prosecuting those defendants who create a market for the region's growing sex trade."

Taylor's attorney reiterated his client's innocence Wednesday.

"Mr. Taylor and his legal team made a strategic decision not to present any evidence to the grand jury, including him testifying or any witnesses in his defense," said defense attorney Arthur Aidala.

The evidence includes sworn testimony by a 23-year-old woman who says she accompanied the accused pimp and the 16-year-old girl to the hotel where Taylor was staying. She said Taylor did not rape the girl. The teenager returned to the car with $300 in cash and said: "It was weird ... we didn't even have sex."

The statement was given to investigators working for the defense team and seen by The Associated Press on the condition she not be identified.

Taylor's longtime business manager, Mark Lepselter, said they were looking forward to the legal process "and Lawrence being able to move forward with his life."

A federal criminal complaint filed against the accused pimp, Rasheed Davis, recounts the victim's version of events and makes no mention of a third person in the vehicle at the time of his arrest in the Bronx. Davis has been charged in federal court with sex trafficking.

Authorities said the teen did not know whom she was meeting at the hotel room. The girl sent text messages to her uncle saying she was in trouble, police said. He called the NYPD, who arrested the suspected pimp once he returned to the Bronx with the teenager. The girl provided information about the hotel.

Taylor anchored the Giants' defense and led them to Super Bowl titles in 1987 and 1991. He was selected to the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-time Team.

A 10-time Pro Bowler, he was the NFL's MVP in 1986 and Defensive Player of the Year in 1981, 1982 and 1986.

The weight-loss company NutriSystem Inc. dropped Taylor as a spokesman because of his arrest.
___
Associated Press Writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

Change.org campaign regarding death-rapper Necro

2010-05-12T09:00:00.000+10:00

Dear Friends:

I've been alerted to a vile song by so-called "death-rapper" Necro (a.k.a. Ron Braunstein). Purportedly Necro is know for his exceptionally explicit lyrics, and raps about murder by torture, Charles Manson, and devil worship. Adding to this list, Necro has released a song entitled "Human Trafficking King is White Slavery II." Tragically there is also a video so graphic and reprehensible that I will not include a link, but here are some of the lyrics:

"Woman need to be loved, injected with needles and drugs
subjected to torture and kidnapped they need to succumb
it's proven, I feed em dog food, they prefer human
make 'em savagely beat each other bloody for my amusement
It's all fun and games, I keep 'em handcuffed in chains
sexually make 'em do the most disgusting things
starve 'em to cannibals, make 'em eat each others brains
changed and deranged, stores begin to seem like nothings strange
while retarded acquaintances get fist f*cked and raped
covered in lighter fluid, lit up and engulfed in flames
sound proof walls guarantee to muffle your screams
squirm on a shit stained mattress in a puddle of pee"

Necro is scheduled to play at The Palladium in Worcester, MA on May 21-22. In response, our good friends at The Barnaba Institute have launched a Change.org campaign and are seeking are supporters to sign a petition to The Palladium asking that Necro be prohibited performing this song--which does not raise awareness about sex trafficking and sexual violence but rather glorifies it. Please sign and spread the word.

To join the petition go to:
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/insist_that_the_palladium_prohibit_necro_from_playing_human_trafficking_song

Abolition!

Lisa

Playboy 'readers' get 3-D centerfold in June issue

2010-05-12T08:52:00.000+10:00

Dear Friends:

Hello! I hope you all have been doing well and are continuing in your efforts to combat sexual trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of women. I'm sorry you haven't heard from me lately, but I've been traveling a lot the past few weeks.

Now that I'm back, I thought you'd find the article below of interest. Note Playboy's newest gimmick to grab attention and to lure in "young" men. Why are they going 3-D in the June issue? Because the free pornography on available on the Internet has cut deeply into their profits, and so Playboy executives are working relentlessly to regain market share. Part of that strategy is roping in a younger audience who they hope will become brand loyal to Playboy.

What I find particularly sad about this article is the notion that a pornography magazine provides something enduring or lasting -- as opposed to the fleeting images of Internet pornography. In truth, all pornography is a vacuous wasteland. As anyone who has lost a loved one will tell you, a picture is a sorry substitute for the presence of the real person, for the touch and warmth of authentic human relationships. If real relationship are like a rich banquet, then consuming pornography is like eating out of a toxic waste dump -- even if you are wearing 3-D glasses.

Abolition!

Lisa

Playboy 'readers' get 3-D centerfold in June issue
By DON BABWIN, Associated Press Writer Don Babwin, Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO – Playboy readers who can only imagine what it would look like if a centerfold jumped right off the page are getting new specs to help them see into Hef's world.

The magazine's June edition hits newsstands Friday equipped with 3-D glasses. Now the toy that has kids dodging dragons, meatballs and tall blue aliens at the movies will help adults focus on what is, at first glance, a very blurry Playmate of the Year.

"What would people most like to see in 3-D?" asked Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. "Probably a naked lady."

Hefner makes no secret of hoping to capitalize on the popularity of 3-D movies such as "Avatar" and "How to Train Your Dragon," even as he makes no secret of not quite getting what all the fuss is about.

"I'm not a huge enthusiast of 3-D," he said in a telephone interview. "I leave real life to go to the movies and 2-D is fine with me."

If the thought of grown men sitting back in their recliners with a pair of 3-D glasses doesn't quite say "Playboy," it should be noted that a few months ago the magazine put Marge Simpson — yes, the blue-haired animated mother of Bart — on the cover and in a two-page centerfold.

"In today's print environment you have to create newsstand events," said the editorial director of the Chicago-based magazine, Jimmy Jellinek. "Marge Simpson was one of those."

Playboy certainly must do something to get more people, especially younger people, to buy a magazine that has seen circulation plummet from 3.15 million in 2006 to 1.5 million today.

Jellinek said he hopes the issue featuring centerfold Hope Dworaczyk in 3-D also reminds people that for all the infatuation with the Internet, there is nothing quite like having a magazine in your hands.

"People want things that last and have meaning," he said.

The thought hadn't occurred to Hefner. But, now that you mention it:

"This particular picture is one example of how books and magazines are different (than computer images)," he said. "You can hold it in your hands, save them, and as Dad used to, put them under the mattress."

Hefner notes there also are plenty of good old-fashioned 2-D pictures of Dworaczyk — the 51st Playmate of the Year, for those counting at home.

3-D may be all the rage, but Hefner said he first thought of using it when he launched his magazine in the 1950s.

"I actually signed a photographer to shoot two nude women in 3-D in Chicago," he said. But he scrapped the idea when he discovered how expensive it would be to include the glasses.

This time around, HBO is helping out. HBO wanted a creative way to promote its show "True Blood," and having Playboy include 3-D glasses with the show's name on them seemed a good way to do it, said Playboy spokeswoman Theresa Hennessey.

So, do the glasses work? Well, it does kind of look like Dworaczyk is handing you the wine glass she's holding. And she says the photograph makes everything a little, well, bigger.

"It's kind of like it says on the rearview mirror," Dworaczyk joked. "Things may appear larger."

WARNING - Disturbing and explicit -- KinkForAll report from CAT

2010-03-24T15:54:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

Citizens Against Trafficking has issued a very important report concerning the activities of an organization called "KinkForAll." It is attached for your review.

As the name implies, KinkForAll actively promotes normalization of BDSM (bondage/discipline/sadism/masochism). As sad and disturbing as such practices are among adults, this organization is pushing boundaries even further and by openly targeting young adults and children. It's road show features frequent stops at university campuses, and at whatever venue its events are held encourages the general public to attend . . . even children!

I share this report with you not to make you feel hopeless, overwhelmed, or defeated by the darkness in this world. I share it because to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Information like this should inspire us all to redouble our efforts to protect children and young adults. We cannot send our children off to university with any expectation that they will be safe and protected. Clearly many university officials don't take these threats seriously. So, if you want to protect your children and loved ones the process must start long before they arrive at a university campus where people like those of KinkForAll are waiting to devour them.

I also share this report because it should make us determined to bring light into the darkness. Clearly there is a vast world of sexual brokenness out there, especially for those caught up in the twisted horror of BDSM. Truly they are enslaved and in bondage to lust and depravity. Pray and work so that their hearts may be freed.

Abolition!

Lisa

WARNING: The attached document contains disturbing and explicit material

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Training Seminar

2010-03-24T15:51:00.000+11:00

Friday, April 30, 2010
Sponsored by: The Salvation Army PROMISE Program Hosted by: Center on Halsted

The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is a growing problem. At least 100,000 to 300,000 youth are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation annually in the United States. Under federal law, any child under the age of 18 who is engaged in commercial sex is a victim of human trafficking.

Participants will be able to:
Recognize commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth (CSEC) and detect risk factors.
Identify and effectively engage CSEC victims.
Build skills necessary for treating children & youth affected by CSEC.

Featuring:
Seth Donovan, Founder Prax(us), Denver, CO
Sheila Hickey, Protective Services/Emergency Department Social Worker,
Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL

Location:
Center on Halsted 3656 North Halsted, Chicago, IL 60613

Time:
Registration/Breakfast: 8:15am Training: 8:45am - 1pm

Cost:
$30 includes: Continental breakfast; all training materials; 4 CEU’s for LPC, LCPC, LSW and LCSW

Registration:
1. Go to http://www.sapromise.org/events.htm

2. Make payment either by check or credit card
a. By check: The Salvation Army PROMISE Program

5905 Carol Ave.
Morton Grove, IL 60053
Attn: Jennifer Mitchell

b. By credit card: Call Jennifer Mitchell at 312.291.7942

3. Registration will not be confirmed until payment has been received.

Limited space available - Register no later than
Friday, April 23, 2010. Registration is final. No refunds available.

2010 Trafficking in Persons Report

2010-03-10T10:09:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

Here is a forwarded message from the U.S. Department of States' Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Abolition!

Lisa

Dear Friends,

How are you? As we begin the process of drafting the annual TIP Report, I am reaching out to NGO colleagues I have worked with in the past. I was writing to invite you to submit for possible inclusion in the 2010 TIP Report:

- Victim’s stories;
- Photos;
- Commendable initiatives seen around the world; and/or
- Quotes from representatives of your organizations or other notables

For examples of the kinds of things we are looking for, please take a look at the Introduction of last year’s Report ( http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/ ). Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions. Please note that submissions are due as soon as possible. Thanks.

Regards,

Abraham

Abraham Lee
Public Affairs Officer
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
U.S. Department of State
1800 G St., NW, Suite 2201
Washington, DC 20006
Phone: (202) 216-5865
Fax: (202) 312-9637
Email: LeeAY@state.gov

New coalition challenges the status quo of “Pornland, OR”

2010-03-03T11:17:00.000+11:00

One pimp told him “schools are buffets” where slavers can find teen girls to turn out by the bunch.

I have been a feminist a long time. First just a feminist, then a liberal feminist, then a sex-positive feminist by my early 20s. To my life-changing joy, I discovered radical feminism and I'm still in that camp, but traipsing through my early 30s brought me to a new way of working for women's rights. I am now a soroptimist.

Since last week I have been asking people if they know who the Soroptimists are and what they do. Some folks had vague recollections of community do-gooders, but most externalized the dialogue that ran through my brain upon receiving word of the conference, “Sorop-wha?”

Soroptimist means “best for women.” They are an international volunteer organization of professional women comprising more than 1,400 clubs in 19 countries who work to improve the lives of women and girls. From microcredit to funding media projects and more, throughout the day I heard astonishing success stories that convinced me they're not bragging about that “best for women” declaration.

Soroptimists are the key constituents behind the Northwest Coalition Against Trafficking (NWCAT), the official sponsor of the anti-trafficking conference that drew a crowd of 500 to Portland's Red Lion Hotel on January 9. Soroptimist International Northwestern Region is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that has formed a coalition of agencies, political leaders, community organizers, media and business contacts throughout the Northwest to work against trafficking.

And mama mia is there trafficking in the Northwest. Deputy Keith Bickford, director of the Oregon State Human Trafficking Task Force, explained why Portland is a major slave hub in the United States, “Lots of pimps have come to Portland because there have been few prosecutions.” One pimp told him “schools are buffets” where slavers can find teen girls to turn out by the bunch. Bickford blamed the city's legal sex industry, lax trafficking enforcement, large numbers of homeless youths, proximity to two interstate freeways and seasonal farmwork, but highlighted the fact that pimps only provide what johns demand. Research on Scottish johns from 2008 revealed twice as many prostitute-using men identified themselves as politically left than politically right (32% versus 17%). Portland progressives need to stop smirking at the sexual capitalism that has masqueraded under liberalism's aegis for too long.

Talk of building a shelter for prostituted girls has been buzzing for about two years, but little headway has been made into the enormous project. Greg Moawad of the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office used his session “Prosecution 101” to explain the critical role of a safe haven in seeing traffickers brought to justice. Prosecution is almost impossible without victim testimony, but these girls are scared for their lives. “The very reasons she was selected as a victim makes it hard for her to effectively prosecute them,” Moawad reported. Between the arrest date and the court date, girls often run away rather than go to court and face their enslavers. A shelter will provide victims with the security and social assistances they need to put these career criminals in jail.

It is easy to be against trafficking, tantamount as it is with slavery. More difficult by far is to take issue with the trafficker's propaganda machine: the porn industry. Criticisms of pornography that go beyond jokes about bad music, fake breasts, and other purely aesthetic offenses are anathema in Portland. I have reported on many anti-trafficking events over the years and very rarely have the educational sessions or speakers broached the topic of pornography's influence on sexual slavery.

Imagine my delight when I walked into Esther Nelson's workshop and encountered a slide depicting pornography as a form of sex trafficking. Nelson was there representing the Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC) and she did a bang-up job explaining how porn stimulates men's desire to use prostitutes. To separate pornography from prostitution is to deny that women and children are often exploited by pimps who can operate camaras. Men who pay to watch prostitutes be prostituted on film are long-distance johns, and many move on to buying sex locally. An increasingly pornified culture was Nelson's target and she criticized the current valorization of all things pimp; television shows like “Pimp My Ride”, feature movies like “Hustle & Flow,” and songs like 50 Cent's career-making “P.I.M.P”:

I let em' do as they please, as long as they get my cheeseEven if they gotta freeze, or if it's a hundred degreesI keep em' on they knees, take a look under my sleeveI ain't gotta give em' much, they happy with Mickey D's

Later that afternoon, Soroptimist International of the Americas President Cathy Standiford made a soroptimist out of me when she also pointed a finger-o'-blame at pornography, “80 percent of prostitutes say johns have shown them porn to illustrate what they want.”

Pornography is fundamentally an experience of bought sex, and it is used by pimps to train and groom young girls into prostitution. So-called “modeling agents” take naked photos then threaten to release them publicly unless the girls turn tricks, and one Portland prostitute out of “the life” for years was blackmailed by a former john who threatened to show pictures to her new family if she didn't have sex with him. I found Standiford's forthright statements about internet porn and the increase in sadistic porn's popularity especially refreshing after a decade of lily-livered liberal feminists avoiding the subject.

William G. Hillar's liver is dark, dark red. In 1988, while traveling with schoolmates in Southeast Asia, kidnappers pulled Hillar’s 17-year old daughter off a train and forced her into prostitution. Despite an exhaustive global search, the former Colonel of the U.S. Army Special Forces was unable to save his daughter, and the movie "Taken," starring Liam Neeson is loosely based on his story.

He was a magnetic speaker who ruled the room. I won't tell you the absolutely horrific details of how his daughter was slowly killed to teach other enslaved women the consequences of trying to escape. The worst tortures your imagination could conjure would barely dent the reality. What I want to tell you is what Hillar wants people to understand about sex trafficking:

We have a problem in this country, and a part of that problem is manifested by the fact most of us are amazed that human trafficking is so big here in the Northwest. Part of that problem is that there is a huge gender inequality issue and a double standard that allows us today – still today – to objectify a woman and make them something different than men...It might be that pimps are the problems, but I think they're the middle men. I don't like the pimp just like everybody else, but we need to get to the root cause and it has to do with morality and treating people like equals with their own dignity.

It was a long day of hearing atrocity after atrocity punctuated by moments of hope. The sky started fading to black, and the emotional tenor was a fever pitch when Jeri Williams came onstage. She opened with, “I had to take my shoes off because I'm really feeling like I'm standing on holy ground right now. I have never seen this many people wanting to support this issue before.”

Williams is the program manager for Portland's Office of Neighborhood Involvement and has a long history as a labor organizer. In the summer of 1989, she moved to Portland in order to escape an abusive husband and got jumped into a gang. All of them raped her. During the day she was locked in a bedroom, and every night she was let out to turn at least 15 tricks in order to make her quota of $300 or get beaten.

With the help of Portland's Council for Prostitution Alternatives (CPA) and the West Women's Shelter, Williams was able to turn her life around and become a community leader. CPA's all-volunteer group is still providing crucial services to prostituted women, but without the safe space of a shelter the path to recovery remains impossibly difficult for the most vulnerable women.

Jane Velez-Mitchell, host of CNN's Headline News show “Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell” and author of the book "iWant: My Journey from Addiction and Overconsumption to a Simpler, Honest Life," was awarded the Soroptimist Ruby Award for women who work to improve the lives of women and girls. A recovering alcoholic, out lesbian, and impassioned animal rights advocate, Velez-Mitchell bravely admitted to having the aforementioned “Soro-wha?” moment upon receiving news of the award.

She sure knows who they are now, and like me she has vowed to get immediately involved with this group of incredibly effective women. Also like me, she uses the power of media to tell women's stories and project women's voices into the world. Here's a snippet from Velez-Mitchell's show dated January 14th , a mere five days after Saturday's conference:

VELEZ-MITCHELL: There is a bill in the Senate, Jeri Williams. You are a survivor. It would crack down on the pimps and the johns. Ten seconds. Why should Americans support it?

WILLIAMS: Americans should support it because, unless we decrease the demand, the supply will be there of young children. If common sense were common, then we`d all have it. And the issue right now is that men should be going to jail for raping children.

I don't know what feminism means anymore. I have been banned from posting at the two largest feminist blogs on the internet and shunned by many more for insisting prostitution is slavery, not work. Soroptimist means “best for women.” These are the world-changing women I've been waiting for.

Samantha Berg

Former NBA All-Star Robertson accused of sex trafficking

2010-02-28T17:53:00.000+11:00

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.

Legislative Triumphs and Trials in Combating Demand for Commercial Sex

2010-02-28T17:49:00.000+11:00

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.

If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, please let us know by replying to this message with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.

Labour to ban massage parlor adverts in newspapers

2010-02-28T17:43:00.000+11:00

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.”

Moody Radio -- Ministry to Women in the CSI

2010-02-26T08:14:00.000+11:00

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.

Two articles: 1) Actress and Muslim philanthropist promote women & 2) Director Michael Winterbottom defends film's extreme violence

2010-02-26T08:00:00.000+11:00

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".

Pornography Harms Website Launched

2010-02-24T10:59:00.000+11:00

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

Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

2010-02-24T10:34:00.000+11:00

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.

German brothels raided in trafficking probe

2010-02-05T08:53:00.000+11:00

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]

Haiti/US: Strong on Zeal, Thin in Knowledge

2010-02-04T18:41:00.000+11:00

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.

SEC workers investigated for porn-surfing

2010-02-03T08:50:00.000+11:00

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.

Lost children: Why they should stay in Haiti

2010-02-02T13:34:00.000+11:00

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.

Haiti detains Americans taking kids across border

2010-02-02T13:29:00.000+11:00

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.

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

2010-02-01T19:16:00.000+11:00

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.”

Haiti: USG Public Statement -- Operation Protect Children

2010-02-01T16:39:00.000+11:00

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.

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

2010-02-01T16:33:00.000+11:00

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.

Florida: Outreach Event in Miami during Super Bowl 44

2010-01-28T15:24:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

Here is a FORWARDED MESSAGE from the FLORIDA COALITION AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING. Some great ideas here. There's no reason why these types of efforts cannot be replicated elsewhere.

Abolition!

Lisa

Dear Colleagues,

The Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking, KLaasKids Foundation. Global Child Rescue, Stand Up for Kids, Kristi House, Free International and Florida Abolitionists have join efforts to conduct street outreach to hotels and business owners that may come in contact with victims of commercial sexual exploitation and to conduct outreach to minors located in areas known for commercial sexual exploitation during the week of the Super Bowl 44 in Miami, Florida. Last year we provided 13 leads and one of the leads turned out to be the " Treasure Island " case in St. Pete, Florida. Six pimps were arrested and 4 domestic victims were rescued.

Our goal:

To identify and assist in the rescue and recovery of juveniles or adult victims of sex trafficking.

Our objectives:

Increase overall awareness of domestic minor sex trafficking to Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area businesses.

Increase overall awareness and identification techniques for volunteers

Create and informed presence to the reality of domestic minor sex trafficking to visitors and residents of Miami/Ft.Lauderdale through media outlets and street presence.

Increase the opportunity to identify and rescue potential victims of domestic minor sex trafficking and adult victims of human trafficking. We will also be on The lookout for International victims of human trafficking.

Develop a spirit of teamwork and alliance building between the partner groups, law enforcement and the community.

Our outreach event starts with the arrival of Outreach Team members on February 2nd and 3rd

February 3rd at 7pm: Introduction & Street Outreach Training
February 3rd from 10:00 pm to 2:00 am Street Outreach with trained volunteers and staff members of representative organizations.
February 4th from 9:00pm to 2:00 am Street Outreach ( only experienced outreach teams)
February 4th from 11:00pm to 3:00 am Juvenile Sweep with LEO
February 5th from 9:00am to 12:00 pm Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Training
February 5th from 1:00pm Team briefing and assignments
February 5th from 2:oopm to 5:00 pm Business/ Street Outreach (over 100 volunteers)
from 5:00pm to 6:00 pm Team debriefings
February 6th 12:00pm Team briefing and assignments
February 6th from 1:00pm to 4:00 pm Business Street Outreach (over 100 volunteers)
February 6th 8:00pm: Team briefing and assignments
February 6th from 9:00pm to 2:00 am: Business Street Outreach (only experienced outreach teams)

For almost a week Outreach volunteers, FCAHT, KlaasKids, Free International, Stand Up for Kids will be camping at the gymnasium of a church in Miami. The church is even hosting a Superbowl party for all volunteers. They are allowing us to sleep, shower and use their facilities as a staging area. Business around the area will be donating food for all the volunteers.

All team members and volunteers will be provided with "outreach shirts" for identification purposes during the business sweeps.

All team members and volunteers will;; have outreach material to hand-out to business owners.
Teams will have copies of missing child flyers of " local" children to pass out to business owners.

MSNBC will be with us through out the week. Last year they were filming with us the Tampa Superbowl Outreach event for a special documentary they are working on domestic minor sex trafficking.

We wanted to share with all of you what we have been coordinating for the last 6 months.

I would like to thanks all the organizations that have partner with FCAHT and KlaasKids for Superbowl 44 in Miami Springs Florida.

Anna Rodriguez

Association of Vineyard Churches Launches Justice Response Website, Targets Human Trafficking

2010-01-28T15:22:00.000+11:00

January 18, 2010— The Association of Vineyard Churches (www.vineyardusa.org) proudly announces the launch of “Justice Response,” a new website designed to equip pastors and lay leaders to address international and domestic human trafficking. The website launch couldn’t be more timely as this month inaugurates the first National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Developed by the Vineyard Anti-Slavery Team (VAST), the website provides an approachable introduction to the complex dimensions of human trafficking, along with practical resources pastors can use to engage their congregations. The “Justice Response” website provides an overview of human trafficking, from child soldiers to sex slaves to bonded labor. Specific resources include sermon ideas, small group resources, guides to mapping hotspots for human trafficking in your community, and guides to fair-trade products. The site will expand in the future to include a variety of resources for worship leaders and Christian workers overseas.

Comprised of over 500 churches in the United States, and hundreds more worldwide, the Vineyard movement has a consistent history of challenging its members to care for the poor and the marginalized. In the wake of the growing movement among many Christian communities to reclaim a legacy of abolitionism, VAST aims to link the Vineyard into the existing stream of modern-day abolitionists and anti-slavery organizations. VAST member Cheryl Pittluck hopes that “future generations will be able look back and say that when the Christian Church saw the need, she rose to the cause in the fight to end Human Trafficking....That the Vineyard took seriously the command to fight for justice on behalf of those who cannot fight for themselves. This website will hopefully be a valuable tool in arming and preparing our churches for that fight."

Many Vineyard churches have already begun the work of uncovering human trafficking within their own cities. VAST member Steven Hamilton, assistant pastor at the Central Maryland Vineyard, encountered the issue of human trafficking in the Ukraine. With horror, they discovered that girls from the Ukranian orphanages their church supported were being trafficked directly into Baltimore. They began to understand that trafficking was not just an international phenomenon that happened “out there” somewhere. The church is a founding member of the Maryland Human Trafficking Taskforce and provides awareness and local assistance to law enforcement with anti-trafficking raids. “My hope is that the vision and resources of Justice Response will empower and equip Vineyard churches to join what God is doing to fight against modern-day slavery all over the world and in our own backyards,” Hamilton shares.

Love146 U.S. Advocacy Director Kathy Maskell hails the website as a milestone in the anti-slavery movement. “Sharing resources and creating bridges between faith communities and activist communities is exactly the kind of collaborative spirit that will enable us to end modern-day slavery in our lifetime.” The website officially launches today and is accessible to all at http://www.vineyardusa.org/justice-response.

Helpline launched to combat 2010 trafficking

2010-01-28T15:18:00.000+11:00

A 24-hour toll free helpline for victims and members of the public to report human trafficking was launched in Johannesburg today.

08000-RESCUE is a joint initiative between The Salvation Army and BE HEARD, an organization with ten years experience in operating anonymous tip-off services.

“This toll free number will create an opportunity for two things: firstly, it will allow people to call for help on all matters relating to human trafficking and secondly, it will serve as a platform for people to offer tip-off information on suspicious circumstances,” said Major Marieke Venter, National Coordinator of The Salvation Army Anti-Human Trafficking Task Team.

Call centre consultants receive training from The Salvation Army and will assist callers in eight languages. All human trafficking cases will be reported to The Salvation Army, while emergency cases will be referred directly to the South African Police Services.

The Salvation Army and other cooperating organizations will provide victims with support and a safety net structure. As part of their ongoing campaign, The Salvation Army recently opened the Beth Shan Shelter in Pretoria for abused women and victims of human trafficking.

“We are also engaging in as many conversations as possible with schools and women’s groups so that they are aware of the need to fight human trafficking,” said Venter.

According to The Salvation Army 450 000 of the two million people trafficked each year are in Africa. They are used for exploitation as prostitutes, forced labour or for their body organs. There are an estimated 50 000 child prostitutes in South Africa.

“We therefore have the responsibility, both individually and collectively, to work for the liberation of those who have been enslaved in this manner, and to establish the legal and social mechanisms by which human trafficking can be stopped,” Venter added.

Venter said although they are cautious not to create too much hype around the 2010 FIFA World Cup, there is a strong possibility that human trafficking in South Africa will increase at that time.

At the moment the helpline only offers consultation in South African languages, but according to Brian Adams, founder of BE HEARD, this will be improved to include other languages like French, Swahili, Russian and Thai as soon as capacity increases and more finance becomes available.

Adams said they were also addressing issues around the securing of the call centre against possible threats from syndicates involved in trafficking, and working on improving their relationship with the SAPS and government structures to enhance cooperation.

A big stumbling block, however, is the fact that there is still no legislation to fight human trafficking in South Africa. Major Venter said a draft bill on human trafficking is currently being discussed in Parliament, and that they were hopeful that it would be passed within the year.

“We urge the government to pass legislation on human trafficking so that offenders can be brought to book. We know that the draft bill is being discussed in Parliament so we are adding our voice in support of what other organizations have said,” said Venter.

According to Adams from BE HEARD, the tip-off service will eventually be available across six mediums, including sms, e-mail, fax and a website.

Markus, U.S.'s first legal gigolo who compares himself to Rosa Parks, starts at Nevada's Shady Lady

2010-01-27T16:34:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

This article points out the common transition from pornography to prostitution (although I would add that pornography is prostitution . . . as Rebecca Whisnant says, "prostitution for mass consumption"). Moreover, note how the industry is preying on someone who was homeless. As for the civil rights analogy, its an insult to everyone who ever struggled for civil rights.

Abolition!

Lisa

By Corky Siemaszko DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, January 22nd 2010, 6:18 PM

Ladies, meet America's first prostidude.

His name is Markus and he's a strapping, 25-year-old ex-Marine from Alabama who can be yours for about $300-an-hour, satisfaction guaranteed.

"Whichever woman may walk through that door, she's appreciated," Markus promised in a recent interview with Details magazine. "She'll leave feeling much more empowered and much more confident in herself."

Markus has made history by becoming the first legal gigolo in the U.S.

The Shady Lady - a brothel in Nevada where prostitution is legal in some parts - got state and county approval to put Markus on the payroll. And he'll start entertaining the ladies this weekend.

Madam Bobbi Davis believes Markus will be a big moneymaker.

"If she didn't think she could make more money she wouldn't have done it," Jim Davis, her husband and business partner, told the Associated Press.

The businessman declined to divulge the name of their new hunka burning love. Nor would the Davis' make Markus available for interviews.

Perhaps that's because Markus made some cringeworthy remarks in the Details interview, calling himself a pioneer and likening himself to civil rights hero Rosa Parks. Parks, however, never did porn - or discriminate.

Markus, by contrast, dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in skin flicks, washing out after filming just two scenes.

Also, Markus does discriminate - he won't have sex with men for money or any other reason.

Which helps explain why Markus was broke and living in a Santa Monica homeless shelter when Davis, who was looking to a hire a gigolo, picked his "resume" out of stack of applications and put him on the payroll.

Markus' refusal to service gents has already sparked some grumbling from ladies who work at competing brothels.

"How can you just turn down services because of what someone's preferences is?" a 22-year-old prostitute named Cuddles, who works at the nearby Angel's Ladies Brothel, told the Associated Press. "It comes with the territory. It comes with the business."

Jim Davis said they hired Markus with an eye on luring in female clients - not Gay men.

Not that there's anything wrong with Gay men, he hastened to add.

"Everybody's so damn scared two men might have sex," he said. "It's happening every day in Las Vegas. Not going to happen here, but that's all the big fear, is gay people."

Outrage over graphic T-shirts prompts pornography row

2010-01-27T16:25:00.000+11:00

JON PIERIK
January 24, 2010

Two of the T-shirt designs. Photo: Craig Sillitoe

T-SHIRT slogans condoning rape and featuring semi-naked and gagged women have outraged anti-exploitation advocates.

An Australian website, run out of Los Angeles, allows designers to sell T-shirts with slogans such as ''It's not rape if you yell surprise'', ''Rape, murder, arson … I like rape'', and ''I want rape''.

The tops have been designed for men and, surprisingly, women.

Menswear company Roger David has also been embroiled in the furore through two of its controversial T-shirt labels. [See: http://www.rogerdavid.com.au/]

One T-shirt, by Los Angeles-based company Blood Is the New Black, shows a woman who appears gagged and roughed up. The other, by US brand Chaser LA, has two semi-naked women with a strip across their eyes.

The graphic T-shirts have angered women's groups, while a Facebook group called ''Roger David: NOT ok to promote violence against women!'' already has more than 800 members.
Women's advocate and co-founder of the anti-exploitation group Collective Shout, Melinda Tankard Reist, says the T-shirts must be outlawed.

''[They are] mocking the serious crime of rape,'' she said. ''I don't think there has been any consideration of the message it sends sexual assault survivors.''

The image used by Chaser LA was largely copied from a controversial 1974 album cover by British rock band Roxy Music.

''They're taking messages you would normally find in pornography or the sex industry and mainstreaming them in what was once considered conservative menswear stores,'' Ms Tankard Reist said. ''Is this how Roger David likes its women? Is this how it thinks women should be portrayed?''

Roger David didn't return calls but an insider said its T-shirts had been selling ''reasonably well''.

Chrystina Woody, a spokeswoman for Blood Is the New Black, suggested the T-shirts, as art, would spark debate. ''Art is meant to inspire and educate, and the meaning and interpretation is left in the hands of the viewer,'' she said via email.

A spokeswoman for the LA-based T-shirt website said the company was not responsible for material designers provided, as long as it met the requirements of the site's user agreement.
But according to the site's user content clause, designers are not allowed to use images deemed ''abusive, vulgar, harassing, pornographic, indecent and socially and morally objectionable''.

Director of Kids Free 2B Kids Julie Gale said clothing degrading women was a growing concern, and that many of these images were now on the shelves of mainstream stores.

''A lot of young females are starting to sexualise themselves in the way they present themselves and young men are reading them a certain way,'' she said.

The Salvation Army's anti-trafficking efforts

2010-01-25T09:13:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

We thought you would want to be aware of The Salvation Army's anti-trafficking efforts.

Abolition!

Lisa
ALERT for Salvation Army Officers, Employees and Volunteers

The Problem:
The earthquake in Haiti has created a state of emergency. The crisis is of epic proportions, and disaster relief teams are struggling to rescue Haitians and provide food, clothing, shelter, medical assistance, and other emergency relief. Over the next weeks this work will continue, but a secondary phenomenon is already developing: hundreds of thousands of Haitians have been displaced from their homes. Many are wandering in the streets, afraid to go inside for fear of aftershocks. Thousands are migrating in search of food, clothing, shelter and medical services. From previous experience, we know that natural disasters present dangerous secondary circumstances which may, if not addressed on the front end, result human trafficking.

Victims of human trafficking may be trafficked within Haiti or abroad. Victims may be trafficked for purposes of forced and/or bonded labor, child labor, and commercial sexual exploitation (prostitution, pornography, stripping). Also, please be aware that according to international standards persons under 18-years-old cannot give consent to participation in the commercial sexual industry.

Please be alert to scams and fraud such as:
People offering Haitians job opportunities in foreign countries.
People claiming to be the relatives of abandoned or orphaned children.
People luring children.
Military, relief workers, or others, demanding sexual favors in exchange for aid.

Warning signs of human trafficking include:
Evidence of being controlled (rarely alone, seems to be under constant surveillance, isolated or cut off from family and friends, fearful of speaking for oneself).
Evidence of inability to move or leave a job.
Excessive work hours – not free to take time off.
Unpaid for work completed or paid very little.
Active in commercial sex industry or works "off the books" in low-paying jobs.
Signs of physical or sexual abuse.

Recommended precautions:
Warn potential victims of human trafficking schemes.
Those providing shelter and care are encouraged to register and protect those people in their facilities, especially children including preteens and adolescents. Women and children should not be placed in isolated areas of shelters/camps. Routinely check isolated places in the shelter/camp. Also consider sleeping arrangements appropriate for families and individuals.
Those hiring new or temporary employees for relief work are encouraged to educate new hires about human trafficking and outline a zero-tolerance policy for employees involved in human trafficking and/or sexual abuse.
Respond quickly if a child or parent asks for help or appears threatened.

This message is sponsored by: The Salvation Army World Service Office in partnership with Global Centurion, Renewal Forum, Fondation Espoir, World Hope International, Olive Branch International, Doctors at War on Trafficking, The Home Foundation, Equitas, Call and Respond, Christian Medical Association, Beyond Borders, and Fondation la Limye Lavi.

Stag parties 'fuel sex trafficking'

2010-01-25T08:48:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

Here is a must read article. On the one hand the article is encouraging because it actually makes the link between so-called "stag parties" (a party for men only or held for a bachelor before his wedding, and which as the article describes frequently involve men's purchase of sex) and sex trafficking. That this link is being made by the mainstream media is definitely progress. Still the article makes clear that the anti-sex trafficking movement has a long way to go. For instance, the author apparently is operating from the mistaken belief that women in the sex industry are only victims if they are from a foreign country. Nothing is communicated which shares the fact that indigenous women are trafficked within their countries of origin as well as women from abroad.

Moreover, it's ridiculous to assume that sex buyers can ascertain who is trafficked and who is not. Women in the sex industry are trained to wear facades that hide their true emotions, their real identities. Yes, sometimes those masks slip, but the longer a woman is in the sex industry (and with the aid of drugs and alcohol) the more adept she becomes at holding the mask in place and presenting men with the fantasy they are seeking.

Additionally, there is no repudiation of men buying sex from women who they suppose are not trafficked. The fact remains that the commodifying of women as objects for consumption/as mere products (trafficked or not) is dehumanizing. This is a message we need to make crystal clear if we ever want to stop the demand and end sex trafficking.

Abolition!

Lisa

Stag parties 'fuel sex trafficking'
By Simon Boazman BBC News

Prague, Amsterdam, Riga, Krakow, they have all become popular destinations for the British stag party industry. But some of the estimated £500m spent each year is also finding its way to criminal gangs trafficking women for the sex trade.

The British stag party has changed in the past 10 years. The drink down the pub with dad or your mates is gone. It has been replaced with three or four nights in a foreign city, far from prying eyes and geared to meet the stag party's every desire.

And that is often much more than a visit to a strip club. For a large number of stags, visiting a prostitute has also become part of the ultimate lads' weekend.

Prague has 70 brothels and numerous strip clubs. It is not hard to find some of the half a million stag visitors, many British, that the Prague tourist board say visit every year. I found them at every sex establishment I went to.

There was a strip party bus, lap-dancing, and even a brothel that offers free sex provided you agree to be filmed. And many of the British stag groups had at least some, if not all, members buying sexual services.

A local charity worker was in no doubt that British stag parties coming to Prague had increased local demand for sexual services.

"If a British stag sleeps with women in a brothel or sleeps with her on the streets it could be a women brought… because of the sex industry, to be trafficked there from any part of the world."

Criminal gangs

The Czech Republic has long been a transit point for the trafficking of women in and out, and I wanted to find out how easy it would be to buy trafficked women for the sex trade.

Through contacts in the criminal underworld, we managed to arrange an undercover meeting with a trafficker. Posing as a London brothel owner, I arranged to meet him at a motorway service station.

As I secretly filmed our meeting, it became clear how straightforward the deal would be.

"I have two girls here for you now. That I can give to you. They have papers, they can travel you know, no criminal record, anything," he told me.

In the world of international sex trafficking, the leasing of girls has become common and it is big business.

"One girl makes me 90,000 krona (3,500 euros, £3,119) a month - around 50,000 euros (£44,561) a year. You give me 3,500 euros per month and I will come and visit you every month in England and collect the money every month."

The meeting lasted 20 minutes, and I could have bought two women.

Back alley

In the Latvian capital Riga, brothels are illegal, so the sex industry is more discreet with back-street brothels and street workers.

One British man told me about a "back alley basement place" his group had visited.

Like almost all the Brits I met, he did not want to tell me his name or be identified, admitting they were doing things they would not dream of doing at home.

But he said they had been shown a group of girls and he thought they were probably trafficked.

"They stood against the wall with a lack of soul, a dead look on their faces, which suggested that they weren't necessarily there out of their own free will.

"My initial feeling was they had just been brought out of the cupboard and they've just been released from the shackles and marched out to then have an hour with someone."

He told me half the group had seen enough at that point and left. The other half stayed.

Poverty and desperation

Far from the bright lights of the stag cities is Lunik 9, a decrepit crumbling estate in the Slovakian city of Kosice.

The centre wells of the tower blocks are six metres (20ft) deep with rubbish, the windows of the apartments have long since vanished and sewage runs down the walls and through the streets.

It really has to be seen and smelt to be believed, and it is here, amid this poverty and desperation, that sex traffickers look for and then exploit their victims.

Yana was only 17 when she left Slovakia with a man she thought was her boyfriend, to start a new life in Amsterdam.

When she arrived, she found she would not be leading the life that she dreamed of.

Unknown to her, her boyfriend had sold her to brothel owners.

"He led me to a space where there were a couple of men who were saying that I was beautiful, that I was sexy and they were basically saying that she is here for us, this is what we want her to do… They tore apart my clothes and they raped me."

Yana provides a tragic and deeply emotional testimony of being raped daily and pushed to the brink of suicide.

It is a story that every stag should hear.

Yana finally escaped after a year trapped in Amsterdam.

Using prostitutes

Tibor, another sex trafficker from Slovakia but working in the Czech Republic, agreed to be interviewed about his operation.

It was not his openness that stunned me but his cold, detached attitude.

I asked if he viewed the trafficked girls as his employees.

"More like things that I own," he said.

He said he felt no guilt about making money from people who were trapped. "It's just a regular job where you go to work and you go home at the end of the day."

Amsterdam

It is estimated that more than 3 million British people go on stag and hen parties each year, with more than 70% of them going overseas.

Amsterdam is the most popular British stag party venue. The local sex industry largely depends on foreign women from poorer countries.

There were nearly 500 women rescued last year according to Dutch police.

"Each year we have more cases," I was told by a policeman who runs an undercover team that infiltrates trafficking gangs. The industry is worth "millions of euros", he said. "The recruiters are getting money, the transporters are getting money, the exploiters are getting that money."

"Only the girls will get nothing," he adds.

In an attempt to make the area easier to police, the local authorities are forcibly buying up nearly half of the 482 brothels in the red light district and closing them down.

But it is not difficult to find a British stag weekender, a bright young man who had admitted to using a prostitute.

I told him that many prostitutes in Amsterdam had been trafficked.

"I don't agree with that, I think it's awful," he said, but admitted it probably would not stop him using a prostitute again that night.

"I disagree with it, but at the end of the day it's just what happens, like. You can't do anything about it. You're just here to have fun, and do things you won't get away with back home."

China: One-child policy condemns 24m bachelors to life without a wife

2010-01-14T12:11:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

Yet another report about China's gender imbalance and the millions of young men who will not be able to find spouses. The implications for social disorder--especially sex trafficking--are staggering.

Abolition!

Lisa

The normal sex ratio of birth of 103-107 boys for every 100 girls began to shift in the late 1980s
Jane Macartney in Beijing

China’s "one couple, one child" family planning policy could leave more than 24 million men unable to find a bride by the end of the decade, a report says.

The country’s leading think-tank describes the gender imbalance among newborns as the most serious demographic problem facing China. The surplus of bachelors — known as "bare branches" — in the rural areas has been described by senior officials as a problem that could lead to a surge in crime and social instability, the ruling Communist Party’s greatest fear.

The report makes no bones about how the one-child policy — introduced to curb population growth and still in place in most circumstances — has led to a preference for boys. "Sex-specific abortions remained extremely commonplace, especially in rural areas," the report, published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.

Officials acknowledged that the introduction of ultrasound scans in the 1980s resulted in a surge of abortions of female foetuses after parents tried to ensure that their only child was a boy who could carry on the family line. That tradition is important in a society where reverence of ancestors continues to underpin the social structure and where farmers want sons. "The problem is more serious in rural areas due to the lack of a social security system," the report said. "Ageing farmers have to rely on their offspring."

Related Links

The normal birth ratio of 103-107 boys for every 100 girls began to shift in the 1980s. It rose from 108 boys in 1982 to 111 in 1990 and 116 a decade later. A report in the British Medical Journal last year by Therese Hesketh of University College London noted that two poorer, mainly rural provinces had the highest imbalances, with 140 boys for every 100 girls in the 1-to-4 age range. Dr Hesketh wrote: "Nothing can be done now to prevent this imminent generation of excess men."

However, this report added that the national trend of gender imbalance had begun to slow since 2005, when it soared to 119 male births for every 100 female. One Chinese expert said that the rate had risen to 120.49 to 100 by the end of 2006, meaning that males born since 1980 would have outnumbered females born in the same period by 38 million at the end of 2008.

That China’s latest report continues to highlight the gravity of the situation serves to underscore how worried the leadership is over an issue that only a policy change, combined with nature and time, can solve. Some Chinese demographers hinted that it was time to shift from the family planning policy that has been credited with preventing 400 million births — which would, its backers claim, have swollen the population to unsustainable levels.

Abortion is legal and widely available. China bans tests to determine the gender of a foetus for non-medical reasons, but these are still carried out, mainly by underground clinics in rural areas. The law does not expressly prohibit or even define late-term termination of pregnancies.

Female infanticide is not uncommon, although rarely mentioned. Some families do not register the birth of daughters so that they can try legally for a son. In rural areas, farmers who have a daughter are now allowed to have a second child.

Despite these developments men in poverty-stricken regions will face the greatest difficulty in finding a wife after 2020, Wang Yuesheng, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.

Mr Wang said: "The chance of getting married will be rare if a man is more than 40 years old in the countryside. They will be more dependent on social security as they age and have fewer household resources to rely on."

January 2010 - IAST Prayer Alert - Child Witchcraft Accusations and Trafficking

2010-01-14T12:04:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

For the month of January the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking's prayer focus is on a phenomenon brought to our attention through the 2009 report Witchcraft Accusations: A Protection Concern for UNHCR and the Wider Humanitarian Community? by Gary Foxcroft, Program Director of Stepping Stones Nigeria.

As the report notes, witchcraft accusations and associations deal with the commonly held belief in many countries that "certain people possess a mystical power which enables them to separate their soul from their physical body whilst asleep at night and enter into the spirit or witchcraft world." The people groups at greatest risk of being accused are women, the elderly, children, and albinos. Witchcraft accusations and associations are not new in themselves, but the emphasis on children as victims is new.

People driven from their homes due to witchcraft accusations often have no place to go but the streets, leaving them more vulnerable to traffickers. From there the familiar story of manipulation and coercion occurs, leaving the victims trapped, exploited, and with no where to turn for help.

Chance's story illustrates this sad truth (the womensenews.org link to the original story is provided below). Having been accused of witchcraft, Chance was beaten every time she tried to go home. She tried five times. The article goes on to report that in some regions of the Congo "police started seeing a growing number of girls on the street, many prostituting because they'd been kicked out of their homes after being called witches. Child victims of witchcraft accusations/associations are also trafficked to be used as forced labor in plantations.

Resources:
1. To read the complete report by Gary Foxcroft visit
http://www.steppingstonesnigeria.org/files/UN_doc.pdf
2. For Chance's story please visit http://www.womensenews.org/print/7867.
3. "Saving Witches in Kolwezi": http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/september/27.62.html?start=4
4. The Invention of Child Witches in the Democratic Republic of Congo, by Javier Aguilar Molina: http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0708/DOC22208.pdf
5. Prayer Guide by the10:10 Prayer Campaign: Lifting the label from children branded as "witches": http://www.viva.org/uploadedFiles/Resources/Files/Prayer/10-10%20prayer%20guide.pdf

Prayer Points

Please pray. . .

For an end to the wars, environmentally devastated land, poverty and superstitions that drive people to make witchcraft accusations;
That the wider Body of Christ—those in contact with church leaders who make witchcraft accusations—would take the necessary steps to correct and rebuke false teachings, as well as for the protection and safety of those who are intervening to rebuke child witchcraft accusations;
That God would work through the governments and humanitarian groups in effected countries to protect those "at risk" of accusations—women, children, elderly, and albinos;
That victims would find a place to escape and build new lives;
That the power of Christ would defeat the powers of those adults who do practice witchcraft, divination, and sorcery;
That the love of Christ for children would be revealed to those in church leadership, their parents and guardians, their teachers, and community leaders.

Abolition!
Peta-Gaye Stewart and Lisa Thompson

Nestle surrender to STOP THE TRAFFIK pressure

2009-12-08T22:50:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

Here is some good news! Nestle will be introducing fairly traded chocolate into some of its product lines. Yet, as the article below spells out, this is only a partial victory.

I encourage you to keep these matters in mind as you make our chocolate purchases this Christmas season. For fair trade certified chocolate consider Divine Chocolate (http://www.divinechocolateusa.com/) or Equal Exchange

( http://www.equalexchange.coop/).

For more information on the links between the cocoa industry and slavery see: http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/newsandinformation.html and
http://www.chocolatework.com/chocolate-slavery.htm

Abolition!

Lisa

Nestlé surrender to STOP THE TRAFFIK pressure

On Monday morning (December 7 th ) chocolate giant Nestlé UK will finally announce that Kit Kat is to be slave free or fairly traded from January 2010. But this good news is only partial. Though Nestlé have bowed to pressure from the STOP THE TRAFFIK campaign to clean up their act, they will also announce that this will only apply to their ‘four finger’ product. In other words, two finger Kit Kats and all of their other chocolate products will continue to exploit the chocolate slaves of the Ivory Coast from where Nestlé source most of their cocoa.

Over the last few years STOP THE TRAFFIK campaigners have put pressure on the big chocolate manufacturers around the world to eradicate the worst forms of child labour on the cocoa farms of Ivory Coast, West Africa where thousands of young children are trafficked, enslaved and abused to harvest the cocoa that makes over a third of the world’s chocolate.

Tens of thousands of our campaigners have written letters, sent emails and text messages, twittered, facebooked, made phone calls, worn t-shirts and, most importantly, refused to eat anything other than traffik-free brands of chocolate.

In response, earlier this year, Cadbury launched fair trade Dairy Milk in the UK and Ireland. However, when STOP THE TRAFFIK’s global campaigners continued to demand this policy be applied globally, it didn’t take long for the Dairy Milk fair-trade certification to spread to other parts of the world.

Weeks later Mars capitulated to STOP THE TRAFFIK’s “March on Mars” campaign, promising that their Galaxy range will be Rainforest Alliance certified in 2010 with their whole product range traffik free by 2020. We know, from a number of inside sources in the industry that these changes are directly due to the pressure that STOP THE TRAFFIK has exerted at community level.

Since summer 2009 STOP THE TRAFFIK has turned the heat up on Nestlé – a global giant with a poor human rights record – and in recent weeks has launched a new and hard-hitting Christmas campaign designed to bring the giant company to task.

STOP THE TRAFFIK has learnt that from January 2010 the four finger Kit Kats will be fairtrade and that this will be made public on Monday. However, Nestlé still refuse to budge on their two finger biscuits.

Steve Chalke, founder of STOP THE TRAFFIK and the United Nations Special Advisor on Community Action Against Human Trafficking says “We welcome the Nestlé announcement. We are relieved for the cocoa farmers and children in Ivory Coast. The surrender of Nestlé demonstrates that by making a simple consumer choice ordinary people can hold multi-nationals to account.”

But, he adds “Though we understand that it is hard to make all products ethical overnight, we want to see that this is more than a token gesture. So, we intend to keep the pressure on Nestlé until their commitment is global and product wide, like their competitor Mars. No chocolate should have the bitter aftertaste of slavery. Therefore our campaign continues.”

PRESS ENQUIRIES For more information on STOP THE TRAFFIK activities, please email bex.keer@stopthetraffik.org or call the International Office on +44 (0)207 921 4258, 07734 777890. Alternatively, visit the websites http://www.stopthetraffik.org/takeaction/chocolate/nestle.aspx www.stopthetraffik.org

Would You Wait

2009-12-08T22:44:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

This should lift your spirits. Here is a link to a youtube video of the song "Would You Wait" about fighting prostitution.

Also, please do not forget the song "Child of God" at Music for the Soul's homepage (left side of the page) which we alerted you too previously. Go to: http://www.musicforthesoul.org/

Music is a very important medium for us to communicate hope and healing, as well as to advocate for an end to exploitation.

Abolition!

Lisa

Exhibit unmasks horror of human trafficking

2009-11-20T21:44:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

This article discusses the art exhibit "Journey" which depicts the plight of sexually trafficked women. To view some photos of the exhibit follow the link provided below.

Abolition!
Lisa

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33913920/ns/us_news-giving/

Exhibit unmasks horror of human trafficking British actress' new art exhibit unmasks the horrors of human trafficking
By Marcia Stepanek
Contribute Magazine
updated 3:47 p.m. ET, Fri., Nov . 13, 2009

NEW YORK - A filthy bedroom, pungent with the smell of sex and cheap perfume, is recreated for the curious. There is peeling wallpaper, soiled condom wrappers littering the floor and a dirty sink filled with half-used lipstick tubes and cigarette butts. Along one wall, a stained bed heaves under the weight of invisible, moving bodies engaged in rough sex.

The scene is part of British actress Emma Thompson’s controversial and powerful new public art exhibit to raise awareness of international sex trafficking. The exhibit is housed inside a chain of seven railroad boxcars, arranged as if waiting to depart at any moment, their exteriors slathered with degrading graffiti meant to stigmatize the captives portrayed inside.

Called "Journey," the exhibit, which opened in New York this week and runs through Sunday, attempts to unmask the denial that keeps the bustling sex-slave industry hidden in plain sight. [Long Island is a region where trafficking is rampant, curators say.]

Thompson says that she, herself, woke up to the issue after being introduced to a woman who had been a sex slave at a massage parlor that Thompson passed each day on her way to the London subway. "I was devastated that it was happening so close to where I lived and that I was doing nothing about it," she said.

Thompson is chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation , a London-based philanthropic foundation formed in 2005 to help victims of cruelty. It was through Bamber – an 84-year-old woman who was on one of the first rehabilitation teams to visit the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 — that Thompson first heard the story of Elena, a young Moldovan woman trafficked into Britain at the age of 19. Elena’s story inspired Journey.

I caught up with Thompson and Bamber Foundation co-founder Michael Korzinski at the exhibit. What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation. "Journey" leaves Sunday for Madrid. New York City is the exhibit’s only U.S. stop.

What was it about Elena’s story that first inspired you to take action?

Thompson: I think it was simply how easily traffickers are able to prey on victims of tragedy. Elena’s father had died and she’d gone to work in the market selling vegetables and she was very unhappy about her life. She had to leave school.

A woman in the market came up to her and invited her home, then offered to get her a nice job as a doctor’s receptionist in London. She told Elena that she’d be able to save money, send it back home, and go back to school, so Elena handed over her passport and ended up in London six weeks later, only to be told that she owed them 50,000 British pounds ($82,900) to pay for her journey to the U.K. and that she would have to earn that money by working as a prostitute.

When Elena said no, that’s when the beating started. She was put into solitary confinement for two weeks. Then they told her they would hurt her family. I think it’s very important for people to understand that girls who are forced into this kind of slavery have been tortured, beaten, raped and threatened. It’s not the personal threats that really carry the weight; it’s the threats of harm to these girls’ family members that eventually breaks them down.

Elena is quoted as saying that prior to her confinement, she’d never seen a man naked; while in confinement, she says, “there were never less than 40 men a day.” Then she got arrested in a raid and was thrown into jail, where British authorities treated her badly. Eventually, she told trafficking investigators her story but it was clear that by then, she was deeply, emotionally scarred.

Thompson: When sex slaves are thrown into jail they usually can’t speak English; the vast majority of the men and women trafficked come from Eastern Europe and they have no papers because they are illegals. In the detention centers, they are not helped in any way and then they are deported.

But wouldn’t deportation be a form of escape for many of these people?

Thompson: When Elena came to the Bamber Foundation, she wasn't in very good shape. She'd gone home but she wasn't herself anymore, and couldn't face her mother or her family. She was someone deeply ashamed, someone utterly stigmatized by what she was doing and what had happened to her. She was someone who, in her own mind, was not literally worth helping.

Why did you choose this method to tell the story of human trafficking?

Thompson: Because there have recently been some very good documentaries and films about the problem. There’s a brilliant film called Lilja Forever and a great TV series called "Sex Traffic" that is pertinent. Unfortunately, though, I think sometimes when you present things too graphically, people get frightened and they can’t cope with the suffering. I wanted to find a way that I could engage people without scaring them off. I wanted to use shipping containers because trafficking is all about moving people about. I designed one of the containers and we had some very high-profile artists each taking one of the other cars to fill out the experience.

How are people reacting to "Journey"?

Thompson: When it opened in London in September, I’d say 99.9 percent of the people were just appalled; they didn’t know what to do. People would come out of the exhibit outraged. Some of them, though, come out of it feeling very hopeless about it all. At the moment, we’re trying to figure out what ripples out and what impact this exhibit does have in the communities we visit. Traveling this piece around, of course, is one of the most important things you can do to explain what this is and what sex trafficking does to people. What really struck me was a young man, maybe about 24 or so, who came up to me the other day to ask me how someone is supposed to recover from something like this. He said it must take a very long time. It's that kind of awareness that we're after.

One part of the exhibit conveys the denial of some of the men who buy sex. One of them, interviewed on tape, says he believes he's actually doing himself and the girl he patronizes a favor. "When we're done, she goes on with her life and I go on with mine," he says. He seems to have no idea that the women he's been with are in captivity, being held against their will.

Thompson: I don’t think the average person knows and no one wants to know about suffering; they have got enough going on in their own lives. You have to find ways to engage people without having to depress them. What people want is to be offered a chance to do something useful, and there isn’t a single person I’ve met who doesn’t want to do something about this problem after having see the exhibit.

Korzinski: Some of the psychological impacts of the girls who a forced into captivity this way, after a while, are apathy, memory loss, insomnia, physical pain, severe depression, listlessness and insomnia. It's not unusual to see some of these girls simply acting on auto-pilot, as if the life inside them is over.

What can the average person do?

Thompson: If you’re someone who buys sex, you can go to the madam and demand to see the girls’ passports. Anyone can report any incidences of suburban households that may have a great slew of young girls walking in and out of the front door for no apparent reason. If you’re a store owner and some girl comes to you for condoms and tissues and doesn’t speak English, you can ask her if she’s all right. You can, mostly, just open your eyes and your ears. It’s time for everybody to look at what’s going on around them and to take responsibility, to proclaim that it is not okay to sell human beings, for whatever reason, and that this kind of thing should not be allowed to continue. [Friends, here's where this breaks down a bit. If human beings should not be for sale for any reason, then if you're someone who buys sex, you can stop buying sex! -- Lisa]

For more on human trafficking, see Emma Thompson’s 2008 video on YouTube about her creation of the exhibit. For a global perspective on the problem, here’s a U.N. video made earlier this year.

Publicly, a whole new lewdness

2009-11-13T09:04:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

Here's a new term for you: secondhand porn. It's coming for us.

Abolition!

Lisa

Publicly, a whole new lewdness
Everywhere you look, porn is suddenly inescapable
By Monica HesseWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 12, 2009

Quick poll. Watching porn while on public transportation is:

A. Acceptable.
B. Not acceptable.

On a recent cross-country trip from Los Angeles, Jana Matthews thought she'd lucked out when her friendly seatmate cued up a cartoon on his laptop. Her four children were enthralled; she hoped listening in might keep them occupied. Then the cartoon characters started doing things that cartoon characters should not be doing. Naked things. Naked, noisy things, unfettered by the restraints of human anatomy because the participants were, after all, hand-drawn.

After unsuccessfully trying to divert her kids' attention, Matthews asked the guy whether he would mind watching something else. After a little grumbling, he put on some headphones and turned the screen away. But he was still watching. She knew he was still watching.

Porn vibes. In public. Flooding the recycled air of the plane.

The thing that skeeved out Matthews, an English professor, is that she'd had such a pleasant conversation with Porn Man before the plane took off. They'd talked about his Ivy League classes, about the math conference he'd just attended. "I had a significant amount of information about him," Matthews says. They'd developed a little travel-size friendship. Then came the porn. And she was trapped.

It's practically a human rite of passage to have a roommate -- a slobby college one -- who loves Jenna Jameson. This, we know how to deal with. ("Dude, turn it off. My lab group's coming over.")

But the increasing popularity of laptops and handheld devices, and the prevalence of wireless Internet access, means there's a greater chance of becoming a bystander to a complete stranger's viewing proclivities. Like being exposed to the cigarette smoke of a nicotine addict on the street, people are inhaling secondhand smut.

"To each his own is my policy," says Debbie Shatz, a consultant who lives in Northern Virginia. That's why, with rare exception, she's remained unfazed every time she's encountered porn on planes, choosing to quietly avert her eyes and ignore it, unless ignoring it becomes impossible.

Something in the air

Naturally, flight attendants, the front line of defense for any in-flight high jinks, have experience with this issue.

"We don't walk through the cabin and give passengers a thumbs up and thumbs down" on what they're watching, says Steve Schembs, a Washington-based flight attendant and local union officer. But when he notices that something is disturbing other passengers, he intervenes. "I've had 100 percent compliance," Schembs says. "I have never had anyone say, 'I refuse to stop. I must watch this dirty movie.' "

"You want to create the least amount of conflict possible at 30,000 feet," says Renee Foss, the communications chairman for the Association of Flight Attendants, and a 24-year veteran of the skies. "Maybe a free snack box would give the passenger something better to do."

Both flight attendants say instances of public porn are rare.

Last fall, some airlines announced they would work on filtering in-flight Internet access to prevent the surfing of inappropriate content (dirty DVDs brought on by passengers, however, would be nearly impossible to filter). But this secondhand smut can also happen on the ground. On buses. In gyms. In movie theaters.

"At a Wizards game!" says Dan Merrill, who works in accounting in Washington. "We were at a Wizards game and this guy was watching porn on his iPhone!" Odd on many levels, but there the guy was, kicking back, watching the sport, watching the other sport, just as he would at home.

Perhaps this is the real problem: the increasingly blurred boundary between public and private. If we are so accustomed to burying our noses in tiny screens, carrying our entertainment in and out of the house, perhaps people are simply getting confused as to where they are.

Could simple public service announcements clear this up?

ATTENTION: As similar as this basketball arena may appear to your apartment, they are not, in fact, the same place. For further evidence, please ask yourself the following question: Does my apartment typically contain 20,000 complete strangers? If the answer is "No," then you are in a public arena. You should not be watching porn.

Those afflicted with secondhand porn say it's not that they oppose adult entertainment. The trouble was knowing that they couldn't escape it, not until the plane landed or the Metro doors opened.

That, and the general haze of gross that seemed to descend on the public space, the filmy yuckiness that made them wish the sprinkler system would spontaneously activate.

That, and the feeling that came with knowing exactly what was on their neighbor's mind.

"It was like when a friend tells you too many details about their personal life," says Jess Mortimer, who spent an eternity stuck in a Beltway traffic jam behind some guy watching really acrobatic stuff on his SUV's television. (This type of secondhand viewing is prevalent enough to have earned its own terminology: Drive-By Porn. Several states have passed or proposed legislation dedicated to preventing it.)

"At some point . . . we've completely lost the ability to tell when it's socially appropriate and when it's not," says Matthews, the mother of four. At her last job, teaching at a university in Pennsylvania, "I don't think there was ever a time when I would do research at the library and someone wasn't using a public terminal to watch porn. I'm trying to do research and you're sitting there watching your . . . porn."

Especially when the library was full, she was never quite sure how to deal with the situation. What's the etiquette here? Shoot the offender dirty looks? Drag in a defenseless librarian? Innocently ask the guy how much longer his studies would take?

Or just make the best of a gross situation?

We're all adults here

Sandi Benedetti, a bartender in Northeast Washington, was catching some extra sleep on a long morning Metro ride when a guy in a business suit took the seat next to her -- the only one available on the rush-hour train.

"He sits down, reaches into this leather bag, gets his laptop, and suddenly I'm hearing Ah Ah Ah Ah AhAhAhAh!" She tried to ignore it, but the volume was loud enough for other passengers to hear it, too. "The guy in front of us turns back and glares at me! Like he thinks I'm with this guy! And then the woman across the aisle, too."

She thought about saying something, or circling her finger at her temple in the universal crazy gesture -- anything to demonstrate that she had no part in this guy's morning wakeup call. But Benedetti is an adventurous gal, and as the train chugged on she began to ask herself when a bizarre event like this might happen again. "I was already being blamed for the porn anyway, so I figured I'd just play along."

She leaned into her seatmate and started watching.

"Dude smiles at me," she says, "and then we both just watch together. Stop before mine, he packs up the computer and gets off. We never said a word."

Just two consenting adults, on their way to work.

Newark, New York targeted in federal human trafficking awareness ad campaign

2009-11-13T08:59:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

This article emphasizes trafficking of persons across international borders. Please do not forget that trafficking victims are also frequently trafficked within their country of origin.

Abolition!

Lisa

Newark, New York targeted in federal human trafficking awareness ad campaign
By The Associated Press
November 10, 2009, 5:15PM

Immigrants smuggled from West Africa lived in a two-family house in East Orange and were forced to work without pay at hair-braiding salons, authorities said.

NEWARK — Fourteen cities are being targeted in a new campaign aimed at alerting people about human trafficking, federal immigration officials have announced.

The "Hidden in Plain Sight" initiative, sponsored by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, features billboards highlighting "the horrors and the prevalence of human trafficking," which the agency says is equivalent to "modern-day slavery."

The words "Hidden in Plain Sight" are displayed on the advertisements with a toll-free number people can call to report situations where they believe people are being sexually exploited or forced to work against their will.

Among cities included in the new campaign are Atlanta; Boston; Dallas; Detroit; Los Angeles; Miami; Philadelphia; Newark; New Orleans; New York; St. Paul, Minn.; San Antonio; San Francisco and Tampa, Fla.

Bruce Foucart, an ICE special agent in charge of New England, said officials hope the billboards persuade residents to report suspected cases to ICE or local law enforcement.

"It's difficult to identify victims, and it's difficult for them to tell their stories," said Foucart.

About 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked each year around the world and about 17,500 of them end up in the United States, according to ICE. Immigration officials say the victims are lured from their homes with false promises of well-paying jobs but are trafficked into the commercial sex trade, domestic servitude or forced labor.

Foucart said victims who cooperate with law enforcement are offered temporary status and can later apply to stay in the U.S. permanently.

Jozefina Lantz, director of New Americans services at Lutheran Social Services in Worcester, Mass., welcomed the new campaign and said the public is generally unaware that human trafficking is occurring near their homes.

"Often the victims get mistaken for undocumented immigrants," said Lantz. "It's the not same because these people were abducted from their homes and forced into trafficking."

Lantz said her group has recently helped trafficking victims from Africa and South America.

Afghan girls burn themselves to escape marriage

2009-11-05T09:19:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

As many of you know, we sometimes circulate news of egregious human rights abuses and harmful cultural practices that affect women, thus I'm forwarding you the article below. It describes the terrifying practice of self-immolation whereby young girls and women set themselves on fire -- usually out of the utter hopelessness and desperation that is created by the abusive conditions they find themselves living in. It appears that many of the females who carry out this desperate act are child brides, who after their forced marriages are treated as little more than household slaves and baby factories.

Abolition!

Lisa

Afghan girls burn themselves to escape marriage
Posted: Thursday, October 29, 2009 12:04 PM
Filed Under: Kabul, Afghanistan
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Correspondent

HERAT, Afghanistan – We watched a teenage girl die last Friday.

Seventeen-year-old Shirin had been brought to the Herat Regional Hospital Burns Unit a few days before we met her. Ninety percent of her body was covered in third-degree burns.

Her mother-in-law said Shirin had burned herself by accident. The girl was preparing a meal in the kitchen but somehow confused cooking gasoline with petrol, she said.

But Dr. Mohamed Aref Jalali, the director of the burns unit, said Shirin told him in private that she had set herself on fire deliberately after fighting with her mother-in-law and her sister-in-law.

Many girls in Afghanistan think self-immolation is the best solution for family problems, according to Jalali.

"[For these girls], it’s no good to solve the problem with the father-in-law, with the mother-in-law," said the doctor. "They think self-immolation will solve the problem."

It’s a "solution" that appears to be a major problem in Afghanistan, particularly among young women between the ages 13 and 25.

In the first seven months of this year, medical staff at the Herat’s burns unit – the only one of its kind in the entire country – said they have seen 51 cases of female self-immolation. Only 13 have survived.

The practice comes from Iran, where many Afghan refugees had fled to during the decade-long war with the Soviet Union (1979-1989) and the era of mujahedeen fighting that followed in the 1990s, said Jalali. But its popularity has spread among Afghan women, often from poor, uneducated backgrounds, where the tradition of child or forced marriages runs strong.

"The forced marriage is the best reason and the important reason, and it starts from the economic problem," said Jalali.

Often in arranged marriages, women are viewed in very stark terms.

"She is here only to wash, to clean, to give baby … and nothing more," said Marie-Jose Brunel, a French volunteer nurse at the burns unit who was full of Gallic warmth and purposeful seriousness. "If they have no freedom, no possibility to study, to be considered like nothing, it’s very, very difficult."

Domestic violence

Shirin was married two years ago when she was 15 years old.

But another patient we found at the hospital, down the hall from Shirin, was Rezagul. Skinny and illiterate, the 13-year-old was married at 11 to a man who was almost 20 years older. He was abusive, she told us, beating her whenever she failed to do her housework. So did her in-laws. "My cruel sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and husband … they beat me," she said.

Out of frustration and homesickness for her own family, Rezagul took drastic action.

"I was in very bad condition," she recalled. "I poured gasoline on myself and set myself on fire. I didn’t want to be alive." The burns covered the lower half of her body.

It took several months for her skin to heal properly and she was currently back at the clinic because of chronic kidney pain. Jalali said he would need to finish reconstructive surgery on Rezagul but with physical therapy she would recover nicely.

On the day we visited, Rezagul looked well-adjusted and almost happy. She was no longer married. Her father had welcomed her back home. She was excited about starting to go to school for the first time in her life.

In fact, with her burns covered up, Rezagul looked the picture of health as Brunel, the nurse, teased her – a testament to the success of the burns unit.

Filling a critical void

Brunel, who is usually based in the south of France and volunteers her time at the clinic through the French non-governmental organization HumaniTerra International, has been working with the burn unit’s senior medical team since 2003.

In fact, she was instrumental in starting up the unit – originally as part of the main hospital with only a handful of beds and no trained staff – after a meeting with then-governor of Herat, Ismael Khan, who emphasized the need for a place to treat burns.

In October 2007, after years of fundraising, planning, and training, Brunel and her Afghan colleagues opened the treatment center we were visiting.

On average, it receives 600 to 700 burn patients a year, the majority of whom are victims of domestic accidents, mostly children. In fact, one ward had dozens of infants – most of them with various limbs wrapped up in gauze and bandages, usually from boiling water that had spilled over from a kettle.

Still, a significant portion of the patients are victims of self-immolation – at least 10 percent, according to statistics kept by the burn unit. "In 2003, when we started, we estimate 350 [self-immolation] cases a year for Herat," recalled Brunel. The number has decreased – at least for those victims from Herat Province – after the hospital and the local government launched a public awareness campaign.

"We have seen decreases," said Brunel. "And I hope with the second year of [the public awareness] campaign, it’s better again."

But they need funding, and time. While the incidents of self-immolation from within the province may be on the decline, cases from outside Herat are on the rise.

"It’s going to the other provinces," said Jalali. "Now we have patients from Farah Province, from Nimruz, from Badgis, from Helmand."

A lost life

During our visit, we checked back on Shirin every now and then. She had long ago slipped into a delirious state and was murmuring nonstop. Her mother, Hanifa Ahmadi, hovered around her, occasionally stroking her hair.

Ahmadi – a thin, handsome woman who looks more Persian than Afghan – said she didn’t understand why her daughter had set herself on fire. "Shirin is always a happy girl and gets along with everyone," she said.

Ahmadi was convinced that Shirin would soon recover and leave the hospital, but Jalali was unequivocal.

"She doesn’t have long. Maybe she has one hour, an hour-and-a-half," he said. "It’s unfortunate, but we can’t do anything. Not with 90 percent burns all over the body, third-degree burns."

Brunel agreed. "We can do nothing except … we give dignity," she said. She and an Afghan orderly had taken turns trying to make Shirin as comfortable as possible – giving her a tube to make her breathing easier, feeding her, or just straightening the blankets that covered her burnt body.

The end came later than Jalali had predicted, but come it did. Six hours after we first met Shirin, she died.

Members of her family rushed past us in the hallway, her mother, then her uncle, an aunt, and then her husband – he looked more confused than grief-stricken. They piled into Shirin’s room, wailing, walking back and forth around her bed, hands wringing; even the mother-in-law, with whom the young girl had been fighting just days before.

We stepped away quietly, gathering our things, preparing to leave and trying not to intrude.

But as we walked down the hallway one last time, I ducked my head into the room where Rezagul lay. She looked up, her eyes aglow, and she waved.

The picture of health.

Joan Smith: Make no mistake: sex trafficking is real

2009-11-05T09:12:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

With this article we turn again to the debate about sex trafficking in the UK. You will recall from previous posts that an intense debate was touched off by Nick Davies' Oct 20 article alleging that sex trafficking in the UK scarcely exists and that it is mostly the wild fabrication of deluded and malicious Christians and feminists (see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/20/trafficking-numbers-women-exaggerated). For my observations on his aspersions see:

http://www.crossactionnews.com/articles/view/apologists-of-sex-industry-attack-uk-trafficking-statistics-to-protect-male-right-to-purchase-sex-.

The silver lining in this has been the incredibly insightful and no-holds-barred rebuttals to Davies piece, which have been getting in the mainstream press. For interested readers see:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/20/sex-trafficking-inquiry-nick-davies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/21/sex-trafficking-newsnight-denis-macshane?commentpage=2&commentposted=1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/25/catherine-bennett-prostitution-trafficking

Today, I'm happy to bring you another in this series of responses; this one by columnist and novelist Joan Smith. She hits the nail on the head with her observation that all the "debate" connects directly with the consideration of a bill in the British Parliament that would criminalize men who purchase sex from trafficked/controlled women.

And I leave you with this powerful foretaste of her rebuttal:

The vilification we're experiencing is a tactic which the great anti-slavery campaigner, William Wilberforce, would have recognised. His critics claimed on different occasions (depending on the sympathies of their audience) that slavery was a necessary evil, slaves were not badly treated and abolitionists were just a bunch of religious bigots: "pious divines, tender-hearted poetesses, and short-sighted politicians" according to one polemic published in 1789. Three years later, a pamphlet claimed that each slave family had "a snug little house and garden, and plenty of pigs and poultry". Wilberforce didn't believe a word of it. And when I'm told sex trafficking isn't really a problem in this country, neither do I.

Abolition!

Lisa

October 29, 2009
Joan Smith: Make no mistake: sex trafficking is real
The debate is between those stuck in the 1960s and those of us with a modern view of rights

Earlier this week, the FBI released the results of a nationwide operation against child sex traffickers. After identifying children who were being sold for sex on the internet, in casinos, on the streets and at truck stops, they arrested 642 people and rescued 47 victims. The operation was carried out over three days last week, just as British journalists, academics and cheerleaders for legalised prostitution were arguing that sex trafficking in this country is mostly a myth.

"Inquiry fails to find single trafficker who forced anybody into prostitution," declared one headline. I wondered where it looked, given that British prisons are now home to such notorious traffickers as Luan Plakici and Viktoras Larcenko. In the debate that followed, I was struck by the nasty personal tone of much of the rhetoric, which dismissed campaigners against sex trafficking as evangelical Christians and ill-intentioned feminists. There was little mention of the international context - mainly, I suspect, because so many unimpeachable organisations are on the other side of the argument.

Since 2003, the FBI has rescued 886 child victims of sex traffickers and secured 510 convictions. According to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the US is a trafficking destination for victims from other countries but "many US citizens are trafficked, usually run-away teenage girls, who are preyed on by pimps and trafficked for prostitution". Task forces identified 3,336 potential victims of human trafficking (for domestic labour as well as prostitution) by June last year.

Hillary Clinton launched the State Department annual report on human trafficking this year, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) produced its own assessment. It said that more than 21,400 victims were identified in 111 countries in 2006, but the number of convictions for trafficking was not proportionate to the extent of the problem. Two out of five countries covered by the report had not recorded a single conviction, leading UNODC's executive director, Antonio Maria Costa, to a blunt conclusion: "Either they are blind to the problem, or they are ill-equipped to deal with it."

According to the UK Human Trafficking Centre, there were 105 convictions for trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation between 1 May 2004 (when the Sexual Offences Act 2003 came into force) and 26 March 2009. Low conviction figures are being used to bolster claims that the extent of sex trafficking in the UK has been hugely exaggerated, and to discredit organisations and individuals who believe that conviction rates do not show the full picture. That's certainly the view of the Poppy Project, which runs a refuge for trafficking victims; it has received more than 1,300 referrals of women from 80 countries since 2003.

The Commons Home Affairs Committee has identified numerous reasons for the low conviction rate, including the brutality of traffickers - many victims are too frightened to testify - and the difficulty of proving trafficking offences; the authorities sometimes press alternative charges such as money laundering or false documentation. The MPs argue that "the comparatively low rate of prosecutions for trafficking ... adds to the confusion about the incidence of trafficking" and "may lead some authorities to underestimate the severity of the problem".

Here is an example of how confusion arises. Three years ago, West Midlands police trumpeted the success of an operation against alleged sex-traffickers in Birmingham, even taking Sky TV with them to film it; a police spokesman said the women had been tricked into the sex industry and were locked into a massage parlour called Cuddles each evening. Thirteen women who had EU passports were held in cells for two nights before being released; the remaining six - from Albania, Moldova, Romania and Thailand, all well-known countries of origin for trafficking - were taken to Yarl's Wood detention centre. Lawyers managed to stay their deportation and a representative of the Poppy Project was allowed to meet four of the women. Finally, 12 days after the raid, two were identified as sex-trafficking victims.

Just about everything went wrong with this operation, which is hardly surprising given that it was conducted under intense media scrutiny. The Poppy Project was not told about the raid in advance and the women were not interviewed in compliance with guidance on vulnerable or intimidated witnesses. A Birmingham man, Carl Pritchett, was jailed for two years for running a brothel and in August this year he was ordered to pay back £2m under the Proceeds of Crime Act, but specific charges of sex trafficking were never brought. The Government has now ratified the Council of Europe convention which gives suspected trafficking victims more rights, but existing figures for convictions cover a period when many potential witnesses were quickly deported.

Of course, this isn't really an argument about statistics. It's about a clause in the Policing and Crime Bill, currently being considered by the House of Lords, which would make it an offence to buy sex from anyone who is controlled for gain. Campaigners for legalised prostitution fear the testimonies of trafficking victims because they explode the notion that selling sex is a pleasant job, made risky only by its illegal status. When I hear about the "dignified living conditions" of women in the sex industry, I know the argument is more to do with ideology than figures. It's a clash between people clinging to antiquated ideas from the 1960s - that men are entitled to sex whenever they want it - and those of us with a modern view of the rights of women and children.

The vilification we're experiencing is a tactic which the great anti-slavery campaigner, William Wilberforce, would have recognised. His critics claimed on different occasions (depending on the sympathies of their audience) that slavery was a necessary evil, slaves were not badly treated and abolitionists were just a bunch of religious bigots: "pious divines, tender-hearted poetesses, and short-sighted politicians" according to one polemic published in 1789. Three years later, a pamphlet claimed that each slave family had "a snug little house and garden, and plenty of pigs and poultry". Wilberforce didn't believe a word of it. And when I'm told sex trafficking isn't really a problem in this country, neither do I.

Teacher hired by Kyle school indicted on child porn charges

2009-11-05T08:58:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

I don't often send these types of news reports--partly because they are so common. However, it is White Ribbon Against Pornography week and the scale of this offender's actions is particularly remarkable: he had a collection of 57,000 images and 1,000 videos. Presumably a substantial proportion of that collection is of child pornography (I don't know, but I think its reasonable to speculate that this offender began with adult pornography). This case shows how once this type of behavior/addiction takes hold, too much is never enough.

Abolition!

Lisa

P.S. Remember: adult pornography also feeds child sexual abuse. As Bob Peters of Morality in Media has carefully documented (http://www.moralityinmedia.org/):

Perpetrators use adult pornography to groom their victims.
For many perpetrators there is a progression from viewing adult pornography to viewing child pornography.
Johns act out what they view in adult pornography with child prostitutes and pimps use adult pornography to instruct child prostitutes.
Children imitate behavior they view in adult pornography with other children
Perpetrators use adult pornography to sexually arouse themselves.
Addiction to adult pornography destroys marriages, and children raised in one-parent households are more likely to be sexually exploited.

Remember also, that pornography is simply recorded acts of prostitution--acts of prostitution recorded for mass consumption!

Teacher hired by Kyle school indicted on child porn charges
Stephen Wayne Sudduth resigned before he was to start work at Tobias Elementary, an official said.
By Ricardo GándaraAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, October 30, 2009

A man hired to teach fifth grade at Tobias Elementary School in Kyle — but who resigned July 20 and never started work — has been indicted on child pornography charges in what state Attorney General Greg Abbott called one of the most "disturbing, depraved and horrendous kinds of crimes imaginable."

Acting on a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, cyber crimes investigators found more than 57,000 images and 1,000 videos of children on computers at the home of Stephen Wayne Sudduth, 34, of Sealy, Abbott said. Sudduth was arrested at his home July 14 and was indicted Wednesday on 30 counts of possession of child pornography and 10 counts of promotion of child pornography in Austin County. He was employed at Nottingham Country Elementary School in the Katy Independent School District as a kindergarten teacher from 2000 to 2006, Abbott said.

Sudduth remains in jail with bail set at $500,000, said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for the attorney general's office.

Julie Jerome, spokeswoman for the Hays Consolidated Independent School District, said that a criminal background check of Sudduth done when he applied for a job in June turned up nothing. "We rely on criminal background checks when hiring people. He had no criminal record," Jerome said.

According to a résumé he submitted to the school district, Sudduth graduated from Southwest Texas State University, now Texas State University, in 2000. He interviewed with the Tobias Elementary principal and was recommended to be hired on June 4, but on July 20 he resigned, citing personal reasons, Jerome said.

"He had no contact with kids, absolutely not," she said.

Abbott said what was so alarming about the case is that the former teacher was going to school daily and was in contact with children of the same age as those in the images and videos allegedly seized by investigators.

Abbott said some of the children in the images might be from foreign countries, but some might be from Texas or other parts of the United States. Investigators are sorting through the evidence, he said.

Investigators suspect that Sudduth was collecting sexually explicit images of children, and also creating images and promoting them in forums and message boards as part of a distribution ring.

"We feel certain he's connected with other people," Abbott said.

He advised parents to monitor their children.

"We want to try to get to the adults and parents. Elementary school kids are exposed to these dangers," he said.

Under Texas law, possession of child pornography is a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,0000. Promotion of child pornography is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Abuse network ringleaders jailed

2009-11-01T16:42:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends:

For a BBC video report on this case, follow the link below.

Abolition!

Lisa

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8331388.stm

Abuse network ringleaders jailed

The two men at the centre of Scotland's largest known child abuse network have been jailed for life.

Neil Strachan, 41, attempted to rape an 18-month-old boy while 38-year-old James Rennie sexually assaulted a three-month-old.

Strachan was sentenced to a minimum of 16 years in prison, while Rennie was ordered to serve at least 13 years.

Police said the operation had led to more than 200 suspected paedophiles, 70 of them in the UK, being identified.

Six other men had already been sentenced for their involvement in the network.

Strachan and Rennie, both from Edinburgh, were also found guilty after a 10-week trial of conspiring to get access to children in order to abuse them, while Strachan was convicted of a further charge of sexually assaulting a six-year-old boy.

Strachan, who is HIV positive, has already served a three-year prison sentence in 1997 for abusing a boy. Rennie was the chief executive of LGBT Youth Scotland, which offers advice to young gay and lesbian people.

Passing sentence on the pair, judge Lord Bannatyne referred to Strachan's abuse of the 18-month-old boy, which was captured in a photograph known as the "Hogmanay image" because it was taken on New Year's Eve in 2005.

The judge told Strachan: "By its very nature, what is shown in that photograph is utterly appalling and would shock to the core any right-minded person who has had to see it.

"Over and above that, this offence involves the most gross level of breach of trust. You were invited into a house, treated as a friend of the family, and then entrusted with their child.

"You then breached that trust in the way shown in the 'Hogmanay image' in order to satisfy your base sexual interests. This, in my judgment, can be properly described as a dreadful crime."

Lord Bannatyne said Rennie had also betrayed the trust of the parents of his victim to a "truly appalling" extent.

More suspects

The judge said Rennie, a trained teacher who was found guilty of 14 charges, was at the heart of the conspiracy to abuse youngsters, and likened him to a spider weaving an electronic web to bring about his crime.

The mother of Rennie's victim, known as Child F, told BBC Scotland of the "pain and torment" the case had put their family through.

She called for a "global strategy" between internet providers and government to prevent the distribution of abuse images.

"However, for those involved in paedophile behaviour to identify it in themselves and know where to seek help, society must be prepared to discuss this issue", she added.

"We need to allow an openness within society of where to seek help, just as alcoholics go to AA and gamblers go to GA.

"Clearly the protection of children must take precedence, but if individuals could have been stopped or deterred, we as a family may not have found ourselves in this situation."

Rennie had circulated pictures of the abuse and offered a boy to other paedophiles - an offer taken up by Strachan.

Both will remain under close supervision for the rest of their lives after the parole board sees fit to free them.

Co-accused Colin Slaven, 23, from Edinburgh; Neil Campbell, 46, John Milligan, 40, and John Murphy, 44, all from Glasgow; Ross Webber, 27, from North Berwick in East Lothian; and Craig Boath, 24, from Dundee, were also convicted of various offences.

They were given prison sentences of between two and 17 years.

The men had been arrested during the Operation Algebra police investigation, which uncovered nearly 125,000 indecent images of children.

Operation Algebra also uncovered dozens more suspects around the country and worldwide, many of whom have already been charged.

The investigation was sparked by a single indecent image of a naked 11-year-old which was found on paint company engineer Strachan's computer when it was sent for repair.

Detectives discovered that Strachan and Rennie had filmed themselves sexually abusing children before distributing the images over the internet.

The two paedophiles had been trusted by the children's parents to look after the children.

Lothian and Borders Police said their inquiry had led to more than 200 suspected paedophiles being identified internationally, and at least 70 in the UK.

Detectives have said there were further suspects in Scotland as well as Avon and Somerset; Devon and Cornwall; Merseyside; South Wales; West Midlands; Sussex; Essex; London; Thames Valley; and Hampshire.

Speaking after the sentencing, Morag McLaughlin, procurator fiscal for Lothian and Borders, said recent advances in technology were making it easier for the police to bring child abusers to justice.

She added: "It is clear from the evidence in this case that the accused saw no limits on how far they would share, exploit and abuse children in order to satisfy their own horrific sexual gratification.

"However, our specialist prosecutors will use the constantly improving technology available to the police to stop and bring to court those who think they are hidden by the anonymity of the internet."