Interview: Morgan Zamora

Morgan Zamora is one of the most inspirational people that I know. I have been fortunate enough to work with her as a Regional Coordinator with Americans for Informed Democracy, a not-for-profit that works to engage college students on global issues; our focus area was human trafficking. Morgan's work to raise awareness about and combat modern-day slavery does not end there, though. This fall she will be a junior in college, and despite being so young she is already a leader in anti-trafficking work. Her dedication, passion, and talent continue to amaze me.

Zamora is the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition (HRRC) in Houston, TX. She is also the president of S.W.A.T (Students Working Against Trafficking) at the University of St. Thomas. Like many anti-trafficking activists and advocates, Zamora was motivated to take action after learning that modern-day slavery exists. After attending a screening of TRADE, Zamora meet with representatives from HHRC, and she immediately wanted to begin volunteering for them.

In her role with HRRC, Zamora has worked to raise awareness and mobilize action in the Houston area. As she notes, human trafficking is extremely prevalent in the Houston Area. After volunteering with HRRC, Zamora now coordinates others who give volunteer outreach presentations to local businesses, asking them to display Rescue and Restore posters about human trafficking and trafficking hotlines. Thus far, nearly 200 business in the area are displaying the posters. Zamora also does outreach work with at-risk populations, and her student organization is planning an anti-trafficking conference. She sums up her work by saying "my work in Houston has been focused on mobilizing individuals throughout the Houston area and creating a network of active abolitionists in the city."

According to Zamora, once she has sparked an interest in someone, the main challenge is keeping their passion for the work alive. While awareness raising is important, as Zamora notes, it can be difficult to measure success or progress in this area. She also pointed out the potential dangers of anti-trafficking activism, saying that "it can sometimes be a great task within itself to continuously come up with innovative and creative new ways to be an active abolitionist in a manner that is 'safe.'" This is certainly a challenge that I can identify with, and I know we would both appreciate any ideas that people have.

As Zamora's anti-trafficking work has deepened, her perspective on the issue has also shifted and deepened. While her work still entails educating people about the fact that trafficking happens (and that it happens in the US), Zamora states "I feel now that it is even more important to focus on why [human trafficking] exists. I think the public and society needs to be more aware of the consequences of their actions in relation to promoting certain gender stereotypes and capitalistic activities. There is a reason why millions of people are being exploited around the world, and if I could shed light on that and possibly make people rethink some of their actions, then perhaps their would be less exploitation. But that may just be wishful thinking. I hope not."

In order to address trafficking around the world, Zamora argues that different cultures and regions must address the issue from their perspectives. Anti-trafficking efforts must be grounded in the local context and culture. She suggests that "Change must start within each society around the world and people must realize the effects of their actions. For example, poverty may be the overall issue involved with trafficking in Eastern Europe and India, but there are varying cultural aspects of both cultures that allow for the exploitation of women and children or men of certain socioeconomic status." At the same time, Zamora points out that efforts must include an understanding of global systems that perpetuate trafficking, and people must see that their actions have consequences beyond what they might immediately see.

Zamora ended her comments with encouragement and a challenge: "I feel that people need to be informed but then that people need to be empowered. They need to be able to believe that they can change the outcome of the system they live in. The world needs more active abolitionists, who are not only informed of the issue of human trafficking but that realize that they live in a globally connected world, and their actions within consumerism and society all effect the enslavement of people in the world or in their own city."

In Search of the Whole

By Merissa Nathan Gerson
July 24th, 2008

My body, as an invadable entity, is coveted by the wounded. To seek relief there are people out there who want to rape me, take me, dominate me, and somehow leave feeling satiated. This occurred to me walking home the other night. I was alone and there were two men walking close behind me. I thought about the fear, a womanly fear, of sexual abuse.

What is it, I wondered once they were no longer close behind me, that makes rape so common? While aware that rape goes both ways, men raping women, women raping men, the fear of a random attack alone late at night in a small mountain town, this fear of rape, for me, is wholly grounded in my female physicality.

To rape a woman, among other things, is to rob her of power. I imagined women's bodies as holders of the sacred, of immense force, the capacity to create, the embodiment of every rapists very origin. To rape is to return to the place you emerged from. To rape is to angrily take back the womanhood that you left, that you do not contain. This fear of physical invasion is a constructed piece of my identity as woman.

Rape and human trafficking are grounded similarly in their connection to social constructs of gender and sex. It is not so simple as patriarchy. It is not so clean as a weaker and stronger sex. The sex trade industry is the manifestation of a deeper imbalance in each culture where it is found. It is the manifestation of repression, the embodiment of the unspoken.

I recently went to an all-nude strip club in Boulder and was surprised by how little it disturbed me. Naked and worshipped, solely for the object form of their bodies, were glistening hairless women. This was a simply reaffirmation of everything I knew to be true in society. On the gendered bodies of men and women we project power roles, dynamics of deprivation, lack of expression, and ultimately, a deep form of idol worship.

I do not condemn the stripper, the john, the rapist. I condemn the socio-economic and socio-cultural structures that create these small worlds. A strip club is no different than a Facebook advertisement telling me to lose thirty-seven pounds in thirty days. Both are byproducts of a social world that emulates masculinity and represses femininity, leaving both the man and woman at a loss.

In Jungian psychology there is the concept of wholeness via the incorporation of the anima and the animus. A man, to be a whole man, needs to incorporate the feminine, or anima. Whereas a woman, to be her complete self, needs also to incorporate the male, or animus. The divisive gendered nature of our world, living in binary and black and white, does not permit this "wholeness." Without wholeness the people functioning within and running this country are fragmented.

In raping a woman, a man implies, by default, his own wounded nature. In damaging another, he exhibits his own inner ruin. Pain is passed between people when unresolved. For this, we have a human trafficking problem. For this there are self-hating women, with a counterpart of self-hating men.

Our sex industry is only the mirror of our social selves, fragmented, gender biased, the disempowerment of women by disempowered men. It is a ricochet effect; he who oppresses is himself bound. And we, the community around the oppressors and the victims, are equally tied up. The denial of feminine power is a blanket indicator of a social ill affecting every member of our society.



Further reading:

Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
By Bell Hooks

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
By Susan Faludi

Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature
By Donna Haraway

Also:

See the Swedish film "Together" and note their treatment of addiction and abuse. Same with the film "Celebration." Both of these films illustrate the humanity of the oppressor and the devastation caused by unresolved pain.

Child Slavery in Benin

Nigerian police crack illicit baby trafficking ring

From Reuters:

By Ijeoma Ezekwere

Enugu, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian police said on Thursday they had broken a major baby trafficking ring, arresting a doctor believed to have brought infants from pregnant women and sold them at a profit for more than 20 years.

Police in the southeastern city of Enugu arrested Kenneth Akunne along with 20 pregnant women aged 18-20 during a raid last week on his Uzuoma Clinic.

"The doctor, is notorious and has been in the trade of selling babies for over 20 years now," Desmond Agwu, Enugu state commandant of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, told Reuters.

The arrests were made after officers stopped a taxi during a routine search and found a woman with a day-old baby she said she had bought for 340,000 naira (1,483 pounds) from Akunne's clinic.

Uzuoma Clinic is one of the scores of illegal "baby farms" in southeastern Nigeria, where infants are sold to people desperate for children and ready to pay to avoid the red-tape of the country's adoption laws.

Despite being the world's eighth-biggest exporter of crude, most people in Nigeria live on less than $2 a day. Apart from the illicit trade in babies, Nigeria also faces the problem of domestic and international trafficking in women and children.

Many in Africa's most populous country see childlessness as a curse, boosting demand for the illicit baby trade.

Nigeria's anti-human trafficking agency NAPTIP said Akunne paid the women 35,000-50,000 naira (151-216 pounds) to give up their babies. Boys are more expensive than girls.

"When we spoke to the doctor, he claimed that he was only helping the ladies, taking care of them and relieving them of their unwanted babies," Ijeoma Okoronkwo, NAPTIP's Enugu director, told Reuters.

"They are all very young girls wanting to hide away from the shame of adolescent pregnancy and the doctor provided a safe haven for them," she said, adding Akunne was a qualified medic.

Some of the women, who said they went to the clinic because they did not want to keep their babies, accused Akunne of physical abuse.

Authorities in Nigeria suspect some people buy babies to use their body parts in rituals by witch doctors who they believe can make them instant millionaires. Others have been trafficked to Europe -- especially the United Kingdom -- where they are used in welfare fraud schemes, rights groups say.

Italy Arrests 400 in Illegal Immigrants Swoop

No mention on whether any of the arrested illegal migrants were victims of trafficking. The article does, however, mention that some of the migrants were arrested on charges of prostitution. According to the U.S. Department of State, Italy has a strong record of combating trafficking.

By Stephen Brown

From Reuters:

Italian police announced on Thursday the arrest of hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants in a sign of the new right-wing government's determination to clamp down.

Police arrested 383 people including 268 foreigners, with 53 immediately taken to the border for expulsion, in a week-long operation stretching from northern Italy to the Naples area.

Silvio Berlusconi swept back to power for a third term as prime minister last week promising to get tough on illegal immigrants, blamed by many for crime. He is readying new laws to screen immigrants and jail or expel those breaking the law.

Those arrested came from Eastern Europe, Albania, Greece, North Africa and China and face charges ranging from illegal entry into Italy to prostitution, drug trafficking and robbery.

In Libya, police have arrested 240 would-be illegal migrants from several African countries over the past four days as they prepared to sail to Italy, the Interior Ministry said.

Libya is a springboard for hundreds of thousands of Africans trying to reach Europe via Italy on board unseaworthy boats.

The policeman in charge of the Italian operation, Francesco Gratteri, told a news conference the sweep "wasn't aimed at any specific category or ethnic group. The sole objective were criminals who have caused a sensation of rising alarm in society".

The focus of Italian concern about immigrant crime are the Roma, known here as "nomads", who come mainly from Romania and other Eastern European countries. In Rome, police raided the biggest Roma camp and took away about 50 men for questioning.

The arrests coincided with a visit by Romanian Interior Minister Cristian David. Romania has Europe's biggest Roma population and its prime minister warned this week that Italy's crackdown could cause "xenophobia" against other Romanians.

Italy has tried to reassure the fellow European Union member that Romanians are not being targeted. The two countries have launched a joint police effort and Romania will despatch a task force of 15 officers to work with Italian police this month.

Read the full article

Human Trafficking in the Philippines: Victims’ Kin Part of Problem — and Solution

General Santos City, Philippines

By Bong S. Sarmiento

From the Pinoy Press:

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines- Sheila, Valerie and Bridget (not their real names) hail from poor families here and have set their sights to as far as Manila, Brunei and Japan for jobs as domestic helpers to support their families back home.

But instead of finding work as domestic helpers, they ended up as prostitutes and their recruiters – human traffickers — have simply disappeared into thin air.

Promised heaven, they were delivered instead into a living hell.

The trio’s cases were among the 11 filed as of last December in the courts here since the Local Inter-Agency Task Force against Trafficking in Person (LIATFAT) was created by the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

Dubbed “Tuna Capital of the Philippines,” General Santos City in southern Mindanao is considered a trafficking “hotspot” because of the proliferation of bars and transit houses, according to the Visayan Forum Foundation, a non-government organization that works to monitor and curb the crime. The city with its large seaport is a traditional crossing point to nearby Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.

But on top of its strategic location, human trafficking thrives in this city because of effective parental consent, according to Rebecca Magante, chief of the local social welfare and development office and secretariat head of LIATFAT.

“The sad fact is that parents egg their children on when they are approached by these people in the hope they will send back money to the family,” she says. According to Magante, human trafficking is a problem in 21 of the city’s 26 barangays (villages).

“Victims in previous years have been children, but for 2005 to 2007, adults have become the primary victims. Trafficking cuts across all ages,” Magante says. Of the 204 reported cases of human trafficking between 2003 and 2007, 87 were minors. The great majority were female.

Only 11 cases have been filed in local courts, 10 at the barangay level and 183 have not been filed at all, according to LIATFAT data. Rose Delima of the City Social Welfare and Development Office and the point person for human trafficking, explained that very few cases make it to court because of a lack of interest in going after suspects.

“After the victims are back in the custody of the parents or their relatives, they are no longer interested in pursuing their cases. It is something else for them to worry about on top of their trying to eke out a living,” she says.

Read the full article

Slavery in Peru

By Lily Céspedes

From the Latin America Press:

“It’s a global situation that affects almost all countries. It has become an international problem and in order to fight it the work has to be coordinated between the authorities and governments of the world,” warned Rosa Dominga Trapasso, US missionary who came to Peru over 50 years ago and who defends female victims of trafficking in the nongovernmental organization Movimiento El Pozo, in Lima.

According to the report on the trafficking of women for sex trade in Peru, produced in 2005 by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) along with Movimiento El Pozo, eight of every 10 cases identified in Peru are related to domestic trafficking.

“There is a custom of turning over or receiving children or youths whose parents can’t take care of them, who fall, unfortunately, into the hands of human traffickers,” said Tammy Quintanilla Zapata, director of Movimiento El Pozo.

However, Peru is considered the country of origin, transit and destination of human trafficking. According to the ILO, Peruvian women and girls are the principal victims of this crime and are sent to other countries in South America (Argentina and Bolivia), Western Europe (Italy and Spain), Japan and the United States for sexual exploitation.

After a four-year struggle, nongovernmental organizations defending women teamed up with government bodies and private companies in Peru to create a multi-sector commission that promoted Congress’ approval of Law 28950 on Jan. 17, 2007, punishing human trafficking with prison time.

For congresswoman and lawyer Rosario Sassieta, first president of the Women Legislators Table of Peru, this law represents a significant advance since it implies a modification in the Peruvian criminal code, which did not previously recognize human trafficking as a crime, making it difficult to punish those who practiced it.

The new law establishes prison sentences between eight and 15 years for those who promote human trafficking, including the individuals who favor, finance, receive, transport, transfer, kidnap or trick for the purpose of sexual exploitation or receive the victim inside or outside Peruvian territory. When the victims are minors and the person involved in trafficking is a public employee, the sentence is 12 to 20 years. In the case that the victim is murdered or seriously injured, the punishment is no less than 25 years in prison.

In order to help prevent trafficking, the National Plan of Action against Human Trafficking 2007-2013 has also been established in Peru, which promotes the new law’s implementation and offers victim assistance through a telephone help line. Between March 2006 and 2007, over 8,500 calls have been registered, resulting in 60 reports to the police and Attorney General’s Office for investigation.

However, little information is available on how trafficking networks operate and even less information on people who have been condemned for this crime.

Read the full article

HBO's Cathouse

From the CATW:

On April 24, 2008, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), will hold a picket line protest from 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm in front of the corporate offices of HBO, located at 1100 6th Avenue at 42nd Street in New York City, protesting its reality series Cathouse set in a brothel.

“HBO for some time now has been normalizing the demand for prostitution, which fuels sex trafficking. Its most recent example, Cathouse, distorts the reality of the sex industry by transforming pimps into businessmen, and by presenting the buying and selling of women as harmless and normal,” says Norma Ramos, Co-Executive Director of CATW.

CATW’s campaign will address HBO's effort to erase the harm of prostitution. 80% of all human trafficking victims are women and girls, 70% of which end up in prostitution. “HBO cynically labels Cathouse as a documentary when in fact it packages prostitution as entertainment. HBO has a social responsibility to tell the truth about prostitution and sex trafficking, not profit from and promote the world's oldest oppression,” says Founding Board Member, Dorchen Leidholdt. “HBO is creating a culture of acceptance of sexual exploitation, and it needs to take responsibility for that,” says Norma Ramos. CATW calls upon HBO to fund social services for trafficking victims and produce a credible documentary that exposes the true nature and human cost of commercial sexual exploitation.

Author Victor Malarek and NYC Council Member John C. Liu will be joining CATW and making statements. Victor Malarek is the author of The Natasha’s and the upcoming book, The Johns. Co-sponsors of the protest will be ECPAT-USA, Prostitution Research and Education (PRE), Equality Now and NOW NYC. Joining the protest will be two ‘HBO’ blow-up doll pimps dressed in their Cathouse gear. A press conference will be held at the protest.

Download the press release

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About the show

HBO delves into its Cathouse vault to mine the most memorable scenes and wildest moments, from six glorious years filming at one of Nevada's premier tourist attractions: the Moonlite BunnyRanch, the bustling legal brothel located outside of Reno. Featuring up-close-and-personal interviews with many of the girls, good-time proprietor Dennis Hof, and longtime Ranch manager Madam Suzette, this month's half-hour show brings Cathouse fans classic footage with the likes of Sunset Thomas, Isabella Soprano, Brooke Taylor, Bridget the Midget, Air Force Amy and many others.

Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty

By Blaine Harden

From the Washington Post:

MANILA -- Maria Susana Espinoza wanted only two children. But it was not until after the birth of her fourth child in six years that she learned any details about birth control.

"I knew it existed, but I didn't know how it works," said Espinoza, who lives with her husband and children in a squatter's hut in a vast, stinking garbage dump by Manila Bay. She and her family belong to the fastest-growing segment of the Philippine population: very poor people with large families.

There are many reasons why this country is poor, including feudal patterns of land ownership and corrupt government. But there is a compelling link between family size and poverty. It increases in lock step with the number of children, as nutrition, health, education and job prospects all decline, government statistics and many studies show.

Birth and poverty rates here are among the highest in Asia. And the Philippines, where four out of five of the country's 91 million people are Roman Catholic, also stands out in Asia for its government's rejection of modern contraception as part of family planning. Acceding to Catholic doctrine, the government for the past five years has supported only what it calls "natural" family planning.

No national government funds can be used to buy contraceptives for the poor, although anyone who can afford them is permitted to buy them. Local governments can also buy and distribute contraceptives, but many lack the money.

Distribution of donated contraceptives in the government's nationwide network of clinics ends this year, as does a contraception-commodities program paid for by the U.S. Agency for International Development. For years it has supplied most of the condoms, pills and intrauterine devices used by poor Filipinos.

"Family planning helps reduce poverty," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a 2003 speech that detailed her approach to birth control. But she said then and has since insisted that the government would support only family planning methods acceptable to the Catholic Church.

Read the full article

Slavery in Albania

By Agnieszka Rakoczy

From the Financial Times:

Brikena Puka’s well-groomed look and confident style suggest she works for an international corporation. In fact she is the administrator of the Psycho-Social Centre “Vatra”, a non-governmental organisation that tries to prevent human trafficking and help its victims return to a normal life.Vatra (the Albanian word for “hearth”) is based in the southern port of Vlora.

“We co-operate with the police throughout Albania. Most of the women we assist are referred to us by them, but we also have cases sent to us by other NGOs. Some girls come on their own and some are brought by their families,” Ms Puka said.

Vatra offers accommodation, medical assistance, individual and group psychological treatment, vocational training, legal assistance and help with establishing contact with their families. It also works to alert communities at risk about their vulnerability to trafficking. It has assisted about 1,200 victims, of whom half came from the Roma and “Egyptian” communities, the country’s poorest.

Ms Puka says women are lured by traffickers using fake engagements, actual marriages, and job offers. A number were kidnapped. Some of the victims are sold by their families. Others go willingly.

There are no accurate figures on how many Albanian women have been illegally trafficked abroad and forced to work as prostitutes since the end of communism in 1991. A senior government official says a frequently-mentioned figure of 30,000 is too high.

The US government’s “Trafficking in Persons” report issued last June listed Albania as a “Tier 2” country, the category for countries still not complying fully with minimum standards for elimination of trafficking. But it added that Albania “is making significant efforts to do so”.

Two years ago the Albanian government placed a three-year ban on speedboats and other small private vessels using its coastal waters, in effect closing one of the most popular routes used by drug and people smugglers.

Reforms of the penal code have made all kinds of trafficking a serious crime, punished with prison sentences between seven and 15 years and heavy fines for those found guilty of trafficking women or children.

The government has launched a national strategy for combating trafficking in human beings, covering prevention, conviction, and victim protection and rehabilitation. “It is a very important document,” says Iva Zajmi, deputy interior minister and national co-ordinator for anti-trafficking in human beings. “It is about slavery of our citizens. It is the government’s job to help these people.”While the number of victims may be dropping, the forms of exploitation are changing, she says. On the other hand, women know more about trafficking and its attendant risks.“

"People have been informed and warned, and we have signed co-operation agreements with police and prosecutors in other countries so it is not that easy any more,” Ms Zajmi says.

According to the US report, 57 traffickers were convicted in 2006. But only 20 out of 227 suspected or identified victims offered to testify against traffickers.While victims are allowed to file civil lawsuits against their traffickers, this rarely happens because of widespread mistrust of the police and the judicial system, the report said.

Read the full article

Mozambique Government Accepts Stiffer Penalties for Human Trafficking

From AllAfrica:

The Mozambican government favours stiffer penalties for criminals found guilty of trafficking in people, Justice Minister Benvinda Levi said on Thursday.

She was speaking at a parliamentary hearing organised by the several of the working commissions of the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on bills presented by the government on child protection and on human trafficking. The hearing took place just days after testimony about the trafficking in minors was presented on Mozambique Television (TVM) by two teenagers rescued from a brothel in South Africa.

The Assembly's Legal Affairs, Social Affairs, and Defence and Public Order Commissions are drawing up written opinions on the bills with the assistance of a technical team from the Justice Ministry. The bills will be debated on the floor of the Assembly in the second week of April.

The government bill envisaged prison terms of between eight and 12 years for trafficking in people. But at the hearing Antonio Frangoulis of the ruling Frelimo Party, argued that there should be stiffer penalties for the worst forms of trafficking.

He thought it wrong to apply the same penalty for trafficking women to take part in pornographic films, and trafficking people who would be murdered for the removal of their genitals (used in grisly witchcraft rituals). The bill as it stands does not make this differentiation, and only recognises a single crime of human trafficking.

Levi accepted the proposal for harsher penalties, and also a suggestion by Maximo Dias, of the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition, that people suspected of human trafficking should not be eligible for bail or other forms of provisional freedom."Those suspected of human trafficking should be kept in jail until their trial", declared Dias.Both Levi and Dias seem to have forgotten that in February 2000 the Supreme Court ruled there could be no such thing as a crime for which suspects could never be eligible for bail.

Automatic bail refusals were "contrary to constitutional principles", the court ruled.

Read the full article

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

By Merissa Nathan Gerson

We live in a culture grounded in a victim/oppressor mentality. Good vs. evil, right vs. wrong. In general we prefer to find a villain. When it comes to prostitution America doesn’t shift values. There is always the good one, the bad one, the poor one, and the advantage taker. There is the victim hooker and her oppressive John. Or else there is the villainous sex worker, the embodiment of evil, and the client, the guy who comes in and then leaves.

There is another way of looking at the Hooker-John dynamic, one that takes into account the culture around these two agents, a view that holds the man as accountable for his wounded nature as the often-victimized prostitute.

In various feminist circles there are large debates surrounding the notion of a sex worker possessing power. There are some feminist sex workers, like many of the performers at the renowned Sex Worker’s Art Show, for example, who see themselves as sexual healers. There is Xaviera Hollander, author of The Happy Hooker, who turned her job into a fine art. And there are sex workers who view themselves as therapists, catering to the needs of broken men, the bedroom their foray for sexual liberation and experimentation.

Then there is the flip side, the pimps, the psychological pasts of so many women involved in the industry. There is the abuse, the torture, and often, the inhumanity. At the Dumas Brothel Museum in Butte, Montana there were rooms underground with vibrators operated by 500 volts of electricity. These were for the clients to use, to “pleasure” the prostitutes. There are scenes in movies, like Ma Vie en Rose, that show what happens when a man, in a position of physical power over a woman, takes gruesome advantage.

Nudity, money, desire; these things combined put women in often-terrible slave-like conditions. There are the debatably happy hookers, those in charge of their own industry, and then there are those whose businesses are owned and run by men and others in positions of power, who often view their workers as dogs. There is the movie Milk Money, with Melanie Griffiths, that shows a good example of abuse within the trade. And there is the movie Nuts, with Barbara Streisand, which closely links childhood sexual abuse to her character’s prostitution habit.

What are so often looked at in these cases are the women; their mental state, the causes of their drive towards stripping or prostitution. But rarely do we evaluate the psychology of a man wishing to purchase sex. We might condemn him, like the Elliot Spitzer case in New York, but to ask what he reflects of a larger mindset is uncommon. Prostitution is huge, has been for years in cultures around the world. It is statistically a market that feeds the thirst of men. One wonders, though, why?

Someone might answer, animal desire. Others would say that’s how men are. But as much as someone might link childhood trauma to a sex worker’s involvement in the business, so might another view the man who pays a stranger to be intimate with his body.

We are sexually repressed as a culture. From normalized sexual expectations to an overall denial of pain and feelings in men, it is possible that they turn to sex workers for relief beyond the orgasm. Sex workers allow men to express and release feelings without consequence or commitment. They are an outlet to larger issues. Some feminists might even argue they aren’t an issue at all; that the desire to pay a stranger for sex is not to be judged.

When it comes down to solving the issue of sexual slavery, of prostitution gone wrong, turned abusive and oppressive, the victimization of the women involved does not alleviate the problem. Understanding the urge to purchase, dominate, and abuse; comprehending the market, the drive, the dilemma that pushes a culture to not only hide its sex workers, but to hide its desire to frequent them, this is what might curb future abuse.

Both the client and the worker are involved in a momentary relationship. This relationship not only reflects a great deal of suffering, but also shows the wounded nature of sexuality in a nation implicated in the push and pull of prostitution.

Resources

Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive

Prostitution Research

The Sex Workers Project- New York

Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom

Annie Sprinkle’s Homepage

Whores and Other Feminists, Edited by Jill Nagle

Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography, Edited by Rebecca Whisnant and Christine Stark

Human traffickers to face heavy sentences in Ghana

From Joy Online and the Ghana News Agency:

The Human Trafficking Programmes Coordinator of the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs Mr. Mark Dundaa, has warned that any person found engaging in human trafficking would serve a prison term of not less than five years.

He was speaking at a day's workshop on Human Trafficking for 25 volunteers in Krachi.

The participants were from Krachi West District and Sene District in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

The workshop was to sensitize the volunteers to help tackle human trafficking in the two districts which were noted to be the destinations for trafficked persons.

Mr. Dundaa said the Ministry had provided temporary basic material support for the care and protection of rescued victims of trafficking and called on stakeholders to support the victims in their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

Mr. Dundaa said rescued victims were also being trained to acquire skills to enhance their socio-economic development.

Mr. George Achidre, Executive Director of Partnership in Community Development (PACOD), a local human trafficking non-governmental organization, which organised the workshop, urged the public to provide the police with information to help fight the menace.

He advised volunteers to be vigilant and attach seriousness to the work to curb the practice.

Although Ghana has made some progress in its effort to combat trafficking, it only made trafficking a crime in 2005 with the Human Trafficking Act. According to the Legal Resources Centre of Ghana (which produced this assessment of the definition of human trafficking according to the 2005 law), the law was "enacted as a result of increased public awareness of the problem of trafficking in Ghana, partly as a result of local media attention on the trafficking of children for exploitative work."

The exploitation of children happens very often in the fishing industry, according to this article from the UNODC:

Many Ghanian children are trafficked from their home villages to work in the fishing industry. Living in tough conditions and working long hours every day, they are exploited by fishermen desperate to feed their families and eke out a living along the banks of Lake Volta...

The driving forces behind child trafficking extend beyond fish scarcity. Deep-rooted traditions can also help explain the prevalence of this crime. For example, it is common in Ghana for children to participate in apprentice work with a relative or family friend. Many children, and their parents, believe that going away to work is a route to a better life.

"Child trafficking is actually a distortion of the old cultural practice of placement with relatives or townspeople," says Joe Rispoli, Head of the Counter-Trafficking Department of the International Organization for Migration in Ghana. "And many parents don't know the value of education; for them, it's more immediately valuable for their children to learn how to fish."

Child labour and even trafficking are deeply ingrained in the fishing industry in Ghana. Through conversations with child traffickers, it becomes clear that many of them simply do not realize that it is wrong for children to be away from their parents, missing school and performing hard physical work for long hours.

Vietnam's Desire for Baby Boys Skews Gender

From MSNBC:

8/31/07, HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam's preference for boys over girls is further tipping the balance between the sexes in Asia, already skewed by a strong bias for boys among Chinese and Indians. The trend could lead to increased trafficking of women and social unrest, a U.N. report says.

Vietnam is now positioned where China was a decade ago, logging about 110 boys born to every 100 girls in a country where technology is readily available to determine the sex of a fetus and where abortion is legal, according to research released this week by the U.N. Population Fund. The sex ratio at birth generally should equal about 105 boys to 100 girls, according to the report.

"The consequences are already happening in neighboring countries like China, South Korea and Taiwan. They have to import brides," said Tran Thi Van, assistant country representative of the Population Fund in Hanoi, adding that many brides are coming from Vietnam. "I don't know where Vietnam could import brides from if that situation happened here in the next 10 or 15 years."

'Marriage squeeze' predicted
The report, which looked at China, India, Vietnam and Nepal, warned that tinkering with nature's probabilities could cause increased violence against women, trafficking and social tensions. It predicted a "marriage squeeze," with the poorest men being forced to live as bachelors.

Gender imbalance among births has been rising in parts of Asia since the 1980s, after ultrasound and amniocentesis provided a way to determine a fetus' sex early in pregnancy. Despite laws in several countries banning doctors from revealing the baby's sex, many women still find out and choose to abort girls.

"I have noticed that there have been more and more boys than girls," said Truong Thi My Ha, a nurse at Hanoi's Maternity Hospital. "Most women are very happy when they have boys, while many are upset if they have girls."

In China, the 2005 estimate was more than 120 boys born to 100 girls, with India logging about 108 boys to 100 girls in 2001, when the last census was taken. However, pockets of India have rates of 120 boys. In several Chinese provinces, the ratio spikes to more than 130 boys born to 100 girls.

Reports of female infanticide still surface in some poor areas of countries and death rates are higher among girls in places like China, where they are sometimes breast-fed for shorter periods, given less health care and vaccinations and even smaller portions of food than their brothers, the report said.

It estimated Asia was short 163 million females in 2005 when compared to overall population balances of men and women elsewhere in the world. It said sex ratios at birth in other countries, such as Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, also should be closely monitored to avoid uneven trends there.

Earlier research has documented the gender imbalance in the region. A UNICEF report last year estimated 7,000 girls go unborn every day in India."It's very difficult to imagine what's going to be the exact impact of these missing girls in 20 years," said Christophe Guilmoto, an author of the report presented this week at a reproductive health conference in Hyderabad, India. "No human society that we know has faced a similar problem."

The reasons boys are favored over girls are complex and deeply rooted in Asian society. In many countries, men typically receive the inheritance, carry on the family name and take care of their parents in old age, while women often leave to live with their husband's family. In India, wedding costs and dowries are usually required of the parents of the bride, and sons are the only ones permitted by the Hindu religion to perform the last rites when their fathers die.

"My husband took me to a private clinic to be checked. I broke down in tears when I saw the result because I knew this is not what my husband wanted," said Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, 33, recalling when she discovered her second baby was a girl. "But he was good. He told me it was OK."China has a one-child policy, while Vietnam encourages only two children per family after relaxing an earlier ban on having more.

Such limits have led many women to abort girls and keep trying for sons who can carry on the family lineage.The report calls for increased public awareness, more government intervention and steps to elevate women's place in society by promoting gender equality.

Saddam’s Unrepentant Judge

An Iraq High Tribunal member talks about Saddam Hussein's trial



*This is a powerful interview which depicts the brutality of the Hussein regime. It also delves into the issue of "honor killings" when rape victims are killed by a family member to restore family honor.

From Newsweek:

Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa is a member of the Iraq High Tribunal, which was created to prosecute crimes that occurred under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Khalifa presided over the conviction of Saddam Hussein and the so-called Anfal trial, which specifically dealt with the crimes committed against Iraqi Kurds. The Anfal decision, as it is known, named six of Saddam's highest officials as responsible for the genocidal campaign that left hundreds of Kurdish people dead. It also designated rape as a form of torture. In one case Khalifa remembers the story of a female prisoner whose baby died soon after she gave birth. The woman was not allowed to bury her child. Instead she was forced to watch dogs rip its tiny body apart and eat it. During a recent trip to Washington, D.C., Khalifa spoke with NEWSWEEK's Jessica Ramirez about the work of the Iraq High Tribunal. Excerpts:

What kind of court is the Iraq High Tribunal?
Our court is an exceptional court, in part, because we are doing very specific work on crimes committed by Saddam's regime. When that mission comes to pass then the court will be dissolved. The Global Justice Center, which has recognized the Iraq High Tribunal's work in the area of women's rights, had you meet Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsberg. What did you discuss? It was brief, but we learned about the high court in America and the function of the constitution. We talked about the kind of cases they have looked into and jurisdiction. We discussed the number of judges who preside and some history of the court.

When you and the other judges reviewed the information that led you to believe rape was a form of torture in the Anfal decision, what kind of stories helped you reach that decision?
There were many. Kurdish women have suffered a lot. When the ruling authorities at the time used to arrest civilians, they would isolate women from men. That was the first step. Then they would isolate young men from old men. The young men would be taken and killed. The elderly people would be taken to stay with the women. Once this was done then they would start investigations. The elderly ladies, their investigation would not take a long time. The investigation would be concentrated on the young ladies. That is what court witnesses said.

Some of the elderly ladies told us that the investigators would take some of the young women at night saying they wanted to investigate them. In fact, there was no investigation. They were being raped. We asked the elderly women how they knew this. They said that when the young ladies came back they told that they were raped. Another elderly woman had seen the rape occur through curtains. Those who were not raped directly during the investigations were asked to be naked and investigated in that manner.

Another witness we spoke to was arrested under the accusation that he had used foul language against the son of the president. He was beaten and tortured. He was ordered to confess to being a member of an opposition party. If he confessed he was told he would be executed. He refrained. He was a university student. So the security men resorted to another way of getting him to confess. They tortured him with electricity, pulled out his nails and broke his bones. I believe he was even sexually violated. As a means to force him to confess, they brought his mother and sister. The security men then raped them one after the other before him. They expected him to confess, but he didn't. They sentenced him to prison. He was released in 1990. When he was released he found that his mother had been executed. In 1991, during the events of the uprising, he fled. So they executed his father, two of his brothers and three sisters. He had no one remaining. Every member of his family is dead.

Often, if a woman is raped, a family member will kill her in order to restore the family honor. Do you think Iraqis should change their view of rape in general, and not just as it pertains to crimes committed by Saddam's regime?
[Honor killing] happens when a family does not understand and does not have a clear viewpoint of what happened to their daughter. She is a victim. How can she be a victim twice? Iraqi law does not protect those who kill women that are raped. The court should always be on the side of justice when the woman is a victim.

Read the full interview


Thousands of Women Killed for Family "Honor"

From National Geographic:

Hundreds, if not thousands, of women are murdered by their families each year in the name of family "honor." It's difficult to get precise numbers on the phenomenon of honor killing; the murders frequently go unreported, the perpetrators unpunished, and the concept of family honor justifies the act in the eyes of some societies.

Most honor killings occur in countries where the concept of women as a vessel of the family reputation predominates, said Marsha Freemen, director of International Women's Rights Action Watch at the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Reports submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights show that honor killings have occurred in Bangladesh, Great Britain, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda. In countries not submitting reports to the UN, the practice was condoned under the rule of the fundamentalist Taliban government in Afghanistan, and has been reported in Iraq and Iran.

But while honor killings have elicited considerable attention and outrage, human rights activists argue that they should be regarded as part of a much larger problem of violence against women.

Men Forced to Marry Pt II

From the BBC:

The UK's first male-only refuge for those who have been forced into marriage is being considered. One victim tells of the dramatic effect the experience had on his life - and how he has come through it.

When Imran Rehman was 10, he was taken to Pakistan and found himself in the middle of an enormous family party. He remembers being told to sit next to a little girl in a fine dress. He did not understand why, but he and the little girl were, jointly, the centre of attention. They were showered with money and presents and they had garlands cast around their necks. Imran said: "I was just paying attention to the food and the money. I didn't know what was happening. I just thought it was a party."

It was not until five years later that he was shown a photograph of that celebration - and he finally understood its significance. It had been his own engagement party. The little girl was his five-year-old first cousin. She was also to be his wife - whether he liked it or not.

"It made me feel sick, knowing that was my engagement. I went off the rails. I got into the wrong crowd, I got into fights, I got expelled from two schools," he said. To get him to behave, his parents took measures that many people might see as extreme. They sent him to Pakistan, telling him it was so he could see the area where they had been born. For a while, he says, "it was nice to be on holiday". Then, one morning, he says, he was drugged, taken to a mosque in a deserted village, and imprisoned. Once there, he had shackles locked around his feet. "I was kept in a room, locked up. I had to sleep like that. I even had to eat, go to the bath, toilet, shackled like that, for 15 days."

With the help of friends, he was eventually able to find his way back to the UK. When he got home, the only explanation he got from his family was it was his "rehabilitation". The pressure continued, perhaps to a lesser degree, for years, until something happened that finally made up his mind up that he had to get married.

He said: "I was 24. I was working at Birmingham airport. I got a phone call to say one of my close relatives was extremely ill. I was the first person there, by their bedside. I said: 'What can I do to help?'" His poorly relative told him that if anything was to happen to her, it would be his fault, for not going to Pakistan to get married. He says he was emotionally blackmailed, and he felt that he had no choice. "So I went to Pakistan. I didn't want that on my head, you know," he said.

He married his cousin. But the marriage only lasted a month before Imran told his family it was over. He was told he had just two choices: "Stay with your wife, buy a house, have kids, live your life. Or get disowned." "So I left home," he said.

It was the beginning of a seven-year severance from his family. He says he drifted from job to job, drank too much and struggled to deal with his trauma. "My family had disowned me. I just thought: 'I've got to stand on my own two feet and try and battle it out'. Which I couldn't understand how to do."

He eventually found a support organisation called Karma Nirvana. At the time, this Derby-based self-help group was only for women. But they realised, through their dealings with Imran, that men were also vulnerable to becoming victims of honour-based violence. Now, Imran works with Karma Nirvana as a support worker for men who suffer in the same way he did.

He says it is harder for men to seek help than women because men are not allowed to be open about their feelings. He said: "You're a man, you don't cry. If you cry, you're not supposed to show your tears. It really stressed me out. "I knew there was no support for me to go anywhere. Now, there is support out there for men. I encourage men to come forward. "What I tend to do is I tell my personal experiences to the men I work with, male victims. And believe me, they do open up."

Imran now supports 36 men who have been victims of forced marriage or honour-based violence. He says helping them get over their problems is a way to help himself to stay positive. "It makes me feel good, you know? I know I'm not alone any more. Before, when I was alone, I used to feel like I was the only man who was going through it," he said. Now he knows there are others who have gone through what he has been through. And he hopes they will all get the kind of support that will help keep them safe from their families.

Child Trafficking in Mozambique

From allAfrica.com:

A truck packed with 40 children was intercepted in the central Mozambican province of Manica this week, sparking concern over increased child trafficking and the urgent need for effective legislation to address the problem.

"All the children are now in the protective custody of social welfare authorities in Chimoio [in Manica Province]. While investigations are underway, authorities have been trying to contact their parents," the UN Children Fund's (UNICEF) Thierry Delvigne-Jean told IRIN. "They have arrested a number of adults," he added. According to a statement released by the UN in Mozambique on Thursday, the truck was stopped by police on Monday in Inchope and the case is being investigated.



It is not exactly known where the children were being taken. "The details surrounding the case remain vague - there is a lot of contradicting information," said Carmen Ramos, Country Director for Save the Children Norway."

The driver said he was taking the children to schools in Tete [a province in western Mozambique] and Maputo [the county's capital] to study the Koran, and that he had made the same trip with children 10 times before," she said.

It seemed the children had not been kidnapped because the parents had given their consent, "but the parents don't know where these schools are," Ramos added, which suggested that the children might have been in the truck for reasons other than schooling."



This incident calls attention to the serious problem of child trafficking and the urgent need for the adoption of legal instruments to enforce the protection of children against abuse and exploitation," UN Resident Coordinator Ndolamb Ngokwey said in the statement.

Let Down By the Law
Mozambican law makes no provision for prosecuting alleged human traffickers; consequently, no suspected trafficker has ever been tried for the crime, even though the practice is illegal under international law.

Nevertheless, suspected human traffickers have been prosecuted by the state and Rede Came, a Mozambican child protection non-governmental organisation, under laws covering kidnapping, the corruption of minors and hijacking, but these carry much milder penalties than violations of the trafficking laws in other countries.

A proposed Children's Act was approved by the Council of Ministers in March 2007 but has not yet become law. "The Act is pending with parliament and is expected to be adopted early this year," the UN statement said. "A specific law against human trafficking was also approved by the Council of Ministers in 2007 and is pending parliament's approval."



When it became law, the Act would cover child rights and include an article directing the state to adopt special legal and administrative measures to stop the kidnapping, sale and trafficking of minors."The UN urges Parliament to place this legislation on the agenda of the legislative session due to commence in March," said UNICEF Representative Leila Pakkala."

Once passed by parliament, the Children's Act and the Anti-Trafficking Laws will strengthen the legal and protective framework for children, including victims of trafficking and abuse."

Growing Concern
Although there are no recent figures on human trafficking in Mozambique the practice is believed to be growing. A 2003 study on trafficking in the region by the International Organisation on Migration (IOM) estimated that 1,000 Mozambican woman and children were being trafficked to South Africa every year, mainly for sexual exploitation.

The capital, Maputo, is the main destination for internal trafficking, while South Africa is the main destination for children trafficked outside of Mozambique"Studies have found that Mozambique is both a country of origin and transit for child trafficking. The capital, Maputo, is the main destination for internal trafficking, while South Africa is the main destination for children trafficked outside of Mozambique and from neighbouring countries," the UN statement read.



Most children who fall prey to traffickers are aged between 13 and 18. "Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to exploitation due to their age and dependency," UNICEF said.

Mozambique's 19.8 million people are desperately poor: 40 percent live on less than US$1 a day, and recovery from a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992 has been slow. According to UNICEF, there are 1.6 million orphans, 380,000 of whom have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS.

Amnesty International stated in a 2005 report that trafficking in the former Portuguese colony was also thought to be linked to the extraction of human organs for ritual and witchcraft purposes, with allegations that the practice was taking place in the northern provinces of Nampula and Niassa.

Italian Police Smash Nigerian Drug Gangs

From VOA News:

Italy's anti-Mafia unit has smashed a Nigerian drug and human-trafficking ring that forced hundreds of women into prostitution. Police say dozens of Nigerians were arrested in Italy on Tuesday and 15 others in European countries including the Netherlands.

Operation Viola ended early Tuesday carried out by Italian and Dutch police with the help of Interpol. A total of 66 Nigerian citizens were arrested, mainly in Italy, accused of smuggling compatriots into Europe to work as prostitutes and drug dealers. Police said 51 suspects were arrested and are accused of being affiliated with the Italian mafia who have been linked to human trafficking, slavery, kidnapping and international drug trafficking.

Police also uncovered "serious adoption irregularities" in which Nigerian women living in Italy were able to take infants from Nigerian orphanages and sell them abroad.

One of the police chiefs involved in the operation said one of the most chilling and touching aspects from a human point of view was the way these women were forced into slavery, the way the were trafficked. These women, he said, were completely subjugated with voodoo rites.

Expressing satisfaction at the outcome of the operation, Interior Minister Giuliano Amato noted "a powerful international organization that exploited human beings and in particular minors has been smashed." "These are extremely serious crimes that have brought slavery back, feeding off poverty," he said.

Amato added that law enforcement needed to be inflexible with these criminals, and thanks to great police work, excellent results are being achieved.

Read the full article

I find this article particularly interesting because of the use of unusual cultural factors, in this case voodoo, to control the trafficking victims. It's also good to see law enforcement agencies working together (Italian & Dutch police & Interpol). I will keep track of this and see what happens in court- now it's up to the criminal justice system to convict the offenders.

Child Trafficking in Africa

This article shows how cultural practices can promote human trafficking.

From Reuters:

The U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked every year into what it calls "the modern-day equivalent of slavery".

This trafficking takes many forms in West Africa, encouraged by a tradition of "placing" young children with families of wealthier relatives to receive an education or learn a trade. "It's a high-risk practice," said Serigne Mor Mbaye, a staff member of U.S.-based non-profit development agency Plan International. "Many of those who are placed are victims of abuse. This traditional practice continues to happen, but (social) solidarity does not function like before," he said, adding that many children are placed these days with unrelated strangers.

The Plan research in Togo found most trafficked children went to Nigeria, girls generally as domestic servants and boys working in agriculture, markets or serving food. Different types of child trafficking networks have sprung up in other parts of West Africa.

Police in tiny Guinea-Bissau uncovered a trafficking network last week when they found over 50 young boys headed to Senegal, where hundreds of children sent from neighboring countries to attend Koranic schools end up begging for coins on street corners.

The child trafficking debate has been revived by the arrest last month in Chad of French humanitarian activists on child kidnapping charges over a bid to fly 103 children to Europe. The children were presented as orphans from Darfur, even though most turned out to be from villages in the Chad/Sudan border area and had at least one living parent.

Read the full article

This Week in the Philippines #6

Kickbacks, economic gains, kidnapping, Doogie Howser, and remittances...


Source: Corbis

Corruption mars broadband contract
Once again, corruption reared its ugly head under the Arroyo administration with kickbacks galore amounting to way over $100 million, divided accordingly among a high-ranking poll official. “Kickbacks” in the contro-versial broadband contract with Chinese firm ZTE Corp. practically ate up the project’s cost and ended up 300-percent higher than the original or proposed amount, with highly-placed public officials and public figures said to have pocketed the “loot” amounting to over $200 million.

Government to boast of economic gains at APEC meeting
The Philippines will show off the Arroyo government’s so-called “long-term economic achievement” during this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Sydney, Australia, despite a poor investor index rating by the Apec. In his departure statement, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo yesterday commented, “our performance has shown the resiliency and robustness of our economy. Our fiscal and economic reforms have taken root and are showing concrete results. We have had consecutive quarterly growths since 2001.”

Kidnapping cases decrease in the Philippines
Director General Oscar C. Calderon, chief of the Philippine National Police, reported yesterday a 45 percent decline in the number of kidnap-for-ransom cases recorded in the country from July 2006 to June 2007 as compared to July 2005 to June 2006. Calderon said there were 27 kidnap-for-ransom cases from July 2006 to June 2007 as compared to the 49 recorded from July 2005 to June 2006.

Youngest doctor in the Philippines ready for work
At 22, Adrian Paul Rabe is the youngest member of Class 2007 of the University of the Philippines' seven-year Integrated Liberal Arts-Medicine (Intarmed) program. He passed the medical licensure examinations this month. When he was young, his family lived in Kuwait. His father, Pete, an engineer, was a contract worker while his mother, Zenaida, also an engineer, took care of him and his four siblings. He was six years old when the Gulf War broke out in August 1990 and the family decided to return to the Philippines.

Cheaper remittance system developed for migrants
A nationwide federation of cooperatives launched on Tuesday a one-dollar remittance scheme for overseas Filipinos. Dubbed as National Cash Card program, or simply N-Cash, the new remittance system offers overseas Filipinos a much cheaper option in sending money to their loved ones in the Philippines. It is a project of the National Confederation of Cooperatives (Natcco) in coordination with the government-owned Development Bank of the Philippines. Natcco executive officer Cresente Paez commented, “Filipinos in all areas of our island nation will now be able to conduct many financial transactions without having to go to their nearest urban center which is often many kilometers and many hours away."