Trafficking in Women
Inspired, Activist Creates NGO to Save Cambodian Girls
Published August 16, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
Nomi Network Co-Founder Diana Mao tells the powerful story of how a heart-breaking trip to Cambodia led her to create her own non-profit organization to help girls and women in Cambodia find freedom from slavery. You can check out my guest post on their blog here.
My first encounter with sex trafficking was when I was a micro-finance research fellow in Cambodia in 2005. My task was to interview over 300 micro-finance clients, many of whom lived in remote villages and made less than $1 per day. The experience was a rude awakening. A micro-finance client and father of 7 children offered to give me his daughter to bring back to the United States, in the hope that she would have a better life. As I stared into his eyes, I understood that he did not want to give up his daughter but that his request was a result of desperate poverty. In this same village very young girls were being recruited to work in brothels.
My experience in Cambodia led me to form the non-profit organization, Nomi Network. Sex traffickers prey on poor and unemployed women. The goal of Nomi Network is to empower women economically by employing them in manufacturing jobs in the fashion industry, and to help create a market for the products they make. Once women have stable employment and a steady income, they will no longer be at risk to sex traffickers. To ensure success and sustainability, Nomi Network coordinates the efforts of the women with manufacturers, retailers, and consumers.
Consumer purchases can contribute greatly towards the eradication of sex trafficking. The total market for illicit sex trafficking is approximately $28 billion dollars. What if just a fraction of that amount was channeled into creating opportunities for girls that have been exploited? Girls, some as young as 5, who were once exploited, violated, and stripped of their dignity could be given the hope of a future. Nomi Network offers survivors of sex trafficking gainful employment by ensuring that there is a demand for their products and not their body.
You can help break the vicious cycle of sexual exploitation and invest in their lives by purchasing Nomi Network's signature product, the "Buy Her Bag, Not Her Body," tote bag. The tote bags are made from recycled rice-bag paper, and are made by women who are either survivors or at risk from sex trafficking. The women who make the bags receive competitive wages, medical care, childcare, and one meal per day. In addition, a portion of the proceeds from each sale will be allocated to creating more training and job opportunities for survivors. Put your consumption power to use and pre-order a bag today for $20 at www.nominetwork.org. Bags will also be available at various boutiques for $25. Please look for a full listing on our website.
For more information about Nomi Network:
Mexican Drug Cartels Switch to Selling Humans
Published August 13, 2009 @ 11:19AM PT
Here's a math problem you won't remember from school: Which is higher, the black market value of a pound of cocaine or the black market value of a 13-year-old girl? If you guessed the girl, you get 100% on this math test.
When a drug cartel trafficks a pound of cocaine into the U.S., they can only sell it once. When they traffic a young woman into the U.S., they can sell her again and again. This is a simple economic fact that I (and others in this field) have been aware of for years. However, it seems some Mexican drug cartels have recently discovered this additional potential for profit, and they are now switching from trafficking heroine to trafficking human beings.
The idea that drug traffickers will suddenly switch to humans is even more disturbing in the light of an increased national discussion around legalizing some drugs, like marijuana. What would the pot traffickers do then? Would they get respectable jobs in the brand new legal marijuana industry? Or would they use their criminal contacts to traffic harder drugs, guns, and people? I'm of the inclination that while some criminals might go clean in a new legal drug industry, the rest will see how much more cash they can make through the illegal sale of human beings.
What do you think?
CNN recently did a story on this disturbing new trend, which feature anonymous interviews with women being trafficked into the U.S. by some of the Mexican cartels.
New Jersey Pimp “Prince” Ruled Women from a Throne
Published August 10, 2009 @ 03:00AM PT
He called himself "Prince," a self-styling that had nothing to do with his heritage and everything to do with the autocratic way he ruled and controlled women. For almost 20 years, real-life pimp Allen Brown Jr. aka "Prince" beat and exploited the women he forced or coerced into prostitution, including ruling them from an actual throne. But despite his pretensions, Brown was nothing special.
As a pimp, Brown sought out vulnerable women for his "stable". He found them at bus stops, train stations, and night clubs. He found women desperate for money, love, stability, or a home. Some of them were already addicted to drugs, and those who were got their first fixes from Brown. Once he became their supplier, his autocratic control tightened.
Once they were addicted and under his control, Brown would send the women out to achieve their nightly quota, which ranged from $500 to $1000. If they failed to reach the quota, the women were beaten and/or locked out onto the street until they returned with the full amount of cash. Brown would also withhold fixes from the women who came home short and let their addiction force them back to serve another set of clients. In this way, he kept many of the women enslaved for years.
Brown was not unique for a pimp, in any way other than his ability to evade capture for 20 years. The ostentatious displays of complete control over women (such as issuing edicts from a living room throne), the quotas, and the punishments for failing to bring home money are all par for the course in the pimping game. Brown is a pimp and a trafficker because he forced or coerced his victims into prostitution before taking their money. And in that he wasn't unique either.
What may surprise some people about this trafficker was that all of the 47 women who Brown recruited were American citizens, and all but a couple were adults. Often we assume that only foreign women and children are forced into prostitution, and American adult women choose it willingly. Brown's case is a great example of how a pimp can use tools like drug addiction to keep adult women in slavery, even when those women are enslaved only a few miles from home. They came to rely on Brown for everything, and his coercion and threats of violence prevented their leaving.
Allen Brown Jr. has been indicted on charges of first-degree racketeering, human trafficking, money laundering, drug possession, theft by extortion, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and failure to pay state and gross income tax. He faces 20 to life on the human trafficking charge alone. In addition, seven other people who worked with Brown, including his mother, have also been charged.
This case is by no means unusual, and its message is as plain as can be: pimping is a crime, not a cool occupation or hobby. The gaudy trappings of the pimp may look royal to some, but his throne is built on rape, exploitation, and slavery. History has shown that true monarchs never stay in power long. Hopefully, that is true of the prince-pimp as well.
And after all, a throne in New Jersey is the definition of ridiculous.
China's "Comfort Women" Exposed in New Film
Published August 09, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
The topic of "comfort women", women forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military during World War II, recently got a lot of publicity when the U.S. House of Representative passed a resolution on the topic. But lesser known is the story of the thousands of Chinese women who were trafficked into prostitution and forced marriage in the early 1950s. A new Chinese film, 8,000 Girls Ascend the Heavenly Mountain, tells their story.
In the late 1940s and the early 1950s, the Chinese government sent around 200,000 soldiers and 40,000 young women and girls to the far Western provinces of China, which at the time were heavily Muslim areas. The communist government's goal was to marry off the girls to the army's officers (often arranged as a reward for service and seniority), and thus populate the region with the children of patriots and communists, who would soon outnumber the Muslims. The women were claimed via force, deception, and coercion and then forced to marry whichever officer chose them. Some were brainwashed and convinced they were doing a patriotic duty to create a "new China" for their children.
Xiao Yequn was 15 when she was first brought to the military camp. First, she refused to marry the significantly older man she had been assigned to.
When I found out he was nine years older than me I was unwilling to be his wife. He immediately took out his pistol and put a bullet in the chamber. I dared not resist and the next year we got married.
Simultaneously, Chairman Mao was ordering women in prostitution to be sent in forced service to Chinese troops to undergo "thought reform." The accounts of rape, suicide, forced marriage, forced prostitution, and other abuses from the survivors of this period of Chinese history are not terribly unlike those of the Japanese and Korean comfort women. Yet, the plight of these trafficked Chinese women is much less understood or publicized. Perhaps the lack of information on this issue is due to the Chinese government's reluctance to examine historical (and current) human rights violations.
While it is unclear exactly how 8,000 Girls Ascend the Heavenly Mountain will address the issue, it will hopefully bring a better understanding of the experience of women trafficked into forced marriage in China to Chinese and international audiences. And more importantly, it will hopefully bring a greater sense of peace and justice to the women who survived the ordeal.
Image from theonlinephotographer.typepad.com
The Price of Sex
Published August 08, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
Photo journalist Mimi Chakarova has created a great collection of videos and photos of Eastern European women telling their stories of being enslaved in prostitution. Four of the videos tell the stories of individual survivors, and two others are focused on women at risk and how sex trafficking works. You can view all these at: www.priceofsex.org.
This project tells the story of one form of trafficking from one region, affecting one group of victims. The issue of trafficking women into prostitution is, of course, a problem in areas other than Eastern Europe and former Soviet-bloc countries. However, as many of the videos explain, women in this area have been some of the most vulnerable to exploitation in prostitution. Many face the impossible choice of remaining jobless and poor in their home country or risking trafficking by taking a job overseas. It's a risk they know, and they take it because staying and starving is not a viable choice.
It's also important to note that many women who are trafficked knowingly and willingly enter prostitution. While the most publicized stories are about women who thought they would be waitresses or nannies, some take a job in the Netherlands or Germany in what they expect will be legal, safe prostitution on their own terms. Even after making that choice, women can be trafficked one their freedom is removed or their labor stolen and exploited. A woman who took a job as a prostitute and one who took a job as a waitress are equally trafficked once they loose their ability to leave or control their situation. The women from Eastern Europe thought they were taking a number of different kids of jobs, jobs that all turned into slavery.
The price of sex is higher than you think, and Chakarova eloquently tells the stories of just how high it can be.
Image from humantraffickingproject.blogspot.com
Remembering Why Laura Ling and Euna Lee Were At the N. Korean Border
Published August 06, 2009 @ 07:29AM PT
The scenes of tearful reunion between journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee and their families yesterday, silhouetted against the stoic form of Bill Clinton, were moving to say the least. After months of captivity and living in fear of a sentence of 12 years in a forced labor camp, we all breathed a sigh of relief when the journalists came home. But let's not forget why Ling and Lee were captured in March- they were reporting on human trafficking across the Chinese-North Korean border.
The cross-border trafficking between China and North Korean primarily affects women and girls. They are sold as brides and forced into serviles marriages. Some North Korean women are promised greater job opportunities and education in China, along with freedoms not granted in North Korea. Too often, those jobs are forced prostitution or domestic servitude. Women in this region of the world are incredibly vulnerable to trafficking, due to the dire economic situations many of them face and the heavy corruption and criminal activity in the region.
Such cross-border trafficking between two countries is not unusual, but the situation between China and North Korea is even more complicated by the fact that both countries deny there is a serious problem with human trafficking over the border. Corruption among border officials in the region is high. Even the New York Times' Nicholas Kristof has speculated that Ling and Lee were sold by their guide to a North Korean border official, and that their guide tricked them into crossing the border. Fighting cross-border trafficking is hard enough when both countries admit the problem and take steps to address it. But in this case, denial is a river that runs across East Asia.
So as we celebrate Lee and Ling's safe returns, let us not forget why they suffered months of fear and imprisonment- to discover and report the truth about human trafficking. Let us also not forget that while they are thankfully safe at home with their families, thousands of women and girls in China and North Korea have been torn away from theirs. These women are imprisoned in brothels, homes, marriages, and workplaces. They too are scared and uncertain, Like Ling and Lee were, and wondering when they will see their families and friends again.
Who will help these women, the ones who are not yet home safe? Will it once again be Bill Clinton?
Or will it be you?
Sex Slave Training Video Game For Sale Under New Euphemism
Published August 05, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT
Earlier this year, women's rights blogger Jen brought you a great story about Amazon.com's refusal to sell the Japanese video game Rapelay, where the main character/player is a stalker and rapist. That company is still selling rape games, plus games focused on "sexual slave training." To skirt regulations, however, they've just given the games new, more euphemistic names.
The website BGamebox which sells these games via download to home computer has recently "removed" the offending categories, but in a Craigslistesque move is just going to rename them. The "ryoujoku" (rape) category has been renamed the "Platinum" category and the and "choukyou" (sexual slave training) category is now the "Thoroughbred" category. They're also renaming individual games. For example, "Gang Raped by the Entire Village: Girls Covered in Milky Liquid has become the slightly-tamer sounding The Trap Set by the Entire Village: Bodies Covered in Milky Liquid. Wow, that new title leaves me totally wondering what on Earth that liquid could be! The content of the games, remains the same.
The fact that these video games, which train players (often young men) how to rape and abuse women and train them as sex slaves, are for sale is bad enough. But these new cleaned up titles mean than now they might be stumbled upon by someone looking for a much less nefarious game. A kid looking for a video game about horses now has a chance of finding one about training women to be sex slaves! How could this possibly be considered an improvement? All this change is doing is marketing exploitative, x-rated video games to unsuspecting audiences.
I did a quick search on Amazon.com for video games and "thoroughbred" and "platinum", and found nothing but games about horses and war, so it looks like Amazon.com is still seeing though the ruse. But the thought of video games that encourage rape and trafficking of women and girls are available to teen boys online is a disturbing one.
Image from escapistmagazine.com
