Definition, Definition... So What Really is Modern-Day Slavery?

DC Stop Modern Slavery hosted the 2012 Stop Modern Slavery Walk on September 29, 2012. I have been fortunate enough to become a part of the amazing team that brought thousands to the Washington Monument grounds that beautiful Saturday.

The week before the Walk was filled with human trafficking headlines. The Sunday before the event, Washington Post covered the terrible child trafficking situation in India on its front page. Two days later, U.S. President Barack Obama devoted his speech at the Clinton Global Initiative on human trafficking in front of many world leaders. Then on Thursday (September 27, 2012), USA Today puts the United States' domestic sex trafficking problem on its front page. 

But what is human trafficking? I personally find the official United Nations' definition a bit cumbersome. Just thinking about the official definition makes human trafficking hard to explain to my friends and family, who still have no clue what it is all about.

I had a quick conversation at the Walk with a man from the Caribbean. His comment made me aware that the abolitionist movements needs to work on its language. He said something like human trafficking contributes to slavery. Isn't it generally accepted that human trafficking, trafficking-in-persons is slavery, modern-day slavery? 

A The New York Times editorial article ("To Combat 'Modern Slavery,' October 2, 2012) stated:

'This should be the first of several steps to bolster the attack on the scourge that Mr. Obama described as "modern slavery" in a passionate address on the issue last week at the Clinton Global Initiative.'

Apparently, the editors of The New York Times don't think it is slavery either. They must think slavery ended with the end of the American Civil War, just like most people.

(In the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, Washington Post publishes a weekday tabloid that is freely distributed via human distributors directly outside subway stations and the recognizable yellow newsstand boxes on the sidewalk. It is simply called Express.)

There is 'Taken' movie review on the Express on Friday, October 5, 2012. This statement disturbs me:

'The appeal of "Taken," apart from its straightforward, unpretentious approach to otherwise pedestrian material, was Liam Neeson.'

Has sex trafficking become "pedestrian material"?

Calling Out For Help in Teeny Ways

Let's get this straight, I work full-time as a customer service representative for a bank. You may think I see money laundering as in millions of dollars. Sometimes I do but usually it's not even at an amount I can substantiate with to create a report. The US Federal Reserve may have created a somewhat comprehensive anti-money laundering policy for banks and other financial institutions to follow to prevent this but these guidelines are only after the big guns, which are very rare. In my own daily experience in dealing with the public, it is always around $5,000. Or in some instances, a few hundred dollars or even less than $20. Interacting with people in the bank setting for more than nine years has made me sensitive enough to pick up on subtle clues of people's behavior...

And then there are the real clues of human trafficking or enslavement that I can pick up on just like that. The fear and the strain in the victims' eyes are very apparent. Their souls are screaming, "Get me out of here! Please, help me!" Last week, I was helping a young Russian or eastern European lady with a credit card issue. The lady was so thin and gaunt that I was scared for her health. An older lady who appeared to be right around her ideal weight was impatiently waiting for her, appeared to be watching her every move and listening to her every word. This lady only comes in with cash to either make a deposit into her account or pay her credit card. Even with this, I cannot say that she truly is a victim of human trafficking.

Then, there are the Chinese people who do pretty suspicious transactions but it is so routine that most of my colleagues no longer question it. They have no clue that behind the accumulation of these wads of cash are people being abused and exploited for the benefit of greedy monsters. I see it everyday at work that I want to cut my hands most of the time. Before I began to fully understand the big problem of human trafficking, I just thought it was nothing but individuals trying to evade taxes or the authorities. No longer do I see it that way. My heart breaks every single evening knowing I could have freed a modern slave by just saying something but my words would surely fall on deaf ears.

Fear is mostly to be blamed for this because these people would kill you or your loved ones to silence you. But I am no longer afraid. In my own experience (personal not work), a great lack of courage has prevented justice from being served in the Philippine courts of murdered people. People are threatened and intimidated to do certain things. Vote buying has been a huge problem in Philippine elections. Just look at the headlines from the recent national and local elections... Just type in "Philippine elections" in any search engine and you'll see how dirty politics can really be.

In my own hometown, there is a red light district because of the former US Clark Air Force Base. Now, Americans, Australians, Europeans, Japanese and even Koreans can be found there as sex tourists. There has been many efforts to curb prostitution in Angeles City (my hometown). The Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has a large human trafficking task force that it also sends its specialists to other southeast Asian nations to provide assistance in raids and also, give expert advice. Local officials have been doing their best to abolish prostitution here ever since the US military has set foot in this city but corruption has plagued the Philippine archipelago so much that as soon as you put one fire out in one place, another one begins nearby (which is true also of the whole world, unfortunately).

Is the World Turning a Blind Eye Towards Child Labor?

Yesterday (June 12, 2010) was "World Day Against Child Labor." The only way people would find out that news if they were part of a network that helps to either abolish child labor altogether or improve the working conditions of child workers. In the United States, yesterday was all about the FIFA World Cup being held in South Africa because the US team was playing against England. All of Washington DC was filled with soccer fever yesterday.

But amidst all the celebratory screams for the World Cup, where heroes are made, the children of the poor are being exploited by greedy criminals around the world even in South Africa. In the host cities like Durban and Johannesburg, there are young girls under 18 being prostituted by sex traffickers to make profits on the influx of soccer fans from all over. And throughout the African continent, children who are capable of doing household chores are enslaved into domestic work for what I consider as (I'm not going to be apologetic here) insolent grown-up human pigs. If these children refuse to offer sexual favors or to do housework, they are frequently beaten, burned and sometimes killed.

A child is a human being. A child represents one human life that has so much potential if tapped properly. In all of history, vulnerable populations especially children--who are not powerful enough to fight for their own rights--have been viewed by people (who unfortunately let the animal nature take over their will) as a group whose only purpose is for their own gain like machines that can discarded or reused. We are all part of the human race. We are like a drop of water, as Mahatma Gandhi is quoted, and we all make the ocean of life. Everything we do affects others. Not one action can be separated from the whole world.

For the human race to advance into outer space (the ultimate frontier for human beings in my view), we all must make sure that we respect all human life as if it was our own. Many people think "not my child, not my responsibility." This is a wrong attitude to take. Each child represents a brighter future for all of us. Remember all the miraculous stories of child prodigies... These children were given proper care and education that made them into individuals they are. I don't think I'm being delusional to say "Imagine if this is what we did for all the world's children." Yes! This world would be the world of peace and progress we all hoped for. But as long as we neglect their needs as children who are growing into full-grown adults, we will never climb out of the mess the world is in today as it has been for millennia...

These soccer players were children too. They were nurtured with the best childcare and parenting in the world that made them the great soccer players that they are. And if we can get the whole world excited about soccer or futbol (as most of the world knows it by), why can't we create a worldwide rage against child labor?

What is Sex Trafficking?

A brutal, hidden and almost-ignored crime is happening in our own neighborhoods all around the world. No matter where you are in the world, in Bangkok, Thailand or Lancaster, Pennsylvania (the heart of Amish country), it is being committed every day, every hour, every second in your own backyard. Women and children are being pimped for sex. Pimping may not sound so bad but it is... The music and entertainment industry has glamorized the pimp so much that most people think it's actually a good job that makes you a lot of money. SO WRONG...

A pimp is a sex trafficker. But what is sex trafficking you may ask. Sex trafficking is the exploitation of persons (even young men are victims) for sexual slavery. What is slavery? Benjamin Skinner, the author of " A Crime So Monstrous: Face-To-Face With Modern-Day Slavery", defines it as "a slave is a human being forced to work through fraud or threat of violence for no pay beyond subsistence." That may sound not too bad either because the average American worker feels that way. But sexual slaves have been forced into prostitution against their will...

They are lured with jobs as waitresses, hairdressers and as nannies but end up in brothels were they are beaten and raped. And a lot of them are abducted right in the middle of city streets, especially young children. What do you think what has happened to most of the people on missing children and missing persons ads? I am afraid to admit that I will not be surprised to find out that a majority of them have become victims of sex trafficking.

Sex trafficking is not yet a legal term but it should be as nations and US states are currently putting human trafficking in their law books. If a sex trafficker is arrested, they are usually only charged with prostitution. Prostitution is a slightly lighter charge than rape. And most of the time, victims of sex trafficking become criminals in the eye of the law because victims out of fear and/or attachment to their pimp/sex trafficker cannot admit that they are actually being coerced into sexual slavery, almost always forcefully pressured into doing sexual favors for strangers. Stories of sex trafficking victims are horrific... They are gang-raped, severely physically abused and murdered. These are the extremes but most victims who escape are seriously psychologically wounded and sometimes physically injured from STDs (sexual-transmitted diseases) and remnants of beatings and mutilations.. Even years after they've been freed from sexual slavery.

So, what are you going to do? Just sit there and read this post and do nothing... I hope not. I hope you are as enraged as I am against this terrible crime against humanity. There are many online resources out there; here are a few...

www.love146.org
www.ijm.org
shoerevolt.com
polarisproject.org
www.endslaverynow.com
www.gems-girls.org