Oasis: Weeks 7 and 8
Week Seven
One of the things I’ve begun to do through this internship is to make connections with like-minded people, not only through events—such as the anti-trafficking training or a charity fundraiser for a social justice non-profit—but through the phenomenon of social media, something which even ten years ago would not have been possible. Finding contacts online through outlets such as Facebook or Twitter has allowed me to plug into what others are doing and seeing in the field of human trafficking or fighting poverty or health care reform. This is part of what it looks like to build a movement.
When much of this initial stage in the struggle against trafficking is to raise awareness of the issue, it helps to know what is going on, to be able to draw upon other contacts’ connections, for example, with finding and reposting news articles on trafficking in the hope that readers will come to realize the breadth and scope of the problem. On the other hand, there remains a sense of inadequacy, particularly since there is the feeling that there should be something more effective or more tangible that we can do. At times, it feels like “raising awareness” is becoming an excuse for not doing something more—as important as advocacy and awareness are.
I suppose this is the challenge of holding things in tension and realizing that each part is a vital piece of the puzzle. Raising awareness of the issue, which remains my task for the present moment, will contribute to raising public ire at the situation and through this will influence policy-makers and law-enforcers, as well as informing all parties of what is really going on, how to minister to survivors, etc. Every little helps.
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Week Eight
Coming to the end of my practicum, I took a little time to reflect on what the last eight weeks have meant to me and on what I’ve learned. In the days that have followed, several people have asked how it went—and this has also lent itself to evaluation.
One of the areas of the practicum which I was most grateful for was the process of learning more and becoming more knowledgeable about the topic of human trafficking, through reading books and articles, through interactions with Oasis staff and others involved in combating trafficking, and even just in working within the subject for eight weeks: looking up news articles, connecting with like-minded individuals and organizations on Twitter and at events. While I came into the practicum with a general understanding of human trafficking as an injustice that needed to be corrected, I came out with a better understanding of what human trafficking is, how it’s defined, how pervasive and subtle it is, how it might be remedied, and the problems that face any attempt to do so.
I would describe myself as a generalist, and so to be able to focus on and hone my skills in one particular area—that of human trafficking—was a welcome departure from the norm. To be able to speak with some authority on this topic, which has also insinuated its way into my heart as an issue I care deeply about, will also no doubt play a part in whatever I go onto in the future, whether in the church, in the public sector or non-profit work, or in music.
The value of human life under threat from this modern day slavery. As Christians who believe that all humanity is made in the image of God, as followers of the Christ who calls us to seek the kingdom of God on earth, any injustice as monstrous as human trafficking and the presence of even one victim of trafficking should stir in us a righteous anger and compel us to action on his or her behalf.
Oasis: Week 6
Week Six
Read A Crime So Monstrous by Ben Skinner, as an exercise in information gathering. It’s one of the best books I’ve read on human trafficking, as he documents his journey to learn more about the new slave trade. It began as a journalistic endeavor: “Before I met those slaves and those traffickers, I told myself that I would observe, not engage. When I began the five-year process of investigation and writing, I intended to make a work of journalism, not of advocacy” (288). But it became a campaign to bring freedom.
As Skinner writes his narrative, he tells the stories of individuals he meets—victims, survivors and perpetrators. In one piercing encounter, he recalls a conversation with Muong, a survivor of slavery in Sudan, who says: “I assume you come from a place where there is an idea that humans have rights. Why does no one care about our slavery here?” (103). It is a question that cuts to the core for all of us who live in a place of privilege—do we care? And what are we doing about it?
What set Skinner’s book apart for me is the way he also brings elements of history and politics to bear, showing how human trafficking fits into the bigger picture—after all, I lean macro. Thus, for example, he observes how over the last two decades, “beginning in the 1990s, human trafficking metastasized faster than any other form of slave-trading in history. As many as 2 million people left their homes and entered bondage every year. Some crossed international borders; many did not. Human beings surpassed guns as the second most lucrative commodity for crime syndicates of all sizes, netting around $10 billion annually” (132). Moreover, he pulls back the covers on the politics involved: the government wrangling and foot-dragging, the pressure to appease other governments, the failure to see poverty as a contributing factor, the lack of value placed on ending slavery—“On average, the Bush administration spent as much money in two days to free Iraqis as it did in six years to free slaves” (260).
One of the main purposes for the book was to define slavery—Skinner doesn’t shy away from applying this term, not to devalue the enslavement that took place in America’s history, but to highlight the extent of the atrocity and inhumanity of the modern phenomenon. “What is a slave? In this book, a slave is someone who is forced to work, through fraud or threat of violence, for no pay beyond subsistence. I did not meet one Washington policymaker—out of two dozen that I interviewed—who could give me so concise a definition” (289). I suppose, as someone who is considering Washington policymaker as a potential vocation, this is another good challenge.
Skinner ends the book with yet another challenge: “Slavery today is much less visible than it [once was], so it isn’t hard to pretend that it is long dead. In your mind, if you like, you can imagine it consigned to history books. I wish I could do the same” (295).
A little bit on human trafficking
There are an estimated 27 million people in modern day slavery around the world.
Between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80% are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors.
Around 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the US from overseas and enslaved every year.
About the same number are murdered in the US every year, but while the national success rate for solving murders is about 70% (11,000), in 2006 only 111 were charged and only 98 were convicted, which is less than 1% of all human trafficking cases nationwide.
An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked every year.
[All info taken from the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report, apart from the last entry, which was from UNICEF UK Child Trafficking Information Sheet, January 2003.]
Human Trafficking
I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, but with the busyness of the last quarter and the downtime afforded me by this spring break, I’m only getting around to it now. I’m only offering a snapshot, providing some links, hoping you’ll go look up some stuff for yourself and get involved in the fight against the modern day slave trade.
I came across this staggering truth only in recent years, thanks to Kevin Bales’ Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy and David Batstone’s Not for Sale. As Bales writes, slavery is still alive and well, two centuries after the Slave Trade Act was passed in Great Britain and nearly 150 years after the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment in the United States. “Around the world we still face the terrible frozen face of ignorance. The awareness that there are twenty-seven million slaves in the world has not yet fully penetrated the public mind, but the sparks and fires of committed people are beginning to melt that icy apathy” (xii).
Twenty-seven million people are trafficked. Twenty-seven million.
Think about it. It's a justice issue. It's a moral issue. It shouldn't be happening.
Organizations and websites you can check out (nicked from one of the appendices of Gary Haugen’s Just Courage:
Amnesty International
Anti-Slavery International (UK)
Freedom House
HumanTrafficking.org
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
International Labour Organization
UNICEF
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
US Department of Justice
US Department of Health & Human Services: Campaign to Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking
US Department of State: Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
World Health Organization
See also:
The Sold Project
Oasis’s Stop the Traffik
Free the Slaves
Call+Response