worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby blanc » Fri Jun 03, 2011 3:56 am

Upon urging people only to research further and posting an article by a sex worker who had done a two year study, I am immediately set upon by the resident "Disclosure Police". The writer is impugned by Blanc as she ruminates about who is paying the writer (paying the "worker") as though the sex worker movement is funded (which it's not) and the rescue industry is not (which it is). No, ignore the sex worker and let's favour the narrative that has been mediated by US (& UN) policy. On what basis she objects to the writer I am not sure, but make a note that Blanc is probably whorephobic and doesn't like the slant because the writer disclosed she was a sex worker. I take this bias personally - feeling Othered, negated, blanked out and feel further insulted that I am indirectly being accused of trying "silence victims" by posting the piece. Then a passage about how the anti-trafficking movement cherry picks topics to highlight its pet causes is then cherry picked by Blanc to go on to portray an important issue, but also use to accuse me of trying to silence victims (that really hurts). Listening to victims. Sure. The issue is suppressed, needs to highlighted, brought out into the open. Yes, I agree. What I don't agree with, is the war on trafficking and the way its being prosecuted. Willow goes on to reinforce that patriarchal power by invoking an incendiary term like "anti-trafficking", a war term, then comes some story involving people from the rescue industry and the UN. At once, I sense zealotry, we are possibly at an impasse already - and realise I am facing a potential enemy. An anti-trafficker. So yeah, I see red. I don't see why these two have the right to invoke and benefit from the war machine, the bias against sex workers and deep misogyny. invoking the violence that implies and that *I* shouldn't be allowed to use verbal blunt force. When all I was saying was dig deeper, look at the evidence. I was upset that they were taking the patriarchy's word over mine or any woman's.


Parel, you made unjustified assumptions about me and others and replied to the totem of those assumptions, not to the argument, or the person. It is always possible to ask for further clarification. This paragraph rather undermines the apology at the end of your post so I don't know what to think. This bit
On what basis she objects to the writer I am not sure, but make a note that Blanc is probably whorephobic and doesn't like the slant because the writer disclosed she was a sex worker.

is far enough off beam to derail discussion.
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby blanc » Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:29 am

Sorry to make 2 replies on the trot but I needed to separate out my feelings from my thoughts.

In reference to
That is a good point. Why is it you have the media going into hyper drive hysteria over when a blonde haired blue eyed girl goes missing(not at all to invalidate the horror and grief that person and their family is going through) yet when a whole ship of these kids is discovered, or a whole network of halloways and mccanes is discovered...its just tumbleweeds and crickets.

Could it be, the situation is so unimaginably horrific and ugly, that for many it's best to just let it be the elephant in the room? You'd think they'd at least pretend to show concern, and send commandos in like they do with alleged drug or terror groups.


This probably refers to Madeleine McCann. The parents, and the press have come under criticism for the continued news presence of this case. The news industry works on good copy, will as happily slag off the parents as support them, for as long as it sells. Being able to access a lot of information about one child and the circs of her abduction gives them plenty to go on with little effort. I'm not sorry that they highlighted this case, because 1. a child is missing 2. its rare enough for their to be any news coverage of missing children - lets have it 3. the circumstances of the parents, relatively comfortable, ought to awaken people to the reality that this cruel industry can get its tentacles round any family, its not over there in some poor country, or down the road in some area of poor housing. That should make for a greater understanding of what is actually going on. PW made the point earlier in this thread that these crimes are quite likely to be happening just down the road from you - a point I endorse.

Not only do they not send in commandos, they don't do ordinary police work much of the time, suppress evidence and investigations when it gets too close, and fail to use the capacity which has existed for several decades of tracking the communications of these criminals.
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby 8bitagent » Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:39 am

blanc wrote:Sorry to make 2 replies on the trot but I needed to separate out my feelings from my thoughts.

In reference to
That is a good point. Why is it you have the media going into hyper drive hysteria over when a blonde haired blue eyed girl goes missing(not at all to invalidate the horror and grief that person and their family is going through) yet when a whole ship of these kids is discovered, or a whole network of halloways and mccanes is discovered...its just tumbleweeds and crickets.

Could it be, the situation is so unimaginably horrific and ugly, that for many it's best to just let it be the elephant in the room? You'd think they'd at least pretend to show concern, and send commandos in like they do with alleged drug or terror groups.


This probably refers to Madeleine McCann. The parents, and the press have come under criticism for the continued news presence of this case. The news industry works on good copy, will as happily slag off the parents as support them, for as long as it sells. Being able to access a lot of information about one child and the circs of her abduction gives them plenty to go on with little effort. I'm not sorry that they highlighted this case, because 1. a child is missing 2. its rare enough for their to be any news coverage of missing children - lets have it 3. the circumstances of the parents, relatively comfortable, ought to awaken people to the reality that this cruel industry can get its tentacles round any family, its not over there in some poor country, or down the road in some area of poor housing. That should make for a greater understanding of what is actually going on. PW made the point earlier in this thread that these crimes are quite likely to be happening just down the road from you - a point I endorse.

Not only do they not send in commandos, they don't do ordinary police work much of the time, suppress evidence and investigations when it gets too close, and fail to use the capacity which has existed for several decades of tracking the communications of these criminals.


That's actually a good point. People will see an MSNBC or BBC tv documentary special, where undercover crews go to some shanty brothel in cambodia or vietnam and people think "well thats tragic, but eh its over there...its foreigners". When people hear of an American girl kidnapped, I think it indeed focuses pressure and wakes people up. So I definitely will concede your point...its just Ive read about so many underage black girls taken and abused, or missing in America and there's not much coverage for it.

Why does a group of Saudi/Pakistani/Qatari funded jihadis running around making youtube videos inspire so much intense fear, anger and such to warrant countless American men to want to become commandos/soldiers/spec ops...yet noone seems too interested in hunting down these black world kidnapping networks? Then again, I think intelligence agencies/psychics/joe next door would be shocked to learn where the real tentacles of all this stuff leads too. I mean truly, what is the answer? In that thread about the Davos/CFR billionare caught with child prostitutes, he gets off scott free.
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby blanc » Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:50 am

Then again, I think intelligence agencies/psychics/joe next door would be shocked to learn where the real tentacles of all this stuff leads too

Not the intelligence agencies 8bitAgent.
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby 8bitagent » Fri Jun 03, 2011 6:40 am

blanc wrote:
Then again, I think intelligence agencies/psychics/joe next door would be shocked to learn where the real tentacles of all this stuff leads too

Not the intelligence agencies 8bitAgent.


It always seemed to me like there's always a few "good" plucky agents unaware of the darker mechanisms and seem to just be doing their job. Such as all the FBI agents who have been obstructed, or CIA told to keep quiet about things.
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby blanc » Fri Jun 03, 2011 12:14 pm

I didn't want to give the impression that there are no good agents in law and order. Extrapolating from those I've met (limited subjective experience) I think they're aware of other forces, or quickly became so. There's a whole complex of reasons why investigations so desperately needed don't happen, or fail.
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby parel » Sat Jun 04, 2011 8:37 am

A couple of things. Regarding the personality-driven posting - Willow, I am really sorry for striking you with a string of invective. I shouldn't have done it and want you to know I am really sorry. Blanc and Willow, I did make assumptions about you two, on the basis that I felt I was under attack. I realise now, that probably wasn't the case, so I will just to ask, if I feel I may have misunderstood something you said. I apologise for wrongly identifying you as anti-trafffickers. I also realise that insofar as it was a misunderstanding there is an obvious gap in advocacy regarding this issue. So in the next few days, I'll do a dedicated post, a backgrounder on the War on Trafficking and the rescue industry and the Swedish Model (charging the men in a prositution exchange, but not the women) as well as what they are doing in Asia/Pacific. It isn't sufficient, or (obviously) fair on others, to just respond to posts about this topic. A foundation needs to be established.

Sorry again everyone. And I do mean everyone.

I will leave you with this video that our org made last year with the sex workers from Cambodia. A karaoke song and animated video about the real issues for sex workers who are forced into rehabilitation centres in South East Asia- and the anti-trafficking "rescue industry" that has sprung up and campaigns for laws and systems that restrict sex workers and promote further violence against them.





For those not familiar with Somaly Mam, she is the founder of AFESIP an anti-trafficking organisation in Cambodia. She is also a global campaigner for anti-sex work anti-trafficking organisations. She and her organisation support the Cambodian law and police practices which have led to the abuse of 1000's of sex workers and has made all sex work illegal. AFESIP illegally detains women who have been "rescued" in police and NGO raids and Somaly claims that any sex worker who speaks out against her anti-trafficking/anti-sex work position is a pimp, a madam or a trafficker.
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby LilyPatToo » Sat Jun 04, 2011 3:02 pm

What a thread...I've held off posting due to fear of being flamed (yeah, I'm ashamed of that :oops: ) but it's so weird and new to see people who I've known for years as outspoken critics of not just slavery, but also of imperialist aggression being lashed out at as ignorant enablers--or worse. And when Project Willow--a survivor and activist--was attacked, I wasn't sure that anything I could say here would be welcome. But parel has apologized and toned down the rhetoric and today especially I needed to post about the way that home-grown 1st world systems of sexual enslavement are almost entirely ignored by just about everyone. Perhaps parel is so new here that she's unaware that there are a number of survivors of cult and/or govt. funded, intelligence agency-run abuse rings who read and sometimes post here. I'm a survivor of such a system and, when I've approached high-profile activists to ask that they acknowledge that ordinary Americans of all sexes and races are being systematically exploited sexually via traumatic sexual abuse-induced dissociation and programming, the silence is deafening. And with their next blog, these women went right back to their tight focus on 3rd world women and children ONLY--as though people who look like me simply do not matter.

RI is almost alone in giving us a voice and even here we face pretty predictable sneering from mostly the same individuals if we raise that voice. But there are so many deeply interested people here (some of them posting in this thread), that our stories are heard in the end, even if some posters remain unconvinced by our personal narratives. Today I got a PM from a long-time lurker who's like me and has had missing time while in the company of certain predatory men. Since the exploitation of highly dissociative individuals is virtually unknown here in the US or anywhere else, this form of sex slavery remains invisible and deniable. Most of us take years to remember even just fragments of the incidents and then we wonder if the perp is still preying upon other people like us and feel hopeless and ashamed that we can't expose this most insidious and hidden practice.

I do get that the activists who turn a deaf ear are probably just trying to preserve what little crediblity they've managed to garner so far. And I understand that the public has a limited attention span and also is probably looking for a reason to be able to ignore sex slavery of any sort, lest they feel obligated to do something about it. But the exclusion from the conversation is maddening for a survivor like me. We don't need prejudice and infighting within the ranks of activists too.

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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby semper occultus » Sat Jun 04, 2011 3:17 pm

Unreported World
Series 2011 | Episode 3 | Nigeria: Sex, Lies and Black Magic


video at link maybe blocked outside GB :

www.channel4.com

Reporter Jenny Kleeman and director James Jones travel from Italy to Africa to reveal how human traffickers are using black magic to coerce and trap Nigerian women into a life of prostitution in Europe.

Women are made to swear an oath of loyalty to their traffickers in an elaborate ritual that compels them to pay back extortionate sums of money. If they ever break free or report their traffickers, they believe they will be cursed.

The team begins their journey in northern Italy. As many as 20,000 Nigerian women work as prostitutes on Italy's streets.

They meet Rita, who tells Kleeman she sleeps with up to 10 men a day, seven days a week, for 20 euros a time. After five years of prostitution, Rita still hasn't paid off the 50,000 Euro debt she owes her traffickers. She is also forced to pay them 300 Euros a month in 'rent' to solicit from her particular patch of pavement beside a highway.

Rita says customers had beaten her badly in the past but she has no choice but to continue working on the streets. She tells Kleeman she has sworn to repay the debt to her traffickers in a traditional West African religious ritual which she calls 'juju'. She fears she and her family will die or go mad if she incurs the wrath of the spirits by breaking her oath.

The Unreported World team flies to the southern Nigerian state of Edo, where 80 per cent of Nigerians trafficked into Europe begin their journey. In the village of Ewhoini they learn that almost every family has a relative abroad.

Kleeman and Jones meet Elonel, who tells them that he earns money by helping traffic women from here to work for his sister in Italy. Elonel introduces Kleeman to a woman who's about to make the trip.

Vivian, 23, used to make her living selling tomatoes at the local market. She tells Kleeman that there are no jobs in her town so she has decided to go to Europe to earn money to take care of her brothers and sisters at home. She knows she will have to pay her traffickers back, and that she might have to work as a prostitute to do it at first, but has no idea how much they will ask for.

Vivian says that Elonel is her boyfriend. He's made all the travel plans for her and has booked her in to see a juju priest. She believes the juju ceremony will bring her luck, but she will also swear an oath of loyalty to Elonel and his sister during the ritual that will ensure they get paid whatever sum they ask of her.

Elonel tells Kleeman that he doesn't feel at all guilty about sending his girlfriend to a life of prostitution as he simply needs the money.

The team are given rare access to film the juju ceremony. The juju priest, 'Dr' Stanley, marks Vivian's body and makes her kneel at his shrine as she swears her oath. He claims he has the power to give women cancer if they break the promises they make before him.

For those like Vivian who believe in juju, there's no way of hiding from the spirits. Dr Stanley tells Kleeman that countless others have sworn oaths of loyalty to different traffickers at his shrine.

Getting women to give evidence against their traffickers is a serious challenge because of the conspiracy of silence created by the ritual. The team joins the government's anti-trafficking agency as they conduct a special juju ceremony to free a repatriated victim from her oath.

Before Vivian leaves Nigeria, Kleeman has a final opportunity to warn her about the reality of life on Italy's streets. When Kleeman tells her she'll be working for years as a prostitute to pay off an extortionate sum, Vivian doesn't believe her.

Her determination to improve her life has made it easy for traffickers to exploit her, and the juju oath has made it impossible for her to change her mind.
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby Project Willow » Sat Jun 04, 2011 3:32 pm

parel wrote:A couple of things. Regarding the personality-driven posting - Willow, I am really sorry for striking you with a string of invective. I shouldn't have done it and want you to know I am really sorry.


Your apology is appreciated, I'd like to hear what you have to say.

parel wrote:So in the next few days, I'll do a dedicated post, a backgrounder on the War on Trafficking and the rescue industry and the Swedish Model (charging the men in a prositution exchange, but not the women) as well as what they are doing in Asia/Pacific. It isn't sufficient, or (obviously) fair on others, to just respond to posts about this topic. A foundation needs to be established.


Absolutely, the idea that the phrase "anti-trafficker" is now equated with abuse is wholly new to me. While I can certainly understand how this came to be, from a political strategic perspective, I worry about throwing the rhetorical baby out with the bath water.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on that as well as the various abuses occurring within anti-trafficking and sex trade programs. Thanks for the video introduction.
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby blanc » Sat Jun 04, 2011 4:21 pm

i look forward to reading the thread when you have it organised parel.
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby blanc » Wed Jun 08, 2011 9:34 am

I'm adding this news item to this thread - totally different context for the crimes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/uk ... r-13694250
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby Stephen Morgan » Wed Jun 08, 2011 12:27 pm

blanc wrote:I'm adding this news item to this thread - totally different context for the crimes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/uk ... r-13694250


That's not really human trafficking. They're charged with trafficking a child, true, but only "within the uk". In fact, what you've stumbled on there most closely resembles a Muslamic rape gang.
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible. -- Lawrence of Arabia
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby blanc » Wed Jun 08, 2011 1:51 pm

You don't have to put people in a boat or on a plane, see the trafficking protocol. The info about the charges is as yet too scant to conclude that the crimes don't amount to the offences they are charged with.
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Re: worst human trafficking case I've ever heard of

Postby annie aronburg » Wed Jun 08, 2011 2:08 pm

Stephen Morgan wrote:Muslamic


?
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
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