Thursday, February 26, 2009

Advertising Ideas?

Hey guys,
If you have any ideas for advertising the April 1st movie night, you can post them here!

Thanks in advance!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Child prostitution sweep nets 500 suspects

CHARLOTTE – More than 500 people were arrested in a nationwide crackdown involving juvenile prostitution rings, including one person in Charlotte.

The FBI said they took nearly 50 children, some as young as 13 years old, during a weekend-long sweep called Operation Cross Country. But despite only making one arrest in the state, they say they came away with valuable information.

"We did make one arrest, seizures of money from a prostitution organization and intelligence was gleamed from that,” FBI Agent David Drew said. “And it may lead us to where we need to be."

FBI agents say ads over the Internet and in papers attract customers to a growing business of juvenile prostitution.

"The Internet is mainly where we see a lot of it," Drew said. "Craigslist is used quite a bit."

Drew is hoping for more arrests and more juveniles rescued from prostitution rings.

"The more people that we can have arrested and put away, convicted and put away to federal prison, it's just going to save some young girls' lives," said Mark Kadel, with North Carolina World Relief, a national organization that deals with human trafficking.

If any minors were forced into prostitution, the organization could step in to help.

"I think even if it's a runaway, people are coerced through fraud and lies," Kadel said.

The Charlotte case remains open as agents hope to make more arrests. There is a human trafficking forum scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday in Concord.

There's also a video on the website that I got this from. It's really interesting, so you should check it out :)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Meeting on Thursday!

Hey everyone! There's a meeting this Thursday (tomorrow) at 9 pm in RB 291 (the Writing Center). Hope to see you there!!


ALSO if you're available, come hang out at the Scramble Light tomorrow between 9-5(ish) and pass out information or hold signs to bring awareness to the fact that slavery still exists!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Eve Ensler: Teenage Girls Guide to Surviving Sex Slavery



Hey guys, this is a really interesting, and really heartbreaking, new monologue from Eve Ensler. I hope you watch it :)

UN surprised at female role in 'modern slavery'

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Surprisingly, the perpetrators behind human trafficking around the world are often women, the U.N. reported Thursday.

Women are the majority of traffickers in almost a third of the 155 nations the U.N. surveyed. They accounted for more than 60 percent of the human trafficking convictions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

For many, human trafficking is a world they had been pulled into themselves.

"Women commit crimes against women, and in many cases the victims become the perpetrators," Antonio Maria Costa, director of the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said in an interview. "They become the matrons of the business and they make money. It's like a drug addiction."

Most of the world's nations reported some form of "modern slavery" last year involving mainly the sex trade or forced labor.

And the number of victims should grow as the global financial crisis deepens, Costa said.

Read more here.

And here's a CNN article that basically says the same thing.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

UN: Many countries ill-equipped to deal with human trafficking

Vienna - A large number of countries around the world are still lacking tools to identify, report or prosecute human trafficking, a United Nations report made public on Thursday found. Although more countries adopted laws against human trafficking between 2003 and 2008, 61 of 155 monitored countries did not record a single conviction, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

"Either they are blind to the problem, or they are ill-equipped to deal with it," UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa said in the report, which he was set to formally issue later Thursday in New York.

At 79 per cent, sexual exploitation is the predominant reason for human trafficking, followed by forced labour. But there were worrying instances of new types of trafficking, including trade with human organs, the report said.

Southern Africa was cited as the region with the weakest mechanisms for prosecuting and reporting abuses. Of the 11 countries in the region, only Zambia has prosecuted suspects since 2003.

Some countries, including China, Saudi Arabia and Iran, did not provide any data to the UNODC.

UN researchers were surprised to find that women account for a large share not only of victims but also traffickers in many regions. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, more 60 per cent of convicted human traffickers are women.

The UNODC said it was alarmed by reports of cases involving new forms of trafficking, including for organ trade in Europe and other regions, ritual killings in Southern Africa and forced marriages in Asia.

The report provided no data regarding the global scale of the problem, noting only that the total number of identified victims rose from 11,700 to 14,900 between 2003 and 2006 in 71 selected countries.

According to earlier UN estimates, annual profits from human trafficking are 32 billion dollars. Around 2.5 million people are estimated to be held in forced labour, including forced sex, at any given time.

Citing a lack of information, the report said: "Today, the member states lack the ability to say with any precision how many victims of human trafficking there are, where they come from or where they are going."

Source

Meeting Tonight!

Hey everyone.  I just wanted to tell you that we are having a meeting tonight at the Writing Center at 9pm.  Oh and bring 15 bucks if you want to buy a t-shirt.  Hope to see you there!

Kim

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Selling Brides: Native Mexican Custom or Crime?

By Ioan Grillo / San Juan Copala Sunday, Feb. 01, 2009

Marcelino de Jesus Martinez was arrested in Greenfield, Calif., on suspicion of human trafficking and charged with a felony for selling his 14-year-old daughter to Margarito de Jesus Galindo
Marcelino de Jesus Martinez was arrested in Greenfield, Calif., on suspicion of human trafficking and charged with a felony for selling his 14-year-old daughter to Margarito de Jesus Galindo
Monterey County Sheriff's Department / AP

U.S. courtroom dramas don't usually have much impact in this ramshackle village of Triqui Indians deep in the mountains of southern Mexico. But a new case unraveling in Greenfield, Calif., has sent shockwaves through the Mexican community. The accused men are both of Triqui ethnicity, an ancient people who number in just the tens of thousands. The trial will judge one of their most sacred rites: bride prices. Adding to their concern is the way global media have jumped on the story, with the Internet headline "Man Sells Daughter for Beer" sparking a sudden interest in Triqui customs from Italy to Australia.

The case centers on an alleged marriage arrangement that went sour involving Marcelino de Jesus Martinez, his 14-year-old daughter and her suitor, Margarito de Jesus Galindo, 18. Galindo had agreed to pay Martinez for his daughter's hand in marriage, according to Greenfield police. According to the cops, the total cost was $16,000, one hundred cases of beer and several cases of meat. "The 14-year-old juvenile moved in with Galindo, and when payments were not received, the father, Martinez, called Greenfield [police] to bring back the daughter," the police said in a Jan. 12 statement.

Read more here.