So I went to this amazing Convention at the UN about the Status of Women and my mind was filled with all kinds of cool thoughts and I've been so busy I couldn't share them and now my life has taken over and I can't quite seem to get them all in writing. Or any of them for that matter. Anyone want to take over my life so I can write? Hmmm, no takers.
Well, one thought that I wanted to put up here and that keeps coming back to me from NY was one that came from a great panel discussion about human trafficking. Yes, human trafficking--there is an alive and well slave trade where you can buy and sell human beings for sex. And not just adults, children are bought and sold like commodities for use in horrific ways. So, while I was meeting with amazing women from all over the world to discuss how they are combatting this horror, Nan Kennelly from the US State Department said this,"It isn't getting better. And while every culture values its children,we are still failing them." Failing them. This isn't failure of the "I-forgot-to-pack-your-lunch-money" type. This is the type of failure that I in my suburban little world of Wal-Mart, Target and 7-11 on the corner cannot event fathom. I came away wide-eyed and moved by the stories and statistics that do not lie: we are failing.
But, this was a Convention of Women, so there was this feeling of hope in every session I attended--even those on this topic--and a feeling that change can happen. Me, I can't be like the nuns I learned about who carry big sticks and shut down brothels in a very, shall we say, "old west" kind of way: they walk in, remove thier obstacles and take the children out and hide them and keep them safe. I want to meet those nuns, but I can't be them. What I can do is talk about this topic and others that I started learning about. I can ask YOU to talk about them and that by talking about them and bringing them out of the shadows where they are protected, we can find ways to help. And we can make sure that there is no human in our realm of influence who thinks there is anything that gives a person the right to enslave another human being for sexual purposes.
Want to know more? Go to: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/ to read the official report.
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WOW! Wow not because of the topic but because you got to be apart of the discussions! I heard a report... er, more an interview, on NPR several months ago about an 'art' display of shipping containers. The shipping containers were filled with 'art', these containers were representative of the containers that a girl she interviewed was swept away from her country to another in hopes (from promises made) of going to school and getting an education. When she got there she was, as I'm sure you've figured out, not given what she was promised but instead enslaved to a brothel.
ReplyDeleteI feel so small on this subject. I ask myself "What can I do?" It's so big, such a horrific problem that it's hard to know where to start and what you can do. I think you are right, talking about it and bringing dark things into the light is the first step.
Well said Alaska & Amber. Sad that in these 'enlightened' times we could still do this to our children. --Brandi
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