rant for the month...

Every day perspective changes

I don’t think that many of the things you learn by going to seminars and visiting popular websites and reading books are necessarily true.  At least regarding trafficking and slavery.  It seems that ‘fighting trafficking’ or ‘ending slavery’ has become quite the trend.  But in the scheme of things how much do we really know about these issues?  How much do prevention outreach measures actually help?  Are we basing ideas, beliefs, and passions off of some shocking statistics without getting the entire story. 

WHY are we spending so much time, resources, and money on rescue and story telling of survivors (it IS inspirational and heart-breaking, I know), when there are hundreds and thousands of girls heading in the exact same direction?  Where one girl is pulled out, five more will be shoved into her place.  Awareness is growing, and that is awesome, but is all the awareness actually making a change?  How you can smile and laugh and cry with joy for a girl that escaped when her own sweet cousin is being sold to fill her empty bed?

Everything I thought I knew, it’s all out the window… ‘Fair trade’, condemnation of factories, only buy made in the USA, thinking that children should not work until a certain age, basing actions on statistics, thinking that my way or the way of American culture and thought is the only way.  Do these things that we think support freedom even matter to the ones we are trying to help?  Did we even ask them what they need? We have based these decisions and fads on what we think is right and justified.  What if export and tourism are a bridge, a temporary job, to be able to afford a bit more education to then fulfill a lifelong dream.  If buying something that says "Made in the US" makes you feel better, by all means do it.  But don't pretend you are doing it to 'save' someone else.  (I am NOT against buying things made in the US, all for it actually.  But not because it's ending slavery, that is ridiculous.)

Until women and men are viewed in equal light, of equal value, this problem will remain.  Until people are able to access education and training and jobs, this problem will not go away.  Every girl that gets rescued from the brothel could still be forced into some other situation, whether it’s an abusive marriage or something else.

DOES IT MATTER IF WE SHUT DOWN ALL THE BROTHELS if the women and children are still being abused at home?

This problem is so much more than a government averting their eyes.  It’s more than something we can fix in a few years even with lawyers and investigators and law officers on our side.

 It’s lifetimes of inequality, abuse, degradation.  If a man is raised to abuse and if a woman is raised to accept, they aren’t going to even have the capacity to teach their children differently.  This has to be tackled from the inside out.  Not from the people driving around in the Lexus’ honking at all of us little people on bicycles or scooters J  This problem cannot be fixed by throwing money at it or by expecting the police to intervene.  

I don't really know what to do or what to say.  This is just what I have been thinking about in the midst of trying to figure out what to do next.  Needing some inspiration.