Thought for the Day

[bcholmes]

Most striking - and gratifying - is Kara’s long term goal of addressing the poverty and desperation that [sex slave] traffickers pray on. In a move that will surely send conservatives and most liberals into panicked denial, he lays the blame for trafficking squarely where it belongs: capitalism and globalization. Trafficking levels rose dramatically, he explains, in the 1990s - right around the time that the International Monetary Fund forced developing nations in Eastern Europe and Asia to adopt Western-style market economies and mandated cuts in health care, education, and other social services. Fragile economies quickly collapsed and, without any safety nets to catch them, citizens went from struggling to destitute. Debt mounted as the IMF introduced bailouts and privatization policies that led to inflation. This led to a one-way flow of resources, including people, from Eastern nations to Western ones. The only way to end the systems that foster trafficking is to loosen the West’s stranglehold on the rest of the world.

Is it feasible? Well, in this climate, no. Kara doesn’t pretend to have easy answers, either. But connecting everyday luxuries to the back rooms of brothels is a welcome first step. This is an issue that goes beyond fair trade labels and anti-sweatshop campaigns. You’re not going to solve this by buying the right products.

— Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery

Comments

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

Interesting that forced sex work is getting the attention here, that sex slavery is conflated with all slavery.

I'm imagining, for example, people meeting over a luncheon that includes a tomato salad (http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2009/03/politics-of-the-plate-the-price-of-tomatoes) working themselves into a high dudgeon over sex trafficking.

[morganxpage.livejournal.com]

Don't you just love that Harper gave $10B to the IMF the other day? There doesn't yet seem the be the kinds of laws needed to bring that organization up on charges of plotting the destruction of the majority of the world for the profit of the few.

~Morgan

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I understand -- without wanting to seem like it's all okay -- that the OMG factor on the story is higher when we're talking about sex work versus tomato farming. If you're gonna use the story to make a point about globalization, a high OMG factor helps, I think.

I also think a lot of people in power get a lot of deniability out of phrases like 'virtual slavery'.