In Chapter two we are introduced to Nick who is crossing the border of India into Nepal and strikes up a conversation with an Indian officer. The officers remarks to Nick's comments and suggestions left my mind uneasy. The officer and the government he works for seemed to be more concerned with monitoring terrorism and smuggled goods than trafficked girls? I pose the question; In your opinion, do you think trafficked girls to be considered smuggled goods? And explain your answer. Another remark from the same officer that I found difficult to understand was "prostitution is inevitable." Isn't terrorism inevitable too? But yet the government still has safety measures and procedures to follow to prevent the act of terrorism, so shouldn't the inevitability of prostitution be monitored and controlled too? Why or why not?
And I leave you with a quote for thought. Continuing on in the chapter I found an interesting quote "you don't have to arrest everybody, you just have to get enough that it sends a ripple effect and changes the calculations." -Gary Haugen (President and CEO of International Justice Mission)
Do you agree or disagree with Haugen's strategy tactic? Why might it work, and why might it not work?
I understand the author reason for saying that trafficked girls should be considered "a smuggled good” but that phrase itself suggests females are a possession. Yes I agree with the point that is being made in the blog that trafficked girls should be just as if not more important than smuggled goods; however, the officer’s statement proves what women mean in India. Women, especially those of a lower class, are not human beings to the traffickers. The females are products that they think can be bought a sold just like the food we buy in the store. I do not think that arresting a few of the offenders would really solve anything. The reason this "business" has been successful for many years is the people’s attitude not the law. The traffickers feel above the law because they service the law. Money speaks louder than words or the protests of the victims. Unfortunately the law can mean less than the piece of paper it is written on. Even a piece of paper cannot make people follow the rules. Just look back into our history sixty years ago. The law stated that we were separate-but- equal. But that did not make people change their attitude towards people they considered no better than the ground they walked on. The change that needs to happen in India and countries that find themselves in a similar situation need to focus on changing the people. Enforcing the law is a start. Providing education is also an excellent option but it is not enough. If the families of the children getting education still believe it is a profitable job the child will be influenced by that. If the police officers and government see the crime and do nothing to stop it the people will not stop it. People look for role models in society. They look at police officers. When the police officers look away the people take it as a sign that they should too. The people need to change their view of females. If people within one’s own country look away and refuse to hear their cries for help then the problem will never get better.
ReplyDeleteReferring to your question about monitoring and controlling prostitution/ sex trafficking/ slavery (there are so many terms it can go by) I believe that it absolutely should be monitored and controlled. As the book pointed out, Indian law enforcement has put an emphasis on pirated DVD's and terrorism because the United States and Western civilization has made it known that the theft of intellectual property and acts of terrorism are taken very seriously and are major concerns. As the book suggests, if the U.S. also makes it known world wide that sex trafficking is of great importance and concern other countries will follow suite and make it a priority as well. The book gives a perfect example of this when it talks about the requirement of the TIP, or Trafficking in Persons, report that was started in 2000 and required U.S. embassies to gather information on trafficking abroad. This forced foreign diplomats to add trafficking to the list of major priorities/concerns in their countries which in turn put pressure on law enforcement to answer questions about trafficking that had previously gone unanswered. The mere discussion of this topic and the accountability of being ranked according to their efforts on combating this barbaric practice spurred many foreign governments to crack down on trafficking. While, along with terrorism and intellectual theft, trafficking and sexual slavery may be seen as "inevitable" occurrences, the results of the TIP reports alone have shown that it is indeed possible to greatly reduce the amount of girls, women, and boys that are trafficked and/or forced into sexual slavery. I can only speculate about the effects of stricter policies and punishments for those that are found in connection with trafficking/ sexual slavery, but I would imagine (and hope dearly) that such policies would rally countries around the world to face this issue head-on and battle it with full force.
ReplyDeleteAlthough prostitution and terrorism may seem inevitable, I believe that humans have lost all hope in humanity. I think the government and law enforcers should take sex trafficking more seriously. As they seem to shrug it off as if this issue is not a big deal, everyone else seems to think that as well. In a perfect world, everyone would be against all bad things and work together to heal all sick, and rescue all who are lost. Unfortunately, the world we live in today, is far from perfect. I'd like to think that we are moving closer to rescuing more girls from trafficking. I'd also like to think that educational classes like this would leave the students more aware and proactive towards issues and not just move on like all we've learned is useless. I believe that every voice heard about this topic is another ripple in the effect. I think the more voices that speak up about this issue, the more ears will turn as to hear what the commotion is about.
ReplyDeleteIf prostitution is in fact "inevitable" then measures to combat prostitution should also be inevitable. I do not understand the logic in looking the other way simply because you know something bad is going to happen. I do not think people in any sense should be seen or refereed to as "goods" as in cargo or baggage, I think that terminology downplays the importance of the situation. These are people, not goods! Think of them as your mother, grandma, sister... because that's what they are.
ReplyDeleteI see prostitution like any other addiction, it is a horrible thing that people get wrapped up in and it controls their life. Chapter two explains the power of addiction as freed girls actually run back to the brothel to get drugs; sex can also become an addiction. The reason I make the link between prostitution and drugs is because both require an "enabler" someone that supplies the addict. In the case of prostitution I do not see the brothels as the enabler but instead it it the government, the police and the belief in a hierarchy among society. It baffles me that some cultures, (not just men, but mothers, aunts and police officials) look the other way because the crimes are being committed on people they deem less important. People from well-developed nations can spend all time and money trying to fix this problem with no avail if the people in these culture do not see it as a problem. I realize that trafficking occurs in the US as well, the difference is, when it does happen it makes news headlines and there is public outrage.
I really like your analogy of prostitution being similar to a drug addiction because in both circumstances there is an enabler, great connection!
DeleteI think what is more unsettling about this conversation that took place between the Indian officer and Nick is the tone in which the officer speaks about class. His comments are offensive, but the unaffected way in which he explains the topic of sex trafficking says much more about the problem that India faces. The officer states that “These girls are sacrificed so that we can have harmony in society. So that good girls can be safe” (p.24). He doesn’t stop to reconsider his comment in any way, because he is part of a culture that sees class as permanent barrier. Lower class girls are not born “good girls”. They have a set path in life, and that path seems inevitable. In my opinion, in order to even begin to combat sex trafficking in this region, you have to find the root cause of the problem, and that root cause seems to be a prejudicial class system.
ReplyDeleteYes! Lower class girls are not born "good girls" in the eye of others based on the social stigmatism that the cast system puts them under. In ridding of this system, would directly life the label that these girl are given, but I fear that humanity Is always looking to be superior. So if the class system was taken away, I fear something else would take it's place that would still class people based on where they come from.
DeleteIn response to your questions. Yes, trafficked girls should be considered as smugglers. One thing about that though is when referring to a woman or human it seems demeaning to call them a good. In the book Nick states that the trucks were monitored poorly as he conversed with the Indian officer. It's sad to think or even imagine a government that think there's nothing to do about smuggled/trafficked girls/women. I feel sad and get highly agitated while reading this and want to help and try to figure out why there is limited help for these children, girls, and women. The sad part is there is little that can be done when the law is involved in the trafficking and prostitution.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the quote. While reading and I saw this I understood their purpose in trying to decrease prostitution, but they went about it the wrong way. In the reading I read, "In 1999, Sweden took the opposite approach, criminalizing the purchase of sexual services, but not the sale of them by prostitutes [....] prostitute is not punished." In a way I liked this in a way plus it was a crackdown on trafficking reduced 41% and made the prostitute more of a victim than a criminal but I still don't understand why they don't find a way to crackdown on the trafficking as a whole. This was a start and I would say it makes sense to start off with steps.
I would not consider trafficking girls as smuggling girls I would consider it to be kidnapping. I do not necessarily like what the cops had said to Nick, but at the same time I can understand what he means, because if it was a stoppable task then it would be stopped. No one knows the solution or we would have one. I do wish that we could find a way to crack down on trafficking as a whole and to figure out how to stop this epidemic, but it seems like it is helpless. I don't know if we will ever believe to catch the kingpins of trafficking and I don't know if it will ever stop.
ReplyDeleteI think that trafficked girls are not considered smuggled goods but they were taken against their will so that means that they were kidnapped. Even though that they might have thought they were promised another job. When the girls (from the book) had found out what they were truly supposed to do they were terrified and shaking and you could tell that they did not want to do that.
ReplyDeleteThe terrorism safety measures are there so that we feel safer. Yes I believe that prostitution/trafficked girls should have some sense of safety measures, but then again people are greedy and some people do slip under and they ended up being bribed to keep it quiet. The fact that in the book where it said that the “customers” could purchase the option where they did not need to use a condom was disgusting. It’s just not right for the girl because she does not get any choice in the matter whatsoever.
I do like that quote but unfortunately it won't stop everyone. There will always be those few people who do not care one way or another.
I found that interesting as well. How the police didn't care about stopping trafficking or even trying to do anything about it. Maybe we wouldn't have so may people being trafficked if the police showed that they care. Many people don't realize how dangerous trafficking is. We been talking about this in class now for 3 weeks and still learning more about trafficking.
ReplyDeleteThe quote "you don't have to arrest everybody, you just have to get enough that it sends a ripple effect and changes the calculations," by Gary Haugen is a great opinion. I feel if you can only stop a few people from doing bad in the world than go for it. That is just a few more people you don't have to worry about. However it will not stop everyone. There will always be the people who do bad. But if we can get majority of the world to do good than it won't be a problem. So based on that quote I would say it does have an impact even if it’s not on everyone.
I thought the fact that the government and the law enforcement was more concerned with terrorist than with sex trafficking was deplorable. All human life is valuable and even though the sex traffickers are not considered terrorist, they are truly displaying a form of terrorism. So my question is shouldn't they be put on a high alert list?
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