The horror of human trafficking: Emma Thompson's Journey

Folks, I try to keep informed about the world around me. But, like most relatively comfortable Americans, I really don't have a clue about the things that go on every day in many less fortunate parts of the world. One example of this is the plight of human trafficking.

I recently came upon an article discussing this topic - specifically, the trafficking of women into a forced life in the sex trade. The article was an interview with English actress Emma Thompson, who works with a British organization called the Helen Bamber Foundation to publicise and drum up public support on this issue. Last year, Emma Thompson put together a project which drew upon the experiences of one of the many women forced into this hellish situation, and illuminated the experience from start to finish.

The result was an interactive installation called Journey, which was a collaborative effort with several acclaimed artists. It was presented in London's Trafalgar Square a year ago, and has since been exhibited elsewhere around the world. It will be coming to the US sometime in 2009; Thompson says she is attempting to get clearance to set the installation up in New York in the spring.

I cannot put into words how brutally moving this installation is. It forces the viewer to see this life for what it is, and to see how cruelly and mercilessly these women are treated. With the promise of a good job in another country, impoverished women are lured from their families and homes to become pawns in the sex trade, existing in relative slavery and forced to endure physical, mental, and emotional horors which no human being should ever have to live through.

I wanted to share the information here, in the hopes that more of us might become educated and aware of this issue. I do realize that it's easier not to look, and I will warn you that the links below will take you to material which you may find very difficult to watch or read. But if you want to make a difference, please check these out and spread the word. The more people know about this situation, the more we can use our energies to try and fight it. Donate to the cause, write to a governmental official, join the Facebook group for the Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking ( affiliated with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), and keep your eyes open. Most importantly, don't look away.

Emma Thompson narrates a short overview of the Journey installation:



A public service announcement on behalf of the UNGIFT:



Information about human trafficking from the UNODC:

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/index.html

The horror of human trafficking: Emma Thompson's Journey

Hear that sound?

That's the dull thump of the other shoe dropping.

Those of us who supported and voted for Barack Obama have been riding pretty high lately. It's tough not to be happy - giddy, even - when you've worked or hoped for his victory and seen it come to pass. And to observe the groundswell of approval he has received from the American public during this transition, it has truly felt as if we, as a nation, had made a major shift into a more positive zone after 8 long, horrible years.

Of course, the cynic in me has had to take a back seat to my optimistic side for several weeks now. But my cynicism wasn't dead, only dormant. This week, it was roused back into life by the senational, sad and utterly shocking stories regarding Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

Of course, the first thing we Obama-heads wanted to know was, "Did Obama have anything to do with this?" So far, the prosecutor involved in this case, U.S.  attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, has stressed that the president-elect is not under investigation, nor is he accused or suspected of any wrongdoing at this time. If anything, much of the information that has appeared in the media indicates that Blagojevich actively dislikes Obama, and has been especially blunt in his criticism and complaints regarding Obama and his transition team. All of this ought to comfort the faithful, and assure us that our next president hasn't let us down by rooting around in the mud with this guy.

And yet...I am getting a bad feeling about this. I know it may be bad form on my part, but I can't help thinking that there may be more to this than Obama's letting on. I don't necessarily believe that there will be any solid links to the pay-for-play political maneuvering that Blagojevich was practicing. But there have just been a few things that smell kinda funny in the wake of these revelations.

First of these has been the statement made by David Axelrod, last month, indicating that the president-elect had spoken to Blagojevich about possible candidates to fill his Senate seat. This statement was reported in the press when it was made in November, yet after the charges against Blagojevich were made public this week, Axelrod retracted it. He said he had been "mistaken" in saying that the men had discussed the Senate seat. Now, Obama is supposedly running a pretty tight ship, and any off-message comments made by his aides and advisers are dealt with swiftly and surely. Yet Axelrod's comment had stood, uncorrected, until this scandal reared its head. It begs the question: Why would this piece of misinformation be allowed to remain floating around for a month?

Another worrying item is the fact that Obama did not immediately respond in a clear, strong way to the news of Blagojevich's transgressions. Condemnation of the highest order was called for, but all Obama told the press was that he was "saddened" and "sobered" by the news. While others were already calling for Blagojevich to resign, Obama failed to do so until today.

Finally, there's just the simple issue of proximity. Obama has served the state of Illinois for years, and has never had a clue of this governor's behavior or temperament? It sounds as though Blagojevich has been quite vocal and not even slightly concerned about hiding his agenda from the crowd around him. Maybe I don't understand the nature of that state's political structure, but it just seems as if people throughout the state knew that this man was up to something, and I am hard pressed to believe that neither Obama nor the main players on his team knew anything about it before this week.

Well, I know this will be on the front pages for a while yet, and there will be much more information to follow. I will not pass judgement now, but I will wait with a guarded optimism to find out what exactly happened, and who played a part in allowing this despicable man to do what he was doing. Obama has a press conference tomorrow, and I hope some solid answers will be forthcoming. He is being tested before he even takes office, and for all our sakes, I hope he passes.

Hear that sound?

Charlie White: freaky good

OK, so I was goofing off a bit today, and taking a break from my daily drudgery, when I got an email from a friend of mine. She forwarded me a few links which she wanted me to check out, for an artist and photographer named Charlie White. He's been on the scene for a while, but I hadn't heard of him until today.

Boy oh boy, is this guy somethin'. His gig is setting up secenarios which incorporate real people, puppets, sets and special effects, so his photos have the feel of a still shot from a film. But the common link seems to be weirdness. He has created some fairly odd and disturbing stuff, and I'm not sure what the hell is going on in some of it, but I really like it (not sure what that says about me, exactly, but you can be the judge of that).

Here are a few of the works I found to be most interesting. If you're keen to find out more about him or his art, you can check out his website here.

The Persuaders (2003)



Jonestown (2006)




Cocktail Party (2001 - from the series Understanding Joshua, which is definitely worth checking out in further detail here)



Bizarro, no? But so cool, too. Although that opinion is coming from someone who thinks the same thing about David Lynch and David Cronenberg films, so take that for what it's worth. :) And speaking of films, Charlie White has also directed a couple of short ones.

One is the video for the Interpol song Evil - which is an effing good tune anyway -and it features a really eerie lookin' puppet dude who has survived a horrific car crash:



You can use this link to check out the full video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_OcR0fbf6g

Also, White created one in a series of viral promotional videos for Adidas, and his was called Pink.



I love this piece...it gets stuck in your head, for real, and it manages to make a pink stuffed bear seem reeeally creepy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dKcrCkbcDQ

As the mom of a young girl, I really feel this one and I have my own theory about what White is trying to say in this, but I'm probably wrong. If you wanna add your two cents, feel free. :)

'Kay, now that I'm done creeping y'all out for the day, I need to go back to work. No time for art when there's floors to mop, am I right? Have a good one, peeps...

Charlie White: freaky good

Aw, c'mon, Jeb...give us a break!

Alrighty then...I have been way too busy to sit and blog for the past several weeks. Now that the election's over and I'm no longer spending hours on following politics, I have gotten back to my normal routine and am running around like a crazy person, dealing with my kid's school and social schedules, getting ready for Christmas, and all that good stuff.

I had to stop in and mention something though. As I was surfing the net this evening, I came across this article from Marc Ambinder's blog on The Atlantic website. It says that Jeb Bush, the brother of George W. and the former governor of my home state of Florida, is thinking of running for Senate, following the announcement that incumbent Mel Martinez will retire.

Folks, do I even have to tell you that this disturbs me, on many levels? I swear, if he does run, I will lose a good percentage of the happy mojo I've had goin' for me since Obama won the general election. Seriously, what a buzzkill - here I was, all excited that the days of Dubya were numbered, and then this news rears its ugly head. We just can't seem to get rid of these Bush wingnuts!

Florida loved this guy when he was governor, for the most part, though I don't really understand why. As you may have guessed, I was never a member of his fan club, but I was in the minority at the time. However, I do wonder if the place has shifted a bit since then. We were the only state in the Southeast to go blue for Obama. Maybe the grip of the conservative voter has loosened just a bit, and maybe we're entering the 21st century at last. But I wouldn't bet on it, and I can just see Jeb riding a wave of GOP love right into the Senate. All those white men who freaked out when McCain lost are frantically looking for a way to edge the Republican party back into the sphere of governmental influence, and they would weep tears of joy if they had a chance to restore Jeb to an elected office.

And so, with a sense of deja vu mixed with creeping dread, I wait to hear the pronouncement from on high, when and if it comes. I'm sure it will, because Jeb always wanted to get back into the fray and this opportunity is one he just wouldn't pass up. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that something comes up and prevents him from going through with it. Who knows? Maybe now that he's gonna have all kinds of time on his hands, Dubya will call him up, and offer to take his bro on an extended fishing trip. For 5 or 6 years. Off the Somali coast, where the pirates will hijack their vessel and we won't have to hear from either one of 'em ever again. *sigh* A girl can dream, can't she?

Aw, c'mon, Jeb...give us a break!

OBAMA!!!

Nothing I could say right now would tell the story as well as these pictures do:



















God bless Barack Obama, Joe Biden and their families, and God bless America. :-)

OBAMA!!!

Waiting to Exhale

Well folks, I have been MIA from the blogosphere for several weeks now. I've spent some time on a family trip, and doing some stuff at my kid's school. But I have also been trying, in my little way, to help Barack Obama become our next president.

Emails have been sent...friends, neighbors and family have been hassled...phone calls have been made...lawn signs have been put up...money has been donated...letters to local papers have been written...all in the hope that I could add something positive to the support that Obama's been getting here in my home state of Florida. I have been very encouraged by the signs I see around me that, just maybe, the Sunshine State will get it right this time around.

I know that nothing is certain, and as Obama has been repeating over and over during these final days, we can't take anything for granted. So I have been working at it and waiting for November 4th to come, and now that it's here I am in a weird frame of mind.

On the one hand, I feel extremely anxious and unsettled. It's almost like waiting for Christmas morning, only I'm not sure if I'm getting a present or just coal in my stocking. The anticipation is greater than I expected, and I am not sure how agonizing the next 24 hours will be. The wish for time to hurry up hurry up HURRY UP ALREADY is almost overwhelming. And if things don't go Obama's way, the disappointment will be overwhelming too.

But on the other hand, I feel so good knowing that I've been a part of all this. I know many people gave more time, money and effort than I did, so I am not tooting my own horn here. But just like millions of other Americans, I have some personal investment in this presidential race. I gave time and I gave a shit and I am proud to have joined with all those who did the same. I am excited to know that this country may finally be ready to elect an African-American president for the first time in its history, and I am especially happy that it's this particular man.

I was fortunate enough to be in the crowd in Sunrise last Wednesday, when Joe Biden and Barack Oabama came to speak to us here in South Florida. It was the night of Obama's TV infomercial, and at the end there was a moment where the broadcast cut to a live feed from our event. Some of you saw and heard me and my fellow Floridians for a few minutes, cheering and chanting. But it was the stuff you didn't see on TV that made the most impact on me.

I arrived hours before the doors opened that day, and already there were hundreds and hundreds of people waiting to get inside. It was chaotic, hot and crazy out there. But it still made me happy to be a part of it. As we all stood in the sun and tried not to pass out, we talked and shared our thoughts and hopes, we laughed together, we got to know each other a bit, and we even sang and danced a bit. We were all buzzing with an energy that I don't think I've ever felt before. We all had that sense of being lifted by a common purpose. It is one of the most powerful feelings in the world, but one which we tend not to experience much anymore.

We, as a nation, tend to keep ourselves to ourselves more often than not these days. In the past 8 years, the polarization that we have experienced under a devisive administration has torn us into factions. The additional stresses we have undergone - war, economic turmoil, political scandals - have only served to further fuel our bitterness, our fear, our pessimism, and our desire to assign blame, point fingers and draw battle lines in the sand. We became divided and weak, and we have lost a great deal of our standing and our stock value in the eyes of other nations. But most troubling of all, we have grown used to this sorry state of affairs and we have become a nation where 90% of us know we are on the wrong track.

To be in that arena in Sunrise last Wednesday night, you wouldn't have known that to be the case. The stands were packed full of people who, by the end of the night, believed again. We were all ready to move forward and leave the dark clouds of the past 8 years behind us. And it was Barack Obama who lit that spark in us.

As he spoke, and I looked around me at the faces of my fellow Floridians, I saw everyone. Not the sea of white, privileged, angry faces I've seen in news reports from McCain and Palin rallies, but a diverse mix of people who really are America as it is. I was struck by the way all of us had come together that night, and how we had found this common ground. It made me feel the sort of enthusiasm and patriotism I had not felt for years, and it felt good to get that back.

I have always been a proud American. I have always believed that I am damned lucky to live in this country. But I have not seen the glimmer of true greatness in this country's leaders during my lifetime, until now. I don't think he's perfect, or a saint, or anything like that. I know he will not have it easy, and that many of the promises he has made may not come through during the next 4 years.

But I do feel, very strongly, that Barack Obama wants to be a great president. I believe that he wants us all to be great Americans. And I believe he can guide us and serve as a positive example as we strive to reach a better place as individuals, as communities and as a nation. I believe he deserves a chance to be our next president, and I hope he will be.

If you haven't yet voted, VOTE. If you know friends, family members or co-workers who haven't voted, get them to the polls. If you can, help the campaign of your choice to assist and support voters in your community. And if you all do your part, we will have a clear winner by this time tomorrow. Until that moment, I'm waiting to exhale.

Waiting to Exhale

McCain - Palin: Political agitators

"Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise...All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach...Propaganda must not serve the truth, especially not insofar as it might bring out something favorable for the opponent." - Adolf Hitler

Dear Senator McCain and Governor Palin,

I am ashamed of you. If you had any sense, you'd both be ashamed of yourselves as well. Your contempt for Barack Obama is one thing. Your contempt for American voters, as well as your contempt for the election process, is what most concerns me. You have no clue about the true extent of the damage that you have done, and are still doing, as you drag the nation deeper and deeper into the mud.

Your campaign stops are increasingly shrill and ugly, as you stand before crowds and cameras, denouncing Barack Obama's relationship with William Ayers. You criticize Obama for knowing and working with a man who became infamous for his blatant displays of hatred and anger against his perceived enemy, America. Yet you do so knowing that it will inflame similar feelings of hatred and anger among many of your supporters - hatred and anger against their perceived enemy, an enemy you have created  by demonizing Barack Obama. What gall you have shown in endorsing and encouraging one type of hate over another.

And how narrow your view of life must be. Do you really think this is all about winning in November? How single-minded and ingorant you both are to think that these tactics only affect this election, or the people within our nation. The world is watching us, and they are laughing themselves to death. They see a populace divded by its own government, and they see your polarizing style of "leadership", and they hear the vitriol spewing forth from your lips, and they know America has started to hit rock bottom. Our allies fear for us and wonder if we will ever get back to being a leader worth following. And our enemies? Well, you "Country First" mavericks are basically handing our asses to our enemies on a silver platter. They know they don't have much work left to do. If they sit back long enough and leave us to our own devices, we will simply destroy ourselves from within, as the two factions you helped to create within the American public fight each other and try to tear each other down, and our fragile hopes for tolerance and unity give way to finger-pointing, fear and loathing. These are the seeds you are sowing with every word you speak as you try to discredit your opponent, and you must be ready to take responsibility when the bitter, poisonous fruit of your efforts begins to grow.

Don't tell me you didn't know it would come to this. You knew full well that there are many people out there who already had a lot of worries and distress brewing in their psyches, and they want someone to blame. They want to get angry. You certainly knew, as well, that there are already many people who have an issue with the idea that an African-American could possibly become our next president. They just needed permission to freely express their bigoted viewpoints. Well, you gave them that. Now that the door is open, you can't really go back and close it.

And just look at the people who are starting to walk through it: hecklers who yell out wildly inappropriate things - including threats and calls for violence - and who feel emboldened by your thinly veiled racial messages. Is this the demographic you were hoping to capture? Is this truly the America you hope to lead? Take a look at the type of person you're currently pandering to, the kind of guy whose vote you're selling yourselves out to get:

COPS: MAN THREATENED VOTER OFFICIALS OVER TARDY REGISTRATION CARD

OCTOBER 8--Angered by a delay in the receipt of his voter registration card, a Louisiana man today threatened to shoot election officials, claiming that he urgently needed to cast a ballot to "keep the n*gger out of office," according to police. Wade Williams, 75, was arrested this morning on a felony terrorizing charge after allegedly calling the Registrar of Voters and warning that he would come to the state office and empty his shotgun unless he got his registration card. Using profanity and racial slurs, Williams told a state official "about needing to vote to 'keep the n*gger out of office," according to an Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office affidavit, a copy of which you'll find here. Though the document does not name the candidate to which Williams is so violently opposed, it seems likely he was referring to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. After being arrested at his Monroe home, Williams was booked into the Ouachita Correctional Center, where the below mug shot was snapped. En route to the jail, he "continued his 'tirade' about niggers and also stated that he had a shotgun, but had it hidden at his residence," reported Lt. Michael Judd.


Take a good, long look at this guy's face. Look at the sorry-ass, backwards thinkers that you are expressly trying to win over with your smear campaigns. You both want to win no matter what, so you're running a truly ugly race, targeting the ugliest underbelly of American society. Surely there can be no pride in such a vctory, but I guess you're happy enough to take whatever you can get at this point.

I am encouraged by the fact that you are failing in your efforts, and by the fact that the likelihood of you winning the election is dwindling more and more each day. But even though you will probably lose, I want you to know how disgusted I am by your recent antics. You are campaigning in a manner that shows no dignity, no respect for your opponent, no respect for the American public, and no respect for yourselves.  All I can hope is that you'll get exactly what you deserve on November 4th.

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McCain - Palin: Political agitators