TAKEN

TAKEN TRAILER 
http://youtu.be/wCbDUREBwUg

So last night while I was procrastinating my homework my friends and I decided to pop in TAKEN. Now if you have never seen Taken the movie is about two young girls go off to Europe to enjoy themselves and get taken by European men, then sold into sex trafficking. Liam Neeson happens to be one of the girls fathers and kicks some European ass and ends up saving his daughter in the daughter. This has to be one of my most favorite movies, but unfortunately it has a very Americanized view on sex trafficking. Much of society believes that sex trafficking only occurs to white women in foreign countries just like Taken. Also I think just like the Tyra show we watched on Friday American movies dumb controversial topics down for the audience. For instance the end of the movie Liam Neeson saves his daughter from the bad foreign men that were trying to sell her. The movie has a happy ending. Sex trafficking in real life doesn't usually end happily in real life. In order for this to appeal to the public we believe that we have to show the happy side so that people won't feel as bad that this is going on. Yet it is good that we have Taken to expose the public to this kind of environment. The argument is that its better to have some kind of representation than nothing at all, but when does it become important what kind of representation it is? This is something our society needs to consider more.   

Somaly Mam on the Tyra Banks Show

Although I do believe that all publicity is good publicity, I think that Somaly Mam's appearance on The Tyra Banks Show was misleading. Somaly was never referred to as an activist, and never had the chance to truly tell her story. I felt as though Somaly was rushed through her interview and was never  able to explain her past or her current project. Her foundation was barely mentioned, and she was never even referred to as an activist. At the end of her segment the program showed the shelter she had for young girls. Facts about sex slavery across the world were never stated, so the audience was not as informed as they should have been about this topic to begin with. When the segment ends, Tyra wraps up the show by talking to a young girl who used to be a sex slave. By coming to this vague end, it is safe for the audience to assume that sex slavery in Cambodia is coming to an end. No websites for Somaly's foundation are given out at the end of the show, so no one knows that they can help. As a major media outlet, Tyra Banks, and all talk show hosts, should be more aware of the messages they are sending to viewers.

Disney's Subliminal Messages

Okay, so what I'm about to blog may offend some people, or can change all your childhood memories, so sorry in advance. But I figure it can't be too bad to show considering that Disney and other children's movies have showed these images to millions of people. Being a psychology major I have studied subliminal messages before, and we all touched base on it when Jean Kilbourne came to talk to us. Usually we talk about the messages in alcohol or sexual perfume sales but we haven't really touched on the messed up images that are specifically directed towards children. One day during high school on a snow day my sister and I heard about these supposed images and decided to look into it. What I found was so disturbing, I really feel almost violated in a way that I was shown these images when I was a kid. Some of them are hard to see but the one's that are obvious when they are pointed out is sicking that millions of children were forced to watch pornographic images with no idea that it's happening. This just adds to the super sexualized culture that we are bombarding on not only children, but everyone. Here's some of the links that I found that had some examples of the images that are in movies:
-http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Am-Not-A-Member-Of-The-Elitist-Fashion-Group/2135209 
-/http://quicklol.com/disney-subliminal-messages-collection/

Somaly Mam

Since we started reading the novel, I've been asking friends and family if they've heard of Somaly Mam.  Most of them don't even recognize it as a name when I ask and literally no one I've asked has heard of her.  Even though I had never heard of her before the class, it still upsets me that no one else has either.  In class we were getting worked up because it seems that our government, media, and society has covered up sex trafficking in the United States and even in other countries- so I started to think about why this issue is ignored by so many people.

The fact that Americans think that child sex trafficking does not exist on our land is just ignorant, and this ignorance is what is letting it continue.  Once we recognize something this terrible is real, it will become easier to fix.  Ignoring an issue does not make it go away.

I also read online that most sex-trafficked youths are from "crack houses" where they were raised around drugs and parents or guardians who physically or sexually abused them.  To the children, life with a pimp sounds better than a life with people who were supposed to love them.  I think that these situations could be avoided if more people recognized when children come from these kinds of homes (people like teachers, neighbors, or relatives), or if CPS decided to really crack down on certain families.  So, young girls lives in prostitution could be avoided from the very start if we were less afraid to admit the dangers that are around us.

Pretty Little Liars goes to Cambodia

Shedding light on the sex trade is something that I feel is on a difficult path and I was't sure how society was going to fix it, until I saw the video about Shay Mitchell going to Cambodia. Us as a class, didn't really hear about this topic until we got to college. I feel like that if more and more people that are in the spot light join the cause, it wont take that long for others.  Yes Susan Surandan is an advocate, and she is doing wonders, but I don't think the younger generation is keeping up with what she is doing. I think its great that Shay Mitchell, from Pretty Little Liars, went over to Cambodia to learn from Somaly what is going on there.(link below) I feel like the younger generations will look up to her and want to know more about what she is doing. Or at least they will tell their parents about the issue. I feel more and more young people should get involved because usually that's who other young people follow. Also in the video that I've linked to, I feel like Shay handled the situation much better then Tyra did. She talked about what the girls were doing to improve their lives, not just talk about the sad side to it. Even at the end of the video, she said where others could go to help out the cause.


http://prettylittleliars.alloyentertainment.com/exclusive-interview-shay-mitchell-shares-details-from-her-trip-to-cambodia/

A threat to anyone's rights is a threat to everyone's human rights, on the planet.
Even Tyra Banks.
That's why we should take this seriously, because it starts with isolated incidents.

The holidays are starting. Try not to think about religion, though, focus on other people, our families but also other people's families.We are all supposed to start putting pennies in the old man's hat.
Concepts of charity already play into our personalities, or at least our own ideas of responsibility, because I know that buying fair trade chocolate makes me feel better about my place in the world. Even political discussions affect the way I interact with my environment, day to day.

How far back do we go? Slavery throughout history has been so different, the conditions dependent upon so many fluctuations... ". ...because if we do not understand History Channel, we are doomed to repeat History Channel”

—

Blake from Workaholics. At the same time though, things have seemed to stay the same.

Preventing Sexual Slavery

Though I firmly believe that Somaly's efforts are incredibly important in aiding those who were victims of sex trafficing, I feel that an approach presented by Bales excerpt "What Can be Done" would be equally benifitial. While Somaly mostly works to heal the effects of sex slavery, which is definitely incredibly neccessary, Bales propses that we attack the problem at its core. Slavery usually manifests in places of extreme poverty and population explosions. Povery leads to violence and extreme measures to find the money that in these situations are hard to obtain,while large populations lead to a lack of jobs; a perfect storm for illegal activies such as prostitution. In order to completely eliminate the new slavery we have to attack these underlying problem by helping to buld a better economy and effectively teaching women about birth control methids.
I also think another central issue that needs to be addressed in order to perminately end sexual slavery is these society's additues towards women. If even wives are treated as objects, being beaten and objectified for sexual pleasure, why would  men treat prostitutes, who are thought of as less human that respectable wives, any different. Educationg men, as Somaly did in her book, is essencial to changing these beliefs.
Though it is important to support victims and money should be continually be given to charites such as AFSIP and the Somaly Mam Foundation, in order to really have an impact on the situation in Cambodia, to prevent further suffering from happening, we need to address these central issues.   

MY ART SHOW TONIGHT!

http://www.facebook.com/events/464729390232487/

Somaly Mam and Journalism

"Journalists make it difficult, in a way, though I am very grateful to them. The attention of the world's newspapers helped save our operation from being shut down. But often reporters want a "sexy" project, something hot, to wake up the readers and viewers.They ask me to talk about my past- if not, how will they convey the importance of the work we're doing?" (p.188).

One of the points brought up in our class discussion on Friday was how the media tends to bring only the victim and their story to light and not the ones responsible for committing acts of violence. This is very true with Somaly Mam and sex trafficking, not only evident from the clips of Tyra's show, but in Mam's autobiography as well. Throughout the novel we see government officials and police officers get away with going to the brothels and raping women and girls without any repercussions, and esoecially without any real coverage by the media. Their crimes are never exposed. When AFESIP tried to take down The Chai Hour II, where many big time businessmen and other important men frequented, Somaly was the one that was told to "just keep quiet and not interfere in what didn't concern" her (p. 179).

Instead of reporting the truth about what really happens in The Chai Hour II, "some of the local press began reporting that the girls from the Chai Hour II had pushed down the gate in an attempt to escape because AFESIP was holding them against their will. They also reported that all the girls were over 18" (p. 178). The media turned AFESIP into the criminals and reported that the only reason the girls were victims is that they were being help captive in the AFESIP house, not the brothels.

What are the duties of a journalist, and the media as a whole? In order for crucial issues to come to light and begin to be changed, the truth must presented to the people, not some "sexy" story or an alternate version of the truth paid off by the criminals involved. One way to go about this is to go to one of the sources, Somaly Mam's book, which is a fantastic start in understanding the issue of sex trafficking.

This is a very short documentary on child slaves in the chocolate market. This is the Ivory Coast the same place Hershey gets it's chocolate from

This next article is from http://www.nl-aid.org/domain/child/the-child-slavery-behind-your-chocolate/ The Child Slavery Behind Your Chocolate Posted on | oktober 25, 2011 | 2 Comments October could almost be designated “candy month” in the United States, thanks to the consumer buying power and commercialization of Halloween. As I wrote in my post, Trick-or-Treating Minus the Slavery, the chocolate industry in the United States alone is a$13 billion industry. It is led by Hershey’s, which holds 42.5% of the U.S. chocolate market. Yet the global cocoa industry often traffics children to work as slaves, according to UNICEF (The United Nation’s Children’s Fund). In West Africa, 200,000 children are living in conditions of forced labor and slavery on cocoa farms. Sadly, Hershey’s uses large amounts of cocoa harvested in the Ivory Coast, which according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), produces 43% of the worlds cocoa. The Hershey Company has been aware that their products are tainted by slavery and child labor rooted at the beginning of their supply chain since at least 2001, when along with the other major chocolate companies, made a commitment to end child and forced labor in their cocoa supply chains. In September 2001, chocolate and cocoa industry representatives signed the Harkin Engel Protocol, developed by Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Eliot Engel, in an effort to eliminate child labor in the industry. The protocol has a six-point approach to solve the problem, including a time sensitive process to establish credibility and eliminate the use of child slavery. The protocol was signed by the industry’s large cocoa producing companies and set forth an action plan to eliminate the worst forms of child labor and forced labor from cocoa farms worldwide by 2005. However, Hershey’s has continued to produce their products undaunted by the knowledge that their profits come with a high human cost. They continue to source cocoa from this region without ensuring that child labor exploitation does not occur in the production of the cocoa they use. I have known about this for awhile now but I was talking with some of you in class about it. Also the professor has mentioned it, so now that you know where it comes from does it make a difference? Would you buy your chocolate from somewhere else if you knew that it wasn't produced by slaves despite the difference in cost? I know that I really love chocolate and was upset to learn that the chocolate I eat is produced by child slave labor. Since this article Hershey's has made one of their candy bars through free trade and only as an incentive from activist groups. The slave trade is all around us and despite what we may want to believe even you and I are a part of it.

Any Publicity is Good Publicity

During class we watched Tyra’s interview with Somaly Mam. There was a lot to be discussed between the class when referring to Tyra’s attitude and media’s portrayal of the sex slavery topic. The class spoke how Somaly’s situation was referred to as the next be hot topic as opposed to a topic that deserves advocating for. Although I agreed with these points I could not help to think to myself that sometimes any publicity is good publicity.

When looking back to our talk with the Pride Alliance panel a student in our class posed a question referring to how they felt about the representation of the gay community in the popular sitcom, Modern Family. One of the members responded to this question by stating, although the portrayal of the gay couple in Modern Family is very stereotypical, she said she would rather have a stereotypical portrayal than no representation at all. I think this quote really correlates to our discussion about the Tyra Show and her interview. Although Tyra did a poor job of introducing Somaly and advocating for her topic, I do believe she brought some awareness upon this topic. Just by having part of her talk show centered on this issue, we can only hope that this topic has inspired numerous viewers to do further research. I do wish Tyra would have put further information on her website or included at least the link to the Somaly Mam’s foundation. The important thing to remember that just because a topic is put out in the media with an inaccurate representation does not mean that it does not completely raise awareness to the every viewer watching. Topics such as sex slavery might instead influence viewers in a more personal way to make them think they need to take action.

Any Publicity is Good Publicity

During class we watched Tyra’s interview with Somaly Mam. There was a lot to be discussed between the class when referring to Tyra’s attitude and media’s portrayal of the sex slavery topic. The class spoke how Somaly’s situation was referred to as the next be hot topic as opposed to a topic that deserves advocating for. Although I agreed with these points I could not help to think to myself that sometimes any publicity is good publicity.

When looking back to our talk with the Pride Alliance panel a student in our class posed a question referring to how they felt about the representation of the gay community in the popular sitcom, Modern Family. One of the members responded to this question by stating, although the portrayal of the gay couple in Modern Family is very stereotypical, she said she would rather have a stereotypical portrayal than no representation at all. I think this quote really correlates to our discussion about the Tyra Show and her interview. Although Tyra did a poor job of introducing Somaly and advocating for her topic, I do believe she brought some awareness upon this topic. Just by having part of her talk show centered on this issue, we can only hope that this topic has inspired numerous viewers to do further research. I do wish Tyra would have put further information on her website or included at least the link to the Somaly Mam’s foundation. The important thing to remember that just because a topic is put out in the media with an inaccurate representation does not mean that it does not completely raise awareness to the every viewer watching. Topics such as sex slavery might instead influence viewers in a more personal way to make them think they need to take action.

Obama On Modern-Slavery

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/17/human-trafficking-california-_n_2150518.html
^ Scroll to the bottom under the embedded video. Click the first video icon, titled "Obama's Anti-Human Trafficking Plan". 

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      Well in recent news, Obama calls out the truth in human trafficking and the estimated twenty million faces around the globe by responding to it as modern-slavery, in a firm speech on what can be done in response, which has the same concept Kevin Bales contests under "Three Things You Can Do to Stop Slavery".

      "The President said the trafficking of people contributes to "the debasement of our common humanity," ''tears at our social fabric," endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime. He listed victims ranging from workers who toil for little pay, are abused and barred from leaving their jobs, young boys who are turned into child soldiers and forced to kill, and impoverished girls who are sold into the sex trade."

      The first step to Coda is to learn. After reading Kevin Bale's book and our text on Somaly Mam, something I could do to make a difference is relay this information on human trafficking, and lend somebody a copy of The Road to Lost Innocence.  The President touches upon the ways our educators, and law enforcement can cooperate to be better equipped to take action, and utilize technology as a way to aid, in correspondence to ways technology can exploit their victims. Obama highlights the importance in treating the victims as victims, not criminals, and rebuilding the the lives of men and women, not to mention child victims. He entails the need for support in anti-trafficking organization and causes that find new ways to care for victims, like the Anti-Slavery International.  President Obama's focus and zero tolerance of these present issues in our boarders, and internationally make me very glad. :-)

Somaly Mam You Smart Woman

Somaly Mam, when she gets to the point where she can help the cause of human trafficking and brothels, does wonders. I think it is fantastic that she decided to give supplies and treat the women of the brothels. However, what really struck me as genius was the fact that she decided to respond to the men in the culture as well. People seem to only focus on those who are getting hurt, the victims. Yes, this is very helpful, but people seem to ignore the fact that these victims are only victims because of their perpetrators. I see a connection with the rape culture in the United States, at the moment. Society teaches women to not get raped, but they don't teach men to not rape. Rape is a foreign concept in this society, it seems. The definition is very unclear, as it is in Cambodia. Rape is very normalized and something needs to be done. Somaly Mam starts this change in Cambodia by creating a better perspective of the treatment of women in the Cambodian culture. We need to take advice from Somaly Mam and we need to start to do this in our own rape culture.