Circuitous Noodle: Human trafficking

This is a post I made back in September which probably got lost in all the election struggles. In fairness if we hoped to get anything done on this subject or many more pressing issues we needed Democrats in office. Now we have to lobby and fight to make sure human rights regain and retain a high priority in America.

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Pacific Islands Radio

I haven't done anything on human trafficking, more correctly called slavery and it's close cousin, sweat shops along with abuses to farm workers. Iraq occupation, torture, illegal detentions, constitutional order and the election occupy a good portion of what I've spent my time on.

I don't hear much about it on progressive radio. When Al Franken was on Air America he used to bring up the subject of Saipan frequently. Impoverished women looking for a better way, conservatives would say trying to pick themselves up by their bootstraps, are lured to this US Commonwealth island, believing they'll have American freedom, only to find themselves in bondage to the sweat shop industry, forced abortions and lives imprisoned as sex slaves.

an excellent article from MS Magazine (a good must read)...

"When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made.” At a New Year’s Eve dinner on Saipan, DeLay lavishly praised the governor—in a moment caught on camera and later shown by ABC’s 20/20—“You are a shining light for what is happening in the Republican Party, and you represent everything that is good about what we’re trying to do in America, in leading the world in the free-market system.” more...

Paradise Lost

If you've been listening to the radio station it's music to work your fingers to the bone by or more degrading activities.

TED Case Studies
Saipan Case Study
by Elizabeth Sobel

Slavery is a global problem that has many partners and victims.

Human Trafficking

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KBR, Partner in Iraq Contract Sued in Human Trafficking Case

I know a hard-volunteering elderly gentleman from the Catholic faith who said his most important issue was freedom because without that you have nothing. I fully expected him to say abortion. My answer would be clearly pro-life, but to the consternation of those who pretend to be pro-life among the conservative religious right the whole spectrum of social justice applies.

As far as the issue of human trafficking is concerned it's not just un-ethical, cheap-skate contractors who are to blame. It's anyone who purchases sweat shop products, there's a matter of sin for those who knowingly do so, those who take sex vacations or those who view pornography performed by sex slaves, and those who intentionally hide there heads in the sand refusing to see the guilt and shame of their own politicians and government policies.