This is a haunting video.
What can we do? Slavery is still so real, even in America. How do we stop it? How do we end human trafficking and sexual (and other) exploitation?
Will we stand up? Will we take this seriously?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
I don't understand
I have spent a lot of time these last few years exploring issues of justice. It started my freshman year, second semester, when the ConneXions group I was in transitioned from direct service to exploring issues. I learned about all sorts of crap that is going on in the world. And I remember being overwhelmed then. There's all sorts of shit going on in the world, and what was I supposed to do? Then I went on my academic service learning semester, and my classes almost all focused around so many issues in the world. And then I came back and became a leader for ConneXions II (the second half of the program, the part that focuses on issues rather than service). And here I am, still involved in ConneXions II. This semester seems to be really hard. I think part of that is due to my classes. Not that these are particularly challenging classes. In fact, the two I'm referring to are the 2 classes I'm taking toward my major this semester, and they're taught by a professor who is a bit of a joke (which is frustrating in itself). But my Popular Culture class has talked a lot about consumerism. And my Urban Anthropology class has perpetuated stereotypes of different communities, particularly "unstable slums," of which Over-the-Rhine is one of them. And I had studies to back up my challenges to my professor when he said that they are the locus of immoral activity and so forth, but I wasn't about to get into an argument with him in the middle of class. I challenged him, and it wasn't going to turn into a discussion, but an argument; it just wasn't worth it.
So I say all that to say that I feel like I'm not getting a break from all the shit that's going on in the world. And what I don't understand is how people can be so cold-hearted. How can people just not care? It was different when I saw people get caught up in power and do things a certain way just to be "right." I see the threat of that in myself. I could so easily get caught in that trap, and that scares me. But what is different now is that there are people actually making decisions along the way to take advantage of others. I came back to my room on Halloween, and my roommate and her boyfriend were watching the movie Taken. Liam Neeson's daughter gets kidnapped in Paris by a group that kidnaps traveling teenagers for sex slavery. He has had a spy-like job for the government, so he goes after her. And after he finds her, he gets taken away and handcuffed to a pipe on the ceiling. As he's hanging there, one of the men involved in the business says that he has his own family and that it's not personal. My reaction to that scene sums up my reaction to so much of what I've been learning about. Particularly, recently, the topic has been gentrification and the displacement of people from their homes, the homes they can afford. I cannot understand that. I cannot understand how anyone could do that even once. I couldn't understand how Liam Neeson's character could go into the brothel and try to find his daughter, but leave all the other girls save the one who had his daughter's jacket and might provide a lead for him. I understood the immediate need of finding his daughter. But after the whole thing, doesn't it become so personal that you have to go back and rescue all those other girls because you know each one of them could have been your daughter? I don't understand how people can justify to themselves the fact that they've kicked a family out of their home. A family that cannot really afford to live anywhere else. A family that is the member of the community. How can someone justify that to make a huge profit for himself or herself?
How do we justify sweatshops and the use of child labor so that a large corporation such as Gap can make the kinds of profits they do? How can we justify forcing small farmers off their land so huge agribusiness can come in and create monoculture fields and destroy the soil? How do we justify government subsidies to those agribusinesses? To those companies that displace people like 3CDC? How do we justify the taking of civilian lives in any act of war? How do we justify letting those children who go to inner city public schools go without the opportunities that we afford to children born to suburban families or families that can afford public schools?
I don't understand. I have a generally good view of the human person. I believe there is good in everyone and that the good is almost always more than the bad. But I cannot reconcile that view with the evil that those in power perpetuate, or at least allow to go on. I don't understand.
So I say all that to say that I feel like I'm not getting a break from all the shit that's going on in the world. And what I don't understand is how people can be so cold-hearted. How can people just not care? It was different when I saw people get caught up in power and do things a certain way just to be "right." I see the threat of that in myself. I could so easily get caught in that trap, and that scares me. But what is different now is that there are people actually making decisions along the way to take advantage of others. I came back to my room on Halloween, and my roommate and her boyfriend were watching the movie Taken. Liam Neeson's daughter gets kidnapped in Paris by a group that kidnaps traveling teenagers for sex slavery. He has had a spy-like job for the government, so he goes after her. And after he finds her, he gets taken away and handcuffed to a pipe on the ceiling. As he's hanging there, one of the men involved in the business says that he has his own family and that it's not personal. My reaction to that scene sums up my reaction to so much of what I've been learning about. Particularly, recently, the topic has been gentrification and the displacement of people from their homes, the homes they can afford. I cannot understand that. I cannot understand how anyone could do that even once. I couldn't understand how Liam Neeson's character could go into the brothel and try to find his daughter, but leave all the other girls save the one who had his daughter's jacket and might provide a lead for him. I understood the immediate need of finding his daughter. But after the whole thing, doesn't it become so personal that you have to go back and rescue all those other girls because you know each one of them could have been your daughter? I don't understand how people can justify to themselves the fact that they've kicked a family out of their home. A family that cannot really afford to live anywhere else. A family that is the member of the community. How can someone justify that to make a huge profit for himself or herself?
How do we justify sweatshops and the use of child labor so that a large corporation such as Gap can make the kinds of profits they do? How can we justify forcing small farmers off their land so huge agribusiness can come in and create monoculture fields and destroy the soil? How do we justify government subsidies to those agribusinesses? To those companies that displace people like 3CDC? How do we justify the taking of civilian lives in any act of war? How do we justify letting those children who go to inner city public schools go without the opportunities that we afford to children born to suburban families or families that can afford public schools?
I don't understand. I have a generally good view of the human person. I believe there is good in everyone and that the good is almost always more than the bad. But I cannot reconcile that view with the evil that those in power perpetuate, or at least allow to go on. I don't understand.
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