Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Like many of you, I have known that human trafficking & slavery still exists in various forms around the world, but I have recently been on a journey to dig deeper in understanding this tragic reality and I want to share some of my findings with everybody.

These injustices do not simply "still exist"... they are thriving. To put things into perspective...

"More slaves are in bondage today than were bartered in four centuries of the transatlantic slave trade."

-Not For Sale by Batstone(6)

I'll start with a basic definition for Human Trafficking -

the dislocation of someone by deception or coercion for exploitation, through forced prostitution, forced labor, or other forms of slavery. (source: Steve Chalke - Stop the Traffik)

It is estimated that the total number of individuals enduring this nightmare is in the realm of 27 million. 27 million human beings like you and me. 27 million collections of abilities and aspirations. 27 million hearts.

We talked a bit at our gathering yesterday about "compassion fatigue" as Jamie termed it, and this is yet another example of an issue that can easily overwhelm us to the point of numbness and inaction. But I have a growing hope and cause to believe that this doesn't have to be the case. More on that in a moment...

Here are a few more of the key statistics to build a fuller picture of what's happening around us:

- Over 150 countries in the world today serve as a source, transportation route, and/or destination for human trafficking, with the least developed nations being the most gravely impacted. (US State Dept)

- Of the 27 million individuals held captive today, 80% are female and 50% are children (US State Dept)

- Approximately 1.2 million children are trafficked yearly. That amounts to one child every 30 seconds... (UNICEF)

- Worldwide, traffickers generate a revenue stream for themselves upwards of $10 billion, while the trafficking trade in all its forms generates more than $32 billion when also accounting for the activities and goods produced by the victims. [These figures are only rivaled by drug trafficking and the illegal arms trade for the largest global crime] (International Labour Office)

- Here in the United States, approximately 17,500 individuals are trafficked into our country every year for forced labor and sexual slavery. (US State Dept)

So what can we do?

Like I mentioned yesterday with regard to these issues of injustice that need to be addressed, I think a "both/and" approach will ultimately be the most transformative, i.e, foster the ongoing creation of the kingdom of God. By this, I mean that those of us who are able to give financially towards local & global efforts that directly affect the problem should do so [check out a few recommendations of organizations below], AND there's also a component of individual action beyond financial donations that we are each called to explore.

This first natural step in individual action is to heighten our awareness of the issues [some reading and viewing recommendations are below]. But this awareness must necessarily lead to a tangible output. Or in the word's of Stop the Traffik and Oasis founder, Steve Chalke, "Expressions of outrage and sympathy without action are useless. Becoming aware, informing ourselves, is only the first step" (Stop the Traffik, 103).

The next step is to identify if/where we are unknowingly entangled in the massive web of human/trafficking. Again, Steve Chalke:

"We need to find out whether what we buy has a history, and whether that history is exploiting vulnerable people" (107).

Some of the more blatant industries where trafficked labor is widely used are the chocolate, coffee, cotton (clothing), and tea trades, among many others. As we've heard numerous times, we truly have the ability to "vote" with our dollars. Each of our purchases, whether intentionally or not, reinforce certain systems at play in the world's supply chains. Again, it can be overwhelming as a born-and-raised American consumer to sift through our hundreds of purchases & possessions, but I agree with this view:

"A traffick-free lifestyle is worth working at. Make one choice at a time. And it won't be just your life that is changed" (Chalke, 109).

I'm currently checking out the Free2Work website and exploring ways to become a more conscious and deliberate consumer. Another cool resource is www.projectlabel.org

As we think about what else we can do as individuals and as a cohort, this challenge strikes a chord in me:

"Take Advantage of Your Access to Power for the Sake of the Powerless" (Batstone, 281).

Facing up to this challenge can take so many forms: political advocacy, commercial boycotting, volunteering with organizations that reach out to victims, raising awareness among the masses, and on and on. I'd love to brainstorm more ideas collectively sometime.

Anyhow, I wanted to at least get this information out here for our community to wrestle with and to highlight this day of awareness. Let's see where we can go with our action...

Reading

- Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade - and How We Can Fight It by David Batstone

- Stop the Traffik: People Shouldn't Be Bought & Sold by Steve Chalke & Cherie Blair

- The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking & Slavery by Kevin Bales & Ron Soodalter

- 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report - US State Dept

Viewing

- Frontline: Sex Slaves [additional resources HERE]

- Slavery: A Global Investigation

- Born Into Brothels

- Trade [also currently available for instant viewing for Netflix subscribers]

- Slumdog Millionaire

- Invisible Children

Organizations

- International Justice Mission

- Stop the Traffik & Oasis USA

- Not For Sale Fund

... among many others...

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*Photo Credit: 2009 Trafficking In Persons Report (US State Dept)

Stop Hunger Now

Heya friends,
I mentioned the Food for the Hungry breakfast and packing event when we met on Sunday. If you are interested in joining me, shoot me an email or call or text or twitter or knock on my door...they want to know in advance if anyone is coming, but don't let that stop you if you are a last minute kind of person.
The event will be:
Tuesday, July 28th
7:30a-9a
Food for the Hungry US
1224 E Washington
Phoenix, AZ 85034
480-998-3100
7:30am – Light Breakfast
8:00-8:45 – Presentation from Stop Hunger Now and hands on packing event
8:45-9:00 – Opportunities for future involvement in Operation Sharehouse – Phoenix

Recap 3.15.09

We began our trek up the mountains of discussion that are the crux of what we're reading in Shane Claiborne's book - Jesus for President. Ironically, in this section, Shane admits that Jesus actually would be a bad president, because Jesus "...aspired to something different from state power." (86)

Using Adam's thought-provoking questions as a start, we tried to make sense of what "Jubilee" would look like today. Questions lead inevitably to questions, eh?

1. Was God invoking the first pillars of socialism?
2. How closely could we follow the laws within Jubilee, given our current context?
3. Would it be mostly about debt cancellation?
4. How would it even be possible for us to explore while we remain firmly planted in capitalism?

I'm not sure where our conversation turned to tithing, but I'm glad it did. At some point, when we discuss the sharing of resources, I think it fitting to look directly into our wallets. Though God originally enacted tithing as a way to finance his taking over the world with big expensive buildings, we've now begun messing things up by trying to make it about the sharing of resources. (sorry, a bit below the belt - delete it you say? hmmm....can't seem to find the button...oh well).

Where were we? Oh yes...Jubilee leads to socialism, and now all the lazy people get to eat. Okay seriously, somebody stop me.

We moved to the discussion on how "freely" we should give, not knowing all the time whether our money is going to be used for good or for ill. Everybody seemed to have differing perspectives on this, mainly according to the context of any given situation. There are certainly stories on both side of this coin, and I think there always will be. It is good to discuss though, because it keeps us moving, changing, and thinking, rather than giving in stagnation.

We talked a little about how on a small scale we've tried to live in a more giving way, and that hopefully this can start to lead us down a path to be a unique culture within our western culture. I'd really like to discuss this further - how these questions could not just lead to more questions, but to some sort of continued action. This is where the rubber meets the road, and frankly where the emerging church has it's biggest struggle and has enjoyed rightful criticism. Shall we discuss until our throats are sore? Don't get me wrong, the discussion has been invigorating thus far to my life. And of course there is not an answer that will fulfill every question and every person. I guess I'm just wanting to apply some of these things. The discussions in fact have inspired me...What comes to mind immediately is this - what about every third or fourth time we meet, we still show up at the Schroeder's, maybe gab for a bit, but then go and DO. Comment away...

To end the night, Ron suggested we invade Canada to prepare for ourselves some nice beach front property that global warming will soon be providing. Really not cool Ron, I think there may be Canadians in our midst.

Getting Down to Business!

*Photo Credit - The Blackbird on Flickr

Okay, tomorrow we're going to be spending our time digging into more of the details that have been raised in Claiborne & Haw's, Jesus for President. Economics, politics, patriotism, creative non-violence, cultural interaction... you know, the usual stuff you talk about within spiritual community;-)

Our reading of the book currently has us through page 102. Here are some questions to get our thoughts going...

- What are some examples of political imagination in our current context and culture?
"God put in place other beautiful initiatives to awaken the Israelites' political imagination and ensure that they didn't default to old ways of living" (56).

- How do we/should we view the "Sabbath laws" today?
"The Sabbath laws were put in place not just so people could go to worship services on Sunday (or Saturday) mornings but to make sure that the Hebrew people didn't revert to the exploitative economy of the empire from which they were saved" (57).

- Should we/can we entertain the idea of Jubilee economics [debt cancellation] in our present culture? If so, how?
"Just like the Hebrew people were supposed to refrain from working every seventh day so that their land, animals, & servants could rest (a marked contrast to their overworked life in Egypt), every seventh year, the Hebrew people had a celebration called the Jubilee..., during which they would take the whole year off from work. During this one-year break, all the food that continued to grow in their fields was free for the taking for families who were struggling to get by (Exod. 23:10). And any debt that folks had incurred during the past six years was erased" (59).

- How does (can?) national patriotism coexist with our pursuit of Jesus' way?
"Jesus was urging his followers to be the unique, peculiar, and set-apart people that began with Abraham. He didn't pray for the world in order to make governments more religious; he called Israel to be the light of the world - to abandon the way of the world and cultivate an alternative society in the shell of the old, not merely to be a better version of the kingdom of this world" (71).

- What can the "Third Way" (creative non-violence) look like for us today?
"Jesus' listeners would have understood the Romans to be the weeds sown among the wheat. How to rid the world of their evil? But Jesus redirected this and insisted that #1 You cannot easily distinguish the weeds from the wheat. (It's not so easy to say, 'We are all good and they are all evil.' Sometimes only God can distinguish.) #2 Destroying evil might destroy good" (97).