There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the
world today, 500,000 of whom are sex slaves. As a transportation hub, 200-300
slaves are trafficked in Georgia every month. (figures gathered from CNN Freedom Project)
Reading
through this information I felt waves of shock and deep sadness. I had been
ignorant of this issue until I watched The Exit,
a documentary film produced by a young woman from this year’s
Ethics and Servant Leadership Forum. As I found out more, a few memories became vivid in my
mind that helped me, in a small way, get closer to understanding. These
memories somehow make the realities of human trafficking more tangible. I am
looking through the muddled tragedy of my ignorance to see a few clear answers.
Vulnerability
When I
was eighteen years old I started college in Los Angeles. I was eager to make
friends and perhaps too trusting. I met a guy on an airplane who ran a
leadership academy for corporations at hotels in the LA area. He invited me to
participate and I met him at a hotel in Anaheim. After the program he asked me
to help him grab a few things from his room. He locked the door and tried to
make inappropriate advances. I turned him down and managed to get out. This
could have turned into a different situation if he were more forceful, if I
were more desperate, or if I didn’t have a support system. For the 500,000
women that become sex slaves, only about half are abducted by strangers.
Forty-six percent of these women are wooed by men they already know or are sold
by their families.
Hidden Populations
In
Vietnam, my brother and I decided to get foot massages. We were led into a dim
room with two female masseurs. As we got up to leave they closed the door and
turned towards us asking if we wanted any sexual services. We didn’t know how
to handle the situation besides refusing and leaving. What disturbed me the
most was that I didn’t know if these women were working of their own volition -
and if they were, what would it mean for it to be their choice? One of the
biggest problems that researchers and journalists face is that today’s slave
populations are intentionally hidden and nearly impossible to account for. We
may never know if some of the people we interact with everyday are working in
unjust conditions.
Normalization of Slavery
I had an
economics professor once who spent time teaching about illicit markets. He
spoke of sex slavery as though it was unavoidable in our current global
capitalist system. He included a crude joke about prostitution in his lecture.
In my opinion, there were two injustices happening. The first was a jaded disillusionment
that goes with most western economic thinking that blocks any call for change.
The second injustice was the joke. Even professors can use jokes as a way to
make something evil seem okay, therefore, perpetuating the evil.
Problems in Education
As a
tutor this year, I witnessed children playing a game they called “slavery” on
the playground. They were acting out some of the information they had learned
in class about slavery. I was only made aware of exactly what was going on by a
child who reported the game because it made her feel uncomfortable. Through the
game they had created, the children were isolating their peers by perpetuating negative
power dynamics. I told the children to stop. This game made it clear to me that
younger generations are growing up ignorant of how the past connects to the
present.
Although
I escaped from the man in the hotel room, I confronted the professor about his
remarks, I refused the sexual services of the masseurs in Vietnam, and I
stopped the slavery game on the playground, I still feel powerless. I feel
powerless because of the many people who do not have the power to say no. For
those of us who have the power to say no - is saying no enough?
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