Natalie stumbled upon these files during her research. A brief if not extensive knowledge of the law is important to social change. Check it out for yourself!
Archive for March, 2007
Interview with MAY!
This week was an exciting week for us interviewers! We finally had
our interview with Meredith May- I went down to the SF Chronicle with
Tini, Maya, and Angelica. The interview went really well- she was
very friendly and easy to talk to. There was some review information,
because we have read all of her articles from the Diary of a Sex
Slave, as well as many other articles about her investigation, but
she provided many new contacts that we can interview as well as new
directions we can take with our investigation. We have made a list of
the items we want to focus on that we extracted from the interview.
This interview was a fun experience and I can’t wait for more.
-Mel
Humor is the way to go?
Often times we forget that there’s a positive way to inform people of negative things.
About a month ago, I watched this episode of family guy with some of my friends. When the clip above came on, everyone turned their heads and looked at me afraid to laugh. My friends all knew I was very touchy when it came to issues of human trafficking or what not. However, it had the opposite effect on me. I did not find it funny, niether did I find it offensive. It was kind of nice that they even recognized that the scene was reffering to human trafficking.
Seems to me that the producers of shows such as Family Guy or South Park are making efforts in an ‘out of the universe’ type of way to bring these issues to the masses.
Seeing a bunch of Asian girls running out of a car trunk would not normally but funny, however, if you knew the connotations behind it and recognize that there is a bigger meaning behind the issue at hand… then it suddenly becomes funny, because you know it is true!
Wanting to help people should be motivating, not a spirit breaker!
-Mai
Can I have your Autograph?
Below is the “No Child Soldiers” Declaration from the WORLD VISION website.
They have an amazing goal and together we can make it happen.
“Our goal is peace for the children of northern Uganda — and 1 million signatures.”
Once the signatures are collected, we’ll take the Declaration to the Bush Administration, Congress, and the UN to demand action. We’ll coordinate focused events with the press and with concerned individuals like you.
Everyone can access it via the world wide web and sign if they believe that:
“In northern Uganda, more than 25,000 children have been kidnapped and forced to serve as soldiers in a nightmarish civil war that the world has largely ignored. These innocent children are brutalized and mutilated, forced to commit atrocities, and given as sex slaves to military commanders. This targeted abuse of children is unacceptable.
As parents, people of faith, students and youth, we urge all parties involved in this conflict to find a peaceful resolution. We implore the United States government, the United Nations, and the international community to work diligently to bring peace and protection to the children of northern Uganda. All children deserve to have a childhood free from torture and a future free from cruelty.”
New fight, old foe: Slavery
The Christian Science Monitor wrote an article about the fight against human trafficking at the University of San Francisco. The Article includes a great rave about how USF (the Erasmus) students are making a difference!
Meredith May Interview Questions
Sunday, we will have our first formal Interview with Reporter Meredith May! Mel and Teeny have put together the questions below. But first!
A little about Ms. May:
“The San Francisco Chronicle’s four-part series on sex trafficking exposes the harsh reality that trafficking in human beings is a lucrative and ruthlessly exploitative enterprise. Reporter Meredith May describes in haunting detail the story of You Mi, a Korean college girl whose attempts to settle her credit card debt land her in the middle of a sex slavery ring in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. May’s reporting shines the harsh light of truth on the reprehensible sex trade and the morally outrageous behavior of the pimps, johns and criminal networks that are getting rich by exploiting girls like You Mi.”
Interview: Sunday March 4, 2007 11:00 am
Our goal: To document human trafficking in San Francisco and document our findings.
1. We understand that you got the idea for this article from the large federal bust of massage parlors in Los Angeles, What was the first step you took in initiating your investigation in San Francisco?
OBSERVANT
Cecily, our wonderful reasearcher noticed this:
This spa has changed its name twice in the span of two weeks. Fishy, fishy, fishy.
On different pages…
As many of you know, the ERASMUS students have made groups on the social network facebook for the NOT FOR SALE CAMPAIGN. The following comments were made on my facebook “wall” the other day shortly after I invited a friend from high school to join. This morning… that Mike Paz (Erasmus Student) has responded… WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Friend From High School:
“omg stop inviting me to that group
first
those people are thousands of miles away and their sphere of existence is totally independent of mine, yours, or any other young American “activist” whose only actual perception of slavery is as an extremely negative, unrealistic construct that’s been imprinted on us by elementary school teachers and popular culture
my point is that they really don’t matter to you. you don’t care. you want to care. stop thinking about it for like a week and look back and think of what awesome productive things you could’ve been doing instead of feeling guilty and futile about a situation you have nothing to do with
second
the type of slavery that that group claims to be against is totally different from the type of slavery that this country used two hundred years ago. slavery in many areas of the world continues to play integral, traditional roles like paying off debt (labor is used since there’s scarce reliable capital or goods)… it’s temporary, humanistic, and natural. these international liberal shithead groups know that you hear the world slavery and your mind (and wallet) explodes with how you’ve been taught to respond throughout your childhood Read the rest of this entry »
