Front PageHuman Trafficking
Submitted by reido on Fri, 05/23/2008 - 10:50.
I viewed the film "Trade" last night. It was a good movie -- very worth watching. Again, it stirs something in my soul. I looked up the recent case of a brothel found operating locally to find that Mendez and his female accomplice were convicted last December http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2007/December/07_crt_1002.html. Sentencing is due in about a month in June. It is especially disturbing that our locale is high in Latin population, therefore victims are likely among us. In this particular case, evidence was that these girls were being prostituted among their own Latino population -- not rich Russians like the movies might make it sound.
One thing that caused me to stop and think was the title and theme of the movie and the economic base that contributes to this wicked situation. Do we really live in a world that engages in human trade for profit? While we would like to pillow our heads at night believing that such things are only a rare occurence, the reality is that somewhere in this world there are a million people who are victims of this horror. Profit taking even seeps down to a few measly dollars for a life where these children are snatched, so it is not just the lure of tremendous wealth that is involved.
reido
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Absolutely Not Absolute
Submitted by reido on Sat, 05/24/2008 - 14:58.
Bill
Your thinking is right on both counts -- it is far more widespread, and yes the possibility exists within all. I relate this to the closest relative where children are abused within the family. No money may be traded hands but it is the same value and meaning and the same possibility, so while they are not identical, they are very closely related.
Also, I understand that not all children are unwilling participants. Some are quite willing to use the situation for their own advantage. There is a lot of mental and physical game playing taking place -- and it is an ancient game afoot.
reido
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Saw this on google
Submitted by John D on Sat, 05/24/2008 - 17:32.
http://www.humantrafficking.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking
On Wikipedia: "According to United States State Department data, an 'estimated 600,000 to 820,000 men, women, and children [are] trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 70 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors.'"
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Understanding What Lies Within
Submitted by reido on Sun, 05/25/2008 - 15:42.
Jonathan
Read Wiki, they have a lot of good information on this. Had already seen the other site when I googled it earlier.
There is a strange connection here between these twisted values and what I think of as value and meaning in Life -- that is, things of the Soul that actually contribute to Life rather than diminish it. I do not know if it can rightly be called transference or not, but there seems to be this weird connection. Take the movie "Traffic" for instance, where we see drug trafficking as a close relative to human trafficking. Ultraviolence is seen in both cases to defend and protect what is most precious -- the value and meaning are transferred from Life to the drugs or the human slave and to the money that changes hands. For this, they are so wholly given that they will do anything and seem to value little else. Killing sprees are nothing to protect their source of welfare.
I am not a behaviorist, so I am only able to see this dimly. Can there actually be such a void in man's Soul that he will invent behaviors that mimick the real? But they are so twisted beyond reality.
Perhaps there are thousands of levels of transference that are not as ugly as these but nonetheless a part of our lives.
reido
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Meaning and the Sacred
Submitted by bill on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 06:57.
I'm beginning to glimpse a connection between Meaning and the Sacred. Although the words seem related at first glance, the importance is easily missed.
For example, A-Theists dismiss God, but most that I've read or met still value human life. That is, they recognize something Sacred in humanity but explain it in another way. However, there are now, and have been throughout history, Theists who claim to be devoted to God, yet value human constructs like theology more than human life. They are willing to kill (murder, maim, torture) to protect their theology. The obvious disconnect requires a deeper examination of what Meaning is. Devotion to religion does not guarantee devotion to Meaning, while rejection of it doesn't negate commitment to Meaning.
Thomas Jefferson loved a slave. He and others awarded freedom to their slaves in their wills. Some church leaders use people mercilessly in the name of “the Kingdom.” How do we sort this out?
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Attachment
Submitted by reido on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 20:38.
Bill
Meaning and the Sacred -- can they be compared to gravitational pull and the object that comes into the circle? Like Tom Hanks' soccer ball that came to be an object of love and attachment -- a much needed friend?
I am probably way off your line of thought here...
reido
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Finding Meaning by losing it
Submitted by bill on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 08:27.
Reido,
Gravity seems a worthy metaphor. We are pulled toward the Sacred. Or maybe it pulls us. We will call it something lofty, like God, Truth or Reason. Some call it the Word-a-God, even.
I'm borrowing the term Sacred from Mircea Eliade. But the Other, from Martin Buber might fit your example with Wilson the soccer ball. A quick search for the name which I'd forgotten turned up this review of the movie that ends with this summary:
Cast Away isn't a movie about Tom Hanks alone on an island, it is a study of the human spirit, about what makes us live or why we survive even though we logically shouldn't. We survive because we know we have that choice, we have the choice to live or to die. Chuck takes his chances out in the ocean because that's one of his choices, and it's the only choice he doesn't know the outcome of. But even when things turn out worse for him, Chuck carries this spirit with him because "tomorrow the sun will rise" and there are more choices to make and roads to travel and that is as good a reason as anything to keep on living.
I'm glad you brought up Tom Hanks and his soccer ball. After reading the review above, and reviewing what little I can still remember of the movie, it seems a really important example to bring up in this discussion. You've convinced me to get the movie and watch it again—soon.
When I first saw the movie Cast Away, I thought of it as a story with a nebulous, if not unhappy ending. A Company Man who puts his job above his relationship with his finance, learns what is truly “sacred” in his life—only when he loses it. When he finally makes it back to civilization, his old life is mostly gone.
But now I want to see it again because I'm wondering if it's not about finding what is truly sacred. Something that can't be put into words—but can only be experienced for oneself. The struggle to live Life in the shadow of eventual death is the drive behind all we do.
Living the religious life should be about putting the Sacred into every moment and every task, so that our lives are filled with it. But instead, the common “religious life” is idolatrous because it sacralizes “the religions life,” instead of the Sacred.
Anyway, sorry for the wordiness. Back on topic.
Treating other human beings, other beings, or anything profanely, is the beginning of the slide toward ultimate profanity. Profanity has no Meaning except survival itself. But survival is itself temporal, and therefore meaningless. Only by centering on the Sacred, can we have Meaning. Unfortunately, the Sacred is easily lost amongst the smoke and mirrors of the Profane. Like Chuck in the movie Cast Away, we often have to lose what is sacred to us before we can learn to recognize it. Thanks for the analogy.
bill
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Return of the Sacred
Submitted by reido on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 11:47.
Bill
I read a little in Wiki about Mircea Eliade -- quite a fascinating and what looks like a very structured mind. I can see how some of his ideas about Eternal Return fit this line of thought well.
Yes, Wilson was his name. Friend and companion thru survival -- finally lost at sea. Isn't it interesting that qualities like value and meaning are assigned to a ball? It looked real stupid at first and I laughed but then I saw that the value and meaning were not in the ball, but came into existence by virtue of the inner person and his resident qualities, needs, etc. Then his grief when he lost the object of attachment...neat stuff.
"Learning to recognize it" ,to me is one of the central themes of the movie. It doesn't come all at once in a linear path, but in process as he lives it. Loss is so important to the process because we often are so busy experiencing the action of the moment that we are not aware by way of reflection and comparison in remembrance. This was one of the points I felt was commonly missed by Christianity's general teaching that sin was to be anathematized in our lives -- no mistakes allowed because it means a possible damnation in the end. Even though I did not particularly enjoy failure, I welcomed the learning process and the challenge to overcome external difficulty with inner spirit. In a real sense, it was a form of loss.
You have come to some great material for thought here. I suppose that one might ponder how the original topic came to this, but I see something that provides a great answer as to why humanity can become so twisted.
reido
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Reido, We're watching
Submitted by bill on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 18:33.
Reido,
We're watching Cast Away this evening. And I hope to continue this line of thought, and even its branches. Maybe I'll have something more to add in la mañana.
bill
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SACRED
Submitted by reido on Thu, 05/29/2008 - 11:11.
Bill
Can we start a new thread on this topic? I am especially interested in the way you have used it. It fits very well with the redefinition of Faith as involving trust and meaning. I found a website called sacred-text that contains the Oxford library of writings -- a large depository of writings.
I look forward to your comments on the movie.
reido
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There but for the grace of God...
Reido,
As I thought about your words above, I first strained to understand how all but the most desperate could engage in human trafficking. But the more I thought about it, the more I recognized something primeval, and deep within me that seemed to comprehend what my rational, “civilized” mind could not. Maybe it's something within us all—or most of us.
I've met young women, in a far off Southeast Asian island, who were sold into indentured servitude by their destitute, rural families. Some to work in shops, others to work in prostitution. I've also heard and read stories of similar business in other places. These experiences, and the one that you brought up, brings me to think that it is far more widespread then we want to believe, and that it's not only a very ancient trade—but perhaps the oldest.
The question that bubbles up from my primeval gut into my postmodern conscience is this: are we much closer to barbarism than we think? And another comes after that one: should we not be ever on guard lest we stumble and slide down that slippery slope, quickly erasing the distance that humankind has risen these few centuries?
bill