Canadian government decides against decriminalizing prostitution

According to a recent National Post article, the Canadian government will not decriminalize prostitution but will continue "to address prostitution by focusing on reducing its prevalence."

...the government considers prostitution to be "degrading and dehumanizing" and that it is "often committed and controlled by coercive individuals against those who are frequently powerless to protect themselves from abuse and exploitation." ...

It's too bad those in favour of decriminalizing prostitution don't seem to get that this is the reality for the overwhelming majority of women who end up as prostitutes. Only a small minority of women and girls consider prostitution a viable career choice, so you have to wonder who and what is behind this decriminalizing movement.

Unfortunately, the government "stopped short of accepting a committee recommendation to develop educational programs about the costs and risks of getting into prostitution."

Educational programs really are the only hope in neutralizing the damaging effects on impressionable minds of such irresponsible yet influential films as the celluloid Cinderella fantasy popularized by Julia Roberts and Richard Gere... not to mention the wholescale glamourization of the so-called "sex trade" by media and business.

H/T to Ruth at Rootleweb.

Hope for trafficking victims?

In case anyone has noticed, I haven't been posting much lately here.

There's been less stuff coming through on the private Natashas email list. But mostly, it's because this topic can be so depressing ... the overwhelming enormity of it makes it seem futile.

And, I've discovered The Secret, and have been focussing on the positive or, rather, getting positive results in my own life. Adjusting one's life outlook requires a paradigm shift, and that takes a big chuck of concentration.

As with the Holodomor, I've been reluctant to personally get too deep into the trafficking issue, lest despair overtake me.

But, as I apply The Secret in my own life, I wonder if maybe that reluctance is actually working at cross purposes to my desire to do something to help trafficking victims. I put up this blog thinking it was one thing I could do, and while it's moving up in the Technorati rankings, it's not exactly getting a gazillion hits a day, a week, or even a month... much less improving the situation.

What I've done in my own life is use The Secret to visualize my stepdaughters' recovery. They have been addicts all their adult lives. Both are now in their 30s. We've watched them go in and out of recovery programs, feeling helpless to do anything as they certainly did not want any help we could offer them.

One of them has 4 beautiful children and a wonderful husband, and had abandoned them for life on the street and crack cocaine. But just a little over a week ago, it occurred to me to use The Secret to help her (and her sister). So I told hubby that we need to just visualize and believe that she is healed, healthy and happy. In truth, we had in the past never really got beyond the hoping stage, you know, the old "hope for the best but expect the worst" mindset.

Well, wouldn't you know it, but the very next day we got a call from her husband, saying she'd left a "farewell" (I'm going to commit suicide now) message on his cell phone, which he rarely takes to work, but for some reason did this day. We'd shared The Secret with him, and so he asked "The Universe" for instructions and then immediately called 9-1-1.

Within 10 minutes the police found her, brought her into the hospital and locked her into a psyche ward where, for the first time in over a decade, there was finally a shrink actually interested in helping her and getting her completely off drugs instead of just giving her another prescription.

The next day, her husband was not able to go and visit her, and it just so happened that I was going to a meeting that morning that had been postponed from an earlier day. Wouldn't you know it, I was going to be very near the hospital. Although I had no idea if she'd be receptive to a visit from me, and in fact I had sworn I would never again have anything to do with her (that's how bad the situation was), I felt compelled to go and see her. There, we made polite small talk, but I was able to briefly mention The Secret. I asked her to promise me that she would start to think of what she wants instead of what she doesn't want, i.e. addiction and the misery it has brought her and the rest of us.

I left her, rather depressed after our encounter which seemed at the time a waste of time.

It wasn't. What I said apparently has resonated so strongly with her that, according to her husband, she actually is changing her behaviour, facing her past (for the first time) and facing the future with optimism. She is a believer of The Secret and hasn't even read the book or seen the movie!

And, that same day that she was brought back, my husband heard from her sister, for the first time in about two years.

The rapidity of these turnabouts is nothing less than astounding and cannot possibly be attributed to anything other than our faith in The Secret and applying the law of attraction. While we asked on their behalf, it was actually for ourselves, because we so want them to be healthy, happy and whole, and part of our lives. Their complete and total recovery is very real to us, and the speed at which our vision is manifesting itself is almost dizzying.

So it makes me wonder.... if enough people believed and applied The Secret to trafficking victims, couldn't it result in similar success for them?

Legalizing prostitution a stupid idea

I vehemently disagree with those (probably) well-meaning but misguided souls advocating to legalize prostitution.

In theory, it's fine, but in reality it would be a travesty. All you'd be doing is allowing pimps and traffickers to visit even more misery on women (and children) in order to cash in on the growing sex-on-demand "industry."

If it were a bona-fide "trade" that women choose voluntarily, that would be a different story. How many little girls do you know who aspire to being a prostitute? Is that a "profession" you would encourage your daughter to take up?

Maybe some do enter the "trade" of their own volition, but they're in the minority and usually are soon disabused of any romantic notions of a "Pretty Woman" lifestyle. Most, however, enter it out of desperation and despair, or because they are trafficked.

Personally, I think it is possible to treat the victims (i.e. the women and children forced into prostitution) with dignity without legalizing the so-called and very mis-named sex "trade." It is the johns, rather than prostitutes, who should be carted off to jail.

It's not a matter of changing the law, but of changing attitudes. Unfortunately, it is much easier to change laws.

If you still think prostitution should be legalized, watch this.

The film is in English. So watch it.

And weep, like I did.

"Becoming Natasha" - Toronto performances

If you're in the Toronto area, consider taking this in ... and invite others along, especially advocates of legalized prostitution and casual consumers of pornography.

Becoming Natasha will be performed at the Robert Gill Theatre 214 College St. (Robert Gill Theatre, 214 College St. 3rd floor (use St. George St. entrance) Not wheelchair accessible.

Performances are Friday, March 23 and Saturday, March 24th at 8pm and will be followed by a panel discussion. Tickets are $10 and can be bought at the Robert Gill Box office: 416-978-7986. Email for group reservations.

This production contains explicit language and is not recommended for those under the age of 18.

Full details in press release here.

Event: Stop the sexual exploitation of children

If you're in the Vancouver area, here's a worthwhile event to take in.

STOP the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth Awareness Week Kick-off

Saturday March 10, 2007
10am - 4pm
Safeway at 1033 Austin Avenue, Coquitlam
KICK OFF at 1pm

FREE EVENT! OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Hosted byTri-Cities Community Action Team. This event is also in conjunction with a fundraising event for Children of the Street Society, in partnership with Safeway. Purchase $30 in groceries and receive a Safeway coupon book FREE.

For more information contact Stephanie Owen at childrenofthestreet@telus.net or 605-777-7510.

H/T to Put Kids First.

Telus - questionable judgement?

You gotta hand it to Telus, that forward-thinking good corporate citizen that holds its customers' concerns so dear to its (black ink stained) heart.

Why, this company is so in tune with its customers that it caters to them using 20/20 hindsight ... after they've taken their business to more, um, reputable competitors who have a different take on "responsibility" vis-a-vis pumping (should that "u" be an "i"?) pay-for-porn cell phone service.

Read all about the flexible minds and morality at Telus here.

Cross-posted at Nash Holos.

The glamour of exploitation

Why does this article make me see such a parallel between the fashion industry and the human trafficking and pornography "industries"?

Could it be because so many Ukrainian and other East European girls and women are being exploited by all of them?

So, where are all the women's rights advocates? One could be forgiven for wondering if contemporary feminists care as little about these women and girls as those who profit from their bodies. If not less.

Update on Ukrainian infants killed to harvest stem cells

A French publication recently published an update on the scandal involving healthy Ukrainian babies being murdered to harvest their stem cells.

... In the [sic] Ukraine, investigators are exploring the possibility that healthy infants and preborns were killed for stem-cell experimentation. It is speculated that the babies’ organs were extracted after allegedly being stolen from mothers by staff at Maternity Hospital Number Six in the eastern city of Kharkov [sic].

... Pictures from the autopsies reveal tiny dismembered bodies with missing organs and brains. Since dismemberment of bodies is not a standard post-mortem practice, it is likely the babies were harvested for the high amounts of stem cells in their brains and bone marrow.
... Due to the increasing worldwide demand for stem cells, it is possible healthy newborns are now being used to feed this demand. These healthy babies mysteriously "die" following a successful birth.

... Bioethicist Wesley Smith believes the demand for hundreds of millions of eggs and stem cells will lead to fetal farming. [T]he allegations of the stolen Ukrainian babies come only months after Family News in Focus reported [Ukrainian] women ... were being paid $200 to abort their babies for the acquisition of stem cells. More specifically, according to Smith, the women were paid to get pregnant for the sole purpose of aborting the babies at eight weeks gestation so the stem cells could be used for an anti-aging beauty treatment.

The Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IRM) in Barbados uses such a treatment that supposedly improves one’s fitness, sex life, mental capacity, and sleeping patterns. ... The treatment involves injecting clients with stem cells from seven- to ten-week-old aborted babies.

Full article here.

One down, millions more to go

While this child porn bust is good news, it's disheartening to realize how endemic a sickness is man's inhumanity to children.

Authorities in Austria have uncovered a major international child pornography ring that stretches across 77 countries and involves more than 2,360 Internet addresses -- including at least 19 from Canada. ... The Canadians are suspected of paying to access videos on a website of young children, aged 14 and under, being sexually abused.

... the FBI was investigating about 600 Internet addresses in the United States, German authorities were looking at 400 addresses, France at 100 while his country was looking at 23. ...
Austrian police are calling the case "a strike against child pornography unprecedented in Austrian criminal history."

"Girls could be seen being raped, and you could also hear screams,'' said [the] Austrian police expert on Internet crime who headed the investigation. ...

... In Austria, the youngest person implicated in the case is 17 and the oldest is 69. ... the videos were all posted on a Russian website that is now defunct. To access the material, users had to pay US$89. Investigators believe most of the videos were made in Eastern Europe and uploaded somewhere in Britain.

Read the full article here.

Just discovered ... Human Trafficking: The Movie

A Hollywood movie called Human Trafficking, starring Mira Sorvino and Donald Sutherland, was made back in 2005. Apparently it premiered in October, although it's not clear from the website if that was Oct 2005 or 2006.

Interesting that it's taken this long to learn of this movie. Given Hollywood's sleazy standards, however, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that a movie like this wouldn't be widely promoted.

Also interesting is how, once the shock wears off revelations like this, any intial activism seems to comes to an abrupt halt.

Roman Catholic nuns in Ontario raising awareness of human trafficking

An excellent article was published recently about a few Roman Catholic nuns in Ontario who have taken on the gargantuan task of educating the public about human trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Shock talk probably isn't what you would expect from a nun. But Sister Dorothy Goetz's message about the global sex-slave trade leaves listeners stunned. They're numbed by estimates that 700,000 to two million people a year are traded like livestock....

The shock waves go both ways. Goetz herself is disconcerted that people are so surprised ...

Goetz and fellow members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame are leading workshops to raise awareness of the huge trade in humans.

So far the sisters have visited three Roman Catholic churches in Waterloo Region ... about eight of the sisters and several volunteers formed a committee to raise awareness by speaking at churches.
The sisters open each talk with the Prayer for The End to Human Trafficking. They show a video and then use a PowerPoint presentation ...

Only one male has attended a committee workshop to date. That disappoints Goetz. ... Men have many skills and contacts that could help women fight human trafficking....

Full article here.

Some human rights abuses harder to expose than others

It's very commendable of rock stars to help expose human rights abuses around the world.

British rock legend Peter Gabriel has formd an organization called Witness that provides video equipment to human rights activists to record such abuses.

I suspect he may not be aware of the horrific abuses suffered by hundreds of thousands of young women and even children, at the hands of human traffickers pandering to men seeking instant, no-strings-attached sexual gratification.

In which case, someone should send him a copy of The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade.

Then again, no doubt it would be extremely difficult to film what goes on behind the closed doors and barred windows of brothels and "breaking grounds", much less expose it to public view.

There but for the grace of God...

An American student at Duke University, who only recently realized she escaped the horrible fate of so many young Ukrainian women, writes ....

I grew up with mummy and daddy who sent me to private school instead of a brothel ... The truth is, a few years ago trafficking in humans barely registered on my radar.

Therefore, I would like to extend my gratitude to all those members of Duke’s international community who, in the past, have branded me a “Russian whore” and told me, with much glee, about what women like me do back in their countries. Without your little jibes, whether uttered in jest or in a calculated attempt at humiliation, I might have never woken up. I would have never seen firsthand the kind of complacency that allows for human beings to be sold like cattle into this special service industry.

... I’ve been shocked out of my shell, reminded of the fact that while I was growing up in a cozy little enclave in Charlotte, North Carolina my compatriots were being beaten into submission by meaty thugs and pawed by drooling clientele.

Read the entire article here. A very worthwhile, if gruesome, read.

Pop icon video raises awareness of trafficking

Ukraine's female pop icon Ruslana is using her celebrity for for a very good cause.

A big "Brava" to her for putting out this video and raising awareness of the scourge of human trafficking.

The lack of comments at the video site drove home to me that human trafficking, especially for purposes of sexual exploitation, is one of the few remaining "taboo" topics in today's society.

Perhaps that's because it so clearly illustrates the barbarity of contemporary society ... and the reality that despite being more liberal, we are not really as advanced a society as we may like to think.

Cross-posted at the Nash Holos blog.

More on Ukraine baby murders

Here is another one of the rare articles on the babies murdered in Ukraine for stem cell "research" and some rather dubious beauty treatments for affluent westerners.

The plastic bag looks as if it contains meat. But then a right leg is taken from it and placed surgically on the morgue table, followed by the left one. Then the torso. The head follows, a gaping cavity where the brain used to be.

But it is only when the gloved hand of the pathologist examines the tiny fingers of a baby aged about 30 weeks that the full horror of what I am witnessing sinks in.

This shocking scene was captured on video at post-mortem examinations carried out on behalf of Ukrainian mothers who claim their babies were stolen from them at birth.

[Some] 300 families ... believe their healthy babies were ... taken at birth to have their organs and stem cells harvested ... [for treatments to, among other things] reverse the effects of ageing. ...

... the Council Of Europe is now carrying out its own investigation ... The wall of silence is crumbling. And it may yet reveal a very ugly side to the global beauty business. ...

Full article here.

Whistleblower in baby murder investigations sacked

World Net Daily reports that an investigator looking into stem-cell trafficking in Ukraine has been fired. Very disturbing. But equally disturbing is, I think, the lack of any focus on those who create the demand that drives this "market." Would the affluent west perhaps be a tad too squeamish to look closely into the mirror?

In the midst of growing interest in reports of a gruesome stem-cell and human-organ black market that traffics in newborn babies taken from their mothers, an investigator looking into the matter has been sacked 'for political reasons,' she says, because she was getting too close to the truth. ...

The Council of Europe is scheduled in February to investigate allegations that newborn babies have been killed to provide stem cells and internal organs. ...

Officials will focus on the role, if any, played by Ukranian research centers and maternity hospitals in the international trade in stem cells. An earlier investigation in 2004 was dropped for lack of firm evidence, but the latest charges have caused the case to be reopened.

Full article here. (H/T Kiev Ukraine News Blog)

This Telegraph article corroborates that report, but suggests the babies may have ended up being adopted in the West. Maybe. Or, maybe not.

Ukraine babies killed for stem cell trade

According to this BBC News Report, new-born babies in Ukraine are being killed to harvest stem-cells for international traffickers.

There is a trade in stem cells from aborted foetuses, amid unproven claims they can help fight many diseases. But now there are claims that stem cells are also being harvested from live babies.

The BBC has spoken to mothers from the city of Kharkiv who say they gave birth to healthy babies, only to have them taken by maternity staff.

In 2003 the authorities agreed to exhume around 30 bodies of foetuses and full-term babies ... [the Council of Europe] describes a general culture of trafficking of children snatched at birth, and a wall of silence from hospital staff upwards over their fate.

Journalist Urges More Enforcement of Laws Against Human Trafficking

How long will the powers-that-be, and well as ordinary people, ignore the need for action, as this article illustrates?

Victor Malarek, a well-known investigative journalist, spoke at the U.S. Department of State [recently about] the global problem of trafficking in women, calling it “a disaster of epic proportions.”

Malarek, author of the book The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade, was introduced by Ambassador John Miller, director of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and senior adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on human trafficking.

Human trafficking, according to Malarek, continues to flourish unabated because laws already on the books in most countries are not being enforced. He acknowledged that the sex trade “won’t go away,” but he said minimizing it should be a top priority of all nations.

... Malarek had especially harsh words for the “deceptive mantra” of those in favor of legalizing prostitution, saying that in countries where prostitution is legal, organized crime has grown more powerful and human trafficking has increased. ...

In countries where women have access to “real jobs that don’t require them to shed their clothes,” Malarek said, local brothel owners rely on traffickers to keep their brothels stocked with prostitutes from other countries such as Russia, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine.

Nor does legalized prostitution control the spread of HIV/AIDS... There is nothing, he said, to protect the women from the men who use them.

“Tolerance is a dangerous game,” Malarek said. “The decriminalization crowd is a pack of wolves in sheep’s clothing.” The only way to tackle the problem, he said, is “to go after the men who demand the women.”

... Malarek emphasized that trafficking is “a huge human rights abuse” and that dignity for women should be a top priority. According to State Department statistics, about 600,000 to 800,000 people -- mostly women and children -- are trafficked across national boundaries each year. This figure does not include the millions trafficked within their own countries. ...

Read entire article here. Some good links to other sources there as well.

Docs target inappropriate advertising - about time!

A doctor's group in the US has made the brilliant observation that advertising influences attitudes in children, and has come out with a call for the government to do something about it.

Inappropriate advertising contributes to many kids' ills, from obesity to anorexia, to drinking booze and having sex too soon, and Congress should crack down on it, the American Academy of Pediatrics says. The influential doctors' group issued a new policy statement in response to what it calls a rising tide of advertising aimed at children.

Rising tide? Have these guys been operating in a vacuum during the last 40 or so years?

... These pervasive ads influence kids to demand poor food choices, and to think drinking is cool, sex is a recreational activity and anorexia is fashionable, the academy says. Interactive digital TV, expected to arrive in a few years, will spread the problem, allowing kids to click on-screen links to Web-based promotions...

Well, duh. But it's pretty naive to expect the U.S. government to take on the big money ad agencies, the big money businesses who shell out big bucks for the ads, and the lawyers paid to look after big-money interests. The backlash against the docs is already starting.

Critics of advertising restrictions say it's a free-speech issue. ...

Of course they do. But still, while demanding change won't bring it about completely, at least it's a start.

Last year, the Institute of Medicine agreed that evidence suggesting that TV ads contribute to childhood obesity is compelling and said industry should market healthy foods to kids. And in September, the Federal Communications Commission said it will study potential links between TV ads and rising rates of obesity in U.S. children. The food industry has started to respond.

This is good news. But how long will it take for an advocacy group to lean on the entertainment industry? Might be a while. As they say in the advertising world, sex sells. It's an even bigger cash cow than food, and there doesn't seem to be much public concern over the escalating encroachment of porn into every aspect of advertising.

Full article here.

Researcher at Alberta university jailed for child porn

This is the calibre of people in our universities, influencing future generations ...

A British researcher with the University of Lethbridge has been sentenced to 15 months in an English jail ... Robin Phillips pleaded guilty last month to four charges including taking indecent images of children and possessing indecent images of children. Phillips is a British astrophysicist who worked as manager of a research project in Lethbridge.

No doubt this low-life was highly-paid for his "research"... courtesy Canadian taxpayers. And yet said taxpayers quietly fork over their hard-earned dollars, with barely a whimper much less a demand for some sort of accountability. Is that apathy, complacency, or both?

Story here.