Is there a way that these stories, nevertheless, do interplay?

Is it a world where there is so much of this going on–women harmed for the sake of or prosecuted in an economic relationship to their sexuality? (the fellas still getting off, as if it were a gentlemen’s agreement, nudge, nudge–between the forces of justice and the ‘johns,’ the solicitors for sex.)

If lawmakers and other prominent guys are regulars and spending so extravagently with this particular madam’s business, what does that say for their efforts or abilities to relate to women or to give issues of women the priority they deserve?

And around we come again, who makes the laws? How do they get the training and networking to gain office? What if lawmaking wasn’t such a man’s game?

The ONLY way to fight this is to recognize it for the true evil it is and impose a prison sentence on EVERYONE INVOLVED. That means the businessmen, judges, doctors, politicians drug dealers, and endless parade of sexual deviants who stand in line eager to purchase the use of their bodies. Life in prison still gives them a far better life than that of their victims.

Great work, Tom and Micholas!

Has anyone noticed something like this? There seem to be nail salons cropping up everywhere. Most are legit, but can a nail salon, which I assume is monitored by the state, be a haven for slavery or forced work?

Right on Linda Darman and Betsy Ross – those same thoughts were racing through my mind when I sat frozen in my car unable to leave listening to this story last night.
The more responsibility Mr. Obama takes for all of us the less responsible we all become. I only hope he continues to lead us but put the responsibility where it belongs.
In that regard thank you Eshther for your pro-active approach to this problem. Personally this sounds worse than the 19th Cent. Atlantic Trade – these girls are not only imprisoned but the physical, sexual and emotional trauma seems given to be deadly.

http://www.p-ced.com/projects/ukraine/national/

So far, the influence has been the creation of a new USAID foundation for community enterprise and Ukraine’s policy decision to update childcare provision.

We believe the answer is to treat the cause rather than the symptoms. Obama won’t be able to wave a wand,
it needs business which re-invests in community to work with government, as Bill Gates proposes with creative capitalism.

“O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, How long shall the wicked triumph?”

You and I should be effective against evils too, because we can!
Mr.Kristof demonstrates what one man can do.

“Because every man sometimes errs, that’s no reason whatever not to praise (and take example worthy of following) from the good things he may also do,” seems like a good response to my fellow poster here who challenged the virtue of Mr. Kristof’s implementation of the sacred directive: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

… and, in celebrating exemplars of action, let us not forget, let us not fail to follow(!), the costly example of the immediate heroine in this crisis-matter, young Long Pross herself, who looks us right in our collective millions of unfeeling unseeing eyes with her one eye like a window from many lives looking out on a very large world otherwise needlessly & deliberately deaf.

Arn Moore in Boston

I’d like to add my thought that the more ‘power over’ scenarios that get acted out in the world, the more
there are people who want to act out on others they can act out on.

So, a slick deal in one part of the world, where someone less slick, or with less power to leverage, loses while the other rakes it in, well, there’s some residual feelings about that, isn’t there?

Not to forget that when profit adds up to ridiculous consumption, and blocks earnings for needed consumption, well, does that advance the thriving of the world? What kind of energy does that create?

One More:
(I do value & sometimes read the NY Times): To the author, Nick, of the article: Let’s start ‘at home’–I mean–the media, all of it, which reports on things–why NOT get yourselves involved in problems which are contributed to by world media?

What about engaging media around the world (and here in the US) in forums to connect with them–get to know them, what they are thinking, make friends, meet with them?

And all of us–we can start at home too, can’t we? Isn’t that our responsibility?

PS–go to change.org and vote for empathy to be one of the top objectives for the new US administration.

However, when the conversation takes an extreme tone, associating the concept of selling sex automatically, in every case, as slavery, well, it will be treated with less importance.

Face it, not everybody will agree about that. There are plenty of happy women in Amsterdam making good money, willingly, who turn down other options for jobs, without any pressure. This may be the minority, but as long as you lump all prostitution with the horrible acts of slavery and violence, you are watering down the latter.

The problem isn’t new, but it is very real, and I thank you for helping to spread some light on it. A friend of mine told me about your show a few minutes ago, because it made them think of my book.

“River of Innocents” is a novel I wrote to help publicize modern-day slavery and to provoke action against it. The story is based on “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in order to provoke a reaction similar to that which UTC provoked against slavery prior to the civil war, but follows the life of a seventeen-year-old Albanian girl–Majlinda–as she’s trafficked into transnational sex slavery.

Each of us–no matter how far away from the problem of trafficking we seem to be in our daily lives–can do something to help end slavery.

(http://riverofinnocents.com)

Rather than attempting to intervene at the end of the chain, NYOF goes to the source, ie. the homes of the girls, with a counter opportunity offer. In remote areas of Nepal there is a wide-spread custom of selling daughters as young as 10 to agents from the city. The income of the family is so low that this is considered a necessary way to add to family income and the girls go off into virtual slavery, possibly including sexual abuse. This practice is against national law but is widely practiced in remote areas.

NYOF also goes to the source and offers the family a piglet to be raised for future income on condition that the girl remains at home and attends school for which NYOF provides the expense of tuition, books, etc. Over the last five years over 2500 girls have been ransomed. These graduates are now taking over publicizing the program and recruiting more girls to stay home and be educated. The most qualified school graduates are eligible to apply for scholarships to Nursing School or University Study.

Check it out at http://www.nyof.org.