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Archive for the ‘americas’ Category

Genesis: Overcoming the nightmare of American sex trafficking

Posted in activism, americas, awareness, children, families, human goods original reporting, prevention, sex, united states, video on March 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Genesis Ramirez was 15 years old when she turned her first trick.  The following years blended together in a traumatizing series of rapes, beatings, stabbings, miscarriages, and addictions.  Now, at 18, Genesis has pulled herself out of the abyss of Chicago’s sex trade and is trying to forge a life with integrity for the sake [...]

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Cuckoo for cocoa: Valentine’s chocolate in the age of unfair trade

Posted in activism, africa, americas, awareness, children, consumption, corporate responsibility, fair trade, food, labor, production chains, united states on February 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

(image by the International Labor Rights Forum)
The absurdity of the fact that many of us in the first world show our love for one another with products produced by the blood, sweat, and tears of others ought to give all of us pause.  Valentine’s Day offers a unique opportunity to probe into the reality of [...]

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A tribute to Howard Zinn

Posted in americas, united states on January 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Legendary writer, activist, historian, and teacher Howard Zinn died yesterday, at 87 years old, of a heart attack.  Perhaps most famous for his groundbreaking reworking of American history, A People’s History of the United States, Zinn spent his life giving voice to those elbowed to the margins of society.  His retelling of both history and [...]

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Good news from Haiti: Journalist Ben Skinner returns a life-saving favor

Posted in activism, americas, haiti, natural disasters, refugees, video on January 21, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Haitian anti-slavery activist Bill Nathan was taking a break from his work with abandoned and former slave children, when the earthquake hurtled him from the seventh-floor garden of the orphanage.
Ben Skinner, an anti-slavery activist and journalist, writes in Time:
Two minutes later, the quake smashed open the building, and the top three floors pitched northward, hurling [...]

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The place to be: For child traffickers, Haiti’s chaos is ripe with opportunity

Posted in americas, children, labor, natural disasters, refugees, sex on January 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

In Haiti’s unstable post-quake atmosphere, at least one industry is poised to flourish. For those who buy and sell children for sex and cheap labor, Haiti is ripe with opportunity,
Nicolette Grams, staff member of the International Justice Mission, writes in the Atlantic.  Grams uses her article to illuminate the escalating threat of child trafficking through [...]

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Before the quake: The roots of Haiti’s destruction

Posted in americas, global economics, haiti, natural disasters, policy, refugees, video on January 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

While earthquakes are acts of nature, extreme vulnerability to earthquakes is manmade,
Tracy Kidder wrote in The New York Times, referring to last week’s cataclysmic quake in Haiti.  Kidder, who has written about the work of the legendary Dr. Paul Farmer in rural Haiti, explains in his article what many others have also voiced about the [...]

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Promising heaven, giving them hell: On pimps and runaways in America

Posted in americas, awareness, children, families, policy, prevention, prosecution, sex, united states, video on November 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

(photo: Monica Almeida/The New York Times)
On Halloween this year, the little mountain town of Ashland, Oregon reverberated with the rhythms of drum circles and laughter.  Following the annual Halloween parade, the streets were throbbing with Little Bo Peeps and Buzz Lightyears, offbeat zombies and chuckling middle-aged women in street clothes.
I sat in a small cafe [...]

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Obama vs. McCain on human trafficking

Posted in americas, policy, prevention, united states, video on August 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Few Americans will likely make human trafficking a deciding issue when they go to the polls this November. But nevertheless, the topic pops up now and then in speeches and interviews of the candidates. Paul Bernish, of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center’s Freedom Blog, broke down the candidates’ stances on [...]

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Targeting child prostitution in Atlanta

Posted in americas, awareness, children, prevention, sex, sex tourism, united states on July 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The New York Times published an opinion piece on efforts to boost prevention of child prostitution in Atlanta. Atlanta stands apart as perhaps the major U.S. hub for the trafficking of American children for purposes of sex (see earlier Human Goods post on Libby Spears’ documentary, Playground). The problem rears its head in most cities, [...]

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John Miller challenges Bush on TVPA Reauthorization quagmire

Posted in americas, awareness, labor, policy, prosecution, united states on July 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

(photo: Jon Krause)
John Miller, former ambassador on slavery for the State Department and leader of the Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Human Trafficking, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times. He boldly challenged the Bush Administration to account for the Justice Department’s opposition to new clauses in the bill that would intensify anti-slavery [...]

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