sabato 12 luglio 2014

The slave traders of our time



We need to remind people that the sex industry has created an organized system for the trade in human lives. We must not upset, but provide the tools to understand the problem in order to engage people and push them to be part of the solution. 
Politicians and citizens continue to debate on issues such as prostitution and sexual freedom with the same arguments of the sixties. But it must be emphasized that the phenomenon is much different than it was then. We are witnessing the return of misogyny, and organized crime has found the formula to make easy money by buying and selling women, girls and children from sexual abuse, disposable type. Nothing to do even more eroticism, it is just money and power. We are therefore faced with a real challenge: how to deal with the problem of prostitution and sex trafficking in the twenty-first century? 
We need to state clearly that the sexuality of the sex industry is not an individual choice, but a political fact, a matter of human rights. I do not want to talk about philosophy, nor do I want to discuss freedom as if we were in a clinical laboratory analysis of a bacterium. We are talking about an international crime committed by millions of men and women and who has now assumed the appearance of a standardized, refined, regulated slavery. We need to really be careful when we talk about sexual politics. I like it and it seems useful to the definition of "politics" as a relationship based on power, agreement by which a group is controlled by another (Kate Millet). 
It can not therefore talk about politics of sex except in the context of globalization of the twenty-first century. We need to consider all the entities involved and build a real map on how, for example, the tourism industry circles the laws against trafficking umaniattraverso hotels / brothels 5 star "All Inclusive" in countries such as Mexico or the Dominican Republic. And you also need to declare openly that the frequenters of these places are American, British, Russian, men around the world who have the financial ability to buy human beings for the purpose of entertainment.


There is absolutely nothing wrong if there are women who want a life free erotic and passionate, but this is not what we're talking about. I think we're trapped at a general level in a discussion as to whether sex can be violent so extreme or moderate, or whether the choice of some men to buy a virgin teenager to have sex in a brothel should be legalized or banned. Or the fact that, if the woman is a seventeen rape is a crime, but if it is an eighteen year old can be sold without any problems. 
Some say that if a mother needs food and has a daughter from being able to "exploit" to feed the family ... well this is the way to survive the famine. For example, in Vietnam or Guatemala. You'd be surprised at what I heard in the last 5 years traveling around the world, interviewing millions of children and families who are victims of this industry. 
While I was writing my book "The Demons of Eden", I found an international network on sex trafficking and child pornography. Meet all these young victims has forever changed my life, not only because as soon as I started to write about criminals in question, I received series of death threats, but also because the girls, including their most distressing, nightmares and sudden changes in mood, insisted that I would tell all on one condition: I had to do my best to assure them that Succar Kuri (the leader of the criminal network) and his accomplices would never raped nor sold nor other girls. 
The answer that I gave them has changed my life. I tried to keep my promise and not abandon them ever. Being a good reporter involves finding out the truth, never forget the condition of those who trust in you telling you the story of their lives. After 8 years of trying, last year, Kuri was sentenced to 113 years in prison. I am proud of my campaign against trafficking in human beings and activism of many people who have helped to get the first historical condemnation against child pornography. But the experience was more important to realize that the social and legal changes are possible if you have the patience, the ability to insist on the implementation of new laws and the ability to turn a terrible problem in a good cause. It is a social challenge in which everyone must play their part. Consider a story seemingly detached from his own reality instead to explain how it affects the whole community and even his own family is the real challenge for those who denounce the trafficking of human beings.


We have good laws thanks to the women's movements that have never been saved, continuing to push for politicians and lawmakers approve new laws to abolish violence against women and girls, against trafficking in human beings and child pornography. But no need to discuss the economy generated by these criminal activities against women and understand that the engine of these gangs are their profits. If the market collapses - if people stop buying women, girls and boys as objects - the mafia will look elsewhere. But let's face it clear: the company needs to work on prevention, sex education and sexuality of girls and boys, making sure that women do not accept the rhetoric of sexual mafias that drives us to consider prostitution a form of empowerment of women. 
When we talk about sex trafficking we must remember that the use of sex as a means of oppression and domination has its origins in the distant past. We need to bring the debate of human trafficking and sex trafficking at a level that includes pornography of minors; we should not scare people, but teach them to be part of the solution and remember that the sex industry has created a structured system of "merchandising" of trade in human beings. 
Every day we see famous women who can not help but show up in the media erotically and sensually fascinating, do not despise pornography, are attracted to the care of aging and cosmetic surgery, the reconstruction of the vagina, and so on. etc.. They have become a reference model for what it has to do with sexual imagery, but even more help to fully vaccinate the terrible truth of sex as a commodity. For a woman who makes glamorous porn, violent sex and prostitution, there are hundreds of thousands who are enslaved and forced to do something which, I assure you, it is far dall'essereglamour. I feel the need to reclaim our rights to assert and claim that it is a moral issue and our puritanical, is an ethical issue since there are 1, 4 million people are slaves of cultural values​​, the slaves of the sex industry , of an economic system is not fair, social apathy that does not feel or understand the pain and violation of the rights of others. The choice that the economic system offers to these people is to become slaves, the gangs know this - think the cartels in Mexico and those of the Yakuza in Japan - and happily took advantage of. 
I do not think it's fair to discuss the sex trade if you do not have the courage to take a position on prostitution. We can not ignore the human rights of all women involved in the sex industry, we must listen to them and respect them. And let us not be fooled by the fact that 5% of prostitutes are free and wealthy: the majority of women enter the sex industry as a result of childhood abuse, discrimination, poverty and violence just because they are women. Studying countries that have efficient standards in terms of "gender equality", it can be seen that almost no woman is dedicated to prostitution. In these countries, women have real choices and opportunities that make a clear difference compared to other countries. This must be our goal for women in every part of the world. 
Our silence and our fear damage to the growing power of the mafia and increase the proliferation of lovers kids who marry young women in order to exploit them and make them work in brothels. Only if we can show through the judicial system and education who are really icommercianti of human slaves - will change the way of thinking of young people at risk of becoming the new protectors. The whole society has to work on prevention, sex education and sexuality of boys and girls, in particular making sure that the girls do not absorb the rhetoric of the mafias that - again - wants to treat prostitution and pornography a form of emancipation female. 
There is nothing more powerful than being owners of their own bodies, their sex lives and their freedom. Politicians play a key role in the debate about how the free market capitalist has increased inequality and sexism. We need new policies and politicians who defend serious about gender equality (most of them confuse gender issues and women's issues). And new programs on how to deal with male virility and the education of children to human rights and peace are indispensable. 
We have to solve the issues related to masculinity. We need men that call into question the way we perceive violence as the only means to resolve conflicts, because that is what they have been taught. We need men around the world should ask you about another way of seeing masculinity, sexuality and the perception of women. 
All men are needed in this research, from teenagers to the elderly. I have seen the result of an education that aims to prevent certain behaviors. I have seen the result of Justice and what happens when men and women walking side by side to change one community at a time.
From 'original article by Lydia Cacho published on openDemocracy 

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