Posted by Benjamin on: 07.26.2007 /
Two years ago I did an intense 18 credit course in which we looked at the history of “Indochina”–Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and specifically at the U.S. war down there and it’s aftermaths. One issue we looked at was the sex trade/trafficking in humans. Ever since that course, I’ve had this little question poking around in the back of my head: What are the implications and effects of the Iraq War with regards to this issue? Recently, this video gave me the beginnings of an answer. H/T to Jen
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Comment by: joe
1 07/26/07 3:21 AM | Comment Link |I’m lost for words.
Comment by: Elaine
2 07/26/07 11:36 AM | Comment Link |As I sit here at my laptop in the quiet of my home and neighborhood, I am overwhelmed thinking about these children - it only talks about the young women and female children, but I would assume there are young boys forced into this also.
How desparate a family must be to send their children into harms way!
Is any war really worth the price these young people are paying? And what will be the fruit of these wars? Who will these children grow up hating?
Comment by: David H
3 07/26/07 12:50 PM | Comment Link |In Southeast Asia the sexual morees, while highly conservative, don’t begin to approach the level of repression in most Arabic countries. But one of the truly devastating affects of American involvement in SE Asia was a near total erosion — in every country — of those standards and, in many respects, the very foundation of the societies.
These things are not exclusive to war zones. Much of the impetus in the Philippines to get rid of US bases was because sex and drugs and every imaginable vice seem to spring up around those facilities like a particularly virulent form of cancer. Before the bases societal norms and the economy held some of those things in a kind of check. But especially in the war zones the society breaks down and the normal economy falls apart. You can’t get a job that will pay for a home or food, but the rich bottom feeders arrive (whether American or of other nationalities) to offer a chance to live if you will only sell your soul.
Talking with my wife, who is Vietnamese, and traveling in Vietnam I have seen and heard first hand accounts. I have heard people say with what appears like calm that they sold themselves or their children because that was the only thing they had left of any value. Today, Cambodia and Laos and Thailand are the top sex tourist stops in the world. Their are more child prostitutes there than anywhere else in the world.
Obviously the US is not solely responsible. There were no Americans in the nightclub from the video. The men and the girls have little or no direct involvement with Americans. Yet how this nation chooses to deal with the rest of the world makes us all culpable. Our effort to “save” that nation from its evil dictator has not led to hope for many of its people. It has led from hell to hell; from the ever-present danger of death to a daily degradation; to the unhappy of choice of losing my life today or crushing it slowly with an ever-tightening vise of hopelessness.
And our stupid-ass politicians pretend they are making the country safe and deny even the reason that people should flee. The US does little or nothing for the refugees of Iraq. There are no plans for how to help the millions more who will be displaced should we leave or the looming civil war finally erupt into a full-scale conflict regardless of our departure.
The humanitarian crises has already begun in Iraq. What will we do to help those people?
Comment by: Eliza
4 07/27/07 1:38 PM | Comment Link |I had no idea. Thanks for posting this video. I had no idea.
Kudos to NBC for reporting this story…
Comment by: benjamin
5 07/27/07 2:56 PM | Comment Link |Eliza. You’re welcome! Long time no talk to =). Yeah–Kudo’s to NBC!
Comment by: Rachel
6 07/27/07 3:27 PM | Comment Link |This is so sad. As the mother of an 11-year old girl, it rips my heart out. And it fits the pattern of exploitation I learned about in the book Not for Sale - families driven to desperation by military, political and economic unrest, women and girls away from their home communities, living without protection or hope.
“God punish those who stole Iraq’s dignity.” Indeed.
Comment by: benjamin
7 07/27/07 4:15 PM | Comment Link |I love the way Iraqi’s seem to have this older, more vibrant, more earthy connection to god than americans do. I remember seeing this sort of sentiment in various videos and news reports I’ve seen–iraqi people calling out, out loud, to god for justice against their enemies–those who have hurt them, raped them, bombed them, tortured them, destroyed them.
no nice fake “forgive your enemies” somehow twisted into “we’re doing this to bring democracy, peace and freedom”. just plain old “Please god, do to them what they’ve done to us.” quite refreshing and … somehow appealing.
Comment by: Rachel
8 07/28/07 5:34 PM | Comment Link |I like that too, Benjamin. I have this little fantasy that I would sneak through security at Nike and go rushing into the office of Phil Knight and point my finger at him and quote James 5 in a loud, prophet voice, “This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment! For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay! The wages you held back cry out against you! The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty!”
Of course, by this point security guards are probably dragging me away while I’m still yelling like a madwoman. (he-he)
Comment by: benjamin ady
9 07/28/07 7:56 PM | Comment Link |that’s a beautiful fantasy. Now I’m feeling guilty that one of my daughters owns a pair a Nike sub-brand sandals, which, admittedly, are rather high quality, as they have lasted some 3 years already.
Comment by: David H
10 07/30/07 5:59 PM | Comment Link |I read some horror stories about Nike factories before going to Vietnam and was prepared to say all sorts of things to people there. Yet many Vietnamese people I spoke to were happy to have the jobs afforded by the Nike plant. I’m not sure they were aware of some of the environmental issues (the fumes from some of the glues are fairly toxic) but they tended to agree with Phil Knight’s logic that if Nike wasn’t providing the jobs those people would be begging for a living. I still feel a twinge every time I look at Nike goods in the store, though.
One funny thing about Nike in Vietnam is that while they had a huge factory for making shoes it was illegal to sell Nike shoes in Vietnam. Only the high end stores, that catered to tourists and party officials had real Nike goods. All the others stores had knock-offs because everybody wanted to sell something with the Nike label.
Still, there is an issue with social responsibility that seems to be growing more prevalent as manufacturing goes to third world countries. Is it fair to pay someone a dollar a day simply because they otherwise wouldn’t have a job? Is it fair to put foreign workers into sub-standard unhealthy working conditions because they have no union and no national regulations prohibiting such treatment? I like the fair trade movement because it isn’t about how to get the most profit back to stock holders in the company.