Book Research: Slavery Inc

Slavery Inc: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking by Lydia Cacho is a book of Cacho’s findings of Sex Trafficking around the world. Cacho is a Mexican journalist who risked her safety and life to uncover these stories, statistics and victims testimonies from Turkey, Israel, Colombia, Mexico, Thailand, Argentina and more. This book shows the sex trafficking industries links to Tourism, arms and drugs industry, the corruption of government and law enforcement and the constant battles fought by NGO’s like AFESIP (Acting for Women in Distressful Situations) and ECPAT (End Child Prostitution) to rescue women and children from the hands of traffickers.

For this assignment I will reference this book as Cacho’s findings of the Child Sex Tourism industry is extensive. To me, it puts a human face to the problem and is more relatable as the book is written by someone who made it their mission to uncover sex trafficking and its intricate network rather than just listing out statistics by numbers. One part of the book that really got to me was:
“The psychologists explain that, once the girls understand their captors rules, they learn how to be seductive so the traffickers mistreat them less. They are perfectly aware they are trained to be prostitutes. They do not understand why, but at nine or ten years old, with their sweet, childish voices, they believe this is what they were born to do.” (Cacho, 63)

Resources:
Cacho, Lydia, and Elizabeth Boburg. “Cambodia: Europe’s Hideout.” Slavery Inc.: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking. London: Portobello, 2012. 63. Print.

Publishable Blog 2 (25/05/2016)

During the week I have researching about sex trafficking of women and children, the child sex tourism industry and its surrounding criminal underbelly. In the videos on youtube, documentaries and books, such as Slavery Inc by Lydia Cacho, I had found out some disturbing trends:

• The law enforcement and Government are hands in hand with traffickers and their industry, often looking the other way from their activities (whether that country had legalized prostitution or not) and some politicians, government officials, and police officers are clients in these brothels.
• Governments such as Turkey, cover up the issue of sex trafficking (along with drugs, arms, etc), and make such activities partially illegal to quiet western nations like the US. Cacho states that “despite an increasing number of trafficking cases involving women worldwide, the Turkish police have reported a decrease in the number of women trafficked to Turkey from Russia…How is it possible that in a few years the Turkish police force has been able to lower the incidence of women trafficked from these countries by 50 percent? Why are there no statistics on domestic trafficking?” (Cacho, 14 – 15).

If the case of government and law enforcement being involved in such illicit activities are true, that would make the roles of NGO’s and social workers jobs to eradicate sex trafficking much harder. What can we do as 21st century citizens to raise awareness for this problem? Social media is a huge thing and there are so many social media posts on facebook, twitter, and youtube that raise awareness on these women’s and children’s plight. But why is no one taking notice? Is it because they think it is not their problem, a problem they cannot see? Are governments that are big on censorship making sure these crimes are buried? In my mind map above, I have listed possible solutions to alleviate the problem of sex trafficking; it may not eradicate the problem overnight but a little bit of help counts to someone out there.

Resources:
Cacho, Lydia, and Elizabeth Boburg. Slavery Inc.: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking. London: Portobello, 2012. Print.

Child Sex Tourism

This is a tourism industry for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children or minors – this commercially facilitates child sexual abuse. This is has many negative and horrendous long term consequences for the abused, exploited children such as the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, AID/HIV, drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism and even death.
Child Sex Tourism is part of the multi-million dollar global sex tourism industry and victimizes approximately 2 million children all around the world. These children are often lured or kidnapped into sexual slavery; more than often they are sold by their own parents for money or with promises of finding jobs in larger cities, such as Bangladesh and Bangkok. The majority of sexually exploited children are under 12 years old.

The Tourists
The “tourists”, who use their status for the sole purpose of sexually abusing these children, are not necessarily pedophiles like the majority believe. These tourists often called situational or preferential users – Preferential Users exploit children under the belief that the risk of venereal disease is much lower. Situational Users who do not actively seek out children but the actual act is opportunistic; often these users do not care about the age of the children before sexually engaging with them. They use the internet to plan their trips by seeking out, trading information about the sex tourism industry and where these children can be found. Offenders can be local or international travelers, man or woman, from different age groups and backgrounds.

Why does this happen? Who are the victims?
The Child sex tourism industry is linked closely to poverty, armed conflicts, rapid industrialization, and exploding population growth. Street Children, in places like Southeast Asia and Latin America, often prostitute themselves as a last resort. Additionally, these vulnerable children are easy targets for traffickers. Sex tourism targeting children creates huge monetary value to traffickers, and there is a market demanding a supply of children. The suppliers are often family members such as parents, friends, or trusted acquaintances. They lure and trick children into sexual slavery to gain a profit from themselves. Victims are usually from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds; they may also come from ethnic minorities, displaced communities, and other marginalized social groups. Victims, who are often no strangers to abuse and neglect, are of both genders. Working children or those even born in a tourism destination are more than often exploited.

Global Response and Law enforcement
In recent years, there has been an increase of prosecution of child sex tourism offences. At 38 countries have extraterritorial laws that allow them to prosecute offender’s specifically for child sexual abuse crimes committed whilst aboard and 31 nations have more general extraterritorial laws that could be used to prosecute offenders for crimes committed during sex tourism trips. NGO’s, the tourism industry and the government have addressed and trying to combat the issue. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) established a task force to combat CST. The WTO, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) and Nordic tour operators created a global The Code of Conduct for the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism in Travel and Tourism in 1996. As of April 2013, over 1200 travel companies from 40 countries had signed the code. US immigration and Customs Enforcement participate in investigating and capturing child sex tourists.  In 2003, they arrested more than 11,000 child sexual abusers, with an additional 1,100 outside of the United States alone. Whilst Immigration and Customs Enforcement refuse to comment on their methods of operation; reports have suggested the use of undercover agents, sting operations, and sophisticated technologies.

Resources:
“Child Sex Tourism.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 20 May 2016.
“Understanding Child Sex Tourism | The Code.” Understanding Child Sex Tourism | The Code. The Code. Web. 20 May 2016.
ECPAT International. Combating Child Sex Tourism: Questions and Answers. Bangkok: ECPAT International, 2008. Print.
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Found. 1854 – 55. Pen and black ink, framed in pencil, on paper. Tate Gallery, London.

Publishable Blog 1 (18/05/2016)

Mirzoeff’s idea of being a citizen in the era of globalization means immersing ourselves into our visual culture, think about the world going on around us through social media, graffiti, film, art, etc. To be a citizen of today’s society is to be exposed to visual activism and think visually. We as individuals are visual thinkers and activists. Mirzoeff states that allows us to create “a new self image, new ways to see and be seen, and new ways to see the world”. (Mirzoeff, 279).
I feel like, though the world has globalized and advanced at such an unprecedented level, we still have problems like Sex Trafficking of women and prepubescent children. As of 2013, this is the third largest criminal industry. I will be exploring this particular issue in depth over the next few weeks; whether I break it down to one issue (such as Child Sex Tourism, JK Business, etc) or to the entirety of the issue will be more obvious as time goes by. Really if you had to breakdown Sex Trafficking, there are many factors involved such as:

• Different types of trafficking such as Pimp controlled trafficking, family controlled trafficking, etc
• Sex Trafficking and prevalence in nations such as India, Thailand, the Netherlands, and if cultural norms/economic, socio-political climates allow this industry to thrive or go underground. For example, Bangladesh is the only Muslim country that has legalized prostitution.
• Profile of victims – why, what, when do they become victims of sex trafficking? What are the numbers, statistics?
• How does governments and NGO combat these issues? Why is it still happening despite such organizations combating (or not combating).

My Aim: I want to create a series of visual images that demonstrate visual activism; to provoke a reaction and to create a discussion. Whether it pushes the audience to do something about this issue or make them think about it, who knows. The media I want to use is watercolour and ink and create a painting series; at the moment I do not know the number of paintings within the series but I do want to portray the grim realities of sex trafficking and its consequences.

This image provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shows a poster part of the Blue Campaign to raise public awareness of human trafficking. Awareness campaigns are underway at airports from New York to Los Angeles, as DHS has posted messages on video monitors and airport shopping bags. Other industries, including hotels and trucking, also are increasing efforts to detect trafficking. (Department of Homeland Security via AP)

Above are ads raising awareness against sex trafficking and uses iconography associated with sex trafficking mixed with thoughtful compositions and slogans.

Next week I will create mind maps on the issue in depth, visual activism/thinking, gather more information and book readings.

Chapter 7: Changing the World Summary (Or bite sized pieces for me to understand)

• Activists and groups take advantage of social media and networking, even far as the 90’s.
• Changing media and politics are two parts of the same process to some.
• Hactivism – a term to describe online activism that seeks to disrupt the operations of government or corporate websites.
• Approaches amount to a new form of “representation” in an era of globalization. There are two distinct meanings to representations: one is how we depict people or events in other forms such as film, photography or other mediums. The second means a representative system of government, in which individuals are elected or appointed to represent the interests of others. However, once in place, these representatives have a good deal of latitude on how they act.
• Right of the City – the young, urban, networking majority questioning both forms of representation.
• Can the new global majority represent itself both politically and visually or will the visible oligarchies generated by globalization continue?
• Social Media plus political action often mix.
• Assert the right to look, be seen, online and in the city space. This new self-presentation uses smart phones, graffiti, websites, social media, demonstrations and occupations.
• Some movements were the first to use global social media to try and create a visual thinking about resentation and social change.
• Some acts, such as setting oneself on fire as a form of protest, may not resonate with people earlier. Why? Because social media didn’t exist when it happened. News spreads fast due to social media. It allows dissemination of information.
• Artivist – a mix of artist and activist.
• Artocracy – the rule of art
• It created the possibility of political action and gave new meaning to the concept of public space. In short, it was both a new form of visual representation and the claim to be politically representative, cross-hatched in a new experience of space.
• The Philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau described what he called the “general will”, the force and power of public opinion.
• Social movements in Egypt produced new forms of visual thinking, including street art, graffiti and video collectives. Egyptian dictatorship had maintained absolute control of public space, so graffiti is new.
• Ganzeer or Mohadmed Fahmy, calls himself a “contingency artist”; his work responds to the needs of the moment in whatever way seems right. He thinks of this as participatory art in this sense; “art that participates in dealing with the immediate struggles and concerns of the audience.” It thinks along with it s audience, rather than for them.
• Online counter-archive is a key tactic in creating new means of engagement. Mosireen had used this in 2011, using video to show the world what was happening in Egypt in the face of domestic censorship and international ignorance. They archived the revolution with 10 terabytes of video collected.
• “As long as there’s a camera, the revolution will continue.” Meaning that as long as people can see what is being done, they will continue to demand a regime that truly represents them.
• People combined social media with street protests and online archiving to create a new form of visual culture activism.
• In high censored countries like Tunisia and Egypt, the chance to depict yourself and others in public, let alone to express political opinions, was a rupture with decades past experience. The resulting visual thought created hope, made revolutions possible and helped them drive forward.
• Mixed with a young, urban, networking population, experiencing such problems like food shortages had made visual activism on and offline was the key component to urban uprisings.
• “Cultural jamming” – a satirical play in mess media intended to cause the viewer to question what they see.
• Tumblr played a huge role in the movement, “WeAreThe99%’ – a form of creative and emotionally powerful form of visual thought that appealed to young people and soon became widely known. People posted photographs of themselves holding written texts about their living and financial situations. These were powerful because they were compressed to one image with only as many words as they could fit into a single sheet of paper.
• Meme – a widely reproduced visual image
• Some photographs are spread by mainstream media rather than the protesters themselves; could be orchestrated.
• Mainstream media now reports perceived wrongdoings, such as wrongful use of pepper spray by law enforcers. This has also turned into a meme.
• Media representations of the scene bought many other people into protest. What began as a social media meme has become a mainstream media pattern of reporting that unintentionally reinforces the events that are being covered. This set of effects, from protest to social media, mainstream media and back to protest, is indicative both of how the new global situation has changed and how change itself is now a key subject for anyone interested in the visual.
• People are adept at sharing and disseminating media content, especially in a media environment that is already saturated with images, therefore the audience is skilled with visual analysis.
• Creating a meme takes conscious effort and in order for it to work, it requires a pre-existing network.
• Visual culture has to respond day to day in its effort to understand change in a world too enormous to see but vital to imagine. It seeks to understand the total visual noise all around us every day as the new everyday condition. And it learns how to learn about the visual imagination, visual thought and visualizing combine to make worlds that we live in and seek to change.

Artist Inspiration: Banksy

Banksy is an anonymous, English based Graffiti artist, political activist and film director. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combined with dark humour with graffiti, executed with a distinct stenciling technique. His works on socio-political commentary have been featured on the streets, walls and bridges of cities around the world. Banksy’s works had grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborating with musicians and other artists. His style is similar to Blek le Rat, a Parisian stencil artist from the 80’s.
Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self built physical prop pieces. He considers his art as a form of under-class “revenge”, that allows an individual to snatch away power, territory, and glory from a more powerful, well-equipped enemy. He is known to mock centralized power, in hopes his works will show that power does exist and seeks to work against you.
Banksy’s work also explores themes such as anti-war, anti-consumerism, anti-facisim, anarchy, as well as critiquing the human condition like greed, poverty, hypocrisy, etc. His works rely on visual imagery and iconography to put his messages forward.

Resources:
“Banksy.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 16 May 2016

Artist Inspiration: Wenqing Yan

Yan, Wenqing. Guilty. Digital image. Deviantart. 2012. Web. 16 May 2016.

Yan, Wenqing. Rise. Digital image. Deviantart. 2012. Web. 16 May 2016.

Yan, Wenqing. Dream Escape. Digital image. Deviantart. 2016. Web. 16 May 2016.

Yan, Wenqing. Legacy. Digital image. Deviantart. 2013. Web. 16 May 2016.

Yan, Wenqing. With You. Digital image. Deviantart. 2015. Web. 16 May 2016.

Wenqing Yan is a Chinese-American digital artist; she had graduated UC Berkley practice of art. Her subject matter in the bulk of her works are focused on the environment, cyber activism and how the human presence is harming the earth through waste, over-consumption and taking more resources than we need.
Her art style is largely Japanese anime/manga based, with works such as Hayao Miyazaki films as an inspiration (the films also have similar themes of environmentalism such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away). Yan uses strong, powerful themes and messages to create thought-provoking artwork.

Sex Trafficking

Sex Trafficking is a combination of Sexual Slavery and Human Trafficking. These two represent the supply and demand side of the sex trafficking industry respectively. Most victims find themselves in coercive or abusive situations from which escape is difficult or nearly impossible and dangerous. Sex trafficking expands the globe and reflect an intricate web between nations – this makes it difficult for governments and human rights organizations to find a viable solution or end to this problem.
Most trafficked victims are unseen, operating in places where the government or authorities have little to no jurisdiction – this can be in unmarked brothels or even suburban neighborhoods. Some authorities are even bribed to look away or police the area by pimps or gangs who operate sex trafficking. Traffickers, Pimps or gangs use various ways to control their victims, often by force, drugs, emotional tactics or even financial means. The extremes of this can be from gang rape to making the victims succumbing to Stockholm syndrome by telling them they love or need them. This tactic is particularly effective on younger victims as they are less experienced and easily manipulated.

There are different types of trafficking:
Familial Trafficking: where a family member of the victim sexually exploits them for money or drugs. For example a mother may pimp out her son/daughter for money to friends or strangers. This type of trafficking is difficult to detect as the victims have a certain degree of freedom, such as going to school. They may not even understand they are being trafficked or sexually exploited.
Pimp-Controlled Trafficking: The victim is controlled by a single pimp; they can be controlled physically, psychologically or emotionally. In most times, the pimps groom and pretend to care or even love the victim, promising them protection, a home and opportunities in return for loyalty. More than often, it is difficult for a victim to escape due to their emotions towards their pimp.
Gang Trafficking: The victim is controlled by more than one person, a gang. Gangs more than often turn to sex trafficking as it is safer and more lucrative than drug trafficking and dealing. The victim may be sexually exploited by gang members as well as people outside of. Some victims may have tattoos or brands on their bodies as a sign of ownership towards a particular gang.
Forced Marriage: It is where one or both victims are forced to marry without freely giving their consent to do so. Forced marriage can qualify as sex trafficking in some cases; if a woman is sent aboard, forced to marry and to perform sexual acts without her consent or by force repeatedly, it is sex trafficking.
Survival Sex: Not sex trafficking in the common sense but the victim feels the need to perform sexual acts in order to gain common necessities such as food, shelter and so forth. This is considered sex trafficking of the victim is below the age of consent.

Numbers and estimates:

• Approximately 70-85% of human trafficking is for the sex industry.
• Estimated 27 million adults and 13 million children are victims of human trafficking.
• An estimated 300,000 of sex trafficking victims die each year due to abuse, disease, torture and neglect. 80% of those sold into sexual slavery are under 24 and some are s young as 6.
• Research shows that 80% of victims are women. 50% are children.
• 71% of trafficked children have shown suicidal tendencies.
• Belarus, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey and the United States are ranked high as destinations of trafficked victims.
• Around the globe, human trafficking has made a profit that is roughly estimated from $9 billion to $31.6 billion. Half of these profits are made in industrialized nations.
• Japan is considered the largest market for Asian women trafficked for sex.
• Human trafficking has been reported in all 50 states in the US.
• Brazil and Thailand are generally considered to have the worst sex trafficking records than any other country.

Resources:
“55 Little Known Facts About Human Trafficking.” 55 Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking. Web. 15 May 2016.
“What Is Sex Trafficking? – Shared Hope International.” Shared Hope International. Shared Hope International. Web. 15 May 2016
“Sex Trafficking.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 15 May 2016.
“Facts on Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery | Soroptimist.” Human Trafficking Facts. Soroptimist. Web. 15 May 2016.
Puelma, Alfredo Valenzuela. The Merchant’s Pearl. 1884. Oil on Canvas. Museo Nacional De Bellas Artes, Chile.

 

Assessment 3 ideas

Main issues to tackle/think are important:

• Sexual Slavery/Sex Industry/Trafficking
• Child Abuse/Child Sex Tourism/Child Pornography/Child Prostitution
• Forced Prostitution/Survival Sex
• Devadasi
• JK Businesses/Idol Culture in Japan

These issues encompass a harmful industry that dehumanizes women and children as sex objects and takes away their basic human rights and dignity. This subject is broad and varies country to country, culture to culture. Where I go from this will be more clear within the weeks to come.

Video Documentaries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GFaN9-1iz0

Wk 6 Reflection on Learning

Reflection:
Consider the previous 6 weeks; what your learning been

From a personal perspective, what has been the most interesting to you so far in this paper?
Definitely thinking about visual text contextually; what is the story behind it, what is the socio-political situation like at the time? For me, it adds more story and layers to the visual text.
Think about the content, readings, resources, tasks and approach, so far. Comment on what has worked for you? Why?
Referring back and using the readings, resources as a guide to some texts and visual texts had worked for me and given me more understanding. The tasks I cannot say the same for; some of them had very vague instructions. Or maybe I need more coffee.
What has not worked so well for you? Why?
Whilst I like the blog work and can see the purpose behind them but it can get tedious after a very long time and it feels bleh and have no motivation to do it after awhile.
How have your ideas, assumptions, knowledge’s and ways of working been challenged?
I feel like more ideas and knowledge have been expanded because of this paper; it made me search for more information, context until I feel satisfied that I have enough to go on. Assumptions are a hit or miss; it is either correct or completely wrong for me but that is why you research more!
What creative approaches have you taken when doing this paper?
None really but I have been preparing for a Matchbox exhibition while doing university work; mentally and physically challenging!
Explain how the approaches, strategies, skills and/or processes encouraged in this paper be useful to you in your other BDes/BFA projects/modules/papers.
Some papers will ask you for contextualization; be it an existing visual text or your own. Writing techniques and MLA citation learnt in this paper can be carried on to other papers – this can be blog posts, workbooks, etc.
Do you think you have a different or a new appreciation for a paper like this and its relevance to your desired art or design practice?
If it was more reading, research and less blog work, I think I would enjoy it more.