So You Don't Have Time To Volunteer or Help Others?

Most of us feel we are too busy to help others. Here is a simple way you can give over 1 cup of food each day to starving person. Visit The Hunger Site and click on the button that says, "Help Feed The Hungry". By doing this, you will be taken to a page which thanks you for your donation of over 1 cup of food. How did your click magically donate on cup of food? Site sponsors donated that food and 100% of collected revenue from site sponsorships goes to hunger relief efforts. You are never obligated to buy anything from a site sponsor nor do you have to visit any other site, your one click per day donates one cup of food. A sad statistic from the hunger site: about 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes which amounts to 1 person every 3.6 seconds. The Hunger Site is part of a family of sites that includes The Animal Rescue Site, The Child Health Site, The Literacy Site, The Rain Forest Site, The Breast Cancer Site. You can also support these causes with one click a day. If you are too busy to volunteer you can still help others my making The Hunger Site your homepage a

Food for thought

INDONESIAN Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda has defended his country's continued use of the death penalty, saying it had executed fewer people since independence in 1945 than the US executes in a year.

Source: The Age

Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:23:00 +0000

A Strange Twist Indeed

Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times is reporting that Focus on the Family, the conservative evangelical group founded by Dr. James Dobson, is laying off 200 employees. Malcolm reports: "It's the second time in recent months the influential group that does so much mailing it has its own ZIP code has released workers from its mountainside headquarters in Colorado Springs. The latest cuts leave the national organization with about 950 employees from a onetime high of some 1,500. The cutbacks come...

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Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:30:00 +0000

A Strange Twist Indeed

Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times is reporting that Focus on the Family, the conservative evangelical group founded by Dr. James Dobson, is laying off 200 employees. Malcolm reports: "It's the second time in recent months the influential group that does so much mailing it has its own ZIP code has released workers from its mountainside headquarters in Colorado Springs. The latest cuts leave the national organization with about 950 employees from a onetime high of some 1,500. The cutbacks come...

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Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:30:00 +0000

US Department of State: "Prostitution: To Legalize Or Not"

This November 17 post on the US Department of State's official blog is spot on. We reproduce the text here...

Prostitution: To Legalize Or Not

About the Author: Ambassador Mark P. Lagon is Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and Director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

This week I participated in a conference "Overlaps of Prostitution, Migration, and Human Trafficking" in Berne, Switzerland which brought together European government experts from Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Spain to discuss a very hot topic: the relationship between prostitution and human trafficking.

The United States Government believes that prostitution fuels sex trafficking based on solid empirical evidence. It estimates that approximately 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked each year across international borders. (This is not to mention millions more who are trafficking victims who never cross borders.) Two-thirds of these victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation, making trafficking for prostitution the single biggest category of transnational human trafficking.

So, following a December 2002 policy decision, the U.S. Government opposes prostitution and any related activities, as contributing to the phenomenon of trafficking in persons. U.S. policy is that these activities are inherently harmful and dehumanizing and should not be regulated as a legitimate form of work for any human being. This view enjoys broad support from a range of those concerned about human trafficking policy.

Sweden also considers prostitution to be harmful. In 1999, Sweden passed a law to criminalize sex buying and pimping (mainly involving men), while decriminalizing the act of prostitution (where women and girls are found).

At about the same time, between 1999 and 2002, several European countries came to the opposite conclusion: Germany and the Netherlands legalized prostitution within a government regulated sector. Other countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, and Switzerland, also regulate prostitution. They argued that regulation could provide prostituted people protection from disease and violence, prevent the involvement of organized crime, and help reduce sex trafficking.

But there was evidence at the Berne conference that more and more people -- and countries -- recognize that where there is legal prostitution, sex trafficking continues to flourish. Conversely, in Sweden, since it made sex buying illegal, there has been a decrease in known human trafficking cases and shrinkage of the commercial sex industry.

The Norwegian National Coordinator for Trafficking Issues, Jan Austad, announced in Berne that later this month, the Norwegian Parliament is set to approve a new law to make it illegal to buy sex or sell people for sex.

After much study, Norway has decided to adopt the Swedish model that emphasizes the harmful impact of prostitution.

Mr. Austad explained that his country was particularly shocked to witness the plight of hundreds of Nigerian women, trafficked into prostitution in Norway under tourist visas.

Eva Biaudet, Special Representative on Combating Human Trafficking for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, gave a keynote address in which she observed: "We have let ourselves off too easy. Prostitution is extremely harmful. People really get traumatized in this…. We are not identifying enough sex trafficking victims within prostitution although there are unacceptable levels of exploitation in prostitution."

It was a dramatic personal statement from this former Minister and Member of Parliament from Finland. Asked how she had come to this conclusion, she explained: "Since I came to the OSCE two years ago, I have been shocked at how big this is, the exploitation of vulnerable migrant women and girls in prostitution, and how no one cares."

Even the representative from the Netherlands said that the legalization of prostitution had not accomplished what it was supposed to. Corinne Dettmeijer-Vermeulen, her country's National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings, said in candor that: "One of the goals was to get crime out. Did we succeed? I don't think so."

In a worthy step to the Netherlands' credit, earlier this year, the city of Amsterdam closed about one-third of the city's infamous red-light district because legalization and regulation have not dried up sex trafficking, which has continued apace.

It was gratifying to know that as we learn more about the vicious exploitation that occurs in prostitution, and the link between prostitution and sex trafficking, countries are willing to reexamine their legal regimes.

This new information will also impact U.S. approaches, as we work to confront the voracious demand which fuels this dark trade in human beings.

In my concluding remarks, I explained to my European colleagues that the U.S. has developed a strong, bipartisan policy including the following precepts:

-- We need a more victim-centered approach.
-- We need to look for sex trafficking victims among vulnerable populations in prostitution and migrant workers being considered for deportation.
-- We need to realize that prostitution is not victimless.
-- Open prostitution is not a solution to sex trafficking, but provides a guise behind which traffickers can hide.
-- Where prostitution is criminalized, victims must not be blamed or punished; those who traffic or buy them must be.

It was striking that fully four of the six main speakers shared this perspective at a conference hosted by a country -- Switzerland -- whose officials say itself is looking at its legal prostitution regime. Based on experience and prudence, a wave of opinion on behalf of women's welfare, and against violence and victimization, appears to be developing.

See also:

Sweden's Prostitution Solution: Why Hasn't Anyone Tried This Before?

A Closer Look at Sweden's Success with Reducing Prostitution; Skeptics Rebutted

Bloomberg Columnist Likes Sweden's Approach to Prostitution

Press Release: Action Network to use RNC and Minnesota State Fair to Bring Attention to Problem of Sex Trafficking

AWARENESS Buying people for sex is a SERIOUS problem in Minnesota.

FACTS:

• The average age of entry into prostitution is 12­-years­-old.

• 8,000 to 12,000 people are involved in prostitution and sex trafficking in Minnesota every day.

• In a North Minneapolis research project on prostitution and sex trafficking, 56% of people involved had their first experience in prostitution or sex trafficking as a juvenile (under age 18). Studies in other US cities found similar figures (Chicago, 62%; San Francisco, 78%).

• While definitions of prostitution and sex trafficking vary, the root causes and traumatic outcomes for victims are the same.

SAFETY: Prostitution and sex trafficking harm victims and are NOT victimless crimes. Support safety & services for victims.

FACTS:

• 90% of people used in prostitution want to leave immediately and need a safe way out.

• Runaway, homeless, abused and at­-risk children are approached by pimps and drug dealers within 48 hours of landing on the streets.

• Women who have been used in prostitution and sex trafficking have a mortality rate 200 times higher for women who have not been used in prostitution and sex trafficking.

• Rates of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse are very high among people involved in prostitution and sex trafficking. In North Minneapolis, 84% have experienced physical, sexual, or emotional abuse sometime in their lives; 56% experienced all three forms of violence.

• Prostitution and sex trafficking causes many health problems, including higher rates than the general population of cancer (particularly cervical); chronic disease; pelvic inflammatory disease; traumatic brain injury and more.

ACCOUNTABILITY Purchasing people for sex is a crime, johns must be held accountable...

MSNBC Investigates Human Trafficking and Prostitution in the US; Valley Advocate Advertises "Foreign Fantasies" Where "Everything Goes"
While MSNBC is busy investigating the sex industry, the Valley Advocate is busy making money from it. The Massage/Escort ads in the 1/10/08 edition below include an advertisement of "FOREIGN FANTASIES" where "Everything Goes"...



Wall Street Journal: "Craigslist Gets Tougher On 'Erotic Services' Ads"
San Francisco U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello said his office regularly sees Craigslist ads in cases it brings against human-trafficking rings that engage women in prostitution.

"Trade - A Film Brings Sex Trafficking Home"
Trade makes it clear that traffickers do not operate in a vacuum. Theirs is a complex and determined industry, enslaving both women and children through coercion, violence, and drugs. It is painfully apparent in the film that there are often moments when everyday people could intervene - but choose not to...

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:22:52 GMT