Comic Relief, the morning after
17 March 2007
Well we have given our money and worn our noses, who ate the chocolate Wallace and Gromit? I'm not sure. For those of you not from the UK, Comic Relief is a bi-annual national charity event culminating in a comedy telethon. I watched the second half of the programme last night and the part that really affected me was the feature on human trafficking during the Russell Brand part of the show.
Young, vulnerable women are tricked or forced to come here and spend many hours every day as prostitutes. Raped, hour after hour, day after day. Some of the Comic Relief money is being used to set up safe-housing and support for victims of this trade, although the ones they know about must be only the very tip of the iceberg. I was wondering last night, why as a society are we not stopping this? How can we let this continue?
Almost 40 years ago, men first walked upon the moon, and as we recently reflected, 200 years ago our forebears abolished the slave trade. Yes, we live in a global age, and sending out our gunboats may not be the approach here, but we as a society can stop what is happening here, on our island. I, part-time eternal student, part-time web developer, personally feel pretty powerless. What can I do? Nothing? I have no influence or money at all. Well to start with, as a student, I can read about it. I can get information. Information is power. Where do I begin?
Well in the most general terms, why these women are sent here, and why their own societies sanction this, cannot be understood without understanding the overlapping structures that maintain the inequality of women, and how these structures have been propagated into the global economy. However, the other end of the scale, the most specific thing to look at, is that we had an infamous brothel busted here right in Birmingham, just a street or two from where I was living at the time, according to the story, a website and email was used as a key part of the criminal set up. There must be more out there in my town and in your town. Where are they? How can they carry on in the midst of us? I have no idea right now.
As well as the supply-side, we also need to think about the demand. Coming from a Keynesian viewpoint, this for me is the most interesting but also the most terrifying question. Someone must be the customers. We cannot understand the demand without knowing the social-demographic factors, i.e. who are they? Are they people who I know or I am acquainted with participating in this? People who work for my own very University? My neighbours? People at my church even?
Not only who are they, but how do all the other new modern global phenomena interrelate and support the demand for sex with these human slaves? For example, how do legally tolerated activities such as pornography and lap dancing clubs relate to human trafficking? Are they compliments or substitutes? Does a legalised sex trade crowd out the illegal trade or prepare a market for it? Real evidence is needed, hopefully there will be some out there and I'll be able to find it. Alongside that, there are the social-technological issues. How does the way that Internet communication is being established and maintained affect this trade. What about us? Can we make free and open source software that will help reduce human trafficking? I have no answers, but I hope that by the next Comic Relief, I will understand some of these questions better.
This is what I have read today:
Sandra Dickson, 2004, `When Women are Trafficked: Quantifying the Gendered Experience of Trafficking in the UK`_, (PDF)
Sarah Richards, Mel Steel and Debora Singer, 2006, `Hope Betrayed: An Analysis of Women Victim's of Trafficking and their Claim for Asylum `_ (PDF)
Julie Bindel, 2005, Untitled article from the Lillith Project about the legal industry (warning Word Document) Google's HTML Version
1 Joe Bloggs says...
Zeth, do you really believe in these stories presented by asylum seekers? For the most part it's all a pack of lies, but it's not their fault - it's the way the system is set up so they are encouraged to tell some tale of woe that might not seem too incredible to a Daily Mail reader, and have this put on the record so that they can stay a bit longer in the country. In most cases it's also the only way they can claim benefits and a place to live, while they settle into their lives in the UK.
I suspect that in the case of sex workers, there is sometimes real trickery involved (as may be expected with any illegal trade). Trickery on the lines of: "come and work as a prostitute for the big boss in the UK - he will pay you enough so you can get through college while you spend a few evenings on your back", when the real deal when they get here is MUCH less pay than they were promised. Hence the bitterness...
Social attitudes: nobody cares about prostitution unless it's called "massage"/personal/escort services. It's almost lawful. Plus women are much more highly valued than men in this country. Men are much more likely to be victims of abuse, and violent assault, than women including prostitutes.
Regarding free software, what has this to do with the price of fish? How can it possibly help? We shouldn't indulgently covet the trendier political facets of poverty as it suits us (not that this is what I'm accusing you of doing).
Posted at 1:30 a.m. on March 18, 2007
2 Joe Bloggs says...
LOL that Bindel article is funny!
Posted at 1:34 a.m. on March 18, 2007
3 steveL says...
"Stop believing the lies and start taking a robust stand against the sexual servitude of women." Yeah, dead funny. As you say, you're 15. Do you know much benefit asylum seekers get, and how long it takes to get? They are NOT ALLOWED to work. What do you suggest they do- break the law?
And as for people conflating illegal immigrants with asylum seekers..
BTW it's not "come and work as a prostitute in the UK" it's come and work as a maid, and then get raped and beaten repeatedly, and forced to service disgusting men and take heroin til you're a junkie.
"Teenagers! You're right! Leave home now, get a nice flat and a job- while you still know everything." ;) steve "wishes he still was a fscking teenager" long
Posted at 5:08 a.m. on March 18, 2007
4 steveL says...
er sorry and I'm 3 lol.
Posted at 5:09 a.m. on March 18, 2007
5 steveL says...
Gee 3 a minute ago, then 4, who knows by tomorrow i'll be in my thousands!
after Ronald Reagan on Spitting Image, i'll stop spamming now :D
Zeth can you update the link, i've put it as my website on this.
Posted at 5:11 a.m. on March 18, 2007
6 Joe Bloggs says...
SteveL, are you a complete idiot?
"Stop believing the lies and start taking a robust stand against the sexual servitude of women." Yeah, dead funny. As you say, you're 15. Do you know much benefit asylum seekers get, and how long it takes to get? They are NOT ALLOWED to work. What do you suggest they do- break the law?"
Actually, I'm 30.
Look, moron, there is something called section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. ALL asylum seekers AUTOMATICALLY are entitled to food (cash) and accommodation support if they apply within 3 days of arrival. THEY ARE ALSO ALLOWED TO WORK, and this is noted on their identification cards. There is a department called National Asylum Support Service, which tries to help them to get into work, to becomes "self- supporting", so that benefits can be stopped when they're self-sufficient.
The fact is, neither this work nor the state support benefits they receive are as highly paid as prostitution. It's a choice that these girls make. There is no "slavery" involved. Apart from talking shit about Ronald Reagan, do you actually have any EVIDENCE? If you don't you should take a hint and shut up.
From the article: "Stop believing the lies and start taking a robust stand against the sexual servitude of women. "
As I said, funny. Considering it was about workers at the famous Spearmint Rhino chain of nightclubs.
Posted at 1:57 p.m. on March 18, 2007
7 Zeth says...
Well let me follow up. No one here is 'a complete idiot', steveL has written this, so Joe, please give him some credit. Or look at it from my perspective. For every real comment, I get 110 spams, or to look at it another way, less than one percent of comments get through. So no matter how flamey you get, I still think you guys are all really special!
Posted at 1:04 a.m. on March 19, 2007