DISCERNING THE LEVELS OF CONFLICT 9 SEP 2014

DISCERNING THE LEVELS OF CONFLICT: Using Human Trafficking as an example. Readers of my posts notice I often address the battle for the heart. During the Vietnam War, the communists used a number of strategies that the U.S. did not address, one of those was to win the hearts of the Vietnamese, the American public & the world at large. The Tet offensive, a military victory for America, was a defeat because it exposed the lies the Amer. military had been propagating, bringing into question everything the public was being fed by the media on the war. Likewise, in the war between good & evil, we want to keep to the truth, and we want to realize that there are many dimensions to the struggle, incl. the individual’s flesh, the World organizations, & the evil Spiritual powers. Mind, body & soul are under assault. This is why I had to challenge the trauma-based mind control on all levels. This post will use the globally out of control Human Trafficking problem to illustrate these lessons. One idea that is a poor one, but widely used, is to make staged pictures of human trafficking. Let’s keep it real.

SLAVERY IS WORSE NOW THAN WHEN IT WAS LEGAL. There are no accurate stats on the problem worldwide only stats based on guesswork. In 2004, the U.S. govt. est. the problem was 600,000 to 800,000 victims worldwide, while the TIP (Trafficking in Persons Report) est. 12,300,000 persons. However, as an example of how out of control the problem is, in 2006, in several London airports, incl. Gatwick & Stansted, the slavers openly held public auctions for young women to be sold into sexual slavery! One of the auctions at Gatwick was in front of a café. The women sold for 8,000 pounds apiece (which was the trifling equivalent of about US$15,000). It is est. that Asia puts around 9.5 million people into Human trafficking slavery each year, for purposes of sexual exploitation, labor exploitation and the harvesting of organs. The problem is everywhere, even the U.S. is est. to have 50,000 victims trafficked, incl. some blond white women for places where they will be desired. Major Amer. human trafficking hub cities are: L.A., NYC, Houston & Seattle. All the trafficking groups can only function with the complicity of law enforcement & corrupt officials. One doesn’t move people through several countries without help. That help comes from border guards, embassy personnel and police.

WHEN ANSWERS DON’T ANSWER. Europe has tried to legalize & regulate prostitution; while mainland China goes the other direction and bans buying & selling sex, and being a third party to such transactions. Neither approach has improved human sexual slave trafficking. The former communist block nations are a big source of the slaves, esp. for western Europe’s prostitution. The 3 Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, & Estonia) feed western Europe about 3,000 sexual slaves/yr. The slavers use Poland, Germany, Ireland & the U.K. as transit countries shipping slaves to their final destinations. The fragmentation of Yugoslavia turned the Balkans into another big source of sexual slaves. Albania, Serbia & Montenegro are primary sources from within the Balkans, but women from other ex-Communist lands like Romania & Russia are also fed through the Balkans on their way to western Europe. The International U.N. forces delegated to help stabilize & rebuild the area contributed to the problem, as did private subcontracters & relief workers who all wanted their own taste of the sexual slaves, thereby increasing the demand. At this point, one might think the strict legislation of mainland China against all aspects of prostitution would help.

TO ACHIEVE SOCIAL JUSTICE: it’s really a battle for the heart. The strict laws in China actually work in favor of human trafficking. They have totally failed to slow down human trafficking. Because third parties to sex transactions are illegal, govt. officials & the police use the sex industry as a source of more income. Entertainment owners, kidnappers & abductors are leaned on to pay the police & govt. bribes to be left alone. Gov’t officials have created an occupation called “spy hostesses”, who in return for immunity to police actions, insure that govt. officials can have private harems of “hostesses” (call girls). Meanwhile, many women facing severe poverty see prostitution as the least of evils, even better than the unhealthy sweatshops that pay nothing. They see prostitution as fast money to make something of their lives and from their perspective, they enter it to save their lives. However, the law criminalizes them, and sets up all kinds of abusive situations. The law which was meant to help, ends up hurting. Additionally, the police get excessive…a college grad who had lost her temp. resident card was arrested as a prostitute and beaten to death at a detention ctr. Women, who have escaped North Korea & married Chinese, have been arrested, labeled victims of human trafficking and deported back to No. Korea, where they are imprisoned & some executed for leaving. So the human trafficking laws get stood on their head and misused for immigration control.

DIFFERENT VIEWS. Obviously many people don’t see how disgusting human slavery is. My years of incarceration gave me opportunities to listen to inmates. One day I heard a pimp express the same outrage that the pre-Civil War slave owners had expressed when the northern police would not help them recover their “property” (i.e. escaped slaves). This large black pimp had been taking a shower when one of the white girls in his stable decided to bolt. Seeing that she had left, he rushed out naked onto the street & caught her in her car at a stop light on a big street. He smashed her window with his fist, and proceeded to choke her. Someone watching all this drama called the po-lice, which is why he was caught and why he was outraged. How dare someone keep him from recovering his property. He just could not see how someone could do him dirty & call the po-leece.

TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. One level that people have tried to battle human trafficking is on the personal individual level. A friend had repeatedly listened to a young prostitute describe her beatings & her desire to flee. He bought her a ticket to her family’s home in the Midwest & gave a sizable amount for her to start her life again. He was upset to see her in a few days back on the streets prostituting. (China is having the same problem. When prostitutes are arrested they are required to take rehab, but most of them return to prostitution as soon as possible.) Various local churches, and Christian parachurch groups (international & national ministries) are focused on human trafficking. To name some: World Hope Intern., Redeemed Ministries, Not For Sale Campaign, Not For Sale Freedom Sunday, Operation Ransom, Love 146, Salvation Army Initiative Against Sex Trafficking, International Justice Mission (IJM), and Shared Hope International. The standard Christian approach has been to help individuals. They work with law enforcement to bust local brothels, and to give the girls long term or short term help like shelters, vocational training & counseling. They staff action & info centers. What I notice is that some individuals are helped…but the systemic problem…the ability for the girls to be replaced is not being touched. This is where we have to realize that the battle must be fought at several levels. And who is addressing the social conditions (poverty & debt) that contribute to the problem. I also note that the IJM gets substantial funding from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as well as the Dick & Betsy Devos Foundation, and gets called to testify before Congress a lot. Most of the others are working off of volunteer workers & donations from individuals.

NEW WAYS NEEDED. As you can see, answers are complex in the battle against human trafficking. It’s like playing tri-dimensional chess (which I haven’t played since high school). One important battle is the battle for people’s hearts. Lord willing, I will cont. to address heart issues, even if I catch flak from some conspiracy exposers for doing so. There needs to be some God-inspired creativity applied to this growing problem. The abusers do have patterns. They advertise for “housekeepers” and “dancers”. When the woman gets to her new country, her passport is taken, and her controllers rape her. She lives in fear…and justifiably so, considering that often her abusers have made deals with corrupt officials & police. It is well known that the law enforcement in Thailand, Nigeria, and Russia help to facilitate human trafficking. These countries specialize in women for sex slavery. Along with them can be added the Yakusa & Triads, and some Indian and Turkish organized crime. What are all the elements contributing to human trafficking, and how are those elements vulnerable??? Better solutions are definitely needed.