drbannon
05-24-2004, 03:31 AM
Awareness saves lives.
Many readers of Kungfu Magazine are martial arts instructors. In the time-honored teachings of discipline and respect for others, children also learn their best first line of defense: self-esteem. They gain awareness of their surroundings and a sense of confidence that makes them less likely to be victimized by those predators that are after a certain type of vulnerable child. Instructors, please accept my sincere thanks for your invaluable and undeniable contribution to child safety.
We're here because they're out there.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004 is National Missing Children’s Day. Please consider taking a moment to remind parents of the sad history of this date--and what safety awareness can mean to their families:
On May 25 1979, 6-year-old Etan Patz disappeared while walking alone for the first time to his school bus in lower Manhattan. The date became National Missing Children's Day. On May 5 2004, 25 Years Later, NY State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kapnick ruled that convicted pedophile Jose Ramos, now serving time in a Pennsylvania prison, is responsible for Etan's death.
Sadly, it's too late for Etan. But as part of the global Internet community, we can help other children. Please tell local government and media representatives that you care about the international problem of child abduction and trafficking. The organizations below help concerned citizens make a difference:
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC; http://www.missingkids.com) operates a CyberTipline at http://www.cybertipline.com that provides an online form to report child pornography and sexual exploitation of children.
FBI Crimes Against Children Unit: http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/crimesmain.htm . Read the FBI brochure, Investigating Crimes against Children, at: http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/invest.htm
A thorough reference of hundreds of links provided by Andrew Vachss, noted lawyer, author and child advocate: http://www.vachss.com/help_text/
Contact your elected officials via email and regular mail by your zip code at: http://capwiz.com/townhall/dbq/officials/
___________________________
How serious is global child trafficking? Please pardon the brief essay below, excerpted with permission from The Western Libertarian Alliance Journal (May 2004).
____________________________
The Hidden Slavery: Global Child Sex Traffic
© 2004 David Bannon
"International sex trafficking is the new slavery.”
- Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.
Right now 1,000,000 children are slaves.
The global child sex trade produces billions of dollars each year, with profits that often fund terrorist cells, yet it remains hidden from public scrutiny. Like early reports on the Holocaust, the atrocity of child trafficking stuns the reader into disbelief and denial. As West Point psychology professor Dave Grossman wrote in his book, On Killing, “This simple, naďve tendency to disbelieve or look the other way is, possibly more than any other factor, responsible for the perpetuation of atrocity and horror in our world today.”
Child sex slavery is horrifyingly real. And it may not remain hidden for long.
In the last year, child sex traffic has been covered in venues as politically diverse as Kungfu, Reason, New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone and Christianity Today. Last month, UNICEF’s executive director Carol Bellamy declared, "Trafficking is among the worst violations of child rights in the world." In a 72-page report presented to the United Nations from the Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, UNICEF said nearly every country in the world is affected as importers or exporters, or both, in trafficking – although many do not recognize its existence. The Univ. of Pennsylvania and the Univ. of Montreal reported that 269,000 women and children were imported into the United States for forced labor and prostitution in 2000. Of the children missing in the U.S., a little over 10% are sold overseas for between $30-50,000 each. The trade includes unspeakable sexual abuse, murder of the victims, and resulting pornography recording these acts, often traded or broadcast live on the Internet. Predators force subservience through a vicious combination of violence and drugs.
This problem is as dark and old as humanity. Not everyone has ignored it.
In an address to the U.N. last September, President George W. Bush condemned human trafficking as a “special evil” that “must not be allowed to thrive in our time.” Bush cited a State Department report of 900,000 women and children sold across international borders each year, including some children “as young as five, who fall victim to the sex trade.” Human traffic is not isolated to distant third world countries. "This problem has appeared in my own country," Bush said, "and we are working to stop it.” He specifically mentioned the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which “makes it a crime for any person to enter the United States, or for any citizen to travel abroad for the purpose of sex tourism involving children.”
The president’s stance was supported by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who wrote to the NY Times Magazine about “the very real practice of human trafficking,” calling it a “pure and unadulterated evil…that should long ago have been consigned to the ash heap of discarded inhumanity.”
Such administrative resolve is laudable, but it is only a beginning. In the upcoming election, we can insist that child sex trafficking be addressed. The sheer numbers can be numbing, but even one child is far, far too much.
We, as citizens of the world, must band together to stop it.
Many readers of Kungfu Magazine are martial arts instructors. In the time-honored teachings of discipline and respect for others, children also learn their best first line of defense: self-esteem. They gain awareness of their surroundings and a sense of confidence that makes them less likely to be victimized by those predators that are after a certain type of vulnerable child. Instructors, please accept my sincere thanks for your invaluable and undeniable contribution to child safety.
We're here because they're out there.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004 is National Missing Children’s Day. Please consider taking a moment to remind parents of the sad history of this date--and what safety awareness can mean to their families:
On May 25 1979, 6-year-old Etan Patz disappeared while walking alone for the first time to his school bus in lower Manhattan. The date became National Missing Children's Day. On May 5 2004, 25 Years Later, NY State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kapnick ruled that convicted pedophile Jose Ramos, now serving time in a Pennsylvania prison, is responsible for Etan's death.
Sadly, it's too late for Etan. But as part of the global Internet community, we can help other children. Please tell local government and media representatives that you care about the international problem of child abduction and trafficking. The organizations below help concerned citizens make a difference:
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC; http://www.missingkids.com) operates a CyberTipline at http://www.cybertipline.com that provides an online form to report child pornography and sexual exploitation of children.
FBI Crimes Against Children Unit: http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/crimesmain.htm . Read the FBI brochure, Investigating Crimes against Children, at: http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/invest.htm
A thorough reference of hundreds of links provided by Andrew Vachss, noted lawyer, author and child advocate: http://www.vachss.com/help_text/
Contact your elected officials via email and regular mail by your zip code at: http://capwiz.com/townhall/dbq/officials/
___________________________
How serious is global child trafficking? Please pardon the brief essay below, excerpted with permission from The Western Libertarian Alliance Journal (May 2004).
____________________________
The Hidden Slavery: Global Child Sex Traffic
© 2004 David Bannon
"International sex trafficking is the new slavery.”
- Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.
Right now 1,000,000 children are slaves.
The global child sex trade produces billions of dollars each year, with profits that often fund terrorist cells, yet it remains hidden from public scrutiny. Like early reports on the Holocaust, the atrocity of child trafficking stuns the reader into disbelief and denial. As West Point psychology professor Dave Grossman wrote in his book, On Killing, “This simple, naďve tendency to disbelieve or look the other way is, possibly more than any other factor, responsible for the perpetuation of atrocity and horror in our world today.”
Child sex slavery is horrifyingly real. And it may not remain hidden for long.
In the last year, child sex traffic has been covered in venues as politically diverse as Kungfu, Reason, New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone and Christianity Today. Last month, UNICEF’s executive director Carol Bellamy declared, "Trafficking is among the worst violations of child rights in the world." In a 72-page report presented to the United Nations from the Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, UNICEF said nearly every country in the world is affected as importers or exporters, or both, in trafficking – although many do not recognize its existence. The Univ. of Pennsylvania and the Univ. of Montreal reported that 269,000 women and children were imported into the United States for forced labor and prostitution in 2000. Of the children missing in the U.S., a little over 10% are sold overseas for between $30-50,000 each. The trade includes unspeakable sexual abuse, murder of the victims, and resulting pornography recording these acts, often traded or broadcast live on the Internet. Predators force subservience through a vicious combination of violence and drugs.
This problem is as dark and old as humanity. Not everyone has ignored it.
In an address to the U.N. last September, President George W. Bush condemned human trafficking as a “special evil” that “must not be allowed to thrive in our time.” Bush cited a State Department report of 900,000 women and children sold across international borders each year, including some children “as young as five, who fall victim to the sex trade.” Human traffic is not isolated to distant third world countries. "This problem has appeared in my own country," Bush said, "and we are working to stop it.” He specifically mentioned the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which “makes it a crime for any person to enter the United States, or for any citizen to travel abroad for the purpose of sex tourism involving children.”
The president’s stance was supported by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who wrote to the NY Times Magazine about “the very real practice of human trafficking,” calling it a “pure and unadulterated evil…that should long ago have been consigned to the ash heap of discarded inhumanity.”
Such administrative resolve is laudable, but it is only a beginning. In the upcoming election, we can insist that child sex trafficking be addressed. The sheer numbers can be numbing, but even one child is far, far too much.
We, as citizens of the world, must band together to stop it.