Human Trafficking v. Smuggling

August 23rd is an anniversary. In 1791 riots took place in Saint Domingue, today’s Haiti, which are said to have launched the abolitionist movement against slavery. While slavery as a legal institution no longer exists, it is not dead and 217 years later it thrives under the practices of human trafficking and smuggling. There is general consensus that trafficking is evil, smuggling is seen as being less so. To an observer like me, there isn’t much difference between the two, yet what does distinguish them is creating a snag in legislating further measures, in knowing what laws to apply when arresting suspects or when taking action against alleged perpetrators. The U.S.has been very active in the fight against human trafficking. For the past 8 years it has been mandated by law to engage in a many fronted struggle at home an abroad. While there are some in Washington who believe efforts should escalate, there inevitably are those who disagree. But the greater problem comes from the Council of Europe convention on trafficking. It went into force this year and 17 countries ratified it, yet it has now stalled because not everyone can agree on the difference between trafficking and smuggling. Smuggling implies consent in some cases, although how informed that consent is is moot, and some say it may not be given were the conditions awaiting the individuals really known. Some smuggled people have their passports taken aways, are paid much lower wages than promised and are forced to work under harsh conditions. Meanwhile, as the war of semantics continues, laws and enforcement are not as strong as they need to be. And yet, one must recognize that as long as trafficking and smuggling are understood as problems, then progress is possible.

Obama’s Right

The issue of race underlies this presidential campaign. Periodically it surfaces, and will continue to. There has been much talk usually revolving around what seems two axis, is Obama not black enough, that is mainly for African Americans who want to make sure that issues affecting the African American community will be dealt with, and its counterpart, is he too black, that is mainly for whites who fear that his allegiance to the African Community will color (no pun intended) his presidential decisions, a concern shared by other minorities who want to make sure their priorities will be included.
When we think along those lines we place the burden on Obama, not ourselves. It’s as if we denied the fact that we live in a society that is still racist– Colin Powell and Condi Rice notwithstanding. We may have opened the doors to accept African Americans in positions of power including president, but that doesn’t mean we’re no longer racist. If we were capable of living up to Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of judging people by the content of their character, then Obama’s color wouldn’t even matter. Certainly it wouldn’t be talked about. He wouldn’t have had to give a speech on race, and he wouldn’t be in the position of having to address or defend race in the future. The questions stem from the kind of society we now live in, a society where race still matters. Barak Obama is bi-racial with an African father and a white American mother. By that standard he’s also bi-cultural. We tend to accept that fact and glide over it. It’s easy to because we understand bi-cultural far more than bi-racial. If he’s both black and white, why should he automatically be classified as black? Where is his right to be white? I know his skin looks dark, but the fact is his mother, half of his gene pool, was white. Oughtn’t he to be able to choose what he is, the way people do about their cultural heritage. My niece who has an Italian father is certain to be Italian in an Italian restaurant. The rest of the time it depends on the situation or on what’s going on in her life. She isn’t labeled, isn’t forced to choose, she retains her freedom to be both or either given the circumstance. Not so with bi-racial people, they have to be black. August Wilson, the late Pulitzer prize winning playwright, himself bi-racial, understood and made a conscious choice. He chose to be black. It may have been only the appearance of a choice, since he really didn’t have one in our society, but it was an important message. Barak Obama, as any bi-racial person, should be what he is, what he wants, what he chooses, not what we label him as. When we give him that right, racism will be dealt a fatal blow.

The Olympics–Best at What?

Ah, the Olympic games! They evoke awe, admiration, pride. They speak of excellence and gold medals, set new records which we equate with what is best. After all how many people break an Olympic game record? Those who do have to be the best. We stop there in our analysis usually satisfying ourselves that the best means the highest humankind can achieve and we redouble our adulation for the individual who has thus broken the record. And if this person happens to be from our own country, then he or she is a peerless hero.
Yes, Olympics athletes are the best, but the best in a delineated context, one that is as human and as worldly as it gets, the best at getting the body to perform. They stretch the limit of physical prowess, but what about its counterpart, the spirit?
I know all about team spirit and all that, but the Olympics are not really about team spirit, they’re about winning, they’re about competition and how many gold medals a nation will win–things that do not strengthen one’s relationship to whatever is grander than ourselves. Spiritual realities emphasize cooperation, unity, equality. Like it or not, it does suggest that the Olympics for all their glory and their achievements do not nurture the part of us which link us to what is greater than our physical self.
Perhaps there is progress, modern Olympics can be more than physical prowess. They have become a form of international summit, a foreign policy event, if not a tool where messages are sent and diplomacy is tacitly or overtly practiced. Opening and closing ceremonies, for example, can be times when differences are put aside and some sense that we belong to one humanity is as present as it ever is. Still let’s not go too far in our hope that the Olympics will fulfill a larger spiritual purpose. The games are after all big business. Cities compete to be hosts, and spend millions of dollars for the honor, banking on tourism, publicity and prestige to eventually help bring in more than they spent. This year, NBC paid almost a billion dollars for the broadcast rights. And yet, one must hope that as they deal with a globalized world, as the issue of technological enhancements is addressed and as the human body without those extras rebecomes its natural self, meaning there will only be so far it can go, that the games will look to other criteria and stand for something besides the sheer physical feats that are now heralded.

Like The Women in "Zorba"?

There’s a scene in the movie “Zorba”, where Bouboulina is dying and the women of the town don’t even wait for her to draw her last breath before they take everything. Listening to the media each time a public figure has an affair reminds me of that scene which might as well be called “the vultures descend”. Having an affair is wrong, but when a public figure has one, does it give us the right to have a gossip fest? It seems every commentator, blogger, et al, can’t wait to have a say, to condemn, to judge, to criticize, to chastise, (however disguised through the art of punditry) forgetting that the same spiritual code that tells us an affair is wrong also tells us that these behaviors are just as wrong. We talk as if we are above weakness, as if we had never made a big mistake, as if we had never hurt anyone. What ends up being on display as people keep on talking is the lack of compassion, of understanding, of reasons behind the action, of context, of intent, of forgiveness, of many of the values which make people good Christians, good Buddhists, good Muslims or good Jews. We tend to loose ourselves in our own pronouncements and as we do seem to loose sight of what’s important. Suddenly the transgression is magnified as if the individual involved could not have done anything worse. We then justify our form of voyeurism by telling ourselves it goes to character, as if there are no better indices, such as votes cast, speeches, stand on issues, life history or how the person in question handled adversity. We quickly forget that politicians go back on their promises, that they tweak the truth to be acceptable to whatever audience they are talking to, fall prey to believing their own hype, all of which are not much different than the kind of lies involved in having an affair. Still, we seem to excuse one and not the other. Perhaps this ought to be no surprise, as long as we allow our morality to be defined by the tabloids. They pay for the tidbits we are all so eager to learn, dangle money in front of poorly paid (sometimes disgruntled) servants, attendants, and others employed by potential subjects. We engage in the gossip, immune to the source and to the fact that our attention, the nation’s, and that of decision makers is being deflected away from more pressing issues.