Is Culture an Excuse for Torture?

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Amy Koch

Through out recent Amnesty International articles published during the Demand Dignity campaign’s “Mother Day spike”, and in a recent article in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristoff, I have been reading a lot about genital mutilation for women, especially in countries within Africa. As I read over and over again about the central debate regarding the imposition of morals, values and cultural relevance that comes from genital mutilation, it’s obvious that there are still cultures and societies out there that accept and foster a practice that I would immediately identify as unjust and unethical. But how immoral is it, really?  For me, this debate becomes interesting when I start to question my own initial instincts in an effort to try and understand a different culture and society. Some people, specifically in Somalia, Africa, have said that genital mutilation is “God’s will for girls” and they will otherwise be stigmatized and shunned from their society. Is it my right and our own moral imperative to bring such brutal and inhumane acts of barbarism to an end, and work against God’s suppose will?

After taking this Erasmus course, I have a deeper understanding and respect for the various cultural aspects of other countries, especially when it comes to something that correlate with religion. However, I still whole-heartedly believe that it in our inherent right as humans to prevent cruelty to fellow human beings. I’m not trying to be some imperialistic Westerner and disregard what people define as a part of their culture. Nor do I wish for women of other countries to be shunned from their communities and families. Rather, I’m trying to correlate something of high controversy into what I believe a smart activist would do. I believe that a smart activist would recognize that yes, there are cultural differences, but there are also fine lines to something being cultural and something being wrong. The control of women exuberated through genital mutilation is ubiquitous and the logistical process if unnecessarily physically painful and disturbing to try and fathom. The emotional damage of oppression, and the physical pain of surgeries, are to me, still a human rights violations regardless of the cultural and historical significance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/opinion/12kristof.html?_r=1&hp

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Child Soldiers in the Central Africa Republic

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Evan Vaughan

In the Central Africa Republic, children are being used as trafficked slaves.  1500 children as young as 12 years old have been kidnapped and forced to murder, loot, and use their bodies for sex since 2008.  The Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army and the Convention for Patriots of Justice and Peace have been going through villages in the Republic, taking children and forcing them to be soldiers or sex slaves.  Due to the weak government and lack of international concern, armed groups are able to successfully rise up and commit these inhumane atrocities.  Because the government is unable to maintain peace or order, some villages and communities have taken to creating their own militias to protect themselves against these armed groups.  These communities have begun to use children within their militias, though, continuing the problem of child soldiers.  These people are so focused on protecting their homes, their lives, and their individual selves that they cannot consider nor see that implementing children in their militias is wrong just as forcing the trafficked children is.

The article began by explaining that Peter, a 13-year-old formerly trafficked victim, has nightmares nearly every night of “things he doesn’t want to remember”.  His subconscious reminds him of murder and lootings that he was once forced to do: images and memories that he can never escape.  Forcing children to be part of community militias can and likely will have the same damaging emotional and mental effects on children.  To stop the cycle of children being used on both sides (the militias and the armed groups), more attention and help must be given to CAR.  Human rights groups are urging the United Sates and European Union to fund programs to help the former abductees heal from the trauma and learn to not fall susceptible to trafficking again.  One human rights group representative is asking for more UN involvement to the area so that more NGOs may enter to add to the aid, but the insecurity is currently considered to great for the UN to step in.

The article may be found in full detail at: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/central-african-republics-children-face-recruitment-risk

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Respond to Your Call

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Carly Visbal
YouTube Preview Image

This is the trailer for the Call + Response “rockumentary.” I went to the Call + Response screening at USF last week and got the chance to hear from a former intern within the organization. I really enjoyed the methodology and thought process the creator, Justin Dillon used to create awareness originally through this music documentary and then following up with an organization stemming from it. I am obviously quite familiar with Not For Sale but it was good to learn more about other organizations with similar dreams and goals they are working towards. I also was happily surprised to see my professor, Dave Batstone interviewed in the documentary where the Erasmus group was mentioned as a group of student abolitionists taking great measures to bring slavery to an end.

Call + Response is working on their next campaign to create a “Slave Free” brand label. It is the same idea of having the fair trade insignia on candy bars that we see in stores. It will be a label that will be certifiable for companies who are choosing to have a clean supply chain. They are doing this by getting the information of people who are taking pictures of their favorite labels while holding a sign that says “slave free.” This is essentially signifying that they appreciate this brand and would further support it if it were slave free in the production as well. They are hoping by this way of encouragement that companies will see the impact that they can have on their demand of consumers if they do choose to have a transparent and clean supply chain. The information and listings of these people are then going to be sent to companies in order to give a positive enforcement that people support their brand and would love to see it take it one step further in making it an ethical one too.

I think this way of getting things done might not be the most effective right off the bat but I do think it can be one step in getting the ball rolling in the right direction. I don’t think a company will necessarily change their entire production line because they have a list of names of people who want it done but it is still doing something. The more times this issue is brought up to the companys’ attention the more impact in the future it can really make.

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World Malaria Day

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Emily Harbourne

The other day I was sent to the doctor to get a prescription for malaria pills since I will be traveling to Africa this summer. I have taken these pills many times before but never once did it cross my mind how amazing the concept was. I mean I simply take the bus downtown talk to a doctor for five minutes and get a prescription. Then I take the pills two days before I leave, while I am there, and a month after I get back and I am safe from contracting the disease. It is so easy to prevent myself from getting malaria yet combating malaria continues to be a global health challenge. As it turns out the day after I got my prescription was World Malaria Day and I reserved many emails from the UN Wire about the importance of the day. I found many of the statistics very shocking. The World Health Organization estimates that close to 800,000 people died of the disease in 2009 alone. Also UNICEF estimates that 85% of those who die from malaria are under the age of five. All development countries have managed to eliminate malaria, yet the disease still drastically affects third world countries, mostly in Africa. Why is it that I cant run down the street and get a prescription that will protect me from malaria yet hundred of thousands of people die from the disease every year. Obviously the governments of these third world countries do not have the resources to combat malaria and their malaria control programs are very fragile and weak. Current prevention programs consist of mosquito net distribution. Ray Chambers, co-founder of the nonprofit group Malaria No More, was honored by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world because of his work, which includes distributing anti-malaria mosquito nets aimed at ending deaths in Africa due to the disease by 2015. While I think this is amazing I think there should be an easier option. Maybe I live in this ideal world but wouldn’t we prevent so many unnecessary deaths if more developed countries would just fund the distribution of malaria pills in the most affected areas. It is so easy for me to access this medicine so why can’t we make it easy for the children in Africa to get this medicine. I have been told so many times that the United States does not get involved in certain international crisis’s when they are not directly involved or they do not receive any benefit from the outcome. I guess this is perfect example. The United States is not being affected by the children in Africa who are dying from an easily preventable disease, therefore why would they put forth resources to help solve this problem. It is sad how easily we can solve this issue yet we let it continue year after year.

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Osama Who? And Why Do We Care?

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Amy Koch

My life and the lives’ of my friends literally stopped last night as we received news that Osama Bin Laden was killed. I observed and listened to a lot of cheers from my fellow peers and I felt a sense of success and celebration surrounding me. However, I can’t help but feel alone or in somewhat of a minority by my personal immediate and continued reaction to this event.

When I first heard the news, my initial reaction was, so what? So what if we killed him? I mean, yes, he is a terrorist and he took the lives of many people, which would qualify his death to some people. However, logistically, is the war on terrorism over? NO. Al Queda is still around. So where is the success? I believe it stems from people’s inherent sense of the desire for revenge for the deaths of 9/11. So why not kill off the supposed “face of terrorism”? Well, sure enough tens year people are throwing a party for shooting someone in the head and dropping his body off in the ocean.

Furthermore, I can’t help but question how the people around me, and our current president, can consider the death of a human being such a triumph. Maybe I’m being too Ghandi-esque with my peaceful thoughts, but there is something extremely disturbing to me that there is a vast amount of happiness over a fellow human being, a fellow child of God, dead.

“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that” — Martin Luther King Jr.

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The Trafficked Thai

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Evan Vaughan

The Associated Press published an article today explaining the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s lawsuits against a California recruitment firm and farm companies in Washington and Hawaii.  The California-based contracting firm, Global Horizons, is accused and under indictment for trafficking Thai workers to the United States and then providing them with inhumane conditions after arrival.

The case as laid out in the article appears similar to most other cases.  The workers were lured here to a very foreign country and culture because they were offered work along with room and board.  After paying outrageous thousands of American dollars in  “recruitment fees” in order to get the job and come to the U.S., the workers were given insufficient food, had no beds to sleep on, stayed in living quarters they shared that were infested with rats, were abused, and were threatened to be deported if they complained.  The Thai workers were all also separated from other workers recruited by Global Horizons, most likely the main reason that the EEOC became involved in the first place.  These workers, of course, were stripped of their passports and all other documents upon arrival, and had no power over their own lives between 2003 and 2007 after being relocated to a completely unknown and foreign environment.  Over 1000 Thai workers were brought to the U.S. to work on these Hawaiian farms

These are innocent people who were desperate and conned into modern-day slavery with the individual intentions of making a better life for themselves.

This is exactly what our class’s Citizenship & Human Rights group is fighting against.  These booklets we are creating are to help teach Thai children about the harm of human trafficking and how to stay away from it.  These people are just that – they are people with aspirations and goals just like anyone else.  They deserve to have the chance to reach for their dreams and not be taken advantage of.  Our hope is that these booklets will empower them and guide them in that right direction so they will not have to suffer like these workers have.

For the full story, please go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/federal-agency-sues-california-labor-contractor-farms-in-thai-human-trafficking-case/2011/04/20/AFL9ejCE_story_1.html

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The Death Penalty

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Evan Vaughan

Recent articles through BBC news and the UK Guardian released information about the global use of the death penalty in 2010.  The global use of execution as a punishment is on the decline, but China sets itself apart in the thousands of executions held every year.   Last year, recordings of executions have included electrocution, beheadings, shootings, hangings, and most common in the United States: lethal injections.

For those countries recorded, most had less than 10 executions, some with dozens (such as the U.S. with a recorded 46 as the 5th place country for most recorded executions), and China had a resounding 2,000 with possible thousands more that the government has not reported.  Executions last year were punishments for crimes such as tax fraud and stealing fossils or religious relics.  China just decreased the number of laws punishable by death from 68 to 55.  Another new regulation is that those over the age of 75 cannot be executed.

It is unjust that the Chinese who already live in a suppressed environment must endure fear of various actions that may lead to death. And one cannot set an age when it becomes dismissed that a crime is no longer too criminal, as if at 75 years, one cannot determine what is right and wrong.

Regardless of China’s immensely high number of those sentenced to death, the world is on an overall track towards global abolition, as it should! No matter or crime is so awful that the perpetrator deserves to have his or life taken.  We as humans do not have the right to take away another human life: that is unjust. It may be a difficult burden to care for criminals and those jailed for a lifetime but it is necessary during that time to give them support and have faith that people can change. Because that is what we as global citizens must do to sustain ourselves; we must care for each other and promote positive change in society. If we solely punish, we are making no progress towards a better future.

We need to have faith in ourselves and stop killing each other.

For more reference:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/28/us-china-death-penalty-amnesty

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12868522

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12580504

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When Good Things Go Bad

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Carly Visbal

Since reading “Creating a World Without Poverty” by Mohammed Yunis, my mind has been processing many ideas. I don’t think that there would be anyone in thoppose the view that Yunis hasn’t done tremendous work to better the lives of many Bangladeshi people. He has countless companies that have stemmed from the Grameen Bank such as; loans experimentation and training to improve agricultural practices, Grameen fabrics, livestock breeding, telecommunications service, internet service provider, renewable energy source, scholarships, electronics products, health care services, nutritious foods, along with many other impacting opportunities. Yunis has modeled his bank as a “social business” which is created to be the best solution to help the community around him.

I do not question his methods because they are obviously working. I don’t question his intentions they seem purely for good. All that I propose we question is the amount of power the Grameen Bank really has in Bangladesh. If this were let’s just say for the fun of it, the government and not a “social business,” people would suddenly consider Grameen Bank a very different entity. The first branch of the Grameen Bank was based on the fact that Yunus wanted to loan people money because he knew they were intelligent and inventive enough to come up with a business. This idea is that we should support people in whatever their dreams are and replacing the solution to stick them in line at a factory to produce clothing or jewelry.

“Communism is a sociopolitical movement that aims for a classless and stateless society structured upon common ownership of the means of production, free access to articles of consumption, and the end of wage labor and private property in the means of production and real estate.”  Is it not a fair consideration that Grameen Bank has the power of indirectly “owning” a large portion of Bangladesh? I believe that a country cannot be pulled out of poverty through only a governmental action which means that often non profits have to make the biggest efforts to help the issue along. I believe it shouldn’t be all of one or the other though. Right now Grameen Bank is changing millions of lives and teaching us all new models of how a business can be designed. It provides over 8.4 million people with small business loans, most of them women. But from an American’s view too much power for one social business might be a bad omen to a government feeling threatened.

Mohammed Yunus was removed recently from his position as Chairman of the Grameen Bank. He was originally removed under a false accusation that he misused some donated money. Although after that allegation cleared he was still removed for being over the age of 70 which is the age limit of governmental bank employees. Many people believe the true reasoning for Yunus’ removal was the threat of political power he has and could use against the prime minister in the future.

So my concluding thought after reading this inspiring book is, can power that is being used for good become a bad thing?  I would say that Yunus’ work is so valuable for impacting the world so greatly but not it is stirring up a scandal.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/microfinance-under-fire/?scp=3&sq=muhammad%20yunus&st=cse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism

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Different Forms of White

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Michaela Blau

Ever since Ronald Raegan’s presidency, there has been much debate about the law and sentencing discrepancies between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. These are essentially the same drug, just in different forms.  Powder cocaine is more expensive than crack, and is usually sold in more affluent, predominately Caucasian neighborhoods.  Crack, on the other hand, is usually consumed by minorities in poverty-stricken neighborhoods.  However, getting arrested with five grams of crack holds the same federal sentence as getting arrested with 500 grams of powder cocaine (Richman lecture 2/3/11).  While this law does not blatantly state it is targeting minorities, based on the research conducted about the racial make up of each drug form’s users, this is an indirectly racist law and has been criticized for decades.  Raegan advertised the new and scary drug, crack cocaine, as a staple in urban communities and directly linked the fear of the drug with a fear of minority populations as a whole.  This fueled the already present divide and racist attitudes in the US.  Numerous activists of African American or Latino decent have spoke out about these injustices, stating this law is another example of how the “white man is trying to keep minorities down;” by punishing more punitively for crack than powder cocaine, poverty-stricken communities are disrupted as husbands, fathers, mothers, aunts, and uncles are locked away for ten, fifteen, even fifty years.  By breaking this family cohesion, the whole community suffers not only emotionally, but economically as well.  While an offender of powder cocaine may just get a slap on the wrist and return to his or her family, crack users are usually removed from their communities for many years.

After over twenty years with this law in place, steps towards justice have been made.  The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 “narrows the vast gap between penalties for crimes involving crack and powder cocaine.”  However, the new law is only applicable to offenders who commit crimes after August, leaving previous offenders in the dark, and often in 25 year to life sentences.  Congress has ignored pushes to apply the new standards to old cases, and they are the only ones that have the ability to do so.  Until then, hundreds of thousands of crack offenders will remain in prison while cocaine offenders walk free.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/us/19bar.html?_r=1&ref=us

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Minimums

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Kelsey Silva

Malaysia has plans to establish minimum wage laws for the country’s workers, providing “at least the possibility that [a worker's] like could improve.” The article reasons that in making these rules, Asia-Pacific governments are playing catch up with most of the world.

In the United States minimum wage laws were first proposed as a way to control the proliferation of sweat shops. Otherwise, “rapid industrialization, mass inequality, and/or increasing labor disputes have prompted government to introduce minimum wages.” The bottom 40% have experience the slowest growth of average income, while wages were reportedly depressed because of the availability of cheap foreign labor from Indonesia, Philippines, and India. Malaysian government has had the goal to reduce dependence on foreign workers, and minimum labor wages would persuade more native-born Malaysians to work jobs only foreigners take. Yet workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, and India are just as poverty stricken as workers from Malaysia, and canceling their jobs will make them more vulnerable. Labor issues in the world need to be improved through supply chains, i.e. improving worker payments. But as demonstrated in the outline of  Not For Sales new business venture in the Amazon, people will always be left behind even with an improved business deal.

Malaysia’s new minimum wage system is introduced as a “social protection mechanism,” but while amending labor issues it may still offer difficulties. Supporters of the minimum wage say that it increases the standard of living of workers and reduces poverty. The Malaysian Trades Union Congress, which represents 600,000 workers, believes  an appropriate wage/cost of living allowances would benefit about 3 million workers. Opponents say that if minimum wage is high enough to be effective, it increases unemployment, harming lesser skilled workers to the benefit of better skilled workers. Such arguments suggest that imposing minimums would lead to higher production costs, making Malaysian products less competitive internationally. “Of course, we are not against increasing wages per se,” said Shamsuddin Bardan, the group’s executive director. “We support the government’s policy of trying to become a high-income nation, but we say that a high income should be productivity- and performance-based, rather than a minimum wage.”

Throughout Asia-Pacific countries, minimum wages laws are distributed among specifc jobs and for specific workers. David Robalino, a lead economist at World Bank, said a minimum wage should not affect the ability of Malaysian employers to compete if it is set at the right level. “The variable they have to use to adjust to minimum wage is their profits, not the price of the goods, not the level of employment,” he said. From a supply chain perspective, products should be made for the good of the people, without harming the producers or the consumers. Fair labor and minimum wage laws are for human rights protection:

  • (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work.
  • (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
  • (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
    (Declaration of Human Rights, Article 23)

While minimum wages throughout the region have increased some workers’ pay, analysts say many remain struggling to keep up with the cost of living. “It’s unfair, but I have to survive,” shares one female worker who has given up one daughter for adoption because she could not support herself and five other children. Insufficient wages ultimately harms the children, who cannot be taken to the doctor or eat nutritious food because parents cannot afford it. Instead young children are sold to sustain the family, perhaps into domestic slavery or prostitution, all because one business did not want to part from profits. This article has made me realize the benefit of Supply Chain’s work. It has been dissappointing doing work that is not so involved with ‘service projects’ that we can witness on our trip. But if we bring enough attention to the idea of fair labor, soon there won’t be any children or trafficking victims to visit. Because my advocating for the older laborers abroad, we can benefit a younger child’s life.

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