Comments on: The many faces of human trafficking victims

By: Emilie

Emilie — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:29:30 +0000

There's something fishy about the motives for trafficking. When you can find people willing to do cheap menial labor and even sex work by "choice," why is there a need to deceive, coerce, and trick so many of them into it? Why lie to somebody that they'll be doing housework, when there are already plenty of people ready to do the sex work? Aside from making money off slave labor, I honestly believe there is a disturbingly large market for rape and sadism out there. I wonder sometimes if traffickers aren't catering to customers who want people they can control and abuse and mistreat for profit as well as pleasure.

By: I Wouldn’t Burn A Good One « Accismus

I Wouldn’t Burn A Good One « Accismus — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:37:53 +0000

[...] human trafficking: A distant relative of mine was trafficked. Depending on what you’ve read and seen in the [...]

By: Natalia Antonova

Natalia Antonova — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:40:03 +0000

Dana, I agree. I’ve actually mentioned this on my personal blog at the time – it’s a really good article, and the writer obviously wants to express a highly nuanced viewpoint, but making a statement like that is not exactly nuanced.

I wasn’t going to mention it here, because I didn’t want the discussion to go in that direction, but perhaps I should have. It would only have been fair.

It’s my mistake.

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:49:49 +0000

Wow, that is depressing. I found the Times article very informative, I only object to the statement that prostitution is “always degrading”. Yeah, thanks for that part, it really ruined the article for me.

By: Pawlina

Pawlina — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:53:07 +0000

Thanks for the kind words, Natalia. With this article you’re making me reconsider my decision to discontinue the Natashas blog…

One of the reasons I started it was out of despair over my stepdaughter who was caught up in the drugs/prostitution scene. Now that she has left it behind her, I have less personal anguish as an incentive to continue. Another reason was to raise awareness of human trafficking, as at the time there was so little of it. That has changed as well.

And now that I read what I just wrote, I see that my motivation both to start and stop the blog was far more selfish than altruistic. I’m humbled that you found it interesting and still consider it a useful enough resource to cite here. Thank you, and keep up the good blogging.

By: links for 2008-07-02 « don’t ya wish your girlfriend was smart like me?

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:41:49 +0000

[...] The many faces of human trafficking victims from Feministe: more ppl are traffiked than just women for prostitution. Here’s an example. (tags: human_traffiking) [...]

By: Renee

Renee — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:33:11 +0000

Many people try to view slavery as something that happens elsewhere but it happens in western nations all of the time. Many of the products we regularly consume without thinking are produced by slave labor. Chocolate for instances is famous for slavery during production and yet every Easter we gorge ourselves with chocolate to celebrate. The slaves who are beaten so that we can have a sweet treat often have never even tasted chocolate themselves. The slave trade is perpetuated by our uneven system of exchange. What is also disturbing is that slavery is cheaper than it ever has been. It costs less than 100 dollars to buy an adult male slave. It's very cheapness makes these bodies even more disposable.

By: poemless

poemless — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:06:24 +0000

Natasha,

I just wanted to chime in to say how much I love your columns. It’s been a while since I’ve read this site and I just came here for a fix after debating with some men over at a blog about Russia, about the plight of women in Russia. My head is spinning.

Anyway, I really love your posts. I’ll be checking back more frequently now.

On the topic, Frontline did a very good documentary on the subject a while back.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves/

By: sonia

sonia — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:03:30 +0000

Natalie,
You are right. I apologize. I was reading too much into your post because of a disturbing conversation in my own life. Sorry. My comment was needless.

By: Natalia Antonova

Natalia Antonova — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:07:13 +0000

Sonia, where exactly did you see breathless fury in my post? I thought I was being rather cool and collected there! I don’t believe that sex work and trafficking are always the same thing, which is I brought up the words of my friend – who is, like the people at La Strada, ultimately for legalization and regulation of sex work.