Church...Special Operations and Human Trafficking

                                  Good Morning - for those of you that are not following us on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin, we have been engaged in several operations outside of Burma that address human trafficking and the sex industry. I want to set the stage for you on what has transpired in the last 96 hours...and what we are doing to fight this emerging and dangerous threat. In Europe, the United States and Asia….the figures are overwhelming...the flesh trade generates an estimated $32 billion dollars annually making human trafficking the fastest-growing criminal activity in the world today. It is also the most lucrative. According to a 2010 International Labor Office (ILO) report, just a single female held for sexual exploitation yields an average of $67,200 annually in Western Europe and North America. The United Nations estimates that between 800,000 and 4 million men, women and children are deceived, recruited, transported from their homes and sold into slavery around the world each year. Eighty percent are women; girls and young boys trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation. Of these, more than 300,000 women and children from Russia and Eastern Europe who are forced into prostitution each year. Western demand for Eastern European prostitute’s fuels today’s sex-slave industry. Currently, the market for Slavic woman and children in brothels and in pornography in "developed" countries — particularly the EU and the U.S. — is the hottest compared to other parts of the world, and is drawing on an endless supply of impoverished and vulnerable women.

A multitude of recent studies try to explain why women get snared into the trade in flesh. Researchers point to poverty, chronic unemployment, domestic violence and drug addiction as the primary “push factors.” As we continue to work within this field, sadly, we realize there isn’t enough discussion of the real root of the problem — the men. Human trafficking is basically international sexual terrorism perpetrated against women and children on a mass scale by men. It is their demand for illicit or predatory sex that generates huge profits for the slavers and leaves behind the tortured minds and broken bodies of those women and children they violate. I have seen this firsthand in Asia (Burma/Thailand) but now we are addressing it throughout US and Europe.
Fast Forward…The Life On Point Group...Just a few weeks ago, I was contacted late one night and asked if I could assist…a young girl had been taken from her home in the former Soviet Union and was now working in Ireland…yes…I said…Ireland. She had been on the streets and was being abused and sold for sex. She was heavily abused; dependent on drugs and yet…smart enough to get a note to someone associated with the church…and the church contacted me…same group who just one year ago had spent time in the jungles in an effort to stem the tide of Asian women and children being shipped across the border to Thailand and beyond. I took the call and put into place mechanisms to ensure she received the medical care, finances and hope that soon she would be back home with her family…suffice to say that on 14 March 2012…we succeeded.

A  Holy Collaboration...Based on what we were able to accomplish…the “Father” stated it was a “collaboration...made in heaven”…and yet…the story does not end there. Europe and the US are ripe with stories of women and children being violently exploited.  After a trafficking journey that typically involves deception, rape, beatings, and constant threats, victims are often forced to live in confining and unsanitary conditions. Once formally put to work, human trafficking victims can be forced to service up to 100 customers a day. Malnutrition, forced sleep deprivation, as well as emotional and physical abuse become part of the day-to-day routine. 

This is what our victim endured before we were able to intervene. In addition to the abuse, forced abortions and the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS are an ever looming probability. Life for a victim of sex trafficking is hell on earth! Some sobering facts for all of us to ponder...and ask why Life On Point is actively engaged in this arena:
       -        Human trafficking is the second largest global organized crime today, generating approximately 31.6 billion USD each year 
       -        There are 1.50 million victims of commercial sexual servitude worldwide
       -     Over 25 percent of sex trafficked victims are trafficked from Southern and Eastern Europe; many more emanate from Asia
       -        90% of victims trafficked into the European Union member states will end up in the sex industry in either Europe of the US
       -        Less than 2 percent of victims of trafficking are rescued, and only 1 in 100,000 persons  involved in trafficking are ever convicted      

       At the end of the day....The odds are against us...but still we will fight and press the issue...on behalf of those who can’t do this on their own...and for those that being held against their own will...that is what makes the “holy collaboration” so worthwhile! For additional information on sex trafficking in Europe please take a look at the following link...it is a real “eye opener” http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4170464/Sun-investigation-uncovers-human-trafficking-is-still-rife-in-UK.html

Thank You

A Sad State of Affairs for Children and Society

Hello and Good Morning to everyone! It has been almost a month since I have put pen to paper and discussed the issues that are making headlines today. It is a sad state of affairs when children who have been placed into the cyclical process known as foster care are forced into prostitution and made to endure what others would never speak about…sexual abuse.

From the Press - I woke two days ago to read a Huffington Post article of a man in Ohio who was arrested after “pimping” his adopted 10 year old son out to several friends. To say this story is revolting is an understatement…to think that it is an isolated event is both ignorant and dangerous...for it happens with a greater relevance then we can even imagine or comprehend.  

“A 10-year-old boy shook when asked about being prostituted to two other men by an adoptive father who regularly had sex with him…as the boy was fearful of talking because he didn’t want to be taken from his home or separated from his new siblings.”

I am sure that the “parent” in this case set the conditions so that he could initially exploit this child for his own use by leveraging the child’s need to belong…and then using that for a greater perversion…by allowing others to participate. I can only imagine the psychological pain these kids had to endure as I have known and worked with others who have gone through the same…it is something that never leaves you. This story – in and of itself - would be bad enough however, as you read through it and you see the words “Craigslist” and “Internet” you come to realize that it is no longer something confined to the backstreets or back-woods of America but that it has now entered the domain of the computers that sit in our own homes. You can "peddle flesh" and find like minded deviants to participate in your perversion in your own town or while on vacation…if you only know where to look.

“He had been led to the adoptive father by another man who had posted a Craigslist ad wanting “taboo” sex”

I have always been an advocate of 21^st century technology to better the lives of all of us…what happened here was a systematic collapse of a series of checks and balances that are part of any good system…especially one that places children into foster care. The local Dayton, Ohio news circuit is stating that the accused was a single “gay man” – sexual orientation aside the question that begs to be asked is how was this missed….a gay man adopting 3 male children? In an age of cutbacks and decreased budgets this seems to have been a major lapse in common sense. I am sure there will be a series of follow-on stories that address this so I will stop here…other than to say…outrageous!

When I look at this story, I can’t help but recall the iceberg analogy…”it’s not what you see above the water…its what’s below the water that will sink the ship” – how many others suffer in silence at the hands of those who wield some measure of “power” over them? How many other kids out there suffer…or have suffered over the years at the hands of those who were supposed to protect them? The numbers would surprise us…and therefore many of us do not even ask the question…until it is too late.

How to protect those that can’t help themselves

Our company - Life On Point Consultants - has taken a proactive approach in the prevention of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. As many of you know we are now active across the globe and as such can speak about much of what happens out there…from the “flesh markets” in Thailand to the child abuse issues in the Middle East…it is horrific and affects even those that don’t realize it is happening. The outcry for what has happened to those children in Ohio has been huge…the problem is that for every single incident that makes the Huffington Post or New York Times  the question becomes how many more are out there and how many more women and children are being subjected to this and other like abuses across the globe. The figures are shocking!

We should always remember...and take note;

“The world is a dangerous place to live not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don’t do anything about it”

More to follow…and many…many more...to hold accountable…thanks for following!