PHNOM PENH, Cambodia ... I had heard about torture chambers under the brothels but had never seen one, so a few days ago Sina took me to the red-light district here where she once was imprisoned. A brothel had been torn down, revealing a warren of dungeons underneath. "I was in a room just like those," she said, pointing. "There must be many girls who died in those rooms." She grew distressed and added: "I'm cold and afraid. Tonight I won't sleep." "Photograph quickly," she added, and pointed to brothels lining the street. "It's not safe to stay here long." <...> Sex trafficking is truly the 21st century's version of slavery. One of the differences from 19th-century slavery is that many of these modern slaves will die of AIDS by their late 20s. Whenever I report on sex trafficking, I come away less depressed by the atrocities than inspired by the courage of modern abolitionists like Somaly and Sina. They are risking their lives to help others still locked up in the brothels, and they have the credibility and experience to lead this fight. In my next column, I'll introduce a girl that Sina is now helping to recover from mind-boggling torture in a brothel -- and Sina's own story gives hope to the girl in a way that an army of psychologists couldn't. I hope that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will recognize slavery as unfinished business on the foreign policy agenda. ...
"I was in a room just like those," she said, pointing. "There must be many girls who died in those rooms." She grew distressed and added: "I'm cold and afraid. Tonight I won't sleep."
"Photograph quickly," she added, and pointed to brothels lining the street. "It's not safe to stay here long." <...>
Sex trafficking is truly the 21st century's version of slavery. One of the differences from 19th-century slavery is that many of these modern slaves will die of AIDS by their late 20s.
Whenever I report on sex trafficking, I come away less depressed by the atrocities than inspired by the courage of modern abolitionists like Somaly and Sina. They are risking their lives to help others still locked up in the brothels, and they have the credibility and experience to lead this fight. In my next column, I'll introduce a girl that Sina is now helping to recover from mind-boggling torture in a brothel -- and Sina's own story gives hope to the girl in a way that an army of psychologists couldn't.
I hope that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will recognize slavery as unfinished business on the foreign policy agenda. ...
The incnoming President has such a bucketful of woe slopping about his own country that, if he were minded to do so, he (and his successor) could spend 100% of the next 3 or 4 presidential terms cleaning up and still not get everything that absolutely has to be done in the first term completed. And one of the things that will probably not get complete is eliminating the shodow of torture that hangs as a pall of condemnation over the USA, not because they don't want it gone but because there are too many dirty people and CIA rogue operators acting to impede any activity involved in clearup. And until they do clear that one up, they have no moral authority getting involved with similar problems in the world. In fact, they will hamper the work simply on a change of hypiocrisy by association. keep to the Fen Causeway
