On October 15th, more than 2,000 blogs around the world will write about poverty and will participate in Blog Action Day. I encourage everyone to join in. I know I will. - Callie

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

Global issues like poverty are extremely complex. There is no simple, clear answer. By asking thousands of different people to give their viewpoints and opinions, Blog Action Day creates an extraordinary lens through which to view these issues. Each blogger brings their own perspective and ideas. Each blogger posts relating to their own blog topic. And each blogger engages their audience differently

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Kudos to Colleen & BuzzNetworker for posting this! Blog Action Day has several resources to assist bloggers through the event as well.

Nearly half of the world’s chocolate comes from the Cote D’Ivoire in Africa. An estimated 12,000 children have been enslaved on cocoa farms in Core D’Ivoire. I will no longer buy chocolate that is not from a reliable and ethical source. Many companies make an effort to avoid slave chocolate, however the five largest manufacturers of milk-chocolate-candy (Nestle, Hersheys, Mars, Cadbury and Phillip Morris) DO NOT. They claim that they have no control over the problem. This is not true. (source - http://www.xocoatl.org/harvest.htm)

STOP Trafficking Chocolate Campaign

We all know there is an ugly side to this industry, it’s not something I spend a lot of time blogging about, but I spend a lot of time following it. A few days ago, a wonderful girl (non-adult industry) who is desperately trying to be a model in Los Angeles tells me she has landed an amazing twelve day job shooting in a fantastic location and she needed me to cat sit for her. I said yes and congrats. She is only 21 and I (feeling maternal), asked her to give me a full itinerary, a copy of her ID and her passport and the numbers of emergency contacts, just in case there was an issue.

But she didn’t have it. I said to her, “No professional agency is not giving you an itinerary.” I asked her to explain the trip in greater details. And I got this:

• Oh, I only have five days to prepare, it’s last minute.
• I found it on XXXXXXX.com.
• We fly to New York on a private plane.
• We then transfer to another private plan and we are flown to <XXXXXXXX>.
• We are shooting for 12 days.
• There is no pay, just work for her portfolio.
• We are staying a private house (all the girls together).
• We then have to pay our own airfare back to the US.

I was quiet, none of this added up. I start to think, this is Los Angeles, any decent agency flies models on commercial airlines and put them up in their own rooms in hotels. Modeling is actually stressful and girls here get private rooms to decompress after shoots. She knew this! And no return airfare home?

I emailed the scenario and the post to a friend who works with trafficked victims in California because I was suspicious. She said “absolutely not.” Too many red flags. After two days, I finally convinced her not to go, I told her my extensive history of adult (and that I didn’t just design websites for people), that caught her attention. Was this gig a bad thing, maybe not. But everything I knew about screening clients and safety was screaming “NO! Don’t go, you will not be heard from again!” I don’t think I would have forgiven myself if something had happened to her. I had just imagined, she gets off the plan in New York, passport taken and that’s it.
In researching Human Trafficking as it relates to the U.S. and other areas, I was amazed to find the following information:

• It is estimated to be a $5 to $9 billion-a-year industry in the U.S.
  
• 27 million are trafficked everyday, that’s one person every 1.5 minutes.
• Globally, its $42.5 billion per year.
  

To learn more and to help prevent, please visit: StopTheTraffick.org

I received an email update from Amanda Brooks over the weekend saying she was going to appear on the O’Reilly Factor on Monday night. I have always respected Ms. Brooks and have referred many a sex worker to her writings.

I really didn’t know what to expect, I mean, The O’Reilly Factor? O’Reilly tends to be a bigot and hot-headed.

After her brief interview - Let’s add this: “Women who work as Escorts are abused, don’t know what they are talking about and are going to be murdered by the next Green River Serial Killer or Boston Stranger.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Even those who mean well sometimes confuse the human rights abuse of trafficking in persons with the human occupation of prostitution, or sex work. It’s understandable because of the history of the two fields, but it creates rather than solves problems. Let me try to sort it out here.

The tendency to treat trafficking and prostitution as if they were the same thing has a long and problematic history. Legislation and social discussion have often blurred or denied any difference, but that has always made things worse rather than better for those involved.

The trafficking of women and children into sexual slavery is undeniably a gross abuse of human rights. Like all trafficking, it involves coercion or trickery or both. Sex trafficking is an odious forms of trafficking, but it is far from the only one. Men, women and children are also — and more commonly — trafficked routinely for purposes of household and farm labor as well as sweatshop manufacturing. Their lives may be less media-genic than those of sex trafficking victims, but they are no less brutal, dangerous and degraded.
Read the rest of this entry »

I had the privilege of finally connecting with the founder of the West coast arm of the Sex Workers Outreach Project this week. It was my goal this year to write more and get more involved with the advocacy side of the adult industry. And it’s the perfect fit. SWOP Los Angeles desperately needs a professional online web presence in time for the Desiree Alliance Conference in July. They asked me to be the their West coast Webmistress and of course, I said “Yes.” The new site should be up in a few weeks. If anyone is interested in SWOP Los Angeles and participating, help is needed to facilitate fundraising, expand services for sex workers and generate more awareness of their cause in Los Angeles. Please email them at swopla2006@gmail.com.

I received some an email Saturday from Tara at SWOP regarding Ren and Jill Brenneman debating John Foubert (professor of education at William and Mary college). Foubert is adamantly and publicly opposed the Sex Workers Art Show and believes that viewing pornography increases male sexual violence against women. He also believes that the SWAS is pornography, and thus that having it on campus increases the likelihood of rape for women at this school.

Another panelist, Samantha Berg (genderberg.com), co-founder of the Antiporn Activist Network, is also set to be present at this debate. Berg seems to have coined the term “pornstitution” and “has dedicated herself to educating people about the inherent harms of sexual capitalism.”

Samantha Berg is threatening to boycott the debate if Ren is allowed to present in the discussion. Berg has developed an absurd notion, that Ren wants to cause her physical harm and is threatening her life. The conference organizer has bent over backward in oder for Berg to attend; allowing Berg to have a friend join the panel and to have police protection present.

Question? Why would Berg need protection from Ren? First off, Ren is not a threat for violence. Secondly, Ren is a petite 5′2, 100 lbs, sex-blogger/activist/sex worker. How is she going to physically harm this woman with security and hundreds of people present.

Read the rest of this entry »