Blogpost 3: A Human's Perspective about Human Trafficking

                        

Human Trafficking became one of the largest crimes in the world and people became aware of it. By the looks of it, people almost had the same point of view about Human Trafficking. For them, or maybe us, Human Trafficking is merely an illegal human trading which violates a lot of human rights. How we view Human Trafficking is almost the same with everybody else. We are very aware of our surroundings and our opinion about this almost never differ at all.

As humans, we tend to be affected by Human Trafficking even though the victims of it are not our relatives. We have this feeling that we need to empathize with them to understand their situation and because of that, we develop this hatred towards human trafficking and the criminals running this activity. We all feel that this crime should be prevented and be put to an end since it has done a lot of damage especially to children and women.


What about the traffickers? They are humans as well but have you ever tried to wonder why are they doing this? In my opinion, they might be doing this to protect themselves and they have to shut everything and live with the crime they are doing to protect themselves. It might also be that they need money that much that they entered this illegal activity even though they know themselves that this activity is wrong at any sides. Another one is that traffickers might have the same experience and to give themselves justice, they decided to do it to others just to let these "others" experience what he had experienced. To be honest, we don't know their point of view about this since we view traffickers as bad guys and merciless human beings but we might not know how their emotional state are doing.

There are a lot of things to be considered but as humans being on the neutral side - meaning people who are between the traffickers' and victims' side , we tend to choose those who are victims because criminals never really made it in our favor. We have almost similar point of views but if you consider the people behind Human Trafficking, there might be a slight difference.

The problem is, we have similar opinions but something's not right. Human Trafficking never really ended. We just say our thoughts but where is the help the victims are looking for? Empathizing with them won't really give justice to what they have experienced.

According to Marcelo Adoras who wrote Teens' Opinion About Human Trafficking (Human Trafficking Essay) , A lot of us give time for poor people and we are good at sympathizing with them. A lot of organizations are formed to help them but what about the victims of Human Trafficking? The victims of Sex Trade? Given that we have the same point of view even though we are not victims, why isn't there organizations that help the victims? That is one big problem. That proves that in a way, humans are just "all-talk"

"Most people don't know the meaning of the term Human Trafficking, or The Sex Trade. There are those that devote their time and money into environmental causes “going green,” they call it, those who do so for animal rights, those seeking the end of poverty, we see them all in the media, our T.V.'s and our radios, our news and our music. But who ever heard of sponsoring a victim of human trafficking, that broken and helpless young girl, she does not know about caring for the environment, or the dangers research animals go through, but no one even knows she exists and those who have the power to help are not informed on the subject."
  
                            

Another article written by author John Robertson who wrote Viewpoint: Human trafficking hits close to home says that Human Trafficking had the most effect on teenager victims. Instead of being deemed as victims, they are deemed as Teen Prostitutes. In this case, humans judgmental instincts aren't reasonable at all. The problem is that humans being an "all-talk" beings cannot help these teenagers. At this point, we view prostitution as a crime when it's an activity created from Sex trade which is another issue.

"This challenge is undeniably more difficult when the young person is under the control of someone who exploits them sexually for profit. When this happens, we recognize the youth as a victim of minor sex trafficking, a term which reflects how much society has learned since the days of labeling them as teen prostitutes."

To sum this topic up, I must say that humans' opinion about the Human Trafficking issue never changed. We all think that this activity should be stopped but the only problem is, our opinions never contributed anything to stop it. We have to make a way. We need to stop it to prevent anymore children and women and even men to be victimized by this activity. Let's make a way. Continue speaking for truth but also start doing the right actions.

                                 

Blogpost 2: Impact of Human Trafficking to Victims

For years, human trafficking has been an issue. Because of its silent operation, people and the media seem to overlook it and this crime is barely noticed at all. Nowadays, news is all about drugs, murder, theft, or robbery. We are so concerned about how the victims of these crimes are doing but what about human trafficking? We might have a brief idea of how they feel (e.g being traumatized for life and the like) but are those ideas enough to give them justice about how they feel? Let me discuss how this crime, Human Trafficking, affects its victims in many different ways.

According to Thema Bryant-Davis, there are three primary effects of human trafficking to the victims. They are:

Psychological Effects:

Human Traffickers tend to choose young victims and mostly female because at this age, they are very weak and easy to be forced to do something. Victims develop less self-esteem, emotional disturbance, disorientation, and depression. The memories they had during the period of being slaved will leave that scar in their lives for a long time, and maybe forever, even though they have been rescued already. Victims are more likely withdrawn and suicidal and they might not be able to enjoy life.

Health Effects:

Human Trafficking is known for sexual slavery. Victims have high chances of acquiring HIV/AIDS and they will be passing it to their future partners because sexual contraception aren't really a thing in this crime. Victims also acquire occupational diseases due to the environment they're working at. Victims aren't given medical treatments because they'll be replaced with a new batch of victims anyway.

Societal Effects:

Victims are transported into different places in their country or different country. After arriving to a place, their passports and documents will be taken away from them leaving them helpless and immobile. They are actually deemed crime collaborators instead of victims that's why victims are treated badly. They have substandard food and clothing. They also live in a very unhygienic environment.

 

From the article: Human trafficking has wide-reaching social impact by Erin Weaver, he says that Human Trafficking leaves victim a very bad life disturbance. Their mental and physical health are at risk and they always isolate themselves from other people in the society.

"Human trafficking deprives people of their human rights and freedoms, it is a global health risk, and it fuels the growth of organized crime. But the impact of human trafficking goes beyond individual victims; it undermines the safety and security of all nations it touches.

It has a devastating impact on individual victims, who often suffer physical and emotional abuse, rape, threats against self and family, passport theft, and even death. The impact of Human Trafficking on victims can take many forms, all of which can be devastating to the victims."

Another article is Psychological and Physical Effects Of Sex Trafficking On Its Victims by Tara Grimes. It is a story about certain victims being kidnapped to be enslaved and that changed their lives forever. As I said, we have brief ideas about how would a victim feel but we can't really say it as it is because there's a lot more beyond what we know. That idea we have in mind is just the basics.

"Women in the sex industry sustain the same kinds of injuries as women who are battered, raped, and sexually assaulted.  The difference is that when women are subjected to these same injuries in the context of prostitution, the violence is ignored, or redefined as sex. “Rough sex,” sadism, and rape are often accepted as “job liabilities” or “occupational hazards.”"

To conclude everything, victims of human trafficking acquire a very large mental and physical damage. The damage will unfortunately stay in the victim's mind for a very long time or maybe forever. Meeting victims is not a common thing but if we happen to do so, we should try our best to comfort them and empathize to their situation. The effects of the crime to them is not a joke and not a matter to laugh at so people,
let's encourage them and give them hope for them
 to change and eventually, be able to fit in the society.

Blogspot 1:Human Trafficking in the Internet

To start this blog, let me ask you a question? How well do you know Human Trafficking? Most of you would probably say that it is an illegal act but no one can really explain its whole concept. Human Trafficking is a similar to trade but what made it different other than the rest is that here, we trade humans. In this illegal action, humans are, but may not be, delivered and/or distributed to places within a country or internationally for the following purposes: Sex slavery, sexual harassment, forced labor, and sometimes drug involvement. The common targets of this action are females, mostly teens and children of both genders.

In this part of the blog,  we will be discussing how human trafficking occurs in the internet. A very wide variety of crimes happen a lot in the internet and it is undeniable that human trafficking is one of them. In the internet, people, mostly teens, are never aware of who really is the person they're talking to in the opposite side. This is why a lot of people are being victimized by this crime through internet.

The victims are terribly abused and their rights are never considered. Traffickers take advantage of the victims' vulnerability and his/her unable-to-fight state.

 From the article: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Slavery by Eleanor Goldberg, one item caught my attention. It is "Watching porn means you support Human Trafficking." I asked myself why but it actually makes sense if you think about it. Not all pornographic videos out there consensual -- meaning not all the people you can see in a pornographic video likes what they are doing. In some parts, these people might be forced on doing it which may be a form of Human Trafficking. 

"Yes, while some experts say watching porn with your partner could improve your relationship, it could also enable traffickers to exploit their victims. Even if a porn explicitly states that all actors are over 18 and have consented to being filmed, that just may not be true, Yahoo News reported. The trafficked actresses may simply be trained to look and act older." says Eleanor.

Another article is: Technology and Human Trafficking by Maxim Major says that "Human Traffickers have taken advantage of people's addiction to the digital world."It is really sad but this thing is true nd undeniable. Most victims now came from the internet and are caught by Human Traffickers through eyeballs or meet-ups. These traffickers know well how people are so gullible with how people addicted to SNS talk to internet strangers and if you have observed, most crimes now happen through the internet.

"As society has progressed toward using mostly cell phones and the internet for communication, human traffickers have also taken advantage of the ability to connect with potential victims and network with prospective buyers all over the world, leaving only an elusive digital trail. Traffickers tend to use social media for recruitment and online advertising websites to sell the victim’s services, especially with sex trafficking, but they also use mobile phone technologies. Unfortunately, the modern day slave trade still uses many non-digital methods, and so new technologies will need to be developed to piece together the missing information." says Maxim.

To put everything in a nutshell, Human Trafficking is an illegal act everyone is responsible of. Victims of this act are kind of responsible for not being able to hold themselves from doing things that may expose them to human traffickers and these traffickers are at a greater fault for being abusive and sexually explicit. 

In conclusion, we should be more careful to avoid being involved in this by keeping our personal space more private and not easily trusting every information we have to social networking sites. We should keep ourselves from posting too much information about our current locations, address, and personal stuffs such as personal mobile phone numbers so that no stranger from the internet could have the idea on how to have a personal contact with us.