Vince Shlomi, the guy who hocks the ShamWow and Slap Chop on infomercials and the Internet had a violent altercation with a prostitute in a Miami hotel room, a 26-year-old named Sasha Harris, as The Smoking Gun mentioned over the weekend.

Shlomi claims in his affidavit that when he kissed Harris, she bit his tongue.  According to the Smoking Gun,

Shlomi then punched Harris several times until she released his tongue… during the 4 AM fight Harris sustained facial fractures and lacerations all over her face.

This story, sadly, is not out of the ordinary.  It has only gotten a lot of press because it features a quasi-celebrity who sells cooking and cleaning products in a memorable and annoying way.  

It is important to note while that no indications have been made in any media coverage that the woman was in prostitution against her will, she was still violently beaten as a result.  No woman deserves to be brutalized, regardless of her occupation.  Commercial sex is still a very dangerous industry, even for those who enter it willingly with their eyes wide open.  And a woman does not need to be trafficked into prostitution to suffer many of the ill effects of the industry- depression, higher drug and alcohol use and abuse, higher suicide and homicide rates, increased risk of STDs, and increased risk of rape and battery.

We knew this guy was obnoxious.  Now we know he’s also abusive.  What I want to know is how we can help the woman, and the many women like her who are victimized through prostitution.

Image from honestinfomercialreviews.com

Because abolition + coolfunstuff = awesomeness, each week I will bring you a Red Light Special, one cool gift, bobble or goodie you can feel good about buying, because the money you spend somehow benefits trafficking victims, people at-risk of trafficking or anti-trafficking programs. It’s guilt-FREE shopping for freedom!

This Week’s Red Light Special…..The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam

Somaly Mam is a human trafficking survivor-turned-activist who recounts the experiences of her early life and tells the story of her awakening as an activist and her harrowing and brave fight against the powerful and corrupt forces that steal the lives of these girls.  The Road of Lost Innocence is unflinching in its reality and courage to tell the truth behind trafficking.  It is a must-read for any activist.

You can buy this item from the link above, or at http://www.somaly.org/store/

If you know of an organization or business which you’d like to see financially rewarded for helping trafficking victims, let me know!

A mob of people are sitting together dissecting the lyrics to 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. and growing angry and disillusioned.  Are these suburban mothers? Conservative crusaders?  No, it’s a high school history class at Coolidge High in Washington, DC.   

This discussion is part of an effort by the non-profit Fair Fund to educate young people about the dangers of sex trafficking and prostitution.  Among other things, the class discussed the degradation of women and the glamorization of pimps and prostitutes in several hip-hop songs.  Finally, a debate long held by adult policymakers is now being held by the people it affects: youth. 

When thousands of children a year are trafficked into commercial sex globally, we want something to blame.  But does hip-hop’s glamorization of pimp and ho culture make it easier for pimps to lure young girls into sex slavery?  Can we really lay this heavy burden on 50 Cent and his colleagues?  Or are hip-hop artists and other artists like Radiohead the key to effectively educating youth about the dangers of human trafficking?   

Whether or not you find that mainstream hip-hop has some blame for the glamorization of pimp and ho culture in America, there are alternatives.  When we listen to positive hip-hop, buy those songs, and go to those concerts, we financially reward artists who embrace values like empowering and respecting women.  You can start with the Positive Hip-Hop Podcast.  It’s free and available on iTunes, and all that empowering energy is worth a lot more than 50 cents. 

Each week, I will be bringing you a new interview with a formerly-active activist or abolitionist, that is, someone now deceased.  I’ll be talking to the men and women who paved the way for the abolitionists of today and getting their thoughts on the problems and solutions of modern-day slavery.  How do I contact not just the dead, but the famous and dead?  Every good blogger must have her secrets!

This week… Jacques Pierre Brissot

How’s the afterlife treating you?

Cest magnifique! Here, we all are able to govern ourselves.

For those non-biography readers out there, how about you tell me a little about yourself.

I was one of the leaders of the French abolitionist movement.  In the years leading up to the revolution, I founded later the Paris-based anti-slavery group Society of the Friends of the Blacks, and served as president during 1790 and 1791.  I was also a Girondist.

What do you think is the biggest problem in the modern-day abolitionist movement?

There is no appreciation for the use of propaganda in the cause of social justice.  The other side uses propaganda to lure trafficking victims into slavery and keep them there, and they have language and techniques to downplay the issue.  Why cannot we develop propaganda for our cause?

If you were alive, what would you do to fight slavery?

I would mount an awarenss campaign using viral techiniques in current media, which I wish I’d had back in my day.  I would use the same propaganda techniques the other side is using to promote the cause of freedom and the importance of human trafficking as an issue.

Any last thoughts for our readers?

Here, we all eat cake!

Looking for a way to boost your anti-trafficking resume?  Interested in spending a few months across the pond in the UK?  Well, then it’s a good day for you!

STOP THE TRAFFIK are offering a 4 month  internship in their London office, starting in May.  This could be a good opporunity for recent graduates looking for a resume building experience.

According to their website:

The internship is a great opportunity to gain experience working for a dynamic, non-profit organisation and to learn about campaigning on a major global issue. The successful candidate will be a motivated individual who has previous administration experience and a passion for human rights / anti-trafficking issues.

They will work closely with the Community Action and Resource Officer with the following areas of responsibility and specific duties:

• Record and acknowledge donations, merchandise sales and orders
• Manage and respond to general enquiries (phone, e-mail, letters)
• Research and maintain an up to date record of trafficking headlines to provide the International Team
• Participate and assist at STOP THE TRAFFIK events, including public speaking and running stalls

For more information and an application form, please email info@stopthetraffik.org.

Applications must be submitted by 13^th April

‘Tis the season for March Madness and Hoops Hysteria (for NCAA Women), which for many people, is also the season for raking in the cash.  In case you don’t follow the NCAA Tournament, here’s a quick list of the people who can expect to make money this year, and how much they stand to earn:

• CBS ($6oo million) 
• NCAA ($6 million)
• College basketball programs (at least new uniforms)
• The City of Las Vegas ($100 bazillion in gambling revenue)
• Brent (from my bracket pool), if UConn doesn’t pull out some better skills. ($50)

In case you didn’t catch the glaring omission from this list of high earners, it’s the players!  As David Zirin says, the student-athletes who make this tournament possible receive

Not a dime to reflect a season’s worth of hard work, weeks of additional labor in the tournament, risks of injury and – most of all – millions of dollars in revenue that they and only they make possible.

Is it fair that we expect these students to play for the love of the game when they generate almost as much wealth for networks and teams as professional athletes do? NCAA President Myles Brand has vocally spoken out against compensation for student athletes, claiming

“Student-athletes should not be commercially exploited, because they are students, not professionals.”

But what is more exploitative?  Is it commercializing student athletes by providing them some form of compensation for the very hard work they do?  Or is it preventing these adults from getting even a small portion of the vast amount of wealth they generate?

Perhaps those who oversee and manage this tournament every year should ask themselves what would happen if the student athletes formed a union.  Or worse, if they went on strike.  Now that would be March Madness.

Go UConn!

Image from tvworthwatching.com

Well, it’s Friday afternoon, and that means the weekend is almost here!  W00t! Perhaps you’re reading this blog because you’re bored at work or school and you’re thinking about what you want to do this weekend.  How about spending part of your weekend fighting slavery?  Each week I’ll profile a different anti-trafficking nonprofit who you can connect with to help free slaves and prevent slavery around the world.  So, spend a couple hours this weekend getting to know this nonprofit through their website, and then get involved!

This Week’s Profile: Ahava Kids

The Bottom Line: Ahava Kids is dedicated to the rescue and care of human trafficking victims in the United States and throughout the world, through coordinated efforts of Intervention, Care and Prevention.

What They Do: Ahava Kids has programs focused on intervention, including CyberVention; care, such as safe houses in New England and Georgia and emergency rescue services; and prevention and training programs.

What Can I Do?: Their website has tons of suggestions for ways to get involved and raise awareness in your community, including tools for planning events.  They also have an online wishlist and an opportunity for you to donate through their website.

Why They Rock: If you want to be touched and inspired, read the success stories on their website.  They are providing incredibly crucial immediate care to child trafficking victims in the U.S., and helping them move forward with free, safe, and healthy lives. 

So now that you’ve got some basic information on Ahava Kids, visit their websitethis weekend and get involved.  And on Monday morning when everyone else is talking about sleeping in and watching tv over the weekend, you can say, “What did I do this weekend?  Oh, just the usual- abolition of slavery.”

Do you have a favorite nonprofit you’d like to see featured here?  If so, let me know!

The director of public prosecutions has dropped the murder charge against an Australian teen accused of killing her stepfather after he had repeatedly raped and abused her for four years.  According to the details of the case which were released to the press, the girl’s father held her captive from the time she was 14 until she was 18, at which point she shot him with his own shot gun.

In addition to abusing his daughter, the stepfather made proflic amounts of pornography, including

Almost 10,000 images of sexual intercourse and sex acts, taken by the man on a digital camera, were found by police on discs and memory sticks after her arrest.

This case is sad and disturbing on so many counts, but it bring up a very important point: sometimes, the first contact trafficking and abuse victims may have with the justice system are as offenders, not victims.  While this case of murder is extreme (though not unheard of), human trafficking victims are often arrested for drug or immigration violations related to their trafficking.  In some cases, the trafficker forced the victim to commit a criminal act, such as pimps who force their victims to sell drugs in addition to themselves.  But in a lot of other cases, victim’s may commit the act as a direct result of the trafficking.  For example, a trafficking victim may use drugs to self-medicate or end up in a situation without proper immigration documents because of his or her trafficking experience.  Either way, an offense does not nullify their experience as a trafficking victim. 

It’s important to keep in mind the complexity of many of these cases, and than some victims may not look like victims at first glance.   

Today brings another update on the ongoing efforts of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to eliminate slave labor in Florida agriculture, labor which provides tomatoes to McDonald’s and Burger King, among other major chains.  Earlier this month, more than 120 farm workers and protested in Tallahassee, asking Florida Governor Charlie Crist to meet with them. Crist didn’t show up for that meeting, but he did speak with CIW today. 

“It was a very intimate dialogue, but there is a lot of work to do,” said Gerardo Reyes, a CIW member. The coalition had complained that some workers are forced to work the fields and then chained at night, and they said the workers haven’t received a raise since 1978. They said the average worker makes about $10,000 a year. They asked Crist to clarify his opposition to such treatment and use his voice to eliminate slavery and low wages.

While CIW and other anti-slavery activists have made tremendous improvements in the lives of migrant workers in Florida, this battle will wage on until McDonald’s and Company steps up to the plate and makes a slavery-free supply chain a priority or lawmakers like Crist step in and force compliance to labor standards. 

I’ll let you know when that happens.  But until then, everything you order off the dollar menu still comes with a side of McSlavery.

Image from www.ciw-online.org

This week President Obama nominated long-time, tenacious human trafficking prosecutor Lou de Baca to lead the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, a position sometimes called “America’s Anti-Slavery Czar“.  The Ambassador-at-Large position is arguably the most powerful anti-trafficking post in the country.  Peronally, I’ve been rooting so hard for de Baca I even have him beating UConn in the Final Four. 

Abolitionst author Ben Skinner wrote a great story about the nomination in the Huffington Post yesterday, from which my favorite quote is:

Saying that de Baca has a vigorous attitude about slave traders is like saying Killer Whales have an affinity for seals.

As Skinner also points out, de Baca’s background is heavily focused on labor trafficking.  My hope is that his background will lead the TIP Office into developing new programs to address all forms of modern day slavery.  And as much as I disagree with a number of the Bush policies, I hope de Baca will look for ways to build off of the work that has been done during the past eight years while expnading it.

As someone who’s been gossiping about and floating names for this gig for months now, I am thrilled that President Obama chose de Baca, demonstrating a strong commitment to making that office serious about fighting trafficking.  He is an amazing prosecutor, a dedicated anti-trafficking professional, and just a plain old good human being.  On a personal note, I first met de Baca when I was a doe-eyed 22-year-old organizing my first major anti-trafficking conference, and he suprised and impressed me with his polite, down-to-earth attitude and genuine love of his work.  I’ve been a fan since.

Good luck to you in the confirmation process, Mr. de Baca.  I hope that the next time I see you I get to call you “Ambassador de Baca”.      

The Cincinnati Enquirer has the cool and inspiring story of a group of high school sophomores who have built a multi-day event to raise awareness in their community about human trafficking, specifically in Haiti and India.  Their ambitious event includes,

the free event April 3-4, which will feature talks by former slaves, concerts, a downtown march and candlelight ceremony on the Purple People Bridge.

The friends took up human trafficking as a cause after one of them travelled to Haiti and met children exploited in slavery.  Their program is supported by a local church and the anti-trafficking organization International Justice Mission.

I hope this story is a symptom of the spreading yeswecanism syndrome which Obama ignited in my generation.  Yes, the economy is in the toilet.  Yes, there are still millions of slaves in the world today.  But four teenagers in Ohio can still do something amazing to make this world a freer and better place.  And they did. 

Mad props to Katie, Marissa, Kaytlyn, Jessica!  Way to be the change, ladies. 

What do you get when you combine a hybrid rap/R&B artist Akon with and Emmy-winning composer Peter Buffet?  Other than the soundtrack to Popin’ and Lockin’ with the Wolves, you get IsThereSomethingICanDo.com, their new collaboration to fight human trafficking and promote other social justice causes.

The website, which is timed to re-launch with the musicians’ release of a new, anti-slavery focused song called “Blood Into Gold”, is a project of yourcause.com, a cause-focused media platform that connects a user’s cause with donors and the appropriate and qualified charity.

In addition to human trafficking, Is There Something I Can Do draws attention to issues of female empowerment, environmental sustainability, economic empowerment, and health and preventable diseases.  Despite the breadth of causes however, 3 out of the 4 nonprofits listed as partners are exclusively human trafficking focused.

Awesome website, but as of yet, they seem to be missing the ever-important human trafficking blogger, which, let’s face it, is really the heart and soul of any good social change website.  <insert more shameless self-promotion here> So choose your blogger wisely, yourcause.com, because I intend to challenge him or her to a bocce tournament of epic proportions for title of “Best Bocce-Playing Human Trafficking Blogger Ever”.

But seriously, folks, you can buy “Blood Into Gold” from iTunes and amazon.com, which I strongly recommend since it helps reinforce our gratitude to artists like Peter Buffet and Akon for committing their time and resources to improving the lives of trafficked persons and preventing this horrible abuse.  Plus, it rocks.