TURNING POINT

Live Talk: Slavery in Our Times

Helen Bamber Foundation clinicians Michael Korzinski, Ph.D. and Lucy Kralj, RGN, joined us for a Live Talk to discuss the U.K. charity, which helps abuse victims, and how we all can help change the lives of these resilient women.

Newsweek Web Exclusive

Updated: 8:26 a.m. ET Mar 9, 2008

In her Turning Point essay this week, Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson writes that human trafficking is a problem not just for other communities or other people. It exists on our own doorstep, and our lack of action shames us all. Thompson now works with the Helen Bamber Foundation, a U.K. charity that helps abuse victims.

Michael Korzinski, PhD and Lucy Kralj, RGN: Dr Michael Korzinski and Lucy Kralj are pleased to take part in this webchat today. Please feel free to visit us on our website at www.helenbamber.org after the chat today.

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Seattle, WA: What country is the biggest provider of human trafficking? And what country is the biggest recipient?
Michael Korzinski, PhD and Lucy Kralj, RGN: Globally, it is estimate that 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across borders annually. This is a combination of trafficking for the purposes of labour and sexual exploitation. Women from Eastern Europe, and other former Soviet Bloc countries, Albania, Bulgaria, SE Asia, Thailand, and West Africa are known to be trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation. It has been documented in regions where there is a high degree of civil unrest or other forms of conflict are prime targets for traffickers. Destination countries include the United States and Western European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

An estimated 500,000 women and girls are trafficked each year into Western Europe alone. . However it is difficult to verify these numbers. Obviously these are only the statistics of women that are identified. There are many others who remain in captivity, disappeared and unaccounted for.

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Posted By: Gen_This!!! @ 04/12/2008 3:06:06 PM

Tracing a thread between articles from the past several issues (yes I religiously read all my Newsweeks cover-to-cover) I wanted to raise the question of what any of us can ethically do to eradicate the exploitation of women. Obviously like any other American, I cherish the liberties and rights of every citizen and am outraged to hear about situations like Elena's--which Emma Thompson wrote about last month in the March 17 issue--the increasing number of opium brides in Afghanistan???last week???and the "concerned citizens" of Iraq who are not only essentially extorting the U.S. but also enforcing medieval and discriminatory practices towards women???current. Frankly, I would like to see this sort of abuse stopped permanently. And yet, I inevitably realize that forcing our cultural norms on places such as the Middle East, though seemingly right, are in a sense no less victimizing to those we would be dominating by forcing them to abandon their cultural norms to appease our consciences. My question then is how can we discuss these injustices seriously without inflating ourselves into a neo-imperialist version of 19th-century Britain's "Great White Hunter," and how can we seek justice for the victims of sex slavery (in all its shades of meaning) without caging ourselves in the hypocrisy, racism, nationalism and culturalism of a "White Man's Burden" philosophy?

On some level I suspect that Nietzsche's well worn phrase applies more immediately in situations like this. As we self-righteously glare at the Abyss of culturally inherent abuses, it???s not only staring back. It's practically undressing us with its eyes.
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Posted By: Gen_This!!! @ 04/12/2008 3:05:12 PM

Tracing a thread between articles from the past several issues (yes I religiously read all my Newsweeks cover-to-cover) I wanted to raise the question of what any of us can ethically do to eradicate the exploitation of women. Obviously like any other American, I cherish the liberties and rights of every citizen and am outraged to hear about situations like Elena's--which Emma Thompson wrote about last month in the March 17 issue--the increasing number of opium brides in Afghanistan???last week???and the "concerned citizens" of Iraq who are not only essentially extorting the U.S. but also enforcing medieval and discriminatory practices towards women???current. Frankly, I would like to see this sort of abuse stopped permanently. And yet, I inevitably realize that forcing our cultural norms on places such as the Middle East, though seemingly right, are in a sense no less victimizing to those we would be dominating by forcing them to abandon their cultural norms to appease our consciences. My question then is how can we discuss these injustices seriously without inflating ourselves into a neo-imperialist version of 19th-century Britain's "Great White Hunter," and how can we seek justice for the victims of sex slavery (in all its shades of meaning) without caging ourselves in the hypocrisy, racism, nationalism and culturalism of a "White Man's Burden" philosophy?

On some level I suspect that Nietzsche's well worn phrase applies more immediately in situations like this. As we self-righteously glare at the Abyss of culturally inherent abuses, it???s not only staring back. It's practically undressing us with its eyes.
- Reply
- Report Abuse
Posted By: Gen_This!!! @ 04/12/2008 2:48:14 PM

Tracing a thread between articles from the past several issues (yes I religiously read all my Newsweeks cover-to-cover), I wanted to raise the question of what any of us can ethically do. Obviously like any other American, I cherish the liberties and rights of every citizen and am outraged to hear about situations like Elena's--which Emma Thompson wrote about last month--the increasing number of opium brides and the "concerned citizen" of Iraq who are not only essentially extorting the U.S. but also enforcing medieval and discriminatory practices towards women. Frankly, I would like to see this sort of abuse stopped perminantly. And yet, I inevitably realize that forcing our cultural norms on places such as the Middle East, though seemingly right, are in a sense no less victimizing to those we would be dominating by forcing them to abandon their cultural norms to appease our consciences. My question then, is how can we stop these injustices without inflating ourselves into neo-imperialist versions of 19th-century Britain's "Great White Hunter," and how can we seek justice for the victims of sexist cultures, without caging ourselves in the hypocracy, racism and culturalism of a "White Man's Burden" philosophy?

On some level I suspect that Nietzsche's well worn phrase applies more immediately in times like this because in this case the abyss is not just staring back. It's practically undressing us with its eyes.