Hope for Haiti

I was looking through today's mail just as the Hope for Haiti benefit began on just about every television network. One piece of mail was from Compassion International encouraging us to take a few minutes to write to a beautiful girl whom we have sponsored for several years, Clairciane. She lives in Haiti, west of Port au Prince, about 20 miles from the epicenter.

Over 6o,000 children are enrolled in Compassion's programs in Haiti, about 10% of them in Port au Prince. Approximately 50 of Compassion's centers were affected by the earthquake. So far, Compassion has reports from only 28 of them. At least 100 children are known to have died, dozens injured and hundreds left homeless. Who knows how many have lost a father or mother, a sister or a brother?

I was struck by the timing as I opened the mail today. When was that mailing planned? Almost certainly before the earthquake. That it would arrive today and that I would find it at the very beginning of the TV benefit is only a small thing. But it is a poignant reminder that we are all in this journey together. We hope to hear soon that Clairciane and her family are safe. We pray and wait with hope, hope for Clairciane, hope for Haiti.

How soon we forget!

Or shall I put that in the form of a question, "How soon will we forget?"

How soon before most of us forget about Haiti? I hate to seem a cynic but I know how we are. Once the shocking news coverage slows down, we'll begin to forget and I fear that we will mostly forget long before the misery is relieved.

Feel free to point out why I'm wrong. I'd love to be wrong about this.

Take A 9/11 Coffee Break

A lot of people, including me, just can't get started in the morning without our coffee. You see us walking down the street, sipping from a paper cup. You see us driving with one hand on the wheel and another holding a travel mug.

It occurred to me this morning, while thinking about 9/11, thinking about what's important and what isn't, that if I really like coffee, if it is really more than just a habit, that I ought to sit down, take five or ten minutes and enjoy it.

Today especially, eight years on since that horrible Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001, we all could use a pause. Take a few moments to remember the victims, their families and the heroes of that day. Just take a few moments and consider what it means to be an American and how that changed eight years ago.

Take a few minutes and enjoy a nice cup of coffee. Please. Do it in honor of those friends, neighbors, business associates and strangers who were just arriving at work that morning, carrying a nice cup of coffee and a bagel; or those who had been at their desk for a while and were thinking about having a second cup. Have a nice cup of coffee today. Seriously. But while you do, don't forget those who had their last cup of coffee that morning. Never forget about them.

The Human Trafficking Supply Chain

Suppliers and Consumers

When we talk about the international trade in illegal drugs, we sometimes talk about supplier countries and consumer countries. There is supply and there is demand, connected by a supply chain. Likewise, human trafficking is a supply chain business estimated at over $9 billion / year.

Supply

Poverty and lack of education and awareness create vulnerability. The most vulnerable, the children of the poor, are the primary supply source for human traffickers.

Demand

For those victims who are trafficked for "simple forced labor", the demand is a matter of greed, absent oversight of working conditions and broken economies. When victims are trafficked into the sex trade, the demand question is even uglier. Call it an addiction, depravity or what you will. There would be no trade without consumers.

What can we do?
What we must do is intervene where we can, anywhere along the chain. Education, economic development and law enforcement are just three of the possible interventions. Born To Fly International emphasizes education. Today is a great day to help them out. RIGHT NOW, they are in the midst of a one-day fundraiser... looking for 9,000 gifts of $9 so they can go to press with their first wordless children's book. Please help out at http://born2fly.org/ and then tell a friend!

Fanatic At Large

William Wilberforce, the great British abolitionist once said, “If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.” I do not have the passion or persistence of Wilberforce but I know that his work is not done. Although the British Empire abolished the slave trade during his lifetime and slavery as an institution soon after his death in 1833, the buying, selling and exploitation of our “fellow-creatures” continues today, in 2009.

The problem of human trafficking and modern day slavery is massive and reaches nearly every country. It almost seems too big, too widespread to defeat but the size of our foe should not determine the size of our fight. We must persist. We must do what we can. Mother Theresa said, “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

As I have been writing about for several days (this is the eighth of nine blogs on the topic), Diana Scimone, Founder and President of Born To Fly International, is one of those "fanatics at large" who cares beyond all normal measure for her "fellow creatures." Her organization is working against human trafficking and deserves our help and support. Tomorrow, 9-9-9, they are looking for 9,000 friends who can spare a mere $9 each to help them publish educational materials aimed at raising awareness of children and parents around the world. Please take a look: http://born2fly.org

Seven of Nine... Resistance Is Futile

Seven Of Nine

Okay, I admit it. That's a shameless attempt to attract trekkies to this blog. But now that you're here, please read on. This is day seven of nine of blogging and tweeting about human trafficking and, more specifically, asking for your support of Born To Fly International (http://born2fly.org/).

For better or worse, the Star Trek franchise has always contained subplots rich in social commentary. Ocassionally compelling, some were subtle allegory while others were awkward and contrived. The clearest statement on racism, for example, was made in Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (original air date 1/10/69). But what of Seven of Nine, the Star Trek: Voyager character played by Jeri Ryan, who has been rescued from the Borg collective. What do she and the Borg represent? Her presence on Voyager gives the lie to the Borg claim "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." The Borg are the ultimate human traffickers, in fact enslaving humanoid races from across the galaxy, turning their captives into cyborgs and submerging all personality and individuality deep below the collective consciousness.

The complete dehumanization perpetrated by the Borg seems to most of us something that would only happen in science fiction, centuries and light-years away. Yet, something equally horrific happens every hour of the day, today, right now on planet Earth. Children are sold, abducted and enslaved in the sex trade and other forms of forced labor. For most, resistance truly is futile. It is difficult to imagine how the tide can be turned against this industry, estimated at over $9 billion each year.

We cannot accept futility.

We must believe that we can do something. We must do something. Initiatives are in play all over the world. In the big cities, even Chicago area, where I am writing, law enforcement is stepping up its efforts. Yes, human trafficking, modern day slavery exists right here in "The Land of Lincoln." Across the world, relief agencies are working against the social and economic roots of the problem. Others are working to educate children and their parents so they can avoid falling prey to the traffickers. Born To Fly hopes to raise about $81,000 this week to publish trans-cultural educational resoureces to accomplish just that. This is a "crowdfunding" effort. They're really just looking for about $9 from each of about 9,000 people. If you can help, please visit http://born2fly.org/.

Resistance is not futile.

PS: Monday, September 7th is the Labor Day holiday. I'm posting early so I can take a day off-line. Have a great day!

On One Thing, We Can Agree

Day 6 of 9 on Human Trafficking and In Support of Born To Fly International

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God Is With The Vulnerable And Poor
Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in February of 2006, U2 star Bono said that "all faiths and ideologies" can agree on one thing, "that God is with the vulnerable and poor. "

The children of the poor are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. They are the victims of choice for human traffickers. A friend of mine who as a child was among the invisible street children of Kolkata, tells of his childhood friends who simply disappeared. Their families had no resources and no voice. When a child disappeared, he or she was simply gone.

Let Your Light RiseBono reminds us that if we want to align our heart with God's heart, then our heart will be with the poor. "God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. 'If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places.'"

That passage from Isaiah 58 is but one of more than 2,100 that mention the poor and to make it clear that those of us who have plenty bear a responsibility to those who have less than enough. Speaking of the poor, Jesus said, 'As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.' (Matthew 25:40).

What Can You Do For The Least Of These?
There is no shortage of choices. Here are two.

Sponsor A Child Today Through Compassion International When you sponsor a child through Compassion, you make a huge difference in the life of that child and help to break the cycle of poverty and extreme vulnerability.

Support Born To Fly International's Education Campaign Born To Fly has prepared educational materials about the perils of human trafficking, suitable for children and parents in any culture. They need your help to go to press and begin to distribute these materials to waiting schools, churches and relief agencies.