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Victor Malarek, a former CBC fifth estate investigator, delivered a heartrending public lecture on Sunday May 30, 2004. Based on his book The Natashas - The New Global Sex Trade (2003), he discussed the inhuman global trafficking of young females lured into prostitution by believing they were being recruited for jobs as nannies, maids and waitresses.
The lecture hall was filled near capacity; yet throughout most of his lecture there was complete silence. His knowledge and passion for this disturbing subject brought some to tears. The numbers are staggering: an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 human beings are trafficked across the world's borders to generate what is a 12 billion dollar a year industry. The sex trade is the third most profitable criminal activity after drugs and weapons. Who benefits? Who are the traffickers and pimps these modern day slave masters? For the most part they are small time thugs or they belong to organized crime networks such as the Russian, Albanian, Italian Mafia, Japanese Yakusa and Hell's Angels. But the middle class is also benefiting: doctors, psychiatrists and teachers own brothels in places like Tel Aviv, London and Berlin.
The fuse that ignited this current wave of modern day slave trade is the Internet. The Internet is the steamiest, most easily accessible whorehouse providing names, addresses and costs of brothels worldwide.
This modern day sex trade is a "manmade" disaster, a simple equation of supply and demand. Men are the driving force behind this trade seeking to gratify needs related to power, control, perversion, fantasies and so forth. Girls and women beaten and raped into submission by their pimps form the supply side of the equation.
Malarek addressed the age old question: is prostitution a choice? Some girls and women do choose to become prostitutes. However, Malarek's book documents how thousands of young women are lured into the trade with false promises of legitimate jobs abroad. Once they arrive in the receiving countries, they are immediately taken to the breaking grounds; these are apartments and houses hidden from public view where they are beaten and raped into submission. This begins their 365 days a year cycle of unpaid sex with men. The average pimp or brothel owner can generate a profit of $250,000 a year from one trafficked woman.
These women, broken in body and spirit, infected with AIDS and STDs often find their way back to their home countries where they are ostracized and given no support for physical and psychological rehabilitation. Malarek questioned why we show no pity for these women and why we do not launch an all out war to stop this inhumane trafficking in human lives. Laws are in place; they are generally not enforced. Lawyers, judges and the police are complicit in the continuance of this sex trade.
The current prime minister called an election for June 28th. Malarek challenged the audience, women's groups and the public to yell loud and long to force candidates for office to take a stand on this issue. "It is a crime against humanity: it shames us all."
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Charity Fadun
I've been writting for a long time and enjoy it a lot. I like to write poems (not usually the rhyming type), interviews, reviews, articles and memoires. University has given me a lot of opportunity to write research papers and other projects. I recently was guest editor for a neighbourhood newspaper. It was an awesome experience. I like to get feedback on my writting so do feel free.
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