Slavery Inc.: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking - Softcover

Lydia Cacho

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846274214 ISBN 13: 9781846274213

Publisher: Portobello Books Ltd, 2012

Synopsis

Slavery Inc. by Lydia Cacho

About this title

About the Author:

Lydia Cacho is an internationally admired Mexican journalist-campaigner. She became a cause celebre with her book, Demons of Eden, which exposed a paedophilia ring invovling Mexico's richest businessman, his friend the governor and an array of 'big men'. She took the ring to trial but was jailed and abused herself before winning her argument and her freedom. She is a columnist on El Universal, a prominent feminist activist against violence, and teaches workshops on how to help trafficking victims. She has been named UNESCO World Press Freedom Hero and in 2010 received the PEN International Writer of Courage Prize. http://www.lydiacacho.net/english/

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

When I was seven years old, every time my sister Sonia and I went out on the street, our mother warned us to stay away from the child-snatcher,” an old woman, well known in our neighborhood, who stole girls. She would entice girls by offering them candy and then she would kidnap them and sell them off to strangers. Of course, the word kidnapper” refers to the snatching of people of all ages, not just children. Forty years later, I discovered that the lesson of my childhood, which could have been taken from Charles Dickens, has now become
one of the most serious problems of the twenty-first century. Society in general tends to consider trafficking in women and children as a throwback to a time when the white slave trade” was a small-time business run by pirates who kidnapped women to sell them to brothels in faraway countries. We thought that
modernization and strong global markets would eradicate this type of slavery and that the abuse of children in the darkest corners of the underdeveloped” world would simply disappear through contact with Western laws and market economies. My research for this book shows the exact opposite. There is a world-wide explosion in organized-crime syndicates that kidnap, buy, and enslave women and children; the same forces that were supposed to eradicate slavery have strengthened it on an unprecedented scale. All over the planet, we are witnessing a culture that considers the kidnapping, disappearance, trade and corruption of young girls and adolescents as normal. They become sexual objects for rent and sale, and our global culture celebrates this objectification as an act of freedom and progress. In a dehumanizing market economy, millions of people assume that prostitution is a minor evil. They choose to ignore the fact that what underlies prostitution is exploitation, abuse, and the tremendous power of organized crime, exercised on a small and
large scale around the world.

For centuries, mafiosi, politicians, military officers, businessmen, industrialists, religious leaders, bankers, police officers, judges, priests, and ordinary men have participated in global organized-crime networks. The difference between individual offenders or small local gangs and the global criminal syndicates lies in their strategies, codes, and marketing practices. Without a doubt, corruption is what gives the mafia economic and political
power in every city where they do business. The search for pleasure is universal and provides a vital link in the chain: while some create the market for human slavery, others protect it, promote it, and feed it, or are in charge of renewing the demand for raw materials.

Organized crime includes mafias, syndicates or cartels that run illegal businesses to generate profits. The individuals who participate in these illegal activities are called gangsters, mafiosi, mobsters, or narcos, and they belong to the so-called black economy.” They do not pay taxes to legitimate governments but they must negotiate with such governments in order to operate.
The deals between organized criminals and governments contribute
to the trade in arms, drugs, and human beings. This trade involves crimes such as robbery, fraud, and the illegal transport of goods and people...

Turkey is a country of seventy-five million inhabitants. Since signing a free-trade agreement with its European neighbors in 1996, Turkey, like the majority of other countries that have opened their borders, has faced the paradox of fostering the growth of the free market while also experiencing the growth of an illicit one. Turkey is an associate member of the European Union, but it has not yet met EU requirements for admission as a full member.

The plane lands in Turkey at night. The beauty of the starry sky painted with violet brushstrokes takes my breath away. Sitting in a taxi, on my way to the hotel, I roll down the window. The smells of Istanbul reach me: the diesel, the spices, and the salty breeze from the sea. Every city has its unique aroma.

The taxi driver, proud of his country, decides to give me a tour. He explains that we are in the area that separates Anatolia and Thrace, encompassing the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles the area known as the Turkish Straits, which form a boundary between Asia and Europe. We are about to be recognized as a member of the European Union,” he informs me in a friendly tone, using touristy English that hints at various accents. Here everything is good,” he assures me. Muslims, Jews, Christians, Agnostics, Protestants all live together,” he adds. He speaks as though he is repeating a slogan. I smile and think about the reports coming out of PEN International, an organization
that defends freedom of expression, citing the persecution and incarceration of Turkish journalists. However, I remain silent because I know that the world is not black and white and that all countries, just like the people who inhabit them, are diverse, complex, and magnificent at the same time.

The kindness of the people, their smiles, the warmth of the bellhop’s eyes as he greets me at the hotel, and the sweet voice of a receptionist who speaks perfect English, make me feel welcome. These things remind me that one cannot see the darkness without also seeing the light, and that kindness exists everywhere. I suppose that some of the 200,000 women and girls who have been trafficked to this country over the last five years have at one point experienced the kindness of someone who saw them as human beings, someone who made them smile, helping them to feel less alone.

I contact Eugene Schoulgin, an extraordinary writer, novelist, and journalist, born in 1941 of Russian-Norwegian descent. Eugene has lived in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he is now in Istanbul, serving as director of PEN International. He helps me to schedule some meetings with political analysts and direct sources. This dear friend affectionately takes care of me, and I intend to keep him informed as to my whereabouts and the people I meet, just in case something happens and he needs to know how and where to find me. I would not have been as successful at getting information on this trip without his security advice.

About this edition

• Publisher: Portobello Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1846274214
• ISBN 13: 9781846274213
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320