This won’t go up until Friday, but I’m typing it on Thursday night while watching The O’Reilly Factor, as I sometimes do. (I find much of the reporting on this show quite good, but I find Bill O’Reilly’s ego intrudes into the show a bit too much.)
Tonight he ran a story that absolutely Turned My Stomach.
You’ve probably heard about sex tourism in Asia. I’ve heard about it, but don’t know much about it. Apparently, what it involves (at least some of the time) is selling orphaned/abandoned/missing children into sexual slavery.
According to O’Reilly’s guest, an expert in this subject, the traffickers who sell these children are now looking to prey upon the large number of children who were orphaned or lost touch with their families as a result of the tsunami.
The reason the guest is an expert is that he works with an organization called International Justice Mission, an Evangelical organization that seeks to thwart the child traffickers. One way they do that is they go over to Asia posing as child buyers, and get intelligence on the child sellers, and then get that info to people in the (often corrupt) local governments who will slap the child sellers behind bars.
They’ve had a lot of success!
God bless them for their work!
I just can’t imagine how they’re able to do it. The idea of going anywhere near that slimy underworld, much less posing as members of it, absolutely makes my skin crawl.
I still need to learn more about this ministry–how Catholic-friendly they are–and whether there is a Catholic organization that does equivalent work, but IJM may end up as an organization I financially support.
Somebody needs to protect children in this way.
LEARN MORE.
I did a quick web search and found a Catholic priest that does equivalent work. Excerpt from http://www.oz.net/~vvawai/general/sex-slaves.html:
————
“A friend called me and said, ‘Want to go to Korea and earn big money?'” said “Monica,” 25, a Filipina who ended up working seven months at the Palace Club in Tongduchon….
When Monica arrived at the gritty, smoke-filled Palace Club last winter to work as an “entertainer,” she said, “I shocked, because it’s my first time go there. And I cry. I saw the girl dancing, wearing a thong and bra. And I see the girls sitting in the lap of GIs.”
“It’s like a hell,” she said.
If a soldier wanted to pay her bar fine, she was pressured to go along and paid a penalty of increased indebtedness if she didn’t. She also did her best to stay drunk, saying she couldn’t bring herself to dance and work if she were sober.
Monica gave up her passport to one of the insistent promotion managers who worked for the broker who brought her to South Korea. In June, after six months of work, the club owner tried to intimidate Monica to sign a new contract, she said.
She recounted the conversation: “You sign!” he said. I said, “I want to go home, I want to go back to Philippines.” He said, “No, I pay lots of money for you. If you want to go, OK, you pay your penalty.” I asked, “How much?” He said, “$3,000.” But he knows I don’t have enough money to pay that contract because I only earn a little.”
She signed the contract, but “after I sign, I run away.” Monica said she and a friend escaped June 4 with the help of Father Glenn, a soft-spoken 39-year-old Catholic priest who works long hours to rescue and shelter Filipina club women and return them to their homes. He also arranged for the return of their passports.
“For me, he’s a hero,” Monica said. “He don’t care if he gets in trouble with the big man because he fight with the big man here in Korea. He’s not afraid.”…
Some women go into the work knowing what awaits them. “For some, it’s comfortable,” Father Glenn said.
“We have a number of girls who were working in a club, went to work in a factory, and went back to the clubs,” he said. “So, what can we do? We want to stop trafficking, but what if they don’t want to leave? I asked the girls, “What do you want?” They said, “Father, you can only help those who want to be helped.”…
At Inchon Airport, Father Glenn and an assistant help four Filipina women with their luggage and tickets. Glenn helped the four escape from the Palace Club. Two of the four have the same fake passports they used to enter the country, but as long as they’ll get the women through immigration, no one cares. In addition to their passports and alien registration cards, Glenn has gotten them back half the money they earned for bar fines and juicy drinks.
One of the women, “Cheryl,” said she wishes she’d never come here. “I hate clubs,” she said.
Yet today is a good day – the best she’s had since she came to South Korea a year ago. “I feel happy,” Cheryl said. “I want to go home, because I miss my mother.”
Ahead of her group in the same line for Philippine Airlines, two other Filipinas also are leaving, accompanied by an official from their embassy. One worked at the Red Club in Tongduchon, the other at the Mystic Club in Songtan. They wave, happily, then return to tending to the details of flying home.
Father Glenn watches the four walk toward the immigration counter. One of the young women has only one day left on her visa, and he is concerned she may encounter difficulties.
She doesn’t. Cheryl and the other three Filipinas turn and wave, tickets in hand, ready to board the flight back home.
“It’s satisfying,” Father Glenn said. “It’s another victory. Small, yes. But the church was able to assist people who are in need.”
Wouldn’t posing as a child trafficker constitute the sin of lying?
Interesting question. I know that in the first editon of the Catechism paragraph 2483 read:
2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth. By injuring man’s relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.
In the second edition in now reads:
2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error. By injuring man’s relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.
According to the first edition, I would not have a problem “lying” to these child traffickers. But according to second edition, it seems less clear that this is acceptable.
I don’t speak Latin, and cannot speak to the reason for the difference.
Anyone?
IMO, this would fall under not lying. His interest is literally to purchase children. His intent is for that purchase to be an act of charity. By stating his interest he is not lying.
Few things in life move me to the point where I desire to physically maim someone.
Selling orphans, children, or the disadvantaged into these kinds of businesses is near the top of the list.
I just can’t imagine how they’re able to do it. The idea of going anywhere near that slimy underworld, much less posing as members of it, absolutely makes my skin crawl.
I was about to post the exact same thing before I saw that you wrote it yourself. What a horrible job that must be! Yuck!
I was aware of the sex trafficking in south Asia, having seen a couple of investigative reports on cable news. I have been curious as to whether it would make it to the mainstream press in the wake (so to speak) of the tsunami. Tragically, sex with minors is an accepted “lifestyle” in these places. Many westerners flock to these places because the same sexual proclivities are illegal in their home countries. A U.S. Citizen can be arrested upon return to the States if it can be demonstrated that they went abroad for the purposes of violating U.S. law. Unfortunately, this can be really difficult to prove. They can always argue that they were over there for other reasons and just gave in to temptation. They also often claim ignorance of the child’s age. Depressing stuff, all around. My hat’s off to anyone involved in stopping this.
So, would it be wrong for cops in drug busts to pose as buyers? I don’t see how this is different, and it’s for the purpose of stopping an even worse crime (because the child sex trade is an assult upon the dignity of the humanity of a weaker power).
That said, I can’t imagine posing as a buyer. *shudder* God bless Fr. Glenn and others involved in saving these children and women.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
It then occured to me to point out the South-east Asia is not the only place where such trafficking occurs. The Covenant House van has bullet holes from pimps shooting at them: they are taking the run-aways that the pimps prey on. (They once had a girl arrive at Covenant House in subzero temperature. She was wearing neither a coat nor shoes. The pimp thought that would keep her from going out.)
They accept online donations, too.
IJM is an awesome organization! They came to Catholic University last year, together with a band, and gave an incredibly moving presentation about their work… clips from actual busts and finally the smiling faces of girls and women recovering. I really believe they are doing some of the most important work in the world, and it is a calling.
how do i get ahold of father glenn
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