Human Trafficking - Chocolate Anyone?

This is a blog post I wrote about 18 months ago for a human trafficking blog I was writing. I was writing that blog to get as much informations in one place, on as many different trafficking issues as I could. I've decided to transfer what I had written over to this blog to have everything on trafficking and other justice issues in one place.

"All over the world poverty, false religious beliefs, broken families and illiteracy create a powerless class of people who become the prey of individuals who desire to profit and live off those they deem less valuable than themselves. Many times these powerless people are children. 
Have you eaten any chocolate in the last few days? Was it marked fair trade or fairly traded? If not there is a good chance that at least a percentage of it was produced by child slave labour. Much of the world's chocolate (43%) comes from one country - the Ivory Coast on the west coast of Africa (also known as Cote d' Ivoire). The cocoa farmers of the Ivory Coast can not afford to hire labor due to the low prices paid to them for the cocoa beans by the large chocolate producing companies. As a consequence they use the labor of their own children and also enslave young boys to produce their crops. Most of the farmers and their workers have never tasted the final product - they can not afford to buy even a bar of chocolate. 
Over 200,000 children are either in slavery or forced labor situations on small cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast and 12,000 of those children have been trafficked into the Ivory Coast mainly from other West African countries.
By buying  fair traded cocoa and chocolate products you can vote for change with your dollars. Asking for slave free and fairly traded products from your grocer is another way to influence change. Fairly traded chocolate can be found at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Amazon.com and many other health food and specialty stores. Brands that declare their chocolate products to be 100% slave free include Clif Bar, Cloud Nine, Dagoba Organic Chocolate, Denman Island Chocolate, Gardners Candies, Green and Black's, Kailua Candy Company, Koppers Chocolate, L.A. Burdick Chocolates, Montezuma's Chocolates, Newman's Own Organics, Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company, Rapunzel Pure Organics, and The Endangered Species Chocolate Company."
Check out the links below for more information on slavery and trafficking in chocolate production.http://www.chocolatework.com/chocolate-slavery.htm
http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_exploitation_in_the_chocolate_industry

Just what are "Justice" Issues?

In thinking about what issues I wanted to include on my list for inclusion in discussion on this blog I decided to make a list. I have been writing about human trafficking on another blog and included several different types of trafficking in my posts there which I believe I will transfer. I would also like to explore not only trafficking issues but also poverty, orphans, economic, environmental and resource injustice.

Here's my list - not sure I will stick to it but I hope to cover all of these topics as time goes on.

Human Trafficking; sex, chocolate, rugs, sugar, citrus crops in the US, domestic labor, agricultural labor, cultural slavery.
What does Fair Trade mean?
Poverty: what is poverty, how to help those in poverty w/o hurting them, what philosophies work, how about children stuck in poverty?
Orphans; How to best help, how big a problem?
What economic policies specifically work/don't work in poverty alleviation?
What are we doing to prevent toxins from effecting the next generation, how do we live w/ as little toxicity as possible in our homes?
Why do so many people live w/o clean water and proper sanitation? What can we do about it?

The America Sex Trafficking Dilemma

It is estimated that every year in the US at least 200,000 underage girls and boys are sucked into sex trafficking. Some of these children are runaways who are picked up by traffickers in bus stations, some are high school students enticed by promises of a weekend in a big city or at the beach, others are born into at risk families and and are sold by family members. However it happens these children are then trapped into sex slavery and made to "service" up to 20 men per night for their traffickers. I can think of almost nothing more unjust than ripping a child from her/his childhood and subjecting them to that kind of abuse.

Until recently anti slavery/trafficking organizations had no idea that so many children in the US were being trafficked. It was thought that sex trafficking was mainly confined to Asia, India, Eastern Europe and parts of Africa and that most trafficking in the US stemmed from smuggling women from these regions into the US. But, as statistics have been gathered and groups like Shared Hope have been hired by the US Department of Justice to go into major cities and research how many women/girls are trapped in trafficking it has become apparent that the problem is much larger than anyone appreciated and that many children born in the US are being trapped and enticed into trafficking.

This fall Stop Child Trafficking Now is holding walks all over the nation to raise funds and increase awareness of child trafficking. The idea behind this group is to use Special Forces Operatives to go in and build cases against the demand side of trafficking because, the truth is, if there were no men willing to buy children for sex there would be no child trafficking! Here's to hoping and praying that it becomes very dangerous for any man in the US to buy and abuse a child or trap any woman in trafficking.

Please consider walking in a walk or supporting someone you know who does.

Living Green/Living Justly

I know a lot of Christians who have no problem viewing things like slavery, racial persecution and poverty as problems to be addressed by the church as justice issues, but seem to draw the line at "living green".Since there seems to be so much liberal extremism in the global warming and population camps we tend as Christians to throw the baby out w/ the bathwater. I may not believe that man is the main cause of global warming but that doesn't mean I want my grandchildren to live in a polluted, toxic, petrochemical waste dump where species are becoming extinct due to man's poor stewardship and greed either. It is also sobering to realize that we in the western world remove natural resources from other countries without making sure that the processes and labor used benefit (or at least don't harm!) the community they are taken from.

We also want what we want when we want it and are really not willing to bend very much. Case in point; the major dishwasher detergent brands have had to remove phosphates from their formulations recently. Phosphates keep water spots from forming on dishes and help detergents to slide off glass and porcelain so removing it makes some glassware look cloudy, but phosphates also cause algae overgrowth (thus removing oxygen from the water and killing fish) in the streams and rivers that receive the waste water. There has been quite an outcry and people have been quoted as saying they are stockpiling the older formula dishwasher detergent just so their dishes won't appear spotted. Too many of us are not concerned with stewarding what we have been blessed with. The big question I'm asking myself is where is my heart in things like this? Am I too addicted to comfort and ease to even want to bother asking myself questions about how I live and why? What does God's Word say about stewardship and what should my attitude be?

Book Study

My husband Rocky and I recently attended the first session of one of the small groups we are in at Grace Church this semester. We are disscussing the book When Helping Hurts:Alleviating Poverty without Hurting the Poor...and Ourselves . It's going to be a great book to discuss in a group. I've read it twice already and still don't feel that I have digested as much of it as I would like. If you are interested in learning how to effectively minister to the poor both in the US and abroad I think this is a must read.

One of the couples in the group has just moved back to Durham to work in community based economic development. It will be interesting learning from them and with them as they walk this out with their East Durham Community.

Interesting Articles on the origin of the Term 'Social Justice' and Poverty

http://online.worldmag.com/2010/09/15/social-justice-has-christian-history/

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/15/my-take-5-myths-about-poverty-that-christians-should-renounce/?hpt=Sbin

Basics

I want to be clear that when I am talking about justice issues I am not talking about giving anyone (the poor, minorities, illegal aliens, third world country citizens, etc.) things, money, a free pass to ignore laws or my pity. There is a place in crisis to give and give freely to those in need. Those who are enslaved, victims of war, famine, and natural disaster need triage type care - immediate and generous, but I believe that doing something that does not in the long run lift people from the situation they are in by empowering them and encouraging them to use their gifts and talents is not a good use of resources and energy and can cause harm.

Since giving things and money is so much easier and can sooth our consciences it is what we Americans excel at. Not everyone can be personally involved in ministries that empower and encourage indigenous people (whether these people are found on the other side of the tracks in our towns or half way around the world), but we should educate ourselves about how the groups we give money to work and then give money not only to those who rescue but also those who spend time building relationships with and equipping the people they are ministering to to become strong spiritually, emotionally and economically. If you are interested in exploring this subject in more depth I can recommend When Helping Hurts, How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett.

For some reason the whole issue of justice, which should have an integral part in our hearts and experience as Christians, has been perverted so that many evangelical Christians believe that considering justice is what liberal churches do when they march in protest with illegal aliens. To me true justice is not unchecked mercy. Instead it is having properly motivated mercy - mercy that desires long term good over short term help that might actually be hurtful in the long run.

Considering Justice

As I consider how I can live justly several scriptures come to mind. Psalms 31:8-9 says "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice. NLT" Again in Isaiah 1:17 we are instructed to " Learn to do good, seek justice.  Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. NLT" As followers of Christ we are commanded to be concerned for those who are suffering unjustly. We are also asked to get personally involved. Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount found in the book of Matthew, chapter 5 says that we who call ourselves His followers need to walk our talk by taking care of those who have been unjustly treated or fallen into hard circumstances and that by not caring we are declaring that we are not really His followers.

 ³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. ³⁶ I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
 ³⁷ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? ³⁹ When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
 ⁴⁰ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
 ⁴¹ “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. ⁴² For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. ⁴³ I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
 ⁴⁴ “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’
 ⁴⁵ “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ NLT
Is it that as Christians in America is we pride ourselves on giving to the cause of the moment such as Haitian earthquake victims or a family we know effected by a fire but we are numb to the suffering that goes on around us in the world on a moment by moment basis? In the last 100 years what we can know about the world, what marketplaces we have available to us and how we can interact with our world has expanded so rapidly that we can not easily handle the overload of information and the level of processing we may need to do to live justly. Many of us just decide not to consider the issue or we value our own comfort over truth and the changes that would need to be made to our lifestyles if we really wholeheartedly decided to live as justly as possible.

What Does it Mean to Live Justly as a Christian?

Actually, that's what I want to explore with this blog. What does it mean to live justly as a Christian? This is a subject I've been interested in for the last several years. I've been asking myself questions and have spent a lot of time soul searching, looking at scripture, reading books, as well as Googling. I've come to a few conclusions but have decided it is time to start being even more serious about issues of justice and how they are applied to my life as a Christian within a biblical framework. This I know; God is a God of justice and He desires His people to "do justice, and to love kindness,and to walk humbly with your God?"  (Micah 6:8) 
How do we walk that out? What does it look like? What does scripture say about living justly? Where are good resource? Where can we find are books on these issues? These are all questions I hope to get to soon.