triggerhappymedia

Today is International Women’s Day, a great moment to be talking about human trafficking. Check out the NYU Wagner Series Anti-Trafficking Week happening now in NYC:

There are currently 27 million people who are trafficked in the world. Men, women and children are victimized and exploited for labor and the commercial sex industry. Human trafficking is not a problem limited to other parts of the world. It happens in the United States. It happens here in New York City.

This week of events raises awareness of all aspects of human trafficking in all its forms including international, domestic, local, sex, child and labor. The goal is to expose this issue to the Wagner and NYU community, discuss implications of past and current policy decisions, and identify ways to fight modern day slavery.

Monday, Mar. 8, 2010, 6:00pm-8:00pm
Film Screening: Lilya 4-Ever
The Puck Building, Jersey Conference Room, 3rd Fl.

Tuesday, Mar. 9, 2010, 4:00pm-5:00pm
IPSA Reading & Discussion Group: Labor Trafficking
The Puck Building, Jersey Conference Room, 3rd Fl.

Tuesday, Mar. 9, 2010, 5:30pm-7:30pm
An Exhibition: Building Knowledge to Take Action
The Puck Building, The Rudin Family Forum for Civic Dialogue, 2nd Fl.
*Representatives from local and national anti-trafficking organizations speak at 6:30pm

Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2010, 12:30pm-2:00pm
Trafficking 101: Commercial Sexual Exploitation
The Puck Building, Jersey Conference Room, 3rd Fl.

Thursday, March 11, 2010, 11:30-12:30 pm
Children and Global Trafficking: a brownbag with UNICEF and SOS Kinderhof International
The Puck Building, Mulberry Conference Room, 3rd Fl.
Speakers: Susu Thatun, UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, Migration and Trafficking and Jenessa Bryan, SOS Kinderhof International

Please RSVP here: http://wagner.nyu.edu/events

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Trigger: NYU Public Events

Israeli duo Vee Cee Creative are back again to spotlight an issue that hits them right where they live- the exorbitant cost of property in Tel Aviv.

Vee Cee were successful in getting noticed last year with their “Whores for Low Rent” project. They placed cardboard prostitutes around their neighborhood based on the idea that prostitution lowers property value and rental prices in an area. The problem with the campaign was that the artists did not also consider the serious causes and consequences of prostitution and sex trafficking.

So they decided to take a different approach. Dani from VeeCee writes:

“…the rising prices of rent, housing, land here in Israel brought us to make another thing (as you can see - it didn’t work - and we are still frustrated by the situation). We started selling land in boxes - to give a chance to everybody to be owners of land - and feel how it can be. Most people can’t afford to buy a piece of land with the insane prices here.”

The small containers of Israeli soil, guaranteed with a certificate of authenticity, are being sold in an actual shop and online. The fully functioning business is complete with storefront, product display, logo, website, blog, and T-shirts. All these elements work together with their slogan, and the message - that “everyone deserves to be a landowner”-is clear.

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Trigger: pieceofland.biz

Awhile back, I wrote about a potential flaw in the Truth Isn’t Sexy campaign: men who pay for sex might not be concerned with the large-scale effects of their behavior (slavery, abuse, etc).

From The Guardian’s lead article on the increased incidence of sex trafficking into Britain:

“In a recent study by the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit at London Metropolitan University, researchers asked men arrested for kerbcrawling to pick from a list of factors which might deter them from buying sex. While some agreed that large fines or being publicly shamed would do so, none cited knowing that a woman was forced into prostitution.”

The British government hopes that harsher laws against clients will be the key to stalling the growing sex trade.

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Trigger: “Men who buy sex could face prosecution” by Tania Branigan
Site: Guardian Unlimited

“Without demand there would be no market for trafficked women and children.” These words come from The Truth Isn’t Sexy Campaign, a London-based initiative to raise awareness of the connection between prostitution and sexual slavery.

One way they’re spreading the message is by placing the above posters in pub toilets. Granted, a man considering paying for sex might not think of the abuse and exploitation he is helping to support. But the creative is strong and will undoubtedly draw much needed attention to this issue.

To find out how to put together a campaign in your city, click below.

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Trigger: Get involved: The truth isn’t sexy

VeeCee Creative are the two Israeli artists who staged a protest against the high cost of renting a place to live in their neighborhood. The project features life-sized cut-outs of prostitutes placed on sidewalks and hanging out on street corners.

The artists’ rationale behind the project is as follows:

“The prices of rent in tel aviv has become extremely expensive- and we are pushed to pimp ourselves to find a decent apartment at a decent price. We brought the world best real estate polluters to tel aviv: the whore (prostitutes, hookers…). It is simple: more whores in your neighborhood = lower rent prices.”

At first glance the execution is clever, but the design is thoughtless. Alternative forms of protest, culture jamming, or the general use of art or media to draw attention to injustices can be admirable if done correctly. Protesting high rental prices at the expense of denigrating prostitution- an incredibly serious problem with real social consequences- is not admirable. Nor is it actually effective to advance one issue at the expense of another.

Is it funny to see cardboard cut-outs of prostitutes? What about the real women that have inspired these caricatures?

I challenge these artists for their next experimental piece to do something that denounces the global sex trade. They could use their creativity to raise awareness of the exploited young women and men from poorer countries who become prostitutes after leaving home under the false pretense of being offered legitimate work in a more prosperous country.

This would involve thinking outside of the frat-boy prank box. If they can do it, I hope to read about it in Adbusters.

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Trigger: Adbusters