a girl in fringe, pretty in red
It is not enough
to talk of
senseless hatred
irrational violence
or senseless evil
in this world
no matter how hard
it may be
for us to understand
an absurd waste
of human lives
and total failure
we have to take
responsibility ourselves
no more empty promises
we have to see sense
stop the silliness
do something good
let there be peace
(c) ladyleemanila 2016
For: Poetry Prompts Day 18 – OctPoWriMo 2016
For: K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge…. Also for: Tuesday Photo Challenge – Human Impact
Lots of things happening in the world
Why can’t people be good or give it a burl?
Seasons come and go, goes bright and dark
Celebrate or just enjoy walking in the park
Flowers bloom, animals run free in the wild
Have an ice-cream that made us smiled
Children get killed just watching fireworks
Why can’t we not accept people with their quirks?
Some irrational person drove his lorry through
Life is not fair, people dying in our full view
It hurled people and left them lying on the promenade
That wasn’t right, a system so fatally flawed
Is there a reason for all this, is the world indifferent?
Are the people so selfish and have lost their fair judgment?
To our needs, sufferings, are we dissimilar from the rest?
Societies don’t care, which left a lot of people depressed
Can we not fill the world with love instead of hate?
And when we’ve achieved that, life would be great!
(c) ladyleemanila 2016
For: Music Prompt #51: “They don’t care about us” by Michael Jackson and Whirligig 67 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Human trafficking, sex tourism, foreign child molesters, mail-order bride trafficking, debt bondage and child organ trafficking. These are some of the 21st century slavery in the Philippines. Illegal recruiters usually go to villages and urban neighbourhoods to take on families and friends, often pretending as representatives of government-registered employment agencies. These sham recruitment practices and the organised custom of paying recruitment fees usually leave workers unprotected to forced labour, debt bondage, and commercial sexual exploitation. In spite of recent economic progress, the Philippines continue to be one of the prime source countries for sex trafficking and forced labour victims in Asia, the Middle East, as well as in urban centres and tourist destinations in the Philippines. Absence of economic opportunities in the Philippines, gender role socialisation, and family dynamics make Filipinos particularly susceptible to human trafficking crimes. Many crimes go unreported because victims lack information, crimes are hidden by victims and violators and families of victims allow the circumstances as normal. The production and online distribution of child pornography can also lead to modern slavery, whereby foreign viewers pay children to do sex acts.
Is the Philippine Government doing enough to stop these atrocities? The Philippines’ Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 criminalised trafficking within or across national borders and bestowed the consent of victims irrelevant if deception or coercion is used. It also established the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking (IACAT) to coordinate and watch anti-trafficking activities. Through the hard work of IACAT, we now have a wide-ranging National Strategic Action Plan Against Trafficking in Persons for 2012-2016, which prioritises four key results areas: advocacy and prevention; protection, recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration; prosecution and law enforcement; and partnership and networking. The Government has also made efforts to increasing training of law enforcement officials in recognising and examining trafficking cases. Corruption, nevertheless, is widespread at all levels of government in the Philippines, and has constantly been linked with human trafficking. The victims’ access to justice needs to be improved. Traffickers need to know that they will be punished. If not, trafficking will always be profitable. The challenge now is to prioritise tactical and high-impact intercessions that bring about real social change. This can only be done if we shield at-risk groups, dissuade traffickers and sanction victims. With guarded optimism, we commemorate how far we’ve come in the battle against trafficking, but we also prop ourselves for the long road ahead.
Works Cited:
Click to access ipulocaltrafficking.pdf
http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/philippines
ILO: Labour Migration in the Philippines
2011 US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report
“Global Monitoring: status of action against commercial sexual exploitation of children: Philippines” (2011), p8, ECPAT International: https://app.box.com/s/vauz7z01c75no247e0ui ↩
“US Trafficking in Persons Report 2013” Philippines Country Narrative, p300, US Department of State: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/210741.pdf ↩
https://www.devex.com/news/3-major-challenges-in-the-fight-against-human-trafficking-84047
“Philippines: New human trafficking investigation procedures aim for air-tight cases, improved conviction rates” (8 February 2013), UNODC: http://www.unodc.org/southeastasiaandpacific/en/2013/02/philippines-pnp/story.html ↩
“The UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Ms. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, concludes her country visit to the Philippines” (9 November 2012), p5, UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children: http://www.slideshare.net/unphilippines/un-special-rapporteur-on-trafficking-in-persons-joy-ngozi-ezeilo-report-on-her-philippine-fact-finding-mission ↩
“Corruption by country/ territory” (2013), Transparency International: http://www.transparency.org/country#PHL ↩
“US Trafficking in Persons Report 2013” Philippines Country Narrative, p.302, US Department of State: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/210741.pdf ↩
http://www.diplomaticourier.com/news/topics/security/2197-human-trafficking-in-the-philippines-a-blemish-on-economic-growth
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/340851/newstv/reeltime/quick-facts-human-trafficking-in-the-philippines
my upside-down world where everything is different
and I can express myself in a dramatic vociferant
where day is night and we sleep in the day
in a land so faraway but halfway
for I’ve birds on my wire, and my thoughts won’t gel
I must struggle to wipe off all this béchamel
when you agree, you say no
and now I’m in Limbo
and black is bright and white is dark
its contrast so very stark
(c) ladyleemanila 2016
For: Miniature Writing Challenge #33 and Contrast
our children, the next generation, modern art, fne wine, 30 year calendars, human statues, rainbows and fireworks greeting the future
For: Travel theme: Future
Daily Prompt – Walking down the street, you encounter a folded piece of paper on the sidewalk. You pick it up and read it and immediately, your life has changed. Describe this experience.
Everything changes
When I saw that folded sheet
Some truths dawn on me
That life is short and make it count
Choose our priorities well
Be optimistic
That’s a good start for the change
And be lovable
Love’s all around us, take part
Life is superb, treat it well
For: Everything Changes
Just for fun, I dug some of my work and translated them to Filipino. Hope you like them. Have a lovely day everyone 🙂
sleep tight my poet
for in your dream world you go
colouring your sphere
whose fleeting tenure not break
wild realm of reality
matulog ka nang mahimbing, aking makata
para sa iyong pangarap na mundo ka pumunta
kinukulayan ang iyong daigdig
ng panandaliang panahon ng panunungkulan
ay hindi masira
sa ligaw na kaharian ng katotohanan
the kiss of the muse
and so inspiration comes
a slumbering thought
curdles long life in short time
pleasure, pain, faith, hope and love
ang halik ng inspirasyon
at siya ay dumating
isang muni-muni
mahabang buhay sa maikling panahon
kasiyahan, sakit, pananampalataya
pag-asa at pag-ibig
Daily Prompt – A song comes on the radio and instantly, you’re transported to a different time and place. Which song(s) bring back memories for you and why? Be sure to mention the song, and describe the memory it evokes.
If it’s goodbye
Then let’s do it right
I have no regrets
Thanks for being part of my life
You made me happy, you made me sad
You made me care, you made me cry
Listen, can you hear that?
It’s my heart, smashing into pieces
I know it will take some time
But one day, it will be alright
For now, let us part as friends
And leave some beautiful memories
Look after yourself
One day we’ll meet again….
paalam na po
wala akong pinagsisisihan
salamat sa pagiging bahagi ng buhay ko
pinaligaya mo ako, pinaiyak
naririnig mo ba?
ang puso ko, nadudurog
tutulong ang panahon para makalimot
siguro balang araw
sa ngayon maghihiwalay tayong magkaibigan
ang magagandang ala-ala ay mananatiling akin
ingat ka lagi
siguro balang araw, magkikita muli tayo
I am here, you are there
Miles apart, half of the world
We have to cross the seas and lands
We have to endure the storms coming
You are there, so far away, unreachable
I say this, you say that, misunderstanding
Hard to communicate, different opinions
Upsetting one another even not intentionally
Causing pain in the heart and soul, shattering
Over the mountains, through seven seas
Enduring the pain, winter, spring, autumn
Summer comes, is there a flicker of hope?
Can we overcome the hurdles, the storm?
I don’t know, I really don’t know…
nandito ako, nandiyan ka
ang layo natin, kalahati ng mundo
kailangang lakbayin ang dagat
kailangang daanan ang bagyo
nandiyan ka, malayo, mahirap maabot
nasabi ko yan, nasabi mo eto
hindi nagkaintindihan
iba’t ibang opinyon
nasasaktan ang isa’t isa
kahit hindi sinasadya
nagiging sanhi ng sakit sa puso at kaluluwa
sa pag-akyat ng bundok
at sa paglakbay ng pitong dagat
walang maliw ang sakit
taglamig, tagsibol, tag-lagas
tag-init ay dumating
may kisap ba ng pag-asa?
pwede ba tayong magtagumpay
sa mga hadlang, sa bagyo?
hindi ko alam, hindi ko talaga alam
For: Always Something There to Remind Me
I would like to say thanks to Meg Evans http://megevans.com/2015/07/02/first-nurturing-thursday/, who tagged me yesterday with the First Post Challenge, the rules of which are below:
– Copy-paste, link, pingback or whatever, your first post.
– State what type of post it was (e.g. introduction, story, poem).
– Explain why that was your first post.
– Nominate five other bloggers.
Here was my first post (a little bit long). It was an essay about human trafficking in the Philippines. I first wrote it as part of my Academic Writing course. The original article had some photos in it but because I ran out of space in this blogging (I’ve reached my limits), I’ve deleted the photos to make ways for other photos in my other posts. Why did I choose this topic? It was something close to my heart, the plight of the Filipinos, who sometimes have no choice but to fall victims to this crime.
“Filipinos Are Not For Sale”
How can she not want to help her family, after all? The amount being offered overwhelms her and she answers with a ringing yes. The friend of a friend assures this girl from a poor family a high paying job abroad as a waitress. She is going to the Middle East, but must first stop-off in Malaysia secretly. Before long, she ends up in a confined, murky space, one wrist handcuffed to a bed. The guard gave her a big box of condoms and is casually informed that this will be her daily quota from now on – that is, if she wants to eat at all. By then, it’s too late, as we see the plight of yet another trafficking victim.
That’s 21st century slavery in the Philippines. Aside from this trafficking of Filipinas to overseas destination, there are also sex tourism, foreign child molesters, mail-order bride trafficking, debt bondage and child organ trafficking. Human trafficking is a crime against humanity. In 2012 alone, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) listed 1,376 victims of human trafficking nationwide. According to the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in 2010, estimated 60,000 to 100,000 children in the Philippines were involved in prostitution rings. An uncertain number of children are forced into exploitative labour operations. A 2006 Article reported that based on statistics provided by the Visayan Forum Foundation, most victims were between 12 to 22 years old.
Traffickers often work through deceptive recruitment agencies and practices to traffic migrants. They use local recruiters dispatch to villages and urban neighbourhoods to take on family and friends, often pretending as representatives of government-registered employment agencies. These sham recruitment practices and the organised custom of paying recruitment fees usually leave workers unprotected to forced labour, debt bondage, and commercial sexual exploitation. There were reports in 2010 that illegal recruiters augmented their use of student, intern, and exchange program visas to dodge the Philippines government and receiving countries’ dogmatic schemes for overseas workers.
Economic growth in the Philippines is among the highest in Asia, with 5.9 percent in the second quarter of 2012. Regrettably though, the immensity of the financial benefits related with this growth carries on escaping the mainstream Filipinos living in poverty. According to the most recent estimates from The World Bank, 26.5 percent of the Filipino population is living in poverty. This soaring rate of economic discrepancy remains one of the largest factors driving many Filipinos into human trafficking situations. In spite of recent economic progress, the Philippines continue to be one of the prime source countries for sex trafficking and forced labour victims in Asia, the Middle East, as well as in urban centres and tourist destinations in the Philippines.. According to the 2013 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, Filipino human trafficking victims have been identified in over 37 countries across five continents. Absence of economic opportunities in the Philippines, gender role socialisation, and family dynamics make Filipinos particularly susceptible to human trafficking crimes.
Many crimes go unreported because victims lack information, crimes are hidden by victims and violators and families of victims allow the circumstances as normal. The media has reported incidents where parents or guardian sell their children for services, while the blow of poverty results in many family breakups and in children living on the streets. The production and online distribution of child pornography can also lead to modern slavery, whereby foreign viewers pay children to do sex acts. There have been reports of boys becoming progressively more at risk of this form of modern slavery. Ongoing political conflict also places some children at risk of coercion into joining armed political organisations. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, New People’s Army and the Abu Sayyaf Group have been named by the UN Secretary-General as continual violators of the rights of children in armed conflict.
Is the Philippine Government doing enough to stop these atrocities? The Philippines’ Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 criminalised trafficking within or across national borders and bestowed the consent of victims irrelevant if deception or coercion is used. It also established the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking (IACAT) to coordinate and watch anti-trafficking activities. The Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012 additionally supported the law by setting up stronger penalties for violators and increasing provisions to look after victims, removing the identity protection clause for perpetrators, granting law enforcement officers and service providers immunity from suit when performing official functions, and barring the complainant’s past sexual behaviour or predilection in proving their consent in trials. The last point is important because many victims fear having their sexual history publicly scrutinised, which may discourage them from pursuing charges.
Through the hard work of IACAT, we now have a wide-ranging National Strategic Action Plan Against Trafficking in Persons for 2012-2016, which prioritises four key results areas: advocacy and prevention; protection, recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration; prosecution and law enforcement; and partnership and networking. The U.S. Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report released in June lauds IACAT’s strong prevention programs. It is planned for the government and civil society to invest in anti-trafficking awareness-raising and training sessions for public officials, religious, business and community leaders, and the youth. The pre-employment seminars for thousands of outbound Filipino overseas workers carried out by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency and the targeted counselling programs for at-risk groups in trafficking hotspots held by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas are crucial in informing people against the bogus promises of traffickers.
The Government has also made efforts to increasing training of law enforcement officials in recognising and examining trafficking cases. Corruption, nevertheless, is widespread at all levels of government in the Philippines, and has constantly been linked with human trafficking. Some local politicians and their business cronies continue to allow the operation of clubs and bars where children and young women are used as sexual commodities. They work with local criminal gangs to do their dirty work and in return the gangs are given protection for their involvement by the police. Transparency International ranks the Philippines 105th of 176 countries in its Corruption Perceptions index, with allegation of law enforcement officials’ complicity, mostly in trafficking cases. The Government has also taken steps to care for victims of modern slavery, turning over about $615,000 to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to support the Recovery and Reintegration Program for Trafficked Persons. The majority of victims assisted by this Department were supported with skills, training, shelter and medical services and legal help. The DSWD also runs residential and community-based services, although these were found to be inadequate to discuss the needs of trafficking victims, specifically men.
Other challenges in the fight against human trafficking.
Philippines should:
• Implement and check the National Strategic Action Plan against Human Trafficking, 2012-2016.
• Scale-up the focus on safe migration pathways for Filipino nationals working abroad, including developing materials to educate people about their rights at work.
• Continue to investigate and indict cases of exploitative employment through labour agencies offering jobs abroad.
• Incorporate anti- slavery initiatives into Government poverty alleviation programmes to tackle the root causes of the issue.
• Continue to take steps to end corruption.
• Keep on educating law enforcement officials and judges about human trafficking and increase public awareness of modern slavery.
• Defend victims, with special protections for those who are willing to cooperate with law enforcement investigations and prosecutions.
• Provide efficient after-care programmes focusing on skills development and enterprise to support the empowerment and reintegration of victims.
• Reinforce anti-slavery interventions in regional areas, especially in the southern part of Mindanao.
Men are the most overlooked victims of human trafficking. Not much is known about the cases of male sex trafficking due to feelings of shame and humiliation. But the reality is that the number of male victims of sex trafficking had been increasing. Especially so in non-sex trafficking activities as reported in the 2014 Trafficking of Persons (TIP) report recently presented by US State Department Secretary John Kerry, where he said Filipino men and boys had become susceptible to human trafficking. Although the country had been upgraded from the original Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2, the Report noted that as yet, we have “not fully complied” with the standards for the eliminating of trafficking. A worrisome development is that the country has become one of the five hotspots in child-organ trafficking. The National Bureau of Investigation reports that smugglers target children, most of them men, who are kidnapped and taken abroad where their organs are sold to foreign nationals. Traffickers often conspire with local crime syndicates and corrupt government officials, use social networking tools to recruit Filipinos for overseas work or to carry out sex crimes.
The victims’ access to justice needs to be improved. Traffickers need to know that they will be punished. If not, trafficking will always be profitable. While there is a sturdy increase in the number of trafficking convictions, we also need to look at the ratio of the number of cases filed to the number of convictions. Between 2005 and 2013, there have only 110 convictions for human trafficking related crimes in the Philippines. It appears that trial efforts have improved with more than 300 cases filed during the TIP reporting period, but trials remain lengthy, and the number of convictions inexplicably low, which is a disincentive for most victims. Fraudulent officials who use their authority to victimise people weaken the good work done by honest public servants. The TIP mentions reports of officials accepting bribes from organisations that engage in trafficking, aiding unlawful departures for overseas workers and urging victims to demote trafficking charges. There are also serious accusations that staff in Philippine diplomatic posts in the Middle East re-victimised anxious Filipino overseas workers, by taking their wages and compelling them into transactional sex or domestic servitude in exchange for repatriation. Administrative charges have been filed but we need these people to be made criminally held responsible.
Lastly, we need a comprehensive database of trafficking cases in the Philippines. IACAT is in the process of putting together a complete database. Information from victims, including repatriated Filipinos, will help us study the recruitment and placement strategies of traffickers. Once this data is accessible, it also becomes easier to blacklist offensive employers and recruitment agencies, monitor the services provided to overseas workers in shelters abroad, and offer Filipinos with more targeted protective information. It does seem that the number of partnerships being formed against human trafficking is unparalleled in our nation’s history. For that, we are grateful. The challenge now is to prioritise tactical and high-impact intercessions that bring about real social change. This can only be done if we shield at-risk groups, dissuade traffickers and sanction victims. With guarded optimism, we commemorate how far we’ve come in the battle against trafficking, but we also prop ourselves for the long road ahead.
Works Cited:
Click to access ipulocaltrafficking.pdf
http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/philippines
ILO: Labour Migration in the Philippines
2011 US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report
“Global Monitoring: status of action against commercial sexual exploitation of children: Philippines” (2011), p8, ECPAT International: https://app.box.com/s/vauz7z01c75no247e0ui ↩
“US Trafficking in Persons Report 2013” Philippines Country Narrative, p300, US Department of State: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/210741.pdf ↩
https://www.devex.com/news/3-major-challenges-in-the-fight-against-human-trafficking-84047
“Philippines: New human trafficking investigation procedures aim for air-tight cases, improved conviction rates” (8 February 2013), UNODC: http://www.unodc.org/southeastasiaandpacific/en/2013/02/philippines-pnp/story.html ↩
“The UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Ms. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, concludes her country visit to the Philippines” (9 November 2012), p5, UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children: http://www.slideshare.net/unphilippines/un-special-rapporteur-on-trafficking-in-persons-joy-ngozi-ezeilo-report-on-her-philippine-fact-finding-mission ↩
“Corruption by country/ territory” (2013), Transparency International: http://www.transparency.org/country#PHL ↩
“US Trafficking in Persons Report 2013” Philippines Country Narrative, p.302, US Department of State: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/210741.pdf ↩
http://www.diplomaticourier.com/news/topics/security/2197-human-trafficking-in-the-philippines-a-blemish-on-economic-growth
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/340851/newstv/reeltime/quick-facts-human-trafficking-in-the-philippines
I’m tagging five bloggers for the First Challenge:
Nurturing Thursday: wise
http://gracednotes.com/
http://womanofartandmind.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/nurturing-thursday-nothing-to-add_2.html
Crafty Bees Monday June 22nd ~ part 2
https://shoreacres.wordpress.com/2015/06/26/trading-a-dream-for-reality/
Having fun blogging with friends
A creative miscellany of mythic fantasies
Hoping to make the world more beautiful
get outdoors; find inspiration; discover yourself
"I saw the Angel in the marble, And I carved till I set him free." Every story has an impact, each tale matters
Talking with Buddha
"Thoughts and matters"
It's a writers world, a world that seeks to explore and entertain
Let the light in!
ladyleemanila 