Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Human Trafficking: the underbelly of major sporting events

The Attorney General in Texas called the 2011 Super Bowl the single largest sex-trafficking event in the country. 

It is not clear how the World Series compares to the Super Bowl in that regard, but authorities and human trafficking experts believe dozens of girls and boys were brought to St. Louis and to Boston to be offered for sale during the recent 2013 World Series. 
CLICK HERE for a news report from St. Louis, MO on human trafficking at the World Series.

2 comments:

  1. On page 7 of Engage, in our course about living a nonviolent life we learned that nonviolence does not assume that the world is a nonviolent place. This story of human trafficking at such a well-known event in a country where most people believe that something so horrible could never happen, is a perfect example of how imperfect the world is. This shows that the world is “often violent and unjust” (7). And while it is easy to point out the violence in the world, it is harder to recognize that with violence, there usually is also a path that can heal. If everyone tried adopting the nonviolent life style that is taught in engage then maybe terrible situations like this would become an uncommon event in our world. Thank you for the post!

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  2. Richard Anthony LeybaOctober 17, 2014 at 3:31 PM

    On page 34 of Engage, in our course about living a nonviolent life we learned that "violence is any physical, emotional, verbal, institutional, structural, or spiritual behavior, attitude, policy or condition that diminishes, dominates, or destroys ourselves or others.(34)" This story of human trafficking at the World Series and other sporting events proves that "violence crosses boundaries without permission, disrupts authentic relationships, and separates us from other beings.(34)" Sadly, this is a violence that is most definitely motivated by needing to have domination or power over others. Having studied human trafficking prior to reading this article, I myself am much more motivated to do more to bring this horrendous atrocity to light to help save lives and stop exploitation. :)

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