Traffick Free
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July 2012

An Issue Lacking Coverage

Posted July 26, 2012 in:

On Tuesday, July 17, 2012, a famous face and name lent their voice to fight human trafficking in the US and the world. Jada Pinkett Smith, actress and activist, testified during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting that she plans to generate a campaign raising awareness for the issue in order to spur political and civic action. Husband, Will Smith, and their daughter, Willow, were both in attendance. 

 
I was so excited when I heard about this on CNN on that Tuesday morning. I immediately got online to search out news coverage on the event, and was deeply disappointed to find almost no coverage. I set up a Google email alert for myself, thinking the coverage would definitely pile up as the day went on. A full week later, I believe I have received a total of 6 emails concerning SFRC meeting and Smith's presence there.  
 
It's sad to think that tabloids crank out celebrity gossip every day, news stations go over and over and over details of the latest politicians' marriage scandals and talk shows look more and more like lifestyle channels instead of approaching serious issues, and an event that ranks highly with historic journalistic news values such as prestige, timeliness, relevance and conflict received very little media attention in the scheme of things.
 
The one news outlet I was surprised to be impressed by was the Huffington Post. You can read their coverage of the Smiths' presence at the meeting and interest in the issue here. The article was to-the-point and factual, but also included background in the form of a slide show entitled The Many Faces of Prostitution at the bottom of the page.
 
It is wonderful and exciting to see the Smith family taking action. I was encouraged, and I hope those of us in Chicago can be encouraged to continue to fight the endemic and epidemic of human trafficking. No action on behalf of those imprisoned is insignificant, and local actions impact the globe.
- - - - -
Megan Kozelek
Traffick Free - Communications Team
It is wonderful and exciting to see the Smith family taking action. I was encouraged, and I hope those of us in Chicago can be encouraged to continue to fight the endemic and epidemic of human trafficking. No action on behalf of those imprisoned is insignificant, and local actions impact the globe.On Tuesday, July 17, 2012, a famous face and name lent their voice to fight human trafficking in the US and the world. Jada Pinkett Smith, actress and activist, testified during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting that she plans to generate a campaign raising awareness for the issue in order to spur political and civic action. Husband, Will Smith, and their daughter, Willow, were both in attendance.
 
I was so excited when I heard about this on CNN on that Tuesday morning. I immediately got online to search out news coverage on the event, and was deeply disappointed to find almost no coverage. I set up a Google email alert for myself, thinking the coverage would definitely pile up as the day went on. A full week later, I believe I have received a total of 6 emails concerning SFRC meeting and Smith's presence there.  
 
It's sad to think that tabloids crank out celebrity gossip every day, news stations go over and over and over details of the latest politicians' marriage scandals and talk shows look more and more like lifestyle channels instead of approaching serious issues, and an event that ranks highly with historic journalistic news values such as prestige, timeliness, relevance and conflict received very little media attention in the scheme of things.
 
The one news outlet I was surprised to be impressed by was the Huffington Post. You can read their coverage of the Smiths' presence at the meeting and interest in the issue here. The article was to-the-point and factual, but also included background in the form of a slide show entitled The Many Faces of Prostitution at the bottom of the page.
 
It is wonderful and exciting to see the Smith family taking action. I was encouraged, and I hope those of us in Chicago can be encouraged to continue to fight the endemic and epidemic of human trafficking. No action on behalf of those imprisoned is insignificant, and local actions impact the globe.
------
Megan Kozelek
Traffick Free - Communications TeamOn Tuesday, July 17, 2012, a famous face and name lent their voice to fight human trafficking in the US and the world. Jada Pinkett Smith, actress and activist, testified during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting that she plans to generate a campaign raising awareness for the issue in order to spur political and civic action. Husband, Will Smith, and their daughter, Willow, were both in attendance.
 
I was so excited when I heard about this on CNN on that Tuesday morning. I immediately got online to search out news coverage on the event, and was deeply disappointed to find almost no coverage. I set up a Google email alert for myself, thinking the coverage would definitely pile up as the day went on. A full week later, I believe I have received a total of 6 emails concerning SFRC meeting and Smith's presence there.  
 
It's sad to think that tabloids crank out celebrity gossip every day, news stations go over and over and over details of the latest politicians' marriage scandals and talk shows look more and more like lifestyle channels instead of approaching serious issues, and an event that ranks highly with historic journalistic news values such as prestige, timeliness, relevance and conflict received very little media attention in the scheme of things.
 
The one news outlet I was surprised to be impressed by was the Huffington Post. You can read their coverage of the Smiths' presence at the meeting and interest in the issue here. The article was to-the-point and factual, but also included background in the form of a slide show entitled The Many Faces of Prostitution at the bottom of the page.
 
It is wonderful and exciting to see the Smith family taking action. I was encouraged, and I hope those of us in Chicago can be encouraged to continue to fight the endemic and epidemic of human trafficking. No action on behalf of those imprisoned is insignificant, and local actions impact the globe.
------
Megan Kozelek
Traffick Free - Communications Team

changing the culture with man number one

Posted July 7, 2012 in:

I was taken aback on behalf of children around the world by a post an acquaintance of mine had on Facebook. It was a rant about being spanked and having your butt kicked by your parents and growing up fine. While there are certainly kids that were spanked that have no negative after effects, something with such gray lines is still too sensitive to post. That gray line between knowing you did wrong and your parents chose to spank you, and you start wondering what you did wrong and your parents went way too far, is too delicate. As I thought about how I might respond to this post, it made me think about the language we use every day that we have no idea whether we might trigger a traumatic emotion in others who can hear us.

At Traffick Free, we are asked frequently what can people do. Naturally, being an organization of volunteers that consists of writers, students, nannies, salespeople, executive assistants, event planners and a host of other everyday jobs that you would not normally think would combine to make an anti-trafficking organization, we should have several answers for this. If we did, we might have seen an end to human trafficking in Chicago by now.

What we do have are initial steps and, of course, opportunities to get involved if someone really wants to take the leap. But we always start with the individual. If you really think something needs to change, seriously, start with the man in the mirror. Watch your speech. We do not pimp rides or compare our friends to hos when dressing for a night out. Using words like that nonchalantly is just not cool anymore. We should gasp when we hear it and desire to educate those around us who use these words immediately – like we would when we hear taboo words that refer to an African American or a person with a developmental disability. In previous sections of society those words were once accepted too but thankfully, the culture changed.

We hope to change the fabric of speech and stop the “pimp and ho” culture starting with ourselves, and we hope that if you are curious enough to read this, you will join us in changing the culture as well.

~Laura Ng
Executive Director, External Relations