Sold to the Sea

Human Trafficking at Sea

ETCHINGS ON THE WALL IN THE ROOM WHERE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS WERE HELD:
“Don’t think too much about life. It cannot be destroyed so easily.”
“Let’s fight together.”
“No matter the rain is heavy; even it may dissolve a mountain; my love will survive.”
“Let’s pass through the difficult journey.”
“You are on your own in Thailand.”

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Click on this link to read and download the Complete PDF Report 

Nobel Lecture by Kailash Satyarthi.

Nobel Lecture by Kailash Satyarthi

                                              Nobel Lecture by Kailash Satyarthi

Some outstanding extract:

"We have utterly failed in imparting an education to our children. An education that gives the meaning and objective of life and a secure future. An education that builds a sense of global citizenship among the young people."

"Solutions are not found only in the deliberations in conferences and prescriptions from a distance. They lie in small groups and local organisations and individuals, who confront the problem every day, even if they remain unrecognised and unknown to the world."

"You may ask: what can one person do? Let me tell you a story I remember from my childhood: A terrible fire had broken out in the forest. All the animals were running away, including the lion, king of the forest. Suddenly, the lion saw a tiny bird rushing towards the fire. He asked the bird, "what are you doing?” To the lion's surprise, the bird replied "I am on my way to extinguish the fire.” He laughed and said, "how can you kill the fire with just one drop of water, in your beak?” The bird was adamant, and said, "But I am doing my bit.”

Malala Yousafzai Nobel Peace Prize Speech

Nobel Lecture

Bismillah hir rahman ir rahim. In the name of God, the most merciful, the most beneficent.

Your Majesties, Your royal highnesses, distinguished members of the Norweigan Nobel Committee,

Dear sisters and brothers, today is a day of great happiness for me. I am humbled that the Nobel Committee has selected me for this precious award.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and love. Thank you for the letters and cards that I still receive from all around the world. Your kind and encouraging words strengthens and inspires me.

I would like to thank my parents for their unconditional love. Thank you to my father for not clipping my wings and for letting me fly. Thank you to my mother for inspiring me to be patient and to always speak the truth- which we strongly believe is the true message of Islam.  And also thank you to all my wonderful teachers, who inspired me to believe in myself and be brave.

Lesson Plan for The Help (2011) "Criadas y Señoras" -in Spanish-

Told through the point of view of three different women living in Jackson, Mississippi, The Help chronicles events from late summer of 1962 through 1964. Skeeter Phelan, who has just graduated from Ole Miss, returns home to the family plantation, ambitious to become a writer.

Taking the advice of a New York editor to hone her skills, Skeeter begins to write a column for the local newspaper while searching for a topic that she truly cares about. 

Missing her beloved childhood family maid and confronted by the overt racism of her friend Hilly Holbrook’s campaign to require a separate bathroom for the black help, Skeeter proposes to write about the lives of the black maids in Jackson. Knowing she will need to interview black maids to tell their stories but without realizing the danger of what she is asking, Skeeter approaches Aibileen, the maid of one of her close friends.

With an increasing sense of bitterness at the injustice of her situation, Aibileen agrees to help, and later recruits Minny and eventually other maids. As they work on this project to tell their true stories, including stories of the prejudice and injustice that the maids experience in their everyday lives, a close relationship develops between Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny. The three women come to confront and resist the intimidation experienced daily by the black maids. Woven throughout the stories are the key events of these seminal years of the civil rights movement.

Click to see futher information on the film

ACTIVITIES

Before watching the film

For an overview of the Civil Right Movement and the conditions of black people living in America, students can visit the following pages:

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html#events-1960

http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/index.html

https://hunniebrown.wordpress.com/lynching-in-america/

Address the following topics to help students add to their background knowledge: 

1. Where did most Afroamericans live?

2. What was the Second Great Migration that occurred between 1940-1970?

3. Why did coloured people move to the North in such numbers?

4. What kinds of work were typical for coloured people in the South? Why?

5. What were the Jim Crow laws?

6. How did this affect the daily lives of coloured people, especially in the South?

7. What violence or threat of violence affected them?

8. What was their response? How did they resist the violence of racism?

While watching the film

The Help (2011) "Criadas y Señoras" -in Spanish-

"The Help" - Criadas y Señoras (in Spanish) (2011) 146 mins.  

Drama  

An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.

Director: Tate Taylor
Writers: Tate Taylor (screenplay), 

Kathryn Stockett (novel)

Stars: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer 

The Help received four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress for Davis, Best Supporting Actress for Chastain, and a win for Best Supporting Actress for Spencer. On January 29, 2012, the film won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Follow this link to see Lesson Plan on the film

See the Trailer

Kailash Satyarthi’s Nobel Peace Prize: Decades of Fighting Child Slavery in India

Kailash Satyarthi: “The people from everywhere in the world should feel, number one, that slavery’s bad, that exploitation of children is bad, it has to go, and, secondly, they should have a belief that it is possible, it is happening, it is not that it is very pessimistic and say: oh they are poor, they are poor countries and that thing could happen. It is not true. Poor people, poor countries can bring about change, and it is happening here. So, they should have a belief that the change is possible, that we can make a better world to live in, and that will happen.”

Article from The New York Times

Oct. 10, 2014

NEW DELHI — Many years have passed, but a police chief named Amitabh Thakur can remember the precise moment when he first set eyes on Kailash Satyarthi, who won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

Mr. Satyarthi was lying on the ground, bleeding profusely from the head, while a group of men converged on him with bats and iron rods. They worked for the Great Roman Circus, which was illegally employing teenagers trafficked from Nepal as dancing girls. Mr. Satyarthi, a Gandhian activist in a simple white cotton tunic, had come to free them.

As he approached the scene, the chief realized he was interrupting a savage beating.

“I remember that when I reached this man, he was rather composed,” Mr. Thakur said. “I was very impressed, for the simple reason that a man was putting his life in danger for a noble cause.”

Mr. Satyarthi is not an international celebrity like 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, with whom he is sharing the prize. Instead, he has labored for three decades to shave away at the numbingly huge problem of child slavery in India, using undercover operatives and camera crews to find the airless workrooms and mine shafts where children were being kept.

The circus raid was a reminder of the factors that converge in favor of employers using bonded labor in India: caste differences, religious differences, political and economic leverage. About 28 million children ages 6 to 14 are working in India, according to Unicef. Mr. Satyarthi’s organization, called Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or Save the Children Mission, is credited with freeing some 70,000 of them. In 1994, he started Rugmark, now GoodWeave International, in which rugs are certified to have been made without child slavery.

Malala Yousafzai's Nobel Prize Speech

Malala Yousafzai

Born: 12 July 1997, Mingora, Pakistan
Residence at the time of the award:United Kingdom
Prize motivation: "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education"

17-year-old Malala Yousafzai became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner for her work promoting young people's rights. Here she is, accepting the prrize. 

Your Food Ties to Slavery

Antonio Martinez stood in the hot sun, exhausted from a cross-country journey, and waited. Just 21 years old, he had traveled from Mexico to the U.S. with the promise of a well-paid construction job in California. But now he stood in a field in central Florida, listening to one man pay another man $500 to own him.

“I realized I had been sold like an animal without any compassion," Antonio thought at the time, more than 10 years ago.

He was right. In modern times, in the United States, Antonio had been sold into slavery in Florida's tomato fields.

IMMOKALEE: A STORY OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM

Antonio is not alone

Unfortunately, Antonio’s case is not an isolated one. Many enslaved farmworkers in Florida pick the tomatoes that end up on sliced onto sandwiches, mixed into salads and stacked on supermarket shelves across the country. Over the last decade, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an award-winning farmworker advocacy organization, has identified more than 1,200 victims of human trafficking picking produce in Florida's fields.

These slaves often work for 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week. They are kept in crampt and dirty trailers, constantly monitored, and have wages garnished to pay a debt invented by the trafficker to keep victims enslaved. Many victims face threats to themselves or their families, regular beatings, sexual harassment and rape. They can't leave, can't seek help. They are in every way trapped.

Exploitation in the tomato industry isn't just the work of a handful of immoral individuals – it's the result of a supply chain which is set up to support the exploitation of the very people who keep it running.

‘UBUNTU’: “I am because we are”

An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that whoever got there first would win the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each other’s hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: ”UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?”

‘UBUNTU’ in the Xhosa culture means: “I am because we are”.

 "Ubuntu is nothing more or less than compassion brought into colourful practice."

"Ubuntu is a concept that is present here in Africa but I also believe it is present in every human being if it is allowed to thrive and prosper."

Lesson Plan for the Film: Elysium

Elysium’s takes place in 2154 in a devastated Los Angeles.  Max -the hero- is now a man, but through flashes back to his childhood, we can learn he was an orphan raised by nuns alongside a girl named Frey, who remains his love-interest throughout his life.  Max has a checkered past -he’s a reformed thief, trying to scratch out a living among the rest of his poor peers on Earth.  They live in the shadow of Elysium, a utopian, wealthy and privileged world, devoid of illness, which shimmers in the sky like beacon, always visible but impossible to reach.

The film has many logical flaws and will not get points for originality. However, it has lots of strong sci-fi violence and teens will love it. The plot is very easy to follow and the film can be used to deal with and analyze topics such as migration, frontiers, the role of countries that do the dirty work and keep migrants far away from the first world (Kruger), injustice, poverty, bravery… Then, I believe it can be a good educational film and resource.

Clik to see further info. about the film

ACTIVITIES

Before watching the film

Click on the link: 

See the pictures, read the extracts of the news and answer the questions.

Elysium (2013)

Elysium is a 2013 American dystopian science fiction action thriller film written, directed, and co-produced by Neill Blomkamp, and starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. It was released on August 9, 2013. 

The film takes place on both a ravaged Earth, and a luxurious space habitat called Elysium. It explores political and sociological themes such as immigration, health care, exploitation, the justice system, and class issues.

In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.

Director: Neill Blomkamp
Writer: Neill Blomkamp 
Stars: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley  

Follow this link to see Lesson Plan

SEE THE TRAILER

"The Corporation" Documentary Film

The Corporation is a 2003 Canadian documentary film written by University of British Columbia law professor Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary examines the modern-day corporation. Bakan wrote the book: The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, during the filming of the documentary.

The film was nominated for over 26 international awards, and won the World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, 2004, along with a Special Jury Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2003 and 2004.

Provoking, witty, stylish and sweepingly informative, THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Part film and part movement, The Corporation is transforming audiences and dazzling critics with its insightful and compelling analysis. Taking its status as a legal "person" to the logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask "What kind of person is it?" The Corporation includes interviews with 40 corporate insiders and critics - including Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Milton Friedman, Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva and Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

Teaching Resources: CLICK HERE to see Lesson Plan on the Documentary Film

The Hunger Games

Director: Gary Ross
Writers: Gary Ross (screenplay), Suzanne Collins (screenplay)
Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth

• In a dystopian future, the totalitarian nation of Panem is divided between 12 districts and the Capitol. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal retribution for a past rebellion, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors while the citizens of Panem are required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives.
  - Written by Suzanne Collins

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TEACHING RESOURCES

Click here to see Lesson Plan on the movie

The Hunger Games is a 2008 science fiction novel by the American writer Suzanne Collins. It is written in the voice of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12–18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death.

The book received mostly positive feedback from major reviewers and authors. It was praised for its storyline and character development, though some reviewers have noted similarities between Collins' book and Koushun Takami's Battle Royale (1999). 

In writing The Hunger Games, Collins drew upon Greek mythology, Roman gladiatorial games, and contemporary reality television for thematic content. The novel won many awards, including the California Young Reader Medal, and was named one of Publishers Weekly's "Best Books of the Year" in 2008.

Jan Satyagraha, 2012

Five years after Janadesh –their first 350-km-foot march involving 25,000 people who demanded rights on their lands, once more, the landless peasants of the Ekta Parishad Union met in Gwalior, India, to march to Delhi.  The march started on October 2, 2012, and arrived in Delhi on October 29, 2012. They needed 70,000 participants to demand new rights over land, water and natural resources. But, millions in Indian villages would hear the message. There were also many support activities in Europe and the rest of the world with local marches, meals, conferences and meetings.

We have often heard the cry we learned from Gandhi: JAI JAGAT! Victory for the world! But what is this victory? The agreement reached in Agra? The million land titles given to Adivasis (tribal people) since 2008? Or standing, walking, and facing the holders of power, without hatred or contempt but with determination?

These landless' peasants of Ekta Parishad with their leader Rajagopal on one side and on other, the Indian state and its government, all contributed to this victory, without violence and with respect.

It was hard for everyone; this victory could not be taken for granted. Victory against fear, indifference, poverty, and the inevitable fatigue is a daily task.

Janadesh March, Jan Satyagraha March and the twenty years of Ekta Parishad’s nonviolent struggle do not only mean the million property titles distributed to Adivasis since 2008 but much more than that, the transformation of Adivasis’ lives, opening doors to a dignified life, joyous awakening and the return of their confidence.

We Can’t Forget Malala… We Can’t Forget Iqbal… We Can’t Forget There Are 400 Million Child Slaves Who Don’t Receive Education

The assassination attempt on 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai has put her situation in the spotlight. But she’s not the first, writes Dr Ekaterina Yahyaoui.

 

Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for the right to an education.

Dr Ekaterina Yahyaoui writes: DO YOU KNOW who Iqbal Masih is? And do you know who Malala Yousafzai is? I believe the majority of you would say no to the first question and wonder why they should know this name. The majority of readers will know the story about Malala, a 14-year-old girl from Pakistan shot by the Taliban last week for her activism for girls’ right to education.

However, both cases are very similar in many regards. Iqbal, like Malala, comes from Pakistan. Iqbal’s name became known in western countries when he was a ten-year-old boy. You know about Malala because she started talking about girls’ rights to education and her diary was published on the BBC Urdu blog when she was eleven.  The attempt was made to assassinate Malala when she was fourteen. An attempt to assassinate Iqbal was made when he was twelve.

And this attempt was successful. Iqbal died at the age of twelve. We all hope that Malala will survive, but why did I recall Iqbal when I heard about Malala’s case?

Iqbal had not had a chance to go to a school. He came from a very poor family which sold him into the carpet industry when he was four.  Together with other children, he spent days working very fine looms on hand-made carpets in slave-like conditions. For instance, children were undernourished so that they would not grow and have small fine fingers required for making good quality fine carpets. Once Iqbal managed to escape he was able to mobilise public opinion not only in Pakistan, but most importantly in the West, including the USA. Malala’s activism also goes beyond Pakistani borders and reportedly she made appeals to the West and the USA.

FIFA in Conspiracy with Qatari Authorities over Salvery: 2022 Qatar World Cup is Built on a Graveyard

Qatar’s construction frenzy ahead of the 2022 World Cup is on course to cost the lives of at least 4,000 migrant workers before a ball is kicked, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has claimed.

However, this dramatic situation, which received great press coverage last week due to an investigation published by The Guardian newspaper, is not new. In May and June 2011, a Human Rights Watch research team travelled to Qatar to conduct in-depth interviews with migrant construction workers. They interviewed local residents who help migrant workers in distress, representatives from four embassies of countries that send significant numbers of migrant construction workers to Qatar, local employers, local recruitment agents, and Qatari government officials. Through their research, they found that in Qatar workers are forced to work in slavery conditions, which led to their deaths in many cases. See Abridged HRW's Report Despite their reports, letters and requests for governments, companies and the FIFA to take steps to protect workers from abuse and exploitation, nothing has been done in these two years, and the situation is getting worse rather than better.

The key factors which trap migrant workers in Qatar in exploitative jobs are:

Stop Violence at the Borders!

In Henry David Thoreau's essay: Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience), he says:

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison…. – the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor.…

In the memory of Clement…

“It is the military police… and also the Spanish Guards… my brother, he has been beaten in front of me.”

“Our brothers die each day that is passing, Morocco watches in silence, Spain watches in silence. Each day that is passing, they (Spanish Civil Guards) are killing our brothers. It is inadmissible that Spain knows that… The journalists come here to take pictures, as you come to take pictures but nothing… But God is there.”

“The Spanish Guards can stop us and maybe they could repatriate us to our countries instead of taking us from inside and putting us outside with the Moroccans who kill us.”

“They should try to stop massacring us like bandits. We are humans, we all, we are humans.”

“They take your passport and they refuse to give it back to you.”

“It’s been 2 years that I’m not calling my family because they took everything… my phone, all my cards, my passport. They took everything. The money. They took everything.”

“His heart has stopped beating. He passed away.”