Price of Life NYC

Aug 21

“

Savoeun had become entranced with a woman at the factory named Srey Pich. Srey Pich was a newcomer who took a job at the sewing factory and took a shine to Savoeun. The two would sit together and talk, often retreating to a quiet place in the factory. Srey Pich was not a pretty woman. She had one big eye and small eye. She was nasty to her co-workers and to her husband—to everyone, in fact, but Savoeun. She told Savoeun she loved her.

“I heard she was a prostitute,” says Savoeun’s sister Simean. But what no one realized was that Srey Pich was something far more dangerous—a broker who seduced young girls with lies about promising jobs and then sold them into the sex trade or child labor.

” Read this thriller of a story by our partner, World Vision, about how one Cambodian village banded together to save a 12 year old girl from being sold into slavery.

Aug 10

Announcements!

The Price of Life: NYC has some exciting upcoming events! Save the dates for the following, and look out for posts in the next few days explaining more details.

Think Tank II: Social [MEDIA] R[EVOL]UTION - How does good go viral? 08.25 | 10 AM - 2:30 PM | 250 W. 80th St.
Just Art II: The line between truth and propaganda - How to make (good) art for good? When making art for justice’s sake, where does the line between art and propaganda blur? How can artists avoid gimmicky art when representing important issues? 09.13 | 6:30 PM - 9 PM | IAM, 38 39th St, 3rd floor.
Just Art Poster Challenge: We’re calling visual artists to design a flyer exploring the concepts art, message, truth and propaganda for Just Art II (above). We’ll feature the winning design and award several prizes. Submit entries to priceoflifenyc@gmail.com by Friday, August 24 at 9 AM. More info here.

Aug 7

halftheskymovement:

Coleen MacKinnon read Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide and decided it was time to bring awareness about sex trafficking to Canada. She started a group, Half the Sky Quebec, and now works to combat the sex trade in Quebec.

Learn more

Did you catch that? Someone learned about the topic of sex trafficking. That person decided to get others involved to do something about it. And now they’re doing something about it. Simple.

Who says you can’t make a difference?

Jul 10

tokenzebra:

The Price of Life NYC

Have you seen our video yet?

Restore NYC & Price of Life- A force for freedom

Recently the Price of Life team met with one of New York’s most vital players in the fight against sex trafficking. After a day of planning for events, such as an artist round table discussion happening on July 16th, and executing intricate presentation for potential partners, we gathered for a memorable meeting.

The meeting was with Jimmy Lee, the executive director of Restore NYC, a nonprofit that provides holistic aftercare for foreign-born sex trafficked survivors. Founder Faith Huckel “diligently led the building of Restore from the ground up and created a movement of awareness of the realities of the modern-day slave trade in New York City,” as stated on their website. Needless to say it was an honor to speak with the now head of Restore after learning the incredible programs they are offering to mainly Korean, Chinese, and Latina women.

Read the rest of the account of the meeting with Jimmy Lee, by Price of Life: NYC Summer Intern, Maria Dora Berruti, on the Field Notes page of our website.

Jul 9

The Price of Life: $100 or 3 months

A Singapore court recently sentenced a man for trafficking under-aged girls into the sex industry. Spencer Gwee Hak Theng was arrested, along with his wife, after police rescued multiple girls, under 18 who were imported from Vietnam and forced into sex work by the pair. They were charged with multiple counts. Gwee was sentenced to 5 years in prison for his role. His wife is still on the run.

Five years. Five years in prison for taking children from their families and home, and selling them for sex multiple times a day, every day of the week, for years on end. Five years for submitting girls to daily horrors and abuse. Only five years paid for destroying and breaking a child’s soul. So, what crime does deserve five years in prison? In New York City, possession of 8 or more ounces of controlled substances results in, at the minimum, 15 years in prison. Even a class A – II felony of less than 8 ounces of narcotic controlled substances can have up to 8 years in prison.

I get so angry when I read about sentencing in trafficking cases. I am happy that governments are acknowledging the problem and taking steps to serve justice, but a mere five years for trading human beings like objects?

This same article detailed the conviction of a taxi driver who paid for sex with a 16 year old. Can you guess how much time he was sentenced to? Three months. Three months for raping a 16 year old girl – twice. Three months for contributing to the sexual exploitation, scarring, and degradation of a child.

I don’t think that we have descended to the point of putting an actual price on someone’s life, but I think we have begun to put prices on people’s worth. What does it say about the 16 year old girl’s worth that johns paid her traffickers a mere $100 to rape the girl? What message does it send that those traffickers were only given 5 years in prison, or that the rapist was only sentenced to 3 months?

I don’t have answers for those questions. I don’t know how to quantify, in years, the worth of a girl’s pain and suffering. Do you? How can governments and legal systems provide justice to victims that reflect and acknowledge everything they have been through?

— Guest Blogger, Price of Life Summer Intern Lydia Chu

May 31

Don’t fall for lies about prostitution

Rob McKenna, Washington State Attorney General, writing in the Huffington Post about a disturbing trend of glamorizing prostitution and ignoring the violence and exploitation that often characterize the reality, gives the concerned public a tip on how to respond:

What may be done? The answer lies in public opinion. Over the years, views about drunken driving and domestic violence shifted for the better. Speak with your children about the reality, versus the Hollywood-spun fantasy, of human trafficking. We must also demand that websites such as Backpage.com cease the advertising of human beings. State attorneys general are leading the fight, pressing Backpage.com to abandon so-called “adult services” ads. But you can help. Participate in any of the letter-writing campaigns and boycotts aimed at Backpage.com owner Village Voice. Businesses, both large and small, should resist associating with a company profiting from human exploitation.

“In response to a question from a Huffington Post writer about interviewing actual prostitutes in preparation for the role, Hewitt said, “I was like, ‘Nah, that’s okay. Some things can just be acting.’”

Jennifer Love Hewitt, explaining why she didn’t need to research her character for Lifetime’s new show Client List, about women providing special (illegal) services at a massage parlor.

The show portrays her as initially reluctant to provide “special” (illegal) services, but as Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna writes,

[a]fter a change of heart, Riley receives a new class of customers: handsome, appreciative young men. Hewitt’s character proclaims, “I may not have been able to save my marriage but I’m going to save my family.”

McKenna then quotes an actual former prostitute describing her own experience:

“I have been fortunate to survive having my ear cut off, my face rebuilt, my bones broken, being hit and run over by a car — all my teeth knocked out … “

Click through for the rest of McKenna’s excellent editorial about how the entertainment industry glamorizes a violent and exploitative reality.

Apr 21

“Mobley carried a laptop so he could advertise a 17-year-old girl and two other women at a moment’s notice. He’d rent a motel room and then place an ad, often on Backpage.com — an ugly version of hanging out a shingle.”

Lynne Varner, writing for the Seattle Times.

But Mobley doesn’t sell women and girls anymore:

On Friday, the criminal who once aspired to be the “biggest gangster in Seattle” is expected to receive the biggest sentence in a human trafficking case in Washington state.

Apr 19

South America, sex tourism & the Olympics

Type in “sex tourism” and “Brazil” in Google, and the first site that comes up is not a news report or academic study, but advice on going rates and how to hire prostitutes.

But ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, officials are starting to clamp down on the country’s image as a haven for sex tourism. Brazil’s Tourism Ministry recently said it identified more than 2,000 sites advertising the South American giant’s sex industry, many of them hosted in the US. To counter the reputation, the tourism ministry has stepped up efforts to advertise Brazil’s natural beauties like beaches and the Amazon, instead of bodies for sale. And they have circulated information reminding visitors that sexual exploitation of minors is a crime.

Brazil’s preventive efforts seem more crucial than ever after the scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, during the Sixth Summit of the Americas last weekend. Some 11 US Secret Service agents were sent home for allegedly hiring prostitutes in the steamy colonial city, also a major destination for sex tourism.

Click through for the rest.