There is still so much human trafficking happening around the world, that it is absolutely incredible that people know so little about it.

Sex Tourism is when tourists, mostly men, engage in sex-trafficking by purposely traveling to known sex destinations (usually under-developed and poor nations), seeking anonymity in pornography or prostitution, or engaging in pederasty with young children and homosexuality with young and older adults. Many of these victims were either sold into the trade or kidnapped and forced into sex-slavery (this is called human-trafficking).

I would like to draw your attention to the following South African website, STOP.

According to STOP, “People are mainly trafficked and enslaved as sex workers but also as forced labourers, child brides and as soldiers. This is fact. Of the 600-800’000 people smuggled over international borders annually, 75% are used for sex trafficking.”

Keep your eyes and ears open, folks, and if you find out that someone has been kidnapped and is being used for human-trafficking, or hear rumours that someone is involved as a trafficker, or has been forced into sex-slavery or prostitution, please report it to the relevant authorities.

This following Animated Information Video was created by Firestorm Production for STOP Human Trafficking’s 2010 Human Traffic campaign. All performers are pupils of Jan van Riebeeck Primary School in Cape Town, South Africa. Please watch it!

Kids on Human Trafficking in SA

Posted under Everything Else

It is with disgust and incredulity that I read daily about the heinous crime of “corrective rape” that is still taking place on the streets of South Africa, especially in the “African Townships” (basically poorer suburbs inhabited by Africans, such as Soweto, Gugulethu, Langa, Kayalitsha etc.) Corrective rape is “the rape of a lesbian by a man either to punish her or cure and correct her sexual orientation”.

Despite South Africa having a very liberal constitution, which forbids discrimination against LGBTs ( Lesbians, gays, Bisexuals and Transgendered persons), lesbian women are constantly being targeted in hate crimes, where the aim is for lesbian women, especially “butch” women to be beaten up and raped (often gang-raped) to “teach them what they are and what a woman should be like”,  sometimes by their own male friends. Read More…

Posted under Gender equality

We found another great voice from South Africa for you. His name is Mario Olckers and he is not your average kind of guy. He is a webdesigner / programmer (we met online of course;-),  and he is also fairly outspoken about political issues in his country. Mario lived for three years as a Buddhist monk in Myanmar (Birma). He belongs to the sometimes forgotten fraction of “colored” people in South Africa – belonging to neither other ethnic group.

Note:
We are using the term “colored” repeatedly in this article. South Africa’s old regime established this term for everyone that was not “black”, “white”, “indian” or “asian” during the segregation days of apartheid. We are trying to tell the story as it is an therefore decided to go ahead with this odd convention. Please learn more at this Wikipedia Article.

We are certainly not trying to hurt or offend anyone and thank you very much for your understanding.

Let’s move on to what Mario has to share with us: Read More…

Posted under Meeting South Africa