TAKING UP CAUSES
On my post "END HUMAN TRAFFICKING" Zardoz asked me whether there were any watchdog organisations in Greece dealing with trafficking. I answered: "There are several non-governmental organisations working to end trafficking and helping the victims of this crime. However, there is always a problem with funding for these initiatives. I blogged about one such organisation, STOPNOW, a while back (the link is in my sidebar). They are closed now due to lack of funds." The official blurb on the conference "The Roundtable aims to the sensitization of the business community and its commitment to a code of moral principles. The business community due to its great power and influence on the world, can be of significant assistance to the important efforts already made by governments, international organizations, as well as governmental and non governmental organizations for the confrontation of human trafficking" So the big conference to launch the End Human Trafficking campaign took place at Zappion in Athens on Monday. Firstly, no Greek non-governmental organisations were invited to attend. One group requested an invitation and were refused. These are NGO's who have been working long and hard to combat this appalling trade in human beings. Secondly, the meeting was organised in collaboration with the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is the same ministry that has withheld the funding of these same NGO's. Thirdly, the event was hosted by Motor Oil (Hellas) and co-sponsored by the World bank. Huge amounts of money was spent on gifts and freebies for the participants. Gifts with corporate logos on no doubt. I can think of many better things that money could have been spent on. Fund some of the projects that are currently closed perhaps? Or is that just too simple? I think it's good that glamorous famous people take up causes. They attract attention to the issues and have the ability to attract huge amounts of money. The problem for me is that they sit about and have their fundraising dinners and talk about how terrible it all is (now that they've realised people ARE being trafficked) while the very organisations that were trying to tackle the problems are closed due to lack of money. I will let you know if any of the NGO's manage to get a euro or two out of this so that they can continue actually helping people. Don't hold your breath.
Technorati Tags: Greece, personal, trafficking
posted by deviousdiva @ 1/26/2006 07:12:00 PM
15 comments
I watched some of the coverage of that event on the news and what struck me as really out of place was that so many celebrities were smiling and even laughing as the slide show depicting the plight of trafficked women. Also, the cost of hosting such an event surely exceeded most NGOs yearly budgets.
Like you, I am glad that at least some coverage was given to the human trafficking issue through the use of celebrity faces but what was the outcome? Is anyone actually going to DO something about it?
........Who is this mysterious Zardoz and their goal?
....... Is she a she?
....... Or he a he?
....... and is he/she wearing in the snow a mink stoal....
....One who creates mystique under a guise of creativity........
........ or just simply a social butterfly of spontaneity........
.......... Who is this mysterious Zardoz I wonder....????
zardoz says,:
I had a run in , in kalymnos
once , getting off the boat ,
i noticed a blonde kid being hauled
by a tremendesly dark looking type
woman of roman dna , possibly..
the kid was crying his eyes out
and the person "chaporoning"
didnt klik..
150 metres from the boat dock is
the port police, strolling
by i noticed tall blond group of
people with children , trying to
explain to a port officer , something
.....
as i passed closer one of the women
was bawling her eyes out,
... looked familiar, her expression.
Yap as i neared the officer to find out what crossed my mind, i saw
the fotos of the group and the aforementioned child , promptly
reported it .
The ship was turned around,
the child was found ,and some people
were detained (couldn't tell who was trying to abduct the child )
So they beat them all .
That year(summer) there was a turkish pleasure boat that came into kalymnos harbor and took down , or was photographing
the greek flag, someone caught wind of it, and there were 4-5000 screaming
blood, natives within 30 minutes
lock stock and barrel.
SO GUESS what made the news front page
and the other story i think got mentioned.
PLEASE NO ONE PAT ANY BACKS,
the moral of the story,
or the moral that sank deep
into my heart
was the respect for human life
the what if 's , if it was
my child, my niece, my friends child
my neighbors child, anyone's child
i forgot my very leftist education and or humanist ideals
and have retrovated since then
to a very large distrust and hate
of systems, ways of life , politics,
anything that would bring me face to face with that childs face ......
...............and the mother
that is why i am cautious at all the
carnival malarchy of zappion
and others , of course,
the non-gov stuff.
nobody say bravo
nobody clap
keep your eyes peeled
and give young ones ways to evolve correctly and aknowledge this dam world of ours.
-------------zardoz thanks for watching
zardoz says:
O.K. WHO PULLING MY LEG?
-----------ZARDOZ
Hi seawitch. Someone commented to me that the budget of the conference freebie handouts would have allowed their projects to run for five years! This could, of course, be exaggerated but the point is still valid. Many of these projects run on such low budgets that the organisers are not being paid themselves. As I said if I hear of any of this money actually being used to DO something I will let you know.
Hi Zardoz, Thank you for your story. As a parent it struck a veery deep chord with me. Thank goodness this one didn't turn into a poster on the metro. I am deeply disturbed that the numbers of missing children is rising. What can we do? Is there an organisation here in Greece that deals with missing children or is it just the police?
Hello scruffy american, this just reminds me that we have a responsibility to intervene when we witness something like this. I dread to think what would have happened if everyone had turned a blind eye.
DD it is wonderful that you are highlighting these gross injustices in Greece. I am telling everyone I know about your blog.
zardoz says:
msDD
Except for the organizations that will take in children, once found,
I haven't come across anyone or anything that works..!
havent seen somethin with a prevention policy,and or training school children and tourists
gettin off the plane for holidays, to BE AWARE.
Of course its an old fact in greek everyday common life, to be careful of the children
thus probably the family structure took it upon itself and thus its were it remains.
and yes the police. ....cant say ,their boss the minister i used to know in elden times
when we rumbled , i still think he's got brains to initiate some social programs
concerning trafficking that would help this country especially , but when youre pickin up
pakistanis ..? anyways he can still be pushed for other reasons to instigate
some training programs, if there were organizations other than the ones at zappion
who are there for , whatever they were there for.
Mst note some television programs that look for missing people , .....xmmm
Have stories thru the last 26 years that still are nightmarish and not so happy.
ANYWAYS to all : friends i like to have , fans i do not.AND dont understand why the writing? sorry dd somethin seems conspicuous to me.
I tried excessesing into the forum you have TO write some thoughts on a racial culture evolution question i have and would like some feedback,but couldnt get in( old dog new tricks learn real slow)
any suggestions? tried the tech side too.did somethin wrong ? interesting articles in there.
======ZARDOZ
Thank you very much for you support, anonymous.
Hi Zardoz, you wrote: "sorry dd somethin seems conspicuous to me." I don't think the writer fan of zardoz meant anything bad by his/her comment. Don't worry about it too much. People often write jokey things here. To lighten the mood perhaps? As to the forum, there have been problems getting in recently. I have problems too and it's my forum! I do know you have to sign up to post. Let me know if you still have problems after signing up? BTW could you use zardoz as your identity when you write comments? Just choose "other" and write in zardoz. It
just makes it easier to follow conversations to have as few anonymous comments as possible. Thank you for all your contributions. I look forward to seeing you on the forum too.
The only thing that matters to these so-called "glamorous" people, who attend these events, is how they can show off and keep their botox filled faces in the news. They don't give a damn about anything, trust me..
Yes well I saw the news coverage on TV as well, and Suzan Mubarak is as you know the first Lady of Egypt. The president, her husband, has been in power in Egypt for 20+ years winning election after election with 90% plus majority. So it's all nice of Suzanne to come to Athens and make a headline back home about how lovely she is but it makes me sick. Especially after seeing the footage on TV. Sakis Rouvas saying how wonderful it is to have all these 'wonderful people' caring about this terrible injustice that is happening bla bla bla. And now that I've read your post about NGO's not being allowed in and not getting any money it REALLY MAKES ME SICK.
Have they no shame?
The tragedy of our society's misinformation or total lack of information regarding human trafficking is that the so-called "media coverage" of such conferences focus on "the beautiful people, the VIPs" that attend.
The conference's issues are secondary and usually just a tagline on the "news". The frontline NGOs, activists and the "not-so-media-friendly aka left-wing, radical" celebrities take a back seat to mass TV viewers' choices.
i noticed a blonde kid being hauled
by a tremendesly dark looking type
woman of roman dna , possibly..
Interestingly, what Zardoz is saying is that this is an abduction by a Gypsy (this is the term "roman"0. Human trafficking in the Balkans is run by the Albanian gangs and Gypsies. The more you have in acountry of these groups the higher the level of trafficking.
Bob
zardoz says:
BOB, one isolated incident that was mentioned here on this blog
does not prove another, and was not mentined for that purpose.
keep searching though, because who runs the trafficking operations ,, could be anyone.!
the thing is who is F U N D I N G .! And W H Y.!?
CLOWNS THERE ARE MANY ,
CIRCUS MASTER IS ONLY ONE ,,,
-------------ZARDOZ
Sorry people, I haven't had time to answer all of your responses. I agree that the focus of the media reporting is completely wrong. Kathimerini has made no mention (yet) of what is going to be DONE to end trafficking and where all that money will be going, just a list of "beautiful people" who attended.
Bob, human trafficking is big business. Globally, some US$ 28 billion per year is made from sexual exploitation of women and US$ 4 billion annually from other forms of economic exploitation. We are talking about criminals make huge amounts of money out of slavery all over the world. We are not talking about blaming one nationality or group for the problem. I sense this thread falling into the trap of becoming a rant against Albanians and Roma. Again. let's try and look beyond personal prejudice and focus on the real issues.
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