human trafficking is not humane

Human trafficking has been on the rise and very hard to stop. It does not get the main stream attention that it should like drugs or any other issue that threatens security.

That has changed though for a part of the nation. In Minasota on August 20th there will be a movie that come out according to Startribune. This movie is a documentary that calls human trafficking slavery. This video is a start, but according to the State Department for 2013 only 40,000 people were identified out of an estimated 26 million that are men, women, and children who suffer from this from of "modern Slavery."
Yes, we think that this kind of human trafficking cant happen in the United States, but only in foreign countries that dont have the resources, but in fact its happening in the United States.
According to a Senator in Minnesota he says that according to the FBI the twin cities in Minnesota the FBI has identified it as one of the top 13 places for child prostitution.
This is a very sad fact. What can we do about it? This documentary is a step, but more is need to curb this violence and modern day slavery.

Child Sex Trafficking in the United States

According to a July 29 press release from the FBI, Operation Cross Country VII – a three day sting targeting child sex trafficking – concluded with 105 sexually exploited children recovered and 150 pimps and affiliates arrested. As stated in the report, the sting occurred across 76 cities and was partnered with local and state agencies along with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) as a part of the Bureau’s Innocence Lost National Initiative. This initiative was launched in 2003 to address the growing problem of domestic sex trafficking of children across the United States.

A Silent Killer in African Children

One section of one of our videos this week really haunted me; the section about nodding disease. It seems strange to me that with all the advances in medicine we (the human race) has come up with, we still don't know what causes Nodding Disease and how to treat it. So I thought it might be worth digging a bit. Here's a bit of what I found.

A child afflicted with Nodding Disease

The disease is mostly secluded to areas of Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania, and only affects children between the ages of 5 and 15. My first question then becomes; the fact that this affliction is so limited would seem to give clues to its origin. Environmental seems like the most likely cause. A quick search brings up a possible cause in the parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus (Source). Unfortunately, this brings up even more questions. If we know the bug causing it, how do we not know how to fix it?

Onchocerca Volvulus (Source)

The major symptoms of the disease are characterized by mental and physical lack of development, "nodding seizures", but the weirdest part is that these seizures often occur right after eating, and stop occurring if the patient stops eating. An even more curious occurrence is that the seizures do not seem to happen if the patient is given food that they don't recognize, like a candy bar.

All this said, I'm an engineer. My life revolves around forces, math, numbers, and simulation. The human body is a mystery to me, and this issue could be way more complicated than I think it is. All this to say, why isn't this a bigger deal? Kids are dying of an unknown disease, and I had to take an international affairs class to hear about it. That doesn't make much sense to me.

The Rise of Human Trafficking in Colombia

The problem of internal human trafficking in Colombia is worsening, according to the United Nations and the Colombian government, due to a lack of attention to the domestic aspect of the trade and its relation to the drug trade.  Both criminal gangs and guerrilla groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forced of Colombia (FARC) forcibly recruit children, with 483 cases registered by authorities in 2011. In the first seven weeks of this year, 46 cases were reported.

Top U.S. Environmental Concern: Water Pollution

People around the world are constantly notified with a new environmental concern to focus on, which is usually bad news. But what exact aspect of the environment concerns most U.S. citizens? According to a recent survey conducted by Gallup, asked the exact question. The poll results came back and the top environmental concern among American's is water pollution. Though water pollution is occupied with many different aspects; drinking water pollution came in as the top ranking environmental concern. Given that the essential nature of water is to sustaining human and other life forms, it should not come as a surprise that the top ranked environmental concern is water pollution. When I think of water, I think of the many ways we use it everyday, water needs to be clean because it is our most precious resource. We use water in many forms such as; drinking, bathing, cleaning, cooking, and growing our food, along with many other uses. 

According to the Natural Resource Defense Council; "Clean and plentiful water provides the foundation for prosperous communities. We rely on clean water to survive; yet right now we are heading towards a water crisis. Changing climate patterns are threatening lakes and rivers, and key sources that we tap for drinking water are being overdrawn or tainted with pollution". Dirty/polluted water is the world’s biggest health risk, and continues to affect both the quality of life and public health in the U.S. "Many of our water resources also lack basic protections, making them vulnerable to pollution from factory farms, industrial plants, and activities like fracking. This can lead to drinking water contamination". Though the United States water pollution has made great advances in creating clean water from many organizational groups such as the EPA, it is nearly impossible to create 100% clean water due to the United State's many pollution concerns from the leading industrial resources dumping and creating toxic water. 

The U.S. has many organizations, initiatives, and acts with the goal to fight water pollution. We are fortunate to be a developed country with the resources to control clean water, and protect the citizens. Yet, from recent videos we have watched gave us a background of the water issue the U.S. has. Including the video titles; “New York’s toxic wasteland: America’s water crisis”. We learned that there are many toxic environments in large states like NY and Florida, which are grounds of major toxic dumping. Many bodies of water near urban areas are highly polluted. This is the result of both garbage dumped by individuals and dangerous chemicals legally or illegally dumped by industries. This makes me think of what kind of water we are using with every day life, this crisis is a real threat and could lead to water shortages. The two main problems that stick out to me that water pollution causes include; water pollution that kills life that inhabits water-based ecosystems, killing or infecting fish, birds etc. and second water pollution disrupts the natural food chain, pollutants such as lead are eaten by out marine life and later are consumed by humans. This process affects humans; people can get diseases such as hepatitis by eating seafood that unknowingly has been poisoned.

Now, when we think of water pollution and the many effects it has, we turn to the disease it can bring. Many weak states are very easy targets to fall to water pollution. We don’t think of the many effects that water pollution can have, because we don’t have scarcity like these third-tier weak countries. In places like Somalia, they are constantly contracting diseases by the use of polluted water, but this is what they deal with everyday. In this weeks reading we read a lot about diseases being spread from migration and environmental ways. I believe that because some of these weak states lack the resources to combat polluted water, other international communities need to step in to help. Once intervention is made, and then this could be a possible way to end some famine and disease from spreading. 

Tuberculosis - A Curable Killer

While nearly everyone knows about the damage and severity of the HIV virus, many people don’t know that Tuberculosis kills the second most people of any infectious disease according to the WHO. In 2011, nearly 10 million people contracted the disease, and 1.4 million died from it.  What’s shocking about tuberculosis is that we have very effective and fairly simple cure. Unfortunately in poorer countries no one can afford these medications, so many die from a completely treatable disease.

The Online Drug Trade

The idea of International drug smuggling is nothing new to the world, but with increased police cooperation, it is interesting to see how the world of drugs is evolving into the modern era.  Something I have recently heard of is the “Silk Road.”  This is an underground website where you can buy any drug you want.  Using a difficult URL that will not come up in a simple google search, the website uses anonymity and reputation based service like amazon or ebay to ship drugs throughout the world.  The only money accepted is Bitcoins, a “cypto-currency” that function as a new form of currency not issued by governments or banks.  Bitcoins fluctuate like regular currency and are untraceable in online purchases, unlike checks or credit cards.  This concept of downloading and trading digital currency is still difficult for me to comprehend, but it works by finding a server that issues Bitcoins for a price, such as ‘Mt. Gox Bitcoin Exchange.’  Even though Bitcoins are used to buy more than just drugs on the internet, the anonymity they create for people makes Bitcoins perfect for illegal activities.  This concept of untraceable money is championed by Libertarians and Anarchists who do not think the government has the right to stop people from doing something that isn’t violent.  This is new technology has the power to replace the way we think about international crime.  Although it will most likely be a long time before the major importers and exporters of illegal substances will go online to ship eights of weed, and tabs of acid through the US mail, this internet phenomena has caught on.  A few of my personal associates have claimed they have used to Silk Road for purchases and were happy with the service provided them, although they did express some complaint about the amount of time it took to download Bitcoins onto their personal computer to use in future transactions.  It sounds tempting, but for now, I think I will continue to get my drugs in the alleyway from a guy named Jesus.    

 

http://kotaku.com/5805928/the-underground-website-where-you-can-buy-any-drug-imaginable