Summer \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Moon of the First Harvests<\/p>\n
9 years ago this November I went on a significant trip paid for by money inherited from my father. \u00a0It took me to Singapore where my sister, Mary, hosted me and showed me her adopted city. \u00a0After Singapore I flew Tiger Airlines to Bangkok where I spent 5 days getting acclimated to Thai culture and the particular culture of Bangkok’s China Town. My hotel there cost $17.00 a night.<\/p>\n
(Yaowarat Road. \u00a0Bangkok’s China Town)<\/p>\n
On the 6th day I took a flight from Bangkok’s old airport on Bangkok Air to Siem Reap, Cambodia. \u00a0We landed late at night and the customs area looked like a prison detainee facility in a bad B-movie. \u00a0At one box I applied for my visa and at one right next to it, a Cambodian official stamped in it and I was in country.<\/p>\n
The taxi scrum had all kinds of vehicles and people, but I happened, quite by accident, on a wonderful driver, Mr. Rit. \u00a0He drove me around for the entire time I was in Siem Reap, including several trips out to Angkor, the ancient Khmer region where over 75 different temples built by many different rulers dot the landscape, among them what westerner’s call Angkor Wat, which actually means, Angkor Temple.<\/p>\n
(Siem Reap)<\/p>\n
Tonight I watched a movie called Trade of Innocents. \u00a0It’s a Netflix streaming movie, so it’s easily available. \u00a0The focus is human trafficking, based on real events, in the city Siem Reap. \u00a0This lovely city, deep in the Cambodian jungle, has what I guess you could say is the misfortune of being the gateway to Angkor. \u00a0As such, it has seen a hotel building boom of enormous proportions, making it possible to stay in Siem Reap at almost any price point. \u00a0My hotel was $25 a night for a room with teak furniture and a tiled complete bath. \u00a0You could pay then $500 a night at Hotel D’Angkor, the old French colonial hotel of ridiculous elegance.<\/p>\n
(Bayon Temple.)<\/p>\n
All this tourist traffic has apparently made Siem Reap a center for the trade in Cambodian and Vietnamese girls. \u00a0The problem gets reinforced by a culturally acceptable practice of sending a daughter into the city brothels to support her family. \u00a0This was a side of Siem Reap that was invisible to me. \u00a0I saw a small city with contradictions between rich and poor, with beautiful buildings and a friendly people, with local artisans of incredible skill, but I didn’t see the backrooms and back alleys where children, young children, were bartered and rented for an evening.<\/p>\n
My friends Paul and Sarah Strickland have made the trafficking of girls a priority issue. \u00a0It’s easy to see why. \u00a0Girl Rising, the movie Kate and I saw earlier this month, also pleads the case for girls, a vulnerable population everywhere, vulnerable not only to human trafficking but to enforced ignorance, too. \u00a0If you have a daughter, or a granddaughter, or if you love a woman who was a daughter once, then these two movies should make you pause a moment. \u00a0And wonder how to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summer \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Moon of the First Harvests 9 years ago this November I went on a significant trip paid for by money inherited from my father. … Continue reading Human Trafficking<\/span>