stop the traffik

check out this short film, with daniel bedingfield, about this most heinous of human crimes.
then check out the rest of the website, and join with me and sign and up to start the process of doing something about it.
see also the protest4 link on the side, one of the pioneers of which is me old mate si johnston, and emily's link that keeps us in touch with her work in bangkok with girls involved in prostitution, some of whom are there against their will.
this issue of slavery and trafficking of people will gain more momentum over the next few months in the leadup to the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the british empire.
but the tragedy is, 200 years later, its still an enormous worldwide problem that continues to grow.
and what's to be done? next year will see the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, with many commemoration and other kinds of activities to mark it. today, the prime minister, tony blair, spoke of his 'deep sorrow' that it ever happened. you can read the full text of his speech here. you can also listen again to a couple of slots on the bbc's 'today' programme that open some thoughts on what might happen if the pm offered a full apology. there are people here who want an apology to include financial reparation.
i think that, while an apology would be a good thing, it will undoubtedly open up a whole raft of legal claims made for financial and other kinds of reparation. that in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but the real problem with that kind of thing is that inevitably the legal fraternity gets involved and any pot of money put aside to pay claims to genuine claimants is significantly reduced after legal bills.
i remember listening to an example of the church in canada being taken to court by the aboriginal peoples of canada for damages in land settlements, and 90% of the money went to lawyers and only 10% to those who had a rightful claim.
in australia (when i left 7 years ago) the pm would not offer a full apology to the aboriginal people for their displacement from their ancestral lands for fear of opening a pandora's box of legal and financial woe (to the federal govt) that could be enormous. the aboriginal people did not want money, only an apology for the wrong done them.
the issues around slavery and peopletrafficking will increase over the next 3 months as the bicentenary draws closer.
what do you think about it all?