A fool and his money are soon parted. – John Bridges
Day before yesterday, I used the story of Chicken Licken as a metaphor for those who wildly overreact to regular events or even non-events, inflating the fall of a nut into Armageddon. But while the identity of the various barnyard fowl (Henny Penny, Goosey Loosey et al) was obvious, you may have wondered who played the role of Foxy Loxy. In most moral panics that would be government, fattening itself on the stupidity of the masses by granting itself ever-increasing powers to “fight” drugs, crime, terrorism, poverty, “trafficking” or whatever other bogeyman it can take advantage of. But as I said on Monday, real moral panics are much more complicated than children’s stories, and there is plenty of room for more than one Foxy Loxy to feed on the fat geese who run around looking up at the sky for imaginary debris rather than paying attention to their surroundings and considering just who it is they’re trusting to “help” them.
The rescue industry is full of such scavengers, amoral profiteers who take advantage of a moral panic to rake in the dough. They feed on government grants and private donations alike, and though jackals like Somaly Mam entertain their donors with theatrics and may actually believe in their warped minds that they’re doing good, others simply weave fanciful tales of dangerous rescues that never happened. Now, from the victims’ point of view the latter is infinitely preferable to the former, who destroy real businesses and abduct real women, stealing their children and abandoning them to beatings, gang rape and starvation in squalid, overcrowded third-world jails. But from the donors’ point of view it would probably be the opposite; after all, the crowd craves real blood on the sand of the arena floor.
The problem, of course, is that there are only so many whores to brutalize and only a very small fraction are young enough to be cast as “trafficked children”. So though competing rescue industry groups can repeat the same stories over and over, present pictures of Asian schoolchildren as “rescued trafficking victims”, and develop clever schemes to divert public funds from real issues, sooner or later they have to run out of tricks. The next generation of “trafficking” scams therefore have to be more subtle, and to get money from new sources; that generation has already arrived.
As I pointed out in “One Born Every Minute”, con artists are always willing to take advantage of people’s unrealistic fantasies or their desire to get something for nothing, so it was only a matter of time before they used “trafficking”. The “fake conference” scam has been making the rounds since about 2004; marks receive an email advertising an imaginary conference for a nonexistent NGO, and since many academics and professionals are always looking for a paid vacation they don’t really care that they’ve never heard of this organization before. So they send money for registration, accommodations, etc…and of course that’s the last they hear of it. Most of these supposed conferences are for environmental and social welfare causes; child abuse, racism and HIV are among the most popular topics, as you can see on this lengthy list. Here’s one a correspondent of mine received on January 25th:
Dear Colleague,
It is a great pleasure to invite you to the World Congress on human trafficking and forced labour 2012. The theme of this conference is: Combating Human And Sex Trafficking Worldwide. This topic not only invites us to reflect upon the basic and classical criminological ideas from a contemporary perspective, but also proposes to discuss their current transformation, modification, and new developments.
The world congress on human trafficking and forced labour is scheduled to take place from Monday 27 February to Thursday 1st march 2012 at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City and 5th to 8th march 2012 at Firenze Conference Center Vicenza Italy. The congress is hosted by the Campaign against Sex Trafficking and sponsored by other benevolent donors worldwide
Objectives of the world congress on human trafficking and forced labour objectives are:
1. To Increase awareness about the many types and ramifications of Human Trafficking
2. To serve as a resource to the public and advocates by providing valuable information about other initiatives working to address human Trafficking sex trafficking
3. To provide rehabilitation services to current and potential victims.
4. To encourage policy at local and national levels that will contribute to reducing human trafficking and abuse.
5. To provide insight in the activities in the field of science and policy interface;
6. To build a platform of knowledge at an international level;For more information please contact the conference organizing committee via E-mail: htafl2012secretariat@mynet.com
Sincerely,
Ms. Michael Judith
Youth organizing World Congress (Y.O.W.C)
E-mail: congress.invitation@gmail.com
The clumsy grammar, poor punctuation and intermittent adherence to rules of capitalization would reveal this as a fake even if the scammers had bothered to create a website for the “event”, which they didn’t. But a careless academic who really believed in the “trafficking” mythology might not be too scrupulous about checking out somebody who promised him a university-sponsored week in Italy. And this is a good thing; the more good money is poured down the “trafficking” toilet, the more “Grey Man” and fake conference scams we see and the more ridiculous the bogus statistics get, the closer we come to the day when this whole house of cards collapses under its own weight.
One Year Ago Today
The second part of my interview with sex worker rights advocate and real sex trafficking survivor Jill Brenneman.
Maggie,
thats hysterical. I got that letter too! I wrote back and asked them why there seemed to be nothing in the letter about the “human trafficking” of fathers into poverty and despair. There are no “rescue organisations” for men who are destroyed be the guvment.
Things are getting so desperate for men we are seeing tragic events like this.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104258/Jason-Lees-Rugby-referee-threw-baby-son-2-Brisbanes-Story-Bridge-split-wife.html
The guvment has got billions to “protect women and children” but not a cent to protect fathers (and as you point out sex workers too). Where are the those who wish to help men like this? Having been through the criminal family courts in Australia I know what this man faced and so did he most likely.
Look at CNN. They are running their big “freedom project” crap and not a WORD about all the men in jail for non payment of fictional alimony or child support though girls “trafficked for sex” are a big item on the CNN “freedom project”.
I also wonder what percentage of marks like this who actually put in money are women versus men. My guess is that the responders would overwhelmingly be men. Men are suckers for a “poor woman” story. The white knight immediately comes out in them. I know that feeling myself.
The other question that is worth discussing is this. It is true that all over the world there are women, young girls, AND MEN in desperately poor conditions. I have seen this with my own eyes.
Many well off men, just like me, would be more than happy to care for his “wife and children”. But we are hated now for trying to do that. Then women complain there are “no good men” and they are “forced into prostitution”. How many stories have you heard about women being “forced into prostitution” because there were no other jobs available. The sydney morning herald has run quite a few of those stories.
I was recently in a fairly poor african country. The women were selling food and clothing by the side of the road in the hot sun on my way to work and back. Try selling banannas by the roadside in 100% humidity and 35 degrees for 10 hours a day.
My driver, much younger than me but much wiser to the ways of women than me, said “Peter, if you took one of these very poor women and you gave her a good life in Europe? I promise you, inside 6 months she will forget where she came from. This is the way of women.”
Women who have come from modest beginnings, who have been helped a great deal by their husbands, who are perfectly able to take care of themselves, will STILL demand money they do not deserve from men.
Example. Nicole Kidman is at the top of my most disliked women. Nicole Kidman is running around as a UN Ambassador “fighting domestic violence against women and children” when she was plucked from obscurity and made into a movie star by Tom. She was able to command USD20M per film. And STILL she wanted USD60M in divorce. Apparently being married to TOM CRUISE is such a hardship that is has to be compensated by USD60M!!! I often say to people I would marry Tom Cruise for a year for USD6M! LOL!!
I commented to one of my aunts what a disgrace Nicole Kidman was. And her reply was telling. She was old enough to know better. 60. She said “She deserved the money because he can afford it”.
Apparently, even in elder women who should know better, a woman “deserves” money based on the mere fact the man has it. No matter the woman is VERY WEALTHY in her own right and was MADE THAT WAY by said husband.
Talk about ungrateful. My driver is right. Women forget where they come from. Perhaps sending them back might be a good lesson for them. Talk about a great example of all that is wrong with women. Nicole Kidman was nominated for “Australian of the Year!” Shows you what crap women in Australia are if they think Nicole Kidman is the BEST woman in Australia.
I often wonder why sex workers do not call Nicole Kidman the whore she so obviously is. What did she get that USD60M for exactly? It sure would be nice to see sex workers denouncing these women who steal mens money like Nicole Kidman.
In the man-o-sphere one of the recurring themes is many men, just like me, would actually like a good woman in our lives. The problem is, they don’t exist any more in the west. Another problem is, no matter how well we do by them the privileges turn into “entitlements”.
Well? If women are not willing to be good wives to men who are only too happy to take care of them? They are going to be “forced into prostitution” because there are so few useful jobs women can do to anywhere near the skill level of a man and therefore worth of a man. It is WOMEN demanding the welfare state far more than men.
I don’t agree with that. I have been married to a woman for 25 years and she’s put up with a lot of shit from me. Not all of it caused by me, mind you – but when I was in the Navy she spent a lot of time alone and had to manage the kids for long spells without me. She still does this – as I’m usually deployed to some God-forsaken land for 3 to 4 months each year.
I’d be utterly devastated if I ever lost her.
Even so – had I not found her – I know MANY other women that I’ve met that I could have been happy with.
I have a feeling that Maggie’s hubby would say she’s a pretty good catch.
There are no perfect women out there. But goddam … even most of the imperfect ones are an order of magnitude improvement over me. 😛
I think I dig what you are saying to a certain extent … that when you say good women no longer exist in the “west” – then you must be saying they still exist in the “east”? As in Asia? And when I hear men say this it’s usually got something to do with a perception that Asian women are more publicly submissive to men than western women are. I don’t know, I’m not particularly attracted to Asian women as I perceive them to be a bit two-dimensional. This is probably just an unfounded prejudice on my part. But I find western women exciting and delightfully “3D” … and extremely hot. 😀
But goddam … even most of the imperfect ones are an order of magnitude improvement over me. 🙂
Oh c’mon, you can’t be that bad. Your wife obviously loves you, from what you’ve told us, so you have some redeeming qualities. 🙂
I agree with Krulac. Yes i was getting pretty discouraged in the late 80 and early 90s. man hate did seem to be all the rage…….. but i began looking and surfing and did find a break off with the old 2nd era fimins and as time went by meny meny more are there. so much that i wonder if we have crossed the thershold away from old victin fimin to “lets work together ” people.
ps Maggie….Have you noticed all the ”talk from the ladies rejection the , notion that women must have there sexuality controlled ,birth controll, Rick San, etc?
I have indeed noticed it, but I also noticed that, as is the case with Slutwalks, they ignore the obvious: that women’s sexual freedom automatically includes not only where, when, how and with whom we have sex, but why.
Life is too short to let people get you down with their attitudes.
I had an old Captain that I just loved – he was aggressive as hell when it came to war plans – a completely uncivilized individual … he had a one track mind – take down the enemy.
His superiors would never let him “on the inside” of the good ole boys club … they always kept him at arms length, he was the gorilla of the battle group, uncivilized – and they would never let him eat at the same table with them.
But he was the first damn one they called when they had a difficult war problem to solve. He was not politically correct and so he never made Admiral. Who cares? He was a damn sight better officer than any Admiral I ever met. He retired as an O-6, he’s got a beautiful wife who provides all the “civilization” he needs in his marriage and he’s got hundreds of Sailors out here who would still charge the gates of hell with a water pistol for him.
I’m not a victim of “man hate” … I don’t care who hates me. I am who I am because, I know – when the crap hits the fan who they are going to call … and it ain’t the ghostbusters. 😀
“One Bad Apple … Don’t Spoil the Whole Bunch”
🙂
Anyone else out there see the resemblance between Merrill Osmond and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters? Scary likeness!
Don’t know how it is that I can like this, “Ookina Ai de Motenashite,” AND trance metal, but I’m glad that I do.
And thank you for the link.
Around the world, women perform well more than half the work, but earn a fraction of the money that men do, and have a fraction of the wealth. In some places on this planet, women are not allowed to own property, or even entitled to the money they might earn. And it wasn’t that long ago that it was that way in the west. Fix all that, and then I’ll agree that men and women have economic parity, and that women should stop depending on men.
Comixchik, I’ve been reading a lot lately about “basic income.” Very interesting. I’m liking the idea, though I’m not sure we’re quite there yet from a, um, “total abundance” standpoint. But if we’re not, it shouldn’t be long until we are.
Have you heard of this? What do you think of it? I was a little surprised to see Maggie’s government oil monopoly suggested as a way to pay for it.
You demand more and more privileges for yourself until women in past ages and distant lands have higher status? Or is it really that you are insecure about claiming the majority of property and wealth for women since the “well more than half the work” you allege they do does not include the heavy labor, warfighting, or innovation essential to all property and wealth? It seems that your greed is so unbounded that you exploit not only men but women too.
Where did I demand any privileges for my self? I didn’t. I pointed out the vast insecurity that patriarchy has created around the world.
As for your claim that the work women do doesn’t include heavy labor, war fighting, or innovation, well, so what? You seem to think this work is special because mostly men do it. It’s mostly men who start the wars, and women and children are very often victims of it.
More and more women are getting the technical training now, and you’ll see the rate of innovation created by women increase.
I don’t at all see demanding equal rights, equal opportunity and equal pay for equal work as greedy. All it means is that male privilege is feeling threatened.
I made the mistake of reading this while listening to trance metal. While strangely appropriate, I find myself wanting to check my closets and under my bed. While armed.
Even with that, though, I think you’re probably right and this is indeed good news. The old saying is that things have to get worse before they get better, and this trafficking stuff has certainly gotten worse.
OK, now I’m going to listen to the Osmonds.
Maybe this conference will be funded by that Nigerian prince I’ve heard so much about. 😛
You mean the one who needs Americans to receive funds for him? 😉