Making the Invisible, Visible: The first step...

sex tourist

"they must have a hole where their heart should be."

What is the issue or challenge you are addressing? Explain.

Our class is addressing the issue of Human Trafficking. Human Trafficking is modern day slavery, it affects around 27 million people in nearly every country in the world. Slavery is being forced to work under possible violence, without pay and the inability to walk away.


Why is this important to you and your community and who does it impact? Explain.

This topic is important to me because it's one of the things that makes me realize how good we have it living as the top 1% of the the world. For example, a smart phone costs about two thousand ringgit, and a slave costs 270. Instead of having the newest IPhone, we could own nearly four slaves, and that shows how minimally these people's lives are being valued. They're the same as all of us, so shouldn't they be treated that way?

As Malaysia is a transit country for Human Trafficking, if it was an vital issue here, a good portion of slavery in Asia could be ended. Apart from educating and fixing the laws in Malaysia, if this issue was important, a lot more migrant workers would be saved from the lure of Human Traffickers. 

Think about all of the people this issues impacts, not only would it be the close family of those a part of Human Trafficking, but all people that know about it. If this issue was famous enough for most of the world to know about it, it would be abolished fairly quickly. 'We can end slavery in our lifetime.' -Free The Slaves

What kinds of surprises have you encountered in your research?

One of the major surprises I encountered during my research was that average women with college degrees can be a part of the modern day slave trade. Another one is that every thirty seconds, another person becomes a victim of human trafficking. That means that in every song you listen to, there would be about six people that become slaves in that time.

How does learning about this issue make you feel and why?
Learning about this topic makes me feel sympathetic, sad and fortunate all at the same time. It makes me really sad because just thinking about the horrible things that all these people must be going through is depressing. This topic also makes me feel fortunate because I know how lucky I am to be living in the top 1% of the world and I have no way to fathom how painful 27 million lives are in the world.