---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Peggy Callahan | Free the Slaves <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 3:47 PM
Subject: Golden Slavery Underground, Historic New Law, Fighting Slavery the
Mountainfilm Way + More
To: Philip Jones <[email protected]>
[image: FTS Header]
*In this Edition:* Oval Office | Slavery Under the Ground | I Am the Change
| New Book on Sex Trafficking
*Historic Anti-Slavery Bill Signed:
**Free the Slaves President
Kevin Bales in the Oval Office*
*[image: Kevin Bales in the Oval Office]*
You may have heard a great sigh of relief coming from Washington, DC just
before Christmas when Congress passed the *Trafficking Victims Protection
Act* Reauthorization. It was truly a legislative *cliffhanger* with the bill
squeezed in between emergency talks about the economic rescue package.
*FTS* wrote several parts of the new law including better protections for
trafficking victims and ways to streamline our government's anti-slavery
efforts.
So it was a festive morning *in the Oval Office* on December 23, when I met
with *President Bush* and leaders of other anti-trafficking groups for the
bill signing. The President was in an expansive mood, returning again and
again to the importance of this law.
For the anti-slavery movement-especially all of you who emailed and called
your Congresspersons about this bill--it was a great holiday gift, and one
that will be a foundation for even greater things in this next
Administration.
*FTS* bases its *policy objectives* on the priorities highlighted by our
grassroots partners in seven countries. For example, together with people
who are closest to slavery, we developed the idea that all sorts of aid
programs should include measures against slavery as well as to combat
poverty.
What we are calling the *'slavery lens'* is now US law. All assistance
programs paid for with taxpayer dollars now have to be consistent with
anti-trafficking goals, meaning more people will be brought to freedom.
------------------------------
[image: Lincolns Unfinished Plan][image: Lincolns Unfinished
Plan]<https://www.freetheslaves.net//page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.freetheslaves.net%2fPage.aspx%3fpid%3d474&srcid=4102&srctid=1&erid=79187>
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*[image: Lake View]*
*From the Field:
Kevin Bales' first person account of the deadly conditions faced by slaves
in Ghana's illegal gold mines*
Thousands of people are *enslaved in illegal gold* mines in the West African
country of Ghana. The gold they dig flows into the global market and into *the
jewelry we wear*. Outside the mining town of Obuasi *I went down a mine* to
see for myself:
There is no electricity in the mines, instead a flashlight is strapped to
the side of the head; the flashlight is by far the most modern piece of
equipment on site. There are *no helmets, no gloves, and rarely shoes*, just
hard bodies, crude tools, and jagged rock. Climbing down the irregular sides
of the narrow mine shaft, *darkness closed in on me*.
At the bottom there is a small turn-around hole, a place to put sacks of
broken ore before they are carried to the surface. Through *a hole 18 inches
tall and two feet wide*, I *crawled on my belly* into a space *the size of a
small closet* - and met the rock face.
[image: Exploring Ghana]Here the roof is loose irregular rock, and the floor
is covered in mud and rubble. *Two chiselers stand here, shoulder to
shoulder, pounding away at the rock* with their steel rods and hammers,
praying the roof doesn't come down all at once.
Every few minutes one stops and shovels the rubble out the crawl hole to
another man who puts it into a bag.
Within moments a "hauler" reaches the turnaround, takes a bag on his back
and heads for the surface. The stream of haulers is constant, like ants, up
and down the shaft in a river of faint headlamps, drizzling dirt, rock, and
sweat.
*The miners are often crushed by rock falls, and their lungs fill up with
the Quartzite dust leading to incurable and deadly silicosis. They are
enslaved through a rigged debt system, and by the thugs who run the mines
with violence. *
At the moment there is little relief. When police come to the mine they
arrest the slaves as illegal miners and imprison them. The slaveholders are
never arrested.
*This research, and our work with a new local Ghanaian partner, will help
FTS to build an effective strategy to take slavery out of gold - watch this
space!*
[image: Featured Video: Friends of
Orphans]<https://www.freetheslaves.net//page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.freetheslaves.net%2fPage.aspx%3fpid%3d450&srcid=4102&srctid=1&erid=79187>[image:
Friends of
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------------------------------
*David Holbrooke*
There are probably as *many ways to fight slavery* as there are slaves on
the planet. That's a lot. But T.V. news man | film maker | film festival
director *David Holbrooke* found a particularly compelling way to be an *
abolitionist*.
David is the *festival director* of the *Moutainfilm Festival* in *Telluride
*. Each year festival goers gather in the beautiful town to see great films
and be inspired by issues that matter. In his first year on the job David
decided festival *attendees needed to know more about slavery*. Then he made
it happen, in a big way. *[image: David Holbrooke]*
"We were thrilled to do so much programming and delighted that there was so
much interest that wehad to turn people away," says David. "We brought a lot
of real attention to the subject." Mountainfilm presented three films,
[*including
a short
film<https://www.freetheslaves.net//page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.freetheslaves.net%2fPage.aspx%3fpid%3d318&srcid=4102&srctid=1&erid=79187>by
FTS
*], photos from National Geographic, and several talks, including one with
author *Ben Skinner* [who first introduced David to modern day slavery] and
two survivors of slavery.
David says *everywhere he looked on the streets of Telluride he could see
FTS 'Slavery Sucks'
t-shirts<https://www.freetheslaves.net//page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2ffreetheslaves.madebysurvivors.com%2fcategory-s%2f3.htm&srcid=4102&srctid=1&erid=79187>
*. Even better - it has been gratifying for him to see how connections made
at the film festival have played out and are still materializing. *Law &
Order* TV show did a recent episode on trafficking based on a connection
made through the film festival, and film director *Tom Shadyac* was inspired
by the festival to become an abolitionist. He was the 'host with the most'
at the 2008 Freedom
Awards<https://www.freetheslaves.net//page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.freetheslaves.net%2fPage.aspx%3fpid%3d316&srcid=4102&srctid=1&erid=79187>.
*It all started with David.* It continues.
To find out more about Mountainfilm:
http://www.mountainfilm.org/<https://www.freetheslaves.net//page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.mountainfilm.org%2f&srcid=4102&srctid=1&erid=79187>
------------------------------
[image: Sex Trafficking: Siddharth Kara]*The Business of Sex Slavery*
[image: Siddharth Kara] Former investment banker and current FTS board
member, *Siddharth Kara traveled* across four continents to *investigate*and
*write* about the *global sex trafficking business*. Siddharth tracks size,
growth, and profitability of sex trafficking with never before published
metrics.
'*Sex Trafficking - Inside the Business of Modern Slavery*' also *tells* the
*devastating stories* of *women trapped* in *sex slavery* and makes specific
*recommendations* for a *global approach* to *ending slavery*. The author is
donating a portion of the proceeds from this book to FTS. You can buy a copy
here<https://www.freetheslaves.net//page.redir?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.cup.columbia.edu%2fbook%2f978-0-231-13960-1%2fsex-trafficking%2freviews&srcid=4102&srctid=1&erid=79187>.
*"The best book ever written on human trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Simply beyond anything I have seen anywhere."*
- *Kevin Bales, President of FTS*
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