Modern Day Slavery

I follow The CNN Freedom Project. I think it is such an important issue that we all need to be involved in, but sadly there are not much good to report. 

Photo by Graur Codrin/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

According to CNN, there are currently 10-30 Million slaves in the world today.  Obviously a big spread, but the people being counted is by definition a hidden population, and there is no common international definition of what constitutes slavery, hence the differences in numbers.Whether the low or high number is correct, there is still too many.  Everyone deserves to be free!

However, we are able to do something about this - each and every one of us.  Start with making the decision to  be a slave free consumer (and currently you can submit your story and photo to CNN to be featured on their blog). I love good sales, but going forward, I want to ensure the products I buy, are made in facilities that pay their employees a fair price and treat them well, and by a company that ensure that factories out of the country follow their directives with regards to how employees are hired, paid and treated. How do we go about this?  Make sure the company that produces the products are aware of your requirements for a "slave free" product.  

This video is a bit of an eye opener:

You can check their website www.slavefree.com for more ideas.

Human trafficking for the sex industry is quite another battle, and this is where I want to place all responsibility on men.  If there is no demand, there will be no need for supply. Simple as that. If you're not getting what you need at home, get a date, or travel to Nevada and visit a brothel where the women are there because they want to. Don't ruin a child or a woman forced into prostitution.

I once met a police officer who had worked on a special task force targeting human trafficking and organized pedophile networks.  As part of his work, he had traveled to Thailand under cover and visited a brothel with young boys. Hearing him read from his diary describing what he saw and the completely destroyed young boys he encountered was heartbreaking, and I will never forget the images his words brought out in my mind.  I will never understand how anyone can put their own pleasure so high that they have no regard for whom they ruin in the process. Nor will I ever understand how it can be pleasurable to have sex with someone who is forced to do so. 

Let me get off my soap box here, and back to what we all can do.  There are several organizations that support the start up of individually owned small businesses in third world countries. Supporting these, rather than the big companies, may be the way to go.  Just as supporting small businesses in the US, rather than the big chain stores may be the way to go.  You decide - just make sure the products you bring home were not made by slaves.   

Solution to Weight Problems

I am still making excuses, and not doing so well with the workout program....I will get back on track.  In the mean time, I think I will start using the scale the "correct way"....very helpful!!

Totally Lost On the Road to Fabulous

Transformation to fabulous is proving to be a little more difficult than I thought.  After suffering through sore muscles (mostly ones I didn't know I had...) the first week, I decided to take a little break and let my body rest.  Bad idea!  The "break" lasted a whole week.  So basically I didn't run in to obstacles, I just took a complete detour - the scenic route.

Photo by Free-stockphotos.com

Not only did I not work out - unless you can count housework as workout, but I gave in to chocolate cravings and dug into the potato chips bag (even at 40% less calories, the amount was not anywhere close to healthy).  Oh well, it happened, and now that I think about it, I wanted to document the before and after, so it might not be such a bad thing.  I'm pretty much back at the starting point again, but I'm back on the plan tomorrow.  3-mile run is on the schedule, and it will get done! 

Strange 911 Calls

OMG, the things people do! Don't we all know 911 is for emergencies only?  Well apparently not
 everybody.

Photo by Simon Howden/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

An Ohio woman called 911 stating she needed a husband - and went to jail for doing so.

Others have called 911 due to wrong food orders...really?

Photo by Graur Codrin/FreeDigitalphotos.net

In Florida however, they got not one, but four calls from an outraged customer who got in a fight with her nail technician over the length of her nails. She got arrested too.


A Chicago woman got tired of waiting for her boyfriend to propose. Her solution?  According to CBS News, she called 911 telling them her boyfriend was attacking her, but when police arrived, changed her story, admitting that she was trying to scare her boyfriend into marrying her. Instead, she went to jail....who would have guessed that outcome?

All of a sudden, I feel so normal.

Georgia Executes Troy Davis

I am speechless!  I cannot believe that with all the doubt hanging over this case, the State of Georgia moved forward with the execution of Troy Davis. As one person wrote in a comment to an article regarding the delay of the execution: "We don't know if Troy Davis is guilty of murder, but if the State of Georgia goes forward with the execution, we know they are". 

When the case has sparked worldwide attention, and it seems everybody doubts his guilt, it is strange to me that he through his appeal process was required to "prove his innocence" rather than the prosecution being required to prove him guilty "beyond any reasonable doubt". If the latter was not done in the first trial, and there remains overwhelming doubt about his guilt, should the prosecution not be required to prove the case before killing a man?  That this was a death penalty case in the first place with the lack of physical evidence, is quite another story.

MSNBC reports that Davis maintained his innocence until the end and asked for prayers for his executioners.

The only ones who seemed to be pleased with the outcome, was the victim's family and Spencer Lawton, the district attorney who secured Davis' conviction in 1991. Spencer said he was embarrassed for the judicial system — not because of the execution, but because it has taken so long to carry out.

"What we have had is a manufactured appearance of doubt which has taken on the quality of legitimate doubt itself. And all of it is exquisitely unfair," said Lawton, who retired as Chatham County's head prosecutor in 2008. "The good news is we live in a civilized society where questions like this are decided based on fact in open and transparent courts of law, and not on street corners." A manufactured appearance of doubt?  When 7 of the 9 witnesses recant their statements, and 10 people point to another suspect - where is the manufactured appearance?  And exactly which part of killing a possibly innocent man makes our society "civilized"?

I hope this will go down in the books as the biggest mistake of the justice system in the state of Georgia. Unfortunately, it is not one that can be undone.