Nigerian Baby Makers - Make me a Baby as Fast as You Can ...

I totally understand why we need to treat all people the same, all cultures, all values.

Totally.

Also - fails to mention something we should keep in mind.

Nigeria had two presidents, one died and they had an election and now Goodluck is president.  One reason why Goodluck and the now dead guy shared power was ..... [think jeopardy timer] ...

And then we have the missing piece!







Nigerian 'baby factory' raided, 32 teenage girls freed



Wed Jun 1, 10:32 am ET

LAGOS (AFP) – Nigerian police have raided a home allegedly being used to force teenage girls to have babies that were then offered for sale for trafficking or other purposes, authorities said on Wednesday.

"We stormed the premises of the Cross Foundation in Aba three days ago following a report that pregnant girls aged between 15 and 17 are being made to make babies for the proprietor," said Bala Hassan, police commissioner for Abia state in the country's southeast.

"We rescued 32 pregnant girls and arrested the proprietor who is undergoing interrogation over allegations that he normally sells the babies to people who may use them for rituals or other purposes."

Some of the girls told police they had been offered to sell their babies for between 25,000 and 30,000 naira (192 dollars) depending on the sex of the baby.

The babies would then be sold to buyers for anything from 300,000 naira to one million naira (1,920 and 6,400 dollars) each, according to a state agency fighting human trafficking in Nigeria, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).

The girls were expected to be transferred to the regional NAPTIP offices in Enugu on Wednesday, the regional head Ijeoma Okoronkwo told AFP.

Hassan said the owner of the "illegal baby factory" is likely to face child abuse and human trafficking charges. Buying or selling of babies is illegal in Nigeria and can carry a 14-year jail term.

"We have so many cases going on in court right now," said Okoronkwo.

In 2008, police raids revealed an alleged network of such clinics, dubbed baby "farms" or "factories" in the local press.

Cases of child abuse and people trafficking are common in West Africa. Some children are bought from their families to for use as labour in plantations, mines, factories or as domestic help.

Others are sold into prostitution while a few are either killed or tortured in black magic rituals. NAPTIP says it has also seen a trend of illegal adoption.

"There is a problem of illict adoption and people not knowing the right way to adopt children," said Okoronkwo.

Human trafficking is ranked the third most common crime after economic fraud and drug trafficking in the country, according to UNESCO.









 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
nigeria

Human Slavery: Not my fault you don't understand

Ah, she is a victim.  After all, slavery existed in Europe and Africa, Asia, and the Middle East LONG before it ever began in the Americas.  It's not our fault.  We were just trying to help them out, not enslave them.



Immigrants' lawyers using culture as crime defense


Samantha Henry, Associated Press
Wed Dec 8, 2010


.NEWARK, N.J. – The lawyer for an African woman charged with smuggling young girls from Togo to New Jersey said her trial was about cultural norms that failed to translate in America. Twelve American jurors saw it as a clear-cut example of human trafficking, and she was sentenced to 27 years in prison.



Both sides focused on the cultural nuances of the case; the defense arguing the woman was a benevolent mother figure who helped young girls escape a life of poverty; the prosecution accusing her of using the threat of African voodoo curses to keep the girls subjugated.

The case highlighted a legal strategy that experts say immigrants' defense lawyers are using increasingly in the U.S.: the argument that a defendant's actions reflect his cultural upbringing, rather than criminal intent.

"We derive meaning from action, and that meaning is very culturally laden," said Susan Bryant, a law professor at the City University of New York who provides cross-cultural training to lawyers and judges. "If you look out the window and you see someone with an umbrella, you may assume it's raining. In China, it could just as easily mean the sun is out."

Bryant said demand for cross-cultural training among legal professionals has steadily increased over the past decade.

Bukie Adetula represented the Togolese immigrant, Akouavi Kpade Afolabi, who was convicted of human trafficking and visa fraud charges at her 2009 federal trial in Newark. Prosecutors alleged Afolabi brought at least 20 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 from West African nations on fraudulent visas to New Jersey, effectively enslaving them and forcing them to work in African hair braiding salons for no pay.

Adetula argued that what prosecutors called clear-cut signs of modern slavery were considered protective measures in African culture: restricting telephone access, holding the girls' passports, and forbidding them from going out of the house unaccompanied.

"America is supposed to be a country made up of so many different cultures, so, yes, make the laws, and enforce the laws," Adetula said. "Do not make different sets of laws for different people, but look to the interpretations of acts, before you say: 'Oh, it's an offensive act, it's against the law, it amounts to human slavery."

Adetula, a Nigerian native who has been practicing law in New Jersey for more than two decades, is one of many lawyers — often immigrants themselves — who bridge the divide between their clients' cultural or religious backgrounds and the American legal system.

Raymond Wong, a lawyer in New York City's Chinatown neighborhood who has a large Asian immigrant client base, said his challenge is often twofold: explaining a client's cultural customs to Americans, while persuading foreign-born clients who prefer resolving disputes through negotiation to use the U.S. court system.

"There's a serious a lack of legal professionals in China, so all the problems are resolved by friends, relatives, people that you know," Wong said. "To them, going to court is a scary thing, getting arrested by cops is a scary thing, confrontation with authorities is a scary thing."

Defense attorney Tony Serra gained national prominence for his use of cultural defenses in two separate California cases in the 1990s where American Indians were accused of fatally shooting law enforcement officers. Serra's cultural defense tactics included using expert witnesses on American Indian culture to argue the alleged perpetrators were victims of longstanding anti-Indian racial prejudice, historical tragedies, and a deeply rooted fear of authorities. Serra's defense in the 1990 retrial of Patrick "Hooty" Croy, a Siskiyou County Indian accused of killing a Yreka, Calif., policeman, proved persuasive enough for a San Francisco jury to free Croy after 11 years on San Quentin's death row.

Prosecutors at the time derided the strategy — as critics of "culture defenses" do today — arguing that historical accounts are irrelevant to modern-day criminal cases, and a person's cultural background is no excuse for lawbreaking.

"We don't want to water down our rule of law," said Kent Scheidegger, the legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, who argues that cultural defenses, in most cases, shouldn't be considered mitigating factors.

"There are some cultures where fathers kill their daughters because they get involved with a man," Scheidegger said. "That would not be exonerating at all in my view — that's a crime and it should be punished as a crime — and punished the same as anyone else who commits that crime."

Lawyers like Adetula emphasize that factoring in someone's cultural upbringing can help juries and judges determine the degree of an offense or the severity of punishment; they say it is not meant to excuse criminal acts.

"There are aspects of American culture that may not be acceptable in other parts of the world also, and we hear stories of Americans hiking in other countries and they get arrested, or taking pictures at places where it's offensive in other countries, and getting arrested," Adetula said. "It's not a one-sided thing."





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
slavery

India: Not All Cultures are Worth Keeping

Curse of the Gujjar marriage

Oct 21, 2010, 12.01am IST
The Times of India


DHARWAD: In the marriage mandis of North Karnataka and Uttara Kannada, agents rule the roost, striking bargains with parents and selling innocence for hard cash. Here, women are a commodity and their price is fixed, depending on age and beauty.



It is called a Gujjar marriage, and is the first link to the booming trafficking racket in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The victims are impoverished lower caste women, for who the marriage becomes the path to a brothel in Mumbai or North India.



Police say they are aware of this problem, but are unable to act because they receive no complaints and no complainants have come forward so far. Only human rights and NGO activists alert people to the issue.



Widely known as `Gujjar marriages' (also `Gurjara maduve' -- the word Gujjar here is not intended to refer to any community, but a practice, tradition and style of marriage) across North Karnataka and Uttara Kannada districts, impoverished girls, deserted women, widows and single women from lower castes are sold under the guise of marriage.



SHEETAL RETURNS HOME



Sheethal (name changed), 31, has just returned from Mumbai to her home in Bedasgaun in Mundgod in Karwar district. Belonging to a scheduled caste, she was sold to a 40-year-old man in Maharashtra in June 2009, she returned home two weeks ago after her husband deserted her.



Isabella S Xavier, founder member of Sadhana, women and children welfare society and District Human Rights Centre, Dharwad, said: " Gujjar marriage is just a `one-night' ceremony. The men, who hail from Gujarat or Rajasthan or UP, pay a certain amount to the girl's parents and get married overnight. The men bear all the expenses, including buying jewels for the bride. The next day, they take the girl away."



Pankaja K Kalmath, executive director and founder trustee of KIDS (Karnataka Integrated Development) Dharwad added: "In Gujjar marriages, only the bride's parents are present and none of the bride's relatives are invited. After that, no one is aware as to what happens to them."



Recalling her traumatic experience, Sheethal said: "I was cheated by a man in my village when I was 27 years old. I was three months pregnant. He promised to marry me only if I aborted the child. My family members took money from him and got my child aborted. He refused to marry me and absconded."



Promising to get her married off, her mother took her to Maharashtra. "In June 2009, my mother and an agent from Malagi village in Mundgod took me to Maharashtra. I don't know the name of the place, but I do remember that it was beyond Mumbai. I was married off without any expenses. My in-laws managed everything and gave a lot of jewels, which they claimed to be gold. Later, I was taken to a house where their mannerisms were taught for a month. There was a girl from Karnataka who taught me how to behave and work. My husband owns a provision store in Nasik," she said.



She added that the jewels she was given were all fake gold. "They lied to me saying the jewels were gold and silver," she said. However, she refused to reveal the name of her husband.



INJECTIONS AND ILL-HEALTH



Sheethal recounted that her husband used to give her a lot of tablets and injections. "They made me feel giddy and my health deteriorated slowly. I was unable to recover because of which my husband left me in his friend's house in another village. He said he would take me home after I recover. But he never returned. Even after making several calls, he refused to take me back, stating that I was very weak. I couldn't stay in his friend's house. Later, I went to Mumbai," she said.



Unaware that she was sold to him, she said: "I have seen many girls from my village who were married off like me. Their families were paid huge amounts, with which they bought lorries, and a few also built houses. I wanted to know how much my mother was paid. I kept asking her but she refused to tell me."



Deserted by her husband, she took shelter in Mumbai. "In Mumbai, there are many girls from my village who are deserted by their husbands. With their help, I started working in a shop. I make woollen hair bands and stay in the shop owner's house. He takes good care of me. I do all the household work and then work outside. I get Rs 2,000 per month. But my health condition worsened and my owner sent me home for a month," she said.



Her return to the village has only alerted the agents around. "One agent from a neighbouring village is constantly pestering me to get married. He said he would arrange another wedding if I give my consent. My family members want me to move out of the house as fast as possible fearing societal pressure. But I am not ready for another marriage," she said.



However, she believes that some day her husband will take her home. "I will once again try to call my husband and convince him to take me home. Otherwise, I have to find a job," she rues.



There are also women who refuse to go back to their husbands. Chandrakala (name changed) came to her village in Kyasankere in Mundgod for delivery. "She refused to go back home fearing physical harassment. She was married off four years ago at the age of 16 to a person in Pune. We don't know how much her parents were paid. But when she came for delivery, she complained that she was harassed every day. It has been one-and-half years since she came to the village," Renuka F Bhovi of Kyasankere village said.



Why are they termed `Gujjar marriages'?



Explaining the genesis of the name, Pankaja said many men come from Gujarat. "People started calling it `Gujjar marriages'. Though women are sold to men from Maharashtra and Rajasthan, this practice is known as Gujjar marriage," she said.















 
 
 
 
india

Human Slavery: Sex Trade, Croatia

TAKEN is not just a movie. While the story is fictionalized, the general details are not.

Estimates of between 600,000 and 800,000 people each year are kidnapped, or otherwise forced into slavery, and sold into the sex trade. Up to 70% are females, and 50% are minors.

Consider those numbers - 600,000 up to 800,000. Let's go with the higher number. 800,000 people each year, sold into slavery. Rwanda - at the very least, 800,000 butchered. Is there a difference? In the case of Rwanda, it is over for the individuals in less than 20 minutes in most cases. For the child sold as a sex object - it is for however long. Hours, days, weeks, months ... until the parasite that purchased them tires of them, and they are traded or killed. On one level there is a difference between a genocide and the slave trade, but on a moral level - there is no difference, both are equally evil.

I have no idea why this is tolerated. I understand the money, in areas where $30,000 is a kings ransom - but why. Why do we tolerate it. We have the ability to stop it. Why aren't we. Each day. More. Each day, innocence is lost, destroyed.

Who is WE? We is whoever you wish it to be ... The US, Interpol ... doesn't matter. These parasites get paid money, they do not put the money under their mattress. We have the ability to trace fund transfers - and the buying and selling of large numbers of human beings results in large sums being transferred or withdrawn from bank accounts. When someone in a country where $1,000 is more than the average person has, deposits above X amount - we watch them. Monitor their accounts. If they are linked to any sort of illegal behavior - drugs, slavery, kidnapping ... we leak it - tell their governments, tell their families, tell their newspapers, tell their opponents - and if that does not end the evil, we can find ways to shorten their lives. It is not as simple as I make out, nor is it much more difficult, although it would consume resources and would probably violate a law ... on a moral scale, it would be the right thing to do. It is one thing to cooperate with a tyrant when battling communism. It is another to have anything to do with parasites that need to be extinguished. No law, no court - simply kill them, whoever they are, wherever they may reside ... don't care. Every one of them - and leave the evidence of their evil strewn about for their families to find.

Just a thought - you kidnap an 11 year old from Morocco, take her to Serbia / Russia / Mecca, and sell her to a brothel or some prince. How would she even know where to begin, to get away and escape. She wouldn't.

Kidnap a 20 year old European female. Take her anywhere in the world, and sometime, somewhere, she may have the time and ability to escape and bring what you have done, to light - make it all public. Shine a very bright light on you and the evil you do.

Why then do you kidnap a 20 year old Euro? !!!

It doesn't take much imagination.


There are moments when I am very happy to know that hell exists. Your time is limited here, and eternity is forever.



Links to More Detail on Human Slavery / Sex Trade:

Economist, August 2008

Fox News article, 2005

UN Drugs and Crime

UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (UNIAP)

USAToday, 2/14/08







Croatian cops implicated in backpacker Britt Lapthorne case

February 9, 2009
Daily Telegraph

AN Australian woman has told how men who appeared to be Croatian police tried to abduct her in Dubrovnik, just five days before backpacker Britt Lapthorne disappeared.

The woman, identified only as Amber, narrowly escaped an attempt to snatch her from the street after a night out at the Fuego nightclub, where Britt was last seen alive.

She had heard a vehicle accelerate and turned around to see a blue van heading towards her, with two men in the front and another man hanging out the side sliding door.

Separated from two friends, she would have appeared as though she was on her own.

She fled screaming and her friends were still comforting her in a nearby park when they were approached by a group of men who were carrying guns and identified themselves as police.

She was stunned when she looked up and recognised one of the men as being the person who had leant out of the speeding van to try to grab her.

The implication is that her attacker may have been a Dubrovnik police officer or associate of police.

In another development, security cameras recorded a van pulling up outside the Fuego club at close to 5am on the night Britt disappeared.

When Amber was shown an image of the van, she said it was the same vehicle that had sped towards her.

The van appears to pick someone up from outside the club before driving off.

The woman detailed her story to Channel 7's new Sunday Night program and prepared a sketch of her attacker, who has distinctive wavy blond hair and should be identifiable if he is an officer.

Her story - also detailed in a statement to Australian Federal Police and passed on to Croatian police - raises the theory Britt may have been snatched by someone in a van.

Two other women say they were victims of separate abduction attempts after going to the Fuego club.










Kidnapping