Personal Reflection on Motion Picture: Not My Life Georgie Escobar Professor Rachael Richter-Hauk Human Trafficking Western New

Mexico University Spring 2014

Personal Reflection on Motion Picture: Not my Life For some slaves, the first step out of bondage is to learn to see their lives with new eyes. Their reality is a social world where they have their place and some assurance of a subsistence diet. Born into slavery, they cannot easily redefine their lives outside the frame of enslavement. ---KEVIN BALES, Understanding Global Slavery1 INTRODUCTION Bales (2009) discusses how slavery begins at home and domestics are unique because they are about saving someone money, rather than being marketed and repeatedly sold. It seems like the second-highest number of human trafficking victims in the U.S. are enslaved domestics (p. 18). Mysterious and puzzling phenomenon that it is, I agree with Bales (2009) that slaveholding is an affront that must be wiped out, rooted out of our economy and our communities. (p. 25) Personal Reactions to Movie I had conflicting reactions to the movie, ranging from nauseated and disgusted to joy and happiness, helplessness to hopefulness, outraged, and angered at different times throughout this thirty-minute clip. Even though it ended on a positive note providing hope that not all is lost for those that we recover. I was truly overjoyed about the progress many of these former slaves had made after escaping, especially the female that was coerced child soldier. I am pleased that these victims were able to obtain necessary assistance to become productive members of our communities. Happiness was felt at the end of the clip, for those who got away and got involved in the world around them. Watching the Roma teen discuss openly and while laughing, his crimes of kidnapping, rape, false imprisonment, assault and exploitation of several girls made me extremely angry. It brought thoughts of violent vengeance against him, as they appeared to be no hope for him to
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Notable Quotes (n.d.) last accessed on February 26 2014 at http://www.notable-quotes.com/slavery_quotes.html.

change his stinking thinking. . Especially, having come from an upper class family-you would think he would have been raised with better morals and values. . Summary of Main Points in Movie Humanity has evolved with enormous strides only to still practice medieval actions on innocent children. The clip opened with the fishing boys and it really connected with my curiosity. What really drew me to this topic in the first place was the thought of exploited children, especially sexual exploitation. This movie brought home the pictures of victims to corroborate vividly the disgustingness of these atrocious barbaric acts. The one girl in East Asia commented that the number of pedophiles in the U.S. is horrific and they are the most abusive as well as most frequent sex travel tourists. At times, I was completely shocked by some of the brutality described such as where the child soldiers are forced to murder their families. The tension I felt while watching the movie clip was based on these myriad of emotions. Thankfully, the movie was not a graphic reenactment. I was really moved by the insiders view we were given, with actual victims telling their stories. I could not keep up with the names and places as there were too many. This is one of the movies points is that it happens everywhere and while is a crime in those places, the laws are rarely enforced. The movie explained the effect on victims such as the girl in New York being beaten openly in front of the secure Port Authority by her pimp. It also went through the different means taken of obtaining females for both labor and sex such as kidnapping, runaways, false employment contracts, used by their own family or sold by them. The ideas were fairly presented and did not seem biased in any way. It shows that the producers were interested in trying to rescue these children, if possible, such as the girls in Mexico. The movie also showed several cultural impediments along with real world issues that

allow this to continue. The age of the children, the squaler in which they survive and different types of forced labor they are coerced into performing. What I learned from clip The movie provided scenarios for child labor I was formerly unaware of and made me wonder about child murders. When I saw the fishing boys, I wondered about how many of the drownings in the nets were intentional. That the laws preclude this activity but does not enforce it, as the New York sex slave discussed getting openly beaten by her pimp in front of the Port Authority and all its security. The lack of expense and trouble they had in acquiring people, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. It showed how normal many of these atrocious excuses for humanity lacked tell-tale signs of the true persona. I also learned with the children weaving carpets, the child soldiers, the fishing boys and the garbage cleaners that there is a cultural problem impeding progress in this area. It really caused me to puzzle over why this phenomenon is allowed to continue and how another human being can be so evil and cruel to any enslave another, especially these little tiny children like the nine-year-old prostitute. Alternatively, the baby rapists. When they were talking about child soldiers marching and mentioned many had been forced to kill the rest of their family, it gave me an insight into what some of those boys must have been feeling and why suicide was often the only way out for many. Questions Remaining The questions that follow from conflicting ideas about government enforcing the laws to protect children makes me wonder where are these childs parents and why are they not held accountable for their actions or lack thereof? Why did no one report these children as missing/abducted or abused and neglected? How will we change the perceptions of those who

perpetrate such kinds of crime and what should be done with them in order to keep the community safe. Why pimps and johns are set free and the juvenile victim is criminalized? (Human Trafficking, 2008)

References Not My Life (web) [motion picture] UNICEF http://teachunicef.org/explore/media/watch/feature-film-not-my-life last accessed February 24, 2014. APA (2008, 01) Human Trafficking. Studymode.com. Retrieved on February 18, 2014 at http://www.studymode.com/essays/human-trafficking-129623.html Bales, K. and Soodalter, R. (2009) The Slave Next Door. Berkeley, CA: University of CA Press