Nigerian School Girls

 A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine posted an article on Facebook.  The article is written by a Nigerian-American named Jumoke.  My friend headlined the post by saying, "Pushing the question of American involvement in Nigeria. Worth the read and discernment. What am I even doing about human trafficking in my own community?"  I read the article and then wrote the following comment:

'Jen, your question is a good one and I thank you. The rest of what I'm about to say is not directed at you but at the American people who have looked at this story all wrong. A good rule of thumb is to assume that human trafficking is going on in our own communities. My fiancee and I just called the Human Trafficking Hotline the other day about a suspicion that is more than a suspicion. I ask, also; if the U.S. government were to get involved in every country where trafficking abuses are occurring, then, a) the U.S. government would be involved in EVERY country, which clearly oversteps our boundaries and possibly also oversteps the resources we have that we'd need to be effective; and b) we'd be more involved in trafficking abuses in our own country. The news from Nigeria really sucks, but, at the risk of sounding inhuman, I question why it has become news. I don't mean to say that this is not news. But how do some pieces of news about abduction and slavery become major attractions and others do not? Jumoke, the writer of the article, is on to something: maybe we want to get involved more in Nigeria, and so, heyo, we jump on news like this. That may or may not be the case. In my opinion, though, the big news should be that no country anywhere, including our own, is doing enough to prevent or combat slavery. American outrage should be pointed not at Nigeria, and not at our military for not flying in there and dropping bombs, but when news like this breaks our outrage should be pointed at ourselves: oh, woops, there's a slave right down the street that I'm blind to because I want justice (read: people killed) in Nigeria. We first should make sure that we ourselves aren't somehow contributing to slavery around the world and in our own communities, and then take care of our own backyards, and then, maybe, we can start thinking about other ways to end slavery.'

Another friend of mine sent me a message on Facebook asking me how the situation in Nigeria could continue.  Her question being, if awareness should consequently lead to the elimination of slavery, then how can the world be aware of the captured schoolgirls that Boko Haram claims to be throwing into slavery and not put an end to the whole deal?  Well, my above response is part of the answer.  Combating slavery is complicated and, unfortunately, bringing governmental forces into play is probably not the answer right now.  The military, and even the government in general, is tricky.  Moral capital, genuine and valid moral capital, is the answer, because it is the only force powerful enough.  

I first encountered this term, "moral capital," in a book of the same name: Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism, by Christopher Leslie Brown.  At risk of boiling the book down into too simple formulations that are then incorrect, I will say that the book essentially argues that the abolitionist work of the great William Wilberforce, one of my heroes, and his friends, like Prime Minister William Pitt, were not necessarily, or at least not only, aimed at doing good in the world.  Brown argues that in the wake of the American Revolution, or what we from the States call the Revolutionary War, the British Empire needed some way to reinstate its validity and virtue across the globe.  How do you do that if you cannot win a war?  You accumulate moral capital.  And how do you accumulate moral capital?  You eradicate the worst crime known to humanity; you also eradicate other evils, as Wilberforce took aim at gambling and alcoholism after ending the slave trade.  Being the first country invested in the slave trade to end the trade and end slavery gave Great Britain the continued leverage it needed.  Then Britain could say to the world, "Look, we are still the greatest nation on this planet.  We ended slavery, for goodness sakes!  We might have lost a war to those rebels, but they're not the holders of morality--we are!  They still hold slaves!  And they're a bunch of drunks!  Their government is corrupt!  Not convinced?  Well, can we say again that we ended slavery??"  The reason that the British Empire did not fall apart following the American Revolution, according to Brown, is that the Empire rightly (rightly in terms of its preservation, anyway) turned its sights on moral capital.  That way the Empire could legitimately say, and mean it with all honesty, "Let us into your country.  Because of all we've done for good in the world, can't you see that letting us rule you will be mutually beneficial?"  I do not mean to enter into a conversation about colonialism here.  I only mean to point out that the British Empire stood as long and as powerful as it did because people could actually believe in its promise.

Now we are faced with the horrible truth of slavery abroad in places like Nigeria.  Boko Haram flaunts it in our face.  Our government will, if our citizens continue to push for it, take advantage of an awareness capital to assist in eliminating the threat of Boko Haram and return the kidnapped girls to their families.  But will such action be invited?  Will it actually be helpful?  Without question our assistance, even if it's not military assistance, will increase our dominance in the region.  And without the surety of morality on our side, dominance in any region is scary.  While avoiding a colonial spirit we should take a page out of the British Empire's playbook: increase moral capital at home.  We cannot share capital if we do not have capital. 

Recap: moral capital, which is seeded in the soil of awareness, will overwhelm the evil of slavery.  A corrupt society, even if our (I mean, the society's) intentions are good, cannot defeat slavery through force... or any other means.  We must maintain our integrity first.  If we do not, then the horrifying news stories that we hear about slavery in our world today, like that of the school girls in Nigeria, will only multiply with no one and nothing to stop the advance.  How can the school girls not have been returned to their families by now?  Because we have allowed our culture/society to wallow in arrogance, to wallow in the apathy of misguided pride (we ended slavery and other horrible crimes years and years ago!).  As a whole we have done this to ourselves and to the world.  When we ask why we can't stop the Nigerian madness--which probably shouldn't be the question anyway, since slavery is everywhere--then the only clue can be found in our history, in our recent history of blindness.  

Let's reverse our course so that we can compound real moral capital.  Then we can do some good in our country and in the world.  In the meantime, we need to support graceful political means rather than violent ones. 

Finally

About eight months after I had originally hoped to publish (that's what we call naivete), I am finally getting 27 Million Revolutions for 27 Million Slaves onto the presses.  It has unexpectedly been a very emotional ride, which you won't hear about for months and months, but suffice it to say that my first ever serious publication is not quite as exciting as one would hope.  At the end of the day, though, I feel successful.  Now, selfishly, I'm most worried about selling the friggin book; of course, I'm also worried that, once having sold the book, that readers will find it somehow useful, helpful, meaningful, or whatever positive 'ful' word you can insert.

Of my trusted readers of this blog, if you want to buy a copy (it won't be available on Amazon for about ten days, and when it is it might be a couple of dollars more expensive) e-mail me at jlucy.wilde@gmail.com and then we'll go from there.  Happy reading!

Muahaha

Well, folks, I don't have much to say today, mostly because I'm just basking in celebration. 

A week or so ago I shared with y'all that I had finished the first draft of my book, 27 Million Revolutions, detailing the story and reflections of my bike trip fighting slavery.  At the time I estimated that the finished product would contain about 60,000 words--the other day Danielle asked me to calculate how many pages that would be, so I picked up a book that seemed to have average-sized paper and average font/line spacing, literally counted all the words on a page in that book, then did some math: turns out 60,000 words equals approximately 180 pages, a lot more than I thought.  Anyway, I have now basically completed adding all that I want to include from my blog that I kept during the trip and have been less-than-regularly updating since the trip and from the Polaris Project website and other materials that I used during the trip.  The total is now a little more than 80,000 words. 

Now the editing begins.  I'll be printing out the manuscript and doing the editing the old-fashioned way, which is the only way I know how.  The word count will go up a bit at first, and then fall a bit more after.  80,000 might be the final count.  Then I'll have a real book that won't just be some small little crap thing. 

Originally I had thought that I'd be done by the end of October.  But even a thorough editing will only take approximately four or five days; then a perhaps a little more time to let my friends and first-readers to offer feedback and such and edit a bit more if that feedback is not entirely to my liking. 

Want to be a first-reader?  Just let me know by e-mailing me or something and I'll e-mail you a copy after the editing is finished.  Go me!  And go fighting slavery!

Slavery: Trust and Distrust

Last night MSNBC aired two hour-long documentaries on slavery/human trafficking here in the United States.  I watched the first one, "Slavery in the Suburbs," and wish that I didn't have a 10 p.m.ish bedtime so that I could have watched the second one, an in-depth look at modern-day slavery in Texas.  Among other things, the documentary reminded me of another aspect of my mission as a writer: to make us aware of the world around us and how the way we live our lives impacts others in that world, and simultaneously restore trust and love to our hearts and minds.

If I haven't said so before, one of the greatest triumphs in my life is that I biked across the country to fight human trafficking last summer.  That should be clear, since my major writing project right now is the book on the trip, 27 Million Revolutions for 27 Million Slaves.  You can check out my on-going blog with the same name.  My main focus during the trip and now in writing the book was and is raising awareness.  Too many millions of people here in the United States think that slavery is a thing of the past, something that we have conquered thoroughly, especially now after the Civil Rights Movement.  Slavery happens elsewhere, we think, without stopping to realize that slavery of all forms most likely is happening right down the street from us at any given moment.  Hundreds and thousands of young American girls, born and raised, are in danger of sex slavery every year--as it is, Polaris Project estimates that 100,000 Americans are forced into slavery each year (I direct you to the Polaris Project website, Polaris, for more information).  That is a huge effin number for a country filled with citizens who simply can't believe such a thing possible.  Indeed, the first presentation that I gave after my bike trip at a church brought forward a mother who argued with me, "There's no way there are 27 million slaves in the world.  Don't you think we'd hear about it?" 

Here is not the place where I will talk about slavery in our world today, I'm writing everyday in my book about it, but suffice it to say that human trafficking (an interchangeable phrase with slavery) is the fastest growing industry right now partly because of how secret it is.  People who own or use slaves aren't going to come out into the open about it.  But that doesn't mean that humans aren't the best drug, the best product, for one's personal pleasure imaginable: a pimp, or slave-owner of any kind, does not need to grow humans, does not need to buy humans, they just need to not get arrested.  And the United States has been terminally slow in passing better and more strict laws to fight against human trafficking (the laws and response of the police make fighting human trafficking nearly impossible at times).  Because of the nature of the crime, the laws in our country, and the attitudes that we wrongly hold about slavery which enable human trafficking, slavery will remain covert.  Thus, awareness is the key.

Awareness is key.  Believe me, some form of slavery is almost certainly occurring in your county, if not in your hometown, if not in your neighborhood.  First things first, then, we need to acknowledge that fact.  Essentially this means being extremely distrustful of all things and all people.  I think that is a great shame, but there is no helping the inevitable.  Once we know the realities of the world we live in--that our daughter could become a sex slave simply by going over to a friend's house or going out to watch a movie--we will feel the need to keep an eye out, preemptively for the sake of those we love and in order to perhaps catch human trafficking in process.

To me, though, awareness involves so much more than knowing facts and keeping an eye out for suspicious behavior.  As I'll post tomorrow in my essay response to the shootings in Wisconsin and Colorado, we need to reflect on the attitudes we harbor in our society that could lead to someone's wanting to own or use a slave; we need to reflect on the attitudes that we harbor within ourselves that might lead or contribute to slavery.  We cannot simply point blaming fingers every which way and refuse to acknowledge that in some way we might be part of the problem.  Pornography, for instance, is not innocent at all, nor is watching pornography.  The way we live our lives can also contribute to oppressive slavery without our knowing.  All of this, I hope, can lead to more inward reflection.  For me, awareness is essentially an act of confession.  A small act of confession but an act of confession nonetheless.  Becoming aware must help us grow as individuals and as a people if we ever hope to live in a better world.

Inward reflection might enable us to think less harshly and distrustfully of others, aware that the flaws and issues that other persons might exhibit can be found in our own character as well.  If it doesn't, or even if it does, I cannot stand raising awareness of certain corrupt and loathsome undersides of the world around us and our own thinking and attitudes that undergird those undersides without also restoring the trust lost in the process of becoming aware.  Too often I hear people use "naive" as a synonym for "trusting."  I can't tell you how much that bothers me.  I've told the story of the Jewish father protecting his daughter from me on a train and what that means to me, insert that story here.

Human trafficking/slavery is arguably the worst evil ever to exist, and it is unfortunately also one of the least known.  So obviously I view it as my mission to make it known.  But my mission of awareness extends beyond human trafficking into simply inviting deep reflection by all of us.  And then, once we develop distrust of ourselves and everyone, I hope to show that the world isn't such a bad place after all.  A hopeless mission, but part of my mission as a writer nonetheless.