A coffin, a harmonica and a big bass drum

It was a dull, rainy day in Antwerp, and the police had got there before us. When we arrived for the start of the march, there were two police riot vans waiting. This made us smile, firstly because we didn't know how many supporters would come, and secondly because there is almost nothing as mild mannered and polite as Oasis Belgium - we'd much rather make you a cup of tea than shout at you. Anyway, the police were taking no chances.
Slowly a small crowd gathered in one of the cobbled courtyards that dot the centre of Antwerp, the rain eased off and we were nearly ready - all we needed was the band! And what a band it was! They are called the Psalters and if you ever see them, you'll never forget them. My colleague Niels, who is much groovier than me, found them. They spend part of the year living in a Christian community, part of the year travelling to places like Iraq to spend time with the people and learn their culture and music, and the rest of the time they tour as a band. We had caught up with them in a small anarchist festival in Germany (that's another story!) and they had wanted to help us with a protest march against the terrible exploitation of children who are trafficked to work on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast. This is one of the big campaigns run by Stop the Traffik, asking that the chocolate industry takes its responsibility not to buy from farms that exploite children and to help put these children into school and pay more so that the farmers make a decent living.
So, here were the Psalters, piling out of a transit van, all leather and dreadlocks and piercings, face paint and it must also be said, a gentle and friendly attitude. Never judge by appearances! What was the music like? It's hard to describe - they call it refugee music and it's made up of amazing harmonies, chants, strange instruments as well as good old feedback guitar.
And the coffin? Well, to make a statement about all the children who were being abused and sometimes dying on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast, we made a small coffin and draped it in a cloth. It was to be a funeral procession. We set off down the road, escorted by the police, the coffin held high, the Stop the Traffik supporters following behind and others giving out leaflets. Then the Psalters started up. They had a big bass drum and a harmonica, which they played through a megaphone, accompanied by beautiful singing and chanting.
It sounds weird, but the effect was electrifying. People started to pour out of shops and houses to see what was going on. As we wound round the beautiful streets of Antwerp, people were leaning out of top story windows, wondering what this was all about. Sometimes, something happens and suddenly an event seems to take on an importance and a significance you never expected. Sometimes you get the feeling that something is happening spiritually and it is slightly out of your control. As a Christian, I love those times.
We reached the centre of the city and the Psalters played for a while, people asked questions and took leaflets. Belgium, the home of chocolate (sorry if you are Swiss, but I still think Belgium is the home of chocolate!), suddenly hearing a message that there is a price to pay for all this luxury and it is being paid in the fields of Africa. Strange day, strange and wonderful.
Now, you might say that days like that change nothing. You might believe that the mega corporations like Nestlé, Mars, Cadbury and the like will never listen to a few bedraggled protesters, or to a few letters, or phone calls or school events. Change comes in strange ways though. Since Stop the Traffik began its chocolate campaign a couple of years ago, Cadbury has changed one of its main brands to Fair Trade in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, one of the big Dutch brands, Verkade, has gone Fair Trade, Mars has pledged to make all it's chocolate certified as free from trafficking by 2020 (long time, I know) and now, today, we learned that the biggest brand in Belgium, Cote d'Or, which is owed by Kraft, has said that it is working to make all of its chocolate certified by Rainforest Alliance. We have concerns about whether only 30% of the cocoa will be certified in order to get the label - but it's certainly a start!
Change comes in strange ways, and the smallest pebble can start an avalanche. Nestlé next! Please join us on this campaign. You can find out how at http://www.stopthetraffik.org/takeaction/chocolate/
And by the way, if you want to experience the music of the Psalters, you can at  http://www.psalters.com/

The business of trafficking.

If you've ever visited Mumbai as a tourist, you'll probably have been to Colaba. It's where you can see the gateway of India, and where the famous Taj Hotel is. The Taj is a wonderful old building, where the rich and famous stay whilst in Mumbai and has boasted many world leaders, kings and Bollywood stars amongst its guests. Sadly it became briefly famous last year as the scene of a terrorist attack, with pictures beamed around the world of smoke billowing from its roof and guests hiding in the basement. I'm happy to say that it soon bounced back to it's former glory with typical Indian resilience.
We certainly never had enough money to stay at the hotel, but it did have a good bookshop,which was free to visit, so we went down there now and again.
There was something disturbing about the area around the Taj, though. The guys selling flutes to the tourists were ok, and the children begging were sad, but we could chat with them as we were working with street kids just like them at the other end of the city. What was disturbing was what was going on in the streets behind the hotel. If we walked down there, we would be offered young girls for sex. When I say young, I mean seven, eight and nine years old. Amongst the street kids we worked with, we saw the average age of the prostitutes get less and less, as men thought this was the way to avoid contracting HIV. There was even a rumour that if a man who was HIV positive had sex with a virgin, then he would lose the infection. The effect on the lives of children was devastating.
When it came to hotels such as the Taj and the other major hotels, often these children were being marketed to business people staying there. The money attracted the traffickers. Often the hotels had no links with this, yet still it happened in the area around them. In other places in the world the staff of major hotels do know what is going on and profit from it.
So, we started to research and eventually decided to launch Business Travellers against Human Traffiking. It was based on the simple realisation that most business travellers hate the fact of the exploitation that their money can attract, and want to do something about it. Via the website www.businesstravellers.org we give an easy place to report what you might have seen, so we can take it to the police. The project has seen women rescued and helped around the world, and I'll tell some of those stories in later posts. Do check out the website, it could lead to a life being changed for ever.

Hidden just down the street

We had to search amongst the usual mass of intercom buttons to find the right one. It was an ordinary house in an ordinary street, yet it was also the first Thai massage parlour we had ever visited, despite months of research. We rang the bell and waited. At first nothing, then the door swung open to show a man. He wasn't tall, but made up for it in weight and muscle. He was covered in tattoos and his head was shaven. He looked very suspicious, probably because he wasn't used to two women and one man calling at this house, usually it was just men.
It is strange what we don't see, even in our own community, down our own street. It was a long time, even whilst working against human trafficking, that we started to notice the growth of Thai massage parlours across Belgium. Few people knew about them, and if you asked people about the Thai community here, they would look at you strangely, as if to say "Why would Thai people be here?". Yet they were here and we quickly found seventy-five massage parlours. In fact, after weeks of research, we suddenly came across a google map made by one of the clients which showed the location of the parlours, little knowing that we would use it to as part of our work.
Now, many people have Thai massage, and in many cases that's fine. It's an ancient and very relaxing form of massage, but in a lot of instances a Thai massage salon has become so closely linked to the sex industry that it is little more than a brothel. The adverts for these places left little to the imagination, and the comments in web forums showed that these were places of prostitution. As part of Stop the Traffik, we wanted to visit the women and find out if they are being exploited, or if they have been trafficked. When people come from abroad, have little contact with the outside world, do not speak the local language and are reliant on others for their visa and their everyday needs, and in addition to this are involved in the sex trade, then exploitation and trafficking are never far away.
We expained to the pimp who had answered the door that first time, that we wanted to give presents to the Thai women in his house, as it was Thai New Year. We had chosen this day to start work in the massage parlours, so we could give gifts and welcome them to the country. The man was more than a little confused! He was used to customers or perhaps the police, but friendly neighbours was outside of his expectations. He ushered us into the front room of his ordinary house, and then the Thai madam of the place went to fetch the other girls. Often in these places a Belgian man is in charge, who has a Thai woman for a wife or girlfriend who acts as the madam. When the three other girls came downstairs, they were nervous about what would happen to them, but when they they heard that we wanted to bless them on their New Year, smiles broke out on their faces. We wanted to pray for them too and they welcomed that, wafting the prayers like incense over their heads.
That was the start. We have continued to visit the massage parlours every month, with Miet at Oasis Belgium working very hard to produce a newsletter for the women in Thai, telling them what is going on in the community around them, what services are available for them. We want to help them be less isolated and welcome them into the community. This reduce the chances that they will have to endure exploitation. The newsletter also gives us the chance to visit and to get to know them. Already we have reported to the police one massage parlour for probably trafficking. We have also heard stories of years of violence and abuse and are starting to help the women. We have also been asked for help to get out of the sex trade. It must be said that we have also spoken to women who have come here to earn money and although they find it tough in the massage parlours, are looking forward to going back to their families having earned enough to help their children in education. The reality is complex, but we want to end the abuse and give every Thai woman the safety, hope and choice she deserves.
I noticed on the list of massage parlours the name of the street next to where I live. I never knew it was there, hidden away, just like all the other houses, apart from the small Thai good luck stickers on the door and the men visiting at all times of the day and night.

Mail Order Bride

A few years ago I was on a plane, flying to Kiev. I'm not a very good flyer, so I tend to try to keep my eyes on everything that happens, just in case I spot something that might go wrong. I'm not sure what I would do if I saw something, but I keep watch anyway. The flight to Ukraine was interesting, largely due to the copious amounts of vodka that was being knocked back right from the start, but that wasn't what caught my eye. What I noticed was that on the immigration form, right next to where I had to fill in my passport number, was an advert for Ukrainian women. Apparently the government at that time thought this was a good opportunity to advertise women who would be delighted to pay money to an agency, just to marry me. Well, being happily married I ignored this kind offer.
Then I turned to the man in the seat next to me and made some comment about this wierd advert for women. He didn't think it was strange at all, though. In fact, that was the very reason he was on the plane. He was due to meet his new bride. He'd paid his money in advance and his 22 year old blonde was waiting to be whisked off to Kentucky. She loved him, he said, despite the fact that he was 75.
It took me a little while to take this all in. Some of these "mail order bride services" are legitimate, making connections that lead to happy marriages, but in many cases there is a hidden agenda of human trafficking. Once a woman reaches a country like the US, or western Europe, she is totally at the mercy of the husband. She may not speak the language and is dependent on him for her visa. She can become his slave and in some cases is forced into prostitution. The point is that she becomes dependent and vulnerable. I explained all this to my American friend, but he was adamant that there was nothing unusual in his case.
Next time I went to Kiev it was after the Orange Revolution and the adverts were gone. Still, next time an advert or spam gets onto your computer screen offering you Russian beauties or Thai women, behind it all could be yet another trafficking ring. In fact, as I write this, an advert on blogger is offering me a Ukrainiann woman. I don't know if an advert like this will appear on the blog as you read it, I hope not. Time for a different kind of postal strike I think, where we stop men ordering their brides online.