Correction on yesterday's post "A modern slave"

Yesterday I wrote a post titled “A modern slave” about an article in the Atlantic. I had two articles on the subject open on my browser at the same time; not only were on the same subject, but they looked a bit alike, and unfortunately I linked to the wrong article.

So I wanted to correct that and say that this is the article I meant to link, and everything in that previous post refers to this article and not the other.

The text of the previous post is as follows (now with the correct link):

This a fascinating and deeply touching portrait of a situation that defies easy answers.

Was Lola, the woman described in the article, a “slave”? Let’s not worry about semantics. She was an abused servant whose life was hard, but who had an almost Zen-like philosophy and a great ability to create and give love. Though long, the article is well worth reading.

here are modern indentured servants, they are very careful to let you assume what the last names of who did it to them are..

i wont say..

The young women, many of them from poor families in Thailand, were promised trips to the United States. They would also receive visas. Life in cities like Chicago would be rosy, they were told, and they would be able to help support their families back home.
But the promises, federal authorities say, came with an enormous toll: The women were required to work as prostitutes in cities all over this country until they could pay off exorbitant “bondage debts,” set as high as $60,000, to the very people who had promised them better lives.
Law enforcement authorities on Thursday announced federal sex-trafficking conspiracy charges against 21 people, part of what they described as one of the most elaborate and extensive sex-trafficking operations they had seen. The operation had gone on for at least eight years, netted tens of millions of dollars, and involved hundreds of women who were shuttled among American cities, sometimes every few weeks, the officials said.
“The women did not have freedom of movement and, until they paid off their bondage debts, were modern-day sex slaves,” an indictment unsealed on Thursday in Federal District Court in Minnesota said, laying out criminal counts against a long list of defendants, including conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, sex trafficking, and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. Gregory Brooker, the acting United States attorney in Minnesota, described the ring as “a multimillion dollar, modern-day organized crime operation.”

According to the eight-count indictment, the operation was intricate for its organization. Among those indicted were the people owed the bondage debts of the women brought from Bangkok. Others who were indicted served as “house bosses” in cities like Austin, Tex., Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles, where they used apartments, hotels, houses and massage parlors for prostitution. Still others served as money launderers, putting cash returns into bank accounts, and facilitators, who took care of details like flying the women from city to city.
While still in Thailand, the women were usually told that they would work as prostitutes, the indictment said, but the terms of deals shifted substantially once they arrived in the United States. Threats were made. Bondage debts suddenly skyrocketed. Some women were even told to have plastic surgery to make them more “appealing” to customers, then ordered to reimburse the cost of surgery as part of their ever-growing debt.
Authorities said the women were kept isolated and were not allowed to leave the prostitution houses without being accompanied by one of the ring organizers. The hours of prostitution often ran all day, every day.
Officials said some of the women are now being helped by agencies to find housing and other assistance. But their immigration status in this country is uncertain; many were brought here with visas obtained using false information, the authorities said, including fictitious occupations and phony backgrounds. One of the main reasons women had accepted such deals in the first place, the officials said, was the promise of a legitimate visa.
By Thursday, 20 of the 21 accused – all of whom were described as organizers of the operation – had been arrested in various cities. More than a dozen others were arrested in connection with the ring last fall, officials said. In making the latest arrests in places like Chicago, Houston and San Diego, the authorities said they seized hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, along with cellphones, weapons and condoms. Lawyers for those arrested could not immediately be reached. Ten of the accused are Thai nationals; the rest are American citizens, the authorities said.
“Is this going to stop sex trafficking from going on? No,” said Thomas J. Dart, the sheriff of Cook County, Ill., whose agency took part in the sprawling investigation. “There’s no naé¯veté here. The notion that we’re going to eradicate this sort of thing is never going to happen until our society decides it’s wrong.”

Comments

Correction on yesterday’s post “A modern slave” — 2 Comments

arfldgr on May 25, 2017 at 4:15 pm said:

here are modern indentured servants, they are very careful to let you assume what the last names of who did it to them are..

i wont say..

The young women, many of them from poor families in Thailand, were promised trips to the United States. They would also receive visas. Life in cities like Chicago would be rosy, they were told, and they would be able to help support their families back home.
But the promises, federal authorities say, came with an enormous toll: The women were required to work as prostitutes in cities all over this country until they could pay off exorbitant “bondage debts,” set as high as $60,000, to the very people who had promised them better lives.
Law enforcement authorities on Thursday announced federal sex-trafficking conspiracy charges against 21 people, part of what they described as one of the most elaborate and extensive sex-trafficking operations they had seen. The operation had gone on for at least eight years, netted tens of millions of dollars, and involved hundreds of women who were shuttled among American cities, sometimes every few weeks, the officials said.
“The women did not have freedom of movement and, until they paid off their bondage debts, were modern-day sex slaves,” an indictment unsealed on Thursday in Federal District Court in Minnesota said, laying out criminal counts against a long list of defendants, including conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, sex trafficking, and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. Gregory Brooker, the acting United States attorney in Minnesota, described the ring as “a multimillion dollar, modern-day organized crime operation.”

According to the eight-count indictment, the operation was intricate for its organization. Among those indicted were the people owed the bondage debts of the women brought from Bangkok. Others who were indicted served as “house bosses” in cities like Austin, Tex., Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles, where they used apartments, hotels, houses and massage parlors for prostitution. Still others served as money launderers, putting cash returns into bank accounts, and facilitators, who took care of details like flying the women from city to city.
While still in Thailand, the women were usually told that they would work as prostitutes, the indictment said, but the terms of deals shifted substantially once they arrived in the United States. Threats were made. Bondage debts suddenly skyrocketed. Some women were even told to have plastic surgery to make them more “appealing” to customers, then ordered to reimburse the cost of surgery as part of their ever-growing debt.
Authorities said the women were kept isolated and were not allowed to leave the prostitution houses without being accompanied by one of the ring organizers. The hours of prostitution often ran all day, every day.
Officials said some of the women are now being helped by agencies to find housing and other assistance. But their immigration status in this country is uncertain; many were brought here with visas obtained using false information, the authorities said, including fictitious occupations and phony backgrounds. One of the main reasons women had accepted such deals in the first place, the officials said, was the promise of a legitimate visa.
By Thursday, 20 of the 21 accused – all of whom were described as organizers of the operation – had been arrested in various cities. More than a dozen others were arrested in connection with the ring last fall, officials said. In making the latest arrests in places like Chicago, Houston and San Diego, the authorities said they seized hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, along with cellphones, weapons and condoms. Lawyers for those arrested could not immediately be reached. Ten of the accused are Thai nationals; the rest are American citizens, the authorities said.
“Is this going to stop sex trafficking from going on? No,” said Thomas J. Dart, the sheriff of Cook County, Ill., whose agency took part in the sprawling investigation. “There’s no naé¯veté here. The notion that we’re going to eradicate this sort of thing is never going to happen until our society decides it’s wrong.”
love spell on June 21, 2017 at 10:24 pm said:

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Correction on yesterday’s post “A modern slave”

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Correction on yesterday’s post “A modern slave” — 2 Comments

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