Twilight The Puppet Saga

BETTER than the movie!

Robby

This made me smile.

Some Research

I was asked to compile some information for the website. Here is what I found.

Trafficking In Persons Report 2008
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008/105385.htm

Excerpts Taken from U.S. Government Domestic Anti-Trafficking in Persons Efforts

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices initiated 182 investigations, charged 89 individuals, and obtained 103 convictions in cases involving human trafficking.

The USG continued to provide strong victim protection services over the year. Through FY 2007, HHS certified or issued eligibility letters to 1,379 victims of human trafficking since the TVPA was signed into law in October 2000. HHS certified 270 adult victims in FY 2007, and issued eligibility letters to 33 minors. Thirty percent of the total 303 victims were male, a significant increase from the six percent male victims certified in FY 2006. Certified victims came from over 50 countries globally and at least 63 percent of them were victims of trafficking for forced labor. Primary sources in FY 2007 of victims were Thailand (48), Mexico (42), Guatemala (25), Philippines (23), and China (21). Certification and letters of eligibility allow human trafficking survivors to access services and benefits, comparable to assistance provided by the U.S. to refugees. The HHS Per-Capita Services Contract implemented by civil society partners currently covers 125 sites across the country providing “anytime, anywhere” services to human trafficking victims.


Human Trafficking: Available Statistics 2005
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/ncvrw/2005/pg5l.html

Due to the “hidden” nature of trafficking activities, gathering statistics on the magnitude of the problem is a complex and difficult task. The following statistics are the most accurate available, given these complexities, but may represent an underestimation of trafficking on a global and national scale.

Each year, an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders (some international and non-governmental organizations place the number far higher), and the trade is growing. (U.S. Department of State. 2004. Trafficking in Persons Report. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State.)
Of the 600,000-800,000 people trafficked across international borders each year, 70 percent are female and 50 percent are children. The majority of these victims are forced into the commercial sex trade. (Ibid.)

Each year, an estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States. The number of U.S. citizens trafficked within the country each year is even higher, with an estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry. (U.S. Department of Justice. 2004. Report to Congress from Attorney General John Ashcroft on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Fiscal Year 2003. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)

The largest number of people trafficked into the United States come from East Asia and the Pacific (5,000 to 7,000 victims). The next highest numbers come from Latin America and from Europe and Eurasia, with between 3,500 and 5,500 victims from each. (U.S. Departments of Justice, Health & Human Services, State, Labor, Homeland Security, Agriculture, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. 2004. Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)

Attorney General’s Annual Report to
Congress and Assessment of the U.S.
Government Activities to Combat
Trafficking in Persons
Fiscal Year 2007

May 2008

http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/annualreports/tr2007/agreporthumantrafficing2007.pdf

ICE Investigations and arrests:

In FY 2007, ICE opened 348 human trafficking investigations, which consisted of 129 investigations of forced labor and 219 investigations of commercial sexual exploitation. ICE made 164 arrests, 118 for sex trafficking and 46 for forced labor. (Page 23)

Operation Predator is a comprehensive ICE initiative launched in 2003 to safeguard children from foreign national sex offenders, international sex tourists, Internet child pornographers, and human traffickers. In FY 2007, this initiative reached 10,514 arrests of child exploiters, over 5,872 of which have been removed from the United States. (Page 24)

In FY 2007, there were 15 child sex tourism indictments and 23 convictions in cases investigated by ICE. (page 26)

The number of federal investigations and prosecutions of trafficking has increased significantly since the passage of the TVPA. Nevertheless, as noted in the prior assessments, some observers have suggested that U.S. prosecutions are not numerous enough given past estimates of victims that may be trafficked into the United States each year. The difficulty of developing accurate estimates reflects the challenges of quantifying the extent of victimization in a crime whose perpetrators go to great lengths to keep it hidden and whose victims are reluctant to self-identify for fear of being treated as criminals or illegal aliens despite vigorous outreach campaigns and the existence of extensive benefits and immigration relief. (Page 29)

Domestic Cases:

KC man charged with sex trafficking, child pornography
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/867833.html

Location: Kansas City, Missouri 2008
Trafficker: Kansas City Man, 35
Victims: 4 women, one girl
Ethnic background: U.S. Citizens and Missouri residents


Leader of New York-Connecticut Sex-Trafficking Ring Pleads Guilty
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-14-2008/0004774504&EDATE=

Location: Bridgeport, Conn. 2008
Trafficker: Corey “Magnificent” Davis
Victims: An estimated 20 females among them were 2 minors, one being only 12.
Ethnic Background: Did not specify

Russian Crime Boss arrested on sex trafficking
http://genderberg.com/phpNuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=110

Location: Brooklyn, NY 2005
Trafficker: Asker “Osgar” Mammedov, 31
Victims: Women from Azerbaijan, unknown total, one was 16-17
Ethnic Background: Azerbaijan

Tennessee Man Sentenced for Sex Trafficking of Adults and Jeveniles
http://actioncenter.polarisproject.org/the-frontlines/recent-federal-cases/302-tennessee-man-sentenced-for-sex-trafficking-of-adults-and-juveniles

Location: Nashville Tenn. 2007
Trafficker: Juan Mendez
Victims: Two Girls ages 13 and 17
Ethnic Background: Latin American

Mexican Man Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking of Minors
http://www.americandaily.com/article/23520

Location: Charlotte, N.C. 11/2008
Trafficker: Jorge Flores-Rojas, 44 an Undocumented Mexican National
Victims: Two underage females, One woman
Ethnic Background: Mexican, Honduran

This song got me thinking... got me remembering

Hands Held High - Linkin Park

On September 11th 2001 The Twin Towers fell. I was a freshman in College. My very first semester. My dad was driving me to school that day along with my sister. We were fighting about something. Just yelling back and forth. All of a sudden my dad yells at us and tells us to be quiet and over the radio the tragedy that was occurring 3,000 miles away was entering our reality. In a state of numbness I walked up the stairs to class only to be greeted by my professor as he was flying down the stairs declaring class to be canceled for the day. He was a “Cool” guy. The kind of guy who must have been popular in High School… dated the prettiest girls… Succeeded in all sports… could even out-drink my Grandpa… It was odd to see that panic suit him as well. I used a pay phone to call my dad and asked that he turn around and take me home where I spent the rest of the day watching the tv… I was surprised to see that I didn’t cry… I began to wonder why I couldn’t cry…at least … not until they showed pictures of charred dolls among the rubble… children went into the buildings…not all of them made it out.

Grief quickly turned to anger…

I was really upset when “The Day the World Changed” was being used everywhere. It wasn’t the day the world changed; it was the day we were introduced to it.

Anger turned to action…

One of the guys in my class was part of the Special Forces. Talk of war was everywhere. Some opposed it. Some craved it. He spoke of tactics and positioning. How the military was just waiting for the green light… how this war would be over and won in a manner of months… I looked at him and said, “My children will be born into this war” He just looked at me and scoffed. But here we are… seven years later… yeah… poor little stupid girl… she didn’t know what she was talking about…

It is not a people we are fighting... It is an Ideology

By George, I think I've Got It!

Ok… so I’ve been really sick lately. For some reason my body holds on to stress and tension harder than other humans. This causes my immune system a considerable amount of damage. Thus I know I need to take a breather when my health starts to go downhill.

I went home early from work and am currently relaxing wearing my favorite “Chicks With Brains” pajamas. They are my favorite pair because my big sister gave them to me for Christmas a long time ago, they are flannel, and they actually do have cartoonistic baby chicks wearing glasses and fuzzy slippers all over them. All things considering I am enjoying my time at home. My mother made my favorite Mexican soup, Posole, has been making me nice cold fresh fruit smoothies to help with my temperature, spent a majority of yesterday hugging me like when I was five years old, is making sure I take my medicine, and is looking after my cats while I get better.

During one of my fever induced coma/hallucination episodes I came to deeper understanding of my character… One, I act like a child when I’m sick and two... one of the reason why I haven’t entered into a serious relationship is that I have yet to find a man who would take care of me like my mom takes care of me. What she does for me, that’s true love. And, that's what I'm waiting for.

So while some women look for men who remind them of their fathers, I’m going to continue to wait for the man who reminds me of my mother… this scenario is only slightly creepier :)

In the grand scheme of things... I am very small

Christians face attacks in eastern India
Violence has left at least 38 people dead and as many as 30,000 homeless

The Associated Press
updated 2:01 a.m. PT, Sun., Oct. 26, 2008

TIKKABALLI, India - They still worship in what remains of the little Baptist church not far from this forest town. The church is empty except for the rubble swept neatly into the corners. The sun comes through ragged holes where the mob smashed in the window frames.

On the roof, the crucifix is just twisted metal and broken concrete. It's barely recognizable, and you have to ask to make sure that's what it once was.

Here, prayers are said only in secret.

"We do it without making any noise," said Subhash Digal, holding his four-month-old son on his hip as he stood outside the church, where the smell of burned timber lingered on a warm autumn afternoon. "We don't want these people to know we are inside."

In this corner of the eastern state of Orissa, it's hard to find a Christian who isn't afraid.

Bloody anti-Christian riots broke out here in late August, rampages by Hindu hard-liners that since then have left at least 38 people dead, as many as 30,000 homeless and dozen of churches destroyed. The worst of the violence ended after a week or so, when authorities finally deployed soldiers to set up checkpoints and relief camps.

But nearly every day since then, the trouble has continued: a house burned, a carload of people beaten, a soldier hacked to death. Repeatedly, Christian villagers say, they have been told they must convert to Hinduism. The anti-Christian violence has also flickered across other parts of India, with churches vandalized and Christians attacked in the high-tech hub of Bangalore, the city of Mangalore and the coastal state of Kerala.

India's hidden fragility
In a country desperate to be seen as a stable, democratic world power, the violence is a window into India's hidden fragility, its sometimes-dangerous political climate and the fierce historical divisions buried in its vast diversity.

India is more than 80 percent Hindu but its 1.1 billion people include all of the world's major religions, a caste system of near-impossible complexity, colossal divides of wealth and poverty, and, by some estimates, more than 2,000 ethnic groups.

"If you look at Africa, you don't see this kind of diversity, if you look at all of Europe, you don't see this kind of diversity," said Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu intellectual and liberal social activist. When it comes to India's continued existence: "Sometimes I think it's a miracle."

Trouble can seem inevitable. In just the past couple weeks violence has ranged from the northeastern state of Assam, where at least 50 people have died in ethnic clashes, to the central state of Madhya Pradesh state, where three people were killed in religious riots after a Hindu procession passed through a Muslim neighborhood.

Then there is Orissa's Kandhamal district, where widespread trouble began after the Aug. 24 killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a hard-line Hindu leader who rose to prominence in the area by advocating that Christian converts return to Hinduism.

Police blamed Maoist guerrillas for the killing, though it's unclear why they would have targeted him.

But Hindu militants quickly turned on local Christians, setting fire to a Christian orphanage and attacking churches and Christian-owned shops and homes. A nun accused a Hindu mob of raping her. At least 32 people have been killed, tens of thousands have fled their homes and thousands are believed still to be hiding in Orissa's thick forests.

The Kandhamal region is a place where villagers tend farms in small valleys circled by humpbacked hills, and where roadside ponds are filled with swimming children and floating lotuses. But it's also a place long cut off by poverty and illiteracy, where electricity is unknown in most villages and the pay for day laborers — the only job most people hope for — is 30 rupees, or 60 cents. That wage is only for men: Women earn 20 rupees, or 40 cents.

Kandhamal has long been a battleground over Christian missionary work among low-caste Hindus and the indigenous people known in India as "tribals." While Christians account for just 2.5 percent of India, their population in Kandhamal has risen sharply in recent decades, reaching nearly 20 percent by the last census in 2001.

Hindu militants say the reason for this is obvious: Missionaries are forcing or bribing people to convert, stealing followers from India's true religion.

'Our culture is being attacked'
"This is a kind of cultural invasion," Gauri Shankar Rath, a top official in the Orissa state VHP, the umbrella organization of Hindu nationalists, said in a telephone interview. "Our culture is being attacked."

Missionaries dismiss such accusations. And conversion does offer worldly benefits: For the low-caste, there's a partial escape from the stigmas of the Hindu caste system. Some missionaries also reach out to followers by building medical clinics and schools.

But as with much of India's violence, the obvious rationale for Kandhamal's bloodshed is really just one tile in a mosaic of discontent.

Much of the bitterness here is rooted in competition between two groups struggling at the bottom of India's social spectrum: the Panas and the Kandhas. The Panas are dalits, the group once known in India as "untouchables," while the Kandhas are tribals. The two have long competed for land, and more recently for jobs and school seats reserved by the government for the disadvantaged.

Over the past 20 years, the Kandhas have largely remained Hindu while many Panas have converted to Christianity, tangling religion into their conflict. Christians — even dalit converts — are not supposed to be eligible for reserved positions, but many Kandhas insist Pana Christian still find ways to get them. The Christians deny the accusation.

Militant group
Then there is politics.

Many of the attacks, victims say, were carried out by the Bajrang Dal, a militant group closely allied to the Bharatiya Janata Party, a Hindu nationalist political party that is part of Orissa's coalition government. The Hindu right-wing has long stirred up religious resentments as a way to shore up its voter base — and Orissa, as people here quickly point out, is expected to hold elections early next year.

"This isn't a war between Hindus and Christians," said Ugrasena Rana, a 32-year-old Hindu from Bujulimendi, a small village where a roaming gang burned down a half-dozen or so Christian homes after the swami was killed. "This is a war between the Bajrang Dal and the people who will not follow their commands."

In some ways, though, the Christians of Bujulimendi are lucky. Their Hindu neighbors have tried to protect them, and many Christian families now sleep in Hindu homes in case the mobs return.

The situation is grimmer outside the ransacked Baptist church, where villagers say their attackers included many people they knew.

That mob, about 50 people armed with knives, swords and clubs, stormed through the village, chanting the name of the Hindu god Ram as they destroyed the church and Christian homes.

Since then, smaller groups have returned repeatedly. There is seldom violence, but they state their message bluntly: convert or die. Eventually, villagers worry, the threat will be carried out.

"What can we do?" asked Digal, the man dangling his baby. "They are trying to force us to become Hindu."

So will he convert?

"I don't know," he said, staring down at the ground. "I haven't decided yet."

Own Me

I was listening to Ginny Owens today. It had been a while since I had listened to her... it has been a while since I've listened to anything other than Incubus, Greenday, Tool, Metallica, or any of the like... I think that is a mistake. While it isn't a bad thing to listen to "secular" music, it is important that it is not the only music I hear.

In the cd I was listening to a majority of her songs called for radical Christianity. For Christian's to follow the example of Christ and take a stand. That is what I'm struggling with right now. What is it that I stand for? And how do I go about doing it? My dad may not have done the best of jobs raising me, but one thing I do appreciate about him is that he did not raise me to stand still, watch, and do nothing.

The question still stands though. How do I go about doing it?

One of her songs is titled Own Me

Got a stack of books,
So I could learn how to live;
Many are left half-read,
Covered by the cobwebs on my shelf.
And I got a list of laws,
Growing longer everyday;
If I keep pluggin' away,
Maybe one day I'll perfect myself.
Oh, but all of my labor,
Seems to be in vain;
And all of my laws,
Just cause me more pain;
So I fall before You,
In all of my shame;
Ready and willing to be changed-

Chorus:
Own me
Take all that I am,
And heal me
With the blood of the Lamb.
Mold me
With Your gracious hand;
Break me till I'm only Yours-
Own me

Oh, you call me Daughter,
And you take my blame;
And you run to meet me,
When I cry out Your name,
So I fall before You,
In all of my shame.
Lord, I am willing to be changed


One of the horrible things about my personality is that I sometimes allow the people God would use to bring me closer to Him and His truth to take precedence over Him. I lose focus of the reality that I don't belong to them... I don't even belong to me... I belong to a God and this is the only way I will be able to fully function.