American Views Abroad


Thursday, April 13, 2006
 
Peel away at the spin being levied at Iran. A strong dose of scepticism in light of everything that was so wrong on Iraq's non-existent mushroom clouds and WMD is essential to prevent another disastrous war of choice for dubious, misleading reasons. Juan Cole gets to the heart in On How Iran Can Now Make Glowing Mickey Mouse Watches at www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041206A.shtml.

It's chilling to read those not affected by the horrors, blood and chaos of war talking about it in distanced, abstract almost hygienic tones which can often be the case in the US media. Riverbend's blogspot has given a human face to those on the ground in Iraq at www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com In one of the comments posted at the Juan Cole article, an Iranian woman has now decided to start posting at her blog after a three month break at http://livinginiran.livejournal.com. She writes: '....I see that in this world I am nothing. And I absolutely can't do anything. World is in the scale of millions. People of less that some millions are not even seen in this huge equation. I don't walk, I'm being carried along with the millions of others, to anywhere huge fingers in the world point.

To anywhere huge fingers in the world point is almost poetic and from someone writing in a language which is not her mother tongue. Interesting to note these are two women writing. In very many parts of the world women and girls, however, are being exploited terribly. It hasn’t started making headlines yet, but there were two articles this past week on the role of prostitution and sex trafficking in connection with the upcoming World Soccer Cup in Germany. In the IHT Jessica Neuwirth writes about 'the multibillion dollar enterprise that brings Indian women to Saudi Arabia, Nigerian women to Italy, Filipino women to Japan and Russian women to Israel is now bringing women from all parts of the world -- an estimated 40,000 -- to Germany, where profiteers will cash in on the World Cup, the latest magnet for sex trafficking. ......Misconceived efforts to distinguish the women forced into prostitution from those who consent to their sexual exploitation fail to recognize the spectrum of coercion that draws on the force of poverty as much as the force of violence to bring women into the trade.' www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/10/opinion/edneuwirth.php.

Der Spiegel also ran Prostitution Will Increase Because of the World Cup at http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,411064,00.html.
'Human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation is violence. Sex is one thing, prostitution another. The link between human trafficking and prostitution is obvious.'

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