Posted on September 26, 2008 - by Frank

Human Trafficking - A Self Examination

There’s only one place to start with this issue after we’ve grasped some of the statistics and basic issues related to human trafficking. Before I go anywhere else, politics, economics, strategies of intervention etc, I need to examine myself and that examination needs to involve some “frank” analysis and honest admissions.

I am a hypocrite of the highest degree. I am the product of a privileged world and I have willingly engaged in the indulgences on offer in my world, often with little to no thought about how those indulgences came to be a part of my world. As my knowledge has grown about the state of the world, I’ve continued to enjoy the privileged life, knowingly living a life that I’m well aware is probably built on the backs of the poor. I ignore that voice that whispers to me to change the inner me, not just the outer me.

I walk a line in my efforts to support humanitarian work, between doing it because it makes me feel good and in so doing being able to placate some of the feeling of guilt, and doing it because I believe there is an intrinsic value in every single person on planet earth. I continually ask the question - how much of this is about making myself feel good and how much is about actually serving others in this world?

I don’t know if that is a tension I will always live with, but it is certainly one that I feel now.

Aside from the broken on my own doorstep - the homeless and the beggars that I walk past in the streets of the wonderful city I live in, Auckland, New Zealand - I have never come in contact with the poverty that gets talked of on this site, the poverty of the developing world. I do what I do at a distance, meaning well and hoping for the best, but ultimately, not really knowing what it is I am helping with - my life is comfortable. I don’t know how much of my approach is a romanticized, feel good ideal… and that bugs me.

Writing this, I get the sense that my self examination needs to start a step back from where I had anticipated. I had anticipated writing here about the products I enjoy, how I enjoy spending money and how I actually keep my eyes pretty much closed when indulging in the things I enjoy… about how I would sometimes much rather enjoy the bliss of ignorance. For I know that this, in some way, helps feed the issue of human trafficking.

It seems, my self examination needs to start a bit further back with my motivations for getting involved in humanitarianism like I do. Why do we care about these things? Do we care? Is it just a selfish exoneration of the lives we enjoy? Are we just trying to do our little bit simply so we can wash our hands of the matter and sleep better at night? How much does that love of our fellow human beings drive deep into our hearts? How much value do we really, honestly see and therefore invest in those who suffer in this world? What price am I willing to pay to serve them?

If I truly want to have an impact in the area of human trafficking, these are questions I need to answer and where I come up short, I need to allow myself to be changed.

Maybe this journey will be more encompassing of who I am than I thought it would. I can’t go on reading stories about children being trafficked and sexually exploited without more change within myself. I can’t go on shedding tears over the way people are used and abused without experiencing more transformation. If I don’t change, if my motivations aren’t right, then taking on board so much of the world’s evil will either make me numb or destroy me. If I really want to find ways to make a difference in this world that carry real meaning then I need to feel real hope. Real hope, not vain exoneration, needs to be the motivation.