Re: US accuses NGO of 'trafficking'

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

This is to inform you that Mr. Sampath Kumar of USAID Delhi called me this

afternoon on the 30/9/2005 and said that they are going to investigate the news

regarding SANGRAM - US accuses NGO of 'trafficking'.

He said that in a high level meeting at USAID today, it was decided that they

will investigate this deliberate defamation of both me as an individual and

SANGRAM the organization. He has assured me that they are going to deal with

this matter immediately and has requested that we wait till we hear from them.

He specifically requested that we do not go public on this issue till he gets

back to us.

I also think that it is in our interest not to shoot off responses but to wait

and give them a chance to refute this allegation.

But by Wednesday if nothing materializes then we will have to strategize on the

next course of action. I am worried that if we do not respond it may appear that

we accept this horrendous and unbelievable accusation.

Why is it that organizations that work for the rights of women in prostitution

and sex work are considered pro trafficking, which is a criminal offence or pro

minors in prostitution when it is clearly child sexual abuse?

In solidarity,

Meena Saraswathi Seshu

E-mail: <san_meena@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

The answer to the question is as easy as it is illogical.

Even one member of the Indian Human Rights Commission believes that sex workers

should be eliminated.

It is difficult to disagree with another person's choice of occupation unless

you first denigrate it by linking it with perversity and illegality.

An example is a Retired Christian Professor of Theology in Australia who can't

ever mention Homosexuality without the concurrent use of Beastiality and

Pedophilia in the same sentence as he thinks that if he just isolates diverse

gender orientation, no one will listen.

Almost without exception the membership of the anti trafficking movement

comprises people who view sexual services to be immoral and a scourge of the

society.

The American President, keen to preserve the vote that gets the

conservatives elected, rides the same band wagon and this has spilled over into

funding restrictions of the Global Fund to fight HIV and AIDS as regards working

with sex workers constructively and promoting condoms.

What we need to do is to remain focussed and dop what we know to be correct and

keep our ears to the ground to expose the hypocracy when it appears even if it

means criticising the First Lady of a competent country of Africa who wants to

wind back her country's excellent record by freezing the issuance of condoms on

questionable grounds in favour of fidelity and abstinence.

The reasons are obvious. Global funding might otherwise be affected if someone

doesn't speak up.

Geoff Heaviside

e-MAIL: <gheaviside@...>