Here is another person to add to the growing list of celebrity, anti-slavery activists: British singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield.
She is a supporter for the U.K. anti-slavery organization Stop the Traffik, and appeared in the 2008 “rockumentary” “Call+Response,” a film raising awareness about modern day slavery. Other artists and celebrities that appeared in the film include Ashley Judd, Daryl Hannah, Talib Kweli, Tom Petty and Matisyahu.
In a recent interview with Mlive.com, Bedingfield said, “We celebrate slavery being abolished… but slavery is rampant: We have more slaves than ever before in the world. Every human being deserves to be free.”
Camilla Bell in a still from the Free the Slaves PSA
Spread the word! Share this Free the Slaves PSA with your friends. There are 27 million slaves in the world today. Slavery must end. And we have a plan to do it.
Camilla Bell, Russell Simmons, Malin Akerman, Kimberly Cole, Rex Lee, Mark Feuerstein, Maurice Greene and Maksim Chmerkovskiy have joined the movement to eradicate modern day slavery. Will you?
Find out how you can help end slavery by visiting the Free the Slaves website today!
Wyclef Jean says if he were President of Haiti, the eradication of slavery would be one of his top priorities. But the rapper’s bid for presidency was recently denied by Haitian officials. Jean blamed the current Haitian President René Préval for ousting him from the ballot—but vowed to continue to work toward the betterment of his beloved homeland.
However, Jean’s political adventures took an awkward turn at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) yesterday: President Préval tried to bury the hatchet, by calling Jean on stage, and announcing he will make the rapper a goodwill ambassador. Reports say Jean seemed “stunned” by the action.
In an article on the Huffington Post, Jean said he was attending CGI to observe the special sessions on rebuilding Haiti, and said he hoped that the issue of “child slavery and kidnappings” would be addressed in the forums.
But it was Jean’s public feud with the president of Haiti—not slavery—that made headlines today.
Jean’s CGI appearance happened just days after he announced he would step down from running from president of Haiti, after being deemed ineligible for the ballot. Jean publicly blasted the Haitian officials who barred his presidential bid—even calling sitting president René Préval “Satan” in a song released to Haitian radio.
But in a publicity garnering move, President Préval offered Jean an olive branch during a CGI seminar on Haitian disaster relief. In front of a live audience, Préval called the rapper on stage and said, “[Wyclef] has made the plight of Haiti visible through the world even before the earthquake. He carries his country in his heart. And that is why I have made him a goodwill ambassador.”
According to the Miami Herald, Jean looked “stunned,” and did not respond. Several news reports made note of this awkward moment.
In a statement released through his blog earlier this week, Jean had said, “Though my run for the presidency was cut short, in this way, I feel it was not in vain.” He added, “Some battles are best fought off the field.” To help Haiti, Jean said, he will concentrate on music, rather than politics.
It seems that Wyclef Jean is still learning the ropes when it comes to political diplomacy. At least with music, he is on familiar ground.
To this end, Jean will release an album next February titled If I Were President, The Haitian Experience. And today, he is taking part in the inaugural episode of a Wall Street Journal video series called “Conversations.” Filmed before a live audience at New York’s Lincoln Center, Jean will be interviewed by WSJ writer Lee Hawkins about creativity and activism. He is following the interview with a live performance.
Will slavery be a topic of discussion? We’ll keep you posted.
Emma Thompson is an outspoken anti-slavery activist. She is the chairman of the Helen Bamber Foundation’s trustees, and when it comes to combatting slavery, her weapon of choice is art. “Sex trafficking is a hugely important subject,” she has said, “and I believe we need as much art as we can get to help people understand what’s going on.”
Her most recent project with the Helen Bamber Foundation? She helped bring to life a concept album about human trafficking. Just Enough for the Real World, released today, was produced by musician Phil Knight, who brought together 12 musicians to create 12 tracks that seek to humanize the issue of slavery. Knight became aware of the issue when he attended the London showing of Journey, a traveling art exhibition co-curated by Emma Thompson, which depicted the global sex trafficking of women.
The album was released today, and is available for purchase in the U.K., and online.
Thompson has not shied away from controversy, in bringing attention to modern slavery. Just last month, she leveraged the publicity surrounding her film “Nanny McPhee Returns“—which she wrote and starred in—to bring slavery into the headlines: In interviews, she criticized Audrey Hepburn’s role as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady,” saying the actress was “mimsy-mumsy” and “twee.” The character of Doolittle, Thompson said, was a human trafficking victim—and should have been portrayed with the appropriate gravity.
Watch Emma Thompson and Phil Knight’s talk show appearance in the U.K., promoting Just Enough for the Real World after the jump!
Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, attending the 2009 Freedom Awards. Photo by Amy Graves.
Can Twitter end modern day slavery? Ashton Kutcher says Twitter has the power to give traditionally under-represented voices a major platform. And in the process, bring the issue of slavery to the masses.
At the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative today, Ashton Kutcher announced his foundation’s commitment to eradicating modern day slavery. He made the announcement during a panel discussion on how communication technology can advance human rights.
At last year’s Clinton Global Initiative the issue of modern day slavery was highlighted by Bill Clinton himself. Clinton held up FTS President Kevin Bales’ book, Ending Slavery during one of his speeches and said:
“[Kevin Bales' book] points out there are 27 million people in the world—a very small percentage of the world’s population. A small percentage of the population of the developing world. But 27 million people who are in effect, sold into bondage… everything from prostitution to forced labor in homes to forced labor in factories and fields. No continent is exempt.”
See video of Bill Clinton talking about Kevin Bales and Ending Slavery here.
He went on to say, “The Bales book I like because it’s essentially upbeat. It tells you [slavery] is a problem we can solve and here’s how to do it. But it’s hard for me to believe we can solve it on a sustainable basis unless in every country there’s an economic model that can at least minimize the inequality trap.”
Clinton said slavery is “something that I intend to take up next year.” And he was true to his word.
The issue of modern day slavery was brought up by Ashton Kutcher in a breakout session moderated by none other than Arianna Huffington, and presented by Nicholas Kristof (the NYT columnist who tirelessly writes about human trafficking and modern day slavery, and co-wrote Half The Sky with his wife Sheryl WuDunn). The panel discussion was on the topic of Democracy and Voice: Technology for Citizen Empowerment and Human Rights.
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Caroline Manzo of 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey.' Photo taken from CarolineManzo.com
DNAInfo: Real Housewife, Stephen Baldwin raise awareness for modern day slavery: Twitter really does raise awareness! The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Caroline Manzo and actor Stephen Baldwin attended a benefit for the non-profit Stop Child Trafficking Now held at Manhattans’ Verandah Lounge. Manzo told DNAInfo last night that she found out about the existence of child trafficking through twitter.
- KansasCity.com: Fund set up for victim in Missouri sexual torture case: “A fund has been set up to assist the victim in a Missouri sex trafficking case filed last week against five defendants. The Kansas City Alliance Against Human Trafficking has established the fund for the woman, who told authorities she endured years of abuse and sexual torture beginning when she was a 16-year-old runaway.”
- The Hollywood Reporter: A review of Rachel Weisz’ starring turn in the modern slavery-themed feature film “The Whistleblower”: ”Weisz is commandingly up to the task: With her hair pulled back into a loose, unglamorous ponytail and affecting a convincing accent, she’s absolutely believable as the not-easily-intimidated Bolkovac, who’s determined to save the lives of these young girls sold into the sex trade at the expense of reconnecting with her own daughter.”
- Huffington Post: H.R. 5575 The ‘Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010′: “The bill… has two main objectives. First, it would authorize large block grants to establish a comprehensive, victim-centered approach to addressing the issue of sex trafficking of minors. Secondly, it would aim to provide funding to implement improvements to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system that are required in order to receive federal funding.”
- “The Whistleblower,” a feature film about modern day slavery, starring Rachel Weisz premiered to standing ovations at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday. The film is based on the true story of Kathy Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop who went to Bosnia in 1999 as a UN peacekeeper—where she discovered and blew the whistle on a human trafficking ring.
- CNET: Craigslist urged to shut erotic-services ads worldwide: “In the U.S., Craigslist renamed the section from ‘erotic’ to ‘adult.’ But in other countries, the section is still known as ‘erotic.’ The U.S. and Canadian versions contained a ‘Warning & Disclaimer’ page discussing human trafficking and sexual exploitation, according to the groups. However, that warning is not present on any of the international versions.”
- ABC News: In Houston, a fake slave auction draws attention to human trafficking: “Americans citizens are also forced into slavery, particularly children and young girls… Roughly 20 percent of human trafficking rescues in the U.S. happen in Texas, but authorities often have trouble getting victims to testify against traffickers.”
Lady Gaga was the biggest winner at the MTV Video awards Sunday night. She even won the most coveted prize of all: Video of the Year for ‘Bad Romance.’
The video’s mish-mash of symbolism has sparked much debate as to what it could all mean. One prevailing theory is that Lady Gaga is playing a sex slave, being bid on by the Russian mafia. She starts the video climbing out of a designer suit case. This presumably represents the “trafficking” part of her enslavement. The last shot of the video shows the pop star on a burnt down bed next to the charred corpse of her John—a sex slave’s revenge on her slave master.
Needless to say, not everyone is amused by Lady Gaga’s seemingly light hearted approach to a very real crime that ravages thousands of people every year. But there is no doubt that she has precipitated a certain amount of discourse on modern day slavery in venues not normally reserved for this topic. (Chicago Art Magazine and Technorati both ran feature-length essays on the ‘Bad Romance’ video, and its representation of sex trafficking.) One only wishes the discourse could have gone into more detail about what, exactly, modern day slavery looks like. How it encompasses more than just the flesh trade. How it can take a survivor years upon years to recover from the trauma. And how the crime can be eradicated—if only we educate ourselves, engage our communities and work to affect policy.
Learn how you can become part of the movement to end slavery.
But discourse is discourse. And Lady Gaga, in her own way, has contributed to raising awareness about human trafficking. It is our responsibility, once we learn of the existence of modern day slavery, to further educate ourselves. To learn more about what some are calling the human rights issue of our era, download Free the Slaves’ education pack.
Lucy Liu at 2009 USAID Human Trafficking Symposium.
Originally released back in 2009, ‘Red Light’ follows the plight of girls kidnapped and sold into brothels in Cambodia. Lucy Liu, who is a co-producer of the film, narrates. It will be airing on Showtime September 9, 8pm.
Lucy Liu became a UNICEF Ambassador in 2005. Her work on modern day slavery includes a collaboration with USAID and MTV EXIT on the documentary short ‘Traffic,’ profiling real life survivors of human trafficking and slavery in Asia.
