Day One

Things officially started today, but because of construction, there was limited access for the NGOs. And many NGOs had to get their badges - I spoke to one woman who stood in line for over 5 hours. It is true that many of the NGOs here are not happy with the way the UN has handled the arrangements. There has been no attempt by the UN to have additional staff. There are only 2 cameras to take the photos for the badges - and they know the on line registration was close to 8,000. It's too bad they don't let the women organize things for the registration process - it would definitely go a lot smoother. Someone said that if it were men in the line ups, it would be changed very quickly!

Although there was an over flow room, for the official opening, the arrangements were not good. Some couldn't hear. I made the decision to go to an event that was taking place in temporary building, which is actually quite pleasant. The building is called the North Lawn Temporary Building They even had coffee! And the event was on Trafficking - During the 1990's, before the term human trafficking was coined, and international awareness of this phenomenon grew slowly. Now it is part of the daily news. We do recognize it as a complex issue, and a growth industry. What we learned from the session was indeed the complexity of human trafficking, we need to have more resources for police (in some countries, police are so poor, they sleep in the police station). We also heard we need to put government back in charge of training - the privatization of training produces poor and incorrect results. We also need to inject a humanitarian approach into governments. The US for example should stop deporting victims of trafficking.

Christine Dolan spoke - what an amazing woman - she is a journalist, and has investigated the exploitation of children emanating from the Balkans Crises. She has co founded the Children in Slavery - a campaign to focus on expanding the NGO world because we need business leaders in the room to gain traction to eradicate human trafficking. But her main point was about how stories can be manipulated for political or personal gain. She told the story about a Catholic Priest, who did a documentary on "The Price of Sugar", which is totally unfounded - yet he continues to play it at film festivals and is making money from it. Christine did a very thorough job on presenting the situation of what can happen - how the media can manipulate the viewer. Her experience is a lesson for any journalist covering human trafficking, any human rights activist claiming to be an expert, or any politician. You must sift thru the shadows of the evidence to bring forth the truth.