Human Trafficking= Modern Day Slavery==PLEASE SHARE!!!!

I want to shed some light on an issue that most are unaware of. In some cases we just don’t want to see it. Today over 27,000,000 women and children are being enslaved and sold on the black market for sex. This happens all over the world…including your backyard. it happens in the most obvious of places and the girls are taken from open locations such as malls and the sidewalks when they are walking alone.

Definition= Sex trafficking is the exploitation of a person for commercial sexual activity through force, fraud or coercion. Victims of sex trafficking are often forced to engage in prostitution, exotic dancing, or pornography. Children who are exploited for sex are also considered a trafficking victim, even if there is no evident force or coercion. They don’t know better and they are not given a choice.

~~~~~~There are a few different ways this begins. If you have ever noticed missing children ads…as sad as it may be, they may have been picked up and sold into slavery. The FBI and police forces are running undercover operations to try and recover these girls everyday. There are blatant ads on the internet ( the websites of which I will not list if you don’t already know about them). I want to make you aware of this occurrence because slavery used to be predominantly black people in the past and that was brought to light and fixed…..slavery was abolished in our nation 150 years ago but today THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE IN SLAVERY THAN ANY TIME IN OUR HISTORY!!!!!!!!  Today these are women, children, sometimes men and little boys as well as foreigners in many cases.  17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked each year. 40% of human trafficking cases involve children. 76% of interactions with these children begin on the internet. This is happening in broad daylight and people don’t know about it and they don’t know what to do if they find out.

Prostitution= Many people look at the women on the street and look down on them because they are selling their bodies for sex. Well let me tell you…I am based in Detroit and I have done a lot of street work personally and the statistics also show that these women are NOT there by choice. Hence, human trafficking. These women are sent out by their “daddys” or “pimps” and they are told to make between $200-$2000 per night and if they don’t then they will be severely beaten and in some cases killed. these women are brainwashed and fear for their lives. When they come to me on the forensics side of it they sometimes tell me that they are going back because they have no other choice and they cant live any other way. These are not normal scenarios. this is abuse and force. these women and children have been given no other choice and they do it to stay alive. in some cases they do it because their children are being threatened if they don’t make enough money by performing sexual acts. So next time you see prostitution; REMEMBER; this is NOT their choice to do so 90% of the time. I have seen an example of a case by choice–my own mother (I wrote about her in my earlier blogs- she chooses to sell her body for sex to get drugs. nobody forces her, but that is a rare case) Do you honestly think that teenage girls when deciding where to go to college wake up one morning and say “I want to be a prostitute and work the streets when I grow up” NO. These women need help!

PLEASE BE AWARE- If you pass by or see anything that may be suspicious for human trafficking here are some resources:

National human trafficking resource hotline  24hrs/day    1-888-373-7888

National Domestic Violence Hotline-   1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

Sexual Abuse Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network      1-800-656- 4673

Suicidal Thoughts- National Suicide prevention Hotline     1-800-273- Talk (8255)

Dating Violence   – National Dating Abuse Helpline      1-866-331-9474

Couchsurfing

This past weekend was my first experience with couchsurfing. I was hesitant at first, but I LOVED it. I had such a great time! For those of you who don’t know what this is: couchsurfing is where people from all over the world who like to travel will open up their homes to travelers to stay with them and in return when those people travel to new destinations they will look up who is hosting in the city that they are traveling to and then stay with them. Through this process you gain references for your future travels…. But the best part is… You meet people from all over the world and lean about different cultures. You are able to make friends from everywhere.

This 1st experience of mine I researched the person that I stayed with in Chicago and he had a lot of references. I took a girlfriend with me so that I wasn’t alone. I played it safe!! The host we stayed with then told me that there would be a guy from Australia, a guy from Rwanda and two people from Indianapolis!!! That made me even more excited to stay there and meet people. I know that this is off the wall concept, but this is a great way to connect and meet people. It is a great community and they are all like minded individuals.

Europe- I plan to use this concept when I go backpacking through Europe in July- August. So this was a great start and I’m looking forward to more experiences such as this!!

Please Help–HOPE and a FUTURE: PAY IT FORWARD

As many of you know I published my autobiography this past year. It is a raw, organic story that tells the ugly side of my past with the explanations of how I turned it into success. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, it is available to order online at http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Back-The-Pen-Predestinated/dp/0615874436
IF you have read it, I am asking that rather than letting the book sit on your shelf, please pass it along to somebody in your life you believe can benefit from reading it. I didn’t write it to sell a million copies or for the fame. My intentions in publishing it were to bring hope and change in peoples lives and to inspire those who struggle in life….which is ALL of us. I want to get my story out there so people are not afraid to open up and seek help when needed. everybody has a story! Please pass my story on and continue to love people and appreciate stories because we are all walking through life together.

If you have not ordered it yet, please order one and read it yourself and then pass it on to somebody in your life who you feel may benefit from it

Sex: The Market Value

If you’re having trouble getting into a relationship with somebody where you want to get to know them first before you have sex you may find that this is hard to do. Relationships and dating are more complex these days than ever before. Values are being lost in translation. Emotional barriers have been put up that makes sex seem like an everyday task that has less meaning. Boundaries have been dropped because they’re not taking into consideration by the partner anymore. Women feel in many cases as though they need to have sex in order to keep somebody. That is quite the wrong way to start off a relationship. Anybody who’s been through several different relationships can trace back the reason. Most times it comes back to the fact that you had sex too early in the relationship. Once you enter that physical portion of the relationship is hard to go back to square one and start the basics. There are now expectations. There is a reason for this. Sex has gotten cheaper. It can be traced back to simple economics just like anything else. Marriage rates in the United States has hit a low. The revenue of the online dating industry is at an all-time high which is $1.049 billion. Romantic relationships are becoming more complex to navigate these days. Less couples are moving their relationship towards marriage. Marriage is getting delayed.

Sex can be looked at as an exchange each person involved is getting something from the other person. At face value, it may appear that they are giving each other the same thing; Intimate access to each other’s bodies. But there is more going on than meets the eye. Men and women both appreciate sex. Studies have indicated that men and women experience sex differently though. On average men have a higher sex drive and women do. It may be linked to testosterone or whatever other factor thrown out for the reasoning for this, but men are more sexually permissive than women,they instigate sex more than women and they connect sex to romance less often than women do. That’s just the way it is. That doesn’t mean that’s the way it supposed to be. Women tend to have sex for reasons beyond pleasure. Women’s motivations for sex tend to be, expressing love and receiving love strengthening there commitment affirming their desirability and relationship security. So when the exchange happens and men want sex more often than women do women use sex as a resource and the women decide when it happens. So when the women have the reigns in the relationship it comes down to pricing.

Women have something of value that men want badly. Something that men are willing to sacrifice for. So how much does Sex cost for men? It may not cost them anything more than a couple drinks and a coffee or a nice date with respectful attention or all the way up to a commitment with shiny diamond ring, meaning they will be together exclusively. But the prices vary widely between relationships. In some cases women give it away for nearly free and others it’s a high demand such as the engagement ring. So if women have the rains and have so much power why don’t women charge more? The answer is because it’s not entirely up to women. The market value of sex is part of the whole social market exchange system in society as a whole. From an economy standpoint, if you will, where men and women learn from each other. Women learn from magazines,media and friends what is “supposed” to be expected as an exchange for sex. So that brings sex away from being a private matter between two consenting adults. It is more of a basic supply and demand. When supplies high the prices drop. Since people won’t pay more for something that’s easy to find. But if it’s harder to find then the price goes up. In our current society, men know that sex is cheap these days. As long as they know where to look. We got to where the market of sex has dropped so drastically because of technological shocks that have altered the market. Inventions such as the birth control pill have allowed men and women to have sex without the fear of an economical setback such as a child. This lowered the cost of sex. Before contraception sex in a relationship took place as individuals were trying to find a mate. Someone to marry. Sex didn’t mean marriage, but a serious commitment was a common requirement and it was geared towards marriage. Since the olden days all the way till now, dabbling in sexual relationships means the possibility of having babies. The original purpose of the birth control pill was to prevent pregnancy. The data now reveals an unexpected side effect; it throws the mating/marriage market into disarray. Having sex and thinking about marriage have become two separate entities.

There is now a split in the market. One side of the spectrum are largely pursuing marriage while the other half is pursuing sex without the risk of having babies and not creating a family. There are more men looking for sex then marriage and there are more women looking for marriage rather than just sex. Language of online dating reinforces the reality of the split market. Men tend to write that they’re looking for fun while women right that they’re looking for marriage. They look for only serious inquiries and no games. This dating market causes a big problem for women. They certainly call the shots when it comes to short term sexual relationships, because they have as many men in their courts as they want to be because the men are always looking for an easy sexual relationship more commonly than they are a marriage. This allows women to be more selective in the short term relationship scene. But the reverse is true when they want to settle down. The options are not as endless. We tend to hear about man’s lack of commitment but the blunt reality is purely economic. Women massively outnumber men in the marriage market which means men can be picky about which woman they want and they can insist on sexual relationships before the commitment. Men are in a position to maximize their reward. And they can invest fewer resources. Why do men do this? Because they can! This agreement and unspoken pact from the past of a higher market value of sex has vanished. In this new world where having sex no longer means babies and marriage becomes optional. Women no longer have each others backs and now they’re each other’s competition. When women compete for men they tend to do so by appealing to what men want. Which means they give into sex sooner. And here’s what women have wrong about men. Men are not afraid of commitment at all. While women hold the keys when it comes to sex the deal is that men are in the driver seat in the marriage world. They can navigate it exactly how they want to. From marriage to fun to planning to fun to marriage to fun. Men’s virility doesn’t expire a certain age as women’s does. So what’s the rush for man? Talk about having the upper-hand! So it’s no surprise that now the average age of marriage in the United States is continuing to rise. The ages of people between the age of 25 and 35 getting married is continuing to drop. There are factors that contribute to each of the trends. Young men are failing to adapt to contemporary life. When attractive women will still go to bed with you, And give you sex for practically no commitment or effort.

Life for a man just isn’t that bad after all. Because men tend to behave as well or as poorly as the women in their lives permit them too. Economists have said that women working together on this task force would be the best way to bring the price and value of sex back up and to get control of this sexual imbalance. This would raise the market value of sex for everyone. But this is not seen among women today. Not yet. If women gathered together and demanded a higher market value for sex and relationships we would be seeing more impressive relationship status. There would be longer relationships, more commitment, and more longitudinal relationships. There would be fewer premarital partners. For a woman to know what she wants in a relationship and to let the man know clearly, this is her power and economy. But these things are not occurring. Because today the economics of sexual relationship clearly favor men And what they want even if what they are offering in the initial exchange has diminished. And it’s all thanks to supply and demand.