For anyone who thinks the distinct social/political/economic separation of these atrocities: incest, rape, pornography production, trafficking, pimping, procuring, sexual slavery, and gross sexual exploitation and assault of women and children is possible, or--if in even more denial--is actually occurring in any meaningful and "liberating" way, please pay attention to this story and any other story about internationally sexually abused children and women. And please note that the countries involved are sexually liberal, not so conservative. Please drop abstracted theory when reality is presenting itself to you in all its grim horror.
Please stop supporting actions and arguments that "some women" and "some children" are liberated by being able to do "sex work" in societies where both sex and work are exploited to practically incomprehensible and soul-destroying levels. The understanding here of what constitutes liberation is not individualistic, but is collectivist. While some are enslaved and raped, what is the political function of arguments that "some of us" aren't harmed by gross sexual and economic exploitation? How, exactly, does that help the most exploited and harmed?
And, please also note that media will always make it seem as if white het men are heroes, even when that is the key population involved in sexually assaulting girls and women internationally. It is, primarily, women and girls of all colors who are involved in activist and other social efforts to stop prostitution, trafficking, and sexual slavery. Please keep that in mind as you read what follows. Because whether the issue is child sexual abuse, poverty and the rampant spread of disease, such as in Haiti, or nuclear power plant horror and terrorism, such as that which is going on in Japan currently, it has been women at the front lines of activism, advocating for radical social change, for decades.
What follows is cross-posted from *here*. But you can also link back by clicking on the title just below.
Please stop supporting actions and arguments that "some women" and "some children" are liberated by being able to do "sex work" in societies where both sex and work are exploited to practically incomprehensible and soul-destroying levels. The understanding here of what constitutes liberation is not individualistic, but is collectivist. While some are enslaved and raped, what is the political function of arguments that "some of us" aren't harmed by gross sexual and economic exploitation? How, exactly, does that help the most exploited and harmed?
And, please also note that media will always make it seem as if white het men are heroes, even when that is the key population involved in sexually assaulting girls and women internationally. It is, primarily, women and girls of all colors who are involved in activist and other social efforts to stop prostitution, trafficking, and sexual slavery. Please keep that in mind as you read what follows. Because whether the issue is child sexual abuse, poverty and the rampant spread of disease, such as in Haiti, or nuclear power plant horror and terrorism, such as that which is going on in Japan currently, it has been women at the front lines of activism, advocating for radical social change, for decades.
What follows is cross-posted from *here*. But you can also link back by clicking on the title just below.
 |
| Europol's Rob Wainwright says police arrested 184 suspects in a global investigation into a Dutch-based international pedophile ring. Peter Dejong/Associated Press |
Global pedophile ring probe nets 2 Canadian charges
Online forum involved rescue of child victims of abuse in 30 countries
CBC News
Posted: Mar 16, 2011 8:24 AM CST
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2011 11:03 AM CST
Beginning of Story Content
Two Canadian men have been charged in connection with an alleged international pedophile ring based in the Netherlands that involved the rescue of 230 children.
The charges in Ontario and Saskatchewan come as police in Europe said Wednesday they had rescued the child victims of abuse and arrested 184 suspects, part of a three-year investigation involving law enforcement officials from 13 countries, including Canada.
Philip Publuske, 40, has been charged with one count of possessing child pornography and one count of distributing child pornography, Waterloo Regional Police spokesman Olaf Heinzel told CBC News.
Publuske, who has been in custody since November, has a lengthy criminal record, including for sexual assault and possession of child pornography, police said.
Meanwhile, Saskatoon police said John William Lapage, 68, of Abernethy, Sask., has been charged with accessing child pornography, possessing child pornography and making child pornography available.
There was no word yet on whether any of the victims or other suspects are Canadian, but police said 670 suspects have been identified around the world.
Europol, the European Union police agency, said the investigation code-named Operation Rescue has identified and rescued children in more than 30 countries.
The alleged ring was based around an online forum and was "probably the largest online pedophile network in the world," Europol director Rob Wainwright said Wednesday.
The forum, based in Amsterdam, had up to 70,000 members, police said.
With files from The Associated Press
Related Links
White male supremacy works very hard promoting the lie that only certain 'deviant individuals commit sadistic sexual violence against children (sic). That is why this isolated case wherein one internet network for men who condone/perpetrate child rape has been given so much malestream media coverage.
ReplyDeleteMissing of course from the malestream coverage is any mention of the fact the subscribers are overwhelmingly male and I've no doubt contain many white respectable men - such as teachers/clerics/medical doctors/lawyers/judges. All have one common denominator - namely they are male - but Josephine and Joe public mustn't be made aware of that fact.
Wonderful so a group of predominantly white male police officers have shut down one network but in the meantime innumerable other websites continue to operate. Including of course the so-called 'adult porn websites' because women which male supremacy consider to be 'adults' that is young women who might pass as 18 are deemed not to be subjected to serial sadistic male sexual violence. Oh no, it is all 'adult entertainment' wherein innumerable men are busily engaged in getting off on viewing images of males or rather their sexual organs, raping and subjecting women to sadistic sexual torture.
But of course our white male supremacist/liberal society must not deny men their right of viewing/treating/subjecting women to male sexual violence and then sell their filmed acts as 'adult entertainment' No it is free speech and an individual's right to 'choose' to be a male's dehumanised sexualised commodity is it not?
I wonder if the men charged with serial child rape will if convicted, be given lengthy prison sentences or will these males be given a 'slap on the hand and told don't do it again!' As always it is the end result not the pseudo trumpeting of yet more so-called white male heroes "rescuing" innocent little children.
"Please drop abstracted theory when reality is presenting itself to you in all its grim horror."
ReplyDeletedone, julian.
theory does have a way of protecting horrid consciousness based in reality. as i've said before, i come out of communities, very small inturned places populated by dykes who spend their time with each other, who play with each other, who love/d each other, who wrote about sex, photographed sex and filmed it for the consumption of other dykes.
i don't live there anymore. nope. i live out here and the rules and problems and ways of resisting are distinctly different.
i'm sitting in another persepective and having to come to grips with what that means, how that shifts not so much my alliances but definitely my understanding of what is right and what needs to be done.
this is unfolding within me, within my household, within my relationships to the menfolk, as we speak.
that's what i've got so far. that, and many thanks for posting this information so stridently.
at the same moment, i understand that ideas/theories/dreams are what change the world and its dominant beliefs, however slow the shift, in whatever direction, it may be, not laws of any kind. i do think there is a place for theory in struggles against this kind of horrific domination. without theory and the ability to take apart, examine from other angles, chew up in the context of critical conversation, demand more indepth analysis with more layering, more context, more people's experiences folded in and with no one's left behind, our movements, our actions, our ability to effectively struggle for what's right would be severely hampered. this is me saying i like to ask people i understand as located in the same general vicinity as me politically to incorporate more not less pieces as i struggle to do the same, sometimes writhing with horror as i gaze upon what/who sits next to me and what/who i have inadvertently allied with as i have sought to complicate my analysis and my beliefs. reading your blog functions in this way for me, julian. it is a reminder, a goad, a crucible, a prod, an annoyingly valuable ping in my ear reminding me to not forget or discount the whole story in all its horrid multiplicity, not to forget the human story as i dream/theorize/actualize myself into being.
ReplyDeleteThank you for those responses, Dark Daughta.
ReplyDeleteI work to remind readers of the horrors because in my experience, such as at Below The Belt blog, the people there do not wish to engage with the most horrific things going on, but they want to theorise about gender and sexuality.
What good does that do for girls and women being tortured, enslaved, trafficked, battered, and systematically raped in marriage, in nuclear families, and in prostitution?
Can our collective vision for liberation not be centered around the experiences of those so horrifically harmed, now, currently?
Most of my contacts are with women and girls who are dealing with the worst of what men do, often but not only white men. And the systems of horror organised by these men are often not addressed by academic and non-academic theorists struggling for various forms of assimilation into the society that requires the destruction of so many--as you well know: poor Black and Brown girls and women, Indigenous and Asian girls and women, globally. How can our theories work to support the realities of those who do not have a voice? Or of people whose voices, when spoken, are not heard because they speak in screams or in a silence born of experiencing unfathomable terror and trauma, institutionalised, systematised, and called inevitable by white men?
"Below The Belt blog"
ReplyDeletei haven't heard of it. i will take a look at it, julian.
i was thinking today about having come to north amerikkka as a child, about having witnessed and then promptly (it seems) compartmentalized off but not completely forgotten the reality of my father's abuse of my mother, of having grown up working class, of having no access to the kinds of resources middle class children take for granted, of growing up with cockroaches and utilities being turned off, of having discovered sexualness with boys at a fairly early age as a substitute for true affection, for loving affection...
i thought about going into therapy for he first time at 16 and having a place to speak and someone to pay close attention to what i thought and why i thought it...
i thought today about me being isolated and alienated as a teenager but already understanding the power of my written words, of my art...
i thought about being able to resist and to see what wasn't quite right around me even as a young child...
i thought of my ability to radically alter my life course and about being an edge walker who sees strands of ideas, concepts, theories, yes, theories, who dreams and actualizes what comes to me as i sleep...
julian, i've mostly lived in communities where people talked about wimmin and girls who are oppressed, especially third world wimmin and children, especially immigrant wimmin and children, especially working class wimmin and children...
i've heard people speak about the political including these wimmin and children...
i 've heard them write about it...
i've seen them demonstrate about it and organize around it...
i was thinking today about the horrid irony of living in a city filled with activists and organizers many of whom shudder at the thought of even being in the same room with me, who gossip about me, who work to encourage people to exclude me and ostracize me.
:)
they can't actually deal with what happens when one of the wimmin or children they work to liberate, liberates herself on her own terms. they didn't have a picture in their mind's eye of what that looked like because it never crossed their mind that this kind of she could access the supports she needed and dream her own self into powerful being.
ReplyDeletetheir work, their struggles, their organizing is completely hinged on the idea that liberation will be done from the outside by those with privilege and that without the aid of those who benefit from the oppression of these wimmin and children, these recipients of domination will not be able to move themselves anywhere useful.
they will not be able to work on their own behalfs in ways they see fit to foreground themselves, support each other and finally crush the forces of domination as we know it.
julian, i am not an anomaly. i am one of many. i have grown sisters. i have little sisters who have been profoundly traumatized but whose brains and personal power lie dormant.
i'm not an organizer. i am not an activist. i am a powerful dreamer who has words and the ability to actualize, to manifest.
this is what i bring to the pot. this kind of coding, this kind of meme viral load doesn't function on the same level as what you do here, or on the same level as what people do when they fill the streets or the court rooms demanding justice for the oppressed.
what i do is insidious. it's significance will not be fully known by me in this life time. i will die and not fully understand what i have brought to the mix that is useful.
but i know it is.
i will die and not ever meet all my big sisters, all my little sisters yet to fully unfold and be powerfully felt, all my fellow viral loaders, resistance meme warriors in the body, in the spirit rebels, in the energy workers who i have to believe live all over the planet, oppressed, at war, struggling in the home, in the family, in community, with passion and purpose.
i am not an anomaly. they are not anomalies.
the way we will profoundly fuck with the field of engagement, the way we are already profoundly altering the field of engagement may not be clear to the casually glancing eye, but groundswells take time.
i'm not talking about tomorrow. i'm not talking about next week.
i'm not talking about next month.
i'm also not talking reform...just to be clear.
i'm talking profound shifts from within our communities. transformation of beliefs and ways of moving, of doing things.
this is what i'm after, this is what i'm on about. this is what drives me...a dream/theory...
it's what i've got. it's what i can offer.
they can't actually deal with what happens when one of the wimmin or children they work to liberate, liberates herself on her own terms. they didn't have a picture in their mind's eye of what that looked like because it never crossed their mind that this kind of she could access the supports she needed and dream her own self into powerful being.
ReplyDeleteI don't have much regard for activism that doesn't place the most harmed wimmin and girls at the center--as the activists, not as the objects to be concerned about or for. I tire in about two seconds of anyone who speaks of "helping the oppressed". I assume I know little to nothing about what any given population of wimmin and girls needs to survive and fight conditions on the terms that make the most sense, individually and collectively. I leave it to various populations of wimmin and girls to let me know how I might be useful to their own struggles.
their work, their struggles, their organizing is completely hinged on the idea that liberation will be done from the outside by those with privilege and that without the aid of those who benefit from the oppression of these wimmin and children, these recipients of domination will not be able to move themselves anywhere useful.
I find no evidence at all that this is how radical and revolutionary social change happens. Hist-story books love to pretend things like "Lincoln freed the slaves" when, in fact, Harriet Tubman did, along with so many other [former slave] wimmin. The media loves to tell tall tales of great whites and great men who accomplish everything there is to accomplish. Meanwhile, wimmin of color do most of the world's work, hard, arduous labor, and do most of the world's activism too.
I cannot conceive of how it would be that race-, region-, and gender-privileged people would be able to lead anyone anywhere that people who are oppressed by race, region, and gender need to go. I can't conceive of any liberation movement being led by the oppressors.
they will not be able to work on their own behalfs in ways they see fit to foreground themselves, support each other and finally crush the forces of domination as we know it.
I can't imagine it happening any other way: witness that feminism--or the movements of wimmin on their own behalf, toward their own liberation from the forces men exert to dominate, exploit, and violate girls and wimmin--is happening globally most powerfully and radically in places that aren't white. Yes, Scandinavian feminists are white and do accomplish a lot. I applaud them and their work, which is not "for" other wimmin; it is for themselves. This work makes sense to me, and it makes sense that their work for themselves ought to consider the impact on wimmin beyond Scandinavia, while acknowledging that they cannot know what wimmin beyond Scandinavia will need to do for their own liberation in their own regions.
julian, i am not an anomaly. i am one of many. i have grown sisters. i have little sisters who have been profoundly traumatized but whose brains and personal power lie dormant.
I believe you are one of the masses, Dark Daughta. Not the masses media discusses, makes visible, or accurately portrays.
i'm not an organizer. i am not an activist. i am a powerful dreamer who has words and the ability to actualize, to manifest.
I believe in dreaming, in visualising, in projecting visions into the future, and in drawing that future brimming with joy and peace fiercely and splendidly toward the present.
this is what i bring to the pot.
ReplyDelete[Julian stirs the pot, takes in a whiff of the simmering stew. Yummy, and nutritious!]
this kind of coding, this kind of meme viral load doesn't function on the same level as what you do here, or on the same level as what people do when they fill the streets or the court rooms demanding justice for the oppressed.
I'm sure if what I do here is what people are doing who fill streets or court rooms. I consider myself an activist but define that by how the minutes of my life are lived, not by what organisations I belong to. I respect all efforts to dismantle racist capitalist patriarchies (or, to compost CRAP).
I support white wimmin's efforts. I support Black and Brown wimmin's efforts. I support Asian and Indigenous wimmin's efforts. Hopefully there is mutual regard and respect and a vision of collective freedom for all, not only individual freedoms for a few.
what i do is insidious. it's significance will not be fully known by me in this life time. i will die and not fully understand what i have brought to the mix that is useful.
but i know it is.
I feel similarly, but am impatient, Dark Daughta. I cannot wait to see evidence of CRAP being composted. I want to know, in my lifetime, that our work is working. That's selfish of me.
i will die and not ever meet all my big sisters, all my little sisters yet to fully unfold and be powerfully felt, all my fellow viral loaders, resistance meme warriors in the body, in the spirit rebels, in the energy workers who i have to believe live all over the planet, oppressed, at war, struggling in the home, in the family, in community, with passion and purpose.
I see wimmin fighting across the globe, of all colors. I see wimmin fighting in their homes, in their families, in community, in the streets, in courtrooms, in schools, in religious institutions, in urban and rural areas, in organisations they've created, in writing, in ways of being friends, lovers, and warriors. All of it.
i am not an anomaly. they are not anomalies.
I don't doubt that for a moment. But, anyone who speaks or acts against CRAP will be made to seem like an anomaly--and possibly feel like one too; and it's important, I feel, to remind one another that we are breathing life into new existence that will replace racist capitalist patriarchies, and other forms of patriarchy too.
the way we will profoundly fuck with the field of engagement, the way we are already profoundly altering the field of engagement may not be clear to the casually glancing eye, but groundswells take time.
I have seen a groundswell in the last ten years. I am seeing evidence that the next ten years will bring forth unprecedented challenges to CRAP, and that CRAP will begin to decompose. It is already decomposing--as it is not a sustainable form of "civilisation". But how many people, and much other life on Earth, it will take with it before it is gone, out of this world, is a question I'm concerned about.
i'm not talking about tomorrow. i'm not talking about next week.
ReplyDeletei'm not talking about next month.
i'm also not talking reform...just to be clear.
i'm talking profound shifts from within our communities. transformation of beliefs and ways of moving, of doing things.
Yes. Including returning to ways of being and doing that are very old, Indigenous, and not at all part of what CRAP values. Led by Indigenous wimmin.
this is what i'm after, this is what i'm on about. this is what drives me...a dream/theory...
it's what i've got. it's what i can offer.
I suppose one goal of this blog is to make visible the theories-made-concrete that CRAP works to keep alive in a vampiric way. Someone once said "we live in the ideas of others". A few people tend to decide what the forms of our lives will be. What shapes our homes will be. What shapes our societies will be. A few, not the many, decide, for example, what "work" and "sex" is.
I'm wanting to support the efforts of activist wimmin and creative wimmin worldwide who will settle for nothing less than the total transformation of racist capitalist patriarchies into humane, Earth-honoring, hierarchy-refusing communities.