Letter from Australia

Hey everyone,

Now that the Tour is over, I thought that the website would sort of go the way of a car on blocks in someone's backyard and just sort of wither away and die in plain sight. But before that happened, I got two letters from an amazing girl in rural Australia, and she gave me her permission to publish them on the blog. If you want to get in touch with her, let me know.

To: Tour for Equality
President R. Parker
I know this is a bit out of the blue -but can you guys come to austrailia? or rather remote aboriginal communitys in austrailia to help rise awareness?
a bit of back ground. I am sixeen years old and live on one, I have been here for three years after my mum got a job teaching at the local school after the divorce with my father. I am a girl and coming to the community there was/are a few rules to be followed, like no wearing skimpy clothes, mini's, tube tops, singlets and shorts, stuff like that, which is no biggie, being white I do get to wear long pants and jeans, though the local girls can't. Go jeans! The clothing rules though are not what disturbs me though, it's stuff like a 13 year old boy who I sort of knew from carpentry class gang raping a girl in adelide over the hol's with four other guys.
My brother who was then working at the concil office had to take his picture for some reason and had [his name] BRAG about it to him, saying stuff like, "I'm a man now" or this girl who was in my hairdressing class who nearly ended up as a second wife to this forty year old man, his first wife Lisa was fine with it and the only reason it did not happen was her mum said no, she was, like, 14 at the time.
Theres a lot worse stuff going on, like I know a girl who's maybe 13 or 14, who got given to guy whose on the concil who raped her and then got beaten by the guy's wife, like it was her fault she was sexully assulted by her husband.
Austrailia has a problem with how to "treat" the indiginous population so it tends to ignore them or make exuses and say "well, its part of their culture to rape women and kids and stuff so we should not interfer with that" and then there is all this crap about "Reconciliaion"and "equal rights" yet there is no equal rights for black women and kids.
Like this Elder held a 14 year old girl in his house for 4 days against her will, beat and raped her, including anally and he got 24 months in jail suspended after one month because he said "I did not know it was against the law", you see she was his "Promised Bride" and therefore in his culture it was fine.
What about her, did she know it was aganinst the law? nobody asked, in fact this act of violence against her was considered of such little value that it was not even on the news that night. If it had happened in the suburbs it would have been every where, on the news, on the frontpage every where, yet its like, people are going, well, she's just an abo girl so lets not rock the boat or upset anybody.
Black rights campangers get very, very upset over their men in jail. so umm, yeah, sorry for it to be such a downer of a letter cos I really think you people are great and rock and are really brave and smart and I could go on for about three hundred pages but that would be weird.

I think if we could just get some one who was not from oz to say "hey this is actully really quite bad" maybe somebody out there would do something. I mean most austrailians live in the suburbs or the city and do not realise whats going on in their own country or just don't care and I think that is really sad I talk to some of my old friends in melbourne (thats the capital of the state of Victoria, in case you wanted to know) and some of them so not even watch the evening news cos "its too depressing, lets talk about my new outfit" although Eve is known for being super-girly-girl.
Anyhow if you could reply it would be super good and I know there are a
lot of gaps in what I am saying but I have already written such a long
email and I don't want to be boring or anything so, um, yeah.
Thanks so much, you bloke's really are the best, and the ladys on your
team as well!!!
Hannah Stanley
PS I know that you are probly too busy to do anything, I think like
most older people are.

Home

For any of you that do not already know from the exclamations of our parents, Raffi and I have returned safely to America, thus ending our time with the Tour for Equality in Asia. Happily, this does not mean the end of our mission. There are still many loose ends to tie up such as the various interviews/articles about the trip that are still in the works right now. But in all, the tour has concluded.

I will not rant and rave about all the things we have learned over there, whether they be side-splittingly humorous or deadly serious. I'll leave that up to Raffi. But I simply cannot omit the thanks and appreciation I have for all of the people that read the blog, gave us supportive emails, donated money, donated time, donated prayers, gave us a place to sleep, entertained us with stories, said they were proud of us, met with us to inform, gave us food, told a friend about our website, helped spread the awareness, talked to us at a hotel, sat with us in a bar, shook our hands, and so on. Everything that all of you did, accumlated into a gigantic ball of encouragement that empowered me to an extent I never thought I'd reach. Knowing there were people behind me made it possible to work through everything in front of me. I just hope that I haven't let any of you down. This was a big, intimidating and ambitious trip. It could've been a failure in so many ways, but thankfully I truly believe Raffi and I accomplished our goal of raising awareness and changing perceptions across the world, and again, there's absolutely no way any of that would have been possible without you. And of course the most respect and thanks I have goes to Raphael. To keep it short, everyone reading this should try their hardest to get as close to him as possible, because once you've gained his friendship you'll never find someone so complete. I learned a hell of lot from him, both good and bad things, about every facet of life through the last three months, all of which I can use to build my own character better. He was the perfect person to helm this project and my hat goes off to him for getting me involved, getting Tour for Equality to the level it's grown to, and showing me the world and myself in a way that I've never viewed it before.

Now, I have to go. Raffi just called and he's picking me up and we're going to a favorite restaurant in Cincinnati called Skyline. Many of you don't know what Skyline is, but if you're from Cincinnati you'll understand how difficult it's been to go without it for an entire summer. Mmmmmmm. After eating the greasy chili it'll be the last day we'll see each other for many months, which is difficult to fathom. From siamese twin to distant friend.

Anyways, thank you all again for EVERYTHING. It's been.......an experience.

-jacob

Publicity!

Hey everyone.

It looks like the Associated Press article that Miranda Leitsinger wrote about us 2 months ago is finally catching up to us.
In the last five days the article has turned up on CNN World, Yahoo Asia, The Taipei Times, a Chinese website (in Chinese), IMDiversity, and many others. Google or Altavista us and you can check it out.

We also are going to be in our local paper from back home in Ohio and we have been invited to be featured in a national publication for Asian Americans.

All of this publicity is fun, but it has also led to an outpouring of support from around the world. In particular, we have received two gratifying but also troubling letters, one from a young woman (who also organizes bicycle tours) in Moscow who is involved in the struggle to prevent rapes by police in Moscow, and another from an incredibly articulate 16 year old girl from an aboriginal village in Australia that is upset and worried about the frequency and tolerance for rape and gang rape in her community.

We have about two days left in our tour now and it is exciting to see that support is catching on and that there are people that take heart and support from our efforts. I would like to publish those two letters on this site, but first I will ask for permission.

Thoughts from the end of the road

Hey everyone,

It has been a while since I've blogged and I guess I should thank Jacob for getting on the web and sending out the messages to everyone. As he mentioned yesterday, we are in Chiang Mai right now and it is a beautiful city but utterly filled with bar girls (euphemism for prostitutes) and sex tourists.

It is weird to see the end result of the trafficking chain. I guess it's weird because the women that run out of bars on the street to grab a hold of our arms and beg us to come into the bars or to take them home don't seem miserable. They are usually laughing and are young and healthy, and it is only the knowledge that we have gained of the situation of many of them that allows us to ignore the temptation to believe that these women are happy doing what they are doing and it is just a good way for them to make some extra cash.
I've heard that view from some tourists here, and it seems so easy to believe when you see these girls, but it is basically a simple justification for buying sex. To be honest, it is a temptation that I understand. The Thai women are some of the most beautiful that I have ever seen and they act like the horniest of 18 year old boys. The night we got here, two of them accosted Jacob and were grabbing at his crotch, and one took the ID card of our buddy Ken and put it in her bra and told him he'd have to take it out if he wanted it. Basically, they are most guys' dream come true. And I guess that more than anything, the whole sex trade now makes a little more sense in terms of demand. What I mean is that I understand prostitution and how it has a long long history (it's even in the Bible) but I think that a place like Chiang Mai, or the Patpong part of Bangkok have got to be understood as totally unique in history. This is not prostitution, it is an actual meat market, and there is an insatiable demand for young women (and they can be really young) and it necessitates a whole massive, profitable, international trade in getting women, because who wants to be treated like meat.

An interesting story that Phil Marshall, the New Zealander from Phnom Penh who works at ARCPPT told us: once he was travelling through rural Laos and he and some friends stopped at a restaurant that also had prostitutes. The mama-san (or manager of the prostitutes) asked Phil why Westerners are so cheap. He asked what she meant. The mama-san explained that when foreigners come to get a woman, the price is about $20. But many Westerners try to bargain down. It is not that the women won't do it for less, the mama-san explained, but driving a bargain makes the women feel cheap.

It is an incredible story, I think, because it shows how complex this whole thing is. Being a prostitute at some level feels normal, but then it is being bargained for that is shameful. Phil, who would never want (or need) to buy sex and works to fight the trafficking of women, understood that if one does it, there is a right way to do it. I think that that is what I am coming to understand on this trip. It is not so much that prostitution is a disgrace or some terrible thing, but the way that it is being practiced in Asia (fed in large part by Western money) is utterly sickening. This is not prostitution, it is slavery, and people are being stolen from their homes and put in disgraceful work that often as not leads to AIDS.

Well, those are my feelings on the main topic.

It has been hard to blog for two other reasons. The first is that I have become pretty accustomed to everything Asian, and so it gets much more difficult to look at things and find them funny or crazy the way that I would as an American. For example, I find any restaurant meal that costs more than $3 per plate to be ridiculously overpriced yet I no longer think of the food (which is so delicious here in Thailand) as cheap. I am used to buying drinks on the street in plastic bags, where the liquid (juice or soda) is poured into a little shopping bag and I just walk around with a straw drinking out of the bag. So it has gotten harder to notice things that I think would be funny or interesting to write about. Oh, here's one:
We went to a muaythai (kickboxing) match last night. Muaythai is the national sport of Thailand and is watched all across SE Asia. So it seemed right to go check it out. We went to a quiet and pretty residential part of town and entered the arena/gym. It was like something out of Fight Club. There was a ring in the center and bleachers kind of far back, but there were only maybe 150 people around the ring watching the fighting. It was dark, dirty, dingy and filled with mosquitoes. It was, to quote Jacob, perfect.
We watched a bunch of fights, many of them with 16 year old boys. But this is all very normal here, and the boys seem to be friends and probably train together. The title fight at the end of the night was a Thai guy and some English dude named Murphy. Murphy steps out and his entire back is covered with Thai tattoos. He goes around the ring as all of the Thai fighters do, and prays at each corner. It was clear that he has adopted the Thai way of life and really takes kickboxing seriously. Unfortunately for him, he was an utter joke. He was sent crashing to the floor twice, and actually got knocked out--in the first round. Getting knocked out is pretty uncommon in kickboxing. Most of the fights are settled by decision. But poor old Murphy got laid out like a carpet. You can check out the pictures to see him on the ground and to see pictures of us with the champion.

The other reason that I haven't been writing is that I honestly thought that no one was reading this blog except for our families. It gets kind of tiring to write blogs when I talk to my family anyway, and so it has become a sort of unwelcome burden. Well, I now know that I was wrong. As many of you know, the Associated Press article (about a month after its release) finally got picked up by mainstream media. I know that it was in CNN, Chinese papers, Taiwanese papers, and at least two USA papers, maybe more. Our inbox has been filled with people from around the world sending us their support and also informing us of the work that they are doing. It has been incredibly gratifying to know that people are interested in this trip and that it means something to them.
Basically, I am tired. I am tired and am looking forward to returning home. I have worn one pair of pants over the last six months and only one pair of shorts (though I did buy some new ones). I have been living out of the same bicycle panniers and have washed myself for the last three months with those tiny little bars of hotel soap that vanish after five minutes in the shower. So I am road weary. Part of the weariness was the feeling that we were out here trying to do something positive, but that the only people that seemed to be following us were our parents. I now realize just how wrong we were, and I am deeply moved by the support that we have gotten from all of you that read this. You have given me the greatest gift, which is the sense that all of the work and effort and travel and hardship and laughter and injuries have had meaning. There is no greater gift and I have deep deep appreciation for your support. Thank you.

The circle is nearly complete

Oh, we're getting down to the end of days, aren't we? Right now Raffi and I are in Chiang Mai, Thailand with plans to go down to Bangkok tomorrow night and get everything settled up for our flight back to good ol' Cincinnati. Despite all these exciting plans for the near future we still haven't lost the reason why we're out here. Before leaving Laos we had the pleasure of meeting with two other women's rights organizations who were more than happy to share with us the situation in their country and what progress is being made.

First we met with representatives from the group Agir por les Femmes en Situation Precaire (AFESIP). In English it's "Acting for Women in Distressing Situations". Essentially this group has already established itself in many other Asian countries such as Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam with the goal to combat trafficking in women and children for sex slavery. Our ambassador to AFESIP, a very nice Frenchman named Didier, explained to Raffi and I how they are just now on the cusp of starting a similar anti-trafficking campaign in Laos. Right now it's still in the pre-production and development stages, but utilizing their knowledge of what works and what doesn't from their neighboring organizations in surrounding countries there is a large sense of optimism that their work in Laos will be quick in prevention and protection for high-risk women in the country. Despite all the good intentions that AFESIP has for Laos Didier strongly stressed how important it is to get support from high-ranking officials in the government and also to make these important contacts realize that this problem does exist. That's one thing Raffi and I have heard over and over. So many people in these countries either refuse to believe that trafficking of their wives and daughters is happening or deny any knowledge of it since it's easier to look away from the problem and hope it disappears than to face it and discover how horrible it really is. But I have faith in AFESIP. Once they start rolling, which should be in the very near future, Laos will have some of the resources that their bordering countries have. Resources that are necessary for proper rehabilitation of rescued women and women with a lack of options besides the sex trade. Soon AFESIP will be responsible for the foundation of shelters, vocational training classes, reading and writing skills. But there's still a lot of progress to be made. For instance, there's not a chance for psychological rehab because there are no psychologists in the country! Long is the way but bright is the future.

The second organization we met with is actually the Lao section of a group we met with previously in Cambodia, ARCPPT (Asia Regional Cooperation to Prevent People Trafficking). Our main man, Phil Marshall, put Raffi and I in touch with his friend in Vientiane, Gerard Smith, and the three of us sat down at this beautiful riverside restaurant to discuss what ARCPPT is doing in Laos. Basically, what Gerard is a part of is an initiative to train local police officers how to detect and properly investigate cases of people trafficking. Many of these officers don't know what warning signs are or how to read them, so Gerard is attempting to teach a specialized team of men on the red lights and alarms that suggest that trafficking is occurring. If a case is discovered a response unit will hopefully know how to properly handle it so not only will the women be safe in the end, but also the source of the problem will be rooted out as well. Right now it's slow going, Gerard says. The training sessions are only two weeks long. How is someone supposed to hone their detective skills on a brand new area of crime to them in just two weeks? Exactly the problem. But one that needs to be dealt with. Supposedly a Chinese mafia is starting to spread down through the north of Lao and without adequate protection from the police force these women are open targets for some sort of forced deceit.

Despite the gloom overhanging the trafficking problems in Laos, both Didier and Gerard were all smiles and laughter, which I realized was due to the optimism they felt. Sure things are going well right this second, but they see that if the work they are starting flourishes the way that they are directing it, the situations here will only get better. How could it get too much worse anyways? There's no protection and no where to turn. Now with the incorporation of AFESIP and ARCPPT into their justice system the women here will no doubt be placed in safer environments to grow up in.

And that was the end of Laos PDR. Sad? Yes. But excited to be back in Thailand. If you were to get a map and trace a line of where we've been traveling you'll see that we're very very close to closing a large ring. Once we get to Bangkok that will be a return to the place that this all started. I'm sure one of those blogs will be the sappy one where we say what we've learned, who we'd like to thank and all that jazz so I'll keep that finale for a few days from now. But....

I would like to thank everyone who's read our article on CNN World's website. You wouldn't believe the responses we've gotten in the past couple days from this. This one wonderful girl in Moscow emailed Raffi and I wanting to organize a trip. A PhD from Australia emailed us with a bunch of links to other sites that focus on exactly the same thing we're doing. Another girl from an Aboriginal village wrote us some stories about how the girls and women are unfairly treated in her town and would like for us to come over to Australia and give a talk to the boys there. It's so surreal to see how interconnected the world is, how quickly information can spread, and how much people desire to help others when it's for a good cause. So thank you everyone. From our trip's first friends (the English girls) to anyone who stumbled across the piece while surfing. It's good to know that you're out there and we're not doing any of this in vain.

-jacob

Capital City: Vientiane

Hello all, from the capital city of Laos....again. Yes, we've done a large loop in the northern portion of the country and have returned to our original point of arrival, the beautiful city of Vientiane. Just like the travel books say, for being the capital city there's hardly any sort of hustle or bustle on the streets to the likes of which you might expect. The traffic is just as easy-going as the street vendors, tuk tuk drivers, and hotel receptionists. It's hard to become animated about something when you look at the relaxed way the Lao people deal with situations.

It's almost time for us to go back into Thailand, but before leaving Lao we still thankfully have at least one more organization we're going to meet with tomorrow. It should prove to be very insightful since Raffi and I haven't yet really found out about the problems that Lao feels are the most pressing within its borders. It'll be nice to get an inside perspective on the problems and solutions that are in effect right now.

Sorry, but there aren't any funny stories to share with you right now. Since the last time we blogged we were hampered in much of our activity by a deluge of rainstorms. The one day that Raffi and I had planned on going on our big adventure by taking kayaks down the Mekong River and cave trekking in local mountains it rained the ENTIRE day. I went to sleep the night before listening to the heavy rain which was quite relaxing. I awoke to the same sound. I awoke again to the same sound. Had breakfast watching the rain fill the potholes in the street. Same for lunch.....and dinner. Then in the evening it stopped. 20 minutes later it started again and I ended up falling asleep to the same sound. It was weird. We're used to going for weeks and weeks and weeks without even a cloud in the sky and here it rained for 36 hours. Pretty impressive actually. But obviously there was no river kayaking or rock climbing to be had. Instead, we got our fix of movies taken care of. Most of the restaurants here, the ones that don't play Friends non-stop, have at least two TVs and an extensive collection of DVDs to watch while you eat. They understand that it rains a lot and realize that a good way to spend time when you have to be trapped indoors is to watch movies. So that's exactly what we did while it poured and poured. The following days threatened to be the same so we thought it be best to get out of town and come down to Vientiane, getting re-oriented, and enjoy the sway of life here.

The delicacy in Lao expanded wider in variety the past couple weeks as well. At one bus stop not too long ago I was stumbling around with Raffi after just waking up and this kid had a plastic bag filled with big black beetles in it that he was munching on. I hadn't had breakfast yet- unknown if Raffi had eaten already or not- but we reach into that bag without even thinking twice to get at those beetles and get a little food. The beetles were dead and must have been fed some sort of specially seasoned vegetation because when we bit into them they were filled with a spicy sort of dry grass mix. It was actually pretty good. Yesterday, Raffi almost bought a grilled guinea pig at a sidestand on the road. After re-evaluating the potential badness of that idea he changed his mind and considered getting a fried rat instead. Nothing ended up being bought but it's nice to know we have options.

After we've met all the groups here that we can, it'll be off to Chiang Mai, Thailand. It's quite the paradox city. We've heard tons of great things about the place and know through pictures that there are amazing buildings/temples to see. But it's also the premier hotbed of prostitution and trafficking. It's entering the belly of the beast and that's a bit stunning. Hopefully we can keep our cool around the wats when we see a shameless case of child exploitation parading around.

That's about all for now. Sorry it's not more thrilling, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Next blog will have some good information in it I'm sure. Take care, everyone and we'll see you soon.


-jacob

A nice, cold PDR

We've been on a whirlwind tour of our last new country, Laos PDR. I can safely say that Raffi and I are becoming quite the professionals at bus travel the way the past couple weeks have been going. Bus from Hanoi, Vietnam to Vientiane, Laos. Bus from Vientiane to Luang Prabang. Bus from Luang Prabang to Luang Namtha. Bus from Luang Namtha to Vang Vieng. It's been awkward how we've been covering all of this ground. The level of speed has felt so eerie after being assimilated to the slower pace of cycling. It's been a lot of motion but not a lot of activity. The cities have each been quite different yet all have characteristics that make it a part of Lao and no other country we've been to.

The drive into Laos from Vietnam was a new experience from the flat southern region of this corner of Asia. In Laos we were actually above clouds. We were looking down at clouds. It felt comforting, out of place and oddly extraordinary at the same time. I was being driven through the place we were told as kids that angels lived. This was where Heaven was supposed to be. As I sat there, continuing to ascend higher I couldn't help but feel a little supreme. I had found a back door that lead through the sky ad I could look down, detached. Below me were all the problems of the world. Pollution, STDs, politics, Friendster, litigation, mudslides, boy bands, junk food, temptation, stress. And I know I'm not a celestial being. Pardon me for sounding arrogant. There I was, up high but I knew I wasn't going to sprout my own pair of large, white feather wings. I'm still just jacob. 24 years old. Holes in my dirty t-shirt, not a lot of money in my bank account, allergic to real Christmas trees. The best material I've ever owned was a used Honda Accord from the 80s. I am in no way near being angelic in many ways and was less cherub and more just impersonating Neo in the second Matrix movie by doing "his Superman thang". Those problems I was looking down on are still a part of me and I a part of them. I'll have to return to there soon and try to help or at least not make them worse. It was just nice for five minutes to pretend I had reached transcendence by breaking the first barrier in the atmosphere. A short fantasy that I had gotten away.

It was good that I didn't keep floating upwards or else I would've missed Raffi's birthday. We only spent a day in Vientiane, the capital city, with the plans of returning there in about a week or less to meet up with more organizations. Until then we thought it'd be best to go north and see just how far we could get into the country. First stop, Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang was a lazy city. Very cozy with its small, tightly bound houses/cottages, but it's not claustrophobic. It's like one of those small medieval towns in a Disney movie. All the windows have wooden shutter with small balconies. Clothes are put out on lines to be sun dried. Many of the houses' staircases are outside. Lots of tiny patios. Short foliage separates the yards. The streets are narrow and made out of old rock rather than hot, black tar. Temples are everywhere and at 4pm the thumping of Buddhist drums reverberates across the entire city. Very serene. Eating meals by the might Mekong River.

We soon left Luang Prabang to the city of Luang Namtha. Another very nice and laid back city but we knew we could go farther. In the morning after our arrival it was the quarter century mark for Raphael Parker's existence on Earth so it had to be celebrated appropriately. We stuck to our plan and rented motorbikes to ride ourselves up to Muang Singh, a city right on the border of China. Neither one of us had ever operated a motorbike before but didn't want to look like idiots on the street to the people who've been using them since birth. We fumble around for a second and find out that they're actually very easy to use. And with a turn of the throttle we were on our way north.

The city itself was less spectacular than the ride leading up and back. We were accelerating through straight-up dense jungle. Jungle that almost swallowed me whole. It was so high and lush that I was almost disoriented. All around were just solid walls of trees. You couldn't even see past the first or second row to know what the interior of the forest looked like. Similar to being amongst skyscrapers in a busy city, the forest rose up so steeply on mountains that I would actually have to crane my head up just to see the sky. Amost no one else was on the road which eased by fragile nerves. Livestock and chickens were the biggest obstacles. At one point I came face to face with a water buffalo that took up the whole road and forced me to hit my brakes rather hard. And then we were eye to eye. Knowing it could have easily picked me up by it's huge horns and kill me in that instant certainly crossed my mind. Luckily, it cared not for my existence and let me pass. When the forest did decide to part and let us take a glimpse of the outside world I can see why the jungle was so greedy to share. Wow!! More real than anything I've ever seen. So real it looked fake. I almost believed these views to be manufactured but looked a little too much like the jungle you see in your mind. It looked how zoos fail to replicate. I was inside the award-winning new Omnimax film Laos: Jewel of the Mekong. I was standing on what digital cable supposedly offers. The sky seemed to melt its clouds onto the mountains. The mountains themselves were like enormous ripples on a jade-colored velour blanket. The makers of Crayola crayons and house paint companies would have a field day (no pun intended) if they could get swatches of these forests. There was just every shade of green, but vivid butterflies, shining dragonflies and exotic birds dotting the wet trees. The sky had beautiful gray hues in it that brought rain, but neither of us minded.

Muang Singh itself was just another border town. Nothing to great but still interesting. The northern mountain range we had as our backdrop was China. We saw China!! We spent a bit more time walking through some local ethnic villages, ending up watching a kickboxing match in a thatched hut with about two dozen village dwellers, then rode back to Luang Namtha for a wonderful birthday dinner of authentic Chinese ("they got sauces"). Plates of stir-fried eel, crispy duck, fried tofu, and string beans. Mmmm. And a piece of green tea birthday cake to boot.

Then it was back for more bus riding. Although I'm getting more used to it with every passing ride, there's nothing terribly glamorous about it. It's funny how quickly one's threshold for comfort can dip when deprived of options. During one ride there was a normal sized headrest on the seat next to me. A rectangle about 3"x8". It looked like this:


--A----------
l ...............l C
---------B---


Point A is where one guy had his head resting to sleep.
Point B is where I leaned forward in my seat to lean my head on that same rest.
Point C is where the guy sitting in the aisle leaned the side of his head to sleep.

Three people using one headrest to sleep. That's how desperate it's gotten. About the guy on Point C. There are a lot of these guys. You see, after the bus fills all it's seats that would normally mean that you stop selling tickets. Not in Asia. Where we see an aisle they see the opportunity for more seats. In a best case scenario there's a small seat attached to an aisle chair that folds down so that the aisle literally transforms in a new row of riders. In the common scenario there is no fold down seat and the bus company brings in a stack of plastic stools and line the aisles with these for the unlucky late-comers. On the ride yesterday from Luang Namtha to Vang Vieng Raffi and I were at one of the impromptu bathroom stops on the side of the road. There was a guy who'd be guarding the bags on the roof of the bus for the first couple hours since leaving the station. I comment to Raffi, half jokingly, that it was probably pretty comfortable up there. Raffi agrees and asks me if we should try to get up there. I have no reason to think that anything could be worse than the cramped legroom and stale air inside the bus so I shrug and say we should give it a try. We use our razor-sharp miming skills and "ask" the driver if we could hop on top of the bus. He nods so we get up there and it turns out to be the most comfortable part of the recent riding we've done. Our legs were fully extended, laying down, feeling all of the breeze. Raffi was reclined on the bump of cargo covered by a tarp and I found a deflated intertube that was scrunched up to lay on. To you it might sound horrible, but we were loving it. Again, the standards for comfort dip pretty quick on budget buses through a third world country. You know you're traveling budget when you use a paperback book for a pillow. You know you're getting used to budget traveling when using a book doesn't actually feel that bad. A book. I was using a freaking book. So yes, laying on a roof was exponentially better.

Now we're going to have a few day to not move and see what Vang Vieng has to offer. So far, it's a bit dodgy. They play Friends everywhere. You might think I"m joking but this is what the city is known for, it's TV bars that show Friends 24 hours a day. Right now, looking to my left, not even needing to take my fingers off of the keyboard, I can see three bars each playing a differerent episode. And then another episode will follow that. And another. And another. Friends 24 hours a day at dozens of bars. That theme song overlapping on itself in a constant loop. It's absurd, but I'm hoping to find a nice un-Friendly place to pop in a good martial arts movie. It's been a long time since we've had the pleasure of electronic entertainment. Regardless, there's a beautiful river right down the street that we can boat and go tubing on. It'll be nice. Then on to Vientiane, meet some more groups and start the haul back to Thailand so we can get to the Bangkok airport in two weeks and fly home. Weird. But we're not done with Laos yet. Not at all. This has the potential to be the best country yet. We'll let you know. Thanks for listening to the rant. I'm a bit out of sorts from the lack of sleep of all these bus rides so please forgive me. Until next time, see you all soon.

-jacob

Thoughts on Leaving Viet Nam and on Trafficking

We are now in Laos, after a full month of cycling (and briefly) riding the train through Viet Nam. It has been an incredibly long month, and subjective feeling based in part on the fact that every day we headed into new terrain, experiences, and ended up in a new town or city with new people and sights along the way. Every moment was a discovery, and except for our own personal habits, nothing was routine.
But having already been on the road through Thailand and Laos, we were able to process the experience of Viet Nam not only by recording it and discussing it with each other, but also by comparing it to what we had already seen (or endured) in the other countries.
For one thing, Vietnam is incredibly wealthy by any Cambodian standard (except for those in their government for whom no amount of money can satisfy...). There is electricity in even the smallest villages (that we saw) and phone lines, as opposed to people running the occasional TV, or their lightbulbs off of car or truck batteries. The food was also quite good, and the tap water safe to drink--which means that the ice was safe and allowed us to consume cold drinks on hot days.
Besides the mundane considerations of the cyclist (food, cold drinks, road conditions, weather, etc.) we have, for the entire trip, been especially sensitive to what we perceive to be the status or standing of women. We were incredibly heartened by what we saw.
Women comprise a huge section of the labor force, working on road and construction crews, working the fields alongside the men, and running many of the restaurants and shops throughout the country. This is in part, a consequence of the "American War" in the same way that Rosie the Riveter helped transform the labor force in America during WWII. (A brief aside: I want to mention very quickly that despite my bringing the issue up with nearly every Viet person that could speak passable English, I never heard any word at all of condemnation or even dislike of America. By all accounts, they say that the war is over, in the past, and there is no reason whatsoever to dwell on it. And they have every reason to dwell. The country still is pocked with bomb craters and victims, and yet their generosity of spirit is utterly amazing and, to me, bewildering).

When we were granted an opportunity to meet with the Quebec department of the global non-profit Oxfam to discuss issues of gender and trafficking in Viet Nam, I for one, was pretty happy to know that we wouldn't be going through the gloomy scenarios that haunt countries like Thailand and Cambodia. Have I mentioned yet how ignorant I am? It turns out that the picture is not quite so Rosie!

Project coordinator Kim Anh and gender specialist Carole Marsolais spent an afternoon with us explaining what is going on in Viet Nam and what Oxfam-Quebec is doing to stop it. Domestic violence is a major issue here, as is human trafficking. Before I go into their response and the nature of trafficking in VN, I think that it is high time that a definition of the problem be introduced:

The United Nations definition of human trafficking is “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation"

If you'll permit me to briefly quote from the UN's Economic and Social Comission for Asia's website, I think that some info is relevant. Bear with me:

The Asia Pacific region is seen as the most vulnerable region for trafficking because of its huge population pyramid, growing urbanization, and extensive poverty. Trafficking is a violation of human rights. Victims of trafficking suffer from physical and mental abuse and social stigmatization. They become isolated, losing ties with their former lives and families. At the societal level, trafficking undermines development efforts and raises social and health costs. The ongoing abuses of human rights and the growing social and economic inequality within and between countries has led to an environment in which many women have few choices and resources, and are thus vulnerable to being lured, mislead or forced into being trafficked. Women who are most vulnerable to being trafficked are those aged 10-35 and who are impoverished, uneducated or from indigenous, ethnic minority, rural or refugee groups. Such women often lack access to education and meaningful employment opportunities. Harmful cultural and customary practices also perpetuate discriminatory and violent practices that further diminish women's opportunities and lead to further marginalization and commodification. Promoting gender equality through the elimination of gender discrimination and gender-based violence will enhance the dignity and human rights of women and girls and prevent their being trafficked.

The above information is, in short, what Carole and Anh discussed with Jacob and me. Oxfam's approach has been to work with the police and train them in dealing with these new problems by helping them to understand what trafficking is (this is an issue which is critical in America, where many Mexican women that are arrested in whorehouses are treated as illegal aliens, when in fact they are victims of trafficking!). Also Oxfam seeks to provide vocational training to women that are at risk of being trafficked. Giving women a means of making a living is a surefire way to help them avoid the dangers of leaving home to unknown areas out of desperation for money. Former trafficking victims are often stigmatized for having become victims of trafficking, and so because of their own embarassment, or to spare their family the shame of having them around, they can not return to their own villages. Oxfam helps these women learn new trades.

I realize that I am covering quite a bit of ground here, and so I want to backtrack a few times, or at the very least provide some anecdotes. If there is anything that you are interested in learning about, post a comment to the blog and I will address it.

One issue is "How do these women get trafficked?" It is a good question but it varies depending on the situation. One woman that has been helped by Oxfam was tricked by her best friend into going to China to accept a job. She was forced to marry an abusive man, and had to spend 10 years with him before she could escape. Other times the cause is more indirect. Vietnamese people are hired as agents to recruit people for jobs in China. These recruiters have no idea that the people they recruit are going to be forced to do certain types of work. The recruiters themselves are unwitting pawns.

Another question is "How does one cross a border against one's own will? Aren't there guards?" It turns out that much of the border crossing is done through the jungle where there are no guards. Also there is often collusion between corrupt border officials and traffickers.

Also: "What are the victims forced to do?" This depends on what there is a need for. Many of those trafficked from Vietnam into Cambodia are forced to work as prostitutes because of the Cambodian preference for light-skinned women. A huge factor in trafficking in Viet Nam is that China's One-Child law led to widespread abortions of female fetuses (families want a son that will take care of them when they get old, not a daughter that they will have to give away). Accordingly, there are upwards of 135 Chinese men for every 100 Chinese women, and the trafficking of Vietnamese women (often forced to marry old, handicapped, abusive, or retarded Chinese men) has been a response to this shortage.

So, there's a picture of trafficking in Viet Nam, now what is being done to stop it!

The people at Oxfam generously introduced us to one of the programs that they help fund, the Vietnam Handicraft Village Research and Promotion Center (www.hrpc.com.vn). We were shown around a project of this organiztion by its charming and very bright Development Manager, Nguyen Bao Thoa. (Once again, frustratingly, let me fill in some background: There is a Women's League of Viet Nam that has a total of 10 million members. VN has a total population of 80 million. So there is a strong presence of this union in the country and it has facilities in all parts of the country in correspondence with the political organization of Vietnam, from National level to Provincial, Municipal and Community.) Ms. Nguyen took us to the community center of the Women's League on the outskirts of Hanoi where we met with the chairwoman for the Community League and the Municipal League. At this center, the League has donated space to the HRPC, which has filled the rooms with looms and runs classes teaching former victims of trafficking and those who are at risk of being trafficked how to make beautiful bamboo scrolls and mats. There are pictures of us at this facility on our Shutterfly site (http://tourforequality.shutterfly.com).

We spent a delightful afternoon visiting the facility and speaking with the chairwomen. Jacob and I were shocked to find that there was a problem with equality in a country with such a powerful women's league. The chairwomen informed us that though women work as hard as the men, there is very little sense of gender equality. For example, a husband and wife may go out to the field together in the morning at the same time and return at the same time, but then it is the woman's job to clean, cook, and take care of the children.
"What happens if the woman is sick?" Jacob asked, shocked.
"She calls her sister and her sister has to do it," they answered, laughing at our shock.

Fundamentally, the issues in Viet Nam, as in the United States, come down to social attitudes. Women in both countries have proven themselves every bit as capable as men of doing serious and demanding work. But in both countries, women continue to suffer from a social attitude that while there is parity in work out of the house, insider the house the man needn't exert any effort. This, the chairwoman of the municipality, Ms. Be, expressed as the greatest challenge facing Viet Nam today.

Obvioulsy there are other challenges as well. Viet Nam is just beginning to come to terms with domestic violence. In the past it had always been a hush-hush issue, but now, through the efforts of international and local non-profits, that attitude is changing. Broken bones and blood are now not considered the only evidence of abuse.

Mrs. Nguyen recently prepared a commercial for television that discusses the relationship between STD's (which the government is trying to eradicate) with sexual abuse. The government has prevented this commercial from airing, because it does not want to admit, or discuss, the existence of sexual abuse.

This blog is long and if you have read it to this point I thank you. I feel a bit swarmed under myself at the conversations and experiences of that day and all of the days that have preceeded it. What I can offer as a final note is that organizations like the HRPC and Oxfam-Quebec are having a real and powerful effect on the tremendous social problems that are emerging as a result of the global economy and the breakdown of traditional borders. The products of globalization: cheaper products of better quality in our kitchens, offices, and streets is at the same time rending the fabric of traditional and sustainable societies halfway across the globe. As quickly as pimps and traffickers step in to exploit this breach, dedicated and intelligent people like the HRPC and Oxfam-Quebec are also stepping in and are making our new world safer and more humane. They deserve our thanks, our admiration and our support.