8 Things You Should Care About

I don't often talk about my work on here.  I reckon most people know what I do and keep up with our social media outlets for information but this week feels significant.  This Friday, October 18th marks EU Anti-trafficking Day. I work in this field, around this issue every single day.  There isn't a day in my life that goes by now without some sort of conversation about slavery and exploitation - so most days feel like anti-trafficking days to me.  However, I know that the issue of modern day slavery can sometime seem so overwhelming to someone not so engrossed or familiar.  The statistics are suffocating:

21 million people in forced labour in the world today. That's about the same as the population of the whole of Australia.

Every country in the world is effected by this crime.  Source countries, destination countries, internal trafficking.

Sexual exploitation.  Forced labour.  Domestic servitude.  Forced crime.

80% of victims are women and girls.

I could go on and on and on.

But how do we connect to it all?  How do we make sense of numbers and figures in order to not be paralysed by the scale of the problem?

My job requires me to do just that.  To think about how every day people can engage in this issue, find what they can offer and put it to use.  Big ways and small - it all matters.

So I've been thinking about some of the ways you might not know that you can care about human trafficking that really make a difference.  You don't need to be on the front line giving inspiring speeches, debating policy and campaigning.

Over the next 2 posts, I'm going to share 8 important issues that are connected to human trafficking.

If you are wondering how to connect - here are four things you can start caring about today:

-  Education

“I think of it often and imagine the scene clearly. Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.”  – Malala Yousafzai

Malala is quite right.  The right to education is something we should all be passionate about.  Informed and empowered young people around the world is what we need.  With education, certainly comes power.  The power to understand, to make good choices, to have opportunities that can quash the vulnerabilities that oppressors and traffickers prey upon.

Whether you live in Belfast or Bangladesh - protecting and promoting education must be a priority.   Do you thank the teachers at your children's school?  The Times reported in September that "Currently the only official guidance teachers have to talk about sex and relationships to pupils was last updated in 2000, some 13 years ago, and does not mention internet porn, sexting or social media." - I'll get to the issue of sexualisation as a big contributing factor in this issue tomorrow - but if you think it's important that we educate young people about this stuff rather than let Channel 4 do it, you can add your voice to The Times campaign with a few clicks on the keyboard here.

-  Getting to know your neighbour

I blogged about this before here and for AskWhatNow - seeing what goes on in your neighbourhood, investing and connecting to your local community can be life-changing.  For you and for others.  Livability UK states that '5 million people aged over 60 say they now consider the television to be their only source of company'.  This statistic is just an example of how disconnected we actually are to each other, in an age where we are technologically able to be connected the most.   This message is so simple, but less practiced in our society than ever before.  If trafficking exists in our housing developments and estates - how will you spot it if you don't know who you live around?  How can you create a culture of 'looking out for each other' where you rest your head?

-  Social Inclusion

Similar to getting to know your neighbour - how intentionally inclusive are you?  Human trafficking thrives in places where people are isolated and hidden.   My co-workers at CIP are a shining example of social inclusion for the migrant & ethnic minority communities here in our area.  I have been moved to tears seeing and hearing the stories of how lonely people far from home have been welcomed, educated and befriended by the programmes CIP runs.  Are there people in your town that are hidden?  That don't know how to access support, friendship and care?  Find somewhere to volunteer.  This matters.

-  Job Security

At the end of the day, if we can't get job security and employment rights sorted here within a democratic society, what hope is there for people in countries with more corrupt governments?  Exploitation is exploitation.  We can dress it up but it still smells the same.  Take zero hour contracts for example.

The BBC explains: 'Zero-hours contracts, or casual contracts, allow employers to hire staff with no guarantee of work.  They mean employees only work as and when they are needed by employers, often at short notice, and are only paid for the hours they work.  Some zero-hours contracts oblige workers to take the shifts they are offered, others do not.  Sick pay is often not included, though holiday pay should be, in line with working time regulations.'

With the increase of zero-hours work contracts (up to 1 million people in the UK) in the job market, there is a real weakness in the system leaving people with very little security, financially fragile which can often lead to vulnerability.  Some workers have disclosed the impact such uncertainty has had on their mental health - noting breakdowns and depression.  Big companies like Sports Direct, Pub chain JD Wetherspoons and Cineworld have up to 80% of their staff on zero-hours contracts.

This murky underworld has also seeped into academia and exposed the levels of discrimination that go along within it.   According to research carried out by UCU nationally, 'permanent contracts are most likely to be awarded to University and College teachers 'who's face fits within the existing culture of an institution' while female lecturers, black staff, lesbian and gay workers are disproportionally likely to be employed on 0 hour contracts.'

All of this is connected to how we value each other and what we contribute to society - a core theme in the issue of exploitation and trafficking.  Does your employer use these contracts?  Are you promoting equality and fairness in your job in all areas?

*steps gracefully off the soapbox*

Have a think over these four issues.  Make the connections to your own life, views, decisions.  Is there something here you can do differently/better/new?

I'll be back tomorrow with four more issues to stir the pot...

Don't Believe The Hype

Yesterday our wee country had a visit from the POTUS.  I love using POTUS, it makes me nostalgic for The West Wing.  I really miss The West Wing.

As I was driving to do a Freedom Acts school session, I flicked on the radio to listen into the broadcast of the event at the Waterfront Hall where a packed auditorium of students, young people and dignitaries were waiting on baited breath the arrival of the Obamas (and their entourage, obvs).  People being interviewed were saying stuff like 'This is a life-changing day for our country' and 'This will put Northern Ireland on the map'.  

Huge. Massive. Eyeroll.

I guess it's easy to understand the draw though - American Presidents are iconic.  They're a little bit like fictional characters to us here in the UK; like they don't really exist outside of TV - and on TV they're always the hero, so getting to see and hear one speak in your home country must have been pretty exciting.

In all the pomp and circumstance (and insanely OTT police presence) a couple of things brought me and my easily-lured-by-the-glamour-of-it-all personality back to reality.  

My husband got word last week that there was a ticket available for him to go to hear Obama at the Waterfront.  Without thinking twice about it, he turned it down.  We talked about it and he made it clear that all the adulation and fuss didn't sit comfortably with him.  You see, my Dave isn't easily swooned like me.  He'd rather sit in a room and have a guinness with Joe Mahon from 'Lesser Spotted Ulster' than listen to Obama.  Maybe it's because he knows someone like Joe Mahon really loves our wee country and has a lot more invested in this beautiful land than an American President.  

Then yesterday in the midst of the hype, my mate Rick tweeted this:  'Ok so I thought what Mr Obama had to say was fantastic. And needed. But do we pay any attention when ordinary people share the same message?'

Nail. On. Head.

What do you think it is about our culture that needs to hear empowering words from someone like Obama in order to feel inspired.  I mean, I'm not naive enough to not understand it.  I guess it just got me thinking about that topsy turvy idea that unless something is said by someone with weight behind them, that has a significant platform or some sort of wide recognition we're unlikely to really listen. 

A couple of years ago I wrote a song - the lyrics came back to me with extra meaning in light of yesterday:

Blessed are the cracked for they let in the light

And blessed are the hungry that are starving to do right

Blessed is the mystery when the truth is out of sight

Insecure and beautiful underneath

Blessed are the complex for not settling

And blessed are the sacrifices, lives of offering

Blessed are the lost, it’s for only them I sing

Insecure and beautiful underneath

Twisted are the values that this world reveals  

 The trophies and the honour seeming wasted

Fruitless deeds make everything appear to me so clear

Credit where it’s due, the unremembered things you do

Will one day find reward, just see it through.

Blessed are the generous that have not much

And blessed are the tactile in a world that’s lost its touch

Blessed are the honest who can’t put a price on trust

Insecure and beautiful underneath

Blessed are the workers that can’t see reward

And blessed are the gentle in the face of such discord

Blessed are the humble when their voices are ignored

Insecure and beautiful underneath

I hope that we can become less fickle.  I hope that we are keeping our ears and eyes open to the people quietly and faithfully going about their business to make our country and our communities more hopeful, more beautiful, more inspiring and more united.  The youth workers, the community workers, the shop-keepers, the civil servants, teachers and volunteers;  these are the people who are invested in our communities and our country and will be there doing their bit, day in and day out, long after the cavalcade has left town.

Owning Your Community

Continuing on from my post a while back about getting to know your neighbours, I wanted to get out some of my other thoughts on the importance of investing in your community and especially how OWNING your community can make a difference. I've been a bit of a nomad in life.  Northern Ireland for 17 years, Canada for 8, London for 4.  I've lived in countless houses, flats and dorms with people from all over the world.  It's been transformational, eye-opening and challenging.  When people ask me 'where is home?' I struggle to pick a place.  Obviously my true sense of home is wherever Dave and Levi are now, but so many of my formative years were spent in other places.  So many of my shaping young-adult years were spent from pillar to post - bunking with people who were doing amazing things, showing me hospitality, welcoming me into their families and offering me lots of wisdom to chew on.  I think the longest time I've lived in one place was from when I was born until I was 8.  You can see how easily I might have developed a sense of free-spiritedness, and although that is a strong and valuable part of my make-up, it has also had me often pining for ownership somewhere.

This was my first ever leaving party...heading off to Canada at the age of 8.  N'aawwwww.

And another time we left Northern Ireland to move to Canada...apparently cutting a cake is a right of passage when you emigrate for the second time.   NOTE TO SELF:  Always have a fringe. 

Anyway, almost 3 years ago after Dave and I returned to Northern Ireland from a magical, whimsical year of living it up in London. I knew in my heart that we would be putting our roots down for a while.  We wanted to start this new adventure of parenthood with family supporting us close by (boy am I glad we did).  I think this feeling of being settled had always unsettled me but the imminence of becoming a mother gave me peace and I knew that I needed to start to invest more in the place that I lived.  I understood from all my super important gap year days that living locally had a massive impact on the global but what did it even mean to start walking that talk?  I'd spent so much of my life knowing I'd probably be moving on again soon that I often resisted getting too involved, too connected.  The last few years has been a real lesson in staying put and putting in.

So with that as a backdrop, I am navigating what it means to belong somewhere. It has taken a real shift in thinking and doing and has meant deciding to be a bit more thoughtful about so many of our every day family choices.

The other night my neighbour came round and spent over 3 hours showing me how to crochet.  She has 5 kids, so thankfully she has some sort of deep well of patience built in.  As she corrected my trebles (that's a crochet term that I'm now privvy to you know), she told me about how she's been busy making blankets for Portadown Cares to give out in their Christmas hampers.  In the beginning of JUNE, this lady is thinking about how she can care for her community at CHRISTMAS.  Now THAT'S community ownership.

It means choosing to use your local hairdressers, butchers, coffee shop etc instead of giving your money to bigger, and sometimes fancier companies in bigger towns.  It means championing the good things already happening where you are; sticking up for your towns reputation; seeing potential in it and making sure we're all doing our bit to look after each other.  I feel like it's been even these small decisions that really make me feel more at home where I live.  Again, when you invest - you connect.  And when you connect you make a difference.

Owning my community has also meant that I am protective of it and the people I share it with.  For me, that level of ownership has taken me into the realm of community activism on issues of human trafficking and exploitation.  My friend and I had an inkling that there were people being exploited in our area so we spent some of our spare time meeting with all the local organisations and groups that work with vulnerable people.  We listened to these people; the people that have been investing in these issues longer than had in order to build a picture of what was already available and what was needed in our community to protect people.  And we continue to listen - every month we sit around a table with the Craigavon Human Trafficking Steering Group to listen to these people and learn from them.  All that listening gave us the guts to start Craigavon ACT Group (our voluntary activist group) 3 years ago, and even helped birth Freedom Acts (my job) this time last year.

We don't know ANYTHING until we listen.

I don't pretend to be perfect at this, but I've seen how worthwhile it can be when we connect and invest in where we live.  So I urge you to look around and see something great about your own patch, find something or someone in your community to look after, give your local shops some love and start to talk-up and own where you live.

And in all this be assured that I know that it's hard to connect sometimes but I know even more that it can be life-changing when you do.

Fancy Pants & Feminism

I’d like to start this post by asking that both my dad and my big brother make the mature decision to not read on.  I’m about to talk about lingerie and girl stuff that I’d rather you pretend I was not involved in.

Now that those guys are gone we can move on…

Ooooh, is there anything better than getting new pants?  I mean the British kind.  Underwear.  Undies.  Knickers.  I get really excited about having new pants.  Don’t pretend you don’t love it too.

I’m going to be a bridesmaid for one of my besties this year and I’m SO excited.  When we went to go bridesmaid dress shopping, one of my other besties (also a bridesmaid) was quite afronted that I had neither shaved my legs or wore matching underwear and bra for the excursion. 

I’ll admit, I should have re-thought the former of her issues as there was a small setback of static cling with some of the more chiffon-y dresses we tried on, but really?  Matching undies?  I don’t have any.  Unless a black M&S t-shirt bra and random unknown origin black undies count?  (They don’t by the way - she made quite clear).

I’ve been thinking a little bit lately about sexy underwear and lingerie and the reasons why us ladies often feel it’s important that we have this stuff in our clothing repertoire.

 

Dad & Tim, if you are still reading, now you should really shut it down. 

When I was getting married my friends bought me all kinds of beautifully sexy things.  Things I wasn’t even sure how to put on (come on…the stockings, suspenders, corsets - these things should come with diagrams and risk assessments)!  It felt like a right of passage at the time, but I guess my thoughts have been more focused on how sexualised our world is lately (which is the root of a lot of big problems, i.e. sex trafficking etc), and how the powers-that-try-to-be use the likes of the lingerie industry to peg us women into something to be oggled at and lusted over.  Is there a good reason as to why we should dress up to be more visually pleasing to our partners? 

I guess I’m questioning whether wearing sexy underwear or lingerie (whether that’s in a marriage context or not) is a feminist issue? 

Sure, there is the argument that lots of women feel empowered by this kind of attire, more confident, powerful - and some that will say that they wear it to appeal to their mens strong visual appetite, but I wonder if maybe some of these reasons are more often than not just another bunch of lies that we have grown used to going along with?  Do men feel the same need to present themselves in this sexy way when it comes to intimacy etc?

I understand this is a loaded topic, and to be honest I don’t have loads of well thought through opinions on this, I just wanted to get a few questions down while they were buzzing around my head.  What do you think? Is this another way for society to keep us locked in the sexual objectification game, or am I over-thinking it?