Mercy Centre (a shelter for street kids) and Goodwill Group Foundation (an organization to empower disadvantaged women) speak about sex tourism in Thailand.

Giorgio Berardi, Programme Officer of Combating Child-Sex Tourism (CST), speaks about the efforts of ECPAT International to protect children in Thailand.

BANGKOK, Thailand — Human trafficking is a worldwide tragedy impacting an estimated 1.2 million child victims. The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) recently asserted that 79% of all global trafficking is for sexual exploitation, which is one of the fastest growing criminal activities in the world.

Click here to listen to Guzder’s radio interview on  ”Bread and Roses”, KBOO 90.7 FM Community Radio, about her reporting in Thailand: “Human Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation“

Also, listen to Guzder’s radio interview on  ”Bread and Roses”, KBOO 90.7 FM Community Radio, about her reporting in Thailand: “Human Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation“

September 15, 2009

Thailand is often called the “Land of Smiles” and considered a tropical paradise full of friendly, spiritual locals eager to share their unique cuisine and pristine beaches. However, Thailand’s elaborate culinary feats and sun-washed beachfronts are not the only reason why the country has become the playground of the rich and elite of the world. Conservative estimates suggest that 10% of tourist dollars are spent on the sex trade.

Behind the brothels posing as massage parlors is a painful story involving women trafficked from Burma, children exploited by pimps, and global economic disparities that allow rich tourists to make unchecked demands on impoverished locals’ bodies. Recent political turmoil coupled with the global economic downturn has made the Ministry of Tourism reluctant to reinvigorate efforts and give the outside world any impression
that Thailand is anything but the “Land of Smiles.”

<<If you see a red box with the word “multimedia” above, please click it to continue>>

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE A MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION OF IRAN

(documentaries, interactive map, travelogue, photos, and more)

In 2007, Guzder received a grant from the Carnegie and Knight Foundations to travel to Iran as News 21’s foreign correspondent. Guzder reported from Tehran, Shiraz, Esfahan, Yazd, and Persepolis.

Mark Glaser of PBS commented on her reporting: Guzder’s search for her Zoroastrian roots in Iran was first person and conversational . . . If we could only hear these voices more often, and have constant cross-cultural communication, maybe we would have less war mongering and more peacemaking. Maybe, with deliberation and tough debate, we would discover our differences and similarities.

Deena Guzder,  A HIGHER CALLING: The Hidden Role of Radically Progressive Theology in North American Social Justice Movements.

Literary Nonfiction; Chicago Review Press (US & Canada); Tentative Publication Date: 2011 

In January 1917, Alice Stokes Paul led mass demonstrations outside of the White House demanding women’s suffrage—she was imprisoned thrice in the U.S. and thrice in England, to which she responded by waging hunger strikes that were severe enough to require hospitalization. On May 4, 1961, James Zwerg participated in Freedom Rides to the segregated South and was greeted with chants of “Kill the nigger-loving son of a bitch!” as a mob of 3,000 used bats and pipes to beat the young white man nearly to death. On January 21, 1998, Roy Bourgeois was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $3,000 for illegally entering, disrupting and trying to close down the Fort Benning U.S. Army base that trained Latin American dictators such as Bolivia’s Hugo Banzer and Panama’s Manuel Noriega. 

The common thread connecting Paul, Zwerg, and Bourgeois is not leftist politics or anarchist leanings, but religious convictions. Paul, a Quaker, believed that all people are created with an indistinguishable “Inner Light” regardless of their gender.  Zwerg, a minister in the United Church of Christ, regards his contribution to the civil rights movement as “an incredible religious experience” because he believed he was doing “God’s work” when protesting segregation. Bourgeois, an ordained Catholic Priest, denounced America’s support for dictatorships in Latin America and founded School of the Americas Watch, which seeks to shut down Fort Benning, in an effort to “live according to the justice and charity of Christ.”

A Higher Calling is the overlooked story of U.S. religious movements for social justice, a story about faith-based radicalism far removed from the most bombastic — and often least representative — voices of self-proclaimed “holy warriors” who brandish weapons in the name of their God(s). While pundits speak of the “Religious Right,” A Higher Calling focuses on the underreported story of Americans who are progressive because they are religious.

Guzder runs a fledgling nonprofit organization: Students Together in Tackling Child Hunger (S.T.I.T.C.H). The organization buys hand-embroidered, georgette shirts wholesale from local retailers in India, who uphold ethical labor practices, and sells them for quadruple the price. All profit goes to UNICEF so children, instead of corporations, benefit from inequality. The one-size-fits-all tunics make wonderful gifts.

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The S.T.I.T.C.H project is in the process of gaining the IRS classification of 501(c)(3), a “charitable nonprofit.”

Contribute to STITCH and support UNICEF:

Donate by PayPal (below) or via snail-mail by sending a letter with: (1) your name, address, preferred tunic color; (2) a +$15 USD check to UNICEF; and, (3)$5 USD in cash for shipping & handling.  For snail-mail address, please email dg2190@columbia.edu.

We will mail you your tunic within a week and redirect your donation to UNICEF. To ensure you know your money goes to a good cause, we only accept checks made out to UNICEF (no cash). The reason you can’t send your check directly to UNICEF is because we need to verify you are making a donation. Malnutrition is a silent emergency that causes the deaths of over 6 million children in developing countries each year-a tragedy that can and must be prevented.

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Mark Glaser of PBS commented on her reporting: Guzder’s search for her Zoroastrian roots in Iran was first person and conversational . . . If we could only hear these voices more often, and have constant cross-cultural communication, maybe we would have less war mongering and more peacemaking. Maybe, with deliberation and tough debate, we would discover our differences and similarities.