I'm heading off (right now) to Not For Sale's Backyard Academy training to learn more about Human Trafficking in Australia.
On the way, I'll be picking up my shiny new posters, printed at cost from the lovely guys at Marsh Media.
I did some practice push-ups this morning with my London / Hong Kong friend Paul Aldrich (he did 100, but I was dead at 60!)
So watch out for the crazy pushups guy in Leichhardt this weekend! Here goes!
The campaign of 10,000 push-ups raised awareness about human trafficking, slavery, and forced prostitution, reaching 70,000 people directly and 750,000 in print. Show your support by learning more about the problem, and the many ways we can fight it, while sharing what you learn with your friends. Together, we can crush slavery!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
The campaign starts tomorrow
I'm heading off (right now) to Not For Sale's Backyard Academy training to learn more about Human Trafficking in Australia.
On the way, I'll be picking up my shiny new posters, printed at cost from the lovely guys at Marsh Media.
I did some practice push-ups this morning with my London / Hong Kong friend Paul Aldrich (he did 100, but I was dead at 60!)
So watch out for the crazy pushups guy in Leichhardt this weekend! Here goes!
On the way, I'll be picking up my shiny new posters, printed at cost from the lovely guys at Marsh Media.
I did some practice push-ups this morning with my London / Hong Kong friend Paul Aldrich (he did 100, but I was dead at 60!)
So watch out for the crazy pushups guy in Leichhardt this weekend! Here goes!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
To celebrate the new financial year, Sutherland Shire resident Paul Harvey is starting a 100-day campaign entitled “10,000 push-ups to Crush Slavery” on July 1st to raise awareness about Human Trafficking, Slavery, and Forced Prostitution.
“When I learned that there are 27 million slaves in the world, it made me sick to my stomach. Children are worked to death by age 14 picking some of the cocoa that goes into the chocolate we eat. Girls as young as 6 are sold into forced prostitution and internet porn. There’s whole villages trapped in generations of debt bondage, forced to break rocks in wretched conditions, with no chance of escape. Disposable children thrown overboard with rocks around their ankles to untie fishing nets. The whole thing makes me flaming mad. We simply cannot let this obscene injustice continue.”
“This issue has really caught me by the heart-strings, and I’m going all out to make my campaign as big as one bloke can make it. I’ve got signs, flyers, a website, a Facebook cause, a petition, and I’ve printed a whole range of custom-designed clothing that I've made available online, so now I’m a human billboard for the cause.”
So what does he want from us? Nothing but spreading the word. “This needs more than just once-off sponsorship donations. It needs a change in public opinion. And you can do that by joining my Facebook cause, signing the petition, and sharing it with all your friends.”
“I may be just a regular Dad from the Shire, just another cog in a big city bank, but I believe that I can make a difference, even if I do all 10,000 push-ups on my own.”
You can watch or join Paul doing his fifty push-ups in a suit at 8:30am and another fifty at 12:30am near the MLC Centre in Martin Place every weekday (as weather & council allows), and at assorted locations in Sutherland Shire on the weekend. You can track his progress, learn more about the issue, and join his Facebook cause at http://www.crushslavery.com.
NOTES TO EDITORS
In 2005, the International Labour Organization estimated a global annual profit of US$ 44.3 billion from all forms of slavery, and $33.9 billion from commercial sexual exploitation. Human trafficking is second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable illegal industry in the world.
With a profit margin of 70% or higher, virtually unlimited demand, and desperate poverty producing an unlimited supply of goods that virtually ship themselves “if you kick ‘em hard enough” - it’s a business model that many find simply too good to refuse.
Siddharth Kara’s 2006 research revealed that you can purchase a trafficked girl in Western Europe for an average of US $4 800 (a stunner of course, and already “broken-in” so you’ll get no trouble), then you can earn an average of US $10 570/month by renting out her body. In some countries you can buy a slave for as little as $5. People have become as disposable as paper cups.
And this is not just restricted to a few undeveloped countries. UNODC reports that people are trafficked from 127 countries, to be exploited in 137 countries, including Australia.
But the good news is that we can eradicate slavery in our lifetime, if we all do our part. The world’s leading expert on slavery, Dr Kevin Bales, outlined a comprehensive 25-year plan to abolish slavery in his book “Ending Slavery”. The book outlines hundreds of practical actions we can make at a personal, business, community & government level.
MORE INFORMATION
http://crushslavery.com/2011/06/why-am-i-doing-this.html
http://crushslavery.com/2011/06/i-dont-want-your-money-i-want-your.html
http://crushslavery.com/2011/06/human-billboard.html
http://crushslavery.com/2011/04/it-all-boils-down-to-public-opinion.html
To celebrate the new financial year, Sutherland Shire resident Paul Harvey is starting a 100-day campaign entitled “10,000 push-ups to Crush Slavery” on July 1st to raise awareness about Human Trafficking, Slavery, and Forced Prostitution.
“When I learned that there are 27 million slaves in the world, it made me sick to my stomach. Children are worked to death by age 14 picking some of the cocoa that goes into the chocolate we eat. Girls as young as 6 are sold into forced prostitution and internet porn. There’s whole villages trapped in generations of debt bondage, forced to break rocks in wretched conditions, with no chance of escape. Disposable children thrown overboard with rocks around their ankles to untie fishing nets. The whole thing makes me flaming mad. We simply cannot let this obscene injustice continue.”
“This issue has really caught me by the heart-strings, and I’m going all out to make my campaign as big as one bloke can make it. I’ve got signs, flyers, a website, a Facebook cause, a petition, and I’ve printed a whole range of custom-designed clothing that I've made available online, so now I’m a human billboard for the cause.”
So what does he want from us? Nothing but spreading the word. “This needs more than just once-off sponsorship donations. It needs a change in public opinion. And you can do that by joining my Facebook cause, signing the petition, and sharing it with all your friends.”
“I may be just a regular Dad from the Shire, just another cog in a big city bank, but I believe that I can make a difference, even if I do all 10,000 push-ups on my own.”
You can watch or join Paul doing his fifty push-ups in a suit at 8:30am and another fifty at 12:30am near the MLC Centre in Martin Place every weekday (as weather & council allows), and at assorted locations in Sutherland Shire on the weekend. You can track his progress, learn more about the issue, and join his Facebook cause at http://www.crushslavery.com.
NOTES TO EDITORS
In 2005, the International Labour Organization estimated a global annual profit of US$ 44.3 billion from all forms of slavery, and $33.9 billion from commercial sexual exploitation. Human trafficking is second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable illegal industry in the world.
With a profit margin of 70% or higher, virtually unlimited demand, and desperate poverty producing an unlimited supply of goods that virtually ship themselves “if you kick ‘em hard enough” - it’s a business model that many find simply too good to refuse.
Siddharth Kara’s 2006 research revealed that you can purchase a trafficked girl in Western Europe for an average of US $4 800 (a stunner of course, and already “broken-in” so you’ll get no trouble), then you can earn an average of US $10 570/month by renting out her body. In some countries you can buy a slave for as little as $5. People have become as disposable as paper cups.
And this is not just restricted to a few undeveloped countries. UNODC reports that people are trafficked from 127 countries, to be exploited in 137 countries, including Australia.
But the good news is that we can eradicate slavery in our lifetime, if we all do our part. The world’s leading expert on slavery, Dr Kevin Bales, outlined a comprehensive 25-year plan to abolish slavery in his book “Ending Slavery”. The book outlines hundreds of practical actions we can make at a personal, business, community & government level.
MORE INFORMATION
http://crushslavery.com/2011/06/why-am-i-doing-this.html
http://crushslavery.com/2011/06/i-dont-want-your-money-i-want-your.html
http://crushslavery.com/2011/06/human-billboard.html
http://crushslavery.com/2011/04/it-all-boils-down-to-public-opinion.html
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Only 5 Days To Go!
It's only 5 more days till I start making a public spectacle of myself, and to be honest, I'm getting nervous!
1) I'm really not sure I can do 50 push-ups in one go.
2) I'm feeling rather alone in all this.
3) I'm rather afraid of making a fool of myself!
So it's time I reminded myself (and you!) why I'm doing this.
Did you know we have around 27 million slaves in the world? We’re not talking about the corporate ladder here, but children worked to death by age 14, picking 2-5% of the cocoa that goes into the chocolate you eat, women and girls as young as 6 sold into forced prostitution and internet porn businesses. The average price of a slave has fallen to US $90, and in some countries you can buy a slave for only $5. Enslaved children in Ghana are thrown overboard to untie fishing nets, with rocks tied to their ankles. Who cares if they don’t make it back up? It seems that people have become as expendable as paper cups.
And big business it is – In 2005, the International Labour Organization estimated a global annual profit of US$ 44.3 billion from all forms of slavery, and $33.9 billion from commercial sexual exploitation. Human trafficking is second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable illegal industry in the world.
Why? When you combine a profit margin of 70% or higher, virtually unlimited demand, and desperate poverty producing an unlimited supply of goods that virtually ship themselves “if you kick ‘em hard enough” - it’s a business model that many find simply too good to refuse.
Siddharth Kara’s 2006 research revealed that you can purchase a trafficked girl in Western Europe for an average of US $4 800 (a stunner of course, and already “broken-in” so you’ll get no trouble), then you can earn an average of US $10 570/month by renting out her body.
And this is not just restricted to a few undeveloped countries. UNODC reports that people are trafficked from 127 countries, to be exploited in 137 countries, including Australia.
As you can agree, this sickening social disease must stop. But the good news is that we can eradicate slavery in our lifetime, if we all do our part. I’m greatly encouraged by Dr Kevin Bales’ comprehensive 25-year plan outlined in his book “Ending Slavery”. There are a great many things we can do at a personal, business, community & government level. And how do we get the government to listen? Public opinion.
So that’s why I’m doing my 10 000 push-ups – to bring the issue to your awareness, and ask you to tell everyone you know about this crazy bloke who’s so upset about slavery that he’s out doing push-ups in Martin Place, 8:30am & 12:30pm every day for 100 days.
Please support me in spreading the word about this terrible injustice. Read more of this website, sign the petition, join the facebook cause, and take the pledge to invite all your friends. Let's abolish slavery together!
1) I'm really not sure I can do 50 push-ups in one go.
2) I'm feeling rather alone in all this.
3) I'm rather afraid of making a fool of myself!
So it's time I reminded myself (and you!) why I'm doing this.
Did you know we have around 27 million slaves in the world? We’re not talking about the corporate ladder here, but children worked to death by age 14, picking 2-5% of the cocoa that goes into the chocolate you eat, women and girls as young as 6 sold into forced prostitution and internet porn businesses. The average price of a slave has fallen to US $90, and in some countries you can buy a slave for only $5. Enslaved children in Ghana are thrown overboard to untie fishing nets, with rocks tied to their ankles. Who cares if they don’t make it back up? It seems that people have become as expendable as paper cups.
And big business it is – In 2005, the International Labour Organization estimated a global annual profit of US$ 44.3 billion from all forms of slavery, and $33.9 billion from commercial sexual exploitation. Human trafficking is second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable illegal industry in the world.
Why? When you combine a profit margin of 70% or higher, virtually unlimited demand, and desperate poverty producing an unlimited supply of goods that virtually ship themselves “if you kick ‘em hard enough” - it’s a business model that many find simply too good to refuse.
Siddharth Kara’s 2006 research revealed that you can purchase a trafficked girl in Western Europe for an average of US $4 800 (a stunner of course, and already “broken-in” so you’ll get no trouble), then you can earn an average of US $10 570/month by renting out her body.
And this is not just restricted to a few undeveloped countries. UNODC reports that people are trafficked from 127 countries, to be exploited in 137 countries, including Australia.
As you can agree, this sickening social disease must stop. But the good news is that we can eradicate slavery in our lifetime, if we all do our part. I’m greatly encouraged by Dr Kevin Bales’ comprehensive 25-year plan outlined in his book “Ending Slavery”. There are a great many things we can do at a personal, business, community & government level. And how do we get the government to listen? Public opinion.
So that’s why I’m doing my 10 000 push-ups – to bring the issue to your awareness, and ask you to tell everyone you know about this crazy bloke who’s so upset about slavery that he’s out doing push-ups in Martin Place, 8:30am & 12:30pm every day for 100 days.
Please support me in spreading the word about this terrible injustice. Read more of this website, sign the petition, join the facebook cause, and take the pledge to invite all your friends. Let's abolish slavery together!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Dr Kevin Bales: The Price of a Human Life
The world's leading expert on modern slavery, Dr Kevin Bales, on:
- Jumping Shrimp: Becoming an Abolitionist - 3 min 51 sec
- Defining Slavery - 2 min 33 sec
- Decline in the Price of Human Life - 4 min 54 sec
- Is the Answer in Chocolate? - 4 min 05 sec
- A Moral Watershed - 2 min 49 sec
- The Cost of Freedom - 3 min 12 sec
Treating it like a Business
Just read the Boston Globe's Katie Bacon interview with Siddharth Kara, who wrote Sex Trafficking - Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, a game-changing book that focusses on the economic drivers behind slavery.
How do you go about disrupting the business?
"Depending on which country you’re in, it takes 1.5 to 2 hours of work at that country’s per capita income to purchase 1 hour of sex from a sex slave. ... If we were to revert back to where prices were a decade ago, by putting more cost and risk into the system…you [would] see a massive decrease in demand, because you’ve priced out of the market those low-wage consumers — like day laborers, taxi drivers, and tuk tuk drivers — who are now in the market."
How do you go about disrupting the business?
"The minute [you] pull someone out of a sex slave condition, [you’ve] cut off all future cash flows. In terms of a sex slave it’s 10, 15, 20, transactions a day, a week, a month, year after year. You’ve got to pull people out, care for them…and then prosecute and convict effectively. That means several things: fast track courts, judicial review, and an economic penalty regime that makes it uneconomic to be in this business. If you start to alter the landscape, then the perception by the offender is: This business doesn’t pay. Right now the perception is: Huge profit, almost no risk, I’m there. This is about money: It’s not cruelty for the sake of cruelty. I’ve met traffickers. Some of them are just mundane opportunists."
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Consumer Choice
This cardigan I'm wearing - I paid a ridiculous $17 for it. How do I know that it wasn't knitted by slave labour?
In fact, the only product that I can say with any certainty is slave-free is Cadbury's plain milk chocolate, due to the Fair Trade logo. (Check this useful comparative report of three such logos.)
What I want to see is legislation that requires full disclosure of each product's supply chain, and mandatory labelling that ensures slave-produced goods are labelled as such, so that I as a consumer have the right to choose slavery-free products. For a while there I got all excited thinking we could have a central database of supply-chains integrated into a barcode-scanning iPhone app such as Free2Work.
But the problem is it's not as simple as that:
In fact, the only product that I can say with any certainty is slave-free is Cadbury's plain milk chocolate, due to the Fair Trade logo. (Check this useful comparative report of three such logos.)
What I want to see is legislation that requires full disclosure of each product's supply chain, and mandatory labelling that ensures slave-produced goods are labelled as such, so that I as a consumer have the right to choose slavery-free products. For a while there I got all excited thinking we could have a central database of supply-chains integrated into a barcode-scanning iPhone app such as Free2Work.
But the problem is it's not as simple as that:
"WHY NOT BOYCOTT? In certain situations boycotting specific goods or countries can actually make the situation worse and undermine the economy of an already poor country. A boycott could hurt those in slavery-like conditions as well as those employers who are not exploiting their workers, and worsen the poverty that is one of the root causes of the problem. Support fair and ethical trade initiatives instead and use consumer power to encourage retailers and companies to move to the Fairtrade scheme."
Friday, June 17, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Why am I doing this?
Last year, I was outraged to discover that slavery still exists in our time. 27 million slaves. And we’re not just talking about genteel cotton picking "society." Every year, 2-4 million men, women & children are stolen, abused, raped, chained, caged, whipped, and beaten into submission with unconscionable cruelty, all in the name of the mighty dollar. Human Trafficking has surpassed drugs & guns as the most profitable illegal industry in the world, with global annual profits of $32 billion. "Trafficking guns & drugs is profitable, but people are much easier. Just kick 'em hard enough and they'll traffick themselves."
What sickens me most is that 80% of these people are women & children, and 70% of all female victims are forced into prostitution. The loveliest of our daughters are stolen away, or sold by their families for as little as $20, to eke out their few remaining days in forced prostitution, locked in disgusting brothel rooms until the beatings, forced drug addictions, internal injuries and cigarette burns break their beautiful bodies so badly that they are discarded like so much human garbage, while their tormenters just look for the next piece of flesh to abuse. You can buy a sex slave in a source country for as little as $90, or $10,000 for a trafficked, broken-in slave in the first world, but they’ll earn you as much as $250,000 a year.
The average age of a trafficked victim is 14 years old. Approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood through sexual exploitation over the past 30 years.
I have a delightful little daughter, and another on the way, and something fierce rises up in me when I think that any of our beautiful daughters are being stolen away into the torturous hell of sex slavery. To say I'm outraged puts it mildly. Try incensed, livid, or flaming mad. We simply must rid our planet of this disease, and I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to make that happen. Join me, and let your displeasure be known!
Sources: CNN Freedom Project, Stop The Traffik, UN.GIFT, Random Facts.
What sickens me most is that 80% of these people are women & children, and 70% of all female victims are forced into prostitution. The loveliest of our daughters are stolen away, or sold by their families for as little as $20, to eke out their few remaining days in forced prostitution, locked in disgusting brothel rooms until the beatings, forced drug addictions, internal injuries and cigarette burns break their beautiful bodies so badly that they are discarded like so much human garbage, while their tormenters just look for the next piece of flesh to abuse. You can buy a sex slave in a source country for as little as $90, or $10,000 for a trafficked, broken-in slave in the first world, but they’ll earn you as much as $250,000 a year.
The average age of a trafficked victim is 14 years old. Approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood through sexual exploitation over the past 30 years.
I have a delightful little daughter, and another on the way, and something fierce rises up in me when I think that any of our beautiful daughters are being stolen away into the torturous hell of sex slavery. To say I'm outraged puts it mildly. Try incensed, livid, or flaming mad. We simply must rid our planet of this disease, and I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to make that happen. Join me, and let your displeasure be known!
Sources: CNN Freedom Project, Stop The Traffik, UN.GIFT, Random Facts.
Monday, June 6, 2011
I don't want your Money, I want your Influence
I’ve spent a lot of time reading up on the causes of slavery & human trafficking, and I believe the cure is two-fold:
So I don't want your money, I want your influence. Share this page on all your social networks. Join the facebook cause. Email your workmates. Tell your Mum about the crazy guy doing push-ups in Martin Place. Blog about it. And when I get this petition together, get everyone to sign it!
- Public Opinion, and
- Long-Term Giving.
So I don't want your money, I want your influence. Share this page on all your social networks. Join the facebook cause. Email your workmates. Tell your Mum about the crazy guy doing push-ups in Martin Place. Blog about it. And when I get this petition together, get everyone to sign it!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Human Billboard
A few weeks back I looked at my T-shirts and realised they're all bragging about somewhere I've been or something I've done. The Blogger T-shirt, the Visual Studio .NET shirt, Flying over Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Pamplona, The Tube, brag, brag, brag. I'm just over it.
So instead of advertising my own coolness, I've decided to become a human billboard for the cause I'm most passionate about: Human Trafficking. Two hundred bucks later, I have replaced my wardrobe with a range of gear I made at CafePress, Vistaprint & Zazzle, plus a hoodie and drink bottle from Real Men Don't Buy Girls. From now on, I am a human billboard for liberty.
Will you join me?
So instead of advertising my own coolness, I've decided to become a human billboard for the cause I'm most passionate about: Human Trafficking. Two hundred bucks later, I have replaced my wardrobe with a range of gear I made at CafePress, Vistaprint & Zazzle, plus a hoodie and drink bottle from Real Men Don't Buy Girls. From now on, I am a human billboard for liberty.
Will you join me?
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)