The Warblog: On Trafficking and the Human Condition
By Dale A. Dye
There was something on television recently, which nearly turned my stomach — a documentary that delved deeply and disturbingly into the subject of human trafficking; particularly the sordid business of exploiting young and desperate females for a tragic life in the sex trades. I saw a lot of that ugliness during my time in Central America in the early 1980s. It was disgustingly sordid and ugly then and apparently not much has changed.
There were a lot of things that upset me during the Iran-Contra days when I was helping to train anti-Sandinista guerilla forces in Central America, but the traffic in young females with few other prospects beyond a life of grinding poverty and deprivation really tripped my emotional trigger. Maybe it was because I eventually became father to a daughter — but reports of ongoing efforts to stop this modern form of blatant slavery always catch my attention. And like similar programs designed to throttle the flow of illegal drugs, most of the loudly hyped programs labeled with catchy acronyms are generally ineffective. A quick check of UNICEF statistics told me that some six to eight million humans are smuggled across international borders yearly and 80 percent of those are female. It’s fairly clear to me those women and young girls are not being shuttled around to find good jobs in legitimate industries. A relative handful might wind up in agriculture or service jobs but the majority become sex toys or indentured servants which in too many places around the world amounts to the same thing.
In an effort to shed some light on the topic, I made human trafficking a pivotal issue in Contra File, the fifth book in my Shake Davis adventure stories. The book focuses on human trafficking with Belize as a conduit for girls from Guatemala, Nicaragua and other hard-scrabble countries in the area, but the scourge of human trafficking today extends to many more nations around the world where poverty and desperation pushes people to levels of degradation we have a hard time imagining here in the U.S. As I read and watch news reports of refugee swarms in the Middle East and other parts of a war-ravaged world, I wonder how many of the young women and girls from those populations will be sold into sex slavery. There are anal orifices everywhere just waiting to exploit such potentially lucrative situations. That’s a nasty and quite intentional comment on our current human condition.
There’s no telling at this point in a turbulent, topsy-turvy presidential race, but I’m hoping whoever it is that inherits the mantle — or maybe the millstone — that goes with the presumptive title of leader of the free world will focus some energy and resources on human trafficking. Concern for this problem too often gets lost in the partisan battles over immigration. And in that fight huge numbers of desperate and helpless young women are the first and most tragic casualties.
Marine officer Dale A. Dye rose through the ranks to retire as a captain after 21 years of service in war and peace. Following retirement from active duty in 1984, and upset with Hollywood’s treatment of the American military, he went to Hollywood and established Warriors, Inc., the preeminent military training and advisory service to the entertainment industry. Dye has worked on more than 50 movies and TV shows, including several Oscar- and Emmy-winning productions. He is a novelist, actor, director, and showbusiness innovator who wanders between Los Angeles and Lockhart, Texas.
Grab Contra File (Shake Davis #5) here or through your favorite bookstore. Look for Dye’s new Shake Davis novel, Havana File, in May wherever books are sold. Until then . . . #LetsShakeItUp.
