Last Saturday we spent a couple of cold (sorry Katie!!!) hours with Katie at the State Park.  She was totally a trooper and you can barely make out the goose bumps on her!  Here are some of our favorites from the editing so far:

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I thought that all that time in shorts and bare feet might have done her in, but she kept on going!  Awesome!

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We called it a day when we lost our light and we couldn’t feel our toes anymore!

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Thanks Katie!  We had a great time!

Anggota Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (BSNP) Mungin Eddy Wibowo mengatakan, untuk tahun depan, PTN akan dilibatkan tidak hanya sebagai tenaga pengawas, tetapi juga perumus, pencetak, distributor hingga pemindai (scanning) soalUNuntuksiswa SMA. “Ada 15 PTN yang dilibatkan dari seluruh Indonesia.

PTN itu kita ikut sertakan karena memiliki percetakan sendiri yang dapat digunakan untuk mencetak soal ujian,” ungkap Mungin ketika dihubungi harian Seputar Indonesia (SI) kemarin. Desember mendatang, kata dia, ke-15 PTN tersebut akan diundang BSNP untuk membahas realisasi proyek ini.“Namun, 15 PTN tersebut harus kita seleksi terlebih dulu agar sesuai persyaratan yang sudah ditetapkan BSNP,” ungkap Mungin.

Dia menjelaskan, persyaratan tersebut di antaranya memiliki security printing, yaitu alat keamanan pencetakan yang berguna agar siapa pun tidak mudah mengopi lembar jawaban secara sembarangan.“Pihak pencetakan di PTN harus memiliki alat itu,” katanya. Karena hanya 15 PTN yang memiliki percetakan, satu PTN memiliki tanggung jawab mencetak dan mendistribusikan soal ujian ke dua atau tiga provinsi.

“Dia bisa bekerja sama dengan PTN yang tidak memiliki percetakan di provinsi,”papar Mungin. PTN yang dilibatkan dalam percetakan soal, kata Mungin, akan mendapatkan dana dari BSNP untuk menyelenggarakan hal tersebut. “Kalau dia bertanggung jawab mencetak soal untuk dua atau tiga provinsi,berarti dana distribusinya dibagi dua dengan PTN yang berada di provinsi tersebut,” ujarnya.

Diketahui, pelaksanaan UN Tahun Pelajaran 2009/2010 telah dirumuskan melalui Permendiknas Nomor 75 Tahun 2009.Dalam Pasal 5 ayat 1 diseebutkan, UN akan dilaksanakan dua kali, yaitu UN utama dan UN ulangan.Ayat 2 menyatakan, UN utama untuk SMA/MA, SMALB, dan SMK dilaksanakan pada minggu ketiga Maret 2010. Adapun UN utama untuk SMP/ MTs dan SMPLB dilaksanakan satu kali pada minggu keempat Maret 2010.

Lalu UN susulan dilaksanakan satu minggu setelah UN utama. Sementara untuk SMK, ujian praktik kejuruan dilaksanakan sebelum UN utama. UN ulangan untuk SMA/MA,SMALB, dan SMK dilaksanakan minggu kedua Mei 2010 dan UN ulangan untuk SMP/MTs dan SMPLB dilaksanakan minggu ketiga Mei 2010. Sebelumnya, Menteri Pendidikan Nasional (Mendiknas) Mohammad Nuh mengatakan, integrasi UN dan SNMPTN terkendala kredibilitas pelaksanaan UN.

Menurut dia, ada tiga hal yang memengaruhi kredibilitas UN, yaitu substansi soal yang diujikan, pelaksanaan, dan evaluasi. Karena itu, pemerintah akan melibatkan perguruan tinggi dalam pelaksanaan UN. ”Namun, kewenangan tetap ada pada panitia UN,”kata Nuh.

Senada dengan itu, Ketua SNMPTN 2009 Haris Suprapto mengatakan, integrasi UN dan SNMPTN terkendala oleh kredibilitas UN. ”Saat ini, kredibilitas UN dipertanyakan karena masih banyaknya kecurangan pada pelaksanaan sehingga kalau integrasi dilaksanakan, akan tidak adil,”katanya.

This time of the year is one of extreme difficulty for students all over the world, and the temptation is to either give up or become bitter and sirly to people as a coping mechanism. Though I myself am tempted by both of these, they would be too easy. Anyone ca give up, and being mean is easy.

More than all of the aforementioned aspects of a stressful strech of the road of life, though, the one that is most important is one’s relationship with God. It is at times when one is approaching their breaking point that they need God the most. Though it is sad that it often takes moments such as these for us to realize we need God, it is the truth.

One of the most troubling things I hear people say, and I hear in my own mind, is the idea that we are too busy for God. I have thought this many a time, though indirectly. Most of us just simply neglect him, whether intentional or not, and go about drudging through our busy schedules. Sometimes we even forget him entirely, due to the constant barrage of things that must be done. This is quite ironic because we forget and neglect God during the times when we (palpably) need him the most. We always need him, but its his presence that sustains us through the rough times.

I must admit that my personal tendency is to become sullen and down when I am exhausted and ovewhelmed, but this is not what God desires. He wishes that we praise him during the periods inw hichw e experience a dryspell. Praising him during the high points in one’s life is far too easy, and is not much of a sacrifice. Worshipping during the times in which we’re overwhelmed and indescribably tired, however, produce a sweet smelling offering that rises to the heavens and make God smile. Praising God whilst feeling beaten down is so difficult, but means the world to God.

So not only must we ensure that our connection with the creator of the heavens and the earth is always top notch, we must worship when we feeling like cursing. Now this very point brings up the question of what worship really is, but there is not time enough today to address (or at least attempt to) the true nature of worship. I will however briefly suggest that worship is a lifestyle as opposed to merely songs Sunday morning. With that being said, glorifying God should be evident through action as well as integrity throughout one’s entire life, through both the rough and smooth points. It is such a life that, I believe, makes our father in heaven proud to call us his sons and daughters; that is one in which we praise him while we seem be floundering underneath the wave upon wave of hardship. This is true religion, true relationship, true Christianity.

Today we are in the worst crisis since the great depression. We have been ravaged by thirty years of neoliberal expansion as capital seeks free markets and less government controls, undermining all democratic opposition anywhere they can. Seeking to reach into new markets to find new investments and sell overproduced products, neoliberalism has led us to a crisis that resulted in the loss of jobs, houses, and for many their lives. Neoliberal expansion done at the end of a gun and at the bang of the gavel is destroying the world. The $20 Trillion that capitalist governments injected into the world economy to stop the freefall has succeeded, but has not changed the long term effects of the crisis. After financing the recovery on Wall Street, governments started an attack directed at cutting spending, most notably in California. This has resulted in cuts to social services, healthcare, homeless shelters, poverty aid, women’s health clinics, jobs, education, as well as many other budgets that once served the social need. Jobs continue to disappear or be replaced by jobs that pay significantly less, unions are attacked, workers struggles for democracy are threatened, ecological destruction continues, student debt is on the rise, and racist, sexist, heterosexist sentiments are being fueled by the well-financed socially conservative sectors of the ruling class. But what does this all mean? And what does it mean for those looking for a left movement here in the US? How do we as the left relate to these issues to build a movement that begins to challenge capitalism?

First we must be clear that this crisis is not happenstance, it is a consequence of an economic system based on overproduction and new investments. The system overproduces beyond necessity and develops consumers who over consume. This cycle of overconsumption fuels new investments and growth of capitalism. When the consumption drops, the market crashes, and attempts to recover the market are targeted at securing the legitimacy of capital and restoring rates of consumption. The response to this crisis was about stabilizing capital at all costs. While the government spent $700 billion on financing Wall Street, it did nothing to serve social needs, and many of us who we told that we could now afford homes and could rely on our 401ks or pension plans have been taken for a ride down the rollercoaster of debt. Even banks who were not affected by the crash and didn’t lose investments took government money to gain competitive advantage and purchase collapsing banks. General Motors used the bailout to get further concessions from the unions per order of government conditions. Instead of spending all of this money on financing a failed system, we could have spent it on social necessities like healthcare, education, jobs, etc.

Businesses have used the crisis to go after workers, making them fear for their jobs. Creating this fear has massively increased productivity which jumped 9% in October 2009. This was achieved by massive exploitation and increasing the amount of wealth that business could squeeze out of the labor of each worker. Nationally, workers are losing paid hours or wages and getting a massive increase in the amount of work they must do as businesses experiment with massive speed-ups.

People throughout the country have been ravaged by years of neoliberalism compounded by the economic crisis. For students and youth, neoliberalism has also reached the education system. Ever since neoliberalism began gaining support as an ideology, governments have been cutting social spending to essential services. These cuts have not affected the politicians, the business leaders, or capital, but have been targeted attacks on working people. There have been big pushes to privatize Social Security, a massive restructuring of Medicare/Medicaid in favor of private industry profits, welfare reform targeted and creating a pool of cheap dispensable labor, and the growth of the prison industrial complex which hides a plethora of social ills.

Education, most significant to students/youth, has been savagely attacked by private enterprise. State funding that has failed to keep up with inflation, which in real terms meant reductions in funding, has caused an increase in class sizes, an increase in the workload of teachers, a reduction in purchasing of essential supplies, and many other serious issues. In higher education, private funding continues to grow as businesses and firms seek to use the research power of the university to gain competitive advantage to produce more products. Universities also play a significant role in the construction of weapons, prison systems, biotechnology, and other forms of production which have been used for violent oppressive means. Despite this source of funding, universities have not increased the quality of the education students received, instead opting for an increase in the administrative complex with inflated salaries. This has also been coupled with long term projects to attract “more desirable” students who can pay more for their education. This system is designed at gentrifying the university, limiting access to it by people of color and the poor, and developing a new burgeoning market where capital can sell its plethora of products to a consumer base that has expendable income. Privatization is the largest threat that can be posed to public education systems, and as we come closer to that model, the egalitarian ideal of what education is meant to provide will be shattered. We will be confronted with a system that serves private interests and has no desire to create critical thinkers. All that private enterprise wants to do is create the next generation of loyal, obedient, workers and make them indentured to the system.

Under these conditions, we must redefine what it means to be leftist. We must say that to be a committed leftist, we must understand these goals. We must be able to unite and offer and alternative to capitalism that is mass based, anti-racist, feminist, anti-heteronormative, environmentalist, revolutionary, anti-imperialist, based in or that relates to workers’ struggles, politically independent of the Democrats and Republicans, critical and analytical, realistic not romantic, focused in protracted as well as immediate struggles, and has the ability to bring a broad stroke of people together to work on serious work. Opposition to capitalism is growing and if we can organize to build and provide an alternative, we can have success at rebuilding a broad left movement here in the US.

Below are a few of my ideas on what this broad left movement would look like in character. Thoughts?

What can be the character of a New Left?

Anti-Capitalist: We must see that Capitalism is the perpetrator or contributor to most of the world’s problems. We must commit to building alternatives that can critically address all social ills.

Mass Based: We must aim to build a mass movement that has the ability to defeat capitalism and replace it with a system that works for us. In order to find and build this system, we need the masses. We need to engage them where they are and build from the point of origin. We must be willing to engage in current movements and long term struggles to build a larger protracted struggle in resistance to capitalism.

Anti-Racist, Feminist, Anti-Heteronormative: We must aim to destroy in concrete and abstract terms all forms of oppression based on race, sex, sexual orientation, or any other tools that can be utilized by capital to divide our struggles. We must build ways to break through these barriers in concrete, organic ways to build a broad struggle for social justice.

Environmentalist: Day by day, our ability to exist in harmony with the environment is being limited by Capitalism. We are forced to purchase individual transportation, many are forced to consume food that has travelled long distances by truck, we are forced to live under a centralized food production industry that serves profit before it is concerned for it effects, we are forced to consume energy produced by fossil fuel burning plants while many in the global south are forced to feel almost all of the effects of the environmental crisis. We must build a broad movement that challenges capitalism and its systemic violence against the planet. We must organize to build a sustainable alternative future.

Revolutionary: We must understand that while reform can be revolutionary in its context, and that we should never outright oppose radical reforms – though we should offer critical challenges and discuss more progressive alternatives, we must understand that we cannot reform away the failures of capitalism. We cannot politely ask to take the means of production. We cannot politely ask to seize the wealth of Capitalists. We cannot politely ask to make simple adjustments to the system and think that they are sustainable. What we have gained, we have taken from the system. We cannot hug away the guns of the Imperialists; we must stand up and take them away.

Anti-Imperialist: We must oppose Imperialism on all levels. Military Imperialism is the foothold of economic imperialism. Imperialism is the engine of expansion for capital. This expansion often costs the people of each region their livelihoods, if not their lives. We must challenge imperialism as a tool of capitalist expansion. We must support the struggles of occupied people for independence from US Imperialism and Capital. Our support needs to be critical support, we must stand in solidarity but we must also engage in critical discussions.

Workers Movements: The left has historically been based in the labor movement and in worker’s struggles for democracy. The left must never give up this fight. The workplace is the one place that unites everyone. Everyone will work – even the unemployed, homeless, and disabled – and those day-to-day struggles are at the point of production of all the wealth of capitalism. To be a leftist we must make a commitment to working in worker’s struggles, despite the rampant conservatism in their leadership. Often the greatest victories were secured because of the efforts of unorganized workers uniting through independent actions. Rank and File organizing is critical. Just as the left is critical of capitalist bureaucracy, we must also be critical of labor bureaucracy and engage in fights for more democratic unions.

Independent Politics: Now, more than ever, it is important that the left have independent politics. The Democrats and Republicans serve capital. It is important that people maintain independence from both parties and we must also realize that the Democrats have historically been the graveyard of social movements. We cannot beg for scraps from the table, we must act independently, unite, and turn the table upside down.

Critical Political Thought: As leftists, we must always be seeking alternatives. With this in mind, we must always be critical and realistic. All too often the left has romanticized actions or events without remaining realistic. Many events, however significant and important, have weaknesses and flaws, flaws that we must criticize and arrive at solutions for. We cannot let ourselves be caught up in praise over a past event without engaging in long term protracted struggles. Our politics cannot be protest hopping, they must be movement building.

Broad Multi-Tendency: The left has a history of dividing into its own factions along very rigid and sectarian lines. Now is the time to destroy these lines. Factionalism is a sign of a weak movement; a large mass movement will inspire all, and begin to lead. We must recognize that there are a plethora of tendencies, but if we don’t work together, our political differences come in the way of long term goals. We must be building friendly relationships, be willing to critically discuss serious issues, and not be stoic to a party line. Political change is a fluid process, and so, we must be fluid in our discussions of it. No one has found the right way, we must be humbled by that, and together we can search for the new path forward.

Lizzie was our next AOA senior and we had a great time  photographing her!  We did a lot in Elkins Lake, and then went to the downtown Huntsville square area.  Here are some of my favorites:

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It’s always fun to have a friend with you on a shoot!

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what’s a girl without her phone?

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Then we moved from Elkins to the square…

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and created a legacy … you’ll have to ask Lizzie about that…

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and I’ll end with one of my favorites … just really sweet …

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Thanks Lizzie!  You’re beautiful!

My anatomy test tommorrow is on the nervous system. Here’s a drawing of what is affected by the various cranial nerves. It’s from an article in American Nurse Today.

I’m making plans to quit my job and switch my career to Nursing. “Career.” Can you call it that? I have a bachelor’s degree. And I’ve worked since I graduated. I could probably work harder and make more money at it. But this planned switch isn’t about money. It’s about life and what’s important to me.

When I apply to nursing school, they will probably want to know why I think I’ll make a good nurse. Right now I can’t answer that question very well. At least not as well as I should be able to. I’m a passionate person. I’ll probably lose that passion in the next couple years. I hope I won’t. I know I will.

I set these goals. And then I can focus all the necessary energy on that goal. But it’s to the detriment of other aspects of my life. For this to work, this has to be a big thing. I have to make it important. On the days I don’t feel like working or volunteering or studying I still have to do it. This doesn’t come easy to me. The black dog of depression gets in the way. The flights of fancy of mania distract me from what’s important and sound. And then I fail or make some poorly thought through choices.

I blame myself for all my past failures. Am I a pessimist to think that all the best planning I do will still in the end probably not lead to something that’s ultimately going to make me happy? I’m impulsive. Why am I doing this? Luckily it is still only my life that I’m putting at risk with my choice to go back to school. No one else has a stake in this except me. No spouse or kids.

Yet it seems like such a risk to quit my job for this. But what am I risking? This full time job? Is that it? Is that really what I’m afraid of losing?

Regardless, for now I’m putting away all those doubts and moving forward with this. March 1, 2010. I’m applying to school. The advisor says I won’t get in this year. There’s too many people applying with more qualifying points than I have. That’s okay, though. I’ll reapply the next year. It could be more than two years from now before I’m actually in the program. There’s so much that can change and go wrong (or right) in that time. After I have the prerequisites for the local school all tidied up, I’m going to work on getting the prereqs done for other schools.

Oh I will get in somewhere. I’m sure of it. Whether it’s the right thing to do? Hell if I know.

Today I work. And then I study for my Anatomy test. The nervous system and special senses are the topic du jour. Yesterday I volunteered first on the heart ward and then in the gift shop. It’s madness, I tell ya. I’m not young enough to keep up this pace! What the hell would I do if I had kids?

Bloggkollegan Påvel drar igång en bloggserie om hur man skriver sin C-uppsats, D-uppsats eller rent av doktorsavhandling med OpenOffice. Eftersom jag själv jobbar på en högskola, ja efter nyår en del av ett universitet, och har massor av kontakt med studenter, och forskare ser jag att det är en väldigt bra idé.

Sen tror jag att många, som inte skriver fullt så akademiska texter kommer att kunna dra nytta av ett och annat ur den här serien. Jag menar redan på högstadiet skrivs det rätt avancerade rapporter nuförtiden, för att inte tala om på gymnasiet. Dessutom skrivs det utredningar, planer och rapporter av diverse slag på de flesta lite större arbetsplatser.

Det forskas också friskt också utanför den akademiska världen, bland hembygdsfolk, amatör-ornitologer, dito botanister och säkert på många andra håll. Säkert har ni som håller på med sådant ett och annat att att lära av Påvel.

OpenOffice finns med redan från början om du kör Ubuntu. Kör du Mac eller Windows kan du enkelt ladda ner och installera det.

Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om inställningar, Ordbehandling, Tillägg, Writer, student, uppsats, doktorsavhandling

November 19, 2009 A MAN used the Internet to lure six college students into having a sex party with his friends at a resort in Bentong, Pahang.

According to Harian Metro, police found that the man had also been organising sex parties with students in Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Negri Sembilan and Selangor for the past year.

The man was detained along with five others aged between 20 and 22 after authorities conducted a 3am raid on the apartment he had rented.

It is believed that the man, together with his friends — two of whom were civil servants — had persuaded the students to have sex while under the influence of alcohol.

The students, all aged 19, were willing participants in the party.

Three couples held at the scene were tested positive for the drug ketamine and had 2.3g of the same substance with them.

UNT will now offer degree options at Collin Higher Education Center in McKinney due to a new partnership between UNT and Collin College.  President Bataille participated in a signing ceremony on November 9^th to formalize the creating of the center.  Degree options include:

1. Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences — Two concentrations:  Alternative Dispute Resolution and Non-Profit Management, Volunteer and Community Resource Management
2. MS in Engineering Systems — Two concentrations:  Construction Management, Engineering Management
3. Ed.D. in Educational Administration (includes superintendent certification)
4. M.Ed. in Higher Education

Ayifli Fred Kodzo

As the Country Coordinator for RESPECT Ghana I believe that issues of refugees everywhere need our urgent attention but should we always wait to see our brothers and sisters, mothers and children become refugees before we start showing our love and concern? Are we as a people and global citizens well informed about issues of refugees and on the rights entitled to refugees for international protection under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol? How about the rights of refugees, enshrined in the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights which gives the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution?.

The fundamental truth is that whether we like it or not, we are all global citizens and in today’s globalized world, we cannot escape the fact that actions taken in the Europe and North America, Asia and all over the world do have reverberations in Ghana, and in a similar vein, war in Africa affects Europe and North America as well. We can no longer afford to ignore our common humanity or focus our vision narrowly on our own interests, our own people or our own problems. This is the true meaning of globalization. The world’s problems, and the world’s successes, today belong to all of us. We are responsible for each other, and we must RESPECT one another.

This essentially is the motivation behind my duty as the Country Coordinator for RESPECT Ghana, I see this role as an opportunity to also reach out and promote the goals of human rights and world peace. I am optimistic that with my team members and with your help and ideas we can raise awareness about refugee issues through our ever widening networks and affiliations. There is an urgent need to make the world a better place devoid of wars, disputes and terrorist attacks. Please do not hesitate but subscribe with us and let us push our vision forward with your wonderful ideas and solutions to make the world a better place for all.

[1]
Dlm aku dok surfing internet mlm ni, aku come across this blog entry. Ditulis oleh someone drpd batch 8993 (maksudnya setahun muda drpd aku), menceritakan psl kenangan dia masa kat MCKK. Apa yg menarik dlm cerita dia tu nama aku pun ada disebut:

Dorm aku adalah dorm teratas penjuru kanan yang bernama Dorm IT. IT ini bermaksud international (???) yang sepatutnya diduduki oleh form 2 dari pelbagai house, tapi utk tahun 1990 hanya 2 org sahaja penghuni nya dari golongan idris house (kot), itupun form 3 new hostel Gusta Irawan dan Izzudin a.k.a Jubin, selain nya kami form 2 adalah dari golongan Md Shah. Si gusta ni memang tak nampak muka waktu siang hari kerana dia selalu melepak dengan geng2 beruk batch dia kat big school, manakala si Jubin ni, setibanya kami di dorm memang dia pasti telah berada di dorm sedang nyenyak tidur ke Californian an. Poteng prep. Kalau terjaga si Jubin ni, akan dia suruh kami cepat2 semayang dan pergi turun main, supaya dia boleh sambung tidurnya dgn aman.

Ketawa sorang aku bila baca part dia cerita pasal aku. Betul la kot cerita dia pasal aku suka melepak kat Big School, aku pun tak ingat sgt. Tapiii… Seingat aku dulu masa form 3 kat New School aku dok Dorm 7 dgn Sam, bukan Dorm IT dgn Izzudin. Hm… :|

Cerita menarik, tapi fakta ada sikit lari lah...

ukashah

Ik ben nooit bijzonder van de Beatles geweest, maar zo lust ik ze wel:

Vooral omdat ze hun roadies niet vergeten zijn.

[Waar vind je nou zo'n klipje? Nou, je gaat met je lief een weekend naar Amsterdam om je helemaal in de hoge cultuur te storten: vier documentaires op het IDFA bekijken, bezoek aan het Rijksmuseum, tussendoor lazen we de nieuwste Nexus en Groene Amsterdammer. Zelfs de nachtportier in het hotel deed mee aan ons themaweekend: hij had klassieke muziek opstaan en was een boek over de antropologie van wereldreligies aan het lezen. En toen we zaterdagmiddag stonden te wachten op onze Foe-Jong-Hai-to-Go zag ik dit filmpje op de t.v. naast de balie. Cadeautje.]

Huynh Hai Long, a graduate of the Hanoi University of Theater and Cinema, November 21 won the top prize worth VND50 million (US$2,500) at the Viet Nam Collection Grand Prix 2009, the largest national fashion design competition.

Huynh Hai Long (2nd L)and his wining designs at the award ceremony of the 2009 Vietnam Collection Grand Prix

The award ceremony of the 11th annual contest for young, up-and-coming designers was held at the Quan Ngua Sporting Hall in Hanoi.

Other awards including “Future Designer” and “Best Material” went to Vo Thi Quynh Nhu, 19, of Ho Chi Minh City. Nguyen Manh Hao, a graduate of the Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts, won the “Fashion Designer of the Year” and “Impression” titles.

The judging panel comprised well-known domestic and foreign designers including Francine Pairon, creative director at the French Mode Institute; Leslie Davis Burns, chair of the Design and Human Environment Department at Oregon State University (OSU); Valerie Bannister of the London College of Fashion (UK); and Minh Hanh, director of the Vietnam Fashion Design Institute (FADIN).

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Central Florida Future – http://bit.ly/8KleHL

By Cassie Turner

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Published: Friday, November 20, 2009

Updated: Friday, November 20, 2009

Caitlin Bush

"Most Americans do not know slavery not only exists in the world today, it flourishes," said Ron Soodalter, co-author of The Slave Next Door, in his presentation in the Pegasus Ballroom Monday morning.

"Somewhere around 27 million people are in bondage in the world today. Now, that’s over twice the number as were trafficked in chains in the entire 350 years of the African slave trade."

Soodalter, an active abolitionist and historian, kicked off International Education Week at UCF as the keynote speaker for the Second Annual International Breakfast. The Slave Next Door presentation concluded the three-part series on "Slavery’s Resurgence" facilitated by the Office of the Special Assistant to the President for Global Perspectives and the International Services Center.

The series began with Somaly Mam, a Cambodian human rights activist, former slave and author of The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine, when she shared her experiences in September.

In October, Micheline Slattery, a human-rights activist and former restavek, or domestic child slave, in both Haiti and the United States, addressed about 300 attendees.

Modern-day slavery includes around 800,000 men, women and children trafficked each year around the world. According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site, about 17,500 of them end up in the United States, with a high percentage received in Florida.

Soodalter suggests a simple Google search on human trafficking for astounding results.

In spite of major federal legislation and anti-trafficking laws passed in 43 states, 103 human-trafficking convictions have resulted, Soodalter said.

Trafficking remains hidden, is largely unreported and difficult to identify. According to the 2009 Trafficking in Persons, or TIP, report, published by the U.S. Department of State, forced labor/involuntary servitude represents the majority of human-trafficking cases in the world. The co-author of Soodalter’s book,  Kevin Bales, wrote the original 156-page TIP report, titled “Trafficking Persons in the United States — A Report to the National Institute of Justice.”

“The whole thing is disserving and extending,” said retired UCF foreign language professor David Gurney. “It contributes to the antagonism from people in underdeveloped countries to Western civilizations or Western countries.”

In the 1850s, purchasing a slave ran roughly $1,200, the equivalent of around $40,000 in today’s money. The reality is purchasing a slave today costs as little as $100, which makes them affordable and disposable, Soodalter said.

A trafficking victim lives in fear of violence or the threat of violence daily, he said.

Shawn Cox, victim witness coordinator and licensed clinical social worker with the United States Attorney’s Office, advocates that trafficking is a crime of absolute power over someone. According to the report Cox co-authored, “Victims of Human Trafficking and Trauma,” the psychological consequences of a victim are similar to the consequences of severe or chronic child abuse or experiencing acts of terrorism.

"In case you thought slavery doesn’t touch you, guess again," Soodalter said. "Chances are, the clothes you wear, the food you eat, has been touched by slavery."

The good news is there have been some inroads made recently in the area of agricultural servitude, Soodalter said. When Taco Bell refused to stop buying produce picked by enslaved workers in an effort known as the "Ban the Bell" campaign, it set a precedent that several other companies, including McDonalds, A&W, Long John Silver’s, Pizza Hut, Whole Foods, Chipotle and Burger King, have followed, Soodalter said.

"The message is clear," Soodalter said. "Slavery and worker abuse will not be tolerated. Not here, not now, not ever."

Mark Freeman, public affairs coordinator for the Global Perspectives Office, said they are hoping to continue the series next spring since response has been incredible. Because of the series last spring, students on campus were so spurred into action they formed the unofficial student group “Students Against Slavery @ UCF,” Freeman said. “Students Against Slavery @ UCF” has a Facebook page, and Harry Coverston serves as the faculty advisor for the group.

"Spreading the word is the most important thing," said Frank Hegedus, a senior political science and international relations major. "There is only right now."

http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/abolitionist-historian-wraps-up-global-perspectives-series-1.2093273