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| Joe and Prof. Patrick Talbot* |
If
you’re from somewhere in the West that hasn’t hit summer by the time you reach
Indonesia, the first thing you notice when you step off the plane is the
humidity.
It hits you like a brick wall. I’ve spent many hot summer days and
nights outside for Army field exercises, but I had never felt humidity like
this. That’s because this is my first time in a jungle.
The Background
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| Downtown Jakarta |
Indonesia
is a developing country, not a
developed one. The country is
literally built into the jungle, and the humidity as well as the smell and
vegetation is the proof of it. If you don’t believe me, simply watch Bear Grylls’s excursion to the island of Sumatra. That being said, developing countries are just that – works in
progress, trying desperately (supposedly) to catch up to what we have achieved
for quality of living in the West. I say this so that you don’t think I’m
living in a hut, or that asphalt doesn’t exist here, or that I can’t buy fried
chicken or a Nike soccer jersey (of which there are many of both here). I say
this because the massive gap between the huts and the Nike stuff is impossible
not to notice. While driving into downtown Jakarta (the country’s capital, on
the island of Java) last week, you can look to the left and see a mass of
skyscrapers that resemble Manhattan. But to the right, you can see shacks that
look like a seven year old designed and built them, with drainage water
literally flowing through them. In
the West, you just see the skyscrapers on one side and the projects on the
other. With this comparison in mind, it is little wonder why many of the poor
in Indonesia would be thankful to live in the projects (not that projects are a
good thing, but we’ve come a long way).
Why is
this information necessary? Because without it, I would not have understood the
root causes (i.e., “The Problem”) of sex trafficking, which is why I came here:
to try and make some sort of difference in the fight against this horrible
injustice. You’re probably thinking, “Why is the problem so hard to understand?
I’ve seen ‘Taken’!” So have I. The difference is that Europeans live like, or
very similar to, us. This is why we can watch Liam Neeson kill Eastern European
mobsters and rescue his kidnapped daughter. In Europe, kidnapping is an
economical way to create capital for the sex industry. Here, as a gangster,
there’s no need to exert yourself so much, especially in this heat. The process
of creating capital is far easier.
The First Part of the Problem
There
are areas of Indonesia that are less developed (i.e., the hut areas), and
therefore more naïve. Some of these areas have reputations for particularly
attractive women. Now, here’s the first part of the problem: pimps come here
and buy young girls from their parents.
Yes, you read that right.
Parents sell their kids right into the sex trade. There are
multiple reasons parents would do this: some desperately need the money that
the girls might make, others are deceived into thinking their daughter is
getting a legitimate job, for example. Benjamin Nolot’s superb documentary, “Nefarious: Merchant of Souls” (which you
all should watch immediately after
reading this), does a better job of
illustrating this peculiar phenomenon than I do.
The Second Part of the Problem
Now, we
arrive at the second part of the problem: korupsi,
as the Indonesians would say. It translates as “corruption.” This classic
selfish plague is holding back the developing world (and to some degree, the
developed world as well) from becoming truly developed. In Indonesia, there is
a very complicated process for obtaining permission to leave your village for
work or a passport. Permission must be granted in the form of a letter from
your village chief, the immigration office, and a slew of other officials. And
that’s just for the worker’s permit. But if you’re part of the
Chinese-Indonesian mob, you can expedite this process by literally throwing
money at it. Free money is hard to come by anywhere, especially here, where 200
American dollars makes you a millionaire in Rupiah; how could you say no to
this “free money” if all that was required of you was a form letter and a
stamp? It’s the same reason why it takes two hours to get into Jakarta from the
suburb I’m living in: politics (and corruption) prevented a proposal for a light
rail system several years ago. Like the light rail system, these girls’ lives
are also essentially swept under the rug. From there, prostitution is
unofficially “contained” in red light districts across the nation. Though
anyone who knows anything about prostitution knows that containment is the
result of simple naivety and korupsi.
There is little difference between a legal pimp and an illegal pimp. They both
sell and ruin lives, including their own, for a living. And all this just
relates to domestic prostitution; the korupzi
allows young women and girls to be trafficked to Singapore and all over
Southeast Asia, where you can literally pick the nationality of your prostitute
in most red light districts.
The Hope
I
realize that I’ve painted a bleak, depressing picture. However, the same
adjectives can be used to describe our lives before Christ found us. I will
elaborate more on what I will call “The Answer(s)” in my next entry, but for
now I offer this ray of hope. I work for Professor Patrick Talbot, a member of
the law faculty at Universitas Pelita Harapan, which roughly means “University
of Light and Hope.” UPH (pronounced “ooo-pay-ha”) is part of a vast network of
Christian schools created by the Riady family through a foundation (the Yayasan). I know what you’re thinking:
“How could such a network of Christian schools exist in the world’s most
populace Muslim country?!” It is true that there are over 250 million people
crammed onto the string of islands that make up Indonesia, and it is true that
Islam is the most popular religion. However, if you look at the Indonesian
emblem (pictured), you will see a gold star at the
center of the shield. This star represents the country’s recognition of one God
(how would that fare on Capital Hill?). Indonesia therefore recognizes six
religions, all of which have mono-theistic views to some significant degree,
and each citizen’s religion is part of the information on their identification
card. This is why UPH is able to do the great things it does. I still get the
news from the United States, and comparing that news to the things that UPH
does has showed me that Christians are, in some ways, more free to practice and
express their faith here than back home. Shocking for a Western country that used
to believe each person’s inalienable rights were “endowed by their Creator.”
* Joe is pictured above with Regent Law alum Professor Patrick Talbot ('93), who is a member of the Universitas Pelita Harapan faculty. Also pictured is Professor Talbot's daughter Katie, his wife Kathy, and his daughter Suzie.
Read part 2 of this post here >
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