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How to tackle organized crime

Jul 9th, 2011 by

One can make two observations about big organized crime: 1. It is big. 2. It is organized.

Human trafficking, modern day slavery, is the 2nd biggest organized crime in the world. It is about many billions of dollars and involves very sophisticated transnational operations.

Some estimates indicate that about 27 million people have been tricked, shipped, deployed to slave like work and who are held against their will. All over the world. It is big business. It is organized. The trafficking operations involve all kinds of professions and skills and they are connected. Think multi-national company with all levels, from janitors to high flying CEOs.

Anti-human-trafficking initiatives can be labeled as small and disorganized in comparison. Unfortunately. To adequately address and combat human trafficking we need to build critical mass (become big) and build strategic alliances (become organized).

I see two major challenges for anti-trafficking initiatives. One problem is that it is mainly two categories of people and groups who are involved: 1. Legislators, policy makers, and government agencies. 2. NGOs, non-profit and volunteer based organizations. These people and groups are good and needed. They are not the problem. The problem is the people and groups who are not involved or not even invited to combat this evil.

We know that unemployment makes people vulnerable to traffickers. It is also a fact that we can’t talk about restoration of victims of human trafficking unless we can offer them jobs with dignity. Thus adequate prevention and restoration must include job creation. This means that business people must be a part of anti-trafficking networks as we try to get big and organized.

The second problem is disconnectedness. Local and national disconnected anti-trafficking measures are not sufficient to tackle to big organized crime, to initiate preventative steps and rescue actions and to restore the victims of these criminal gangs.

In short: we need to get more kinds of professions and skills sets involved and we need to build international strategic alliances. Is that a pipe dream? No!

I am very encouraged by one promising initiative in Europe: The European Freedom Network, (EFN). It started about two years ago and now has approximately 100 partners across Europe working together to prevent human trafficking and provide restorative processes for its victims. EFN is not the silver bullet but is definitely an important step in the right direction of building critical mass and getting organized transnationally.

My dear wife Jennifer Roemhildt Tunehag is one of the founders and leaders, together with my good friend Julia Doxat-Purser.

If you want to connect and learn further please check my wife’s blog: http://preventrestore.wordpress.com (EFN is working on a website. Stay tuned!)

If you want to support this work financially, click here for more info.

If you want to read the EFN brochure, click EFN brochure – outside and EFN Brochure – inside.

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Buy this book, read it, share it!

Mar 31st, 2011 by

Democracy, human rights and freedom are not destinations you arrive at. We mustn’t take these for granted – they can be lost.

President Ronald Reagan wrote: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

The book “Exiting a Dead End Road” deals with key issues for Europe, including the survival of true democracy and real adherence to human rights. You can read more about it here and also buy it as hard copy or e-book.

The book covers topics like:

  • Describing Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians –
  • Understanding Rights Talk
  • Dealing with Political Correctness
  • Comprehending Freedom and Tolerance
  • Responding to Anti-Discrimination Policy
  • Confronting Radical Secularism
  • Holding Universal Truths in a Pluralistic Society
  • Protecting Freedom of Speech

I was asked to write the chapter dealing with trends and concerns regarding freedom of speech in Europe and beyond. This chapter is found as a pdf file in Further Reading and here: Towards a Better Understanding of Freedom of Speech

The attacks on freedom of speech in Europe and beyond are worrying. We need to fight against hate speech laws, harassment, threats and self censorship.

Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeev writes in the foreword to the book: “This book is a collection of publications on discrimination against Christians in Europe. This problem is deliberately hushed up in the ‘free continent’. … The book cites numerous concrete facts pointing to discrimination against Christians, violations of their rights to freedom of expression and conscience and ultimately to the free expression of their faith.”

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Holy Profit

Mar 31st, 2011 by

“The Church acknowledges the legitimate role of profit as an indication that a business is functioning well. When a firm makes a profit, this means that productive factors have been properly employed and corresponding human needs have been duly satisfied.

But profitability is not the only indicator of a firm’s condition. It is possible for the financial accounts to be in order, and yet for the people — who make up the firm’s most valuable asset — to be humiliated and their dignity offended. Besides being morally inadmissible, this will eventually have negative repercussions on the firm’s economic efficiency.

In fact, the purpose of a business firm is not simply to make a profit, but is to be found in its very existence as a community of persons who in various ways are endeavouring to satisfy their basic needs, and who form a particular group at the service of the whole of society.

Profit is a regulator of the life of a business, but it is not the only one; other human and moral factors must also be considered which, in the long term, are at least equally important for the life of a business.”

Pope John Paul II, Centesimus annus 1991

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Godly Wealth Creation

Mar 31st, 2011 by

The Old Testament lays down in Exodus the Ten Commandments as given to Moses, the injunction in Leviticus to love our neighbour as ourselves and generally the importance of observing a strict code of law. The New Testament is a record of the Incarnation, the teachings of Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Again we have the emphasis on loving our neighbour as ourselves and to “Do-as-you-would-be-done-by”.

I believe that by taking together these key elements from the Old and New Testaments, we gain: a view of the universe, a proper attitude to work, and principles to shape economic and social life.

We are told we must work and use our talents to create wealth. “If a man will not work he shall not eat” wrote St. Paul to the Thessalonians. Indeed, abundance rather than poverty has a legitimacy which derives from the very nature of Creation.

Nevertheless, the Tenth Commandment—Thou shalt not covet—recognises that making money and owning things could become selfish activities. But it is not the creation of wealth that is wrong but love of money for its own sake. The spiritual dimension comes in deciding what one does with the wealth. How could we respond to the many calls for help, or invest for the future, or support the wonderful artists and craftsmen whose work also glorifies God, unless we had first worked hard and used our talents to create the necessary wealth? And remember the woman with the alabaster jar of ointment.

None of this, of course, tells us exactly what kind of political and social institutions we should have. On this point, Christians will very often genuinely disagree, though it is a mark of Christian manners that they will do so with courtesy and mutual respect. What is certain, however, is that any set of social and economic arrangements which is not founded on the acceptance of individual responsibility will do nothing but harm.

We are all responsible for our own actions. We can’t blame society if we disobey the law. We simply can’t delegate the exercise of mercy and generosity to others. The politicians and other secular powers should strive by their measures to bring out the good in people and to fight down the bad: but they can’t create the one or abolish the other. They can only see that the laws encourage the best instincts and convictions of the people, instincts and convictions which I’m convinced are far more deeply rooted than is often supposed.

Nowhere is this more evident than the basic ties of the family which are at the heart of our society and are the very nursery of civic virtue. And it is on the family that we in government build our own policies for welfare, education and care.

You recall that Timothy was warned by St. Paul that anyone who neglects to provide for his own house (meaning his own family) has disowned the faith.

We must recognise that modern society is infinitely more complex than that of Biblical times and of course new occasions teach new duties. In our generation, the only way we can ensure that no-one is left without sustenance, help or opportunity, is to have laws to provide for health and education, pensions for the elderly, succour for the sick and disabled. But intervention by the State must never become so great that it effectively removes personal responsibility.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, 21 May 1988. Speech to General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

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What’s next in the Arab world?

Mar 31st, 2011 by

Dictatorships always fall – sooner or later. The Arab world consists of various kinds of dictatorships, where Islam is a basis in the legal systems.

The desire for freedom is shared by all people, regardless of race, religion or gender. Therefore, it is no wonder that we now witness demonstrations and revolts in non-free Muslim countries. It is our responsibility to support people and movements who fight for human rights and freedoms, also in the Arab world and other Muslim countries.

But the overthrow of a dictatorship does not necessarily lead to democracy and human rights. We know that from both the French Revolution a few hundred years ago and the Iranian revolution a few decades ago.

A Saddam Hussein might be overthrown and the Taliban may be driven out from the corridors of power, but what comes next? In Iraq there was a democratic and free election, but the constitution is based on Islam. The same applies to Afghanistan. Thus, you can pick a president, but you may end up in prison and risk being killed if you leave Islam.

The process of democratization is much more than allowing political parties and holding general elections. It’s also about an independent judiciary, free press and freedom of religion.

Religious freedom may sometimes be guaranteed in a constitution, but contradicted by other laws and regulations. In Muslim countries religious freedom is subject to Sharia law which in practice means no or very limited religious freedom.

Democratic principles must also be practiced by families, clans, neighborhoods and communities. This is the big problem in the Muslim world, even in secular Turkey.

How many of the Egyptian protesters – who rightfully are demanding freedom – are ready to permit sons, daughters, neighbors and others to leave Islam without fear of intimidation, harassment and persecution?

Religious freedom is often a litmus test of democracy and human rights. In a true democracy media, neighbors and authorities allow people to express unpopular opinions. But they should also accommodate the right to practice a different religion, to express it in public with others, and the right to change religion. Since 95 percent or so of the world’s population adhere to some form of religious belief, this right is not peripheral but absolutely central.

Furthermore, democracy and peaceful relations within and between states rely on respect for other religions and the respect for other peoples and states to exist. There may be free elections in Tunisia and Egypt, and other Arab regimes may introduce some reforms, but will they accept Israel’s right to exist? Will Egyptian television continue with its blatant anti-Semitic propaganda? Will Coptic Christians be permitted to build and renovate churches? Will those who have left Islam have the right to change religion on their identity cards?

The overthrow of a dictator does not create democracy. General elections are no guarantee of human rights. Free access to the Internet is not the same as the protection of minorities and religious freedom for all.

Both Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton have publicly expressed a limited definition of religious freedom – the right to worship, which is not the same as the more extensive rights included in freedom of religion. Freedom of worship is prevalent in Muslim countries, freedom of religion is not. This does not bode well for the long term fight for freedom in the Arab world.

The peoples of the Arab world have a right to democracy and religious freedom, but we must not be naive about the long road that lies ahead.

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