The New York Times mentioned this in an article today; a little poking around on the web found a couple more articles on the arrest of the 10 Americans, mostly from Idaho, who are part of the Idaho-based Christian group New Life Children’s Refuge.

Haiti is well known for the exploitation of children, including internal exploitation of restaveks–children who are given or sold to other families as servants because they can’t be fed or cared for by impoverished parents. Post earthquake concerns that orphaned children, or those simply separated from their parents, are even more vulnerable to exploitation has the Haitian government and NGO’s clamping down on child adoptions.

Having seen how the Cambodian government has spent years not only creating an organization for combating human trafficking, but has had to develop protocol and is still in the training and implementation phase, it makes sense to me that the Haitian government–what is left of it–would be extra guarded as it tries to address child trafficking concerns. Even without the disaster of the recent earthquake, child trafficking is a complicated and poorly-addressed issue in Haiti.

The arrested Americans state this instance is only a misunderstanding; whether or not it is as simple as that, their arrest is a test of Haiti’s resolve to end child trafficking and exploitation. Personally, I feel it is also a cautionary tale to groups who want to help–anywhere in the world. Be informed, do your research, partner with well-established organizations, and tailor your efforts in the best interest of the recipient community, not your own.

Read the Articles: http://bit.ly/haiti_dmail, http://bit.ly/haiti_euro-news

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Fitz Cahall, author of the Dirtbag Diaries, partnered with Bryan Smith to create the 22 episode web tv show “The Season.” Sponsored by Arc’Teryx and New Belgium, “The Season.” follows five athletes with their dreams and realizations during the course of one season.

I’d met Fitz years ago through a mutual friend but it wasn’t until recently that we bumped into each other again. He was secretive about his ‘video’ project but now that the trailer is out, I can see why. The amount of work to be out there capturing skilled athletes on camera–and telling a story too–is as committing the sports themselves. That commitment is what makes this kind of work, and these kind of sports, a lifestyle, not just a hobby.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to “The Season.” both from a creative’s standpoint and as someone who once lived the climbing life.

The Season Trailer from Fitz Cahall on Vimeo.

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Kivalina, Alaska, the Inupiat village of 400 that’s suing companies for climate change made it into the NY Times today. Since I was in Kivalina in 2008, it seems the case–and others like it–are gathering steam. This is on the order of the tobacco law suit. Climate change…

From the article:
“Blocks of sea ice used to protect the town’s fragile coast from October on, but “we don’t have buildup right now, and it is January,” said Janet Mitchell, Kivalina’s administrator. “We live in anxiety during high-winds seasons.”

“The village wants the companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, and many others, to pay the costs of relocating to the mainland, which could amount to as much as $400 million.”

Read more here:
Kivalina in the NY Times

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It’s a vast expanse of green below, light green, dark green, grayish green; tracks of red earth cut across it, some almost arrow straight. We’re gliding in at 10,000, beginning our approach to Brasilia on Delta’s inaugural flight from Atlanta, cruising over a patchwork of irregular fields. Vast fields, larger than the well irrigated circles and squares of the US midwest.

Low hills lay fingers across the landscape, their long parallel lines indicative of the underlying geology; here the ground is a dark green of dense forrest. Their edges are pronounce, erosive forces keeping their edges sharp. I strain to see from the aisle seat; I am leaning over T, he is reclining in Lu’s lap on our cramped 757. I’m surprised Delta used a 757 for the nine hour flight, even more surprised how well behaved T is on this trip to see Lu’s family.

And now the city emerges, tendrils of fresh blacktop and concrete roadways extend out of satellite cities. The land undulates like broad swells of the ocean. Houses and building populate the rollers, like rafts of seaweed and driftwood–a city floating in the middle of nowhere. Red earth, white roofs, verdant green swathes between, glowing in a morning light, warm and rich as only the more equatorial regions can muster.

The city thickens, high rises run the spines of gentle rises, highways cut across and rail lines cut through emptier stretches. The roar of landing gear lowering into the slipstream, flaps down. I can look inside cars now. Scrub brush rushes up toward us and–we’re down. A gentle bounce and then the patter of applause starts in the forward cabin, spreading, rolling back to us. Some whistles. I’m not sure if its because we landed safely or if it’s the Brazilians, happy to be home. I know Lu is. She just turned. “I am home,” she smiled.

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The work I did in Kivalina, Alaska, for Spiegel Magazine keeps on cropping up in the news. One of the climate conference topics in Copenhagen deals with the number of “climate refugees,” estimated at 150 million, who will be forced to move, in part, because of rising sea levels. Never mind the issues of drought, its impacts on traditional farming regions, arguments and even wars over fresh water rights, etc.

CNN went to Alaska to report on a village not far from Kivalina. Sishmaref was one of the villages the people in Kivalina talked about. It too has a small population in a permanent settlement established by the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs when they built a school; unfortunately, they placed it on a low island exposed the sea.

I think it’s a timely piece, especially given the conference in Copenhagen, and reminds me quite vividly of my few days in Kivalina trying to capture the essence of a culture on the verge of being swallowed by the sea. Not to be too melodramatic, but this truly is the reality both physically and metaphorically for the risk to their culture is as pressing as the erosion of their coastline.

Above is a link to the CNN article on Shishmaref, Alaska, and below is a link to a VERY loose image gallery edit of neighboring Kivalina, Alaska. Both villages are facing a warming climate and rising sea.

Climate Change Threatens Way of Life for Inupiat Eskimo in Alaska – Images by Tim Matsui

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When I stood on the white sand of a nearly empty Cambodian beach, our fixer’s words sat ponderously heavy in my thoughts. Next to me was a gnarled trunk of a mangrove tree, dead for years. Behind me was a landscape of excavated shrimp farms, their large reservoirs carved out of what once was coastal swamp, rich with mangrove. At my feet the Gulf of Thailand gently rolled up the sand. It was tranquil place to spend my last day in Cambodia. It was also suffering from environmental degradation due to the shrimp farming.

Looking out to the ocean, I thought about the previous few days trying to connect with undocumented migrants, to follow them through minefields into Thailand, to hear their stories of the risks they take to feed their families. I was looking at labor slaves–human trafficking for labor–following reports from a non governmental organization. Most of it detailed abuses in the fishing industry. This is a project I long to finish, but one that is difficult, dangerous, and expensive to complete. That tranquil beach, which helped me accept my efforts, however incomplete, was nearly a year ago.

Today I received an email about the shrimp industry. It included a video from CNN which interviewed domestic shrimpers whose livelihoods are impacted by foreign shrimping. Some of it is the cheaper cost of operating overseas, some of it is because of slavery abroad. As a consumer of shrimp, the US is fueling demand for cheap shrimp. The CNN report goes one step further than many news reports. It found an authority to speak about the responsibility the consumer has for human trafficking. After all, we buy the shrimp but don’t demand that it is slave free.

As I hit the “publish” button, I am minutes away from a preliminary interview with a leading scientist whose research contribution has helped identify a sea animal that is literally on the verge of extinction. But he and his colleagues are hopeful: their work has helped move government and industry to begin major, life saving changes. The root cause of the species’ decimation? Fishing, in part, for shrimp.

Who knew such a small creature could have a global impact? I suppose if we, the bigger creature, were more responsible with our harvest it wouldn’t be the case.

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It’s taken me over two months to write about my 9/11 birthday, to post pictures, to celebrate a celebration; I have a list of reasons which seem…plausible…but really they’re just excuses. I simply haven’t written anything. But today, a sweat pants, sleep in, gray skies, hang out with Lu day is the right day.

It also helps that it’s only two days after her birthday, and only partway through a Thanksgiving weekend which, conveniently, is long enough to give her a real birthday weekend. With three cakes, a dinner, two parties, friends and family. But mostly this weekend is simply relaxed time together. As a concept this may be rather pedestrian to many, but I’m still learning about “relaxed time together.” I like activities and, even if I’m surrounded by people, I’m used to being alone. Being with Lu is different. In a good way.

Months ago she asked me to block out a period of time in September, right around my birthday, because we were going somewhere. The destination was undisclosed and she kept it well hidden until the last moments. It’s not a location I would have guessed; she loves the beach and the sun and, maybe to purposely mislead me, we’d been talking about surf, snorkeling, and airline flights. I too like the beach, but I’m more of a mountain person; sleeping on the ground after a punishing day of climbing is my idea of a vacation. Or travel-for-work; photographing a story is also my idea of a vacation.

She was clever in how she laid out the clues. It was a place we would both enjoy. It had relaxation but it also had ‘activities’ I liked. It was warm.

Images from the destination after the jump….
Read the rest of this entry »

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In my effort to understand and talk about human trafficking, I’ve done a little research. When an article like this pops up I feel I need to share it, especially because this one shows how and what we buy can change the world.

Leonardo DiCaprio thrust this story into mainstream entertainment in the film “Blood Diamond.” Journalists like Marcus Bleasedale have followed this story for years (see “Rape of a Nation” at Mediastorm.org) and human rights groups have railed at the public’s consciousness for even longer.

This is the story of minerals extracted by slaves for the benefit of armed groups. Consumers unknowingly buy the minerals in products like the laptop I’m typing on, the cell phone in your pocket, the ring on your spouse’s finger. The companies that make these items may also be buying the minerals from suppliers without knowing exactly how they were extracted. To be fair, and without getting into environmental issues, many minerals are extracted “fairly” but somewhere along the line is someone who knowingly introduces conflict minerals into the supply chain. This gold, diamond, coltan, or other mineral was extracted by people laboring by hand, under violence, for only enough to keep them alive so they can labor. They are unable to leave, to be free.

These stories, from around the globe, are monumental, intimidating, and can leave us feeling hopeless; what can we really do?

For starters, we can learn. And then we can demand the companies we buy from follow their supply chain all the way to the source and ensure that none of the products they sell support conflict. Do you buy fair trade coffee? Do you eat free-range or organic? These options wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for a market that demands them–meaning us.

An excerpt from this NY Times article:

“Already the Enough Project, an antigenocide group based in Washington, and Eve Ensler, an American playwright who has been supporting Congolese women’s projects for years through the organization V-Day, among others, have been urging Congress to pass legislation that would bar American companies from buying Congo’s “conflict minerals,” which include gold, tin and coltan, a metallic ore used in many cellphones and laptop computers. Several bills have been proposed.”

Read more about conflict minerals and what you can do:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/world/africa/25congo.html

http://www.enoughproject.org/conflict_areas/eastern_congo

http://www.enoughproject.org/publications/mine-mobile-phone

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/08/01/the_new_blood_diamonds/

Be heard: email the companies

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I’ve all but given up on the time-consuming, lifestyle demanding, low-return photography of climbing; the time investment to be a climber, and also the time to be a climbing photographer, was too much. However, a friend of mine, Ben Gilkeson, has managed to do both.

Over the years, Gilkeson (www.bentroy.com) has been doing a project on Index, one of the local climbing crags. The town itself is an old logging camp that used to have a railway stop; the Burlington-Northern rail line makes a deep bend through the center of town on its way to the mountain pass. Today, US Highway 2 provides the traffic of climbers, kayakers, and rafters who recreate in the odd, reclusive, somewhat hippy town. On one side of Index are the “town walls,” several hundred feet of steep granite. Across the Skykomish River, the jagged peaks of Mt. Index itself tower above the valley.

Angelle Sjong spent some time with her husband out at Index a summer or two ago, camped out by the river in their van, crashing at people’s homes in the city, and living the tradition of the climbing life; hours and days spent obsessively working the lines of a crag, learning the rock’s unique character and practicing move after move until the puzzle of a climb’s sequence is revealed. During that time she did a little research and she, Ben, and Climbing Magazine produced this article about the history of climbing at Index.

It couldn’t be a more timely piece because right now the Access Fund and the Washington Climber’s Coalition are trying to raise $300,000 to purchase the parts of the crag that are privately owned. The granite was used commercially–it can be found in the foundation and steps of the Washington State Capitol–and its current owner wants to sell it or reopen the cliffs for production.

Check out Ben and Angelle’s work here: http://www.climbing.com/exclusive/features/index_279/

Additional photography is here: http://www.climbing.com/photo-video/gallery/upper_and_lower_town_walls_index_washington/

Donate to the preservation of the crag’s public access: Washington Climber’s Coalition

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Marshall and Megan Wedding from timmatsui.com on Vimeo.

This is six minutes of ceremonial bliss celebrated with dozens of friends; Marshall and Megan had great vows and everyone’s toasts were wonderful. I wish I could have mixed all those toasts and testimonials Luciana recorded into the media piece, but the edit would have been too long. I guess something’s got to be special to the day and “of the moment.”

As event planners themselves, the two of them did a wonderful job of picking an excellent location, great catering, and even added and unexpected element of authenticity when the local teens tried to help themselves to the bar.

Here’s to Bubs and Bubbs.

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