Traffic Jam Campaign

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TRAFFIC JAM Concert at The Stone Pony

For our friends in New Jersey, join us this Friday for the TRAFFIC JAM concert at the famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, one of the world's best known music venues. Many multi-platinum artists got their start in this hallowed hall of rock & roll. Four bands, headlined by my friends The Jersey Syndicate, will be rocking the joint until the late hours and brining awareness to child slavery around the world. The event also doubles as the Syndicate's CD-release party. Those of you in the area won't want to miss this show and new album from this hot NJ band. Other participating bands are Fistacuffs, Knucklebone and Beatrix Kiddo. Doors open at 7:30 pm.

Paul with The Jersey Syndicate

Check out a couple of the Syndicate's videos:

New Instruments of Change available, don't miss out!

In an effort to raise additional awareness and funding to stop human trafficking, Traffic Jam will auction, raffle and give away 30 guitars signed by a variety of artists. 

Check out the new photo album of signed guitars. Some will be auctioned. Some will be raffled. And yes, some will be given away! These "instruments of change" will help to rescue children from slavery and exploitation!," according to the TJ facebook page. 

From Pink Floyd to James Taylor, this collection has something for every music lover. 

To see pics of each guitar, click here. 

To find out how to get your hands on one, log onto the TJ facebook page. 

These are just four of the 30 guitars that will be available soon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AP report: $1M bail ordered in human trafficking case

HONOLULU — A federal judge has set bail at $1 million for the CEO of a labor recruiting company accused of importing and exploiting 400 workers from Thailand.

Forty-five-year-old Mordechai Orian, head of Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower Inc., was ordered Wednesday to be held in federal custody until he can raise the money.

KITV reports federal prosecutors claim Orian, an Israeli national, is a flight risk. They had sought to keep him in custody until his trial, and they plan to appeal.

Orian is accused in what the FBI calls the largest human-trafficking case charged in U.S. history.

He was indicted last week on charges that he lured the workers with false promises of lucrative jobs, then confiscated their passports, failed to honor their employment contracts and threatened to deport them.

His public relations agency has said he complied with the FBI in negotiating his surrender in Honolulu. 

To read more, click here. 

Sorrow to Stardom

I've had the pleasure of knowing Alan Hunt for over ten years now. He's currently a great orphan advocate with World Orphans and has lent a lot of time to the TRAFFIC JAM Campaign that unites musicians and their fans in the fight against child trafficking. His son, Kyle, is a multi-instrument member of The Black Angels, a band from Austin, TX with a large and growing following. The Black Angels had a milestone moment this past week. Read Alan's potent words below:

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In 1989 I bought my twelve year old son Kyle a pawn shop electric guitar and amplifier. Shortly afterward he started weekly guitar lessons that continued for the next five years. Kyle took to music like a duck to water and never needed encouragement to practice his lessons. He played virtually non-stop with the passion and drive required to become a professional musician. He inherited his musical talent from his mom. Her instrument was her voice and an incredible ear for music. As for his dad, I don't even play the radio very well.

In 1993 Kyle became a single parent orphan when his mom succumbed to a fifteen year battle with bi-polar metabolic depression. With the love and encouragement of an extended family and the support and care of a wonderful church community Kyle and I endured the grief and sudden life changing circumstances that occur when a child loses a parent and a husband loses his wife.

Kyle never lost his passion for music and has continued to hone his craft to this day. He is now thirty three years old, a husband to Rachel, a loving father to his three year old daughter, Harper and a professional musician and member of a well know band from Austin, Texas, "The Black Angels".

Last night "The Black Angels" performed a new song from their soon to be released third album on the David Letterman show. As I watched my son perform I marveled about a loving God who provided for Kyle through extended family and a loving church so that a childhood dream did not end with the loss of a parent but was allowed to continue and to flourish.

NYT Editorial: "forced labor on a chilling scale"

Editorial

A conspiracy indictment was brought last week against a Los Angeles company, alleging forced labor on a chilling scale.

Six contractors are accused of a scheme to hold 400 workers from Thailand in virtual slavery on farms in Hawaii and Washington State. The Justice Department says it is the largest human-trafficking case ever brought by the federal government.

Just as disturbing is how familiar the accusations are. The company, Global Horizons Manpower, is accused of abusing the federal guest worker program, known as H-2A, in 2004 and 2005 and luring workers with false promises of steady work at decent pay.

The workers, poor men from the Thai countryside, took on crushing debt to pay exorbitant recruiting fees, about $9,500 to $21,000.

After they arrived in America, according to the indictment, their passports were taken and they were set up in shoddy housing and told that if they complained or fled they would be fired, arrested or deported.

The case, brought in Honolulu, coincides with the sentencing on Thursday of two Hawaii farmers, Mike and Alec Sou, who pleaded guilty in January to a forced-labor scheme involving 44 Thai workers.

The Sous worked with Global Horizons before but are linked to the latest case only by the methods they admitted to using.

In the abuse of legal foreign workers, the numbers vary but the methods are the same. It is slavery without shackles. Its perpetrators seldom have to resort to violence or even threats of violence. Since workers are buried in debt before they even leave their home countries, the threat of being fired and deported is enough.

To read the rest of this editorial, click here.

New York Times: Some See a Ploy as Craigslist Blocks Sex Ads

By Claire Cain Miller, Sept. 5

SAN FRANCISCO — Craigslist, by shutting off its “adult services” section and slapping a “censored” label in its place, may be engaging in a high-stakes stunt to influence public opinion, some analysts say.

Since blocking access to the ads as theLabor Day weekend began — and suspending a revenue stream that could bring in an estimated $44 million this year — Craigslist has refused to discuss its motivations. But using the word “censored” suggests that the increasingly combative company is trying to draw attention to its fight with state attorneys general over sex ads and to issues of free speech on the Internet.

The law has been on Craigslist’s side. The federal Communications Decency Act protects Web sites against liability for what their users post on the sites. And last year, the efforts of attorneys general were stymied when a federal judge blocked South Carolina’s attorney general from prosecuting Craigslist executives for listings that resulted in prostitution arrests.

“It certainly appears to be a statement about how they feel about being judged in the court of public opinion,” said Thomas R. Burke, a First Amendment lawyer at Davis Wright Tremaine who specializes in Internet law and does not work for Craigslist. “It’s certainly the law that they’re not liable for it, but it’s another matter if the attorneys general are saying change your ways.”

Attorneys general and advocacy groups have continued to pressure the company to remove the “adult services” section. A letter from 17 state attorneys general dated Aug. 24 demanded that Craigslist close the section, contending that it helped facilitate prostitution and the trafficking of women and children.

Click here to read the rest of this article. 

 

TJ to sponsor free concert in Grand Rapids

Traffic Jam is gearing up once again to use music as an avenue to raise awareness about human trafficking around the world. 

On Sept. 26, TJ will sponsor a free concert in Grand Rapids, Mich. in Rosa Parks Circle in the middle of "Art Prize Grand Rapids."

Last year, "Art Prize Grand Rapids" drew 20,000 people so TJ will be a voice for the millions of people who are currently enslaved around the globe. 

For more information about upcoming events and how you can get involved with the concert, go to the TJ facebook page. 

USA Today: Six indicted for alleged human trafficking of Thai workers to USA

Posted by Doug Stanglin, USA Today

The FBI says it has cracked the nation's biggest human-trafficking operation with the indictment of six recruiters for allegedly luring 400 Thai laborers to the United States, taking their passports and forcing them to work.

The FBI charges that the operation was orchestrated by four employees of the labor recruiting company Global Horizons Manpower Inc. and two Thai-based recruiters, the Associated Press reports.

The indictment charges that recruiters lured workers with false promises of high-paying jobs, confiscated their passports, failed to honor the contracts and threatened to deport them.

If convicted the six could be sentenced from five to 70 years in prisons.

The AP says Global Horizon's Los Angeles office refused to take a message seeking comment.

Attorneys say the laborers were forced to work in more than a dozen states, including Hawaii, Washington, California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

To read more, click here. 

 

Traffic Jam continues to meet with musicians to stop human trafficking

Here are the recent facebook updates from World Orphans President Paul Myhill who is traveling the nation on behalf of Traffic Jam. 

Aug. 28, Paul: Green Day

Aug. 29, Paul: Arrived in Boston to meet REO Speedwagon

Aug. 30, Paul: Will be meeting with Saul Hudson on Wednesday. 

Sept. 1, Paul: Slash tonight, then off to Milwaukee tomorrow to meet Kiss, followed by a trip to Cleveland to attend the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame's 15th Anniversary Ball. 

For to-the-minute TJ updates click here.