The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 3/30/09 Section: News

CSU students tie shoes furiously under the watchful eye of a mock sweatshop manager on March 27, 2009 as part of "Trafficked," an event hosted by CSU's Not For Sale to raise awareness of the issue of modern-day slavery. Event attendees learned of the conditions under which present-day sex slaves, sweatshop laborers and children soldiers live.

Led room to room, winding in and out of the lives and stories of present-day slaves, CSU and Fort Collins community members got an intense look at the world of modern-day human slavery in "Trafficked," hosted by Not For Sale CSU.

On Friday and Saturday evenings, students and community members were enslaved, all assuming the identities of recent victims of the worldwide crime of human trafficking and following individual lives and experiences through the exhibit.

In essence, people became property.

First, participants were led into a brothel, which was disguised as a massage parlor, a commonpractice among sex traffickers.

One slavery tour guide informed the group that virgins were more valuable, that female sex slaves who have "no future" serve and average 20 clients a day.

This message was relayed in the stark brothel, laced with scribbled messages of despair on the wall, accented by the ragged mattress on the floor.

The ages of sex slave victims vary, but the average age of entry into prostitution or the commercial sex industry in the U.S. is 11 to 14 years according to Not For Sale.

Next the attendees-turned-slaves became forced laborers, relegated to lace up shoes in a sweatshop.

Child slaves are sold to companies where they work long hours with few to no breaks, working in inhuman and unsafe conditions. Immersed in the simulation, the group frantically laced up shoes while the "manager" yelled at the participants and "beat" a student actor representing a child laborer.

In the third and final room, participants were forcibly enlisted as child soldiers.

The recently enslaved were then lined up and given orders by the "rebel general," that singled out a member of the group and "shot" him to emphasize his cruelty and power.

Continued...

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