Don't Shout Too Loud

Courtney D. Campbell's enlightening documentary looks at the controversy over human trafficking that accompanied the 2010 World Cup. When the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) announced South Africa as the site for the contest, citizens rejoiced, but negative press soon followed concerning human trafficking. As Campbell notes, a similar outcry ensued when Germany—where prostitution is legal—served as the host country in 2004. Representatives from the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime explain how South Africa became vulnerable to human trafficking due to a strong transportation and communications infrastructure that facilitates the passage of slave labor into and out of the country. Since 2000, the U.S. State Department has attempted to reduce human trafficking by way of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (through sanctions and other measures), but academics and authors, including Ronald Weitzer and Chandré Gould, take exception to the way these counter-trafficking campaigns have fostered fear, spread misinformation, and deflected resources away from less media-friendly issues. As Weitzer, a sociology professor at George Washington University, states “their larger goal is to eliminate the sex industry,” which helps to explains why strange bedfellows like left-wing feminists and far-right evangelicals have united over the issue. Loren Landau, a migration researcher at the University of Witwatersrand, also believes there's a moral agenda at work, since labor conditions and domestic violence present more pressing problems for many of the countries on the State Department's human trafficking watch list. Offering a thought-provoking look at a multi-faceted issue, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)