Trade, greed and love.

Click here to watch the trailer for "Trade".

Trade is a 2007 German film produced by Roland Emmerich and Rosilyn Heller, directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner and starring Kevin Kline. The film premiered January 23, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and opened in limited release on September 28, 2007. It is based on Peter Landesman's article "The Girls Next Door" about sex slaves, which was featured as the cover story in the January 24, 2004 issue of The New York Times Magazine. Click here to read the article.

I heard this quote earlier today by Francis Schaeffer, "..freedom is not being able to do what you want, freedom is doing what is right." The prevalence of the reducing of human beings down to a commodity to be bought, sold, and exploited is an egregious crime. I still cannot believe that we are unable to enforce the laws and conventions against trafficking and slavery, and uphold the value of human rights and the most basic rights of having the right to life and liberty. The only rational reason why this crime still remains is that the greed overwhelms the inherent qualities of love, protection, respect and dignity. So many people are involved in this crime: the trafficker, the pimp, the transporter, the john and the person who sold the victim to begin with. If we could break the power of greed and selfishness, maybe the chain could be broken. Maybe we could see the enforcement of the abolition of slavery that Wilberforce instigated. I believe that this is possible.

I believe that the rectifying the asymmetry of the distribution of wealth, opportunity, education will help to alleviate vulnerability. But above all, we must create a new normal, not self-interest, not greed but of diversity, integration, community, love and grace. This is how to break the cycle of evil. We only resort to claiming human rights, when love does not cover, protect and provide.

In the words of the Black eyed peas, where is the love?