by Ragnar Schuett

©1999-present

Thoughts pass in strange ways, through the heavy mist along a heavily armed DMZ or, in this case, through hot piped metal raining sideways towards its targets at a M240B range (FN MAG 58 for those more weapons inclined). Some of those thoughts come through clear, others somewhat garbled and in need of translation. This one is on the "Free Our Women" Campaign.

I always wondered if people knew of what their actions in this matter did to the girls in question or for that matter what these girls lives were like. I see too many people that seem to feel free to deride these women as prostitutes and whores...and far too many more that merely nod silently in agreement. My experience with these ladies though is different...

With a sudden burst of energy the candle's are blow out quickly. A quiet "sdnyom razhdyeniya" (trans: Happy Birthday), hug and peck on the cheek from me greet Katia after she's blown out the candles on her cake. "WOOO!!", exclaim some of the other girls there...although that breaks into laughter as I roll my eyes and smile while shaking my head. Luda, my girlfriend, smirks, she has that "half-disapprove, half-amused" look on her face. Although Katia's glowing face on her 19th birthday smooths out any friction, this is her day. Two words come to mind when I think of her: babyonka (basic trans: Fiery young lass) or lyubushka (basic trans: sweetheart).

If memory serves, she came from Novosibirsk (or from around that region, most of the girls came from Khabarovsk or Vladivostok areas). Like so many of the girls, she answered an ad for work in a foreign country...the ad that she answered was for a nanny/governess. When she arrived her passport and visa were stolen by her "employers" (normally done for the extent of the contract they sign, longer though in quite a number of cases) and she was assigned to a bar to work as a dancer. Now this wasn't her chosen, or desired, profession...it was assigned to her. Her beauty was matched by her intelligence, but it was her fiery attitude and stubborness that got her into trouble. I usually had to ask my Russian big sister or my adoptive Russian "mom" where she was so I could keep an eye out for her. Although it wasn't hard to tell that her "employers" (in this case, Korean mafia) weren't too happy with her and were dropping the quality of the clubs she was working in. And, after I was gone in the field for 2-1/2 weeks, she disappeared...for a longtime.

Things change... the lights on the dance floor around about the only illumination in this place. The music shifts from Russian pop songs to "I'm a barbie girl, in a barbie world". A "privyet" (trans: Hello or Hi) is all a drunk, belligerent Ami GI gets before I slam him into a wall at the Club Rio (a Russian club down in Itaewon, literally Foreigner town, Seoul, Korea). A quick arm lock and a hand around his throat and he's escorted out. A bang up night...found out my girl got deported, been fighting with drunk GI's, drunk Russian mob boys, drunk Korean mafiosos, drunk (...fill in your favorite ethnicity and/or occupation I probably helped throwing them out that night) and then her. Katia showed up for the first time in months, this time fully doped up. To make a long story shorter, she had been drugged and raped in prostitution. She didn't leave because she was ashamed of what had been done to her and what others would think of her and preferred remaining drugged up because of what happened to her and she was ashamed of what she'd become.

Now, this glosses over alot, both for brevity and because I don't want to totally bore you (if that hasn't already occurred that is). What happened to Katia happens to thousands of women. Not by their choice (I've yet to hear a young woman say that her life's dream would be as a prostitute, outside of a sick talk show mentality Americans) by far. I can't count how many teachers (all grades) and computer science related people that I've met that wound up in the same boat. In the same respect, I question the letter writing campaigns of the card carrying "Abolitionists" of the world. Not so much on an ethical or moral ground but physical. Putting pressure on the slavers can make life extremely uncomfortable for the women who are enslaved.

Do we have any type of underground to funnel these women back? An effective underground mixed with a viable letter writing campaign would be more effective in the end. If we don't, perhaps it's time...of course that would involve personal risk, something people aren't good at these days. I've gotten my bruises protecting these girls in the past, but in the end I was only one person...and in this game we lose going that route (been there, done that and you can have the T-shirt 'cause I don't want it). People are needed for things like the "Free Our Women" campaign, but not just on paper...live bodies are needed, I know I'll be getting scuffed up again over the girls in future...with or without backup.