good afternoon everybody I’ve worked in
the field of education for over 20 years
I’ve worked with Generation X Generation
Y and I am bracing myself to work with
Generation Z now most of you will think
that I know the tricks of the trade by
now I know how to interact with this
generation I know how to work with them
teach them and learn with them but trust
me when I say that that I’m still
learning from this transition from one
generation to the next and working with
this group whom we called Millennials
because there is something unique about
this group this group of Millennials has
the world on their fingertips and for me
as a researcher while I know that it
takes years of research to gather
knowledge I work with this group who
creates their own version of reality
based on what is presented to them in
the form of fact fiction or what we call
alternative facts but we could also
choose facts and form our own version
form our own reality and therefore my
job as an educator is really an
interesting one in this post truth world
now how does this work we live in a
generation we live in a world of
information overload
how does media influence our psychology
what happens what are the mechanisms
that are at play we often refer to this
as subliminal perception subliminal
perception what is it it is our
perception it is a reaction to the
stimuli in our environment and trust me
it has an impact how the food that we
eat the dinner that we’re going to eat
tonight or what you choose to wear at
this event the tweets that you’re going
to share what you’re going to like the
photos or images that you’re going to
share on Instagram or snapchat will
implications I am concerned of the long
lasting implications that will be there
on your understanding of human beings in
another reality what is the reality for
them and therefore we’re gonna work with
a small exercise you are all sitting can
you just sit back with both your feet on
the ground and not cross select sit back
shoulders back take a deep breath and
when I say a word when I speak a word
aloud I want you to be conscious of the
imagery that your brain comes up with so
the first word the first word is
terrorist terrorist what is the image
that your brain comes up with is it a
person I heard beer in the background
great is this a person from a particular
ethnicity belonging to a particular
religion and has a particular name maybe
have you ever questioned why did our
brain come to this conclusion so easily
the second word and again be conscious
of the image that comes up is hunger
drought famine three words explaining
what hunger is does your brain come up
with this image of a child from a
particular continent also a particular
color did we have a question why this
image came up so quickly the third word
which is the most important word and is
relevant to this talk today is that of
slave slave slavery what comes up is it
individuals which shackles in their
hands working to
a big piece of stone for example
building a pyramid some other
civilization or working in plantations
happy question as to why information is
packaged in such a way but we are led to
believe that there are no slaves today
well the fact of the matter is that
there are more slaves today than at any
other point in time in history but we
are led to believe that it doesn’t
happen in our immediate circle and we
have nothing to do with them we are not
part of the supply chain of slavery
again I’m here to speak with you because
I work with slaves I work with victims
and survivors of human trafficking
bought and sold for sexual exploitation
and again it is a challenging task when
I work with students to create that safe
environment when they can challenge what
they see what they hear based on the
information that is presented to them an
example that I’m going to share with you
and I hear that very often from my
students when we go to the red-light
district whether it’s a field trip or
whether it’s a planned a project when we
go the students tell me they don’t look
distressed they don’t look that they are
their unforced they look like they want
to be there because they look very
different from the image that is created
by documentaries and sex trafficking and
therefore they must be there out of
choice now my job is only half begun
right because when we then question
little ization and pro-choice we need to
consider a number that all first work
within the field and before that I’d
like to share
but even if be considered 10% of those
that are working in the windows or
selling sex on the streets are they’re
not of choice we really have a very big
number of commercial sex workers who are
sexually exploited every day and every
night just an accident and therefore
what is the real number that we work
with for those of us who are grassroots
level workers social workers
psychologists faculty doctors lawyers
people in the police authorities the
number is 85% we look at 85% as a number
which is an example of how many of them
are trafficked now another myth that I’m
going to clarify for you because I said
my job as an educator it’s a lot of
myth-busting right a fellow speaker the
symposium recently professor Kearney
RIKEN from the University of Dilber
spoke to us about the perfect victim now
I’m not going to ask you to close your
eyes and again visualize the perfect
victim but I’m going to share that with
you already
who is the perfect victim the perfect
victim is somebody who’s young she’s
from a dependent developing country and
she’s probably sold by her family or
somebody she knows from sexual
exploitation a lot of people who work in
the field we all fall prey to this
fallacy while research shows that
vulnerability has no age it has no race
specific
it has no gender specification because
the victim could be a child it could be
a woman and so another myth busted yes
men get sold for sexual exploitation –
and we work with them in the field
another myth that we fall prey to is
that that there are push factors
globally in some source countries which
feeds into this entire global movement
of slaves and what are these factors
these factors could be poverty lack of
education political instability and
therefore it pushes people out to
another system again let me ask you a
question
do you really think that it’s just three
factors do you really think it’s a
particular race only and a particular
gender only know the face today of
modern-day slavery is very different
from what it was in the past the new
face of modern-day slavery has
psychological commercial not necessarily
just physical threat what is the
psychological coercion this
psychological coercion could be due to
the debt bondage that the women men and
children have that is the loan that they
take to either get the documents or to
be able to get transported from one
country to the other it could be because
of the threat to self threat to their
family and because of which they are
forced to work in the circumstances that
they do the next myth I’m going to bust
for you is the fact that most of these
victims
but victims don’t have an educational
background or don’t have any
professional experience research shows
but they do have an educational
background some of them have high school
diplomas so you can question for
yourself today but you were in high
school year and somebody else has a
completely different reality and
unliving that reality and they’ve had
professional experience as well then
what who is this perfect victim that we
are looking at and what about freedom it
was our choice today that we came here
it’s our choice today when we walk out
but how do we look at choice or freedom
for somebody who has none the fact that
they cannot protect themselves while
selling sex from sexually transmitted
infections sexually transmitted diseases
that they don’t have any right to speak
up with regards to where they work how
they work and how long they work and
therefore question yourself is this the
image that you have of a commercial sex
worker or a perfect victim or has that
image changed now what I’d like to do
today is to make a call to action to
work with you to question I Steve as to
what can we do whose responsibility is
it isn’t that of the country so the
state or is it you or is it I and how
can we make this difference what can we
do to understand the facts better what
can we do to on this
and what is happening around us what are
the mechanisms at play and how they
influence our view of the world in this
post truth world and the way we can do
that is by asking questions is by
checking back is by looking at facts
what has been researched instead of just
what comes up in your social media field
and I’d like to end this talk by saying
something that I often share in my
classroom setting but I want you to walk
out with more questions than you came in
with because it is important for you to
question to understand how information
has been packaged for you for you to
engage
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause]
the field of education for over 20 years
I’ve worked with Generation X Generation
Y and I am bracing myself to work with
Generation Z now most of you will think
that I know the tricks of the trade by
now I know how to interact with this
generation I know how to work with them
teach them and learn with them but trust
me when I say that that I’m still
learning from this transition from one
generation to the next and working with
this group whom we called Millennials
because there is something unique about
this group this group of Millennials has
the world on their fingertips and for me
as a researcher while I know that it
takes years of research to gather
knowledge I work with this group who
creates their own version of reality
based on what is presented to them in
the form of fact fiction or what we call
alternative facts but we could also
choose facts and form our own version
form our own reality and therefore my
job as an educator is really an
interesting one in this post truth world
now how does this work we live in a
generation we live in a world of
information overload
how does media influence our psychology
what happens what are the mechanisms
that are at play we often refer to this
as subliminal perception subliminal
perception what is it it is our
perception it is a reaction to the
stimuli in our environment and trust me
it has an impact how the food that we
eat the dinner that we’re going to eat
tonight or what you choose to wear at
this event the tweets that you’re going
to share what you’re going to like the
photos or images that you’re going to
share on Instagram or snapchat will
implications I am concerned of the long
lasting implications that will be there
on your understanding of human beings in
another reality what is the reality for
them and therefore we’re gonna work with
a small exercise you are all sitting can
you just sit back with both your feet on
the ground and not cross select sit back
shoulders back take a deep breath and
when I say a word when I speak a word
aloud I want you to be conscious of the
imagery that your brain comes up with so
the first word the first word is
terrorist terrorist what is the image
that your brain comes up with is it a
person I heard beer in the background
great is this a person from a particular
ethnicity belonging to a particular
religion and has a particular name maybe
have you ever questioned why did our
brain come to this conclusion so easily
the second word and again be conscious
of the image that comes up is hunger
drought famine three words explaining
what hunger is does your brain come up
with this image of a child from a
particular continent also a particular
color did we have a question why this
image came up so quickly the third word
which is the most important word and is
relevant to this talk today is that of
slave slave slavery what comes up is it
individuals which shackles in their
hands working to
a big piece of stone for example
building a pyramid some other
civilization or working in plantations
happy question as to why information is
packaged in such a way but we are led to
believe that there are no slaves today
well the fact of the matter is that
there are more slaves today than at any
other point in time in history but we
are led to believe that it doesn’t
happen in our immediate circle and we
have nothing to do with them we are not
part of the supply chain of slavery
again I’m here to speak with you because
I work with slaves I work with victims
and survivors of human trafficking
bought and sold for sexual exploitation
and again it is a challenging task when
I work with students to create that safe
environment when they can challenge what
they see what they hear based on the
information that is presented to them an
example that I’m going to share with you
and I hear that very often from my
students when we go to the red-light
district whether it’s a field trip or
whether it’s a planned a project when we
go the students tell me they don’t look
distressed they don’t look that they are
their unforced they look like they want
to be there because they look very
different from the image that is created
by documentaries and sex trafficking and
therefore they must be there out of
choice now my job is only half begun
right because when we then question
little ization and pro-choice we need to
consider a number that all first work
within the field and before that I’d
like to share
but even if be considered 10% of those
that are working in the windows or
selling sex on the streets are they’re
not of choice we really have a very big
number of commercial sex workers who are
sexually exploited every day and every
night just an accident and therefore
what is the real number that we work
with for those of us who are grassroots
level workers social workers
psychologists faculty doctors lawyers
people in the police authorities the
number is 85% we look at 85% as a number
which is an example of how many of them
are trafficked now another myth that I’m
going to clarify for you because I said
my job as an educator it’s a lot of
myth-busting right a fellow speaker the
symposium recently professor Kearney
RIKEN from the University of Dilber
spoke to us about the perfect victim now
I’m not going to ask you to close your
eyes and again visualize the perfect
victim but I’m going to share that with
you already
who is the perfect victim the perfect
victim is somebody who’s young she’s
from a dependent developing country and
she’s probably sold by her family or
somebody she knows from sexual
exploitation a lot of people who work in
the field we all fall prey to this
fallacy while research shows that
vulnerability has no age it has no race
specific
it has no gender specification because
the victim could be a child it could be
a woman and so another myth busted yes
men get sold for sexual exploitation –
and we work with them in the field
another myth that we fall prey to is
that that there are push factors
globally in some source countries which
feeds into this entire global movement
of slaves and what are these factors
these factors could be poverty lack of
education political instability and
therefore it pushes people out to
another system again let me ask you a
question
do you really think that it’s just three
factors do you really think it’s a
particular race only and a particular
gender only know the face today of
modern-day slavery is very different
from what it was in the past the new
face of modern-day slavery has
psychological commercial not necessarily
just physical threat what is the
psychological coercion this
psychological coercion could be due to
the debt bondage that the women men and
children have that is the loan that they
take to either get the documents or to
be able to get transported from one
country to the other it could be because
of the threat to self threat to their
family and because of which they are
forced to work in the circumstances that
they do the next myth I’m going to bust
for you is the fact that most of these
victims
but victims don’t have an educational
background or don’t have any
professional experience research shows
but they do have an educational
background some of them have high school
diplomas so you can question for
yourself today but you were in high
school year and somebody else has a
completely different reality and
unliving that reality and they’ve had
professional experience as well then
what who is this perfect victim that we
are looking at and what about freedom it
was our choice today that we came here
it’s our choice today when we walk out
but how do we look at choice or freedom
for somebody who has none the fact that
they cannot protect themselves while
selling sex from sexually transmitted
infections sexually transmitted diseases
that they don’t have any right to speak
up with regards to where they work how
they work and how long they work and
therefore question yourself is this the
image that you have of a commercial sex
worker or a perfect victim or has that
image changed now what I’d like to do
today is to make a call to action to
work with you to question I Steve as to
what can we do whose responsibility is
it isn’t that of the country so the
state or is it you or is it I and how
can we make this difference what can we
do to understand the facts better what
can we do to on this
and what is happening around us what are
the mechanisms at play and how they
influence our view of the world in this
post truth world and the way we can do
that is by asking questions is by
checking back is by looking at facts
what has been researched instead of just
what comes up in your social media field
and I’d like to end this talk by saying
something that I often share in my
classroom setting but I want you to walk
out with more questions than you came in
with because it is important for you to
question to understand how information
has been packaged for you for you to
engage
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause]
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