Human Trafficking
By ELBINA RAFIZADEH
In 2001, I became involved with the Monterey County Coalition Against Human Trafficking, founded and led by two Catholic nuns, Sr. Jean Shafer, Ph.D., and Sr. Sheila Novak. The coalition included members of the police department, elected local officials, nurses, social workers, and other concerned citizens.
The common myth has been that human trafficking happens only in third-world countries. Children and women are lured away from their families for the promise of work in other countries, where they become commodities to be bought and sold for sex and labor. This is true, but human trafficking also happens globally, including industrialized countries. The organizations that perpetrate humans for slavery have grown into a highly sophisticated business and this crime is often hidden in plain sight. Besides port cities, human trafficking occurs in highly publicized events, including the Super Bowl, Olympics, and other popular sporting events.
During his tenure as the Mayor of San Francisco, Governor Newsom successfully supported fighting anti-human trafficking that resulted in uncovering sexual slavery in masseuse parlors. Unfortunately, human trafficking also occurs in our neighborhood, with the perpetrator being family or friends. For instance, during the early years of the coalition, one incident of human trafficking was uncovered in Greenfield that involved a female domestic worker.
Fortunately, efforts to educate the public about human trafficking have grown with the help of local coalitions. Monterey has the Coalition to End Human Trafficking that you can find at this website. Also the issue has been covered on popular television series like "Law & Order" and "Criminal Minds," in movies, online and in news reports.
I respectfully share this article by Srs. Jean and Sheila who continue their work with marginalized populations, including educating others about human trafficking.
Human trafficking, sometimes known as trafficking in persons, TIP, or modern-day slavery, is a crime under state, federal, and international law. It is currently the second-largest type of criminal activity, exceeded only by the illegal drug trade.
There are two major types of human trafficking: sex trafficking, in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act is under 18 years of age; and labor trafficking, which is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud or coercion for subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery. Other forms of trafficking include organ trafficking, adoption, forced marriage, surrogacy and child soldiers.
The links between human trafficking and other social justice issues, such as poverty, immigration, and violence against women and children, are complex. Human trafficking is largely a hidden crime, making accurate numbers of trafficking incidents challenging to determine. However, many studies have shown a growing demand for both labor and commercial sex services. Due to this demand, egregious abuses occur.
In labor trafficking, the abuses may be wage theft, unsafe working and living conditions, and a lack of access to state-guaranteed social services that affect migrant and foreign workers in particular. A lack of access to appropriate social services such as safe housing, employment, addiction rehabilitation, and mental health services directly impacts victims of commercial sex trafficking.
Many people who are poor live in communities of extreme poverty where there are limited resources and few employment opportunities. Criminals take advantage of these vulnerable people, offering them a way to escape the harsh realities of their lives. Traffickers may offer fraudulent job training or educational opportunities to those desperate to try anything for a better life for themselves or their families.
Human trafficking targets migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people. Human trafficking is always exploitation of the vulnerable, and migrants are among the most vulnerable populations. Click here for local resources and where to report abuse.
Sisters Jean Schafer and Sheila Novak are Salvatorian Sisters who have been involved in anti-human trafficking work since 2001, including establishing a safe house (Hope House) for trafficking survivors. The Sisters provided the summary article using excerpts of educational resources from the USCSAHT website.
Elbina Rafizadeh, Ph.D., MSN, RN. Retired Public Health Nurse- Santa Cruz County Public Health Services, Lecturer Mission College Santa Clara.
The first graph below, from the Polaris project, shows the rate of increase based on the human trafficking hot line. These are the known survivors who were able to access a phone. The following graphs show the top five risk factors for the two forms of human trafficking, labor and sex.
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Russell Brutsché Paints and Sings the Real Santa Cruz
By SARAH RINGLER
Photo by TARMO HANNULA
Russell Brutsché has always made art and music. "I did music and art, as I do today, but in a way to make money; I played popular songs in nightclubs, and sold more decorative, less political art in galleries and art festivals. But once my little house was paid off, I switched my subject matter to concerns and causes I’m passionate about, and hopefully serve my community. I make a lot less money but feel much more authentic!"
I met him last Sunday at the Stopping Highway Expansion Thank You Party hosted by Rick Longinotti of Campaign for Sustainable Transportation at Harvey West Park where he was entertaining the crowd with clever remakes of some popular songs that emphasized cleaner, safer, easier and more sustainable transportation options.
The paintings of long-time local artist Russell Brutsché often employ local landmarks to address climate change, homelessness, gentrification and other issues. An art graduate from San Jose State, his work has been featured in numerous one-person and group shows throughout California, Colorado, Arizona and Japan. Also a singer-songwriter, Brutsché performs locally and is releasing his fifth album this fall.
Click here for a YouTube exhibition of his paintings and songs.
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Drop the Charges against Homeless Rights Activist Commander X
By KEITH MCHENRY
Click here to sign the petition to Drop the Charges against Homeless Rights Activist Commander X.
We hereby petition the government of the City of Orlando to request that the US attorney in the middle district of Florida drop the decade-old cyber-protest related charges against Christopher Doyon, AKA Commander X, in the interests of justice. The charges for the online protest in defense of the Orlando chapter of Food Not Bombs are ten years old, and nothing good can possibly come from reviving this controversy now by returning Commander X to the Orlando area for an expensive and possibly futile trial. The charges were made against Commander X due to his activism in defense of the homeless and the homeless advocacy group helping to feed them, Food Not Bombs. Maintaining charges against X aids an agenda which further harms our unhoused brothers and sisters; and it surely does not serve the interests of the people of Orlando to revive the protests and international boycott of a decade's ago issue that everyone considers settled.
We would again like to reiterate that the charges against activist Commander X are 10 years old, and during that time X has aged and is not in the best of health. It would not only go against the interests of the people of Orlando to jail X, but it would also likely violate his human rights to be further subject to the carceral system as an aging man.
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Photo by TARMO HANNULA
Red-tailed hawk
A juvenile red-tailed hawk launches from the cliffs above Seabright State Beach.
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“When art is true, it is one with nature. This is the secret of primitive art and also of the art of the masters — Michelangelo, Cézanne, Seurat and Renoir. The secret of my best work is that it is Mexican.”
Diego Rivera
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Santa Cruz County Covid-19 Report
By SARAH RINGLER
The Santa Cruz County Health Department regularly releases data on the current status of Covid-19 in the county. The number of cases on Thursday totaled 17,663, up 649 from last Thursday's 17,014. The number of deaths has stayed the same at 209. There were few changes overall. Click here to view a graph of hospitalizations.
On the county's vaccination webpage, as of Aug. 16, 67% of the county have had at least one dose and 60% have had two doses. The number for one dose stayed the same since last week and the number with two doses has increased by 2%. Here are more details on the county's vaccination data.
This webpage also has a link where you can get a digital copy and scannable QR code of your vaccination record. I just got contacted yesterday and now have mine. Keep track of your four digit code because that is your access to the site.
The county's Effective Reproductive Number is now rising above one. See chart below. Numbers above one show the spread of the virus is increasing. Below one means the spread is decreasing.
To get tested without a doctor’s request, call 1-888-634-1123 or go online at https://lhi.care/covidtesting. Other testing sites that may have restricted access can be found here.
Any Californian age 12 or up can get vaccinated for free. For information on getting vaccinated, click here.
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% deaths by ethnicity/% of population:
White - 55%/58%
Latinx - 36%/34%
Black - 0/1%
Asian - 7%/4%
American Native - 0.5%/not available
% deaths by gender/% of population:
Female - 50%/50%
Male - 50%/50%
Other - 0
Under Investigation - 0
Deaths by age/209:
30-39 - 2%
40-49 - 4%
50-59 - 2%
60-69 - 12%
70-79 - 22%
80-89 - 3%
90+ - 27%
Tested positive by region/% of population:
Mid-county - 22%/12%
North county - 20%/60%
South county - 57%/29%
Under investigation - 0%
Weekly increases in positive tests:
June 12-19 - 7%
June 19-26 - 23%
June 26 to July 3 - 22%
July 3-9 - 23%
July 9-16 - 40%
July 16-23 - 20%
July 23-30 - 27%
July 30-Aug. 6 - 13%
Aug. 6-13- 12%
Aug.14-20 - 16%
Aug.20-28 - 10%
Aug. 28-Sept. 3 - 10%
Sept. 3-10 - 6%
Sept. 10-17- 8%
Sept. 17-24 - 7%
Sept. 25- Oct.1 - 5%
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Oct. 1 - 9 - 4%
Oct. 9-15 - 4%
Oct. 15-22 - 5%
Oct. 23-29 - 4%
Oct. 30-Nov. 5 - 6%
Nov. 5-12 - 10%
Nov. 12-19 - 11%
Nov. 19-26 - holiday
Nov. 19-Dec. 3 - 29% 2 weeks of data for this week only
Dec. 3-10 - 16%
Dec. 10-17 - 17%
Dec. 17-24 - 14%
Dec. 24-31 - 19%
Jan. 1-7 - 13%
Jan. 7-14 - 14%
Jan. 15-21 - 11%
Jan. 21-28 - 5%
Jan. 28-Feb. 4 - 5%
Feb. 5-11 - 2%
Feb. 11-18 - 2%
Feb. 18-25 - 1%
Feb. 25-March 5 - 1%
March 5-11 - 1%
March 11-18 - 2%
March 18-25 - .5%
March 25 - Apr. 1 - .7%
Apr. 1-8 - 0.1%
Apr. 9-15 - 1%
Apr. 16-22 - 2%
Apr. 22-30 - 2%
Apr. 30 - May 6 - .3%
May 6-13 - 2%
May 13-20 - 0%
May 24 - Data readjustment by county means percentages cannot be calculated this week.
May 27 - June 3 - 0%
June 3-10 - 0%
June 11-17 - .25%
June 18-24 - 0%
June 25-July 1 - 0%
July 2-8 - .3%
July 9-15 - .2%
July 16-22 - .5%
July 23-29 - 1.2%
July 30-Aug. 5 - 2%
Aug. 6-12 - .7%
Aug. 13-19 - 4%
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Photo by TARMO HANNULA
Fashion Street - How Low Can You Go
By SARAH RINGLER
This individual wins the most Precarious Pants Award from Serf City Times Fashion Street.
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Labor History Calendar for August 20-26:
Aug. 20, 1909: IWW free speech fight in Fresno, CA.
Aug. 21, 1831: Nat Turner leads slave revolt in Virginia.
Aug. 21, 1918: 150,000 Yorkshire coal miners begin two-day strike.
Aug. 21, 2018: US prisoners strike against prison conditions, slave wages.
Aug. 22, 1791: Slave uprising begins Revolution in Haiti.
Aug. 22, 1916: IWW free speech fight begins in Everett, WA
Aug. 23, 1834: British National Trades Union founded.
Aug. 23, 1927: Sacco and Vanzetti executed.
Aug. 24, 1980: Solidarnosc founded in Gdansk, Poland
Aug. 24, 2020: Media reports Tacoma area postal workers defied managers to reinstall six mail sorting machines removed to slow delivery.
Aug. 25, 1819: Birth of Allen Pinkerton, whose strike breaking detectives - "Pinks" - gave us the word "fink."
Aug. 25, 1933: 100 IWW pickets arrested in Yakima, WA
Aug. 25, 1968: Battle Lincoln Park, Chicago
Aug. 26, 1919: UMW organizer Fannie Sellins gunned down by company guards, Brackenridge, PA.
Aug. 26, 1970: Alice Doesn't Day, US and French women demonstrate for equal pay, reproductive freedom and an end to domestic violence.
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Photo by TARMO HANNULA
Prosciutto, Parmesan and Pasta
By SARAH RINGLER
Butter, Parmesan cheese and crispy prosciutto - a rich and salty combo – would probably go well on cardboard, but it definitely works on fresh pasta. Serve with a salad and this is an easy dinner for two. This recipe is from a cookbook, “Amerian Sfoglino,” written by Evan Funke, the chef and partner of the Felix Trattoria in Venice, CA. He is very enthusiastic about making pasta completely by hand, so much so that I tried it myself after giving up many years ago. I should know by now to leave these things to the experts; it was too dry and rubbery - again.
Giorgio Franchetti, a food historian, reveals in his book, “Dining With the Ancient Romans,” that the Greeks and Romans ate pasta way before Marco Polo came back from Asia in the 1200s. “It’s pure nonsense,” he says. “The noodles that Marco Polo maybe brought back with him at the end of the 1200s from China were essentially made with rice and based on a different, oriental culinary tradition that has nothing to do with ours.”
Even though noodles and pasta developed separately, Italy and China share similar cooking styles. Preparing all the ingredients first, and then jumping into a fury of boiling and frying can be stressful and sometimes it’s hard to relax when it’s time to eat. A nice glass of white wine helps.
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2-3 ounces prosciutto, torn into bite size pieces
Kosher salt
Black pepper
¾ pound fresh tagliatelle pasta, or ½ pound dried fettucine
½ cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano plus more for serving
Tear prosciutto into bite sized bits. Grate the cheese and have the fresh or dry pasta ready to cook. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat.
Heat a frying pan that is large enough to hold all the cooked pasta and the prosciutto, over medium high heat. Add the butter and melt until it becomes frothy and golden in about 1 minute. When it is frothy, add half of the prosciutto in one layer. Cook until crisp in about 2-4 minutes. Transfer cooked prosciutto on to a paper towel. Cook the remaining prosciutto but when done, remove the pan from the burner and leaving the rest of the prosciutto in the pan.
Season boiling water lightly with salt. When the salt dissolves, add the fresh tagliatelle and cook until “toothsome” and slightly undercooked for about 2-4 minutes or according to the package. Cook longer if you are using dried pasta. When done, do not drain the pasta.
Just before the pasta is ready, return the frying pan to the stove and heat the remaining cooked prosciutto over medium heat. Using a slotted pasta fork or tongs, transfer the pasta into the frying pan. Working quickly, add ½ cup of the cheese and ¼ cup of pasta water. Swirl the pan vigorously and stir the pasta with a wooden spoon to thicken and combine the liquid and pasta. Sauce should become silky in about a minute. Pour the pasta into a large serving bowl, add the remaining prosciutto, some freshly ground black pepper and serve with more Parmigiano-Reggiano.
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YOUR STORY OR ART HERE: Please submit a story that you think would be of interest to the people of Santa Cruz County. Try and keep the word count to around 400. Also, there should be suggested actions if possible. Submit to coluyaki@gmail.com
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Welcome to Serf City Times Over time, our county has grown more stratified and divided with many people feeling left out. Housing affordability, racism and low wages are the most obvious factors. However, many groups and individuals in Santa Cruz County work tirelessly to make our county a better place for everyone. These people work on the environment, housing, economic justice, health, criminal justice, disability rights, immigrant rights, racial justice, transportation, workers’ rights, education reform, gender issues, equity issues, electoral politics and more. Often, one group doesn’t know what another is doing. The Serf City Times is dedicated to serving as a clearinghouse for those issues by letting you know what is going on, what actions you can take and how you can support these groups.This is a self-funded enterprise and all work is volunteer.
Copyright © 2021 Sarah Ringler - All rights reserved
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