NEFARIOUS

An excellent DVD to watch

I was invited to come and watch this film which was shown at movie night at St. Paul's.  One of the ladies, Wendy, had arranged to invite Fr. Michal Kruszewski of St. Joseph's Parish here in Hamilton to talk about trafficking of human beings in other countries as well as right here in Canada.

He brought along Nefarious, a DVD which gave true life examples of what is happening now.

It was a difficult film to watch and not for people who are squeamish.  It showed parents in Cambodia selling their very young daughters to people who trafficked them as sex objects to work in massage parlours, strip joints and other undesirable places. It showed girls being kidnapped off the street in Moldova, subjected to indignities and cruel behaviour by their captors and later sold into prostitution.

What it did not show, and perhaps will show in future films, was how devastating mentally, physically and spiritually it is for the male victims of this heinous crime. It did show, however, many men from North America and Europe who go to Thailand solely to use under age boys and girls for the purpose of sex.

During this excellent film, it brought home the fact that it was not just poverty which caused the problem and was very often greed especially when it was run by organized crime.

In the western world, I was specifically moved by the fact that many of these young children first encountered sexual abuse in the "safety" of their own homes by a father, step father, relative or neighbour.  It brought to mind a story which I wrote many years ago called "Sally's Blanket" which I brought to a writing group which was mostly men at that time.  It was not received well as the men did not like to hear about this matter.  In fact, it was a very hostile environment and I never brought the story back again for further critiquing.

There is much more to say about this outstanding DVD and I would highly recommend it for people of social conscience.  For further information on how to view this DVD, one can contact St. Joseph's Parish at stjosephsparish.ca

This padre also passed around a book called "Invisible Chains" authored by Benjamin Perrin which is about trafficking in Canada.  I have not read it, as yet, but hope to be able to do so soon.

Thank you for reading this blog.