Bulgaria Girl

In Bulgaria, I was really stumped the other day when a young student who was studying American film and wanted to know whether our top secret technology was really as cool and advanced as James Bond's gadgets. And then the young student asked me to explain the consistent pattern of scripts in James Bond movies. What I had to do with James Bond movies was beyond me, but why not? So I took a shot at it and I said, "Well, they all go the same way. James Bond is called and 007 comes in, says hello to Mrs. Moneypenny, or whatever her name was -- (laughter) -- and then there's a bad guy who's about to do something very, very bad, and James Bond goes out with all of his gimmicks, saves the day, the bad guy goes away and James Bond gets the girl. And that's a James Bond movie, no matter when it was made." ... [Read More]

USIS Washington File: UNITED NATIONS REPORT, MONDAY, MARCH 2, 1998

The expert group meeting on "the girl child" focused on the rights of the adolescent girls, particularly those in need of special protection. The experts urged governments to pay special attention to the protection of girls from sexual exploitation and abuse, harmful traditional practices, including early marriage, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Governments should also address special needs of girls in the situation of armed conflict; refugee girls; working girls and girls with disability. The experts said education, family, culture, the socio-economic environment, law and legal reform, and the role of the media were critical for creating an enabling environment for the realizations of the human rights of adolescent girls and their empowerment. ... [Read More]

Country Narratives -- Countries H through P

Nepal is a source country of women and girls trafficked primarily to India for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and debt bondage. Nepali women traveling to the Middle East in search of work have been put into situations of coerced labor and other slave-like conditions. Internal trafficking also takes place in Nepal. Women are trafficked from rural areas to cities for commercial sexual exploitation and children are placed into debt bondage or other exploitative child labor by their impoverished parents. An ongoing Maoist insurgency has used violence to wrest control of remote areas from the government; many trafficking victims originate from those areas. The insurgents have forcibly conscripted girls and boys. ... [Read More]

Pathbreaking Strategies in the Global Fight Against Sex Trafficking

Let me tell you a story. Last February, the Plainfield, New Jersey, Police Department raided a house of prostitution. Tragically, the police discovered not only adult prostitutes, but also four young Mexican girls - ages fourteen to seventeen. Upon investigation, authorities learned all of the girls had been working at menial jobs in Mexico when they were approached by young men offering them promises of love, marriage, and a better life. The men invited the girls on dates, then smuggled them into the United States. These men trafficked the girls out of one desperate situation and into another. ... [Read More]

IV. Country Narratives: Europe and Eurasia

Azerbaijan is primarily a country of origin and transit for trafficked men, women, and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor. Azerbaijani, Russian and Central Asian women and girls were trafficked from or through the country to the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Turkey and Pakistan for sexual exploitation. Men were trafficked to Turkey and Russia for forced labor and boys were trafficked internally for begging. Women and girls, some from orphanages, were trafficked internally from rural areas to the capital city for sexual exploitation. ... [Read More]

Bulgarian Youth Town Hall

SECRETARY POWELL: 007 comes in. bad guy about to do something very bad. A lot of very beautiful women around. a lot of car chases and fancy gadgets. Bad guy goes at the end. and James Bond gets the girl. [Laughter] ... [Read More]

Remarks by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at an Awards Ceremony Honoring CultureConnect Ambassadors and Basketball Envoys – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

In Bulgaria, I was really stumped the other day when a young student who was studying American film and wanted to know whether our top secret technology was really as cool and advanced as James Bond's gadgets. And then the young student asked me to explain the consistent pattern of scripts in James Bond movies. What I had to do with James Bond movies was beyond me, but why not? So I took a shot at it and I said, "Well, they all go the same way. James Bond is called and 007 comes in, says hello to Mrs. Moneypenny, or whatever her name was -- (laughter) -- and then there's a bad guy who's about to do something very, very bad, and James Bond goes out with all of his gimmicks, saves the day, the bad guy goes away and James Bond gets the girl. And that's a James Bond movie, no matter when it was made." ... [Read More]

V. Country Narratives -- Countries A through G

The Peoples’ Republic of China is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. A significant number of Chinese women and children are trafficked internally for forced marriage and forced labor. Chinese women are at times lured abroad with false promises of legitimate employment and then trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation to destinations throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North America, while Chinese men have been trafficked for forced labor to Europe, South America, and the Middle East. A large number of Chinese men and women are smuggled abroad at enormous personal financial cost and, upon arrival in the destination country, are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation or other forms of exploitative labor to repay their debts. They often face exploitative conditions that meet t ... [Read More]

Bulgaria

On April 12, police in Sofia detained two members of Jehovah's Witnesses (including a 14-year-old girl) for proselytizing. According to the members of Jehovah's Witnesses, police warned the girl not to continue her religious activities. ...

The vast majority of children are free from societal abuse; however, some Romani children were targets of frequent skinhead violence and arbitrary police detention (see Section 1.d.); the homeless or abandoned particularly were vulnerable. For example, on August 21, a group of seven men severely kicked and beat a homeless 5-year-old girl in Sofia, breaking her right arm. There were reports that family or community members forced some minors into prostitution (see Sections 6.c. and 6.d.). Police made little effort to address these problems. Some observers believe that there continued to be a growing trend toward the use of children in prostitution, burglaries, and narcotics distribution. Trafficking in girls for the purpose of prostitution was a problem (see Sections 6.c. and 6.f.). Rough data from the police and public health officials placed the number of prostitutes working in the country under age 18 at several thousand. ... [Read More]

Fulbright Gallery : The Artist and His Fulbright Experience

I wanted to create a new set of pictures that could sit somewhere in-between the images of Vietnam to which the world has grown accustomed, and to use a new visual grammar with which we can talk about Vietnam. What do the worlds "Vietnam" and "photography" usually connote? For many Americans, it is a photograph of a monk afire in protest on a crowded Saigon street, a naked nine-year old Vietnamese girl burned by napalm, or a South Vietnamese Army colonel executing his Viet Cong prisoner with a bullet in the head. Images like these - and other images of the war are very valid documents. ... [Read More]