The Foreign Service Journal, May 2008

the U.N. Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking held a three-day conference in Vienna, drawing to- gether activists and government rep- resentatives to analyze the problem and create effective tools to deal with it. UN.GIFT is a program of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime that was launched a year ago to catalyze action on the issue ( www.ungift.org/in dex.php ). According to the UNODC, the problem has reached “epidemic pro- portions over the past decade,” with some 2.5 million people throughout the world at any given time recruited, entrapped, transported and exploited. But, UNODC adds, because human trafficking is an underground crime, the true numbers are not known. Yet the crime is drawing increasing atten- tion. “There are more slaves today than at any point in human history,” says investigative journalist Benjamin Skin- ner, whose recent book, A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Mo- dern-Day Slavery (Free Press, March 2008), is the product of four years of research during which he posed as a buyer at illegal brothels on several continents, interviewed convicted hu- man traffickers in a Romanian prison and otherwise studied the subject from the inside ( www.salon.com/ books/int/2008/03/27/slavery / ). At the March 25 event, Faraj, together with panelists from the law firm of Holland and Knight LLP and the Vital Voices NGO, emphasized that human trafficking is a problem in every country, including the U.S. State’s TIP office coordinates U.S. governmental activities in the global effort to stop human trafficking, including forced labor and sexual exploitation, Faraj explained. She cited Secretary Rice’s call for all nations to become 21st-century, com- mitted abolitionists to end the debase- ment of victims, primarily women and children, into involuntary servitude and sexual slavery ( http://www.sta te.gov/g/tip/ ). The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, originally passed by Congress in 2000, created a special “T” visa for human trafficking victims. More than $74 million in funding is allocated under the act for Fiscal Year 2008. The State Department works with governments on action plans for pre- vention, protection of victims and prosecution. Washington is asking governments to increase their rescues of trafficking victims and prosecution of traffickers; to treat people freed from slavery as victims of crime, not criminals; and to take measures to dry up the market for modern-day slaves. Led by Ambassador Mark P. Lagon, the TIP office funds 63 part- nering projects in 46 countries total- ing approximately $13.55 million through its competitive grant process. In addition, TIP produces an annual Trafficking in Persons report assessing the governmental response in each country that has a significant number of victims of severe forms of human trafficking. — Alicia Campi, Business Manager Tracking the Evolution of English in Real Time A unique new form of online dic- tionary is capturing the dynamic changes taking place in our language in the here and now. Virtually as soon as they are uttered, new words and expressions — like nanoblahblah or whale tail — can be found on such Web sites as Urban Dictionary , Dou- ble Tongued Dictionary and Wordlust- itude . The phenomenon is explored by Jim Giles, who points out in the Jan. 31 edition of New Scientist that online dictionaries, Web sites and blogs can document language as it evolves, resulting in “a new kind of dictionary that can be updated every day and has no size limit.” Perhaps the most “current” of the lot is Urban Dictionary ( www.urban dictionary.com ), an online com- pendium of slang whose definitions are written by users. Founded in 1999 by then-university student Aar- on Peckham, the site also contains In- ternet jargon and neologisms. Three- quarters of the site’s users are under 25. Though a system of quality con- trol by volunteer editors reduces hate- ful and personal material, the site does contain explicit and provocative material and is therefore banned in many schools and offices. Then there are the sites and blogs run by freelance lexicographers, working editors or other word-people who share a fascination with language. Mark Peters, for example, is a con- tributing editor for Verbatim: The Language Quarterly , a language col- M A Y 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 C Y B E R N O T E S W e have overmilitarized our response to the global challenges of the 21st century and have to reach out in other ways to understand and shape what is happening beyond our borders. Yet despite this call for change, large deficits remain in the sheer numbers of people who engage in diplomacy. We need to increase the number of Foreign Service officers and enhance their skills. — Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., speaking at the University of Wisconsin at Madison on March 24, http://feingold.senate.gov/ ~feingold/statements/08/03/20080324.htm