Thoughts on Freedom

(Written Wednesday Night)
How do you free someone who doesn't want freedom? That's the problem we spent the afternoon discussing today.
Many people talk about rescuing the girls involved in the sex trade or the bars here in Thailand. There is research on it, foundations dedicated to it, and plenty of organizations dedicated to raising awareness about and money to fight the sex trade. But what good do they do? After talking to Rodney and Phimpha about it, it sounds like nothing worthwhile is being done.
Part of this is because of corruption and greed. Phimpha calls it using the "pity stories". If you tell enough people about girls who have been trafficked or forced into prostitution, you can fill them with pity and they will donate money. Then you can buy yourself a new car or a better house or nice clothes. If you tell your donors that you are going to build a house for girls rescued from the bars, you can get the hardware store to write up a fake bill that says they charged more than you actually owe. Then you can keep the extra for yourself. It is too costly to actually make a difference when fighting the sex trade: you have to commit to work with the girls long term, you must set up aftercare programs or live with them full time. You will not get paid much, and you will spend all that you have. And who would want to do that?
Another problem is the danger. Say you did find someone who was willing to put in the time, effort, and money to try to fight trafficking. If they started to make a difference, chances are they'd end up dead. Corruption is the norm in this country. Most of what happens in the bars here is "illegal", but so many of the police officers and government workers are involved in all the shady business that no one is going to do anything about it. Rodney told me about a place where they used to live that was right next to a karaoke bar. They were talking to the police about it one day because it was illegal: it was not registered or licensed, and there was more than just drinking and karaoke going on...Anyway, the police officers said very politely that they were sorry, they just couldn't do anything about it. Turns out, the bar was owned by the chief of police. If you fight them, they will kill you. There is no incentive to follow the law because most of the time there is no consequence if you are found breaking it.
Finally, we come to the question that I asked at the beginning: how do you rescue someone who does not want to be rescued? Most of the girls involved in the sex trade in Thailand began working in the bars at the age of 12 or 13. Once they have been in the business for several years, many realize that having sex is an easy way to make money. They stop valuing their bodies because they have learned not to care about what men do to them. If they are taken out of the bars ("rescued") and taught a trade, they might be able to make some money. But the amount they make in a day or a week pales in comparison to what they could make in a half hour back in the bars. So why stay away from the bars? If you care more about money than you do about your body, there is no reason to stay away. So once a girl is "rescued", she more than likely will find her way back to the very job that she was rescued from.
So how do we free these children? How do we fight the greed and corruption and lies? How do we teach girls that they are valuable when their entire culture says they are not? How can we bring perpetrators to justice when the workers in the "justice system" also own the bars? I keep thinking of the verse "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free," (John 8:32). We need to get these people to understand the truth--the truth about God's love and the truth about their own worth. We need to change the entire culture. Only then can we truly set these children free.