rkers stories It all came together towards the end of, ‘The Last Journey’, the last book in his River trilogy launched last year, where some of the characters in the book decide to initiate an action campaign: Bee with us (Bee as in the name of one of the characters in his book). With first-hand experience in trafficking they decide they should do something to tell the truth to the world. In so doing they speak for the author. Staffan Nordstrand initially came in touch with this world when he started to take an interest in the stories related to him from workers under his supervision as a developer of residential homes in Phuket. A number of years travelling and research gathering followed which has resulted in three documentary novels. And now Staffan brings fiction into the real world with this new international aid initiative - without middlemen. The website Beewithus.com does two main things. First, spreads information on trafficking of children and young people within the sex
industry and manufacturing in Asia. Second, it links donors with qualityassured recipients in South-east Asia, without any middlemen involved who just waste large parts of the funds. Donations will go directly and in whole to the particular operation being supported by people. “Actually, there are many competent organisations out there doing an excellent job. They need support, but the donors don’t know of their existence,” he elaborates. Bee with us will also reach out through holding lectures and other kinds of advocacy work. At the Göteborg Book Fair (Gothenburg, Sweden) held in September Staffan had his booth designed to reflect the slum in Bangkok and also attended a symposium on trafficking as speaker. His trilogy has sold well. During the book fair alone, Staffan signed over 500 books. The first book has sold around 30,000 copies and is about to be translated into English and other languages. The books and Bee with us constitute various part of the same effort to counteract human trafficking
and prostitution with exploitation of those poor and vulnerable. “More organisations should inform about human trafficking. We know that at present this is the largest form of slavery ever on earth. And still most people believe that slavery is something we abolished globally a long time ago. The truth is that the sex trade and sex slavery has not been stopped, so we need to start a new war to stop it,” states Bee with us. “Child sex trade, young girls and boys, kidnappings… that’s where we should work hard to fight it. I think it’s very important that people come to understand that tourism plays an important part. On Bangla road in Phuket, for instance, the main sex customers are Asian tourists. Up towards 90 per cent of the customers in the brothels are locals. On top of that you have the tourists coming here and using the sex trade, which they do,” Staffan explains his view. Tourists seeing something involving other tourists, what can they do? “Confront them and report
to the authorities,” replies Staffan. “And don’t sanction places like Bangla road by taking your family there to look around at what is forbidden back home but somehow acceptable just because being on holiday!” You can also become active with beewithus.com. “Forget governments and go down to field-level and try to connect locally with the police etc. Build small cells that work together and get joined later in a central part. Top-down control won’t work.” Being an ambassador for this cause is what Staffans intends to be. “It is very important that more persons. It’s the children we must reach out to: they are the future, so they must go home to their families and say that trafficking is bad and illegal.”
International Baccalaureate
- an alternative to the Danish ‘Studentereksamen’ • internationally recognized • gives admission to universities all over the world • taught in English You can stay at Nyborg Gymnasium’s boarding school.
Contact us for more information about the programme and the boarding school.
Deadline for applications: 15th of March
Nyborg Gymnasium & Kostskole Skolebakken 13, DK-5800 Nyborg, tlf +45 65 31 02 17 post@nyborg-gym.dk, www.nyborg-gym.dk
February 2014 • ScandAsia.China 17