http://unheardnomore.blogspot.com/2009/09/abc-is-pimp-dancing-delay.htmlThe first victim of human trafficking that I ever met told me that she danced in her tears. She was recruited from Manila, Philippines to work as a waitress in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), but she was forced to strip and dance in a sleazy club seven nights a week. Every evening after the club closed, she was sold to customers against her will. By dawn she was locked inside a rundown barracks until the next evening when she would again dance in her tears.
Tonight the new season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars will premiere to the delight of millions of fans. Among the contestants in the show’s ninth season is Republican politician Tom DeLay, the former House Majority Leader who hails from Sugar Land, Texas. In 2006 DeLay departed from the U.S. Congress in disgrace after he was indicted for conspiring to violate campaign finance laws. His connections to convicted felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff are legendary. Two of Tom DeLay’s former staffers were indicted in the Abramoff scandal. The Abramoff –DeLay deals involving casinos, Russian oil and money laundering are well known and are said to be under investigation. Tom DeLay is probably the first morally bankrupt person chosen to be a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.
ABC is a pimp cashing in on Tom's notoriety to boast ratings. Their selection of DeLay as a contestant on their show is a slap in the face to every innocent man, woman and, yes, child who suffered abuses as foreign contract workers or victims of human trafficking in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. (CNMI). Perhaps ABC failed to consider those victims that DeLay left in his wake when he was dancing in the House.
From 1984 to 1995 when I lived in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) I witnessed the terrible labor and human rights abuses of contract workers who came from their homelands to work in the United States. They came from the Philippines, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Russia, Pakistan, and other Asian countries. They sold their land, houses and businesses to pay up to $7,000 in recruitment fees for a chance to live the American dream. But too many of these workers lived a nightmare instead.
For years my husband and I assisted workers to seek refuge from abusive employers and helped them to file cases to seek justice. (Although not much justice was handed out then.) The workers who sought our help suffered from workplace abuses such as unpaid wages, indentured servitude, housing violations, contract violations, and discrimination. They suffered from criminal acts such as human trafficking, rape, torture, false imprisonment, assault and battery, and even murder. They fell victim to human rights abuses such as coerced abortion, forced prostitution and being denied the right to practice their religion. For the 20 years that I have had the honor and privilege of being an advocate for the disenfranchised guest workers of the CNMI I have regarded Tom DeLay with deep distain.
The CNMI government spent over $11 million to hire lobbyist Jack Abramoff to kill reform legislation in the U.S. Congress that would have applied federal immigration laws to the Marianas and stopped outrageous labor and human rights abuses in the islands. In December 1997 Tom DeLay, his wife and daughter took one of the many Abramoff-CNMI sponsored junkets to the Northern Marianas. The junket included snorkeling, golf and a stay at the luxurious beachside Hyatt.
DeLay was featured on ABC’s 20/20 at a 1998 New Year’s eve party in Saipan. The party was hosted by garment factory magnate and labor abuser, Willie Tan who would later boast about being a close friend of Delay. Tan was a major campaign contributor to DeLay’s political campaigns. His Saipan garment factories held the distinction of being fined the largest labor fine in U.S. history. This summer a settlement for factory EEOC violations cost Tan over $1.7 million.
ABC's camera's caught DeLay saying to the CNMI leaders, “You are a shining light for the Republican Party and you represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America and leading the world in the free market system.”
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http://unheardnomore.blogspot.com/2009/09/abc-is-pimp-dancing-delay.htmlContact ABC
http://abc.go.com/site/contact-usABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
(818) 460-7477
If someone knows of better contact info please post!
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