Sex trafficking and sex slavery is a very big problem in most developing countries. For Haiti specifically, sex trafficking and sex slavery is a very big problem that often goes unanswered or with very little attention. According to Lisa Cohen, a writer for CNN, she published a story on how traffickers exploit children in Haiti’s orphanages, of which there are many. As of March 2nd, 2018, there was an estimated 30,000 children living in orphanages in Haiti, and the Haitian government estimates that 8-% of the children that live in these orphanages have at least one living parent. The main reason they come to live in orphanages is because their parents aren’t able to afford to care for them. Ever since the 2010 earthquake that shook the country to its foundations, this kind of practice of leaving their kids because they cant afford to raise them has become popular. However, a study done showed that these orphanages would actually try and make money off the children, by forcing them to live in poor conditions and claim that they need financial help to sustain these kids. In June 2017, it was estimated that almost $100 million a year were being donated to orphanages in Haiti, most of which would be used for the wrong purposes or taken from the children. Not only does the money not reach these children, but there have been cases of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking happening inside of Haiti’s orphanages. While the Haitian government has worked hard to close five different orphanages that run like these, none of the orphanage owners have been arrested. Overall, not only is sex trafficking and sex slavery a continuing problem in Haiti, but so is the problem of orphanages and the mistreatment of orphans.
Human trafficking is addressed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), but lacks the capability to do what the UN Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) could do. A few bilateral development agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, and private philanthropies, including Humanity United, NoVo, the Oak Foundation, Walk Free, and the Freedom Fund, would claim to be working explicitly to end human trafficking. However, they would always answer with the phrase of “We are not interest in trafficking” or “We do not work on trafficking”. “If trafficking had been included in the MDGs back in 2000”, the writer claims, “many more development agencies would have dedicated staff to the issue and more foundations would be investing in solutions to human trafficking”. What needs to be done to combat human trafficking involves educating those around about the possible signs of someone who may look like a victim of trafficking. For instance, most airlines have trained their flight attendants to recognize the signs of human trafficking. Nurses are also trained on recognizing the signs of trafficking and trying to isolate the victim from the trafficker. If governments were to pursue more options like creating an entire division to human trafficking or even allocating some of what our defense budget is to fighting human trafficking, then we would see an immediate decrease in human trafficking.
Artificial Intelligence is a very gray area to many people, because the general public knows almost nothing. Everyone has seen the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron, and that’s the first thing that comes to mind when an individual mentions artificial intelligence. Its also an area that we’ve seen need more diversity. But why? Well, for one part, diversity is how we spread culture and how we acknowledge everyone. In terms of AI, they involve something called deep learning systems. These systems don’t read bias, but numbers instead. So, while the algorithms that drive AI are neutral to bias, the data and applications that shape the outcomes of these algorithms are not at all. Where diversity plays a key role is in the building of these data and applications. Without a diverse group of engineers, we could have biased algorithms making unfair loan applications decisions, or training a network of people only on white faces built on the AI- which would in fact create a model that would perform poorly on black AI.
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