Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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India Festival Brings a Taste of India to the Community by BHAIRAVI BHATT Fayetteville is home to many organizations and each organization holds a unique footprint in our community and adds personality to the community at the same time. The local SENCAIA — South Eastern North Carolina Asian Indian Association is one such organization. Every year SENCAIA hosts the annual India Festival, donating all of the profi ts to a chosen charity each year. This year the festival will be held on April 9 at the Crown, and will feature authentic Indian cuisine, fusion Indo- Chinese dishes, Bollywood-themed performances, a live instrumental concert, live-cooking demonstrations, a fashion show and more. Since 2005, SENCAIA has hosted the annual festival in Fayetteville, donating all proceedings to local charities will be various live-cooking demonstrations throughout the day that will feature different Indian recipes. Other vendor booths will also offer a variety of spices typical to India, ethnic Indian wear, intriguing gold jewelry, arts and crafts and more. Dancers perform at the 2010 India Festival. such as Better Health for Cumberland County, Army Wives Association, armed forces, fi refi ghters and the Boys and Girls clubs. To date the organization has donated $85,000 to these local charities. According to SENCAIA member, Sharmila Udyavar, “The main purpose of this annual event is to create awareness about the Indian culture, adding to the great cultural diversity of Fayetteville, N.C.” A range of vendors will also be on hand to display different cuisines of India varying from the street foods to delicacies full of exotic spices. For food lovers, there No festival can be complete without some dance and music, and the India Festival has invited professional artists/ performers from different parts of the United States, and is even bringing on group of performers from India. These artists will display and array of folk dances, Bollywood- themed dance numbers, classical and contemporary dances. Overall, the goal of the festival is also to familiarize our community with various colors of the Indian culture, by focusing on the spirit of the local Indian population. Fayetteville indeed is a melting pot, full of wonderful surprises. The India Festival is an event not to be missed, as it takes you away to a world full of hospitality, delicious food, beautiful people and great bargains. Since sponsors and vendors mostly fund the event, there is a small entry fee of $2 for adults and children under three are free. The fun starts at 11 a.m. and runs through 7 p.m. Call 438-4100 for more info. BHAIRAVI BHATT, Contribut- ing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomingweekly.com Methodist University Explores Child Sex Trafficking: A Global Problem That Is Making Itself at Home Locally by STEPHANIE CRIDER When people hear the phrase “child sex traffi cking” it is quite likely that a Third-World country comes to mind, and not the streets of small town America. It’s sad, it’s dirty, it’s scary and it is a big problem right under our noses. According to International Crisis Aid: • In 2009, a University of Pennsylvania study estimated nearly 300,000 youth in the United States were at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial uses — “most of them runaways or thrown-aways,” said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. • Almost 300,000 American children are at risk for traffi cking into the sex industry, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of State. • There are girls as young as 5 and 6 years old in the U.S. that are forced to do sexual acts for economic gain by their pimp, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. • In December 2007, research by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice based on interviews with pimps and sexually exploited children in several U.S. cities found that most pimps manage one to three girls at a time and operate as follows: • At least half appear to operate at the local level only. • At least one quarter may be tied to city-wide crime rings (often engaged in drug sales as well as prostitution) and are constantly looking for new recruits. • About 15 percent are tied to regional or national networks that are well fi nanced and organized, in which the pimps communicate easily with one another electronically; provide support services such as recruitment, selection, indoctrination and movement of new girls; and occasionally assist in locating and disciplining girls who escape from other pimps. • About 10 percent appear to be tied to international sex-crime networks and, through them, actively participate in the international traffi cking of children. Some pimps also are part of international drug networks and may use children to move drugs in to and across the U.S. On April 8, the Methodist University, the Sociology, Social Work and Justice Studies Programs at Methodist University, Lyn and Michael Green, Christiane Thompson and Manna Church present the documentary Playground, in which Libby WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Spears, the director, investigates the domestic roots of the child-sex industry and seeks to raise awareness of the commercial sexual exploitation of children. “One thing we’d like people to know is that this fi lm has been praised for avoiding to sensationalize the issues of child traffi cking while still raising public awareness,” said Methodist University Professor of Sociology Dr. Vida Bajc. “That is really what we would like to achieve. It is not about blaming. It is not about sensationalizing, but rather thinking critically about this issue. By organizing such events we would like the community to understand that sociology is the study of social relations, social problems and social change. So we encourage our students to learn how to do critical analysis of social phenomena by making connections between local and the global issues so they can realize that when something happens locally it is always connected to larger global issues.” Following the fi lm, there will be a panel discussion featuring three experts: Sharon W. Cooper, M.D., F.A.A.P, is a Forensic Pediatrician and Board member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Cooper has been a pediatrician for more than 30 years and is the lead author of the most comprehensive text on child sexual exploitation and Internet crimes against children. She cares for victims of child pornography, cyber-enticement and prostitution. Elzbieta M. Gozdziak, Ph.D. is the director of Research at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University. She is also editor of International Migration, a scholarly journal devoted to research and policy analysis of contemporary issues affecting international migration, including human traffi cking for sexual exploitation. She has published several articles on research on human traffi cking and on child victims of traffi cking for labor and sexual exploitation, including a special issue of International Migration on “Improving Data and Research on Human Traffi cking.” Charity Magnuson is the director of N.C. Stop Human Traffi cking. She turned a website into an organization in 2009 and has been running nonstop ever since. She is a published author on human rights and development at Harvard University and on human-traffi cking issues in North Carolina. She has presented to thousands of people in her professional career in marketing and public relations and in her work as a human rights advocate. The event starts at 6 p.m. at the Medical Lecture Hall, which is located at 5400 Ramsey St. Refreshments will be provided by The Fresh Cafe. This event is free and open to the public, but it should be noted that it does contain mature subject matter. Find out more at www.methodist. edu/sociology/events.htm STEPHANIE CRIDER, Staff Writer. COMMENTS? stephanie@ upandcomingweekly.com MARCH 30 - APRIL 5, 2011 UCW 13