enough

i studied for five hours straight this afternoon and then took a break to eat dinner and watch a movie with my roommates. it's was one the better movies that i've seen in a really long time. i was on the edge of the couch and couldn't break my stare ~ even sat fixated on the screen, watching through the DVD's poor quality action scenes.

the name of the movie was "Taken" with Liam Neeson as dad of daughter who is kidnapped by human traffickers in Europe while traveling with her friend and drugged into the sex trade. dad of course finds his daughter (oh, belated spoiler alert) but for sure i now have serious reservations about traveling to Slovenia alone. yes, trusting strangers, offering location information and making risky choices made it a bit easier for the kidnappers, all things that i don't make a habit of doing especially while on travel. but if human trafficking is a common crime for a particular country or region then being a (somewhat young) female traveling alone to that country or region does not sound like a wise vacation choice.

but at this point, it's only just a rumor that Slovenia is known for human trafficking. a quick look-a-round on the internet for info on Slovenia crime turned up the following:

• a 2004 edition of Slovenia News that says in the recent past human trafficking was a problem in the region with Slovenia acting primarily as a transit point and occasionally a destination country. Most victims were women trafficked into sexual exploitation from the Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Moldova, Russia, Romania and Bulgaria.


• a rather uninformative article titled (the title says it all basically) Human Trafficking Most Common Organized Crime in Slovenia from 2005.


• an article titled Slovenia among Best in Fight on Human Trafficking, Report Says from last month which says,

  The US State Department released on Wednesday the "2008 Trafficking in Persons Report" which places Slovenia among the 29 most successful countries world-wide in fighting human trafficking.

• the US State Department's fact sheet for Slovenia doesn't mention anything about human trafficking.

so, to recap: the movie Taken was good and created a strong sense of fear in me for traveling to Slovenia alone. is my fear based on just reason? maybe not as apparently the country has been cracking down on this crime and in the past four years has gone from bad to better. does it still happen? how can i know this? i only know how sick, sad and scared i am of the thought that it is still happening to women around the world.

i do wish i could kick some serious ass like Liam Neeson did in the movie. what confidence one could have if one could defend oneself from any attack