Mother's Day and my Social Conscience

A few things led me to discover something gross this morning.

1. I learned that Mother's Day is coming up this weekend, not next weekend, which gives me 3 days to find a way to acknowledge my mum.

2. My mum does not live in my province.

3. My mum is planning a trip to South Africa this year.

4. I have previously used Amazon to buy gifts from my desk in Edmonton and have them delivered to the other side of the country with just a few easy clicks.

So, I went to the Amazon website, searched "South Africa" and then narrowed down the search to Travel books and sorted by publication date, hoping to find a nice current South Africa travel guide. I had to skip forward a few pages since some of the books were still to-be-released, but as I browsed through the options I came across a book titled "Unique Vacations Volume 2 - Sex Tourism and Where to Get Laid in the Phillipines, Thailand, Africa and South America."

Usually, I'm not a proponent of censorship. I think people should be able to write what they want, and that bookstores should sell just about everything. But a how-to manual for exploiting people is a definite exception to that rule. I'm horrified that someone would write this kind of book. Sex tourism is not a way to contribute to developing economies. It hurts people, and mostly children. Canada even prosecutes Canadian residents who hire child prostitutes abroad.

I have contacted Amazon, but they haven't written back yet. I would like to know what they have to say about it. I'm also going to notify Beyond Borders, a Canadian organization that works on preventing child exploitation and human trafficking.