I just watched "Taken" with Liam Neeson (~3 hours ago) and I can't get it out of my head. It's not the action, which was tightly choreographed, and it's not the convincingness of Liam's performance, which was so on that I'm surprised that I'm not more taken aback; what has kept Taken so strongly in my head is the simple fact that it's disturbingly real to life.
If you don't know, and without giving too much away, the basic premise concerns itself with a girl who is taken by individuals involved in human sex-trafficking, with her father being someone who is uniquely able to do something about it—a man with a background as a former CIA operative.
What I keep thinking about is the reality of the problem of human trafficking, whether specifically for sex-trafficking (its most common form) or otherwise. It's something not widely discussed – due in part to its unpleasantness – but it's also something that's a widespread problem, being much more common even in the United States than people realize. I offer this article as an example: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28161210/
It's the fact that the movie put a human face to the problem—regardless of its fictionality and the fact that the faces were those of actresses. I keep thinking about the reality of the people who suffer in this, as well as the individuals involved in these abominable endeavors, and I wish that there was more that I knew to do... or was capable of doing.
One thing I would recommend is that if you know any young women thinking of traveling overseas alone or without escort (or even with escort), consider encouraging them to see this movie. It's not a manual or a documentary and it doesn't cover all of the threats – and many young women probably won't take it very seriously – but it might just raise their level of awareness and caution enough to help them avoid common traps, or extremely foolish decisions with possibly disastrous consequences.
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