Ashton Kutcher’s Speech on Human Trafficking to the Congress Committee
There is no shortage of problems facing the world, all of which require solutions. However, many people might be unaware of these problems or might not have any idea about how they can be part of the solution. Formulating a speech that is not only persuasive but also informative is one of calling people to action. In this essay, we explore one such speech that was presented to a Congress Committee on the 15th of February, 2017. The speech was delivered by Ashton Kutcher, who is the chairman and co-founder of Thorn Organization, a technology company working for other tech companies to develop technology to fight human trafficking. The Congress Committee sitting was meant to hear from stakeholders on how to fight human trafficking.
In the speech, Mr. Kutcher addresses the ills of human trafficking and how the victims are subjected to torture, exploitation, and other acts. According to him, these forms of acts subjected to the victims deny them their fundamental right to be happy as well as deprive them of their human dignity. From the description that Mr. Kutcher offers, human trafficking is a significant problem that is bedeviling human civilization. Several examples are provided in his speech. First, he describes how a child aged three years was abused, and content spread online as well a case where a girl named Emma met a man online and was assaulted and forced into trafficking within hours of meeting the man physically. Further, he indicates that victims of human trafficking are spread across the world from Russia to India to our backyard, meaning that the problem is not tied to a specific region but rather a problem experienced by people everywhere.
Human trafficking, according to the speakers, is caused by the lack of humanity by the perpetrators. He opines that if people valued happiness, they would also help others achieve it, which is not the case with human traffickers who take happiness from their victims. Further, Mr. Kutcher asserts his argument by giving another example of a young girl who was assaulted by a grown American man who was a tourist in Cambodia. According to Mr. Kutcher, this shows the lack of humanity to the extent that a grown-up man would be comfortable exploiting a young child who has been conditioned to think that they are playing. Further, the speaker points out that the inability to apprehend these perpetrators by law enforcement makes these acts persistent and thrive.
There is a raft of solutions suggested by Mr. Kutcher. First, he calls for the promotion of private-public partnerships. According to the speaker, private-public partnerships can provide technology solutions that can be used to track and apprehend human traffickers. He gives an example of software called Spotlight, which he terms as the ultimate solution to the problem. The speaker points out that Spotlight has already proved as the last line of defense in cases such in Emma’s who was found in 3 days, a case that would have otherwise taken months or weeks. Further, he reports that the software out of the six months it has been in use, based on the reporting of only 25% of its users, more than 6000 human trafficking cases had been identified where more than 2000 were found to be of minors. Besides, the system is meant to be smart over time as more data is gathered, which allows it to reduce the time for solving cases drastically. Thus, I believe that the solution suggested response to the problem because as technology evolves, so do the perpetrators. As such, without the request technology, it will be hard to apprehend these human traffickers meaning more people being trafficked, thus further entrenchment of this problem in the society.
In my opinion, the speaker presented their message successfully. They effectively used both emotional and logical appeal, which thus made their speech persuasive. For instance, the speaker appealed to the emotions by narrating the ordeals of different victims, which moved him to the point of crying. In the logical appeal, he gave facts about how the technology suggested can be effective, thus calling for people to think about how technology can be used as a helpful tool rather than a destructive tool. After listening to the speech, I am persuaded that there is a need for urgent action to be taken else; this problem will become deeply rooted in society, and far more people will fall victim.