I posted a diary recently about Diner's Club entering an arrangement with Vietnam Brides International, offering a payment plan of $167 per month to buy a wife. It sounded like a joke but it wasn't; it came in a newsletter from Change.org. Today I received this follow-up. (I post the whole thing since it is an e-mail and I cannot link to it.)
It's not every day that we get contacted by a billion-dollar corporation agreeing to change a business practice our members find ethically objectionable. But that's exactly what happened to Change.org this week.
It all started when our Human Trafficking blogger, Amanda Kloer, posted news that the credit card company Diners Club International had established a partnership with a Vietnamese mail-order brides company to jointly offer an official payment plan for buying women on credit. (No, sadly this was no joke.)
The post provoked an immediate reaction from the Change.org community, and nearly a thousand Change.org members sent emails to representatives of Diners Club demanding an end to the program due to its gross commodification of women and the vulnerability of mail-order brides to human trafficking, domestic violence, abuse, and exploitation.
Then, as the community prepared for its next move, something unusual happened: Diners Club contacted us, apologized for the offense, and told us that they were taking steps to formally end the new program and sever their relationship with Vietnam Brides International.
Success!
This is one of those special moments when you can directly see the power that all of us can have on matters that impact the lives of others. It's an exciting feeling, and it's only just the very beginning.