Nov. 5, 2010 I The Clarion
News
Page 3
BCE 111 perspectives: Born into brothels
By Michael Stein/Hannah Crain with
prof. Laura McDowell
Contributors
BCE 111 is a stepping stone for students
entering college and it throws you into Brevard
College learning—fast. BCE 111 has many
different subject areas and we are in prof.
McDowell's "Bom into Brothels" section.
Our particular class explores the world
of children born into extreme poverty and
dangerous environments. Unfortunately, the
world has many areas full of child labor and
prostitution.
Over the past five years, photos have become
a lot easier to develop and share with others
around the world. Many different media outlets
are in use today, which allow us to share our
stories publically, in books and over the internet.
For example, Facebook is one of the most
popular social networking sites nationwide.
Many are attracted to Facebook because they are
able to view thousands of pictures that reflect a
person’s character and tell a story.
Our BCE 111 Perspectives class has recently
studied the film documentary “Born into
Brothels.” The documentary tells story of a
young photographer, Zana Briski, who traveled
to the brothels in Calcutta, India. Briski was
very interested in the children who lived in the
brothels. In order for Briski get a perspective
of what the children’s daily lives were like, she
introduced photography to a group of children
there. Each child was given a film camera and
assigned to take photos of Calcutta in whichever
way they wanted.
Behind each camera was an amazing child
with a unique and fun individual personality.
What Briski proves to the world is that
photography has the ability to allow anyone to
share a story through the multiple perspectives
of a photograph.
Today there are many untold stories out in the
world that are waiting to be heard. Briski’s group
of children, who faced everyday being abused
by their parents, were forced to earn money for
their families through chores. Some received a
poor education or none at all.
The prostitution industry in Calcutta was
normalized for the children. Photography was
not only introduced to the children so that their
photos could give perspective to outsiders,
but also to instill optimism in the children for
what they could accomplish outside of their
community.
After the documentary was finished, the
Kids with Cameras organization was created.
Photography is now taught to children around
the world who are living in terrible conditions.
The organization raises money from the photos
that the children take and uses the money to help
them out of their environments.
After the best photos were selected, they were
sold in many art exhibits around the nation. All
of the profits were used to fund the children's
education at boarding schools to enable them to
leave the brothels.
Over the past several years BC students have
made generous contributions to the Kids with
Cameras Foundation and bought 11 photos
from the Calcutta workshop. These works of art
are on display in Dunham until the end of this
semester, to give students and visitors an idea of
how effectively photography can not only tell a
person's story, but can also change lives.
Profile: Stanley F. Jacobsen, Director of Safety
By Caleb Welborn
Staff Writer
Stanley F. Jacobsen has led troops into combat
in Vietnam, worked as a special agent in the FBI,
owned a Private Investigation firm, and worked
as security director for a Fortune 100 company
all before coming to work at Brevard College
as the Director of Safety and Risk Management
for the past nine years.
“Life’s a hoot,” says Jacobsen. “You just have
to make it happen.”
Jacobsen was bom Oct. 4, 1941 in Paterson,
N.J. In high school he was a trumpet player in
the all-state band for all four years. Wanting to
further his study of music, he went to Easton
School of Music where he studied alongside
greats such as Chuck Mangione. Ftowever, he
soon realized that he was “a technician, not a
musician” and switched his major to English.
“As a disillusioned musician with no French
Foreign Legion to join, 1 decided to become
an officer in the Marines after graduation,” he
says. “One and a half years out of college 1 was
leading troops into combat in Vietnam.”
After three and a half years of military service,
Jacobsen left the Marines and joined the FBI as
a special agent where he stayed for more than
25 years.
Jacobsen worked in Atlanta, Ga. for one year
working fugitive cases, civil rights cases, and
kidnapping cases.
He then moved to St. Louis, Mo. where he
worked security cases which included groups
such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Communist
Party, the Black Panther Party, and the Weather
Underground before being transferred to the
organized crime division where he worked
on cases which included illegal gambling
operations and racketeering.
After getting a taste of working against
organized crime, Jacobsen decided that he
wanted to work organized crime in the big time,
so he transferred to New York City where he
worked cases involving the Colombo and the
Genovese crime families, who were involved
in illegal gambling, loan sharking, racketeering,
and “murder for hire stuff” While in NYC he
put two of the five mafia bosses in jail.
During his time in New York, he got a
master’s degree in professional studies with an
emphasis in criminal justice from Long Island
University.
After working in NYC, Jacobsen transferred
to Tampa, Fla. to work on an operation against
the Santo Trafficante crime family who were
involved in drug trafficking. The operation,
known as “Coldwater,” was later the basis of
the movie “Donnie Brasco.”
Jacobsen later worked a case on professional
baseball player Denny McLain, the last major
league pitcher to win 30 or more games during
a season, 31-6 in 1968 (when he also won the
World Series with the Detroit Tigers), a feat
accomplished by only 13 players in the 20th
century. McLain was convicted for trafficking
cocaine, embezzlement, and racketeering.
After the McLain case, Jacobsen became
the senior agent in the investigation of dictator
Manuel Noriega of Panama, who was involved
in intemational narcotics trafficking. During
this case, Jacobsen worked undercover in the
Cayman Islands, and he made the second largest
maritime marijuana seizure in the history of the
U.S. He seized 165,000 pounds of high-THC
marijuana off the coast of North Carolina.
After Noriega was convicted, Jacobsen
became the senior agent in a case involving
cocaine distribution and the NASCAR industry.
Pit crew members were receiving shipments
of cocaine during races. The cocaine would
be hidden in racecar parts, flown into the local
airport, and be given a police escort to the track.
This was discovered by an undercover agent
who actually drove a car in the Daytona 500 in
order to get inside information.
In order to get the evidence they needed to
make their case, the agents threw a party on a big
fishing boat and invited many of the people who
were involved who bragged about their exploits
to undercover agents. The agents were then
able to piece everything together and get them
see 'Jacobsen' page 8