(d) I also put a post, linking the inmate's letter, on the Facebook page of Uganda's UBC TV:
Many items in this article are website links, because this campaign has been an internet campaign. This article is therefore best viewed by screen, rather than in print form
(First draft - to be corrected...)
The anti-drug campaign of Fr John Wotherspoon - by Fr John
1. How the campaign began - the Tanzanian action:
(a) In early 2013 I was saddened at the number of drug mules from Tanzania and Colombia arriving at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre which at that stage I visited around four times a week. At one period 2013- 2014 there were around 30 Tanzanian imates at LCK. One or more was arriving almost every week. I asked the Tanzanian and Colombian inmates to try to stop the flow by asking their relatives, friends, media, churches and politicians to tell people not to bring drugs to Hong Kong. But nothing happened. The flow of mules continued.
(b) Therefore with the unofficial approval of welfare authorities at LCK I encouraged one Tanzanian inmate to write a letter warning his countrymen not to bring drugs to HK. That letter, in English and Swahili, I put on my website www.v2catholic.com and linked on East Africa's number one website www.jamiiforums.com. Within a few days the letter on my website had more than 5,000 views and also had many views on a number of blogs in East Africa.
(c) The letter contained the names of ten Tanzanian drug lords, including one serving politician. The letter is Here. The letter lit a fire in Tanzania: a fire of interest and concern and action about the problem of drug trafficking.
(d) The letter was posted on my website on July ... 2103 and had an immediate effect on the flow of drug mules to HK. In the following 8 months, only one Tanzanian was arrested at HK airport. I am confident that this figure can be verified by a monthly and nationality breakdown of figures from Customs.
(e) Many other letters, from the original writer and other Tanzanian inmates, were also posted on my website from 2013 to the present time (2016).
(f) To combat a brief surge of Tanzanians in the latter part of 2014, I went to Tanzania in January 2015, engaging inmates' families and local media in support for the campaign.
(g) Some of the media reports from January 2015, together with many dozens of letters posted 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 and many media articles are Here:
(h) According to my calculation, only 3 Tanzanian drug mules were arrested at HK airport in 2016. For 2015 the figure was also very small. The Tanzanian inmates themselves support my conclusion that this reduction since 2013-2014 has in no small part been because of my campaign.
2. The Colombian action:
(a) This year 2016 has seen not one drug mule from Colombia arrested at HK airport. This is very different from previous years, as Customs figures show.
(b) Over the past three years, many dozens of letters from the Colombian inmates have been posted on my website. In response to my encouragement, the inmates' families have actively supported my campaign by setting up Facebook accounts and sending material to local media in Colombia. Both the Colombian inmates and I feel that the campaign activity of the inmates and their families has been a major reason for the sharp decline in the number of Colombian drug mules arrested at HK airport.
(c) The letters of the Colombian and other South American inmates' are Here
(d) One of the Facebook pages is Here. This Facebook site has links to the inmates' letters. Other South American sites supporting the campaign are Here
3. More than one website:
(a) From 2013 to August 2016, all campaign letters and other items were on my main website www.v2catholic.com. But in order to make the campaign more effective, I bought more website's so that there is now a website for each of the main countries/areas from which the drug mules have been coming. These websites are linked at the top of www.v2catholic.com
4. Samples of how the campaign works:
(a) Kenya action: In
July of 2016, at Tai Laim Women's Centre I learned
of a plan for 10 more women from
(b) Filipino action: On December 1, HK's No. 1 foreign newspaper, "Hong Kong News" (for Filipinos) had a large report ‘More women being recruited as drug mules’ with the byline: "Prison chaplain Fr John Wotherspoon warns Pinays against drug mule recruiters in HK and PH". The article has links to letters written by Filipinas in prison in HK. This article, in hard print and on the newspaper's website and on social media will be accessed by many tens of thousands of Filipinas in HK - surely saving some (many?) of them from the trap of drug trafficking they might otherwise have fallen into. The campaign has been effective.
(c) Uganda action: On December 12, 2016 I received in the post a letter from a Ugandan inmate in Stanley Prison. I scanned the letter and put it on my website www.ugandablog.org at this location (Nov 28). Because the letter mentioned the Abuja Restaurant in Kabalagala, Kampala, I therefore added links concerning that restaurant and that location. One link - Kabalagala: No Longer a Narcotics Zone - was from the website of the Uganda Police Force, so I sent them a message (click to enlarge):
(d) I also put a post, linking the inmate's letter, on the Facebook
page of Uganda's UBC TV:
Such publicity will help stop other Ugandans from bringing drugs to Hong Kong.
5. How many inmates have joined the campaign?
(a) Since the campaign began in July 2013, I estimate that around 50 remand inmates have joined the campaign.
(b) When the campaign first began, there was no thought or mention of a discount for letter writers. The topic never came up in the beginning. In the beginning the only aim was to stop people coming to HK. Even now, for not a few of the letter writers, this is still the main aim. Mitigation discount is a secondary aim. Indeed, a number of letter writers have continued writing after they have been sentenced ...showing how deep is their intention of stopping people coming.
(c) It is highly significant, and most unjust, that the very first letter writer, the Tanzanian man, who put his family's safety in danger by writing the first letter (his family was subsequently threatened ...see Here) has never received a discount for his effort.
6. How many inmates have received discounts for joining the campaign?
(a) My estimate is that more than a dozen inmates have received a discount for the part they and they families have played in the campaign - discounts ranging from two to thirteen months. The inmate who received the 13 months was given this by Judge Woo Kwok Hing when he heard how the inmate's brother, a policeman in Nairobi, Kenya, had organised meetings to promote the campaign and had taken part in a press conference for the campaign (with photographs of these activities produced in court). Judge Woo's summary statement is Here.
(b) On the other hand another dozen or so inmates have received nothing for their efforts when they were sentenced.
7. The need for the campaign to be on-going:
The brief surge in Tanzanian drug mules
arriving in HK in 2014, despite the campaign, taught me that this campaign has
to be on-going. Any let-up will result in
"the fire" starting up again. This is why I am encouraging inmates to
continue writing letters, even after they are sentenced. And this is why I am
due to make another trip to Africa - to South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia (and Dubai)
- December 27, 2016 to January 31, 2017.
8. My hopes for the campaign:
(a) The HK government would take over much of the campaign. Twelve website's is too much for me. The project has now become too much for me. The Information Bureau has the facilities to do the publicity I've been doing and more (e.g. advertisements in the drug-mule sending countries)
(b) Up to now, has the HK government even once placed an advertisement in any of the drug-mule countries sending countries to warn people about drug trafficking to HK? Could put not just advertisements, but also media releases etc).
9. Conclusion:
(a) At a meeting with representatives of the Correctional Services Department and the Security Bureau on November 28, 2016, I made the statement that since the campaign began in July 2013, it is not unreasonable to claim that the campaign has stopped at least 100 drug mules from coming to HK with at least 50kg of cocaine. No one at the meeting questioned this claim. If anything, the figures of 100 and 50 are an underestimation. The campaign has been effective.
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