I read an article in National Geographic Magazine this morning which really opened my eyes, here are some facts and excerpts from it:
quote: There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The modern commerce in humans rivals illegal drug trafficking in its global reach— and in the destruction of lives.
(Quoted from the National Geographic website)
-There are 27 million slaves worldwide today.
- In northern india a child can be sold into slavery for $35, often traded in by their own parents.
- Women in poor eastern towns are lured under false pretences to Israel/Germany/Switzerland/the U.S. they're then sold to "employers" who typically beat, rape or terrorize them into prostitution.
-Roughly 2/3 of the world's captive labourers- 15 to 20 million people- are debt slaves in India Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Debt slavery is when a person is given a "loan" to pay for something they desperately want. Their family are then in bondage for generations, trying to repay an enormous debt which increases with exorbitant interest and dishonest accounting.
- The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) estimates that up to 10% of U.S. farm labourers are enslaved. The rest are earning sweatshop wages.
- One U.S. shelter has rescued 10,000 child prostitutes, it isn't just a Third World problem.
quote: "I have to believe that this can change" says social worker Marisa Ugarte. She speaks quietly of 3 boys living in a Mexico shelter, one 12 years old, the other two no more than 15. All had been shuttled between Tijuana and San Diego, California and prostituted to paedophiles. Ugarte directs the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, a network of 62 U.S. and Mexican organizations fighting trafficking. "People are beginning to see," Ugarte says, "that slavery is still real."
i felt really nice to read how strongly u feel about such stuff. trust me it really hurts to see this stuff happening all round u and then to reliase how totally helpless i am. i am planning to start a collection box near my house so that i can donate the collected money to a charity home i visit frequently.. so if u or anyone else is ready to contribute from ovverseas then u can write to me at sudhasindhu@satyam.net.in
Sudha - when i read what you wrote, i was litterally crying. I can't believe we (or I) live in a world where this stuff happens! When is the world going to "grow up", learn to be tolerant, learn to be "moral" humans. My stomach is sick from all this and yet, I dont know what to do to help. If anyone has any ideas, please please please let me know!
i'm indian...in my country slavery basically takes place because of povery, lack of awareness and hope for sustainance and survival.. i mean sad to say, but parents are so unaware that they do anything to get a days meal even if that means trusting a complete stranger with their child. there is a garage near my house and all the mechanics working there are somewhere between 13-16 years. they have all been fooled into believing that they would work for a year in the city and then be sent back to their parents with money and other perks. there are also firecracker industries in my country that are worked completely by children, who many a times die just weeks after starting the job. there are many NGO"S (non-governamental organisations) in india working on this problem but trust me nothing changes in the grassroot level. whatever u do, u do for u'r satisfaction. but there are some ngo's that rescue these kids and have sponser sites for them.. in mumbai, there are girls as young as young as 14 working in brothels and servicing as many as 12 men a day. i wish we could do something about all this. but society does all this stuff very clandestinely. there were many govt raids on fire cracker industries and brothels but the owners were tipped off and the police were satisfied with bribes. there have also been many europeans and most recently a swiss family who used girls picked up from slums to shoot porno videos. there are also girls being kidnapped and threatned to their life if they don't do what the kidnapper wants. i personally know a person in the mumbai red light area who has adopted 2 prostitutes and is trying to give them a new life.. in my city itself there are brothels disguised in the form of massage parlours where girls are brought in from neighbouring nepal and bangladesh.. i mean the bottomline to reducing this problem, is more awareness of such a thing among the illiterate masses. thats at least the solution in a 3rd world nation like mine....
Well one way of combatting slavery is not to be too cheap. Taco Bell used slave labour, that's why the tacos are so cheap. There was a protest about it (featured in National Geo) askign for one more penny a taco (which actually makes a huge difference) but I can't remember whether it was successful. You can rely on the fact that the biggest chains of fast food restaurants (Macdonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, KFC) rely on slaves or sweatshop workers to do the labour. I read about it in Fast Food Nation, a book revealing the truth about the fast food industry. So, a step to combat slavery in the USA: Don't eat at Macdonalds and other fast food chains.
Slavery is a direct consequence of globalisation, which is not a bad thing in itself but has a lot of undesirable side effects (corporations becoming too powerful and prizing profit over the welfare of workers).
"If half as much energy was put into rooting out slavery as there is put into say, rooting out WMD's, the differences made could be enormous."
Energy doesn't equal success. After risking many lives and hundreds of billions of dollars, we sort of failed to root out any WMD's. But good point anyway.
A lot of politicians have vested interests in keeping slavery the way it is. I read an article about a year ago detailing the use of slavery by several of the President's closest friends in the oil industry (drilling for oil is a dangerous and unrewarding job that they have trouble getting americans to do) . Bush is in bed with them every night; ever other night the Democrats make it a menage a trois (On a side note, I can take a simple cliché and carry the analogy way too far...). Before anything can be done, it must be in the economic interests of the politicians to oppose slavery. Pen, thank you for posting that National Geographic article. Now that we have been educated, a step has been made at turning the vested interests of Congress against slavery. How are the people as a whole to be educated?
If half as much energy was put into rooting out slavery as there is put into say, rooting out WMD's, the differences made could be enormous.
Slavery is illegal. The problem now is that there is not enough work put into inspecting factories and farms, exposing illegal brothels, and into educating people about their rights. Many of the immigrants enslaved in America, for example, assume it must be normal, that this is just the way things are in the USA.
There are some interesting views on the National Geographic site on ways slavery could be combated, check it out. In any case I refuse to believe we are completely helpless.
The question of farm labourers is a tricky one, as they are willing to take any number of risks in order to get what they think will be a better life… In many cases they know they will be exploited but consider this better than what they have in their own countries… Still I think they are exploited to a shameful extent beyond what they could imagine.
But what really bothers me is the trafficking of young women that takes place right under our noses. The stories about this that I read in the National Geographic article really were shocking. I'll describe the method in more detail. This is typically what happens:
An 'agent' goes to a poor middle-european town. He finds a desperate young woman and asks her if she would like to come to say, Switzerland or the US, to work for a factory or some other job. He may offer her the possibility of a good education there, whatever will get her to come with him. He will go around and gather similarly desperate women. They are then transported to wherever he wishes… Sometimes it will be to the country he has originally suggested, sometimes it will not.
He transports them over long distances to a brothel, usually in a richer, western country, where they are bought. They are usually classified as either Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3 or a similar system, depending on how attractive they are, and different payments are made accordingly.
The women are now in slavery, held captive at the brothel, where they are beaten, raped or terrorized into prostitution. They are never paid. Some escape to tell their stories, some don't.
This is a widespread and very profitable business, which makes its money in places like Greece, Switzerland, US, Austria, UK… I could go on. People can make millions from these transactions. These are the stories I found most shocking. The women (who can be as young as 16 or 17… a similar age to lots of noisemakers here) are able to be tricked because they seek a better life, and they are taken advantage of brutally… It can also happen with children as described in my original post (although this is less widespread). It appalls me.
Penmagic, now that you mention this I realize you're right. That's basically what bringing illegal immigrants into the US to work for one's company is. The problem looks like something we can solve, so how is that done? Many people are better off working as slaves in the US than as free agents in Mexico (at least this way their children can get American citizenship and don't have to live under the same conditions). And we certainly don't want to crate a disincentive by making it worse for illegal immigrants here than it would be if they stayed in their home countries. The options I see are an open border w/ at least Mexico or the unionization of illegal workers. Both of those are very controversial. Is there any chance they'd pass Congress?
It's all very well talking about India, but if you look at the facts more closely you'll find that a lot of this trafficking takes place in the US and Europe- much more of a local problem than I ever imagined.
Slavery is no longer as simple as whites dominating blacks. It is now a case of the cruel tricking and taking advantage of the desperate… And there are desperate people all over the world. Sure, it's hard to change the situation in India, but there's a lot we can do to help closer to home.
I wrote to one of my senators on this after reading the National Geographic article. They have forms on their websites so you can email them. This really has to stop...if there's one thing that bothers me, it's slavery and prostitution (of children especially). The just one click idea is great. I saw elsewhere that you nominated Children of the Night. I'll second that. Love, Jen.
Bu we are helpless, in some ways. Want to stop slavery in India? Boycot Indian products and services to send that country a message to crackdown on slavery. Know why you can't do that? The US government is outsourcing a lot of jobs there, so if you pay taxes or ever plan on paying them, you support slavery. Do you propose to go into politics and fight this? Without donations from and promises of support to the very companies using slave labor, you'll never get elected. Anyone know how to overcome such odds? If you do I'll join an anti-slavery campaign immediately. Otherwise I'd rather spend my time on fights I can win, like getting my jingoist state senators out of office.
Ha Ha, Socrates. We can't just be helpless to stop this. If we work, we can probably do something. I can't just sit back and watch someone get hurt for no reason!
WOW...I had no idea it was so wide spread..thanks for posting that information...lets all promise our selves to do something about it!! even if its just letting others know!!
That last post was so completely irrelevant, but it did point out something: as much as we complain, aren't we lucky to be in school? I saw a Dateline documentary about slavery but they mainly focused on Africa and I got the impression there were only around 10 million slaves in the world. A lot, but nowhere near what I'm learning now.
As for non-sweatshop clothes, there have been a lot of posters up about relevant websites around my school recently. http://nosweatapparel.com is one. Prices aren't that bad, but I still think they're doomed to fail when they charge me $20 for a polo shirt I can get for $5 on sale at Wal-mart. http;//blackspotsneaker.org on the other hand, charges about the same as their archenemy, Nike. Hehe, I just paid $85 for my shoes. Theirs only cost $60. Oh well, I can always invest money in them and then I make a profit if they succeed! They seem to be pretty closely linked to adbusters.org, so check that out too.
We've got to stop this! We can write letters of concern to people, if the president recieves a letter regarding this from every person making Noise he has to read some! We can send an e-mail petition around, or one in the mail, or around schools, or anywhere! With two hundred signatures, he can't ignore the issue. Those of us who are old enough (or who got a loophole) can vote once we get enough people adreeing, and everyone who tries to stop this can help. If everyone who reads this sends an e-mail or letter to the president, he'll have to start listening, and we can stop this! This shouldn't have started, it shouldn't go on, and it won't! We can do this!
hello everybody,my name is george and im goin to tell you all aboutma skool.M skool is a pretty fair skool.But i just dont like the way tings are goin now that i have been in he skool for a long time.When i first came to the skool i had lots of people tell me that it was fun only for the beginning part.I begin to wonder, then one day i just saw a big difference.We have lots of interest,like football,basketball,baseball , soccer,lacrosse,field hockey ,tennis, track, and etc.Weare goin to have a talent show in march of 2004 im goin to be in it singing a duet or maybe by myself,lol if i can someone who sings really good then thats maybe who i am goin to sing with. thats all i really have to say about my skool!! so see ya!
wow, just when you think that everything is getting better.
I heard about all of those stories before and I agree with everyone else that it is just shocking to see that slavery is still happening in the world. But what really made me trully sad was to hear about those children being sold by there parents for some miserable bucks.
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We can do this!
