According to Bales' anti-slavery organization, these 27 million people "represent the largest number of people that has ever been in slavery at any point in world history and the smallest percentage of the total human population that has ever been enslaved at once."
I came across this information as I was watching a recent episode of ABCNews Nightline, about child slavery in Haiti. The story aired 7-8-08 and was called "How to Buy a Child in 10
Hours: One Reporter's Journey Reveals An Epidemic of Child Slavery in Haiti"
It was truly appalling. The reporter met with "child traffic-ers" using a Haitian translator, and at a hotel pool-side, negotiated the sale of a child to do "whatever you want" with. Later, two hotel personnel called the reporter over to where they were sitting. In English they told him that they had overheard, and that they wanted sell him a child!
In the rest of the program cameras followed the reporter as he visited a young girl who was a slave, and interviewed her, her "owner" and her family. I thought as citizens of the world today we were a little more civilized, but I couldn't believe what I was hearing!
A new book about modern slavery, "A Crime So Monstrous" by E. Benjamin Skinner, discusses the UNICEF's estimate of 300,000 child slaves in Haiti.
I'm going to request that my library purchase these two books I've mentioned so that I can better educate myself on this issue.
http://www.freetheslaves.net/
2 comments:
So I think I am the only person who ever leaves comments on your blog, but... sorry, you have to deal with me anyways. I have to say, you probably have one of the most interesting and educational blogs I have read. Good for you! The child slavery is DISGUSTING! I cannot believe that slavery is still going on in the world today. It may be that we live in a first world country, and the poor countries have so many monstrosities and fewer morals because they have to find ways to survive. I am in no way excusing it,I am just thinking perhaps that is why we don't realize these things are happening.
This is really sickening to hear about. But don't be fooled into thinking that our country is exempt from these problems. It may be that we just have bigger-worded justifications for them. A reporter named John Bowe wrote Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy Which talks about all kinds of people and peoples who are getting taken advantage of today in the US. I haven't read the book myself yet, but here are a couple of sites I looked into to aquaint myself with the issues. The first link is an interview with Bowe.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=103223&title=john-bowe
http://johnbowe.wordpress.com/
http://www.ciw-online.org/about.html
Post a Comment