A World Enslaved-"There are now more slaves on the planet than at any time in human history"

[babylonsister]

This is an old article, but I imagine it's still applicable sadly.

A World Enslaved
By E. Benjamin Skinner

Page 1 of 3
March/April 2008



There are now more slaves on the planet than at any time in human history. True abolition will elude us until we admit the massive scope of the problem, attack it in all its forms, and empower slaves to help free themselves.

THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty Images
21st-century slaves: 300,000 children are in domestic bondage in Haiti.

Web Extra: Listen to author E. Benjamin Skinner negotiate with a slave trader for a human life at:
ForeignPolicy.com/extras/slavery



Standing in New York City, you are five hours away from being able to negotiate the sale, in broad daylight, of a healthy boy or girl. He or she can be used for anything, though sex and domestic labor are most common. Before you go, let’s be clear on what you are buying. A slave is a human being forced to work through fraud or threat of violence for no pay beyond subsistence. Agreed? Good.

Most people imagine that slavery died in the 19th century. Since 1817, more than a dozen international conventions have been signed banning the slave trade. Yet, today there are more slaves than at any time in human history.

And if you’re going to buy one in five hours, you’d better get a move on. First, hail a taxi to JFK International Airport, and hop on a direct flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The flight takes three hours. After landing at Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport, you will need 50 cents for the most common form of transport in Port-au-Prince, the tap-tap, a flatbed pickup retrofitted with benches and a canopy. Three quarters of the way up Route de Delmas, the capital’s main street, tap the roof and hop out. There, on a side street, you will find a group of men standing in front of Le Réseau (The Network) barbershop. As you approach, a man steps forward: “Are you looking to get a person?”

Meet Benavil Lebhom. He smiles easily. He has a trim mustache and wears a multicolored, striped golf shirt, a gold chain, and Doc Martens knockoffs. Benavil is a courtier, or broker. He holds an official real estate license and calls himself an employment agent. Two thirds of the employees he places are child slaves. The total number of Haitian children in bondage in their own country stands at 300,000. They are the restavèks, the “stay-withs,” as they are euphemistically known in Creole. Forced, unpaid, they work in captivity from before dawn until night. Benavil and thousands of other formal and informal traffickers lure these children from desperately impoverished rural parents, with promises of free schooling and a better life.

The negotiation to buy a child slave might sound a bit like this:

more...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4173

[Joe the Liberal]

1. Sad but true......

Wow, it seems like the world is digressing rather than progressing. Piracy is bigger than ever and slavery along with it.

[Bobbieo]

2. I believe human slavery was the underlying reason Bush signed the Global Gag Order,

his first official act, to cut US funding to International Planned Parenthood. It assured world wide corporations a never ending supply of cheap labor.

[applegrove]

3. Hard to believe.

[cabluedem]

4. Most people figure Rush went to the Dominican Republic for child-sex, so this make perfect sense!

So he quit the Oxycontin and picked up on Viagra and sex with minors.

What a guy! NOT!!

[applegrove]

6. That is so disgusting.

[cabluedem]

10. Yes it is, but it's the truth in the DR, as well as many places in Asia. Very sad. nt

[tama]

5. Who is not a slave? n/t

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. Are you routinely beaten and raped? That's what slavery leads to.

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. Heck, but we can send a man to the moon, don't ferget! That's what

comes of our society's worship of the intellect. As Einstein observed, the intellect has strong muscles, but no personality.

Pope Benedict has apparently warned against the danger that clones would lead to the enslavement of mankind. And with our leaders, who could doubt it?

[Seldona]

9. It really bothers me he left those he wrote about behind.

He could have bought these people their freedom for next to nothing. It wouldn't take much imagination to keep up the ruse while getting these people out.

I would wrestle with how to handle this without perpetuating it, much less taking part. Maybe dumping the file into law enforcement's lap when he was done, or working with them along the way? But no way I could leave these kids behind.

I commend him on his bravery in taking on this incredibly important and horrendous issue. I simply could not have remained a dispassionate observer, taking no action to better the lives of the people opening up to me.

I am not saying he had no feelings about it all. Obviously he did. But at the end of the day I believe he could have accomplished his mission of exposing the scope of this abomination, and still got those out that crossed his path.

I guess I was just hoping to read about how these kids are being well taken care of, and educated, by people who empathize and want to love them and accept them into their homes not for their bodies or what they can get out of them but for their intrinsic value as human beings. It saddens me to know the opposite is true.

I have never really liked the trappings of money, but I have never wished I was rich more than I do right now. I would set out to combat the reasons this happens in the first place. It's really not that expensive to build schools, libraries, hospitals, etc, in places like this. Though the hospitals would be the most expensive.

Also I love the idea of making micro-loans to people of even 20 or 50 dollars. Imagine three generations living in slavery for less than the price of a small gas station cup of coffee? How fucked up is that? It doesn't even seem real.

I hope someone with money sees this article and feels the same way. This is 15th century shit here, and this is a case where a few could make a large difference.

It is actually a good investment from what I have read. The payback rate on these micro-loans in impoverished nations is in the 90 percentile range. And the way you make money is to help more people!

No slavery if you fail in whatever endeavor you attempt with the money either. Even if you 'lose' the money, at least the people are still free.

Micro-lending is a smart, humane, way to use capitalism to help people's lives. Sorry about the length of response, but this just floored me.