Modern day slavery.

by Hyghlandyr 8 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Hyghlandyr

  We had a post going recently about slave reparations in the united states. It led to some pretty heated and interesting discusions from all sides. At one point I pointed out that more people are enslaved today than at any time in history (twenty seven million). None responded to it, so I thought I would put some quotes here and some websites, to see if anyone has any interest in this important subject. (For those that wonder why I think it important despite having no morals, my one moral, 'Leave the children alone' is violated most viciously in the practice of modern slavery, because many, if not most, modern slaves, are children and are treated repugnantly)

  http://www.freetheslaves.net/

  http://www.iabolish.com/index.htm

  http://www.antislavery.org/

  http://users.erols.com/bcccsbs/bass/bass.html

  I was going to post some comments, but rereading these sites is making me ill. Their comments stand for themselves. Anyone on this board that decries the watchtowers policies on child molestation has to read these sites. If you support slave reparations read them as well, your brothers and sisters, many of them children, are being treated in some of the most disgusting ways.

  Nothing further.
• 

  LDH1

  Hygh, I started a thread about the politics of chocolate, which I believe is 80% supported by CHILD slave labor. The thread is probably over a year old; I can't find it. But here's some links.

  http://www.unhinderedliving.com/chocolate.html
  http://www.radicalthought.org/
• 

  borgfree

  Hyghlandyr,

  It seems pretty obvious that all the noise about slavery in this country is only about MONEY. The shake-down artists like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etc. don't seem to care about the slavery in the world today, wonder why? maybe there is just not enough BIG MONEY in Sudan or maybe they know they will not be successful in shaking down the people in those other countries.

  They know where the suckers are, in the good ole gullable USA.

  Isn't the silence about slavery practiced today a little deafening?

  But, I really think the silence speaks volumes.

  Borgfree

  "You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses." -Ziggy
• 

  teenyuck

  Borgfree, that is the point...Jesse and Al know that they can shake down the US.

  Let them get their reparations...it will have a backlash that has never been seen. Once money is paid and apologies are made, there will be no reason for affirmative action etc.

  The issue of current slavery is totally ignored. It makes me sick.
• 

  Shimmer

  LDH1,

  I didn't know that about chocolate. But I did see a news show about the diamond mining and how it is being done by slave labor. So now every time I see a woman with a huge rock on her hand I want to tell her about it. But I probably wouldn't get a very good response.

  Shimmer
• 

  spender

  I believe it's even worse than that shimmer. Wasn't there things on the news about how there's all sorts of militia groups over there in Africa...people getting shot over diamonds, which DeBeers mainly controls. They got in some trouble some time ago, at which point they had to put notices on their invoices or something about the bad things they were doing.
• 

  Hyghlandyr

  We have a thread going on reparations which I can give anyone the link to if requested. We have that debate over there. However the fact that more people are suffering in more ways at the hands of slavers today than in the past should give people pause. If slavery is a concern, in the past or present, should it not be a concern to help those who are enslaved now.

  Frankly what burns my ass about it is the child molestation aspect. I hear and see and have been through the watchtower's policies myself. They are vile. But few seem to care about the fact that it is going on in far worse degrees in other parts of the world. Little boys and girls are kidnapped, tricked, or bought from their homes. They are made to work 19 hour days with no pay. They sleep in their workplaces, right at their work stations. They are fed poorly, are not cared for if sick. If they do not meet their quotes, fingers are cut off. One little boy had all the fingers of one hand cut off. One girl was tied up, suspended from her wrists for days, until her hands were so swollen they are now useless. Other villagers complain if she is in the path of the wind to them because of the stench. They are raped, sometimes daily. This being little kids. Blacks, Africans. Indians, pakistanis. Where is the cry for these ones?

  Before that the women in afghanistan. I told people over and over about their treatment. No response. The women, Irish women, in british prisons. Strip searched. Not anglo women, Irish women. All of them. If they resist, they are bound, and gagged. All of this on the pretense to find weapons because two women snuck something into the jail once. But they werent Irish they were anglos!!!!

  Women around the world are raped, attacked, maimed, kidnapped, abused, beaten, stoned. So are children. Where is the cry for them? It should be reaching into high heaven.

  I was watching MTV Road Rules last year. They were in Moroco for a while. One of the girls, an Asian, was wearing shorts. I dont recal about the other girls. The men, and boys of the town they were in were pelting her with stones!!!!!! The other men in the road rules team were oblivious to what was going on, they were walking ahead of the girls. Afterwards they said if they had known they would have done something.

  We talk about racism in america, and it exists, I am a fine example of a racist. But most of our racism is pure rhetoric. Let americans go to other parts of the world and see, in particular, how women and children are treated. Then let us say something about it!
• 

  Valis

  We might also want to consider that the computers we use are only made possible by what could be considered slave labor. The only way they are affordable is super cheap labor in Asia and Mexico.

  Sincerely,

  District Overbeer
• 

  Hyghlandyr

  Valis, that is probably true in some cases. However specifically what we mean when we are speaking of slavery is forced labor, without pay, under threat of violence. Or some form thereof.

  It is true that in some places the pay rates are lower. I knew people from India who said that engineers could make a few thousand a year. But since the prices were different for things there, and since they did not require the same things we needed, their cost of living was less. Of course, so too was their standard of living. Nevertheless the wages paid were consistent with the areas in which they live.

  If the average person in that country makes a basic living, a slave would be someone paid much less than the standard, if they are paid at all. Further in many cases, they are being paid to repay a debt, but are also charged for the necessities of life by their masters. Thus the vast majority of any fabricated wage they earn goes to care for their basic needs, and the debt is never paid off.

  It is a never ending cycle. I do not wish to diminish your comments because they are true, and we have a high standard of living here, which is why many people come to America, despite all of their complaints about us as a people. It just shows in the long run that if people are well fed, well cared for, and not abused, most of their other complaints are at best conversational.

  On the other hand I do not want to diminish the reality of slavery by calling something slavery which is not. It is similar to the african american charges about the slave trade. One black senator decided to claim that 250 million blacks were tossed in the ocean. By 1860 there were roughly 4 million slaves in the United States. Slavery ended soon after. Without the numbers in front of me and if I exagerate them we can safely conculd less than ten million total. But lets say 25 million were in slavery during the entire period. For this Senator's ludicrous numbers to be correct, then at least nine slaves were tossed into the ocean, for every one slave that finally made it to slavery. This also does not take into account the slaves that were born here. Which would again reduce the numbers down below 25million, a nice round figure for our calculations. So by making preposterous statements like this he diminishes the real issue, how damaging slavery has been to the black american experience and psyche.

  Of course I am not stating in any sense your statement is like his. In fact you have a very valid point. Subsistence living, while working all day to barely survive, is a form of slavery as well. So too is corporate slavery. Still, the things some of these people are going through, being kidnapped, molested, beaten, and so forth, in my estimation outweighs what I have ever gone through in my life.