Some time ago, my attention was redirected to this heinous situation by an acquaintance who spent a couple of years with the Peace Corps in Mongolia, where human trafficking - especially of girls - is rampant. John told me some truly horrendous stories that no one wants to hear. I can imagine that one can easily become overwhelmed and burnt out when faced with such evil on such a massive scale. It is for the reason of the sheer scale of the problem that I try to get to the ideology or mindset behind such behavior in order to stop it - and that's largely why I critique deleterious and divisive religious ideologies in particular. As we know all too well, not a few religions - especially but not exclusively the so-called Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam - have been used to justify slavery, an appalling notion that continues unfortunately abundantly to this day.
"There are more slaves today than at any other time in history."
So long as we have religious cults teaching that they and they alone are godly and that all nonbelievers are inferior subhumans to be exploited, this problem will never go away. Are there other reasons for slavery? Yes, of course, and we must work on those as well, including perversion, sadism, greed and desperation for money. But in the meantime, teaching impressionable children that nonbelievers/infidels are "evil" and "bad" and must be punished is certainly not helping, as it creates an automatic anti-empathetic mentality that sees "other," who can then be taken advantage of.
"Over 2.2 million children are sold into the sex trade every year."
The first article here discusses mainly black slavery as in Haiti, but the slave trade goes well beyond that, extending its evil tentacles to all corners of the world, targeting all types of vulnerable people.
Author Struggles to Stay Removed from Slave Trade
With $50 and a plane ticket to Haiti, one can buy a slave. This was just one of the difficult lessons writer Benjamin Skinner learned while researching his book, A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery.
Skinner met with slaves and traffickers in 12 different countries, filling in the substance around a startling fact: there are more slaves on the planet today than at any time in human history. Skinner speaks with Anthony Brooks about his experience researching slavery.
Though now illegal throughout the world, slavery is more or less the same as it was hundreds of years ago, Skinner explains. Slaves are still "those that are forced to work under threat of violence for no pay beyond sustenance."
Something disturbing has changed however — the price of a human. After adjusting for inflation, Skinner found that, "In 1850, a slave would cost roughly $30,000 to $40,000 — in other words it was like investing in a Mercedes. Today you can go to Haiti and buy a 9-year-old girl to use as a sexual and domestic slave for $50. The devaluation of human life is incredibly pronounced...."
Here is a map from the U.S. State Department that shows the extent of the problem worldwide. When you click on a "tier" circle, it brings up suggestions on what should be done. As you can see from the tier markers, the problem is massive and global. The U.S. State Department site also includes its report for 2010.
Further Reading
What the average person can do
Peace Corps volunteering
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|2011-04-18 14:17:02 Bobby - Children auctions in America today!The reports always make it seem like this only occurs in other countries, but America is no exception. Besides the common wisdom we are all wage slaves, that the IRS compels servitude for roughly 40% of your working hours, and that mortgage-holding banks have you by the balls, and that the Rothschild Central Banks and their IMF outright own all government-held property in bankruptcy, there are real human slaves here, 100% chattel slaves, to buy or sell. Foreign UN officials are always getting caught with their human "property", and in Los Vegas, children are periodically auctioned, although you'd have to be a Kenendy of Clinton to get on the invite list. Simon Legree is alive and well in the 21st Century!
So we have much growing up still yet to do. I do so loath talking points and loaded terms or words twisted and abused, yet really no one seems to see through it"?". Sad very sad.