On Mar 23, 2010, at 10:46 AM, curtisdeltablues wrote:
Thanks to Vaj for this book tip. I'm just finishing it and it is
one of the most important books I've read this year.
It has an interesting chapter on Indian slavery including some
insight into how the caste system helps perpetuate it. 90% of
manual laborers are from the "untouchable" caste. No school for
junior who joins the parents as soon as he or she is old enough.
The author who wrote it, Benjamin Skinner, is like the Indiana
Jones of human rights. He has documented slavery in detail in many
countries and puts human faces on the horrific concept of people
OWNING other people. His bravery in meeting with slavers who would
as soon kill him as look at him was amazing.
With a little wink wink nudge nudge, to countries like Saudi
Arabia, the US government is not doing much to change the
situation. The Christian groups doing good in this area are only
interested in prostitution slavery which is only a part of the
problem.
On thing it wised me up on is the legalized prostitution in
Amsterdam which I had ignorantly thought was a success. Without any
protection for imported slaves it is a horror show, not a rational
way to deal with one of our oldest professions as I had believed.
The numbers are staggering. The human suffering incalculable. The
level of euphemistic bullsittery going on in our government to
avoid even describing it as a real problem is inexcusable.
The author is one of my new heroes. This was not an easy book to
research and write. And although I wouldn't describe reading it as
easy either, it is compellingly written. He gives enough details
about the people whose lives he is bringing out of the darkness
that you can't help but feel their lives deeply.
This one is gunna haunt me.
Check out 60 Minutes from last Sunday (which should be online by
now). The earthquake in Haiti just made a bad situation for child
slavery even worse, as their segment on The Lost Children of Haiti
shows quite clearly. Unimaginable suffering. Often child slaves are
made to stay outside the home they serve all day long, with no food,
while their "masters" are at work.
There are families in New England they've found made of child-slaves
from the foster care system. In one case the foster parents had
constructed a hidden door to hide the children in a secret room, and
since the kids were special needs children, the family raked in over
a thousand bucks a week, tax free. When the pictures appeared on the
screen of what these children's hidden room looked like, many of the
people in the room simply burst into tears. The walls were covered in
feces. This type of thing is happening all around us.
