There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Time in Human History

[Zen]

http://www.alternet.org/story/142171/?page=1

Excerpts

One hundred forty-three years after passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and 60 years after Article 4 of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights banned slavery and the slave trade worldwide, there are more slaves than at any time in human history -- 27 million.

Benjamin Skinner: In an underground brothel in Bucharest, I was offered a young woman with the visible effect of Down syndrome. One of her arms was covered in slashes, where I can only assume she was trying to escape daily rape the only way she knew how. That young woman was offered to me in trade for a used car.

Terrence McNally: This was a Romanian used car?

Benjamin Skinner: Yes, and I knew that I could get that car for about 1,500 euros. While that may sound like a very low price for human life, consider that five hours from where I live in New York -- a three-hour flight down to Port au Prince, Haiti, and an hour from the airport -- I was able to negotiate for a 10-year-old girl for cleaning and cooking, permanent possession and sexual favors. What do you think the asking price was?

Terrence McNally: I don't know ... $7,500?

Benjamin Skinner: They asked for $100, and I talked them down to $50.

I found this to be an interesting, and eye-opening article. Some of the ways people are tricked, and otherwise forced into slavery are incredible to imagine. The article goes on to tell of people born into slavery from a 68c debt three generations before them, people who are tricked into what they think will be legitimate work and then held under threat of violence, and (the article claims) misguided attempts to free slaves with money that causes more harm than good (including funding a militant rebel movement with "redemption" money). It's a good read.

 

[Sir Kenneth]

Well there might be more slaves today than at any other time in human history, but there are also more people on earth today than at any other time in human history. People living in slavery do make out a much smaller part of the population than they in the past, so we have come some way I guess.

It's still shocking stuff though. Especially the fact that slavery is still relatively common in the western world. I doubt many of us live more than an hour's drive away from an "establishment" making use of forced labour.

 

[Shu]

You have to look at it this way, if people can get away with it and they can profit off it then they will do it. Trafficking is nothing in my opinion, its a horrible trade I agree, but there is nothing I for one can do about it.

All I know is that violence and trafficking goes hand in hand these days. So with all the "terrorism" in the world this truly is just another tactic in which makes these scumbags rich. Like Sir Kenneth said though, we have an exponential amount more people than back in the day. So there really is no surprise there.

 

[Donald Trump]

It's not surprising, especially when there are no incentives for governments to combat slavery. India is said to have more than half of the worlds slaves, which is again not surprising in a country that has a caste system, questionable human rights and over a billion people.
It's sad, but when people can exploit other people for gain there will always be slavery.

 

[Apolyonn]

I don't know if I'd say human history. Just because things like these weren't recorded throughout the course of the human race, doesn't mean they never happened. I think it would be stupid to assume that now, 'more than ever', slavery is at its pinnacle. If anything, I'd say that Spanish conquests/triangular trade had a much more obvious and greater amount of slavery. But then, I guess it would depend on how you define slavery, because if it wasn't for the Africans' indentured servants, the Europeans wouldn't have any slaves to bring over to the new worlds.

Slavery's threaded throughout history. I don't think we're at any high point now.