Object to slavery in the Confederacy? How about modern slavery?

[Karmadillo]

http://www.campusprogress.org/fieldreport/5306/modern-abolition

An Egyptian girl had been trafficked to Orange County, where she lived in a house from about 10 to 12 years old. There she slept on a dog bed in the garage, did household chores, and suffered as sex slave for the family’s husband. Her story is one of many that inspire American activist Christina Hebets, international operations manager and head of the student movement at the Not for Sale Campaign (NFSC), a campaign that works to raise awareness about human trafficking and end modern-day slavery. “One day, the neighbor saw this girl mopping the floor of the kitchen and wondered, why isn’t this girl ever in school?” she says.

This girl eventually got out of the situation, but she is only one of 27 million people enslaved across the globe. These are huge numbers, and although on the TV news it can seem like a faraway problem belonging to places like Nepal and Thailand, it’s not. It exists right now in the United States, in just as many small suburban towns as big cities, and involving women and men from all over the globe—most notably Asian countries like Cambodia, South East Asian countries like India and Pakistan, and Eastern European countries like Albania. They’ve sewn your clothes, harvested the cocoa that became your chocolate bar, huddled in the corner of the local massage parlor, or they’re hidden in your neighbors’ houses as domestic servants.

According to Siddharth Kara’s 2008 book, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, 1.2 million people are trafficked for sexual exploitation, 1.5 million are trafficked for other labor, and 18.1 million have not been trafficked, but are enslaved. Annual profits from slave labor are actually highest in North America, averaging about $57, 975. The second highest is in the Middle East.

Groups like the NFSC, founded by former University of San Francisco professor David Batstone, and a handful of his former USF students, are using a mix of activism, advocacy, and outreach to end this reality. NFSC’s ultimate goal is to “end slavery within our lifetime.” It’s an organization that reaches out to as many demographic groups as possible—church organizations, advocacy groups, government, and students. They operate a youth arm, the Student Abolitionist Movement.

“It’s really easy to turn the other cheek…if there’s a couple people saying, you know, ‘there’s slaves in your chocolate,’” Hebets says, but NFSC is working to make the problem increasingly visible, focusing especially on the consumer role this year. Hebets and NFSC hope that consumer consciousness about the issue will catch on. “It’s kind of like the whole green movement,” she says, “…even a few years ago, people were like, ‘oh, crazy environmental activists,’ but now it’s like the cool thing to be green, to buy eco-friendly materials.” NFSC’s idea is to encourage consumers to demand goods made without the benefit of human trafficking or slave labor just like many demand green products. It takes comparatively little effort to become a better-informed consumer and make better choices, and nothing speaks to big corporations like demand.

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[951-Riverside]

1. Child rape is called slavery now? n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. It is when the child is bought and paid for.

Which makes TWO crimes.

[valerief]

2. I thought our high prison rate (both historically and globally) was to provide slave labor to

the highest bidder.

[ieoeja]

4. No. It is to disenfranchise African-Americans. See "Election 2000 Florida".

They tipped their hand at that time. We should have begun pushing for a federal law re-enfranchising ex-cons who have completed their sentence and probation. But that would make us "soft on crime".

[Karmadillo]

5. Republican lunatic governor fails to acknowledge modern slavery.

Maybe this will get the thread more hits.

[Karmadillo]

6. Kick

nt