Some things make me really angry and very sad all at the same time. This is one of those things. 27 million slaves still exist in this world. Many are children. Over 17,000 are brought into the United States EVERY YEAR. It is often called different things, glossed over, excuses made. It is still slavery. I saw it first hand on a trip to Morocco. Little girls brought from villages and supposedly paid by the middle class that can't afford traditional housekeepers. No schooling, just fetching and cleaning until they are in their teens and attracting the attention of the father or teen-age boy of the family. Then the girl is put out on the streets to fend for herself. There are groups that take in these girls, train them in employable skills, love them, and give them new leases on life. There are also organizations that are calling for the practice to cease. I'm sure that this happens in many countries where life is not valued. It is happening here. We might not see it everyday, but stories like this prove that it is true. Look at organizations such as Free The Slaves and Love 146 and International Justice Mission. Will we, in this nation that is suppose to be "The Land of the Free", put up with this kind of crap?
1 comment:
Nancy, thanks so much for a thoughtful posting. If you don't know it, the book "Restavec" by Jean-Robert Cadet is just amazing. He was enslaved as a tiny boy in Haiti, and through an amazing set of circumstances came to the US (still enslaved!) but ultimately ends up as a French teach in Cincinnati trying to deal with teh trauma of his youth.
I also wanted to share that my new book Ending Slavery:How We Free Today's Slaves does offer an antidote of hope to the daunting reality of slavery. For the last five years I've been watching groups and projects that set slaves free and calculating how well we might scale-up this work and what the challenges might be. The good news is that we can end slavery, the book is a 25 year plan to do just that. You can order it from the Free the Slaves website, or just about anywhere.
Warm wishes,
Kevin Bales
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