Slavery exists today despite the fact that it is illegal in all the countries where it is practiced. It is also prohibited by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1956 UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery. However, according to studies done by anti-slavery groups, there are currently more slaves today than at any time in history! Three quarters are female and over half are children.
It is believed that there are around 29 million people in slavery right now.
Furthermore, this number does not include people who are not technically slaves but are in a form of servitude tantamount to slavery. This is sometimes called “unfree labor”. I couldn’t find actual figures for the number of slaves in every country, but there is plenty of documentation to show that it is just as prolific in other parts of the western world as well as third world countries.
A study done at Berkeley University estimates that there are around 10,000 slaves in the United States at the moment.
The Human Trafficking Foundation charity estimates 20,000 people are working in slavery in the UK, and says that number is rising.
The UK government is launching the first nationwide campaign aimed at raising awareness of modern slavery in the UK. Living in the UK myself I have seen a couple of adverts about slavery recently. The Home Office hopes Parliament will pass an anti-slavery bill before the general election. It is spending £2.3m on the TV, online and poster awareness campaign, which will run until October.
The TV advert shows three of the most common types of modern slavery:
• agricultural labour
• sexual exploitation in a brothel
• domestic servitude in a home.
It concludes with the caption, "Slavery is closer than you think". The national helpline, which is supported by children's charity the NSPCC, will offer information and advice to child and adult victims of slavery, as well as to professionals and members of the public.
While we are all slaves of the system to some extent, we are a long way from the poor people that this article depicts. Yet these people are held in their bondage by Joe Public, not the PTB, which is very disturbing.
Ultimately we have all been under the current global system.
It's a copy cat situation, getting ahead means exploring someone els.
It's just business.......
Apart from the obvious slavery , anyone who has a birth certificate is a bonded slave .
While what you say is true - it is a huge leap to compare us who live in bonded slavery just because we have a birth certificate - to those depicted in the video in Calabash's post.
Ria: Ultimately we have all been under the current global system.
It's a copy cat situation, getting ahead means exploring someone els.
It's just business.......
Yes, it is 'just' business, but it's dirty, dishonest business. I think we all recognize that. Someone much wiser than me once said: In order to change what the people in the system do, we must first change the system.
But how to change the system? I believe that's one of the many things we have come together to contemplate. And before we change the system, we have to honestly look at what's happening in the system.
So thank you Calabash for giving us the opportunity to have that honest look.
The only comparison I make is we are all slaves . I don't make light of abusive slavery as the above 4 min report is outlining . Until we remove money from our system and people become wealthy (the self severs) this is never going to stop .
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Originally posted by Stoat muldoon
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