Agreed ... and the next time you take a bite of your favorite
chocolate remember that it was probably made from the beans
grown and picked on African plantations by bought or stolen
and enslaved children. In case you missed the news:
http://english.pravda.ru/economics/2001/04/17/3638.html
http://www.hopeforthenations.com/NewsItem.phtml?art=36&c=0
I recently read that there are more people enslaved now than
in any other time in the world's history. While I cannot
attest to the veracity of that statement, it is known that
hundreds of thousands of people are enslaved, a fact that in
and of itself is abhorrent.
Bob Walkden posted a pretty good list of contemporary horrors,
although he left out so much - the decimation of Tibet by the
Chinese, the "disappeared" in Chile, the horrors in El
Salvador ... and the list goes on.
Anybody who thinks the 20th century was a century of
enlightenment and progress is going through life with blinders
on. There were more wars fought, more acts of genocide,
starvation, and exploitation than in any time in the history
of the world. Many people are unaware of these atrocities
because they live in relatively rich and protected societies,
and where news is often presented through a corporate or
government filter. It doesn't look like the 21st century will
be getting better any time soon, either.
canislupus wrote:
>
> Well, aren't modern goods manufactured by enslaving or at least
> worsening living conditions of huge amounts of people? Remember the
> Odoni people or the seabirds when you drive your car... We are not much better than
> those ancient societies. Everytime, OTHERS pay the real cost of our
> goods (most flagrant is of course the US price of gasoline). I am of
> course guily too - where do you think the silver for our films comes
> from? I dare not to think more...
>
> Frantisek
>
> *** [snipped]
> would take that position.
> Romans, Mayans, Incas, Egyptians, and most other ancient societies
> enslaved huge numbers of people who where literally worked to death to
> build those extravagant monuments. The economies of those societies
> were fueled by forceably stealing resources from neighboring peoples,
> enslaving them, and forcing the majority to attend to every whim of the
> minority. They operated at a level of brutality unheard of in the
> modern world. The monuments and incredible buildings you see today
> were built at a phenomenal cost of human life and suffering. Waste of resources?
>>Absolutely.
--
Shel Belinkoff
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"It matters little how much equipment we use; it
matters much that we be masters of all we do use." - Sam Abell
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