I did catch the 60 minutes show Vaj and felt like the book gave me a good understanding about how much worse this is going to be for the Haitian slaves now. I also heard about the foster care slaves. WTF? Humans can be such demons!
Since I spend a lot of research time on the so called slave era in the US I find the lack of progress in this area very disturbing. I can't think about it as a historical issue in the past anymore. And to think how much crowing goes on about our liberation of slaves and what a great thing it was. Meanwhile.... I'd rather be aware than oblivious but this has really gotten under my skull! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote: > > > On Mar 23, 2010, at 10:46 AM, curtisdeltablues wrote: > > > Thanks to Vaj for this book tip. I'm just finishing it and it is > > one of the most important books I've read this year. > > > > It has an interesting chapter on Indian slavery including some > > insight into how the caste system helps perpetuate it. 90% of > > manual laborers are from the "untouchable" caste. No school for > > junior who joins the parents as soon as he or she is old enough. > > > > The author who wrote it, Benjamin Skinner, is like the Indiana > > Jones of human rights. He has documented slavery in detail in many > > countries and puts human faces on the horrific concept of people > > OWNING other people. His bravery in meeting with slavers who would > > as soon kill him as look at him was amazing. > > > > With a little wink wink nudge nudge, to countries like Saudi > > Arabia, the US government is not doing much to change the > > situation. The Christian groups doing good in this area are only > > interested in prostitution slavery which is only a part of the > > problem. > > > > On thing it wised me up on is the legalized prostitution in > > Amsterdam which I had ignorantly thought was a success. Without any > > protection for imported slaves it is a horror show, not a rational > > way to deal with one of our oldest professions as I had believed. > > > > The numbers are staggering. The human suffering incalculable. The > > level of euphemistic bullsittery going on in our government to > > avoid even describing it as a real problem is inexcusable. > > > > The author is one of my new heroes. This was not an easy book to > > research and write. And although I wouldn't describe reading it as > > easy either, it is compellingly written. He gives enough details > > about the people whose lives he is bringing out of the darkness > > that you can't help but feel their lives deeply. > > > > This one is gunna haunt me. > > > Check out 60 Minutes from last Sunday (which should be online by > now). The earthquake in Haiti just made a bad situation for child > slavery even worse, as their segment on The Lost Children of Haiti > shows quite clearly. Unimaginable suffering. Often child slaves are > made to stay outside the home they serve all day long, with no food, > while their "masters" are at work. > > There are families in New England they've found made of child-slaves > from the foster care system. In one case the foster parents had > constructed a hidden door to hide the children in a secret room, and > since the kids were special needs children, the family raked in over > a thousand bucks a week, tax free. When the pictures appeared on the > screen of what these children's hidden room looked like, many of the > people in the room simply burst into tears. The walls were covered in > feces. This type of thing is happening all around us. >
