In London, British law enforcement has detained a couple for holding three 'extremely traumatized' women captive for more than 30 years. Online, a computer generated little girl attracted 20,000 men, 1,000 of them offering payment for sexual acts. What does this reveal about the world we live in?
Slavery is a big problem. It may not be as open as it was in the 17-19th centuries, but it is still a prominent problem even in the present day. This may come as a shock to some, but there are 20-30 million, yes, MILLION slaves in the world today. Human trafficking is an incredibly lucrative industry, yielding over 15 million dollars each year. How can we as a people come together to end slavery?
As a start, President Obama proclaimed January to be anti-trafficking month. I think it is a good idea, but in my opinion EVERY month should be anti-trafficking month.
Some people may misunderstand the term slavery. Slavery means the state of being bound in servitude in the ownership of another. People being owned by other people. God created all to be equal; slavery is in direct violation of basic human rights. Chattel is a similar term meaning a movable piece of human property. If people fully understood the definitions and just thought of how terrible they are, the awareness for this evil would increase greatly.
Do you happen to like chocolate? Do you like the taste of children's tears? The two are closely associated with each other. Most of American chocolate has been produced with some form of child labor. In Africa, children are either hired or stolen from their families to harvest cocoa. They work grueling tasks for as long as 18 hours a day. Many children are beaten, or get seriously injured on the job, and the children rarely see their families.
The three most important facts about slavery are that at least 14500 slaves are trafficked into the US every year (this is important because the impact of slavery hits close to home on this fact, because the evils of slavery could be right outside your door), the average cost of a slave today is $90 (this is important because it is revealing about just how easy it can be to own a slave), and that slavery can be ended completely in 25 years (this fact gives hope to people that slavery can in fact be ended for good).
