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| Freedom is never given voluntarily by the oppressor; It must be demanded by the oppressed. – Martin Luther King, 1963 |
December, season of love, happiness and joy, just started but we are already thinking of Christmas. Perhaps dreaming of spending the holidays with our loved ones. Me, I'm hoping my girl and me get back together. For good this time.
But this second day of December is not nearly as festive as the last days of the year. Today is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. Wasn't that abolished long ago? Yes, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist any more. We kinksters should pause for a minute and remember what slavery actually means. It is not all fun and games. Au contraire it is one of the most horrific things that exists on this planet.
Modern slavery is on the decline...
A while ago I found a graph showing how modern day slavery was on the decline. Not everybody realizes it but slavery still exists Just think of all those electronic gadgets we buy for Christmas and the people who assemble them.
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| Percentage of slaves or serves in the world. (Source: Business Insider) |
In the 1750s about 75 percent of the worlds population was either enslaved or in serfdom. According to the chart in today some 10 percent still suffers that fate. One in ten is a staggering number. Slavery is a legal or economic system under which people are treated as property. Most people traditionally think of slavery as chattel slavery, were people are treated as the chattel (personal property) of an owner and are bought and sold as if they were commodities. Today chattel slavery is the least prevalent form of slavery but modern slavery comes in many overlapping disguises.
1. Bonded Labour or Debt Labour occurs when people have to work of their debt. Usually they get paid very little for their work as the goal often is to keep people trapped in debt. Bonded labour can be passed on from one generation to one another. It is the most prevalent form of slavery in the world today.
2. Forced Labour is when an individual is forced to work against his or her will, under threat of violence or other punishment, with restrictions on their freedom. The news is full of illegal immigrants robbed of their passports, forced to work against their will.
3. Descent-Based Slavery or Lower Caste describes a situation where people are either born into a slave class/caste or from a 'group' viewed as being in slavery by other members of their society. It exists among others in West Africa and India where the lower caste is a type of slavery which freezes everyone in place for their lifetime
4. Domestic Servitude describes how workers become slaves when their employer uses force, fraud or coercion to control or convince an employee that they have no choice but to continue working. Often these domestic servant don't speak the language and are not allowed outside the house. This does not just happen to poor immigrants in the Arab world, it happens in Europe and the United States as well.
5. Sex Slavery exploits men, women and children in the commercial sex industry and is not limited to just prostitution. Other examples are forced marriage and pornography. A dowry sometimes is no more than the price you pay for a wife.
6. Child Slavery is any of the above and then some. There is child labour, child prostitution and of course there are child soldiers, for me one of the saddest things there is.
Why slavery persists
Slavery serves the economic benefit of the exploiter with little incentive to change. Slaves mostly live in extreme poverty and have little choice but to accept the situation especially where barriers to free movement of labour are in place. Corruption and crime make the existence of modern day slavery even more persistent. Redemption campaigns to buy slaves in order to set them free are controversial because many believe it increases demand for slaves. Even by the most narrow definition of slavery there are more people enslaved today than during the days of the transatlantic slave trade. A sobering thought when I go shopping for Christmas gadgets.
December 02 is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. As a reminder for us kinky people about the ugly truth of real world slavery, once a year I write about modern day slavery.
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