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9/11 Terrorism - Thanks To American Terrorism
9/11 Didn’t happen because we are “rich and free”. It’s because of American statism placing sanctions, militarizing, and bombing Middle Eastern countries, not to mention propping up CIA dictators. 9/11 is a result of statism.
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5148/911-terrorism-thanks-to-american-terrorism/9/11 Didn’t happen because we are “rich and free”. It’s... more-
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What is NonAggressionism?
The non-aggression principle (also called the non-aggression axiom, or the anti-coercion or zero aggression principle or non-initiation of force) is an ethical stance which asserts that "aggression" is inherently illegitimate. "Aggression" is defined as the "initiation" of physical force against persons or property, the threat of such, or fraud upon persons or their property. In contrast to pacifism, the non-aggression principle does not preclude violent self-defense.
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5126/nonaggressionism-and-what-it-means/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxINF2saud4
http://www.upvery.com/attachments/images/201104/20110429083346.jpgThe non-aggression principle (also called the non-aggression axiom, or the... more-
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Is Free Market Capitalism an Oxymoron?
The matter of whether or not “free market capitalism” should be considered an oxymoron or not should be addressed outright.......
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/4868/is-free-market-capitalism-an-oxymoron/The matter of whether or not “free market capitalism” should be considered... more-
- shanklinmike
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Black in Latin America: Cuba's Next Revolution [PBS]
Blacks in Cuba: A look at being black in Cuba and issues of race, racism, and their reflection in society and everyday life in the island nation.
In Cuba Professor Gates finds out how the culture, religion, politics and music of this island are inextricably linked to the huge amount of slave labor imported to produce its enormously profitable 19th century sugar industry, and how race and racism have fared since Fidel Castro's Communist revolution in 1959Blacks in Cuba: A look at being black in Cuba and issues of race, racism, and their... more-
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The Irrelevance of the Death of Bin Laden
Obama announced tonight that we finally killed Bin Laden, the proclaimed mastermind behind 9-11. Ten of thousands of lives, trillions of dollars, and the crushing of civil liberties that would have made even Hamilton cringe – and apparently we got 1 man. During the commentary offered by t..
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5091/the-irrelevance-of-the-death-of-bin-laden/
Oh, not to mention, the new leader is even WORSE than bin Laden!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/egypts-al-zawahri-bin-ladens-deputy-likely-next-leader-of-al-qaida/2011/05/02/AFpcAVXF_story.htmlObama announced tonight that we finally killed Bin Laden, the proclaimed mastermind... more-
- shanklinmike
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- 1 year ago
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- 107 comments
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Keynes Vs Hayek: Part II - Fight Of The Century
Statism is not the answer. It's time to advance individual rights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOcStatism is not the answer. It's time to advance individual rights.... more-
- shanklinmike
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- 21 comments
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10 Examples That Should Convince Anyone That We No Longer Live In The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave
Do you know people that still believe that America is a free country? Do you have friends or family that are proud to live in "the land of the free and the home of the brave"? If you do, just show them this article. The things that you are about to read are enough to make the blood of any red-blooded American boil. We don't live in a free country anymore. Instead, we live in a "Big Brother" police state control grid that is becoming more restrictive every single day. Most of our politicians seem to be control freaks that are obsessed with running every single little detail of our lives. These days there has to be a "rule" or a "regulation" for everything. The radical social engineers in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and communist China never even dared to try some of the things that are going on in America today. We are all being treated little better than cattle and we are all being taught that it is best to just sit in our homes and absorb all of the television "programming" that is being provided for us. Meanwhile, our public schools have become little more than prison grids. Our children are being taught to enjoy living as docile slaves in a world where imagination, liberty, freedom and adventure are all greatly discouraged.
Unfortunately, none of this is an exaggeration. Our politicians love to give speeches about "liberty" and "freedom", but they always seem to have excuses to justify the endless parade of liberty-killing laws that they are imposing on all the rest of us.
Almost all of the freedoms listed in the Bill of Rights have been severely eroded. In fact, a number of them are almost totally gone at this point.
The things that you are about to read should make you mad. In fact, if none of these things make you mad there is a problem. Sadly, millions of Americans have actually embraced tyranny, and if you are not outraged by any of the items listed below than you are likely one of them.
The following are 10 examples that show that we no longer live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.... (click on the link to read these 10 examples)Do you know people that still believe that America is a free country? Do you have... more-
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US farm companies charged with human trafficking
US authorities on Wednesday filed charges against two companies on charges they exploited hundreds of Indian and Thai workers who earned a pittance and were forced to stay in decrepit conditions.
In what it called its largest ever human trafficking case in the farm sector, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that contractor Global Horizons brought in some 200 Thai men on promises of high-paying jobs.
The Thai men were sent between 2003 and 2007 to farms in Hawaii and Washington state where they were crammed into rooms infested with rats and insects and faced verbal and physical assaults, the federal agency said.
The men had paid insurmountable fees to enter the United States but were stripped of their passports and kept separately from non-Thai workers who had more tolerable conditions, the suits alleged. Authorities learned of their plight after a Thai community center in Los Angeles got involved.
"Human trafficking is one of the most insidious forms of discrimination," said Anna Park, a Los Angeles-based attorney for the federal commission.
The commission "is committed to holding employers accountable for benefiting from the modern day enslavement of workers from other countries," she said in a statement.
The federal agency also sued companies running the eight farms where the Thai men worked, saying they "not only ignored abuses but also participated in the obvious mistreatment, intimidation, harassment and unequal pay of the Thai workers," according to a statement.
The companies are Captain Cook Coffee Co., Del Monte Fresh Produce, Kauai Coffee Co., Kelena Farms, MacFarms of Hawaii, Maui Pineapple Farms, Green Acre Farms and Valley Fruit Orchards.
In a separate case, the federal agency filed charges against Signal International, a marine services company based in Alabama, for allegedly demeaning treatment of 500 Indian employees.
The lawsuit said that the men were forced in live in fence-enclosed, segregated housing where they were referred to by number instead of name.
The Indian employees were obliged to spend $30 each day for lodging and food that were "intolerable, demeaning and unsanitary," a statement said.
The Indians were brought to the United States by a separate entity that is not part of the lawsuit.
The federal commission said it would seek back pay and compensation for the Thai and Indian workers, along with measures from the companies to prevent future discrimination.
[Image via Mark Strozier, Creative Commons licensed]US authorities on Wednesday filed charges against two companies on charges they... more-
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Civil War still divides Americans
Washington (CNN) - It has been 150 years since the Civil War began with the first shots at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and in some respects views of the Confederacy and the role that slavery played in the events of 1861 still divide the public, according to a new national poll.
In the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll released Tuesday, roughly one in four Americans said they sympathize more with the Confederacy than the Union, a figure that rises to nearly four in ten among white Southerners.
When asked the reason behind the Civil War, whether it was fought over slavery or states' rights, 52 percent of all Americas said the leaders of the Confederacy seceded to keep slavery legal in their state, but a sizeable 42 percent minority said slavery was not the main reason why those states seceded.
"The results of that question show that there are still racial, political and geographic divisions over the Civil War that still exists a century and a half later," CNN Polling Director Holland Keating said.
When broken down by political party, most Democrats said southern states seceded over slavery, independents were split and most Republicans said slavery was not the main reason that Confederate states left the Union.
Republicans were also most likely to say they admired the leaders of the southern states during the Civil War, with eight in 10 Republicans expressing admiration for the leaders in the South, virtually identical to the 79 percent of Republicans who admired the northern leaders during the Civil War.
The survey polled 824 adults via telephone between April 9 and April 10. The poll had a sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
–CNN Associate Producer Gabriella Schwarz contributed to this report
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/12/civil-war-still-divides-americans/Washington (CNN) - It has been 150 years since the Civil War began with the first... more-
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Labor History You Should Learn
Labor History You Should Learn
Slavery and Indentured Servitude: The First Labor System the United States had. The harmful effects of both of these remain with us in the US to this day. Responsible voters will watch the entire documentary “Eyes On the Prize” to learn how slavery continues to affect us all. http://to.pbs.org/TA1ga
Although slavery was outlawed in the 1800s, our labor system remains affected by it. Additionally, discrepancies between different racial groups in workplaces and in terms of wealth and education are also outcomes of slavery that remain with us.
Modern-day slavery remains a problem in the US and worldwide; human trafficking is a serious problem. Responsible voters will learn all they can about this and take action to be a modern-day abolitionist. http://www.endhumantrafficking.org/
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
The Colorado CoalField Wars: http://www.du.edu/ludlow/index.html
BP – a LONG list of workplace safety violations: http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2085/
Massey: Employees Unlawfully Retaliated Against for Raising Safety Concerns: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0406/Massey-Energy-West-Virginia-mine-explosion-site-s-checkered-past
Wal-Mart: http://walmartwatch.org/about/
Historians: Unions, bargaining old as America http://bit.ly/iedZC9
Also, consider this quote and who said it, “” We must reduce workers’ salaries and take away their right to strike.” ~Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933
Please Sign this Petition @change : Demand Legal Compliance in US Workplaces http://chn.ge/bO31L8
Fox News lies so much that Canadian law bars them from broadcasting there http://t.co/9r5BMyj
Here’s the printed text of “America is NOT Broke” (the speech in Madison by Michael Moore) http://j.mp/gNLnDF and here’s the YouTube of his Madison speech: http://mmflint.me/hMf5X3
Remain updated on how your elected officials vote on Labor and other issues: Sign up to see how your elected officials vote on various issues: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/megavote/ Make sure you tell them you want workers’ rights to be protected and improved – not gutted by the GOP who are destroying workers’ rights because they accept large campaign donations from the Koch Brothers and other corporations.
Top 10 Worst Things about the Republicans’ Immoral Budget
The Republican budget would:
1. Destroy 700,000 jobs, according to an independent economic analysis.
2. Zero out federal funding for National Public Radio and public television.
3. Cut $1.3 billion from community health centers–which will deprive more than three million low-income people of health care over the next few months.
4. Cut nearly a billion dollars in food and health care assistance to pregnant women, new moms, and children.
5. Kick more than 200,000 children out of pre-school by cutting funds for Head Start.
6. Force states to fire 65,000 teachers and aides, dramatically increasing class sizes, thanks to education cuts.
7. Cut some or all financial aid for 9.4 million low- and middle-income college students.
8. Slash $1.6 billion from the National Institutes of Health, a cut that experts say would “send shockwaves” through cancer research, likely result in cuts to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s research, and cause job losses.
9. End the only federal family planning program, including cutting all federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood to support cancer screenings and other women’s health care.
10. Send 10,000 low-income veterans into homelessness by cutting in half the number of veterans who get housing vouchers this year.
Sources:
1. “GOP spending plan would cost 700,000 jobs, new report says,” The Washington Post, February 28, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022802634.html
2. “GOP budget would cut funding for public broadcasting,” The Washington Independent, February 14, 2011
http://washingtonindependent.com/105534/gop-budget-would-cut-funding-for-public-broadcasting
3. “NACHC Statement in Response to the Budget from the House Appropriations Committee,” National Association of Community Health Centers website, accessed March 4, 2011
http://www.nachc.org/pressrelease-detail.cfm?PressReleaseID=644
4.”Bye Bye, Big Bird. Hello, E. Coli.,” The New Republic, February 12, 2011
http://www.tnr.com/blog/83387/house-republican-spending-cuts-pell-education-usda-pbs
House Republican Spending Cuts Target Programs For Children And Pregnant Women
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/09/gop-war-on-babies/
5. “Obama and the GOP’s Spending Cuts: Where’s the Outrage?” Mother Jones, February 18, 2011
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/obama-spending-cuts-gop
6. Ibid.
7. “Deficit Reduction on the Backs of the Most Vulnerable,” Center for American Progress, March 2011
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2011/03/pdf/hit_budget_cuts.pdf (PDF)
8. “The GOP Budget and Cancer–Why New Research Is at Risk,” Politics Daily, February 27, 2011
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/02/27/the-gop-budget-and-cancer-why-new-research-is-at-risk/
“Republican Budget Cuts at Heart of Medical Research: Albert Hunt,” Bloomberg, February 20, 2011
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-20/republican-science-cuts-imperil-u-s-prominence-commentary-by-albert-hunt.html
“Durbin: Cuts to NIH put research jobs at risk,” Business Week, February 28, 2011
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LLSCB00.htm
9. “GOP Spending Plan: X-ing Out Title X Family Planning Funds,” Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206105
10. “House GOP Spending Cuts Would Prevent 10,000 Low-Income Veterans From Receiving Housing Assistance,” Think Progress, March 1, 2011
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/03/01/homeless-vets-gop/
Copyright 2011 Denise A Romano – Reproduction allowed with copyright intact and inclusion of this blog addressLabor History You Should Learn Slavery and Indentured Servitude: The First Labor... more-
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Civilization: Some Restrictions Apply
If you think Industrial Civilization is a good thing, think again. You've gone willingly into slavery and now there are no other options.If you think Industrial Civilization is a good thing, think again. You've gone... more-
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Help Others Understand They Should Not Be Slaves & Freedom Is Inevitable
No one has the right to own you. http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?p=4134-
- Niki_Staehle
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Help Others Understand They Should Not Be Slaves & Freedom Is Inevitable
No one has the right to own you. http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?p=4134-
- Niki_Staehle
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- 1 year ago
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How Slavery Really Ended in the United States
The New York Times...
PART ONE...
April 1, 2011
How Slavery Really Ended in America
By ADAM GOODHEART
On May 23, 1861, little more than a month into the Civil War, three young black men rowed across the James River in Virginia and claimed asylum in a Union-held citadel. Fort Monroe, Va., a fishhook-shaped spit of land near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, had been a military post since the time of the first Jamestown settlers. This spot where the slaves took refuge was also, by remarkable coincidence, the spot where slavery first took root, one summer day in 1619, when a Dutch ship landed with some 20 African captives for the fledgling Virginia Colony.
Two and half centuries later, in the first spring of the Civil War, Fort Monroe was a lonely Union redoubt in the heart of newly Confederate territory. Its defenders stood on constant guard. Frigates and armed steamers crowded the nearby waters known as Hampton Roads, one of the world’s great natural harbors. Perspiring squads of soldiers hauled giant columbiad cannons from the fort’s wharf up to its stone parapets. Yet history would come to Fort Monroe not amid the thunder of guns and the clash of fleets, but stealthily, under cover of darkness, in a stolen boat.
Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory and James Townsend were field hands who — like hundreds of other local slaves — had been pressed into service by the Confederates, compelled to build an artillery emplacement amid the dunes across the harbor. They labored beneath the banner of the 115th Virginia Militia, a blue flag bearing a motto in golden letters: “Give me liberty or give me death.”
After a week or so of this, they learned some deeply unsettling news. Their master, a rebel colonel named Charles Mallory, was planning to send them even farther from home, to help build fortifications in North Carolina. That was when the three slaves decided to leave the Confederacy and try their luck, just across the water, with the Union.
It cannot have been an easy decision for the men. What kind of treatment would they meet with at the fort? If the federal officers sent them back, would they be punished as runaways — perhaps even as traitors? But they took their chances. Rowing toward the wharf that night in May, they hailed a guard and were admitted to the fort.
The next morning they were summoned to see the commanding general. The fugitives could not have taken this as an encouraging sign. Having lived their whole lives near the fort, they probably knew many of its peacetime officers by sight, but the man who awaited them behind a cluttered desk was someone whose face they had never seen. Worse still, as far as faces went, his was not — to put it mildly — a pleasant one. It was the face of a man whom many people, in the years ahead, would call a brute, a beast, a cold-blooded murderer. It was a face that could easily make you believe such things: a low, balding forehead, slack jowls and a tight, mean little mouth beneath a drooping mustache. It would have seemed a face of almost animal-like stupidity had it not been for the eyes. These glittered shrewdly, almost hidden amid crinkled folds of flesh. One of them had an odd sideways cast, as if its owner were always considering something else besides the thing in front of him. These were the eyes that now surveyed Baker, Mallory and Townsend.
The general began asking them questions: Who was their master? Was he a rebel or a Union man? Were they field hands or house servants? Did they have families? Why had they run away? Could they tell him anything about the Confederate fortifications they had been working on? Their response to this last question — that the battery was still far from completion — seemed to please him. At last he dismissed the three brusquely, offering no indication of their fate.
Maj. Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler arrived at the fort only a day ahead of the fugitive slaves, greeted at the esplanade by a 13-gun salute. That morning, Butler sat down to compose an important initial report. When an adjutant interrupted to inform him of the fugitives, Butler set down his pen. The War Department could wait. The three ragged black men waiting outside were a more pressing matter.
Butler was no abolitionist, but the three slaves presented a problem. True, the laws of the United States were clear: all fugitives must be returned to their masters. The founding fathers enshrined this in the Constitution; Congress reinforced it in 1850 with the Fugitive Slave Act; and it was still the law of the land — including, as far as the federal government was concerned, within the so-called Confederate states. The war had done nothing to change it. Most important, noninterference with slavery was the very cornerstone of the Union’s war policy. President Abraham Lincoln had begun his inaugural address by making this clear, pointedly and repeatedly. “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists,” the president said. “I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”
CONTINUED…The New York Times... PART ONE... April 1, 2011 How Slavery Really Ended... more-
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How Slavery Really Ended in America - NYTimes.com
On May 23, 1861, little more than a month into the Civil War, three young black men rowed across the James River in Virginia and claimed asylum in a Union-held citadel. Fort Monroe, Va., a fishhook-shaped spit of land near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, had been a military post since the time of the first Jamestown settlers. This spot where the slaves took refuge was also, by remarkable coincidence, the spot where slavery first took root, one summer day in 1619, when a Dutch ship landed with some 20 African captives for the fledgling Virginia Colony.
Two and half centuries later, in the first spring of the Civil War, Fort Monroe was a lonely Union redoubt in the heart of newly Confederate territory. Its defenders stood on constant guard. Frigates and armed steamers crowded the nearby waters known as Hampton Roads, one of the world’s great natural harbors. Perspiring squads of soldiers hauled giant columbiad cannons from the fort’s wharf up to its stone parapets. Yet history would come to Fort Monroe not amid the thunder of guns and the clash of fleets, but stealthily, under cover of darkness, in a stolen boat.
Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory and James Townsend were field hands who — like hundreds of other local slaves — had been pressed into service by the Confederates, compelled to build an artillery emplacement amid the dunes across the harbor. They labored beneath the banner of the 115th Virginia Militia, a blue flag bearing a motto in golden letters: “Give me liberty or give me death.”
After a week or so of this, they learned some deeply unsettling news. Their master, a rebel colonel named Charles Mallory, was planning to send them even farther from home, to help build fortifications in North Carolina. That was when the three slaves decided to leave the Confederacy and try their luck, just across the water, with the Union.
It cannot have been an easy decision for the men. What kind of treatment would they meet with at the fort? If the federal officers sent them back, would they be punished as runaways — perhaps even as traitors? But they took their chances. Rowing toward the wharf that night in May, they hailed a guard and were admitted to the fort.
The next morning they were summoned to see the commanding general. The fugitives could not have taken this as an encouraging sign. Having lived their whole lives near the fort, they probably knew many of its peacetime officers by sight, but the man who awaited them behind a cluttered desk was someone whose face they had never seen. Worse still, as far as faces went, his was not — to put it mildly — a pleasant one. It was the face of a man whom many people, in the years ahead, would call a brute, a beast, a cold-blooded murderer. It was a face that could easily make you believe such things: a low, balding forehead, slack jowls and a tight, mean little mouth beneath a drooping mustache. It would have seemed a face of almost animal-like stupidity had it not been for the eyes. These glittered shrewdly, almost hidden amid crinkled folds of flesh. One of them had an odd sideways cast, as if its owner were always considering something else besides the thing in front of him. These were the eyes that now surveyed Baker, Mallory and Townsend.
The general began asking them questions: Who was their master? Was he a rebel or a Union man? Were they field hands or house servants? Did they have families? Why had they run away? Could they tell him anything about the Confederate fortifications they had been working on? Their response to this last question — that the battery was still far from completion — seemed to please him. At last he dismissed the three brusquely, offering no indication of their fate.
Maj. Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler arrived at the fort only a day ahead of the fugitive slaves, greeted at the esplanade by a 13-gun salute. That morning, Butler sat down to compose an important initial report. When an adjutant interrupted to inform him of the fugitives, Butler set down his pen. The War Department could wait. The three ragged black men waiting outside were a more pressing matter.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/04/03/magazine/03CivilWar-span/mag-03CivilWar-t_CA1-articleLarge.jpg
MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/magazine/mag-03CivilWar-t.htmlOn May 23, 1861, little more than a month into the Civil War, three young black men... more-
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Ugandan women tricked into domestic slavery in Iraq
The BBC has the first detailed accounts of how Ugandan women ended up in domestic slavery in Iraq, and the extraordinary story of their rescue.
At least 100 of the Ugandan women who went to Iraq in 2009 remain unaccounted for
Prossie was working as a schoolteacher when she heard an attractive advert on Ugandan radio.
A Kampala company called Uganda Veterans Development Ltd was recruiting women to work for high wages in shops in US Army bases in Iraq.
She signed up, along with 146 other Ugandan women.
But when she arrived in Baghdad, she discovered that been bought by an Iraqi agent for $3,500 (£2,200). Her real job was as a housemaid for an Iraqi family.
Like many others, she was forced to work long hours, sometimes from 5am until midnight. She often received little food or water and she was locked inside the house.
"It was a lot of work because Iraqis have this dust, the sand storms, it keeps on falling, so you have to keep on cleaning from morning until you sleep," Prossie said.
Read more about their ordeal at the linkThe BBC has the first detailed accounts of how Ugandan women ended up in domestic... more -
Nepal's Lost Daughters | Child Slaves Learning to Fight Back
PART ONE...
03/25/2011
Nepal's Lost Daughters
Victims of Child Slavery Learning to Fight Back
By Dialika Krahe
Hartmut Schwarzbach/DER SPIEGEL
Like many Nepalese girls from poor families, Urmila Chaudhary was sold into bonded labor until she liberated herself. Now 20, she works with a team of former victims, traveling throughout Nepal to free other girls from the clutches of their unrepentant masters.
Info
The man who once bought Urmila squats on the threshold between her past and her new life, picking a piece of chewing tobacco from his teeth. He spits a black stream of saliva into a bucket next to him on the living-room floor. Urmila Chaudhary, who hasn't been his property for the last four years, kneels on the carpet at his feet and hands him a tray holding a cup of sweetened tea.
She ought to hate, curse and berate this man. But, instead, she bows to him and calls him "father."
Urmila was taken from her family and enslaved as a young child. Now 20, she has long, black hair and a gentle, melodious laugh. She wears blue smiley-face earrings and a colorful skirt with a red stripe along the hem, the traditional attire of women from Nepal's Tharu people. Her clothing says a lot about the story of Urmila and this man -- and about the thousands of other young girls who are sold every year as soon as they are big enough to look over the edge of a table and yet still young enough to grow into their new roles as servants.
Her former owner wears his black hair carefully parted, a bomber jacket and tracksuit pants. He was astonished when he saw Urmila on television and in a newspaper photo that depicted her standing next to the country's president.
"I thought you would have forgotten us," he says.
"No," Urmila replies.
Sold for 50 Euros
Urmila says she was five years old when this man, an attorney from a respected family, came to her village of Manpur, on the Rapti River, and made an offer that ended her childhood.
It was a day in January, just after the Maghi festival had begun, one of those cold days of the year when the Tharu celebrate the New Year. It's also the time of the year when they sell their daughters.
"I can still see him coming toward us," says Urmila. He was a man from the city, wearing sunglasses and a suit. "I had never seen such clothing," she says. She was sitting at the fire pit in front of the tiny mud-and-dung house where her family of 11 lived. Pumpkins grew on the straw roof, and pigs lay in shallow pits in the ground. Urmila was sitting there with her mother and brother as the man approached.
"I knew it was my turn," Urmila says. Her sisters and her sisters-in-law had all worked as kamalari, or slave girls. One sister had told her about the beatings she endured at the hands of the landowner who purchased her and the kitchen scraps she was fed. "I begged my mother not to send me away," Urmila recounts. Her mother said that she had no say in the matter.
Instead, the man spoke with her older brother because he was the one who supported the family. The man offered the brother money -- 4,000 rupees, or about €50 ($70) -- for his little sister Urmila. The family owed money to the landowner whose fields they farmed, there wasn't enough food and the children wore shoes made of bean pods tied to their feet with pieces of rope. Four thousand rupees. It was a lot of money. Urmila's brother agreed to the deal.
Millions of Child Slaves across the World
In Nepali, the word kamalari means "hardworking woman." But these aren't women being sold off and forced to work; they're children between the ages of five and 15, thin-armed girls forced to work 14-16 hours a day in the households of families, fully at the mercy of their owners and exposed to their moods and their beatings. About one in 10 of the girls is sexually abused.
Aid organizations estimate that 10,000 girls work as kamalari in Nepal. As long ago as 1956, the United Nations declared that forms of child labor and bonded labor were slavery and should therefore be outlawed. However, although human trafficking has been officially illegal in all countries for a long time, it still exists to a significant degree in about 70 countries. Indeed, roughly 27 million people across the world are victims of modern slavery -- living in debt bondage, as forced prostitutes and as bonded laborers. Between 40 percent and 50 percent of these are children, and many are in Asia.
In many poor countries, there is a tradition of using child slaves in private households. Children are practical because their personalities are flexible and their characters are as malleable as clay on the sculptor's wheel. Child slaves go by many names: the kamalari in Nepal, the restavék in Haiti and the abd in Mauritania.
The principle is almost the same everywhere. On the one side are the parents, who are unable to earn enough money to feed their children. On the other are the more affluent members of society, the landowners and businesspeople. In many cases, the people who buy children and raise them to suit their purposes are teachers, lawyers and politicians. The child slaves are rewarded with affection or extra meals, while punishments consist of being denied food, beaten and berated. In the end, they have no choice but to do their work without complaint.
Bought as a Present
Urmila was in the same position as most of the others. "Down there," she says, pointing to a door on the ground floor of the yellow townhouse, "down there in the room next to the kitchen is where I spent the first night." Her brother had taken her on the bus to Ghorahi, a noisy city in southwestern Nepal. With its cars and bicycle rickshaws, the place was completely unlike her village of Manpur. Urmila lay on a mat on the floor next to another girl the house's owner had bought. It was cold. A wedding was being held in the house. The son of the landowner had found a wife, and there were many relatives among the guests, including the owner's daughter. She lived in Katmandu, and Urmila had been bought as a present for her.
"She's so thin and small," the daughter said when she first saw Urmila. "How is she supposed to work properly?" From then on, Urmila was instructed to address the daughter as "maharani," or mistress, and her children as "prince" and "princess." A few days later, the daughter took Urmila with her to an apartment in Katmandu, where she was required to work for 12 people. It would be four years before she saw her parents again, and 11 before she was free.
CONTINUED...PART ONE... 03/25/2011 Nepal's Lost Daughters Victims of Child Slavery... more-
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Hidden Population: 10 Million to 30 Million Slaves
March 9th, 2011
07:41 AM ET
The challenges of counting a 'hidden population'
By Manav Tanneeru, CNN
Slavery still exists. Of that there isn’t much dispute, if any. But how widespread is what many experts call modern-day slavery?
Estimates range from about 10 million to 30 million, according to policymakers, activists, journalists and scholars.
The International Labour Organization, an agency of the United Nations that focuses on, among other things, labor rights, put the number at a “minimum estimate” of 12.3 million in a 2005 report.
Kevin Bales, a sociologist who serves as a consultant to the United Nations and has authored several books about modern-day slavery, estimated the number was 27 million people in his book “Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy.” The book was published in 1999.
There is yet another estimate. Siddharth Kara, a fellow on trafficking at Harvard University and also an author, recently told CNN that his calculations put the range between 24 million and 32 million. That number was current as of the end of 2006, he said.
There are several reasons behind the variance in numbers, said Ben Skinner, who published a book about modern-day slavery – “A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-day Slavery.”
“There are two big problems with the count,” Skinner, a Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University, said during a telephone interview. “The first is that the people we are counting are, by definition, a hidden population.
“The second problem is more of a theoretical one where the definitions are not in place. We don’t have a common definition still as to what slavery is.”
‘A hidden population’
Slave labor has been a part of civilization for much of history. It was practiced openly and its legality wasn’t much of a question. During the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, its scale was carefully documented.
Today, slavery is illegal in every country. Yet it persists, in secret, exploiting the poor and the marginalized – which poses immense challenges for legal authorities, activists and experts working to track the problem.
Skinner recounted a conversation he had with John Miller – the former State Department ambassador at large on modern slavery from 2002 through 2006 during the George W. Bush administration – about the inherent difficulty of counting a population that is difficult to find.
“These are not people that stand in line, raise their hands and wait for the census to be taken,” Miller told Skinner.
And, even when found, they may not want to be identified, Skinner said. “They are victims of a crime and that is still oftentimes missed as a crime,” he said.
The enslaved may be involved in prostitution or might be in a country illegally as a result of trafficking – activities that could land them in trouble with the law. So, they’d rather keep quiet about their condition, Skinner said.
“They are individuals who will be seen as perpetrators of a crime against the state rather than victims of a crime against humanity,” he said. “They are aware of that so they don’t self-identify.”
It also isn’t the easiest thing for observers to get data from countries about how big of a problem slavery is within their borders.
For example, South Asian countries will acknowledge problems with sex trafficking because of a perception that it’s not just a South Asian issue, Skinner said, echoing a theory from John Miller.
However, they may not be as forthcoming about their problems with debt bondage – when someone has to pay off a loan through work and may be trapped in the situation because the amount earned is too little to pay off the amount of money borrowed.
“There’s a self-perception that debt bondage is a rather embarrassing part of the continuing underdevelopment in parts of their countries,” Skinner said.
Definitions and divisions
Before you can count something, you have to define it, and a broadly accepted definition of what modern slavery encompasses has been elusive.
In 1926, a treaty signed in Geneva under the auspices of the League of Nations, the precursor to the U.N., defined slavery as “the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.”
The ILO, in 1930, used the terms "forced or compulsory labor" to describe “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”
Roger Plant, who worked at the ILO from 2002 through 2009, said during a telephone conversation that forced labor is “when you get into work or service without the freedom of choice and you can’t get out of it without punishment or the threat of punishment."
Kevin Bales offered this description: “To me slavery means one person who is completely under the control of another person, that they use violence to maintain that control, they exploit them, make money out of them, and that the person just can’t walk away.”
There is, then, the term “human trafficking,” which is sometimes used interchangeably with the word “slavery.” According to the U.S. State Department, “human trafficking” describes “activities involved when one person obtains or holds another person in compelled service.”
The State Department says the term includes sex trafficking, forced labor and bonded labor. It also includes, among other things, the use of child soldiers and forced child labor.
The terms and their meanings seem straightforward, but the divisions come to light when legislators try to reconcile the definitions with their country’s situation.
“Within the trafficking community, there really isn’t a consensus on what slavery means,” Skinner said. “That’s harmful, that’s detrimental.”
The biggest consequence of incorrect data, not knowing the full scope of the problem or where it’s concentrated can lead to poor decisions on where to focus resources and how best to solve the problem, Skinner said.
“Slavery, on its face, is monstrous,” he said. “I think it’s important to be motivated by emotion but to, very quickly, come to the point of getting to the cold, hard business of figuring how best to free as many slaves as possible.
“Part of that is understanding how many slaves there are and understanding where they are."March 9th, 2011 07:41 AM ET The challenges of counting a 'hidden... more-
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Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play slave in class
An Ohio school district is in hot water after the mother of a black fifth-grader said her son was assigned to play a slave for a social studies lesson.
Aneka Burton told a Columbus, Ohio, television station that in her 10-year-old son Nikko's social studies lesson, the class was divided into two groups: slaves and masters.
Nikko ended up in the slave group and said the students playing the master role would "look in your mouth and feel your legs and stuff and see if you're strong," according to WBNS-10TV.
His mom was furious.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/04/2011-03-04_bad_lesson_ohio_elementary_school_in_trouble_after_black_student_made_to_play_sl.html#ixzz1G6lxGX81An Ohio school district is in hot water after the mother of a black fifth-grader said... more-
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China's Disabled Exploited As Slaves
China's disabled exploited as slaves
In an economy where manual labor is in demand, ruthless recruiters often prey on the mentally disabled. One man, held at a brick kiln, is one of countless slaves who endured torture and deplorable living conditions.
Los Angeles Times
Photo: Mao Xiulian shows the sores on the legs of her son Liu Xiaoping, 30, who was burned with hot bricks while made to work as a slave at a brick factory. (Robert Gauthier, Los Angeles Times / February 26, 2011)
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
February 26, 2011
Reporting from Xian, China —
PART ONE...
At 30, Liu Xiaoping is more boy than man, with soft doe eyes that affix visitors with the unabashed stare of the very young and glisten with reluctant tears when his bandages are changed.
It takes effort not to show the pain of the wounds that read up and down his body as a testament to the 10 months he was held captive at brick factories in the Chinese countryside.
His hands are as red as freshly boiled lobster from handling hot bricks from a kiln without proper protective gloves. On the backs of his legs, third-degree burns trace the rectangular shape of bricks, a factory foreman's punishment for not working fast enough. Around his wrists, ligature marks tell of the chains used to keep him from running away at night.
Liu was found wandering in the small town of Gaoling, north of Xian, on Dec. 22, 10 months after his family reported him missing. He was wearing the same clothing as when he'd disappeared in February, but the trousers were glued to the festering wounds on his legs and the gangrene of his frostbitten feet stank through the gaping holes in his shoes.
Despite his injuries and an intellectual impairment, he was able to tell how he'd been tricked by a woman who bought him a bowl of soup and promised him the equivalent of $10 per day, good wages for manual work in rural China.
Instead, he became a slave.
"They took advantage of my brother because he has a mental disability," said his 26-year-old brother, Liu Xiaowei. "They forced him to work, beat him, tortured him, and then when he was too weak to take it anymore, they threw him out on the street."
In an adrenaline-paced economy with a chronic shortage of manual laborers, ruthless recruiters often prey on China's mentally disabled. The worst offenders work with the brick kilns that are feeding a seemingly insatiable appetite for the new apartment complexes and malls cropping up around the countryside.
"The brick factories can never get as many workers as they need. The work is heavy and a lot of people don't want to do it," said Ren Haibin, the former manager of one of several brick factories where Liu said he had worked. "Possibly the mentally disabled can be intimidated and forced to work.... They are timid and easier to manage."
In the Beijing offices of Enable Disability Studies Institute, a nongovernmental organization, director Zhang Wei reels off a list of more than a dozen cases over the last decade in which people were enslaved in appalling conditions, each more nightmarish than the last.
Young women have been sold by psychiatric hospitals as sexual partners and wives; mentally disabled young men have been imprisoned as forced laborers in coal mines and brick factories. In 2008, a brick factory owner beat a young man to death for an escape attempt. In December, Chinese authorities rescued 11 workers who had been sold by a supposed charitable organization for the disabled to a brick factory more than 1,000 miles away.
Reports on conditions in the factory said the workers hadn't been allowed to bathe in more than a year and were fed the same food as the boss' dog.
"Every year there are cases like this," Zhang said. "The worst are when they are violating the rights of the disabled in the name of charity."
Police often won't exert much effort when a mentally disabled person disappears, he said, and even if they're rescued, their testimony is not taken seriously because of their impairment.
"This is not like when a child goes missing. Police will just assume they've run away," Zhang said. Some families, he says, won't even bother to report. "They might feel that they've been relieved of the burden."
That was not the case with Liu Xiaoping. He comes from a loving family who occupy the ground floor of a shabby apartment in southern Xian, where his father sells remedies to people too poor to afford a doctor. Since Liu escaped from the brick factory, he has shuttled between home and the hospital, while his family tries to raise money for skin grafts.
Liu doesn't speak much. When he does, the words come slowly but clearly, as though they've required some concentration. He left school in the third grade, when it became clear that he'd never be able to read or write beyond an elementary level.
But he was strong and healthy. Neighbors would always call on him to help harvest wheat and potatoes and he would hang out at the market looking for odd jobs unloading trucks or carrying parcels.
"He wanted to stand on his own feet," said younger brother Xiaowei. "He was kindhearted and thinks that everybody else is too."
On Feb. 28, 2010, the night of the Lantern Festival that ends the lunar New Year holiday, he and his family were visiting relatives in Shanyang, a town south of Xian. That night, Liu failed to come home, something that had never happened before. His family reported him missing the next day and printed posters that they distributed around the neighborhood.
Little did they know that he had been transported almost 100 miles away to Gaoling, a rural county where there are dozens of brick factories tucked deep in the countryside. They might never have found him if not for another family who'd also lost a son to the brick factories.
CONTINUED...China's disabled exploited as slaves In an economy where manual labor is in... more-
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