Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Slavery is not dead.


My heart has been squeezed the past week since I viewed a short video on the modern day slave trade. Slavery did not end with the conclusion of the Civil War. It is alive and well both within the US and outside our borders. Worst of all, the sex slave trade is very active in Asia in particluar. (One commentator said that most underage brothels in Asian countries are funded by male tourists coming from the US. Sick.) Let these numbers sink in:

27 million – Number of people in modern-day slavery across the world.

800,000 – Number of people trafficked across international borders every year.

50% – Percent of transnational victims who are children.

1 million – Number of children exploited by the global commercial sex trade, every year.

70% – Percent of female victims who are trafficked into the commercial sex industry. This means that 30% of female victims are victims of forced labor.

4 - Age of the youngest victims in the global sex trade.

I am not trying to convince anyone to get involved in abolition*. But, if you are a Christian, get off the sidelines and get in the game. Abortion. AIDS. Slavery. Prison. Addictions. Opportunities abound to get in the fray.

Do something to fight evil. Give money. Give time. Pray.

Do something.

* This blog provides a good list of organizations that are on the front lines of the modern day abolition movement.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a great posting. I understand how coming to grips with the size of modern
slavery can leave people feeling overwhelmed. But there's an interesting paradox
about the 27 million slaves in the world - yes, it is a huge number, the largest ever in
human history, but it is also the smallest fraction of the human population to ever be
in slavery. Likewise, the amount of money slaves pump into the world economy is big,
around $50 billion a year, but it is also the smallest fraction of the global economy to
ever be represented by slave labor.
The truth is that slavery has been pushed to the edge of its own extinction and
working together we can tip it over the brink. There’s a law against slavery in every
country, and more and more people are united in wanting to end it. I hope you'll visit
and share our website - www.freetheslaves.net, and have a look at our book on how
we can bring slavery to an end in 25 years, it is called: Ending Slavery: How We Free
Today's Slaves.
All best wishes,
Kevin Bales