{"id":172,"date":"2017-04-09T18:56:57","date_gmt":"2017-04-09T22:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/dremadeoraich\/?p=172"},"modified":"2017-04-09T18:56:57","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T22:56:57","slug":"48-slaves-mindful-ignorance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/09\/48-slaves-mindful-ignorance\/","title":{"rendered":"48 Slaves: Mindful Ignorance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public awareness efforts are also booming. Because let\u2019s face it: there are too many people who don\u2019t know slavery still exists today. Even the peripherally aware have no idea of the sheer scope, the numbers of trafficked persons or the profits from the sale of their flesh.<\/p>\n

Over the last week I was fortunate enough to see \u201cNot My Life,\u201d a documentary about human trafficking and modern slavery around the world. Our local branch of the World Affairs Council rented out an entire theater and offered free admission to the public in order to get as wide an audience as possible. The packed house settled in for a disturbing 80-minute journey into a few realities of human suffering in the slave trade. I\u2019d read much of what the film portrayed and though I wasn\u2019t surprised by the facts, I was touched by the faces of those who are actually enduring this type of bondage. Tears came to my eyes more than once, but I actually gasped out loud only once \u2014 when a young woman told how she was first sold as a virgin only to have her owners sew up her vagina and sell her virginity over and over. After the film but before the credits, the screen cleared and three simple words appeared in white letters on a black background:<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last few weeks since I started this blog, I\u2019ve talked about it to friends and acquaintances. Some read my posts eagerly and were interested in the topic. Others read the first one and didn\u2019t come back. At first I was puzzled by this until I began to discuss the topic in general with others who had never read \u201c48 Slaves.\u201d Almost every time the other person would express revulsion and sympathy, followed quickly by discomfort, then avoidance and\/or denial. Perhaps the most indifferent response I got was along the lines of, \u201cWell you know, you have to have shoes and clothes and stuff. What\u2019re ya gonna do?\u201d<\/p>\n

In most cases it took an average of 2.5 minutes for the other person to change the subject.<\/p>\n

Many people feel sympathy and a macabre fascination with tragedy. We\u2019ll slow down to gawk at traffic accidents, or watch the news for images from catastrophic events. But those same individuals will deliberately don blinders when it comes to slavery. We don\u2019t want to see the truth. We don\u2019t want to know. Because once we do, we can no longer claim ignorance. We have a responsibility to act.<\/p>\n

Maybe they don\u2019t hear because we\u2019re bombarded by words and statistics on a daily basis. After a while they lose all meaning. No facts or figures can measure the harm this trade inflicts on countless souls. No words could possibly convey the horror these people face every day. We lack a realistic mental image to give the words any real impact.<\/p>\n

So let me help you with that.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easiest, perhaps, to spot the children. Young girls in brothels<\/a>, or begging<\/a> on the street, or carrying guns in an army<\/a>, or working to mine that shiny gold<\/a> you wear around your neck are immediate red flags that shout \u201cSomething is wrong here!\u201d<\/p>\n

The adults are harder to recognize. For all we know, slate quarry workers, miners<\/a> in Ghana or brick workers<\/a> could be legitimate laborers, though the conditions in which they toil are usually distasteful.<\/p>\n

Even the conditions alone can be a clue bat for the obtuse. Toilet<\/a> facilities and sleeping quarters<\/a> tell a story all by themselves.\u2028\u2028There are hundreds more online. Google \u201chuman trafficking\u201d or \u201cmodern slavery\u201d and select the \u201cimages\u201d category. Many of the photos are part of blogs or news articles that detail the issue in a variety of ways. Fair warning \u2014 be prepared. If you can look at the hopeless faces in these images and not be affected, you may just be part of the problem.<\/p>\n

\u2014Drema De\u00f2raich (from 9\/13\/13; some original links no longer functional)
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