There are now more slaves on the planet than at any time in human history

...And if you’re going to buy one in five hours, you’d better get a move on. First, hail a taxi to JFK International Airport, and hop on a direct flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The flight takes three hours. After landing at Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport, you will need 50 cents for the most common form of transport in Port-au-Prince, the tap-tap, a flatbed pickup retrofitted with benches and a canopy. Three quarters of the way up Route de Delmas, the capital’s main street, tap the roof and hop out. There, on a side street, you will find a group of men standing in front of Le Réseau (The Network) barbershop. As you approach, a man steps forward: “Are you looking to get a person?”

Meet Benavil Lebhom. He smiles easily. He has a trim mustache and wears a multicolored, striped golf shirt, a gold chain, and Doc Martens knockoffs. Benavil is a courtier, or broker. He holds an official real estate license and calls himself an employment agent. Two thirds of the employees he places are child slaves. The total number of Haitian children in bondage in their own country stands at 300,000. They are the restavèks, the “stay-withs,” as they are euphemistically known in Creole. Forced, unpaid, they work in captivity from before dawn until night. Benavil and thousands of other formal and informal traffickers lure these children from desperately impoverished rural parents, with promises of free schooling and a better life.
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The negotiation to buy a child slave might sound a bit like this:

“How quickly do you think it would be possible to bring a child in? Somebody who could clean and cook?” you ask. “I don’t have a very big place; I have a small apartment. But I’m wondering how much that would cost? And how quickly?”

“Three days,” Benavil responds.

“And you could bring the child here?” you inquire. “Or are there children here already?”

“I don’t have any here in Port-au-Prince right now,” says Benavil, his eyes widening at the thought of a foreign client. “I would go out to the countryside.”

You ask about additional expenses. “Would I have to pay for transportation?”

“Bon,” says Benavil. “A hundred U.S.”

Smelling a rip-off, you press him, “And that’s just for transportation?”

“Transportation would be about 100 Haitian,” says Benavil, or around $13, “because you’d have to get out there. Plus food on the trip. Five hundred gourdes.”

“Okay, 500 Haitian,” you say.

Now you ask the big question: “And what would your fee be?” This is the moment of truth, and Benavil’s eyes narrow as he determines how much he can take you for.

“A hundred. American.”

“That seems like a lot,” you say, with a smile so as not to kill the deal. “How much would you charge a Haitian?”

Benavil’s voice rises with feigned indignation. “A hundred dollars. This is a major effort.”

You hold firm. “Could you bring down your fee to 50 U.S.?”

Benavil pauses. But only for effect. He knows he’s still got you for much more than a Haitian would pay. “Oui,” he says with a smile.

But the deal isn’t done. Benavil leans in close. “This is a rather delicate question. Is this someone you want as just a worker? Or also someone who will be a ‘partner’? You understand what I mean?”

You don’t blink at being asked if you want the child for sex. “I mean, is it possible to have someone that could be both?”

“Oui!” Benavil responds enthusiastically.

If you’re interested in taking your purchase back to the United States, Benavil tells you that he can “arrange” the proper papers to make it look as though you’ve adopted the child.

He offers you a 13-year-old girl.

“That’s a little bit old,” you say.

“I know of another girl who’s 12. Then ones that are 10, 11,” he responds.

The negotiation is finished, and you tell Benavil not to make any moves without further word from you. Here, 600 miles from the United States, and five hours from Manhattan, you have successfully arranged to buy a human being for 50 bucks.

It would be nice if that conversation, like the description of the journey, were fictional. It is not. I recorded it on Oct. 6, 2005, as part of four years of research into slavery on five continents...

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4173&page=0

Kicking for awareness. Recommended as well.

I've been well aware of, and have worked my Senators and Reps on the issue of the sex slave trade. Some success there.

But my blood ran cold as this article opened up a new window on the larger issue slavery. Disturbing and repugnant to say the least. And slavery isn't just infecting hell holes in far corners of the world, it's going on right here, in our own country.

In Vientaine there are western areas.
The first time (1999) I was there I was asked by a girl no older than 12 if I was interested.
I told her no.

One of the guys I was with, he's Laotian, we got to talking about it.
I asked why more isn't done.
He said,"We're a very poor country, we have very little of interest to the west. So what do you want us to do? She'll starve otherwise. Would that be better for her? To starve?"

It's a reply I'll never forget.
Because he was so adamant and so correct.

At least now they have a growing eco-tourism industry there.
But the poverty there is incredible.

It cut off US funding for International Planned Parenthood.

I believe the Order was designed to ensure a never ending supply of cheap human labor for world wide corporations and enterprises.

We should urge President Obaama to rescind Bush's Global Gag Order as one of his first official acts. How many unwanted children were brought into the world over the past 8 years who have now entered the human slave trade?

on this epic tragedy...

if there's no natural resources to exploit- people become the commodity.

it isn't quite as bad, but in some cases it may be worse and it happens right under our noses... with its own hidden costs to society, not to mention the people living this nightmare.


http://www.palmbeachpost.com/moderndayslavery/content/moderndayslavery/
Slavery is not just the shameful stuff
of history books - not in Florida
The Palm Beach Post presents a three-part examination of slavery,
its costs and its effects - on the migrant workers, and on you

It was very cold in Immokalee the night little Pablo died.

Jimenez
Lannis Waters / The Palm Beach Post
The baby son of Apolonia Jimenez, 22, died beside her in bed in this trailer in Immokalee. The death was ruled sudden infant death syndrome.

The baby's 22-year-old mother, Apolonia Jimenez, didn't have money or space for a crib. So Pablo slept with her in the tiny room of an unheated trailer that she shared with six other people.

Early in the evening of Jan. 15, Pablo cried a lot. "I think it was colic," Jimenez said. "Later he felt better, and he went to bed with me."

The temperature dropped. According to the Florida Weather Service, it fell to 38 degrees.

"I covered him with a blanket and then with more blankets," Jimenez said.

"I woke up at 2 a.m. He was quiet," she said. "At 4 a.m., I woke up again. I covered him some more. He didn't wake up the way he usually did during the night.

"Finally about 6 a.m. I tried to wake him up. I said, 'Pablito, get up.' I took the covers off him and picked him up. He was pale and stiff and very cold. I realized... I prayed to God. I said, 'I'll do anything if he lives, God.' But it was too late." Pablo was pronounced dead in the morning.

and we may be slipping into reverse. Horrifying.

Julie

That made me tear up. To think...

Those poor children.

http://www.amazon.com/Disposable-People-Slavery-Global-Economy/dp/0520243846/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229863195&sr=1-15

"Slavery is illegal throughout the world, yet more than twenty-seven million people are still trapped in one of history's oldest social institutions. Kevin Bales's disturbing story of contemporary slavery reaches from Pakistan's brick kilns and Thailand's brothels to various multinational corporations. His investigations reveal how the tragic emergence of a "new slavery" is inextricably linked to the global economy. This completely revised edition includes a new preface."

I heard Kevin on NPR several years ago and had to read his book. It was stunning, while it's an easy read - no social science double speak it is difficult to stomach the facts.

brought into the U.S. then.

This is heart breaking. Sick people.

This evil is a open sore on the human condition, and it needs exposure, and hearings. If you would please email this, and other accounts to your Senators, Representatives, and the msm, both local and national.

Thanks.

People care more about their own group than about some "other" group, and they use money to keep track of the difference.

Thanks for the post and the link. This is important information.

K&R