Is tradition an excuse for slavery?

Haiti is a small Caribbean country that occupies the western and the smaller pertion of the island Hispaniola; sharing soe of its space with the Dominican Republic. Haiti is best known for the fact that is was the first country in the Americas to Abolish slavery, when it won it independence in1804 after a struggle led by Toussaint Louvertue. However, everyday, thousands of Haitians look slavery in the face due to poverty and social breakdowns. The recent natural disaster on Haiti has made the economy and living conditions even worse.
January 12,2010 at prexisely 4:39 pm Haiti's most trgic natural disaster occured. An earthquake with the magnitude of 7.o struck the little nation bringing it to the attention of the media worldwide. One of the effects of this earthquake was the destruction of homes resulting in thousands of Haitian children being homeless. These homeless children soon became vulnerable and victims to sexual as well as domestic exploitation and abuse. It was during this time that an undercover journalist went from New York to Haiti and discovered that he would be able to purchase a ten year old Haitian girl for the small price of 150 American dollars. When he asked the traffiker if he felt selling children was morally just; the trafficker responded that it was apart of the Haitian tradition.
To some extent he was not lying; modern slavery in Haiti, in the forn of the Restavec system, is rooted in early Haitian cultural traditions. In the begginning poor families on the countryside would give their children away to wealthy families in the city; these children would then do domestic work for the families, in exchange the families would clothe,feed, and educate the children. Since then this system has morphed into something very grotesque. My arguement is that child slavery is againts what Haiti originally stood for and tradition should never be used to excuse its immorality. My plan of action is that we need to show even the poorest of families in Haiti that they alone have a duty in looking after their children, regardless of how uncertain the future may seem. If America and other powerful counrties would go in an help fund the building of more schools and help stable Haiti economically then maybe families would have an alternative choice as to where their children will stay.