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.

Victim or Criminal?

Every day, across the globe, children are forced to work without pay as prostitutes. The psychological toll this industry has on these children is detrimental to the child’s sanity. Some children feel attached to their pimps; others find it hard to stay away from prostitution and move forward with their lives. Others reach the point of committing violent crimes.


Sara Kruzan was convicted of killing her pimp, G.G., at the age of sixteen. G.G., who met Sara when she was eleven, used a common tactic of pimps called “grooming;” he gained her trust by acting as a father figure – something Sara never had. By the age of thirteen, G.G. raped and forced her to sleep with other men for profit, while pocketing the money for himself. After three years of prostitution, Sara reached her limit and killed her pimp. When her case was taken to court, the judge tried her as an adult, rather than a juvenile. The end result was life in prison without parole.


Victims of human trafficking and similar situations who commit crimes should not be sentenced to jail time; rather, they should be psychologically evaluated and sent to an appropriate rehabilitation center. In The Psychological Trauma of Modern Day Slavery: Sex Trafficking and its Impact on the Field of Psychology in Thailand, it says “[h]uman trafficking has a tremendous psychological impact on its victims as a result of the manipulation, abuse, and cultural shock experienced when forced to work a less than desirable job…” The psychological damage that takes place is enough to drive some victims to violence, as in Sara’s case. It is evident that Sara has almost rehabilitated herself through her time in jail. She speaks of how she has changed for the better, and that she is now capable of making healthy life choices. It is arguable that had Sara been granted the opportunity to receive psychological help, she probably would have grown from the entire process. Trafficking victims (even those who commit crimes) require and deserve psychological help. Bottom line, a child as young as Sara should have been treated as a victim, not a criminal.

Forgiveness is key

Imagine, being taken from your home. Sold and thrown into a country where you don’t know anyone, you don’t know the

language, and you’re forced to work; without pay, under threat of violence, with no means to escape. After you’re freed, if you’re that lucky, can you find the will to forgive what’s been done to you? For many people, that would probably be a hard question to answer, because we could only imagine how difficult it would be to forgive anyone who put us through so much pain and for reason that we rarely ever understand. It may be hard for those who have experienced the trauma to ever adapt to the idea of forgiving those who have essentially taken their life away from them. Although it seems like it’s nearly impossible, forgiveness is an important step in the healing and rehabilitation of former slaves back into society. Therapy is an important part of healing, but one can never fully heal and move on, until they can forgive those whom have done them wrong. “Without forgiveness, there's no future”-Desmond Tutu. Desmond is a South African activist whom fully advocates for forgiveness. In the book, The Impossible Will Take a Little while, Desmond talks about Rwanda, and how the people were able to move on, and forgive those whom had massacred so many of them. Instead of seeking revenge “there was this remarkable Truth and Reconciliation Commission to which people told their heart-rending stories, victims expressing their willingness to forgive and perpetrators telling their stories of sordid atrocities while also asking for forgiveness they had wronged so grievously.” The fact that people are willing to forgive, and that others are even willing to admit their faults, allows everyone to move on in the process of healing. Although the topic is different, the answer is still the same. In order for slavery to end today, we need to help those who have been hurt forgive those who have hurt them. Forgiving does not only help one mentally but physically as well. Being able to forgive, allows one to let go of the not only the pain and suffering, but also the fear they had for so many years. Kevin Bales, author of Ending Slavery, also believes that forgiveness is an important step in ending the vicious cycle of slavery. “Forgiveness will be hard—for many it may be impossible—but is there full freedom without forgiveness? If the slaves of today carry their pain and recrimination into liberation, bitterness will flow down through the generations. We will have to let freed slaves lead us; let them say how they can best ease their anger and pain. The children of slaves and the children of slaveholders will have to find a way to share the world without anger. Even as we seek to destroy the evil of slavery forever, we must help build the reconciliation that silences slavery’s echo of hatred.” The hatred that lives in those who have been enslaved moves on through generations and even the mindset of slave holders moves on to their children. In order for slavery for fully end, we must help show slaves that the best revenge is forgiveness, because when one forgive, then can they move on to be successful.

Maquiladoras

Working in depressing conditions, making far less than minimum wage, and having your labor rights denied is slavery. In Mexico sweatshops which are called Maquiladoras, mostly employ women from poverty stricken communities that are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. These Maquiladoras manufacture goods for the United States, Japan, Europe, China, and North Korea. The women who are employed by the maquiladoras are paid around fifty cents to three dollars an hour, and work about forty eight hours or more a week. Women are considered to be preferred to men because women will typically work for cheaper wages."Some maquiladora operators have admitted a preference for women, because women often display a greater level of patience and higher dexterity than men in performing the standardized and repetitive work of an assembly plant"(The Maquiladora Reader: Cross-Border).The employees of the maquiladoras work under very horrible conditions. "Industrial accidents and toxic exposures are common in the plants." Often workers are not given adequate training or provided with safety equipment." "Physical risks such as noise, heat, vibrations, poor ventilation, and awkward posture have a high occurrence in maquiladoras." There are also many forms of discrimination against the women. Women must have mandatory pregnancy tests, and if they are found to be pregnant they are most times forced to resign.

They do not provide nor have any interest in the healthcare, education, or housing of their employees or their families. The employees of maquiladoras usually live in “do it yourself projects.” The shacks are usually made with wood pallets that are bought from their employers for a dollar each. “They drag wood pallets to a squatter village and recycled material is collected; a shack is nailed, tied, and somehow erected to withstand the almost unbreakable daytime heat and nighttime cold, sandstorms, occasional rain, and vermin to raise their family." These problems are the worst in Tijuana and Juarez, Mexico.”

In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was adopted by Mexico. NAFTA stepped in to try and stimulate trade, exports, jobs, and increase the economic growth in Mexico. This plan did increase jobs but as jobs increased wages decreased. "The profits that are generated from the maquiladoras are typically sent back to the United States, or other investor based countries, and therefore, maquiladoras do not promote direct economic development within Mexico"(The Maquiladora Reader: Cross-Border). Jose Guerro, wrote a poem about his mother who was a maquiladora worker, “I remember waking up and her already being gone, She would catch the ruta before the sun and arrive home after dawn, Being awake that early in Juarez can be dangerous for a woman, She always lied and said she was a fashion designer but in reality she spent long hours sewing holes into designer jeans that her children would never wear, The Maquiladora swallowed her and she just became part of the machine...” This is slavery; if the maquiladoras were on the California side of the border, they would be making at least eight dollars an hour, receive healthcare, and their labor rights would be enforced. Instead these companies bring their businesses across the boarder to Mexico and abuse these workers by denying their rights and paying them next to nothing wages.

There are some organizations that help to improve the problems in the Maquiladoras. One of these organizations is the Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network. This is a group of trained professionals that donate their time and expertise to create safer and healthier working conditions for the one million maquiladora workers employed by primarily U.S.-owned transnational corporations along Mexico's northern border from Matamoros to Tijuana. Hopefully one day this problem will be resolved and these maquiladora workers will finally get paid what they deserve.

Should Prostitution Be Legal?

When one hears the word prostitution there are often many negative connotations associated with it. There are child prostitutes, STDs, and just a general image of crime and immorality. If prostitution were legalized many of these negative aspects could be eliminated or reduced. There are many pros and cons to prostitution but the benefits outweigh the potential negative aspects. With the legalization and regulation of prostitution sex workers could be tested regularly for STDs which would do a great deal to combat the spread of these diseases. If there was some type of licensing for prostitutes it would be easy to identify sex workers who are not free of STDs or those who are not of age. This would reduce the amount of underage children being trafficked across borders and forced into prostitution. It would also help combat the spread of STDs because sex workers who are not clean can have there license taken away. There are many dangers associated with prostitution but these dangers can be eliminated or greatly reduced through regulation. Prostitution would have to take place in a brothel or some other type of establishment and there will probably need to be some security present. This would help eliminate the violence that prostitutes are often the victims of. Use of condoms would have to be a requirement if prostitution were legalized and would have to be strictly enforced possibly by undercover police posing as "johns". Also instead of victims being illegally trafficked into other countries and taken advantage of they can legally migrate and reap the benefits of their own labor. This would do a great deal to end human trafficking since many victims of human trafficking are trafficked for the purpose of forced prostitution. Prostitution is not going to end so it should at least be regulated to reduce the dangers associated with it and help combat human trafficking.

Companies Envolved with Child Labor.

Nike has been accused several times of using slave child labor in other countries. Their biggest case is the one of making shoes in Indonesia. It is said that they higher kids under the age of 16 in a regular bases paying them only the minimum wage or nothing. These children are forcefully put to work by family members and at times even sold to companies. So does Nike support slave child labor? The legal age to work in Indonesia is any child 14 years or older, and Indonesia has over 2.4 million children working in rural areas and a quarter million working in urban areas between the ages 10 and 14. There are many more children under the age of ten working in Indonesia. These children sometimes have nowhere to go and they finish living in the same factories they work in all day. Indonesian culture has ignored all the laws against child labor for many years. Recently, the minimum wage was raised so they could in some way help all the children forcefully working under the legal age and this too has been ignored by many employers. When a country takes no major actions against child slave labor is it still wrong for companies to come in, hire, and use children’s labor?

Child Sex Tourism

With more than two million children reported being linked to prostitution in countries across the world and the total number of acts of child molestation being much larger (albeit more vague, with estimates ranging from five to twenty-five percent of all Americans falling victim), it is no wonder that the child sex industry is among those most harshly prosecuted trades in almost all nations. Countries such as India, Brazil, or Cambodia, all popular tourism locations, combat child sex tourism even more aggressively than many other humanitarian crises perhaps deserving equal attention. But despite these legislative efforts, tourism continues to expand at a rate faster than nearly all other criminal activities. Despite employing numerous task forces to preemptively track down sexual offenders and allowing for extraterritorial legal action, the various governments and NGOs that work against the industry are skirting around a more centralized method of dealing with these offenders. The child sex trade itself and the notions of pedophilia that accompany it are seen almost unanimously as taboo issues that most governments are reluctant to raise awareness against for the sake of social stability, issues that have to be overcome if child prostitution is to be stamped out. If the UN and other international councils do not aggressively advocate against sexual abuse and threaten those who would partake in it with more severe sentences, the notion that one can simply vacation to a country whose laws are seen as being more lax will continue as a standard. In addition, due to an alarmingly large number of children entering the sex trade of their own accord, more federal education for children under the age of 12 regarding the dangers of sex and the illegality of intercourse with adults should be present, most realistic through the inclusion of sexual education in elementary curricula for those countries with the highest rate of child abuse. Though raising awareness at such young ages and for the general population as a whole is an unpleasant prospect, it is ultimately the last effective option in restricting the child sex trade.