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June 08, 2005
Don't Support This Market!
Silly me, I thought slavery was abolished 140 years ago. The Thirteenth Amendment states that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction" and yet, human and sexual trafficking (which is the equivalent of modern day slavery) still goes on in this country and across international borders. There are an abundance of websites you can click on to learn more about this matter.
Link 1
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Many of those who are trafficked are women and children who are promised food, safety, work, education, etc. What happens essentially is that they end up being forced into prostitution, forced to work in sweatshops, farms, involuntary servitude, the list goes on. Globally, human trafficking is the 3rd most profitable criminal activity after drug and arms trafficking. An estimated number for the generated annual revenue is an astounding $9.5 BILLION. So I have given you International facts, let's try the United States. An estimated 14,500-17,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year.
First of all, how is this possible? Why is it so profitable? Because there is a market for it! Let me tell you, this makes me so sick that there are people out there like this and it makes me just as sick to know it is supported and profited in this country by who-knows-who. The United States government have taken steps to address it and try to help the situation with many protection acts, but it's not enough. I'm not blaming them, I don't know the the solution is either. The fact is, there are a lot of sick people out there and they hang real low. The numbers I provided are more or less, who knows! This activity is such an underground crime against human rights and is sadly really hard to detect.
Remember the sad fact that there is such a market here in the United States for this activity to thrive on. Don't support this market! This is one subject I am quite hopeless about, any ideas?
Posted by thao0226 at June 8, 2005 02:58 PM | How to Save the World