There are More Human Slaves in the World Today Than Ever Before
After doing a fair bit of reading on the topic of slavery I am no longer surprised by the significance of the above words. I understand now that the world we live in has an underbelly swarming with slavery that is as much alive today as it was when the majority of the western world blindly concluded otherwise. I now pretend to believe that the powers that be are working to end this rarely talked about scar on human cooperation.
I am no longer surprised because of a newly formed, admittedly superficial understanding I have on the topic. I recently read E. Benjamin Skinner’s “A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery”, scoured the web for government reports and awareness sites, watched videos by Hollywood spokesperson Emma Thompson and a lecture by the U.S. ambassador on human trafficking Mark P. Lagon.
I absorbed and I consumed and eventually I was no longer surprised, no longer shocked, but thankfully no longer oblivious to the impossible scale of overcoming this horrible scourge.
The underlying issues in so far as finally ending slavery are incredibly vast. Determining factors such as lack of awareness, acknowledgement, funding, international pressure and reach are all preventing its end. Because of the scale of 21st century slavery in the world, this is the first installment of a series of posts I will have on the topic. (continued on pg. w9…)
I learned earlier today that yet another 50 migrant farm workers were let go by Canada’s largest mushroom producer, Rol-Land Farms. My initial reaction mirrored the mood expressed in a recent entry I posted regarding Canada’s immigrant farm worker program.
The audacity of it all, I fumed, contemplating the actual reason for these most recent firings. I knew for certain that what was happening had everything to do with their very recent right to unionize. Since this is something that might just give them a voice in a country that doesn’t know they exist, the profit margins of Rol-Land Farms would surely be compromised.
As I read further into the issue however, it became apparent that Rol-Land Farms wasn’t necessarily taking advantage of the migrant worker program but was instead in the same serious financial state that many companies find themselves in today. Rol-Land Farms recently received protection from its creditors under an order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. This will give them some time to pay off a $35.3 million loan provided to them by the Bank of Montreal. Similar to bankruptcy protection, Rol-land farms will now be monitored during a company wide restructuring period that will hopefully have the company back on its legs by April. (continued on pg. W8…)
Hello again.
I recently read an interesting title posted in an article by the folks at TIME. The article purported to deal with the idea that the same economic recession which most of us have become caught up in could end the Iraq War. After filtering through the usual wartime fluff, some figures were thrown in to give credence to the article’s supposed theme. Something along the lines of $200 billion spent on the Iraq/Afghanistan occupations with a predicted total cost of at least $2 trillion (factoring in interest payments) if the wars should continue until 2017. One would think this is a lot of money for a country with a $10 trillion debt which recently passed a $700 billion inevitability-delaying bailout package. It should be noted how this number is dwarfed by the additional dollars that are being tossed onto the fire in hopes of suffocating the mess before the whole thing goes up in smoke. (continued on pg. W7…)
This blog is simply a description of what I see around me in the world today. Using whatever relevant knowledge I have acquired throughout my life time, my intention is to continue writing articles that are interesting to me, with opinions and biases that are absolutely my own. 
