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news.yahoo.com/s/ap/kuwai...trafficking
"Annu, an Asian house maid, says she worked 19-hour days for a year and was paid nothing.
Her eyes well up with tears as she slaps her hand, demonstrating what her employers did when she reached out for food when it was not lunchtime — the only meal they gave her. When she could no longer stand the treatment, Annu fled for help to the embassy of her homeland.
The gaunt 38-year-old, her black hair gathered at the back of her head in a plastic clip, said she did not want to leave this tiny oil-rich country and hoped to find a new employer. Her three children back home need the money.
An average of 15 maids seek refuge at the embassy everyday, said a diplomat there, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition that he and his nation not be identified for fear of angering Kuwait.
About 166 maids currently were living in the embassy awaiting the outcome of mediation with their employers, compensation for rape or air tickets home.
Despite the terrible conditions under which many Asians work and live, large numbers want to stay in Kuwait because their chances of finding work that pays a decent wage at home are virtually nil."
I mentioned once before that I had interviewed Bangladeshi slaves in Micronesia and they said that they preferred their life to what they had at home, which was a life of oppression, destitute poverty and starvation.
So what of consensual slavery? Where the slave would rather be a slave than return to the lousy conditions of Bangladesh or the Phillipines? Should that be OK, should we legalize slavery like some are advocating we legalize prostitution and drugs.
Slavery is defacto legal in Kuwait and Micronesia. The problem is that slaves have no legal rights. They have to go to their own embassy if possible, but that seldom helps. If you are an AMERICAN CITIZEN being held as a slave in Saudia Arabia and you contact OUR embassy and tell them you are being held as a slave, beaten and raped even, the US EMBASSY will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for you.
Maybe instead of getting rid of slavery, we should admit it exists and try to pass international standards for slaves. Such as rape and beatings are prohibited and will be severely punished, much as the UN decries child abuse. And that slaves, like 4000 years ago, only have to serve for 7 years and then they must be freed.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/kuwai...trafficking
"Annu, an Asian house maid, says she worked 19-hour days for a year and was paid nothing.
Her eyes well up with tears as she slaps her hand, demonstrating what her employers did when she reached out for food when it was not lunchtime — the only meal they gave her. When she could no longer stand the treatment, Annu fled for help to the embassy of her homeland.
The gaunt 38-year-old, her black hair gathered at the back of her head in a plastic clip, said she did not want to leave this tiny oil-rich country and hoped to find a new employer. Her three children back home need the money.
An average of 15 maids seek refuge at the embassy everyday, said a diplomat there, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition that he and his nation not be identified for fear of angering Kuwait.
About 166 maids currently were living in the embassy awaiting the outcome of mediation with their employers, compensation for rape or air tickets home.
Despite the terrible conditions under which many Asians work and live, large numbers want to stay in Kuwait because their chances of finding work that pays a decent wage at home are virtually nil."
I mentioned once before that I had interviewed Bangladeshi slaves in Micronesia and they said that they preferred their life to what they had at home, which was a life of oppression, destitute poverty and starvation.
So what of consensual slavery? Where the slave would rather be a slave than return to the lousy conditions of Bangladesh or the Phillipines? Should that be OK, should we legalize slavery like some are advocating we legalize prostitution and drugs.
Slavery is defacto legal in Kuwait and Micronesia. The problem is that slaves have no legal rights. They have to go to their own embassy if possible, but that seldom helps. If you are an AMERICAN CITIZEN being held as a slave in Saudia Arabia and you contact OUR embassy and tell them you are being held as a slave, beaten and raped even, the US EMBASSY will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for you.
Maybe instead of getting rid of slavery, we should admit it exists and try to pass international standards for slaves. Such as rape and beatings are prohibited and will be severely punished, much as the UN decries child abuse. And that slaves, like 4000 years ago, only have to serve for 7 years and then they must be freed.
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