One of the significant changes in society happened in 1833 in Britain and in 1865 in the USA. Slavery has been eradicated!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or\nnot?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately,\nslavery happens around us, but we are not noticing it. It happens in European\ncities. It happens in all cities, all nations. O yes, it is “illegal”\n\u2013 but it happens. Governments close one eye when it comes to slavery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jeff Fountain\nwrites: Today, right under our noses, slavery continues right here in the heart\nof Amsterdam. The story is repeated in cities across Europe and the world.\nWhile condemned by international law, UN and EU declarations, a global slave\ntrade abuses 25 million women, children and men \u2013 more than ever before in\nhistory \u2013 earning an annual \u20ac150\nbillion <\/em>for global networks of traffickers and pimps. Most of the\ntrade involves the sexual exploitation of women and girls, while forced labour\nin other fields includes many children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following the\nannual European Parliament Prayer Breakfast in Brussels (2019), there was a\npanel discussion on modern-day slavery in which Amsterdam came under particular\nscrutiny. Alongside several experts including John Richmond, the American\nAmbassador for Trafficking in Persons, Englishwoman Jane Lasonder told\nher story of having been beaten and abused by a step-father and of being forced\ninto the world of prostitution. Jane asked how it was possible to legalise the\ndaily rape of women who are forced against their wills to engage in sex with\nmore than twenty men a day. They use anaesthetics to drug themselves, hate men\ndeeply yet often not daring to quit their job. What sort of liberalism defends\nthe freedom of men to exploit vulnerable women? What’s wrong with a society,\nshe asked, which condoned as ‘broad-minded’ the daily parade of tourists and\neven school-children past the windows where scantily-clad women displayed\nthemselves – trying to make the daily quota of clients their pimps demanded?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slavery didn\u2019t become wrong in 1948 with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, says John Richmond, the American Ambassador for Trafficking in Persons Richmond. It was wrong the whole time. Only over the last 220 years nation after nation begins one by one, to acknowledge the horrors of slavery and pass laws to curtail the slave trade and emancipate those affected by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But how come\nslavery is globally still one of the most lucrative sources of income \u2013 despite\nall our “powerful resolution” in the \u201chigh halls\u201d of our society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some 200 hundred\nyears ago that change, Richmond added, started with a small dedicated band of\nbelievers. It can happen again \u2013 through people like \u201cWilliam Wilberforce”\nand “The Clapham Sect”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n But it may cost you\nyour life, as well as the ridicule and hatred of people. For Wilberforce it\ndid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Adapted article by Jeff Fountain)<\/p>\n\n\n\n