Life in Chains

The idea of slavery is a completely foreign concept to the average American. It hearkens back to Civil War times, archaic ideals, and ethnic troubles. It would appear that the triangle trade is dead, Africa is "free" of white oppression, and equality is at an all-time high. What escapes the attention of most media outlets, and indeed the general populace, is that slavery is a continuing cancer upon our society.
27 million people across the world are considered forced labor, working to appease their oppressors and continue surviving day to day. Mines, sweatshops and brothels are filled with these people. Entire families work for dreadful amounts of hours to come away with absolutely nothing.

It sounds insane, to have a concept so savage and so degrading still in action. Yet the equivalent of 1/10th of the United States is in metaphorical chains today. Roughly 15,000 slaves are in the U.S. right now. Africa and South Asia are the worst, with people in developing countries resorting to immoral and barbaric behavior to try and get a notch up in life. Government corruption is so rampant that these sort of crimes mostly go unnoticed. Many world-spanning corporations are paying for goods most likely made by the hands of a slave.

Human trafficking, along with sex trafficking, has replaced the triangle trade of the 19th century. Children are sold as sex slaves all across South and Southeast Asia. Armies of child soldiers, drugged up and oblivious to reality, storm across Africa. This cancer of bondage is a serious modern problem that is overlooked everyday.

Although slavery is a serious issue, it can be fixed more easily than you might think. Public awareness, whether through social media or word of mouth, is amazingly effective. An active effort to monitor a business all the way to the supply end, to make sure there is no forced labor should also happen. With our society working to eradicate this epidemic, working against this taint on humanity, we can get rid of a problem that should have died a century ago.