On September 22, 1862 following the battle of Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation declaring that as of January 1, 1863 all slaves shall be then, thenceforward and forever, free. While those words did not free any slaves, the proclamation defined the purpose of the war; the preservation of ‘human freedom.’ History records that 3.1 million of the 4 million slaves in the United States were freed by the ruling of January 1, 1863. One of our greatest Presidents had preserved the Union and abolished slavery in one fell swoop but at the cost of about 750,000 lives of a population of 35.2 million people in 36 states.
The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 started a new era of freedom among people of all ages, races and ethnicities. The conclusion should be that the USA is proudly free of bondage, forced labor, servitude, and slavery. That would be an incorrect assumption. There are evil-doers throughout the world that by cunning, deception and fraud bring others under their spell of diabolical cruelty and subjugation.
Here are some random verbal snapshots that may shoot coffee out your nose if you’re having breakfast or on break. According to the US State Department there are 20.9 million human beings in forced labor worldwide. About 1.5 million are living in ‘developed economies’ of the west (USA, EU, Australia, Canada), about 1.8 million are in private custody in South America, 600,000 exist in the scorching deserts of the Middle East, 3.7 million are suppressed in Africa, 1.6 million are pressed into involuntary service in Central and Eastern Europe and 11.7 million people suffer the abuse of Asian slave-drivers.
MSNBC in a research project several years ago turned up a Hispanic man in Atlanta; Amador Cortes-Mezahe, a ring leader in trafficking. This guy brings in young girls with promises of a better life who end up doing as many as 40 ‘tricks’ a day. The Polaris Project that maintains a Human Trafficking Hotline (888-3737-888) reports identifying LRB’s (Latino Residential Brothels) in 25 states over the past couple decades.
A recent article in The Guardian (British) newspaper, Mark Townsend wrote about 30 fishing trawlers near Papua, New Guinea with slave crews of Burmese (Myanmar) men trafficked by a massive Thai-operated syndicate. The illicit activities were interrupted a few months ago on the Indonesian Island of Benjina when hundreds of enslaved crew members were released but other trawlers escaped with their indentured crews. A recent WSJ article chronicles the three week trip in a crowded boat from Bangladesh to Malaysia where workers toil seven days a week without pay harvesting palm fruit that is distilled into palm oil.
In March 2007, the UN launched a program called UN.GIFT (United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking). In typical UN fashion, there are 140 signatories, committees, speeches, meetings and proclamations with no measurable results boasted or posted. However, there are many dedicated men, women and organizations throughout the world working diligently to reduce the scourge of human trafficking.
Homeland Security reported last year that there were about 12 million unauthorized immigrants (illegal aliens) in the US. Zack Taylor, Chairman of The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, Inc. reports that the numbers are much higher; perhaps 18-20 million. The Pew Hispanic Research Center reported that of the undocumented, 57% were from Mexico, 24% from Central America, 9% Asian, 6% European and Canadian and 3% from Africa and other countries. The report mentioned that there are about 5.5 million undocumented youths under age 18 leaving them vulnerable to sex abuse and domestic servitude.
Conspiracy of Hope, an Internet site that has as its dictum, “A voice for the voiceless victims of Human Trafficking” pleads with government to seal the borders. Are we being told the truth about border security? Why were we told that a wall would be built but wasn’t? How many innocent children are being enticed to cross our border to freedom and opportunity only to find suppression, abuse and slavery at the hands of their despicable countrymen?
How can politicians drone on about climate change, argue about immigration, obsess about LGBT, ponder the urban murder rate and yet ignore little girls being forced into sexual bondage by degenerate thugs?
– Dick Baynton
