Previously famvin.org published a link to a participant’s overview of the Vincentian Center for Church and Society’s conference on poverty. Now a complete digest of the day includes summaries of the keynote address by John J. Coughlin, O.F.M., J.D., J.C.D. of Notre Dame Law School and the panel that followed. Read the story.
Tags: Advocacy, Anti-poverty strategies, Poverty Analysis
One of the most sobering parts of the conference was the afternoon talk by Sudanese refugee and former child slave, Simon Deng. His report of being enslaved and then gifted from one owner to another was chilling. However, lest we think present day slavery is limited to countries like the Sudan, Bob Herbert’s op-en in today’s New York Times discusses the extent of the “hidden slave trade” in the United States today. More than 18,000 foreign nationals, most of them women and children brought for sexual purposes, are trafficked into the United States each year. One can easily find ads on the internet, in the magazines and in the yellow pages for “affordable” “full-service” women. Herbert observes, “[i]n prior eras, the slave trade was conducted openly, with ads prominently posted and the slaves paraded and inspected like animals, often at public auctions.” Although “we’re repelled by the slavery of “old” today’s “human merchandise…is still paraded, inspected and treated like animals.”1 Comment
Like Herbert, I wonder: Where is our outrage at the kidnapping, physical and sexual abuse and indentured servitude of thousands upon thousands of young women?
One of the most sobering parts of the conference was the afternoon talk by Sudanese refugee and former child slave, Simon Deng. His report of being enslaved and then gifted from one owner to another was chilling. However, lest we think present day slavery is limited to countries like the Sudan, Bob Herbert’s op-en in today’s New York Times discusses the extent of the “hidden slave trade” in the United States today. More than 18,000 foreign nationals, most of them women and children brought for sexual purposes, are trafficked into the United States each year. One can easily find ads on the internet, in the magazines and in the yellow pages for “affordable” “full-service” women. Herbert observes, “[i]n prior eras, the slave trade was conducted openly, with ads prominently posted and the slaves paraded and inspected like animals, often at public auctions.” Although “we’re repelled by the slavery of “old” today’s “human merchandise…is still paraded, inspected and treated like animals.”
Like Herbert, I wonder: Where is our outrage at the kidnapping, physical and sexual abuse and indentured servitude of thousands upon thousands of young women?