South Africa P.I.G.: SLAVERY

Showing posts with label SLAVERY. Show all posts

Human trafficking in SA - US Gov Report (2009)

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCG27XaxzDFSEgHTGdPd7S-SW2fVW8MHV8VHgwKIW3y41Qtu7E8f-9jI9u1UOK43jKHWg_2s-stlsMIrVR9SXdFn9rtVKmtwqnFdTsXptVS5PGTKQrJZdIfgS0eat3S6eXnP8jhsptKpA/s1600-h/SexSlavery1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361645989756015106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCG27XaxzDFSEgHTGdPd7S-SW2fVW8MHV8VHgwKIW3y41Qtu7E8f-9jI9u1UOK43jKHWg_2s-stlsMIrVR9SXdFn9rtVKmtwqnFdTsXptVS5PGTKQrJZdIfgS0eat3S6eXnP8jhsptKpA/s400/SexSlavery1.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 293px" /></a>In 1837 slavery was abolished across the British Empire. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. And on 10 December 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." If only this were true. According to the US government's <a href="http://bitterqueen.typepad.com/files/2009-trafficking-in-persons-report.pdf">2009 Trafficking In Persons Report</a>, at least 800 000 people are trafficked annually across international borders. This figure does not even begin to touch on the number of people who are trafficked within countries. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that global human trafficking is worth between $7-billion and $12-billion annually, making it the third most profitable criminal activity after trade in narcotics and arms. Proudly South African? And South Africa is by no means exempt. South Africa is commonly regarded as the primary destination for persons trafficked in the Southern African region. It is also used as a transit point for persons being trafficked from one destination to another. Over and above this, internal trafficking — of South Africans within South Africa's borders — is rife. According to the US's most recent Trafficking in Persons Report (2009): <ul><li>Women and girls from Thailand, Congo, India, China, Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine, Mozambique and Zimbabwe are trafficked into South Africa for commercial sexual exploitation or domestic servitude. </li><li>Organised traffickers from China bring victims from Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland into Johannesburg. </li><li>Men from China and Taiwan are trafficked to mobile sweatshop factories in Chinese enclaves in South Africa. </li><li>Organised criminal groups, including Nigerian, Chinese, Eastern European syndicates and local gangs, facilitate trafficking into and within South Africa. </li><li>South African children are largely trafficked within the country from poor rural areas to urban centres such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein. Girls are used for commercial sexual exploitation and domestic servitude, while boys are used for forced street vending, begging, crime and agriculture. </li></ul>Based on the cases with which it has dealt (25 000 victims globally), the IOM estimates that of all persons trafficked, approximately one third are children. Although commercial sexual exploitation is the form of human trafficking most commonly talked about, domestic servitude and forced labour are also major forms of exploitation. Life is cheap <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH31ceybF0Z1QlqtpanK_b1igSB8wLblv7Oy9f_hIqhIG9QKHNRvG1XgfcBcJuaEws9RQvPAqpJFrWlWzgyGUJRwScgNFQJxdh_TnKfJmXi6dqYTccEd4DOhlOBZ7ltoDu75rv2i5-Fa4/s1600-h/ChildTrafficking-Wallpaper-Poster.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361648309807626818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH31ceybF0Z1QlqtpanK_b1igSB8wLblv7Oy9f_hIqhIG9QKHNRvG1XgfcBcJuaEws9RQvPAqpJFrWlWzgyGUJRwScgNFQJxdh_TnKfJmXi6dqYTccEd4DOhlOBZ7ltoDu75rv2i5-Fa4/s400/ChildTrafficking-Wallpaper-Poster.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 312px" /></a> According to Mariam Khokhar, programme manager for irregular migration and counter-trafficking at the IOM, South Africa's informal settlements and rural areas are the main recruitment areas. The reason for this is obvious — poor and desperate people are automatically more vulnerable to trafficking. "There are different means of recruiting victims, all of which are founded on deception or coercion," says Khokhar. "Our research, as well as interaction with victims we have assisted in this region, indicates that victims are recruited with job offers from an acquaintance, known individual in the community, or even a printed advertisement. Victims have also been abducted from their communities by traffickers." Based on anecdotal evidence, a 2008 IOM study into internal trafficking in South Africa estimates that individuals, who are often sold repeatedly (particularly in the sexual exploitation trade), can be sold for anything between R250 and R3500. Having been recruited and sold, it becomes very difficult for the victims of trafficking to escape the cycle of trafficking. Drugs, debt-bondage and violence "Traffickers use various control mechanisms to ensure that victims do not escape. One such means is debt-bondage where a victim is informed they owe a debt to the trafficker for services rendered. The victim is expected to pay off the debt and at the slightest opportunity the already-inflated debt increases. For example, if the victim falls ill and is unable to render services, they are fined and the debt increases," says Khokhar. "Traffickers also use physical violence as a means of subduing their victims. Threats of harm on the victim and their family and friends is another means of control, this is reinforced in instances where the trafficker is known to the victim and her family." On top of this, the victim is usually isolated from any sort of support network — their new environment is generally geographically and, at times, linguistically, foreign. Furthermore, victims who are forced into prostitution have, by the very nature of South African law, become criminals themselves. "Victims are often forced to take drugs as a means of making them compliant and dependent on the trafficker. Traffickers also confiscate the identity documents of the victim to ensure that victims do not run away... An illegal status in the country of destination, and threats of police deportation and arrest, are also used by the trafficker when the case involves cross-border trafficking." 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report Department of State - <a href="http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/123357.pdf" s_oid="http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/123357.pdf" s_oidt="0" target="_blank">(Read the full report here.)</a> The study, which has been published annually since 2000, doubles as a progress report on governments' efforts to enforce laws against trafficking and ranks countries based on their commitment to tackling the issue. The report divides participating countries into three tiers according to an assessment of the extent to which their governments prosecute, prevent and protect victims from trafficking. (Tier 1 countries show the most effort in combatting trafficking, while Tier 3 countries show the least.) Tier 3 countries that do not comply with the minimum standards face sanctions. Unsurprisingly, developed nations in the 2009 report dominated the top tier, while Iran and North Korea joined half a dozen sub-Saharan African countries in Tier 3.

Human trafficking in SA - US Gov Report (2009)

In 1837 slavery was abolished across the British Empire. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. And on 10 December 19...

5:19 AM

AFRICA, DON'T BLAME THE WHITES.

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP7TpO_Dv4cij8VzU4rfg-5XGFg7Cl2bpWn_IImHm9wQGgRjQySRTlUOdq7PmPgqS6R8GSJpEkKQe4hJEtYqCDmgerBOq345-i1mAUgK6q9y-dxvB5pSWbSk2e9XL1MsWn-ZeUOMZJn6rS/s1600-h/Mfonobong+Nsehe.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326136247162134434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP7TpO_Dv4cij8VzU4rfg-5XGFg7Cl2bpWn_IImHm9wQGgRjQySRTlUOdq7PmPgqS6R8GSJpEkKQe4hJEtYqCDmgerBOq345-i1mAUgK6q9y-dxvB5pSWbSk2e9XL1MsWn-ZeUOMZJn6rS/s400/Mfonobong+Nsehe.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 327px" /></a>so says Mfonobong Nsehe, a black manAll South African blacks read this and take note Recently, as part of an academic assignment at school, I was engaged in an intellectual debate with a few colleagues. We were seeking answers to the roots of Africa´s problems. It was an interesting discussion for me. Shockingly, the majority of my colleagues subscribed to the idea that the major cause of Africa´s social-political and economic problems was the legacy left behind by the colonial masters. As far as they were concerned, the colonialists ruined Africa for good. For the records, they had some strong arguments to support their claims. I do not intend to go into that. Africa is known as the problem continent. And indeed, the problems are legion- Poverty, diseases, famine, poor leadership, religious conflicts, ethnic clashes and corruption are a few of them. With each passing day, the problems increase. For long, the economic and social underdevelopment of the African nation has been blamed on white colonialists who exploited the land and left Africa bare. Up till now, the blame game continues. Africans are usually quick to blame most of its problems on the evils of colonialism. We sometimes blame the violence on the borders colonialists created that ignored ethnicity. Many African nations have been independent for four decades. If colonial borders were a major problem, how come they haven't changed them? Colonialism cannot explain Third World poverty. Some of today's richest countries are former colonies, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Some of today's poorest countries were never colonies, such as Ethiopia, Liberia, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. The colonialism argument is simply a cover-up for African dictators and people. For as long as African keep bickering about the past without focusing on the future, the African people will continue to suffer. Pointing fingers at the colonial masters won't change the fact that the majority of people in Africa are living and dying in horrible conditions. The Europeans colonized Africa about 400 years ago. Right now, Africans are in trouble because they cannot manage their own problems. Instead of brainstorming and finding solutions to its numerous social and economic problems, the people hold out a begging bowl to the west in one hand, while punishing the remaining white people in the land with the other. (Does Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe and the Zimbabweans come to mind?) We are responsible for our problems, but we prefer to blame others than to take a good look in the mirror. Fine, the colonialists were a bunch of greedy no-gooders, but if truths must be told, the self-interest of early colonialists pales in comparison to the personal greed of African leaders today. Those who blame Africa's problems on colonialism must not forget that the experience was not unique to Africa. Generally, the Asian countries that also experienced colonialism are doing fairly well. So what has Africa, or to be more precise, its leaders, been doing for the past 40 years? What Africa needs is a lot of self-criticism. The fact that Africa breeds and worships figures like Mugabe, because of their own anti-white racism is disheartening. It's incredible that any white sends aid to Africa when Africans are anti-white racists. You can't solve Africa's problems until the lies are all stripped away and you start comparing yourself to say Taiwan. Taiwan is not white, yet they have made amazing progress. They made this progress by managing their economy properly, and by working hard. We need to strip away the black ideology that says that whites didn't do anything other than enslave blacks and are rich because of the exploitation of blacks. Taiwan didn't get rich because of that. So why do Africans think that that's how whites got rich? And blacks enslaved blacks too; it's part of human history everywhere. So why isn't Africa rich due to the enslavement of themselves? Were Africans better off under colonial administration than the despots who replaced them? Most African countries have had their independence for over three decades, yet, the report card our leaders have shown us are wars, famine and gross corruption. While it may be argued that Britain and other European countries did us more harm than good in colonizing us, it is high time we faced reality and realized that we are the architects of our own destiny. We need to choose what is good and bad, what future we want, and whether colonialism took us closer to what we want. It's time we as Africans took responsibility for our troubles and stopped trying to guilt-trip the West into accepting responsibility for our problems. Since time immemorial, there have been empires- even African. These empires have always left great damage in their wake, but such damage is rectified through rebuilding and hard work, but not by laying blames and casting aspersions. As long as we look back in history to blame our troubles on the colonial masters, Africa will continually be the backward continent the whole world believes we are. To turn around the fortunes of Africa, it will take work and vision. And so Africa, enough with the blame games. Let´s shut up, re-examine ourselves, go back to the drawing board, rectify our mistakes and move on with our lives. Source - The American Chronicle

AFRICA, DON'T BLAME THE WHITES.

so says Mfonobong Nsehe, a black man All South African blacks read this and take note Recently, as part of an academic assignment at school,...

1:39 PM

In Defense of the White Man

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAPyfR3DPm92Zy5ziy6Kxjb2aen6__RhHa59R-kvqKP-cGON14oO93vTbsqRty4UVt99ECxBE4kukakErFidlYeQbMlBQFL92cutjjPhOcGUPPO_F39hxgCLtPG52o6O2_25ALZAZR_c4/s1600-h/whitepride-jessicasimpsonflag1yf6.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306912248178189442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAPyfR3DPm92Zy5ziy6Kxjb2aen6__RhHa59R-kvqKP-cGON14oO93vTbsqRty4UVt99ECxBE4kukakErFidlYeQbMlBQFL92cutjjPhOcGUPPO_F39hxgCLtPG52o6O2_25ALZAZR_c4/s400/whitepride-jessicasimpsonflag1yf6.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 358px" /></a>By Selwyn Duke NewsWithViews.com While many believe that prejudice has diminished over time, it’s not really true. Prejudice is much like the wind: Its direction changes, and the sheltered and well-situated may not sense it, but it’s always blowing on some people somewhere. Put literally, every age has its fashionable biases – and unfashionable people. This was obvious during the presidential inauguration <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYPi8sSwP5Y&feature=related" target="_blank">benediction</a>, given by the Reverend Joseph Lowery. While making a supplication to the Lord, he made the following anachronistic plea: “. . . help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right [emphasis mine].” Well, I wonder if the reverend has ever asked the Lord why He scourged the world with white people in the first place. It isn’t surprising that <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/05/the_crime_of_being_white.html" target="_blank">caucaphobia</a> is in fashion. You can demonize any person, group or place; all you need do is focus on the object’s failings to the exclusion of its/his accomplishments. It isn’t even hard to do. To bastardize one of Abraham Lincoln’s lines, if you look for the worst in a group, you’re sure to find it. It’s just as with a person. If I repeatedly disseminated your sins and mistakes among the town folk while downplaying your good points, how long would it be before they were chasing you with pitchforks? So it has been with whites for a long time now. It is not correct to say that history textbooks, documentaries and entertainment inundate us with stories about slavery and civil rights abuses; no, they inundate us with stories about whites’ practice of slavery and abuse of civil rights. There are movies such as “Roots” and “Mississippi Burning” but none of note about the Aztecs’ or Shaka Zulu’s domination of neighboring peoples, or the current African slave trade or Zimbabwean “president” Robert Mugabe’s <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/81386/" target="_blank">persecution</a> of whites and political opponents. Then, relating the American history guidelines of a prominent textbook publisher, the author of The Language Police, Diane Ravitch, <a href="http://www.ednews.org/articles/25/1/Political-Correctness-and-Textbooks/Page1.html" target="_blank">writes</a>: “European Americans, the guidelines suggest, were uniquely responsible for bigotry and exploitation in all human history.” This philosophy imbues school textbooks. While featured prominently are the sins of whites, others’ sins are whitewashed. For instance, due to special-interest-group pressure – such as that applied by <a href="http://www.historytextbooks.org/islamreport.pdf" target="_blank">Moslem activists</a> – examples of slavery perpetrated by non-whites are in short supply or are sanitized. This, despite the fact that Moslem North Africans did at one time capture young boys of both the white and black races, castrate them and sell them into slavery. And this bias is a continuation of decades of anti-white propaganda of the kind embodied in Susan Sontag’s famous 1967 line, “The white race is the cancer of human history.” It’s an idea that has taken hold. Thus must I mount a defense of the white race. But I want to preface it with a few remarks. First, don’t ask why I undertake such an endeavor. When the president has a preacher talking about the black, brown, yellow, red and white, it’s silly to ask why I speak of race. I’m not initiating such a discussion, I’m responding. I’m not throwing punches, I’m blocking. Second, because of this – since I’m refuting those who assign blame by highlighting the sins of whites – it’s necessary that I trumpet whites’ accomplishments. Unlike those I’m refuting, however – who often ascribe the evils they feature to something inherent in whites – I don’t claim there is an innate quality in the race that should be credited with all these triumphs. On the contrary, I believe the force primarily responsible for Western civilization’s glories is Christianity, but that is grist for a different day. It’s not hard to figure out where a defense of whites must start: Slavery. It’s the most odd of issues, in that we all thoroughly agree on the wrongness of it yet it is thoroughly divisive. It is the defining grievance of black America, something that imbues millions of black psyches. As an example, I attended a gathering a few years ago at which there was a certain guest, a rather emotive and outgoing black fellow who was very good at relating every topic of discussion, from the meaningful to the mundane, to America’s slavery. It was as if he could channel Kunta Kinte in every conversation. Yet the reality of slavery is that, along with prostitution, it is one of the world’s oldest institutions. It is mentioned in the Bible and Koran, and, to the best of my knowledge, every major civilization has practiced it. And, if we’re to believe history and Afrocentrists (and I suppose you cannot believe both), the ancient Egyptians were black and enslaved Jews. Moreover, the Islamic slave trade took at least as many Africans into bondage as did the European variety, and African tribes themselves had slaves and sold them to both civilizations. Additionally, while the word “slave” conjures up the image of a black person in the typical American mind, the term itself is derived from the word “Slav.” This is because great numbers of Slavs were once sold into slavery by conquering peoples. In other words, no group ever cornered the market on slavery – it touched ever corner of the Earth. Yet, in the history of involuntary servitude, something else should be noted. It is a startling fact: While whites weren’t the first ones to practice slavery, they were the first ones to abolish it. Let’s be clear about this. Slavery was accepted. It was the status quo. It was an institution whose origin was shrouded in the mists of time. It was unquestioned. That is, until Europeans said “No more.” It was not Asians who effected this bold and unprecedented social change. It was not South Americans. It was not Africans. It was not American Indians. It was not Aborigines. It was Europeans, that cancer of human history, and they were just as white then as they are today. They gave the world change you can really believe in. People will try to explain away this historical fact, saying that this striking example of man’s humanity to man has nothing to do with race. I will simply reiterate that the why of the matter is a discussion for a different day. For now, I’m content to say that if whites can be demonized without explanation for being one of many groups to enslave Africans, they can be credited without explanation for being the first group to outlaw the enslavement of anyone. One of the reasons we fixate on slavery that ended more than 150 years ago concerns the effects many believe it has today. This is called the “legacy of slavery,” which, actually, seems not nearly as big a problem as the legacy of obsessing on legacies. Be that as it may, what is the real legacy of slavery? Well, let’s think about it: Many lament blacks’ economic state in America, claiming it’s part of slavery’s legacy. But where would blacks be were it not for slavery? The answer is Africa, where people’s economic state is far, far worse than that of American blacks. In other words, there is no reason to agonize over an event – even an evil one –responsible for your presence in a country that has offered its citizens unprecedented rights and standard of living. (Of course, to be precise, most blacks currently in the U.S. would not actually have been worse off absent slavery. This is because they wouldn’t have “been” at all, as ancestors whose procreation led to their existence would never even have met. The big picture is a funny thing, isn’t it?) The point is that most people who arrived on American shores were driven here by some kind of persecution. Whatever the reason, however, thank God we’re in the land of opportunity and not languishing in a slum in Asia, South America, Africa or Eastern Europe. So, it’s ironic, but that some blacks were brought here in chains yesterday ensured that their descendants wouldn’t have to wear chains today. Now we come to prejudice, another supposedly characteristic white fault. Yet the truth is quite the opposite. In reality, racial prejudice is probably found least among whites, due to political correctness. Most white children are raised today with the idea that it’s profoundly immoral to be prejudiced (<a href="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59129" target="_blank">I discussed this here</a>). This isn’t to say there aren’t some Archie Bunker types extant, but they certainly aren’t in fashion. Remember, it was mainly white people who originated, promoted and funded sensitivity-training classes, tolerance programs and multiculturalism (come to think of it, I may start hating white people myself). Now, while I consider these abominations to be worse than what they ostensibly remedy, this brings us to a relevant question: Can you think of another group that has gone to the point of self-flagellation to purge prejudice from its ranks? Heck, with how we beat each other up over this, no one really has to worry at all about whites. We’re all black and blue. Then we have the matter of white achievement. The vast majority of what makes the lives of all races better today – modern science and medicine; our luxuries; Western art, literature, legal institutions; etc. – is the handiwork of whites. Oh, this is simply a matter of circumstance, of opportunity, of a twist of fate, you say? Perhaps. Again, this is not the time to discuss the ways and whys. Suffice it to say for now that if President Obama (PBUH) can frame matters in terms of race at his inauguration (and in his books and everywhere else, it seems), I can in an article. And if whites can be ridiculed for their transgressions, they can be recognized for their triumphs. Yet, despite all this and more, caucaphobia is still not only accepted but often encouraged. And the hypocrisy is stark. The left admonishes against making even valid generalizations or entertaining intellectual discussions about group differences. And indulging stereotyping – that specter of egalitarian nightmares – can fast earn one pariah status in addition to a place on the unemployment line. Why, even the positive variety is off limits. We cannot say blacks are better athletes, even though the sports arena may bear witness to this; we cannot say Asians are more intelligent, even though they have the highest average I.Q. of any major racial group; we cannot say Latinos are good dancers (not sure about that one). The idea is that such beliefs can lead to stigmatization or resentment or, or . . . whatever the theory du jour may be. But when the matter is whites, even baseless negative stereotypes aren’t thought cause for alarm. A Reverend Lowery can imply that whites are uniquely flawed and immoral, they can be portrayed as the bane of man, as “the cancer of human history,” and it’s ho-hum. Yet, are we to believe that such demonization magically becomes harmless when whites are the targets? What does history teach about the plight of consistently scapegoated and dehumanized groups? It’s that they almost invariably end up suffering persecution. And given that current demographic trends indicate whites will becomes a minority in America during the lifetimes of many reading this, and given that even majorities sometimes are tyrannized – as Sunnis’ domination of Shiites under Saddam Hussein and the Spartans’ enslavement of the Helots proved – it’s foolish to dismiss the peril posed by mainstreaming caucaphobia. (In fact, whites already suffer the sting of persecution; I documented some cases <a href="http://selwynduke.typepad.com/selwyndukecom/2008/05/read-a-book-get.html#more" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/05/the_crime_of_being_white.html" target="_blank">here</a>). Yet, that increasingly-maligned dead white male Ben Franklin knew whereof he spoke when he said, “You cannot reason a man out of a position he has not reasoned himself into.” Prejudice is a function of emotion, not logic, and emotion is like darkness, in that it can be blinding. A person who sees only color – and through colored glasses – will have a powerful immunity to facts. Thus, I only expect caucaphobia to intensify. So what can we do? Well, prayer is always good, so I’ll conclude with one of my own right now. Lord, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will cease the attack, brown will no longer frown, white will be all right – and rhymes will fit the times. Website: <a href="http://www.selwynduke.com/">selwynduke.com</a>

In Defense of the White Man

By Selwyn Duke NewsWithViews.com While many believe that prejudice has diminished over time, it’s not really true. Prejudice is much like th...

8:43 AM

Slavery in Africa today

<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305380635764951266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8d4DwcOx9RkbPsjW4WSjb2KMc0yoUvQ8hyphenhyphenTHGJ588Kur2KAIXKjKFuR6YgZUdbUi5fO312hIgzQLnkdB5jr5XRB_9SFB2X7OhrNFn3Jv7Ewiy08eTaxXEf9w4kNZPmlfu_virazSW6PM/s400/child_begging1.gif" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 360px" />By Lord Aikins Adusei Although slavery was abolished more than a hundred and forty years ago and all countries in Africa are now politically free, there is a new form of slavery in Africa today which is cruel, harsh and severe like the one which took place about five centuries ago. This new slavery is like unquenchable fire ravaging in a dense but dry forest consuming everything on its path. This new slavery which is consuming Africans and decimating them is poverty. Despite decades of independence, availability of natural resources and existence of technology to make good these rich resources, Africa is still the poorest continent on earth. Today Africa is a continent where majority of the people live on one dollar a day. Africa is a continent where people die for lack of food, potable drinking water, and against common preventable diseases. It is a continent where malnutrition abounds and few children under the age of five survive the menace of the six killer diseases. It is a continent where child mortality is high and life expectancy is low. It is a continent where people walk several miles for water and children have no access to education and medical care. It is a continent where rural life is nothing but a condemnation to poverty, misery, desperation and hopelessness. It is a place where people live in mud/thatched houses with bamboo/raffia leafs as roofing sheets.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX4qtsHej_cYrDnbIEPq-1041wga1KGpZVXp6is0Ab1cFaWizF_jaQbVJ9gfarMV_mDMgs-DmP-vjxvFfzlu13D1xc-x-1HybsZAutITpkkzO4Sto_pd03hFWkg9MMVZy9wbvtDrublBM/s1600-h/poverty-slave.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305607857353525650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX4qtsHej_cYrDnbIEPq-1041wga1KGpZVXp6is0Ab1cFaWizF_jaQbVJ9gfarMV_mDMgs-DmP-vjxvFfzlu13D1xc-x-1HybsZAutITpkkzO4Sto_pd03hFWkg9MMVZy9wbvtDrublBM/s320/poverty-slave.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 213px" /></a>It is a continent full of wars and armed conflicts. It is a continent where democracy and rule of law are a myth. It is a continent full of dictators and kleptocrats; a continent where corruption is handsomely rewarded and achievement is shunned; a place where entry into public life/service is a means to acquiring wealth. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigeSpdur4a9tld6diGwRo0CS0NyGPCPz3g4aPa0FMcv0rjUywrebt98Cy6v0rNC0Clio2-MiVZRqoW_KAa3h30UxwEVKgYmj_c4nkYWdK2Va6CVsoFKDR3IdZA_2pSFb8x8DFubO93bGs/s1600-h/zimbabwe-cholera-415x275.jpg"></a>From Cape Town in South Africa in the south to Tunis in Tunisia in the north the story of poverty is the same. In all these countries there is lack of financial resources and economic opportunities. There is lack of food and potable drinking water; there is lack of health, housing and accommodation facilities; there is the poverty of landlessness and employment. Access to education, health and other basic infrastructures is limited to just a few. In Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Malawi, Mauritania, Sudan and Eritrea people lack basic food and water and are at the mercy of UN food aid. In Sierra Leone, DR Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Equatorial Guinea the people lack basic health services and 8 out of ten of the population have not seen a dentist before. People are landless; they have no access to education, employment, housing and accommodation; they live in harsh and unforgiving political environment; they face threat of viruses and diseases such as HIV/AIDS, ebola and malaria.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD6qP1DO52bMYSOXZFSkQBC3Xta9B6V0WQj7tPnMbu9geRSNVZNTOuQomLnS1cxuVp9t_roJdBxYdeRrHjhNqOaTGQ84C5Ffz_DIX1l_ky4IhDT7c_7nxyAIYV6MKYfM8entxGJtYURN0/s1600-h/poverty-crying%2520child.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305607603791530978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD6qP1DO52bMYSOXZFSkQBC3Xta9B6V0WQj7tPnMbu9geRSNVZNTOuQomLnS1cxuVp9t_roJdBxYdeRrHjhNqOaTGQ84C5Ffz_DIX1l_ky4IhDT7c_7nxyAIYV6MKYfM8entxGJtYURN0/s320/poverty-crying%2520child.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 230px" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjttDjPiJ2BcUZqymnn_0XOYeMDwzA40MKQZ9uBwIno04DMxfyYeE6lF0HdEr95vIWCunovovR7arVAcBi6LK35q5mQ8g4aEHFtHZWose4EczWeJDXy4tKU31ircTuGfrG8aTZgH5eiDRk/s1600-h/poverty-crying%2520child.jpg"></a>Africa today is the worst place for a child to be born or grow up due to poverty and lack of opportunities. There are many cities, towns and villages where children go to school without food or eat once a day, something unimaginable in Western societies. Due to poverty most children under five are malnourished and underweight. The children are not properly clothed or sheltered. They do not receive much attention from their parents. Due to the pervasive and extreme nature of poverty, children prematurely become adults at the age of ten sometimes even less. They take on the responsibility of adults; scavenge for food and work to bring home income to support the family. As a result absenteeism in schools are high as many students swap their education for income generating activities such as fishing, farming and hawking, an act that continue to fuel and perpetuate the poverty cycle. They suffer many abuses silently in the hands of those who employ them and many are maladjusted. In the villages and in the rural areas kids walk bare footed to school and even to church or mosque. In most rural areas students have to study with lantern because there is no electricity. In the rural areas children have no class rooms and have to study under trees. Today in Sierra Leone as in many places in Africa a child is more likely to die at birth or die before reaching the age of five. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7nrAOdyomGS6fAGtda5WGCmqPEHsz7jBT2CqCcmM0cNt-UEVT72LJ_MrJOy8LZrnaHzpIGBxtq_VgRh7Lo_4gybjwGK7zTuH91iQ2V9tsdYn93x5xrTr9N97MEwXCDhBIvnb0ZaSiBjU/s1600-h/zimbabwe_gbs.jpg"></a>Like their children, the existence of poverty and lack of economic opportunities make parents worry about what they and their family will eat as the evening approaches. Most parents struggle to feed their children and many have to credit food in order to feed their families. Parents are frustrated when they cannot cloth their kids or pay their fees and more agitated when they cannot pay their rents and face ejection. There is nothing so humiliating and insulting than not been able to feed, cloth and provide accommodation for ones family, act which is exacerbated by the culture in Africa. <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305435373895446210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZeSekqulNyNBP4Ax9Z7tLQK2OPgbVeKPdwiEPXDTkESIW9Q5qTHE4WsS92gWyJhMQ90wh5aQ8zCfEgZym-4Feuxhbl1nbfBREYFihdxMPr4_OIT397DLM5LoLFp7Eh4EX081H4jifqpQ/s400/poverty-starvation1.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 286px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305443887931847202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmC0ubqU28KnRQugbgAWQAuidEjVF_EdH91EuODO2iZWteCM6UN7FdIg-nz2VpE4aNdNm-2w9dXD9CieGOR48s2wX_bdjhGodfW-FXZzcmHxl3SmS6q6BirDf3ifavvAaMk7opBzH2PvM/s400/poverty-starvation2.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 286px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />Life in an African city is a great struggle and a constant battle for both young and old. There are no safety nets like unemployment benefits, council accommodation for homeless people etc. Many workers have no savings, and those without jobs are at the mercy of their distance families, friends and love ones. Slaved to poverty and helpless, these men and women have very few options: commit suicide in their own countries, run away from their children or battle the seas to reach Europe. Many in Europe will now understand why men and women battle dangerous seas for days often without food and water to reach Spain, Malta or Italy to seek employment, something they have been denied by their slave masters in Africa. This also explains why Africans will offer their services for any type of work so far as they are paid. The disturbances that took place in Egypt, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast in 2008 over food shortages and price increases is jut the tip of the iceberg.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI7eunnoC-ckF1Gl77ZIuu0f7FheioRXIQEgPeRzWrHScfyEsqYXqCgjxEsSfsJWpgdPuwpdAiB4iMm8bMB548YzizvDzNQy37GR6YE2PhBbRb6ztRTlMmVEO8JNdm1GaFIXWGqyPDMGc/s1600-h/poverty-Hungry-man.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305439838403720402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI7eunnoC-ckF1Gl77ZIuu0f7FheioRXIQEgPeRzWrHScfyEsqYXqCgjxEsSfsJWpgdPuwpdAiB4iMm8bMB548YzizvDzNQy37GR6YE2PhBbRb6ztRTlMmVEO8JNdm1GaFIXWGqyPDMGc/s320/poverty-Hungry-man.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 267px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a>There are many things that those in the West take for granted such as undisrupted and constant supply of electricity, water, availability of jobs and affordable food, clothing and council flats. In Africa items such as cars, fridges, flat screen TV, laptops, camcorders, cameras and most electronic gadgets is a luxury. When one does not know where the evening meal is going to come from can he think about buying a TV set? That is how bad the situation is in Africa.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMo9o6UA2gWCwFhmwufzcoT6J9MaX3cfXkUpA_6bcn1Wjtau_N0FK5jUgpfh0AsfLuT7NGRQ6IIgqZ9HAHbG9pRySccul7eodCCW8888wEgnXCO4TJf3pILwUdldkIaFhFY87hnApJaI0/s1600-h/poverty-Hungry-man.jpg"></a>It is not only individuals who are poor but communities, villages, towns and cities as well. In some communities there are no schools and children have to walk several kilometres a every school day in order to attend the nearest school which may be 5 or 10 kilometres away. In some communities you can only travel once a week as the only vehicle in the village leaves and comes once a week. There is no tap water. A town or village is lucky if there is a borehole. In most communities humans and animals share the same unprotected water source. Wells and streams are polluted and because the people have no alternatives they are forced to drink it. As a result water borne diseases are rampant, and deaths from such diseases are daily occurrence. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwVYKxLD5WdQ0tPqvX4SV1I0a8LW6Ql3lwySohepHKNxN_j_vVMzUrTj3_P5udZUUHuMHktXx7k7NF8OrFs6BsD23FgLxcyqJr-dDLs-w_FTWVlo0ST7KwY8CpS4gFR4-Jhb_irpS_km4/s1600-h/africa_famine.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2xUkxkxoJbAW76kDNkwz3mhA7BeRi-RfHSVBsr8mEJHMz1AvfiNfnB8IhgDuRmHi1q_r_TY7ox3gHmrEXjVoaOe0RlzEmelVdNrk5QjG8nzeF8X1OWBKAXfrgF8sbbZbAgPT2b26T_pE/s1600-h/poverty-Africa01.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305436757500918242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2xUkxkxoJbAW76kDNkwz3mhA7BeRi-RfHSVBsr8mEJHMz1AvfiNfnB8IhgDuRmHi1q_r_TY7ox3gHmrEXjVoaOe0RlzEmelVdNrk5QjG8nzeF8X1OWBKAXfrgF8sbbZbAgPT2b26T_pE/s320/poverty-Africa01.png" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 255px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a>In some communities there are no hospitals, clinics, health centres or pharmacy and patients have to travel several kilometres to nearby towns before they can receive treatment or medical help. In these communities people always pray that nothing catastrophic happens in the night as that will mean automatic death. In these communities pregnant mothers are always at risk of death as there are no ambulances, and roads are poor and vehicles are scarce. This explains why child mortality is high. In the towns and villages there are no electricity and that means no economic activity that requires electricity can survive in that environment. Farmers have no place to sell their produce as there is no market infrastructure. They therefore rely on the ‘generosity’ of market women from the cities who troop the villages to buy the products at whatever price they want. In cities where public services (utilities and amenities) are relatively available, there are always shortages of essential medicines, equipments, beds, vehicles and specialised professionals in the hospitals. It is common to find patients sleeping on bed mats on the floor of hospitals while nurses and doctors go about their normal duties. In the big cities it is common to hear news that patients have absconded from the hospitals before they are officially discharged because they are poor and cannot pay their bills. As a result patients are now detained after getting well till they pay their bills. Constant disruption of water and electricity supply is a headache for hospital officials, factories and households. It is common to find waste bins filled to the brim and tipping. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAnPPDGZmLmdo_pJaugjRkVIZrJvPAmzjyr6FbJuHg_J5Q1GThQSpzoGUc5XgPCf1KqMGrxwpGwemewC5zr9LVuZuc7mgMFnSgC6oSGr9VtKpQR-HyVzJGLY5ETbtbR_WXjIlHeMkXy3M/s1600-h/poverty02.bmp"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305436193240195522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAnPPDGZmLmdo_pJaugjRkVIZrJvPAmzjyr6FbJuHg_J5Q1GThQSpzoGUc5XgPCf1KqMGrxwpGwemewC5zr9LVuZuc7mgMFnSgC6oSGr9VtKpQR-HyVzJGLY5ETbtbR_WXjIlHeMkXy3M/s320/poverty02.bmp" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 210px" /></a>Almost all the open gutters are choked and anytime it rains flood begins to threaten the people. In these cities very few houses have their own toilet facilities as a result majority of the people rely on public toilets which are themselves very few and untidy. Some of these toilets stink so much so that one has to take a bath or shower immediately after use. Due to pressure on these few toilets they are always in poor shape. In Accra lack of toilet facilities especially along the coast have forced people to use the seashore as a place of convenience. A visit to Dutch Hotel in Nungua in the morning, afternoon or evening reveals a large army of men, women and children easing themselves not far from where this beautiful hotel is situated. In Nima, Ashaiman, Nungua and James Town all suburbs of Accra, it is common to find human excreta wrapped in polythene bags and thrown into gutters, bushes and onto the street. In the cities there is the problem of managing waste, sanitation and sewerage. All these impact negatively on the health of the people and explain why life expectancy is very low. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBo4SaP_aprez_3z8vtWycRl6Pygu0R80mwhn3LWYKtOq5wXXHxkf2Udl1jhUOVAIkcSv8pk048sz-EQ1pIhHKlyeFqrCvBwz0QddzKwkRpIDz5IQXO4Q8f06Fe8cKseU48b1A_1U6ks/s1600-h/poverty-hunger-c1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305437151274086146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBo4SaP_aprez_3z8vtWycRl6Pygu0R80mwhn3LWYKtOq5wXXHxkf2Udl1jhUOVAIkcSv8pk048sz-EQ1pIhHKlyeFqrCvBwz0QddzKwkRpIDz5IQXO4Q8f06Fe8cKseU48b1A_1U6ks/s320/poverty-hunger-c1.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 211px" /></a>Shortage of accommodation means that people have to pay five times what their counterparts in the villages and towns are paying. People in the big cities always pray that rain does not fall in the evening or in the night as that will mean homeless people and hustlers will have to forfeit their sleep. In Accra, Lagos, Kano, Kampala, Nairobi and other major cities across the continent people live in the woods, sleep in metal containers, kiosks and makeshift structures and slum dwelling is very common. High unemployment in the cities fuelled by rural-urban migration has forced people onto the street. In Accra you can find hawkers of all kinds taking advantage of the ever present traffic jam to sell bread, chewing gum, ice water, apple and those who have nothing to sell engage in crime, and other social vices. A walk through the major streets of Accra, Lagos, Kumasi, Lome, Conakry, Freetown, Abidjan, Nairobi, and Kampala, Arusha, Monrovia and major cities in South Africa reveal how poverty has forced millions of people to beg for food and money. The problem is very disturbing when one looks at the disabled community. Roughly more than half of the beggars in Accra for instance are people who are disabled. Who are the slave masters? <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp1SMQXDTukfbCuu4T1aFP1AFA41rrqJOC2xYK7SYwspl9WaKBYWANCXYqYPJ5Za5TKRC5zQzqkj4lWpVq7Fa-eHTK-UL2RUFTiQHu1M_EIPO8AaPFhYfue6_xsubx-ovHAVyZN8wGH3I/s1600-h/black_beast.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305381232026355874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp1SMQXDTukfbCuu4T1aFP1AFA41rrqJOC2xYK7SYwspl9WaKBYWANCXYqYPJ5Za5TKRC5zQzqkj4lWpVq7Fa-eHTK-UL2RUFTiQHu1M_EIPO8AaPFhYfue6_xsubx-ovHAVyZN8wGH3I/s400/black_beast.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 278px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a>The slave masters in Africa today are the politicians, their cronies, the business elite and the well connected. Together they have hijacked and exercise full control over all the resources including land, labour, capital and revenues from all economic activities. They determine who should eat and who should not. They determine who should get a job and who should get sacked. They determine who gets a place to sell in the market and who should be kicked out. They determine who should get a contract and whose certificate should be withdrawn. They decide which roads should be constructed or resurfaced and which one should not. They determine which village or town gets connected to the national electricity grid. They determine which region or district receives funding for projects. The slave masters determine who should own which business and who should have a share in that business. You cannot get a certificate to operate a business unless you grease the palm of a politician. You cannot get a contract unless you know a politician in the ruling government. You are treated differently if you know the regional minister, the governor or the district chief executive (DCE). As far as one knows a cabinet minister he can do whatever he likes and nobody dares question him. It is always the poor and the have nots who get prosecuted and jailed while the politicians and their cronies who commit atrocious crimes against the state live in their mansions to enjoy their booty. Contractors do substandard works, collect hundreds of millions of dollars, give politicians their share and that is all. So a road whose live span is twenty years has to be resurfaced after just two years. Like the slavery of old, the politicians, their families, the businessmen and the well connected are not hurt by the storm of poverty in the continent but their slaves who make up the majority of the population do. These corrupt politicians and their associates are holding the people captive with their ill-conceived economic policies and programmes thereby giving them no chance to develop. The politicians in Africa call themselves saviour of the people and have names and titles like Junior Jesus, Servants of the Poor, but they are all lies. None of them cares for the poor but their own stomach. The people are poor because the slave masters have decided they should remain so, as monies meant for their development have been stolen and are sitting in Banks in Switzerland, Luxemburg, Jersey Island, and Britain. What will you say when people have no access to food, water, electricity; have no access to education and health facilities; cannot pay their rents and fees for their kids; have no jobs and no savings; have no access to toilet facilities and have to put up with horrible smell everyday? I have witnessed poverty in Africa and although I did not witness the slavery in the Americas, I have learnt enough about it and I can say with confidence that the poverty in Africa today is the modern version of the slavery that took place about five centuries ago.

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