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Slavery's last stronghold

124 points by soundsop 15y ago

cmaxwell 15y ago
I thought it was going to be an article about mechanical turk.
H_E_Pennypacker 15y ago
I don't mean to undermine this powerful report but slavery is alive and growing across the planet. I think it's important to remember that there are higher percentages of slaves in the world now than there were back in the days the Western world considers the slave era. So, Mauritania is far from being the last stronghold. Al Jazeera and Rageh Omar produced an excellent series on modern day slavery.
- conroy 15y ago
  For those interested, here is a link to the series that H_E_Pennypacker mentioned. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/slaverya21stcenturyevil/ http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/slaverya21stcenturyevil/
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- coldarchon 15y ago
  To my knowledge there are more slaves today than there have ever been before, but in numbers - not in percentages. Some years ago an ambassador had to leave Germany because his house maids were slaves.
- mtts 15y ago
  Indeed. And most slavery in the world today is extremely complicated (in order to make it less obvious that it is in fact slavery) and nasty, making the slavery discussed in this article almost seem benign by comparison: it's out in plain view, it involves black people and it takes place in a backwards country far, far away. Much different from, say, indentured servants in Dubai, Eastern European prostitutes or illegal immigrants in Europe.
  - randallsquared 15y ago
    It appears that a terrible consequence of redefining prostitution or immigration law as "slavery" is that it may lead to regarding the original, actual slavery as "benign by comparison".
    - mtts 15y ago
      "Illegal immigrants" : forced to work off their debts to the people who smuggled them into Europe, usually in illegal sweat shops or worse: "Eastern European prostitutes" : a subset of illegal immigrants who are forced to work as sex slaves.
  - mattdeboard 15y ago
    Did you actually read the article? "benign" doesn't belong in the same dictionary as the words that should be used to describe the slavery described in it.
    - mtts 15y ago
      If you look up what gets covered by the relatively innocuous term "Human trafficking" you'll find it can get much, much worse.
- wisty 15y ago
  I half expected it to be an article on the US prison system, or the abuse of indentured migrant workers (Dubai was the poster child for a time). But this seems worse. It's not people who were conned, or made bad decisions but people who were born into slavery. Westerners have a big bias towards rational choice - there's an assumption that it's always worse to deprive someone of choice in the first place than to take advantage of their mistakes; without considering any of the context. A burglar is often assumed to be worse than a con artist, even if the con artist steals far more. Sometimes we may take this assumption to an illogical extreme.
  - pbiggar 15y ago
    I read a book about slavery by the guy who runs "Free the Slaves". It gave 6 case studies of slavery in the modern world, and Mauritani was one of them. It was the only one which seemed remotely humane. In all of the others - ranging from indentured servanthood (yes, still slavery) in India and Pakistan, to kidnapped children in Brazil - the people were treated as expendable. Work them til they die, then get new slaves. By contrast, the institutional slavery in Mauritania, slaves are often treated like family. I don't think we should argue which is worse - many have given their lives for their freedom so it doesn't seem like we can decide which is more important - but I don't think how they got in their situation makes them worse. (And rereading your comments now, perhaps we actually agree on this). A final note: many other slaves are born into slavery, certainly indentured servants often pass on their debt to their children, and similar with lower caste slaves in India. In Thailand, parents are known to sell their young girls to the sex trade, which is roughly the same.
    - wisty 15y ago
      What I'm saying is that how they got in their situation isn't as big a factor as the conditions they are in. And yes, I think we both are making very similar arguments.
- olavk 15y ago
  Don't you mean that there are higher absolute numbers of slaves today? I have a hard time believing that there is a larger percentage of slaves today than in the roman empire. That would mean there is something like a billion slaves today. Edit: Wikipedia says there are estimated 12-27 millions slaves today, which is a lot of people, but certainly not as high a percentage of the worlds population.
  - bmj 15y ago
    I agree with the grandparent, but I'm skeptical of the numbers quoted, too. Slavery, along with child and sex trafficking, is certainly still a huge problem, but because it happens in the shadows, most people don't know about it.
    - yitchelle 15y ago
      And, because it occurs in the shadows, the true numbers will never been known.
jojopotato 15y ago
Regardless of the content of the article, it was laid out beautifully.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
josephcooney 15y ago
That first paragraph was like a punch in the face. Makes me realize how inconsequential my first-world problems are.
- choros12 15y ago
  I know I will be down-voted for this, but I just have to say it: US is a nation of slaves. People are slaves to their banks. They have to work just to have roof over their heads and medical care. I used to live in Poland, Germany and the US. I'm citizen of all those 3 countries. In places like Poland people are just free. You can even sense it from the way they act in Poland. They don't really give a damn about their jobs, this or that. They know they are covered. Most people in Poland own their apartments/houses. I mean they own it. Not the banks. It's not like you have to work. It is an option. Americans and the other hand are just so intensely focused on their jobs even when it is picking up garbage. But hey, they have little choice, don't they? They need to bring their paycheck to the bank every month, just not to be thrown outside the boat without the life jacket. The most perverted thing about this phenomenon though is that, Americans think they are free. They don't even see how enslaved by the system they are. Don't understand me wrong. I love the USA. It is my country. But it is just simply staggering when you think about the cognitive distortions Americans have when they look at themselves. Born in debt, die in debt. That's feudal peasants AND NOT free people.
thomasdavis 15y ago
Slavery exist everywhere, we just call it 'life' or '9-5'
- joshu 15y ago
  This comment reflects poorly on you as a person.
- ars 15y ago
  Equating that with real slavery is incredibly insulting and insensitive. You are making a mockery of their suffering.
- InclinedPlane 15y ago
  That is not slavery. Slavery is the absolute absence of choice and opportunity. So-called "wage slavery" is the very poster child of "first world problems". Oh golly gosh it sucks so much to be tied to a job you hate, doesn't it? But in the vast majority of cases that lack of perceived freedom is not an actual lack of freedom but due to choices made. Often it's due to failure to budget and save properly, failure to acquire better job skills, etc. Get some roommates, live in the cheapest part of town, stop paying money for cable, the internet, phones, movies, restaurants, etc. You'll start saving money pretty damned quick. Then use that savings to put yourself through a trade school, or just find a different line of work where you can learn on the job and move up. The world isn't going to hand you an out if you just sit on your ass and do the same thing over and over, you've got to make your own exit.
  - sofifonfek 15y ago
    So according to your post, having more money = freedom ? Does it not look like what a slave to money would say to deny slavery ? Or as stated in the article: Various religions in many countries have been used to justify the continuation of slavery. "They make people believe that going to paradise depends on their submission," That's said, what you stated is false,it's a known fact that the abolition of old style slavery was to replace it with a new from of slavery, namely minimum wage slavery, according to a then emerging economic context. Something along these lines: freed slaves have to find money to buy food and shelter and are offered minimum wage for jobs doing what they used to do when they were slave.
thesauce25 15y ago
Wow, I wish some of the KONY 2012 hype had spilled over to help these poor people.
ars 15y ago
Note that I read this article: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/17/world/africa/mauritania-slave-owner-abolitionist/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/17/world/africa/mauritania-sl... That part that really gets me is that the slave can't seem to even comprehend his own existence. Free him, and he'll remain a slave, since it's his mind that is enslaved, not his body. I hope that that at least alleviates the suffering that someone with a different mindset would experience - but it makes it much harder for the people viewing it from the outside. And it also adds a huge risk of people making it worse for him physically, in the name of making things better mentally. If it were me I would not start by freeing the slaves (they have no skills for the outside world), I would start by requiring masters to educate them (at least minimally - basic math, and reading, but not fact based education). The next step would be requiring a government mandated fixed salary per slave (let them build up some savings before having to subsist on their own). Only after that would I actually free them.
- lambersley 15y ago
  Reminds me of "we are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind...." Marcus Garvey, 1937
- ClHans 15y ago
  ... Free him, and he'll remain a slave ... reminds me a bit about the way we're (mostly) taught life ought to go in the U.S.. go to school, work hard, get a good job (working for someone else).. get a car (now you have a car payment..now you need that job!).. start a family, get a house (now you can't even THINK about quitting that job!).. and if you come close to paying off any of your indebtedness.. BUY BIGGER! Are we free in the U.S.? Nominally, yes. Culturally? Culturally, it seems like we're encouraged to indenture ourselves right from the get-go. The mindset is probably a lot less common on places like HN, where people are paid significantly better than median, admire the entrepreneur, and so on, but out in the rest of the world it is prevalent.
Synaesthesia 15y ago
Thanks for this, before I read the article I thought it would be about Dubai - where there are hundreds of thousands of wage slaves.
- ars 15y ago
  No, the people in Duabi are not wage slaves, they are indentured servants. People really need to stop using the term wage slave. Combining those two words causes a contradiction that is rarely accurate.
edwinnathaniel 15y ago
A semi-slavery, in a smaller isolated situation, still exists these days in some of the Arab countries and Malaysia where households will recruit servants (maid of the house) from a country such as Indonesia and pretty much did the usual drill: - Ask the maid to work inhumanly - Giving no vacation or "day out with friends" - Held hostage the passport - Occasionally raped or violent beating (sometime by using a very hot iron...) Given the situation that the maids are just imported "resources", the law/judge didn't seem to give much thought or care until recently where there were several of the cases became high-profiled due to international news covering them. These maids are typically treated like a slave. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11795356 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11795356 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13860097 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13860097 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13601362 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13601362
- pbiggar 15y ago
  Please don't refer to this practice as 'semi-slavery'. It is slavery. If you are held against your will and made work, it is slavery (and is in fact defined by the UN as such, as I recall).
  - edwinnathaniel 15y ago
    The reason why I chose the word "semi" was because of a few things: 1) It's not an official form of slavery on paper as in they got bought in exchange of money, but more as a "helper of the house" originally. 2) The said maid does have option: cut ties or report to the police, but they were normally under pressure not to do so (psychologically) But I won't argue/debate that it is definitely slavery.
maxklein 15y ago
No, don't believe this. The world is a very complex place, and what makes for a good story is often very different from what reality is. When American journalists write about the world, they write as if the world is America. Stories are broken down into us vs them, people become black and white, some people are assigned the label 'good' and some the label 'bad'. Everything gets americanised, even the american obsession with skin colour or racial differences works itself into every conflict that is reported on. Whatever the real story in mauritania is, it's made of centuries and centuries of history, a land caught between the arabs and the africans, a culture that has lasted hundreds of year. This cannot be captured in a short article on CNN that reduces it all to the archetypal american "black people enslaved by people who are not us". After reading this article, you still know nothing about Mauritania. You have no understand of the complexities of their society. All you have is this single story, this opinion piece by a single author. Your knowledge is second hand and it's second rate. You do yourself, Mauritania and history a great disservice if you read the article and believe it. A single story should only ever be something that invites you to discover the real history of a place and people (http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_...) When you read an article like this about Mauritania, don't read it. Realise that it's like overhearing a conversation between two strangers. You lack context, you lack understanding. That's why you should not believe this story. It's a single story about a place you know nothing about.
- martey 15y ago
  While I think it's reasonable to ask reader to consider secondary sources, you have offered neither actual evidence that the article contains falsehoods or "Americanized opinions" nor alternative sources that contradict this article. I would argue that it is an equal disservice to brush aside issues in foreign countries as being the result of "centuries and centuries of history" or cultural complexities. Based on your rationale, I should not believe anything I read about any place I am not intimately familiar with because I "lack context" about it.
- jczhang 15y ago
  Ok, that's fine if you're talking about the opinions in the article, but if want to refute the items presented as facts in the story, you need to back it up with facts yourself. Otherwise I would just as easily not believe you.
jMyles 15y ago
Seriously? How about the US Prison system? 13th Amendment: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, '''except''' as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Maro 15y ago
- Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. - Abdel read the line again and again. “I started to ask myself if lies were coming out of this book,” he told us, “or if they were rather coming out of my very own culture.” I just read V for Vendetta, the original comic book over the weekend: We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world. and Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof.
sofifonfek 15y ago
An interesting view of slavery in Mauritania, it's important to raise awareness about slavery which has a natural tendency to fly under the radar. But the sensationalist title is misleading, old style slavery is much more prevalent than this article let the reader believe, obvious cases are dubai and sex slaves, but there are more all across the world. And there is the new style of slavery,the kind where people are free to get minimum wage to barely pay for food and shelter or maintaining themselves in debt, the kind where freedom is about choosing between brands or channels, choosing between a limited panel of wanna be leaders all funded by the same pocket.
- lambersley 15y ago
  You throw dirt in the faces of those who have and continue to suffer through slavery by comparing it to minimum-wage workers. Slavery and Poverty and very distinct and one certainly more evil than the other.
tomkin 15y ago
This problem, like many problems in the world are often examined only a few layers deep. The conclusions are always the same: Poverty/Slavery are the consequence of corruption, or an evil dictator of some kind. While it is true that dictatorship, blind eyes and cruelty are the embodiment of these issues, religion is the sword that is wielded. Each year the west makes more progress in what I would consider the eventual realization that religion has no place in our society. We make the mistake of relenting that religion is used for moral guidance – when nations with higher atheism are the ones with the least problems. Tolerance of intolerance is not the moral high ground. Toyota made the fatal mistake of making a faulty floor mat which, only caused a handful of deaths. In that, Toyota fired a fleet of people, re-evaluated their whole process while battling media and governments for months. We burned Toyota at the stake for a handful of deaths, but we pay no mind to the religious implications of our world's enormous head counts all tied to religion. We let millions of innocents die because, what? It makes us feel all fuzzy inside to say others benefit from religion? Really? Why doesn't that rule apply to any other regime or group of followers? And when is it ever a good thing for many people to forfeit critical thinking in place of a template? Religion on our side of the world looks rosy. If you look away from the west, you will see how religion enslaves and dilutes entire populations into believing this is what god wants. If we want to really solve the world's problems, we must finally stamp out the tools used to cause pain for millions, and if we look to the roots, the catalyst is most obvious.
- lambersley 15y ago
  I completely agree with "an evil dictator of some kind." Many peoples have suffered the injustices of religion, also in agreement. "Nations with higher atheism are the ones with the least problems." Can you please source that? I believe religion in general does aid in providing some sense of moral compass. It is the two-edged sword that cuts and heals, depending on its wielder. Religion played a crutial part in Slavery, but it was also crucial in the abolishment of the same. As the article suggests, freedom cannot be given, it must be demanded. There is no way this is possible without educating the enslaved.
  - tomkin 15y ago
Porter_423 15y ago
“I only had my tears to console me,” how pathetic is this?Actually slavery has become a serious problem for the Africa.It should be just removed from Africa at any cost.
- ars 15y ago
  > at any cost At any cost? Are you sure? What if the cost is the life of all the slaves? Do you know what happens to people with no life skills at all that are suddenly thrown into the world to take care of themself? They should be helped, but not at any cost.
antoniefountain 15y ago
As a dedicated anti-trafficking advocate (check out www.stopthetraffik.org to see some of the work we do) I am used to trolling through pages of ignorant, xenophobic disheartening callousness after an article like this. I am so encouraged by the respect and knowledge you're bringing to the debate in this forum. What a breath of fresh air. Thank you, all the posters below, for reinforcing my faith in humanity!
egiva 15y ago
Unfortunately Mauritania isn't the last stronghold of slavery. Modern slavery exists in a number of places - including: The Ivory Coast - cocoa farming. Child slaves are an exploited part of the labor force in cocoa production (yes, your chocolate's main ingredient, cocoa, may come from sources that employ forced labor). Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_in_cocoa_production http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_in_cocoa_production The Unites States: there are an estimated 50,000 people trafficked into/out-of the US every year. 2.8 million children live in the streets, with over 30% exposed to the sex trade in some capacity. Source: http://www.gchope.org/human-slavery-statistics.html http://www.gchope.org/human-slavery-statistics.html
DanBC 15y ago
Forced Child Labour remains a problem in Central Africa (http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94721/AFRICA-High-cost-of-child-trafficking http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94721/AFRICA-High-cost-of-chi...) Note what they're doing - sometimes mining oil and minerals, or being sex-slaves for other people who are involved in mining. How many of those minerals are used in the tech devices we use everyday? Laws might exist in some countries, but there are suspicions of corruption; and some legal systems are overworked. (http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95013/UGANDA-Women-trafficked-into-sex-work http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95013/UGANDA-Women-trafficked...) Really, IRIN is a remarkable source of thoroughly depressing information about all this kind of stuff. I could dump thirty URLs and summaries here, but I'll let you look at IRIN in your own time. They do also cover good news and positive stories. The photo archives are remarkable too. Another good source is the UNHCR. $2.5billion per year from Human Trafficking: (http://www.unhcr.org.uk/resources/monthly-updates/september-2010/unhcr-advises-eu-on-measures-to-stop-human-trafficking.html http://www.unhcr.org.uk/resources/monthly-updates/september-...) More relevant to the OP: Anti-Slavery activists in prison while no-one has been convicted for slavery offences: (http://www.irinnews.org/Report/91528/MAURITANIA-Activists-trial-puts-spotlight-on-anti-slavery-law http://www.irinnews.org/Report/91528/MAURITANIA-Activists-tr...) And to finish, a "positive" story about an escaped slave. (http://www.unhcr.org.uk/news-and-views/news-list/news-detail/article/from-captive-to-budding-entrepreneur-with-a-boost-from-unhcr.html http://www.unhcr.org.uk/news-and-views/news-list/news-detail...)

124 points by soundsop 15y ago

I thought it was going to be an article about mechanical turk.

I don't mean to undermine this powerful report but slavery is alive and growing across the planet. I think it's important to remember that there are higher percentages of slaves in the world now than there were back in the days the Western world considers the slave era. So, Mauritania is far from being the last stronghold. Al Jazeera and Rageh Omar produced an excellent series on modern day slavery.

conroy 15y ago
For those interested, here is a link to the series that H_E_Pennypacker mentioned. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/slaverya21stcenturyevil/ http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/slaverya21stcenturyevil/
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
coldarchon 15y ago
To my knowledge there are more slaves today than there have ever been before, but in numbers - not in percentages. Some years ago an ambassador had to leave Germany because his house maids were slaves.
mtts 15y ago
Indeed. And most slavery in the world today is extremely complicated (in order to make it less obvious that it is in fact slavery) and nasty, making the slavery discussed in this article almost seem benign by comparison: it's out in plain view, it involves black people and it takes place in a backwards country far, far away. Much different from, say, indentured servants in Dubai, Eastern European prostitutes or illegal immigrants in Europe.
- randallsquared 15y ago
  It appears that a terrible consequence of redefining prostitution or immigration law as "slavery" is that it may lead to regarding the original, actual slavery as "benign by comparison".
  - mtts 15y ago
    "Illegal immigrants" : forced to work off their debts to the people who smuggled them into Europe, usually in illegal sweat shops or worse: "Eastern European prostitutes" : a subset of illegal immigrants who are forced to work as sex slaves.
- mattdeboard 15y ago
  Did you actually read the article? "benign" doesn't belong in the same dictionary as the words that should be used to describe the slavery described in it.
  - mtts 15y ago
    If you look up what gets covered by the relatively innocuous term "Human trafficking" you'll find it can get much, much worse.
wisty 15y ago
I half expected it to be an article on the US prison system, or the abuse of indentured migrant workers (Dubai was the poster child for a time). But this seems worse. It's not people who were conned, or made bad decisions but people who were born into slavery. Westerners have a big bias towards rational choice - there's an assumption that it's always worse to deprive someone of choice in the first place than to take advantage of their mistakes; without considering any of the context. A burglar is often assumed to be worse than a con artist, even if the con artist steals far more. Sometimes we may take this assumption to an illogical extreme.
- pbiggar 15y ago
  I read a book about slavery by the guy who runs "Free the Slaves". It gave 6 case studies of slavery in the modern world, and Mauritani was one of them. It was the only one which seemed remotely humane. In all of the others - ranging from indentured servanthood (yes, still slavery) in India and Pakistan, to kidnapped children in Brazil - the people were treated as expendable. Work them til they die, then get new slaves. By contrast, the institutional slavery in Mauritania, slaves are often treated like family. I don't think we should argue which is worse - many have given their lives for their freedom so it doesn't seem like we can decide which is more important - but I don't think how they got in their situation makes them worse. (And rereading your comments now, perhaps we actually agree on this). A final note: many other slaves are born into slavery, certainly indentured servants often pass on their debt to their children, and similar with lower caste slaves in India. In Thailand, parents are known to sell their young girls to the sex trade, which is roughly the same.
  - wisty 15y ago
    What I'm saying is that how they got in their situation isn't as big a factor as the conditions they are in. And yes, I think we both are making very similar arguments.
olavk 15y ago
Don't you mean that there are higher absolute numbers of slaves today? I have a hard time believing that there is a larger percentage of slaves today than in the roman empire. That would mean there is something like a billion slaves today. Edit: Wikipedia says there are estimated 12-27 millions slaves today, which is a lot of people, but certainly not as high a percentage of the worlds population.
- bmj 15y ago
  I agree with the grandparent, but I'm skeptical of the numbers quoted, too. Slavery, along with child and sex trafficking, is certainly still a huge problem, but because it happens in the shadows, most people don't know about it.
  - yitchelle 15y ago
    And, because it occurs in the shadows, the true numbers will never been known.

jojopotato 15y ago

Regardless of the content of the article, it was laid out beautifully.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

josephcooney 15y ago

That first paragraph was like a punch in the face. Makes me realize how inconsequential my first-world problems are.

choros12 15y ago
I know I will be down-voted for this, but I just have to say it: US is a nation of slaves. People are slaves to their banks. They have to work just to have roof over their heads and medical care. I used to live in Poland, Germany and the US. I'm citizen of all those 3 countries. In places like Poland people are just free. You can even sense it from the way they act in Poland. They don't really give a damn about their jobs, this or that. They know they are covered. Most people in Poland own their apartments/houses. I mean they own it. Not the banks. It's not like you have to work. It is an option. Americans and the other hand are just so intensely focused on their jobs even when it is picking up garbage. But hey, they have little choice, don't they? They need to bring their paycheck to the bank every month, just not to be thrown outside the boat without the life jacket. The most perverted thing about this phenomenon though is that, Americans think they are free. They don't even see how enslaved by the system they are. Don't understand me wrong. I love the USA. It is my country. But it is just simply staggering when you think about the cognitive distortions Americans have when they look at themselves. Born in debt, die in debt. That's feudal peasants AND NOT free people.

thomasdavis 15y ago

Slavery exist everywhere, we just call it 'life' or '9-5'

joshu 15y ago
This comment reflects poorly on you as a person.
ars 15y ago
Equating that with real slavery is incredibly insulting and insensitive. You are making a mockery of their suffering.
InclinedPlane 15y ago
That is not slavery. Slavery is the absolute absence of choice and opportunity. So-called "wage slavery" is the very poster child of "first world problems". Oh golly gosh it sucks so much to be tied to a job you hate, doesn't it? But in the vast majority of cases that lack of perceived freedom is not an actual lack of freedom but due to choices made. Often it's due to failure to budget and save properly, failure to acquire better job skills, etc. Get some roommates, live in the cheapest part of town, stop paying money for cable, the internet, phones, movies, restaurants, etc. You'll start saving money pretty damned quick. Then use that savings to put yourself through a trade school, or just find a different line of work where you can learn on the job and move up. The world isn't going to hand you an out if you just sit on your ass and do the same thing over and over, you've got to make your own exit.
- sofifonfek 15y ago
  So according to your post, having more money = freedom ? Does it not look like what a slave to money would say to deny slavery ? Or as stated in the article: Various religions in many countries have been used to justify the continuation of slavery. "They make people believe that going to paradise depends on their submission," That's said, what you stated is false,it's a known fact that the abolition of old style slavery was to replace it with a new from of slavery, namely minimum wage slavery, according to a then emerging economic context. Something along these lines: freed slaves have to find money to buy food and shelter and are offered minimum wage for jobs doing what they used to do when they were slave.

thesauce25 15y ago

Wow, I wish some of the KONY 2012 hype had spilled over to help these poor people.

ars 15y ago

Note that I read this article: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/17/world/africa/mauritania-slave-owner-abolitionist/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/17/world/africa/mauritania-sl... That part that really gets me is that the slave can't seem to even comprehend his own existence. Free him, and he'll remain a slave, since it's his mind that is enslaved, not his body. I hope that that at least alleviates the suffering that someone with a different mindset would experience - but it makes it much harder for the people viewing it from the outside. And it also adds a huge risk of people making it worse for him physically, in the name of making things better mentally. If it were me I would not start by freeing the slaves (they have no skills for the outside world), I would start by requiring masters to educate them (at least minimally - basic math, and reading, but not fact based education). The next step would be requiring a government mandated fixed salary per slave (let them build up some savings before having to subsist on their own). Only after that would I actually free them.

lambersley 15y ago
Reminds me of "we are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind...." Marcus Garvey, 1937
ClHans 15y ago
... Free him, and he'll remain a slave ... reminds me a bit about the way we're (mostly) taught life ought to go in the U.S.. go to school, work hard, get a good job (working for someone else).. get a car (now you have a car payment..now you need that job!).. start a family, get a house (now you can't even THINK about quitting that job!).. and if you come close to paying off any of your indebtedness.. BUY BIGGER! Are we free in the U.S.? Nominally, yes. Culturally? Culturally, it seems like we're encouraged to indenture ourselves right from the get-go. The mindset is probably a lot less common on places like HN, where people are paid significantly better than median, admire the entrepreneur, and so on, but out in the rest of the world it is prevalent.

Synaesthesia 15y ago

Thanks for this, before I read the article I thought it would be about Dubai - where there are hundreds of thousands of wage slaves.

ars 15y ago
No, the people in Duabi are not wage slaves, they are indentured servants. People really need to stop using the term wage slave. Combining those two words causes a contradiction that is rarely accurate.

edwinnathaniel 15y ago

A semi-slavery, in a smaller isolated situation, still exists these days in some of the Arab countries and Malaysia where households will recruit servants (maid of the house) from a country such as Indonesia and pretty much did the usual drill: - Ask the maid to work inhumanly - Giving no vacation or "day out with friends" - Held hostage the passport - Occasionally raped or violent beating (sometime by using a very hot iron...) Given the situation that the maids are just imported "resources", the law/judge didn't seem to give much thought or care until recently where there were several of the cases became high-profiled due to international news covering them. These maids are typically treated like a slave. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11795356 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11795356 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13860097 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13860097 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13601362 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13601362

pbiggar 15y ago
Please don't refer to this practice as 'semi-slavery'. It is slavery. If you are held against your will and made work, it is slavery (and is in fact defined by the UN as such, as I recall).
- edwinnathaniel 15y ago
  The reason why I chose the word "semi" was because of a few things: 1) It's not an official form of slavery on paper as in they got bought in exchange of money, but more as a "helper of the house" originally. 2) The said maid does have option: cut ties or report to the police, but they were normally under pressure not to do so (psychologically) But I won't argue/debate that it is definitely slavery.

maxklein 15y ago

No, don't believe this. The world is a very complex place, and what makes for a good story is often very different from what reality is. When American journalists write about the world, they write as if the world is America. Stories are broken down into us vs them, people become black and white, some people are assigned the label 'good' and some the label 'bad'. Everything gets americanised, even the american obsession with skin colour or racial differences works itself into every conflict that is reported on. Whatever the real story in mauritania is, it's made of centuries and centuries of history, a land caught between the arabs and the africans, a culture that has lasted hundreds of year. This cannot be captured in a short article on CNN that reduces it all to the archetypal american "black people enslaved by people who are not us". After reading this article, you still know nothing about Mauritania. You have no understand of the complexities of their society. All you have is this single story, this opinion piece by a single author. Your knowledge is second hand and it's second rate. You do yourself, Mauritania and history a great disservice if you read the article and believe it. A single story should only ever be something that invites you to discover the real history of a place and people (http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_...) When you read an article like this about Mauritania, don't read it. Realise that it's like overhearing a conversation between two strangers. You lack context, you lack understanding. That's why you should not believe this story. It's a single story about a place you know nothing about.

martey 15y ago
While I think it's reasonable to ask reader to consider secondary sources, you have offered neither actual evidence that the article contains falsehoods or "Americanized opinions" nor alternative sources that contradict this article. I would argue that it is an equal disservice to brush aside issues in foreign countries as being the result of "centuries and centuries of history" or cultural complexities. Based on your rationale, I should not believe anything I read about any place I am not intimately familiar with because I "lack context" about it.
jczhang 15y ago
Ok, that's fine if you're talking about the opinions in the article, but if want to refute the items presented as facts in the story, you need to back it up with facts yourself. Otherwise I would just as easily not believe you.

jMyles 15y ago

Seriously? How about the US Prison system? 13th Amendment: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, '''except''' as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Maro 15y ago

- Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. - Abdel read the line again and again. “I started to ask myself if lies were coming out of this book,” he told us, “or if they were rather coming out of my very own culture.” I just read V for Vendetta, the original comic book over the weekend: We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world. and Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof.

sofifonfek 15y ago

An interesting view of slavery in Mauritania, it's important to raise awareness about slavery which has a natural tendency to fly under the radar. But the sensationalist title is misleading, old style slavery is much more prevalent than this article let the reader believe, obvious cases are dubai and sex slaves, but there are more all across the world. And there is the new style of slavery,the kind where people are free to get minimum wage to barely pay for food and shelter or maintaining themselves in debt, the kind where freedom is about choosing between brands or channels, choosing between a limited panel of wanna be leaders all funded by the same pocket.

lambersley 15y ago
You throw dirt in the faces of those who have and continue to suffer through slavery by comparing it to minimum-wage workers. Slavery and Poverty and very distinct and one certainly more evil than the other.

tomkin 15y ago

This problem, like many problems in the world are often examined only a few layers deep. The conclusions are always the same: Poverty/Slavery are the consequence of corruption, or an evil dictator of some kind. While it is true that dictatorship, blind eyes and cruelty are the embodiment of these issues, religion is the sword that is wielded. Each year the west makes more progress in what I would consider the eventual realization that religion has no place in our society. We make the mistake of relenting that religion is used for moral guidance – when nations with higher atheism are the ones with the least problems. Tolerance of intolerance is not the moral high ground. Toyota made the fatal mistake of making a faulty floor mat which, only caused a handful of deaths. In that, Toyota fired a fleet of people, re-evaluated their whole process while battling media and governments for months. We burned Toyota at the stake for a handful of deaths, but we pay no mind to the religious implications of our world's enormous head counts all tied to religion. We let millions of innocents die because, what? It makes us feel all fuzzy inside to say others benefit from religion? Really? Why doesn't that rule apply to any other regime or group of followers? And when is it ever a good thing for many people to forfeit critical thinking in place of a template? Religion on our side of the world looks rosy. If you look away from the west, you will see how religion enslaves and dilutes entire populations into believing this is what god wants. If we want to really solve the world's problems, we must finally stamp out the tools used to cause pain for millions, and if we look to the roots, the catalyst is most obvious.

lambersley 15y ago
I completely agree with "an evil dictator of some kind." Many peoples have suffered the injustices of religion, also in agreement. "Nations with higher atheism are the ones with the least problems." Can you please source that? I believe religion in general does aid in providing some sense of moral compass. It is the two-edged sword that cuts and heals, depending on its wielder. Religion played a crutial part in Slavery, but it was also crucial in the abolishment of the same. As the article suggests, freedom cannot be given, it must be demanded. There is no way this is possible without educating the enslaved.
- tomkin 15y ago

Porter_423 15y ago

“I only had my tears to console me,” how pathetic is this?Actually slavery has become a serious problem for the Africa.It should be just removed from Africa at any cost.

ars 15y ago
> at any cost At any cost? Are you sure? What if the cost is the life of all the slaves? Do you know what happens to people with no life skills at all that are suddenly thrown into the world to take care of themself? They should be helped, but not at any cost.

antoniefountain 15y ago

As a dedicated anti-trafficking advocate (check out www.stopthetraffik.org to see some of the work we do) I am used to trolling through pages of ignorant, xenophobic disheartening callousness after an article like this. I am so encouraged by the respect and knowledge you're bringing to the debate in this forum. What a breath of fresh air. Thank you, all the posters below, for reinforcing my faith in humanity!

egiva 15y ago

Unfortunately Mauritania isn't the last stronghold of slavery. Modern slavery exists in a number of places - including: The Ivory Coast - cocoa farming. Child slaves are an exploited part of the labor force in cocoa production (yes, your chocolate's main ingredient, cocoa, may come from sources that employ forced labor). Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_in_cocoa_production http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_in_cocoa_production The Unites States: there are an estimated 50,000 people trafficked into/out-of the US every year. 2.8 million children live in the streets, with over 30% exposed to the sex trade in some capacity. Source: http://www.gchope.org/human-slavery-statistics.html http://www.gchope.org/human-slavery-statistics.html

DanBC 15y ago

Forced Child Labour remains a problem in Central Africa (http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94721/AFRICA-High-cost-of-child-trafficking http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94721/AFRICA-High-cost-of-chi...) Note what they're doing - sometimes mining oil and minerals, or being sex-slaves for other people who are involved in mining. How many of those minerals are used in the tech devices we use everyday? Laws might exist in some countries, but there are suspicions of corruption; and some legal systems are overworked. (http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95013/UGANDA-Women-trafficked-into-sex-work http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95013/UGANDA-Women-trafficked...) Really, IRIN is a remarkable source of thoroughly depressing information about all this kind of stuff. I could dump thirty URLs and summaries here, but I'll let you look at IRIN in your own time. They do also cover good news and positive stories. The photo archives are remarkable too. Another good source is the UNHCR. $2.5billion per year from Human Trafficking: (http://www.unhcr.org.uk/resources/monthly-updates/september-2010/unhcr-advises-eu-on-measures-to-stop-human-trafficking.html http://www.unhcr.org.uk/resources/monthly-updates/september-...) More relevant to the OP: Anti-Slavery activists in prison while no-one has been convicted for slavery offences: (http://www.irinnews.org/Report/91528/MAURITANIA-Activists-trial-puts-spotlight-on-anti-slavery-law http://www.irinnews.org/Report/91528/MAURITANIA-Activists-tr...) And to finish, a "positive" story about an escaped slave. (http://www.unhcr.org.uk/news-and-views/news-list/news-detail/article/from-captive-to-budding-entrepreneur-with-a-boost-from-unhcr.html http://www.unhcr.org.uk/news-and-views/news-list/news-detail...)