‘Sea Slaves’: The human misery that feeds pets and livestock
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Although I'm buried in debt now, I'm glad I had the opportunity to go through university and study the sciences which guided me in taking the proper direction in life - the U.S. is definitely one of those few places in the world where opportunities are far more accessible.
My initial reaction to these types of articles is filled with empathy and sorrow and hope that people like Lang Long will have better future, but to be honest and be for real, in certain aspects, and in current era, we depend (in many cases we're not even aware of it) on the labors of people around the world in unfortunate circumstances so that we can benefit from them - the ugly side of this is... that the world is... an unforgiving place - there's gotta be someone out there doing the dirty work for someone else, I'd imagine that even the sea-slave traffickers themselves are trying to survive no different than Lang Long is, albeit in this particular case, they're brutal and inhumane.
I hope for a day when all slaves are treated humanely or slavery completely abolished, and for the day humanoid machines or drones will take the place of humans (in more efficient way) in back-breaking work so that criminals like the traffickers will have less incentives to kidnap and put vulnerable people into inhumane slavery.
Microloans and micro donations really improve lives in the 3rd world.
Not many businesses succeed and if people who have nothing have to give back the money, they're pretty much fucked.
It's kinda like the credit situation in the west - most people are in debt to some bank.
> But what about the lending organizations on the ground—should they close up shop? Karlan says no. They're doing exactly what they promised to investors: making money and creating some good while they’re at it. For instance, the studies also found that, in Mexico, microcredit helped women pay off their debts.
Besides my main point is that yes things suck, but we can always find ways to either fix it or make it suck less and less over time. I'm not stuck on any particular solution.
Much uglier side is that our stupid culture hinders automation of human labor. We could automate 90% of physical labor with previous decade's technology if it were a political agenda (meaning will to optimize lifestyle around machine labor thus ditching expectations of interacting with retail and salesman employees when buying products etc). It's just that overwhelming majority of people are ok with current state of things as they are either because they have won the lottery of being in 1st world and with money or because they work like biorobots in the rest of the world and don't have time to think.
Doesn't it feel like the world has constantly been in this constant state of extreme suffering and extreme joy both co-existing in the modern era of humanity?
For all the talk of progress a country may paint, they are either engaging in oppressive tactics locally or abroad.
This seems to apply to a vast majority of countries throughout the world.
I don't like to blame an ideology for humanities woes, because it is just that: an ideology.
It does however seem that this unfettered capitalism has churned a greed so strong that those in power will do anything to keep their money-machines rolling.
Eg.
- Oil spills that indefinitely damage ocean-life for decades,centuries ...
- Women and Child-trafficking to keep the prostitution industry going
- Drug-smuggling, human-smuggling and all other types of smuggling to keep those industries going
It almost feels like it never got worse, it just got more exposure and that its always been there, in the dark corners where we are scared to look, because we'd much rather shelter our lives with a quasi-happiness that ignores such an extreme-suffering of our fellow man/woman/child.
I blame us all, starting with myself.
It's harrowing that the 20th century was labeled a century of genocide, when in reality it was the century that started exposing and denouncing it.
But yes, the exposure and outrage and "never again" is legitimately progress...
http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progre...
The media paints a black picture because that sells clicks, but in fact, the world is now a much better place than it has ever been. Despite population growth, fewer and fewer people live in extreme poverty. More and more children have access to education. Child mortality is down. More people have access to clean water. And, outside that report, wars kill fewer people than before.
I don't think capitalism is "unfettered", but the access to global market economy has been a factor in bringing this development throughout the world, particularly in China and India, which used to have huge numbers of extremely poor people.
All these things and worse happen under totalitarian governments with planned economies.
It's human nature that is the problem - some people would rather enslave than liberate.
If those stories have not sufficiently depressed you, take a look at what happens to much of our stuff when we are done with it, and much of it ends up back in poor countries for salvage.
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/21/132204954/after-dump-what-happ...
http://news.discovery.com/tech/indias-poor-risk-slow-death-r...
I do wonder if there is any sort of image parsing and other analysis we can do on the oceans to spot these slave vessels.
I've always wondered why the Thai government and King are okay with condoning the massive sex tourism industry there (the majority of which is built to serve foreigners... which stands in contrast to the sex industries in other Asian countries). Don't they know that in the western world, Thais are at the butt of all the stereotypical sucky-sucky-me-so-horny jokes?
I find it unbelievably demeaning culturally... and it seems so contradictory to the otherwise prideful Thai culture...
Any local Thais care to comment?
And oh: the "me so horny" line comes from Full Metal Jacket, a Vietnam war movie.
And yes, I do know the genesis of the "me so horny" line, but my point still stands. Thailand, especially the seedier aspects, is synonymous with "sex tourism" in the west.
Compare the image of Thailand's sex industry with say that of Amsterdam's red light district...
But regarding what Google typeahead suggests to you, it depends on your location and perhaps your own search history. For me the options with "Thailand se" are september, seasons, sevärdheter ("sights" in Swedish). So if someone sees proposals with "Thailand sex", it could be because he or she has been doing previous searches for Thai sex tourism.
Of course this is all voluntary, and the pay is much better. There're also environmental regulations, prohibiting unsustainable fishing practices.
I'd be one of those far-flung consumers if I was given the choice? I will read tuna cans more carefully.
1) fish origin labelling - which has massive benefits of other types. Currently there just isn't enough 'look through' to enable consumers to determine the source of seafood products.
2) a more developed economy in Cambodia and other places, so that nobody turns to people smugglers in desperation.
I don't think the seasteaders contend that there is something magic about being alone on the ocean that makes a good society. So in that sense, seasteading would not "create" anything.
Rather, their idea is that the same freedom and informality that allows definitely-horrible things like this, would also allow for controversially horrible things, like libertarian policies.
Not the sword but the wielder, etc.
They are not just ignoring, but never even considering, those people who already live "free" on the high seas: pirates, human traffickers, poachers of protected fisheries, smugglers, toxic waste dumpers, and the generally unsavory characters who are largely invisible to the rest of the world.
Any seastead will eventually encounter those people, who are already out there, on their reefers and other largely obsoleted vessels. They do not subscribe to the non-aggression principle (NAP), and are often very skilled at concealing their unethical behavior from observers. I have never seen this issue seriously addressed by any NAP-libertarian.
What do you do when a ship pulls up to your seastead's floating dock, and you see an unhappy man bolted to the deck with a neck chain? If the raft next door runs a brothel, how do you really know that none of the employees have been coerced into working there? If a factory-mothership offers to sell you its by-catch, should you worry about where it came from? Could a group of armed "guests" take control of your floating home? What do you do when your fish farm gets poached? Will you always know where the line between non-interference and complicity lies? If you make any wrong decisions, you may die, or attract the future ire of someone better armed than you.
The key concept is that people who have better reasons for evading the laws of nation-states--typically prison or execution--are already out there. Furthermore, you can't positively identify them or their motives, nor can you avoid dealing with them in the long run. And if you establish a system that deals with them (and naturally, the traditional seasteader's bogeyman of a state-owned navy vessel) acceptably, how do you prevent that from turning into a government? And if those guys are already out there thumbing their noses at the law, why bother with the complicated engineering projects? Just buy an old reefer and take it out beyond the territorial limit, and you're done.
It all makes me think that seasteading is a way to scam people afraid of losing some of their money into actually losing most of their money. If the promoters weren't out to sell speculative floating concrete boxes to credulous suckers, they could be actually operating one of those motherships, supplying and trading with people who live in international waters, on their existing convenience-flagged vessels. Why aren't they?
Why not let it turn into a government? I'm not a libertarian, but I don't think libertarians are quite anarchists.
With regards to security, that just doesn't seem too hard of a problem, at least against non-state actors. Hopefully the place should easily throw off enough surplus to afford a security force that could take on pirates.
Now, I may be describing a more centralized authoritarian setup than a libertarian might be comfortable with. But Dubai and Singapore are real places not under threat by pirates, while I can't think of a libertarian society that actually exists anywhere.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicagarrison/the-new-american-sla...
Slavery isn't defined as an inherently legal practice, it simply was legal in some places at some times.
The secondarily linked story does also talk about local law enforcement being involved, so that is at least condoned "in a way", not "not in any way".
The conversion of something to property is almost always a theft of some sort.
Humans held and treated like property will henceforth not be considered slaves if their country has laws against the practice. When asked how he came upon the genius solution to the century-old problem, marknutter nodded at the portrait of former President G.W. Bush hanging above his fireplace. "I was inspired by President Bush... I mean... enhanced interrogation... genius!"
You haven't had the misfortune of having to witness REAL slavery. Real slavery is going on a walk outside the embassy and seeing a 6 year old domestic girl given a LEGAL black eye by the fist of her mistress. And there is nothing you can do about it.
That's when I learned... if you can call the police or get the authorities to intervene... then it's not slavery.
Slavery has got to be the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. Worse than combat even. Because there is nothing you can do. It's just in your face. This was way back in the early 90's... and I still remember the girl look up at me afterwards... a few seconds went by... and a trickle of blood started to come from her nose.
Yeah...
I just went back to the embassy. Certain parts of Africa back then were just not tourist spots.
Did you read the article? These women are beaten and raped and the police are helping the business owner ensure that the women remain his legal property.
As I said in another comment... you have the option to call in the Feds. I'm talking about people in situations where they have NO option to call in ANYONE. And not only them. Anyone who wanted to help them... maybe just because they witnessed it and they wanted to put an end to it... that would-be good Samaritan has no recourse either.
No Feds. Central governments could be weak, corrupt or both back then. (They still can come to think of it.)
No police. Many places HAD nonexistent police forces. Things have changed in some parts of Africa... but I don't know about everywhere.
No nothing. And it might not only be Africa. This may happen in parts of Asia or the MidEast region as well. I only WITNESSED it in Africa. There are a lot of people living some horrible lives out there. And they don't have police, or Feds or journalists to write about them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_codes
In theory (and depending on the year and state), slaves in America could also appeal to authorities.
Whether or not such appeals would have been effective are another matter (although it should be noted that these laws were in fact OCCASIONALLY enforced, putting this slightly outside the realm of the purely theoretical (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treatment_of_slaves_in_the_Uni...), but you seem to be discussing whether or not such appeals are theoretically allowed.
With that in mind, the shitty logic of this statement should be pretty clear to see:
> "That's when I learned... if you can call the police or get the authorities to intervene... then it's not slavery."
My God, but those last three words are creepy. I mean, of course the whole enterprise of slavery is beyond creepy, so much so that it's almost too big to take in; but the idea of 'moderate correction' in the first place, and the shrugging acknowledgement that it might lead to killing, is just 'human-scale' enough for me to experience a truly visceral reaction to it. Ugh.
Victims do not always have the option of appealing to authorities, even in countries like the United States. Victims can be threatened or restrained. And, like any other abusive relationship, that may not even occur to the victim as an option.
Slavery is defined as the treatment on human beings as property, in that people are bought and sold. Whether or not the country condones this practice is irrelevant.
But let's be clear, you've essentially used this fallacy (not to mention the appeal to emotion) to support/base your point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman
I.e. "True slavery means that police/authorities won't intervene". It shows that you don't have a well-defined definition of slavery, or are using one that is too-constrained to the generally-accepted definition of slave/slavery. Here are a few:
[...]a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.
[...]a person who works very hard without proper remuneration or appreciation.
[...]a person who is excessively dependent upon or controlled by something.
1. Yes, this person is a slave.
2. No, this person is underpaid.
3. No, this person is dependent.
"Well there are places were there are NO law enforcement so all other definitions of slavery aren't as real."
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_eng...
However, I agree there's ambiguity. One of the additional example sentences of the first definition includes a case where the slavery was illegal.
If someone is held as a slave and effectively beyond the reach and help of the law, then it does them little good to know that their situation is technically not tolerated by society.
But citing the latter two definitions of slavery from Oxford is not a good way of making this point. Those definition are incorrect, when referring to literal slavery.
Probably what most people mean when they say slave is something like "a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them, or a person who is illegally held as such yet beyond the recourse of the law"
[Click on "more examples sentences" to see the broader meaning of the definitions cited]
there are parts of the US where it's very difficult to get the police to intervene. I work (indirectly) with a group that helps women and children escape from forced polygamy in groups like the FLDS, AUB, Kingston, and similar; in quite a few areas the local police are "true believers" who won't investigate members of their own group, and in fact who will work to bring escapees back to a situation that is fairly described as "slavery".
No one risks international relationships for a child or a woman.
edit, as I see some downvoting: that last sentence was not meant like I'd support that system. It's just a description how the world works.
Your comment about embassies doesn't make a lot of sense in that context.
http://world.time.com/2013/12/17/indian-diplomats-arrest-in-...
So keep up the good work.
Only point I wanted to make is that you still have the option of calling in the Feds. There are no Feds in certain places. Or the "Feds" are weak or corrupt. Maybe even both if you are unlucky enough. I'm talking about being in a situation where there is no way out not only for the abused... but even for those who might want to help. There is LITERALLY... no legal recourse. In your work... you have legal avenues outside of the local police. That's my point.
sometimes it even works. We might be able to help a tiny fraction find their way out of slavery. That doesn't make it any less slavery.
Glad it's caught up to your expectations.
I'm not sure this definition pans out. This would mean slavery cannot happen in a country where it's not legal.
Take an unfortunate whose been enslaved in a nation where it's legal. They're kept in a basement, chained to a table, made to work every waking hour.
One day, that nation passes a law making slavery illegal.
While this person's situation has not changed one iota, using your definition they were a slave yesterday and not a slave today.
In fact, since 1981 there is no nation in the world where slavery is legal.[1] So, using this definition strictly...slavery literally does not exist.
1. http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/world/mauritania.slav...
Sure, we can play which slavery is worse than other slavery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whistle_Blower
vs the one you speak of:
> "Mars moved to solution A"
> "Nestle says they are doing all they can (mentions nothing)".
why people still consume nestle? is it because their (free to collect) water is cheaper?Right?