Today’s slavery (Human trafficking is the second fastest-growing illegal industry in the US)

Today’s slavery
A unified effort to end human trafficking
By Renée Loth
January 29, 2011

IN NEWARK, 20 young women and girls from West Africa were discovered working in hair-braiding salons for 14 hours a day with no pay. Their employer ruled over the victims, some as young as 10, with beatings, sexual assaults, and voodoo curses. Closer to home, five people were indicted in Quincy for operating brothels in rented apartments using immigrant women kept in a state of debt bondage with threats of deportation. In Danvers, a 13-year old runaway girl was offered to a group of men at a Motel 6 by a woman living at the hotel with her son.

These are a few high-profile cases that resulted in arrests. But the US Department of Justice estimates that hundreds of thousands of people in this country are trafficked for coerced labor or sex. This includes American citizens, especially minor girls and sometimes boys, who are recruited, kidnapped, lured into drugs, beaten, raped, and forced to sell their bodies for money they never keep.

There will be slavery right on into Daniel's 70th Week of prophesy, and until Jesus Christ returns and destroys the antichrist's system.

18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

18:12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

18:13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men [Religious slavery ???].

I agree there's not a great deal of difference in its impact on the actual victims.

If both of you think that the type of human slavery that exists today is not that much different in its impact on the slaves as the type of slavery that existed in the U.S. South, you are woefully ignorant of history, of the present day conditions, and the differences between them.

And your analogy comparing the present day trade to "retail murder" and historic slavery (at least as practiced in the U.S. South opposed to the Caribbean and Brazil) to "mass killing" is also inapt but probably chosen for the association of murder and genocide with slavery, a favorite polemical tool of abolitionists who felt they could say anything, the more lurid the better, because their cause was just. And to forestall the usual response to such a criticism: like abolitionists (and present day liberals), it's pretty easy for one to wind up in the catbird seat of smug morality, ie, "I am fighting against a true evil, so I can say anything I want and if you oppose what I say this means you support the evil I want to abolish." Sort of like, "You oppose choice, so this means you're in favor of back alley abortions" or "You're a climate change skeptic, so this means you're in favor of raping our planet by giving it over to multinational corporations that will consume all its resources and, because of their sinful use of carbon-based energy that will melt the ice caps, kill all the poor people who live on flood plains at sea level."

This reminds me of the biblical description of Babylon the Great, trading on all kinds of merchandise and “slaves and the souls of men”.

Modern ‘Commercial Law’ is based on Ancient Babylonian Codes A Historical Research Article Linking the “Slave-Trading Codes” of Ancient Babylon .... to re-visit Chapters 17 and 18 of the Book of Revelation in the Bible. ..... those “Slaves and the Souls of Men” as referred to in Revelation 18:13. ...

http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/babelaw.htm - Cached - Similar

Babylon the Great FallBabylon the Great, as prophesied in the Bible, is the globalist financial .... Revelation 18:12-14 prophesy that Babylon the Great’s global trading system involves the ... precious metals and “chariots and slaves and the souls of men. ...
http://www.stevenmcollins.com/html/babylon_the_great_fall.html - Cached - Similar

Preach The Word - The Book Of The Revelation Part 17: The Seven ...This is part 17 of a chapter-by-chapter Bible Study Series in the book of ... What we have before us tonight in 17 and 18 of Revelation is a prophetic ..... it’s interesting: this great empire traded in slaves and the souls of men. ...
http://www.preachtheword.com/sermon/rev17.shtml

My comparison of state-sponsored mass murder to legal slavery versus individual murders and modern illegal slavery was carefully chosen.

1. Both slavery and murder are wrong. Agreed?

2. In the first group, legal slavery and state-sponsored mass killing, the state and society commit the wrongs. In the second group of wrongs, illegal slavery and retail murder, individuals commit crimes despite the best efforts of society and government to stop them.

3. In the first group, government and by extension all members of society are complicit in the crimes, in the second group only those actually committing the crimes are guilty.

I was not really trying to compare genocide to slavery, but we can go there if you like. I presume you are aware that the institution of slavery emerged as an alternative to genocide, when ancient peoples figured out how to make defeated groups work for them instead of just killing them all, as had been previous routine.

Slavery may not be genocide or murder, but it is permanent kidnapping and theft (of a person’s labor and life) and by definition almost always involves threat of or use of assault and battery, and very frequently (whenever the master feels like it) rape.

Considering I have been following this issue since 1991, when a child prostitution ring was busted near where I live, no - it's not laughable on it's face. This has remained constant through the last 3 administrations - no political slant involved.

While the majority are run aways, a growing number are abductees. This is a trouble trend over the last several years. And yes, the average age is 12.

http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/prostitution.html

The trafficking section of this web page provides information on the international problem of cross-border transportation of children for sexual purposes. It is important to note that United States not only faces an influx of international victims of sex trafficking, but also the United States has its own homegrown problem of interstate sex trafficking of minors.

Although comprehensive research to document the number of children engaged in prostitution in the United States is lacking, it is estimated that about 293,000 American youth are currently at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Richard J. Estes and Neil Alan Weiner, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S, Canada and Mexico, University of Pennsylvania, Executive Summary at 11-12 (2001). The majority of American victims of commercial sexual exploitation tend to be runaway or thrown away youth who live on the streets who become victims of prostitution. Id. at 11-12. These children generally come from homes where they have been abused, or from families that have abandoned them, Richard J. Estes and Neil Alan Weiner, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S, Canada and Mexico, University of Pennsylvania, at 3 (2001) [hereinafter Estes Report], and often become involved in prostitution as a way to support themselves financially or to get the things they want or need. Id.

Other young people are recruited into prostitution through forced abduction, pressure from parents, or through deceptive agreements between parents and traffickers. Francis T. Miko & Grace Park, Trafficking in Women and Children: The U.S. and International Response, at 7 (Updated July 10, 2003), at http://www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL30545.pdf. Once these children become involved in prostitution they are often forced to travel far from their homes and as a result are isolated from their friends and family. Id. Few children in this situation are able to develop new relationships with peers or adults other than the person who is victimizing them. Id. The lifestyle of such children revolves around violence, forced drug use and constant threats. Id.

Among children and teens living on the streets in the United States, involvement in commercial sex activity is a problem of epidemic proportion. Approximately 55% of street girls engage in formal prostitution. Estes Report, Executive Summary at 7. Of the girls engaged in formal prostitution, about 75% worked for a pimp. Id. Pimp-controlled commercial sexual exploitation of children is linked to escort and massage services, private dancing, drinking and photographic clubs, major sporting and recreational events, major cultural events, conventions, and tourist destinations. Id. About one-fifth of these children become entangled in nationally organized crime networks and are trafficked nationally. Id. at 8. They are transported around the United States by a variety of means – cars, buses, vans, trucks or planes, Id., and are often provided counterfeit identification to use in the event of arrest. Id. The average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 12-14. Estes Report at 92. It is not only the girls on the streets that are affected -- for boys and transgender youth, the average age of entry into prostitution is 11-13. Id./

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