International, Justice, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

So You Don’t Think You’re A Slaver?
Slaver?
Or Emancipator?

Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger

So you don’t think you’re a slaver?

Of course you don’t.

Statistically speaking, most of you are decent people.  You find the notion of slavery abhorrent.  Slavery is illegal in this country and immoral and unethical everywhere.  You’d never hire someone using slaves to work for you.  You’d never buy something you knew without a doubt was made by slaves.

Right?  Or would you?  What if you didn’t know your subcontractor relied upon slave labor or the goods you purchased were made by slave labor or relied on natural resources gathered and processed by slaves?  If you did, would you do something about it?  Knowledge is power.  As your quantity and quality of relevant information increases, so will the quality of your decision making.

Would you like to get an idea about how much slave labor goes into maintaining your lifestyle, if any?

There’s an app for that.

Slavery Footprint is a website created by Call + Response, a non-profit dedicated to ending slavery, in collaboration with the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.  The Slavery Footprint website has a Flash-driven survey that asks a variety of questions about how you live, from where to the food you eat to the type of products you use in the bathroom to the clothes in your closet.  They also have a downloadable application for both Android and iPhone.  You can answer the survey in as little or as much detail as you like.  The questions are not brand specific.  No questions ask for personally identifying information.  However, the more detailed answers you give gets you a more detailed response as to how you live might be contributing to the global slave trade and forced labor practices.  You might be surprised at the results, even if you’re an informed and conscientious consumer.  I know I was and the knowledge was well worth the time to take the survey.

You might be wondering exactly how Slavery Footprint scores the various products in question.  They are quite upfront about both their methodology and their sources of information.  Combining data both on the manufacturing country and the source materials used, the algorithm they use is explained by the following graphic:

Slavery Footprint Product Scoring Algorithm

The sources for their data are as follows:

“The five main reports we used were:

  • 1. Department of State “Trafficking in Persons Report 2011” The most comprehensive worldwide report on the efforts of governments to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons.
  • 2. Department of Labor (DOL) “List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor 2010” A list of goods from countries that the Bureau of International Labor Affairs has substantiated used of forced labor or child labor its production.
  • 3. International Labor Organization’s (ILO) “Committee of Experts Reports 2011-2003” The Committee of Experts undertakes investigations of government reports on ratified conventions. The Committee’s role is to provide an impartial evaluation of violations of international labor standards.
  • 4. Transparency International‘s “Corruption Index 2010” This index is used to measure and quantify the levels of public sector corruption in 178 countries around the world.
  • 5. Freedom House “Freedom in the World 2010 Combined Average Ratings – Independent Countries” The Freedom in the World 2010 survey contains reports on 194 countries and 14 related and disputed territories. Each country report includes a narrative on the following information: population, capital, political rights (numerical rating), civil liberties (numerical rating), status (Free, Partly Free, or Not Free), and a 10-year ratings timeline.

Additionally, we utilized published data pertaining to forced labor issues. This included vetted data drawn from a variety of international sources. The following inclusion criteria were used:

  • Drawn from ONE Internationally credible source with expert review (i.e. ILO, International Office for Migration, World Health Organization, United Nations Security Council)
  • Referenced in at least TWO multi-national reliable sources (i.e. CNN, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International)
  • Reported on by at least THREE disparate and unrelated local news sources (i.e. The Guardian, Swedwatch, Jakarta Post, Enough Project)

Note: This data set will continue to be expanded based on emerging research and the results of further investigations that meet the aforementioned inclusion criteria.”

The fight for human rights is more important now than ever.  With oppressive practices by both governments and industry on the rise globally, it is imperative to speak truth to power by standing up for human rights everywhere in addition to standing up for civil rights in your home country.   In an ever connected and interconnected world economy, slavery isn’t just a local problem in some far away place.  It’s a problem in your very own kitchen.

What can be done to address this problem?  What should be done to address this problem?  Both locally and globally?

What do you think?

Source(s): Call + Response, Slavery Footprint

~Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger

61 thoughts on “So You Don’t Think You’re A Slaver?”

  5. Gene, great job [once again] avoiding what I said. I present FACTS in response to you calling me crazy, and you just blow off those facts. WHO’S the crazy one then? You call me nutty for my views. I present EVIDENCE that what I say is true. You say “Blah, blah, crazy, blah, kook, tin-foil…blah, blah, nutball, etc..” Excellent refutation!

    Question: If you call me nuts for my views and I present EVIDENCE my views are correct, what exactly does that make you….the equivalent of one of the “Earth is flat” people? LOL.

    Who cares about your story? We’re all slaves to the federal government. Paying federal income taxes makes us all slaves, but you don’t see any stories on that, do you?

  6. Was your mother scared by a Lincoln impersonator when you were in the womb? That you think an anchor graphic is more important than the issue at hand, which once again is modern slave labor practices in the harvesting of resources and manufacture of consumer goods, says a lot about your obsession with Lincoln. Mainly that it’s pathological.

  7. “tired old fantasy”??, “inane bullshit”?? Are you saying there’s no PROOF that what I say about him isn’t true? Do you realize that the BEST proof I have in my defense is Lincoln’s OWN WORDS? How can I be debunked when I simply just QUOTE Lincoln himself, an that alone validates my stances. Are you telling me that hedid NOT say in his first inaugural address that he had no intention of interfering with southern slavery?

    Here you go:

    http://www.ushistory.org/documents/lincoln1.htm

    He says it in the 3rd paragraph.

    Are you saing he did not support colonization? Jesus, even wikipedia mentions it!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_on_slavery#Colonization

    In the second paragraph in th above link, it says this:

    “Since the 1840s Lincoln had been an advocate of the American Colonization Society program of colonizing blacks in Liberia. In an October 16, 1854:a speech at Peoria, Illinois (transcribed after the fact by Lincoln himself), Lincoln points out the immense difficulties of such a task are an obstacle to finding an easy way to quickly end slavery.

    Lincoln quote—->”My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia,—to their own native land. But a moment’s reflection would convince me that whatever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible”

    Of course, we know that it wasn’t to “end slavery” as to why he wanted blacks sent to Liberia since Lincoln even wanted blacks out of his own state of Illinois.

    I can verify what I say about Lincoln all ay long Gene, but you will keep calling me a “nut”. Keep in mind, ad hominem attacks is not synonymous with “debunking me”. You can call me a nut all day long and the evidence as to what I say is still there. All the name-calling in the world can’t make the facts about Lincoln go away. Your name-calling might make the weak-minded on this blog chuckle, but it won’t make these facts disappear.

    You ignored my questions:

    “And by the way, if you ADMIT that Lincoln has nothing to do with the article, then why post his picture? Are we not capable of knowing the meaning of the word “emancipator” WITHOUT seeing a picture of Lincoln, in whom you falsely attribute that title?”

    and..

    “Your article might not have to do with Lincoln himself, but in the graphic, you called him “emancipator”. I have no right to chime in an disagree with that title? If you posted a picture of Hitler and called him “humanitarian”, would I not have the right to express my disgust with that title even if your article had nothing to do with Hitler??”

    Can I get answers? Or more ad hominem attacks?

  9. It would be a good thing if our foreign aid practices were tied to the issue of slavery. Britain is making some moves in that direction: I think I saw that headline today somewhere in fact. If We do have a stated policy it doesn’t seem like its being implemented especially regarding India, the Philippines and Southeast/East Asia. Our trade policies, including American countries relocating their factories into many countries, should discourage labor practices that amount to indentured servitude and turn-of-the-last-century labor practices.

    You only get one life, to have it stolen by some $%@)**&^!& by considering you a disposable piece of equipment is unconscionable. If I had known how Microsoft allowed its Chinese workers to be treated I wouldn’t have bought a Mac- I won’t buy any other Microsoft equipment.

    I have a fairly low slavery score. I enjoyed that ‘test’. It showed me what a skewed life I lead, weird diet I have and how out of the mainstream in buying habits I am. But even then there’s no escaping the slavery question. My car, computer and food makes up my index number. If I want to drive, eat and need a computer I’m part of the problem. People shouldn’t be put in that box because the practice’s are so widespread that its impossible to avoid.

  12. Larry,

    1) I don’t care if you like Lincoln or not. I’m not a “Lincoln cultist” (whatever that is). He’s not even in my top five favorite Presidents.

    2) I’m not interested in debunking your tired old fantasy I’ve seen you regurgitate – and get debunked by others every time – across several columns now.

    3) Tell it to someone who doesn’t think you’re nuts.

    4) This column is about modern slave labor practices in the harvesting of resources and manufacture of consumer goods. Not Lincoln. Period. If your psychosis prevents you from seeing that, well, that’s just an indication of how badly you need to be in treatment.

    5) To the degree that I’m upset at all (which isn’t much), it would be with you trying to ruin and derail yet another column on a relevant topic with your inane bullshit about Lincoln.

  13. And by the way, if you ADMIT that Lincoln has nothing to do with the article, then why post his picture? Are we not capable of knowing the meaning of the word “emancipator” WITHOUT seeing a picture of Lincoln, in whom you falsely attribute that title?

  14. Your article might not have to do with Lincoln himself, but in the graphic, you called him “emancipator”. I have no right to chime in an disagree with that title? If you posted a picture of Hitler and called him “humanitarian”, would I not have the right to express my disgust with that title even if your article had nothing to do with Hitler?? I would like an actual answer to this question.

  16. I know YOU wrote the article, that’s why I addressed the “emancipator” question to YOU. Get it? YOU posted the picture, so anything you post is fair game to comment on. Since when does stating FACTS about Lincoln constitute the “tin-fil hat” comment? You can research and verify everything I say about him. If it’s easy to debunk me, then debunk me. Ad hominem attacks is NOT a refutation of my facts. You’re just upset because I’m not a Lincoln cultist and deify “saint” Lincoln like 95% of Americans do.

  17. No, Larry.

    It isn’t relevant to the topic of the article. I should know. I’m the one who wrote the article.

    You’d know that too if you were capable of understanding the words or if you had bothered to read it beyond your (predictable) knee-jerk tin-foil hat reaction every time you see Lincoln or the topic of the Civil War comes up.

    This column is about modern slave labor practices in the harvesting of resources and manufacture of consumer goods.

    Period.

    It has nothing to do with Lincoln other than as a convenient graphic.

  18. But YOU posted a picture of Lincoln [above] and called him “Emancipator”—and Im asking WHY? So, that IS relevant!

  19. Lincoln said in his first inaugural address “I have no intention of interfering with southern slavery, and if I did, I have no constitutional authority to do so.” Lincoln didnt want the southern slaves freed because he was a racist and did not want the freed black people to come to the north and own property and take up the jobs from the white northerners. He wanted them to stay down there. Leonardo doesnt think Lincoln was a racist? Wow! He even attempted to emigrate all blacks to Liberia. His idol, Henry Clay, was founder of the American Colonization Society which funded the creation of Liberia for the sole purpose of sending all blacks there. Lincoln was even the founder of the Illinois Colonization Society—which sent all blacks out of Illinois.

    Stop reading school text books people.

  20. Again, Larry, this column is about modern slave labor practices in the harvesting of resources and manufacture of consumer goods.

    That is my answer to your irrelevant question.

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