my word of the day

[digitS']

impel

and From The Free Dictionary:
Definition: (verb) To urge or force (a person) to an action; constrain or motivate.
Synonyms: compel, drive, push, inspire, instigate, goad
Usage: I don't consider myself an activist, but I was impelled by recent events to take a stand on this issue.

On this day, 51 years ago, the first broadcast of Dr. Who. I'm sure I missed it at the time ...

Billy the Kid was born on this day in 1859. He died before reaching his 22nd birthday.

Did you know that ".5 percent of the world's population ~ 36 million people ~ are currently enslaved. The survey, by anti-slavery group Walk Free, identifies as slaves those subjected to forced labor, debt bondage, trafficking, sexual exploitation for money, and forced or servile marriage."

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

I did not know the number, and it depends a lot on your definition of slavery. The indentured servants from our colonial days would fit that description so take the total number with a grain of salt. But there are still slave markets in some parts of the world. Some young people trek from countries far away to be sold so the money can go back to their families. They volunteer for it or are coerced by their families. A guy I worked with and trust witnessed this and was pretty shaken by it. It was in the Middle East. Some were forced into slavery and some volunteered.

A sexual trafficking ring that works between Memphis and Little Rock was recently profiled in a newspaper article. The police occasionally make some arrests but they are unable to stop it. It's normally young people that get hooked on drugs or are otherwise coerced, sometimes blackmailed because of their immigration status, but are somehow made to feel trapped and helpless. Those types of rings are working around the world. Getting young women from Eastern Europe is pretty notorious in the sex slave market.

Some countries use their prison populations as forced labor. I became familiar with that when huge prison populations were shipped overseas to build large construction projects in Africa. It was a trade for we will build your infrastructure if you will send us oil. A lot of the in-country infrastructure projects in some countries are built in a large part by forced prison labor, especially in the Far East.

I don't know how these people would fit that definition. It is real common for international construction companies to sign people to contracts to live in a camp or some such place and work for long periods of time without going home. Six months is a normal contract though some can go longer or shorter than that. It's not just the poorer developing countries either. Some specialize and make a real good living for their families, plus after a few contracts they can retire fairly young. This might meet Walk Free's definition of slavery but it doesn't mine.

In several of the African conflicts it is fairly common for some factions to kidnap boys and make them fight. Young boys, maybe not yet teenagers.

Forced marriage is a real problem many places. Some women and girls are treated horribly, beaten, mutilated, or outright killed. In many cultures women are treated more as property than people. But I've also worked with people that were in arranged marriages. it was the custom for their families to arrange who the kids would marry. A nice dowry was probably a big part of the negotiations. Some of those matches were bad, but some came to love each other deeply. I'm thinking of one friend whose wife died in a car wreck where she was driving. We knew them both socially. Twenty years later he was still deeply grieving. I don't know of Walk Free considers arranged marriages as forced marriages.

There are many different forms of slavery. I'm not questioning that many of those forms are brutal and should be eradicated. I'm just questioning how they came to 36 million people.

 

[so lucky]

Are you a little bored this morning, Steve?

 

[digitS']

Grumpy

.. always grumpy early.

The Free Dictionary sends me things every day. They don't kill me with vocabulary words so I haven't unsubscribed. Their choices for subjects of interest sometimes give me pause, for more reasons than one.

Steve
wikipedia's choices for the day, on the other hand, are down right weird!

 

[Smart Red]

Ah-h-h, Steve, getting my grump going as well as if that were your goal. I must be one of those .5 % under conditions of slavery.

1. I am subjected to forced labor in order to pay my taxes -- both the labor that brings taxable income and
2. the hours of labor to fill out all those many pages of self-incriminating tax forms.
3. I am in debt bondage to the State and County for police, fire, schools, etc. that are added to my property tax without my permission and
4. to the utility companies that take more than my just payments in order to provide "free" assistance to low income people.
5. Then there are the required trips to tend the welfare of my animals. No chance of sleeping in or skipping the feed and fresh water. My choice, of course, to have the animals in the first place, but once there, we are slaves to their care until butchering day.

 

[digitS']

Harpo Marx was born today, 1888.

Steve

 

[digitS']

Ya go to bed with the funnies!

Calvin: Look at how people are portrayed in the comic strips. The women are indecisive whiners, nagging shrews, and bimbos! And the men are no better. They're befuddled morons, heavy drinkers, gluttons, and lazy goof-offs! Everyone is incompetent, unappreciated, and unsuccessful! What kind of insidious social programming is this?? No wonder the world's such a mess! I demand politically correct, morally uplifting role models in the funnies!
Calvin's Dad: Yes, we all know how funny good role models are.
Calvin: And look, all the kids are obnoxious brats!

 

[thistlebloom]

If you doze off after reading the funnies will you wake up laughing?

 

[digitS']

Well, that is part of my intent, Thistle'!

I tend to wind down, wind down, wind down ... then, go to bed & read something light.

You know that old adage, "don't go to bed angry?" I try to take that as "do go to bed happy" .

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

I swear you'd think my husband went to bed reading the funnies sometimes. He has the most hilarious dreams! If I hear him laughing in his sleep I wake him up so he can share with me.