A human tragedy - that no one will talk about
by Unknown [+/-] show/hideIs slavery bad? Of course!
Should we allow slavery? Of course not!
Then why is no one outraged at the over 40,000 slaves being held today just in Niger? The CS Monitor reports that more than 7,000 slaves were to be released, but because the government sent mixed signals, the slave-holding tribal chief decided to keep all of his slaves.
When someone says slavery, we immediately think of the US South pre-Civil War. Our history has focused, rightly, on that as being an evil thing - the owning of another human being.
But our history has largely ignored the slavery that has existed throughout the world, throughout the history of man. Not only has our history ignored it, our news ignores it today.
How many stories do you see on the nightly news or internet news services calling attention to this modern day atrocity?
This raises an interesting question of why? Why do politicians and media ignore slavery in Africa, where it is the most prevalent today?
Is it a quiet racism similar to those who said that Arabic people would not be able to handle democracy? Do people think that Africans just "don't know any better?" Does the international community allow it because they view African people as having lower standards than the "civilized world?"
In my view, in a Christian view, all people are created in God's image, therefore everyone has intrinsic value. No one can or should be the property of someone else.
Even if no one else will rally to the aid of these people, Christians should. An English Christian, William Wilberforce was the driving force behind the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. Today's believers can be the leaders in the abolition of the current African slave trade.
The blogosphere has been used to bring down people (rightly so, for the most part). Can we be used by God to lift people up and end this blight on humanity?
posted by Unknown at
8:08 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
This weeks Economist Magazine has an article about the ongoing problem of slavery.
By
danielg, at 3/10/2005 2:44 PM
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