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A LITTLE CLOSER TO HOME

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I am sorry to have to repeat myself but I have already posted the following comment on this subject elsewhere on this forum:

Despite the fact that slavery was abolished officially some 150 years ago, according to the United Nations estimates, there are about 27 million slaves in the world today.

The two main forms of human trafficking noted by a recent United Nations study are sexual exploitation and forced labour. The numbers have increased exponentially since abolition.

Happily though, Australia has managed to avoid the phenomenon. The numbers here are quite modest. Nothing like those 165 000 white slaves deported by the British Government as forced labour to colonise the country - those so-called "first settlers" whose landing at Sydney Cove we joyfully celebrate on Australia Day.

On 12 February 2009, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)published the results of a study of human trafficking in 155 countries. As it so happens, the report was published on Darwin's 200th birthday. Apart from that, there does not appear to be much to celebrate.

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Great article with a lot of unknown facts and facts that most Western liberties hating 'useful idiots' prefer not to know. Thanks very much to MA Khan for this article.

Twelve years ago I visited Ghana and as part of my trip I paid a visit to one of the coastal forts from where slaves were being transported to the Americas. Being Dutch and hearing about the horrible and inhumane treatment of slaves by the Dutch a few centuries ago was a very humbling experience. But the Ghanese guide was very honest when he said that the slave trade wouldn't have been possible without the help of the local tribes, who were happy to sell members of the tribes they fought in battle to the white slave traders.

Later I started to learn more and more about the role of Arab countries in slave trading, and the mention of still existing slaves in Mauritania reminds me of a story a friend of mine told me after he'd visited the country and which basically came down to the horrible way the Arabs treat the black population in that country. Just look at the Sudan to find another example

For an insight into Islamic Slavery in East Africa read Wilbur Smith's book, Monsoon.

It details it pretty well.

The Arab world began slave trading long before the Europeans, and continue it to this day. In fact at this moment there are more slaves in the world than were ever transported to the Americas in 300-odd years. Most of these are in Arab nations. In the time period generally acknowledged to encompass European slave trading, 11 million Africans were transported to the Americas and Europe. In the same period, 14 million Africans were transported to the Middle East. Whites are an easy target because they feel guilty and want to make amends. Arabs, on the other hand, laugh at any notion of an apology or reparations. The Western world shouldn't beat up exclusively on itself for a crime that nearly every culture engaged in.

The western world is not unique in the practice of slavery, but I think they are unique in hypocrisy. The American and French Revolutions were both accompanied by talk of freedom and equality ('all men are created equal' - US Declaration of Independence) and potential for every man (women excluded) to advance as far as their abilities allowed ('Every man carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack' - Napoleon). The US Constitution preserved slavery, and it took a great war to end the practice. Napoleon tried to restore slavery in Haiti where slaves had been freed.

I don't agree with that. The Koran speaks of equality for all, and yet Muslim Arabs enslaved millions - including fellow (black) Muslims. The Japanese spoke of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere and they too enslaved millions of their fellow Asians. I think the hypocrisy you speak of in no way lessens the magnitude of the crimes committed by those who didn't espouse equality. No, as far as I'm concerned, the Western history of slavery is something we should remember and never allow to happen again, but that's it. No more apologies and no reparations (which are nothing more than a cash grab). We should, however, be focused on ending modern slavery where it exists - and that's not in the Western world.

Dear Benny Tea,

You are right. Muslims are hypocrites in not following the Koran. On the other hand the Bible does not condemn slavery so Bible believers do not violate their religion.

Thank you, David, for your substantive contribution to the discussion. Any agreement with the parallels I drew regarding hypocrisy displayed by different cultures and belief systems worldwide? Or are we to confine our moral outrage to the Western world, persons of European heritage, and Christianity? That may be satisfying for the trendy and liberally inclined among us, but advances the discussion not at all.

By the way, the Koran does not forbid slavery either.

Benny Tea,
“Or are we to confine our moral outrage to the Western world, persons of European heritage, and Christianity?”

Spot on!

(Apologies for interjecting – just a brief comment in passing)

In many of our most "enlightened” circles its practically an article of faith that racism/bigotry/intolerance --just like the current financial crisis-- was/were created by “white people with blue eyes” (or leastways, Westerners) . Our most social conscious can quote chapter and verse the bigots in our background, but few would dare to even suggest that such bigotry can also be found elsewhere.

“The only people who accept slavery are the Negroes, owing to their low degree of humanity and their proximity to the animal stage,” Ibn Khaldun (Arab Philosopher )

“Is there anything more vile than black slaves, of less good and more evil than they?.....When the black slave is sated, he fornicates. When he is hungry, he steals." Al-Abshihi (Egyptian writer)

Exactly, Horus. There exists among our Lefty elite a strange urge to praise all non-white, non-Western cultures as an example to all, as being more in tune with everyone and everything, as being morally, intellectually and socially superior to ours.

And yet, not one of them would choose to live among the cultures they extol. Not permanently, anyway. They have it too good in this society and they know it. But you'll never hear them admit that they could not have the lifestyle, nor the intellectual and social freedom that they enjoy here, elsewhere. China, Somalia, Saudi Arabia anyone?

Other cultures have their good points. They have some downright admirable qualities. But so do we, despite our many ills. And to automatically put something down simply because it's trendy speaks volumes of how lefty liberals think (or, more accurately, don't). It's called being married to your ideology - viz, white/Western = always bad. Non-white/non-Western = always good. Ah, love is blind.