The Global Sociology Blog

The latest installment in Al Jazeera’s Slavery series:

This is the third video in Al Jazeera’s series, Slavery: A 21st Century Evil:

Latest installment on Al-Jazeera series on modern slavery:

With this series (many thanks to the Grumpy Sociologist for this) on modern slavery (readers of this blog know that this is pet peeve of mine): The first video is on food chain slaves (a good reason to monitor what you eat is to determine whether slavery was involved and this is a helpful guide): [...]

Based on this: I guess things could be worse but still… and I have volunteer for an anti-slavery organization, dammit! Go ahead, take the survey yourself and compare.

This explains why the majority of slaves women and girls, and sometimes, boys because all of them end up subservient to patriarchal rule in one form or another whether it is the slave providers or the slave exploiters. Item 1: “Prossie was working as a schoolteacher when she heard an attractive advert on Ugandan radio. A Kampala [...]

And how many more like her? “A former hospital director has been ordered to pay £25,000 to an African woman she kept as a slave in London. Mwanahamisi Mruke, 47, was flown from Tanzania in 2006 and made to work 18-hour days for Saeeda Khan, 68, at her home in Harrow, north-west London. Khan was [...]

$90.00, an all-time low: “Depending on the kind of person you are that sentence could be at once shocking, saddening or darkly comical. However you might feel though, it’s the plain truth, says Kevin Bales. The modern-day slavery expert explained to CNN that the current $90 rate for a human slave is actually at an [...]

I have blogged before about modern slavery. I have my students work on this topic in my Social Problems class and most of them cannot believe that slavery is still so widespread despite being illegal everywhere. There are several reasons why. First, sometimes, institutions of global governance (such as the IMF, the World Bank and [...]

Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost – A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa seemed an appropriate book to bring with me to Africa. I don’t know why I hadn’t read it yet since issues of colonialism, neo-colonialism and slavery are never far from my thoughts. Anyway, I am glad I did read [...]

Major chocolate companies still using child labour | April 2009 | New Internationalist via kwout So, this video by Slavery International is still relevant, especially the segment on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast and the connection between slavery and the imposition of structural adjustment policies by the IMF: Also, visit the International Labor Rights Forum [...]

Brothels cut prices to beat the recession – Europe, World – The Independent via kwout Unsurprisingly, the articles mentions that high-class brothels are still doing pretty well. It is below on the social ladder that economic conditions are felt more harshly. The article also mentions that there may be an increase in supply: more women [...]

Duh… IRIN Asia | Asia | Afghanistan | AFGHANISTAN: Child servitude, marriage resemble modern-day slavery | Children Early Warning Gender Issues Governance Human Rights | Feature via kwout And because no story of slavery is complete without violence, sexual or other… IRIN Asia | Asia | Afghanistan | AFGHANISTAN: Child servitude, marriage resemble modern-day slavery [...]

As the year draws to a close, here is an issue that will still need fighting in 2009: slavery. BBC NEWS | Africa | ‘Thousands made slaves’ in Darfur via kwout I have to say that this is sadly not surprising. As anyone who has read Kevin Bales books on the subject knows, social disintegration [...]

December 2nd is the International Day Against Slavery at the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade (website ). As the date nears, the UN reminds us that there are still roughly 27 million slaves around the world: Encore 27 millions d’esclaves dans le monde, Société – NouvelObs.com via [...]