Monday, April 11, 2011

Did You Know?


Each year 800,000 human beings are bought
 sold, or forced across the world's borders.

80% of this number are women

50% are children

Human trafficking is a 32 billion dollar industry.

The average cost of buying a slave today is $90
The cost of a slave during the height of the trans-atlantic slave trade--
$40,000 in modern dollars.

But these are just numbers, and numbers, after all, are imperfect indicators of the true human cost. How do you measure suffering? I don't have an answer to that. Maybe we can't measure these things, or understand slavery. After all, what does slavery mean to me, when I have never experienced it? Not much, really. But enough to care, at least enough, to want to do something.

And enough to keep the following in mind: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men [and women] to do nothing." 

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