hatam_soferet (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hatam_soferet) wrote2008-04-18 01:02 pm
hatam_soferet) wrote2008-04-18 01:02 pm
My contribution to this year's seder
There are many, many people in the world who are desperately poor and hungry for opportunities - to earn enough to stay alive, maybe to make better lives for themselves and their families. They are ideal fodder for exploitation by the profit-hungry. These are today's slaves. People held against their will, forced to work and paid nothing. It is estimated that there are 27 million slaves in the world today, created by population increases, migration patterns into cities, and governments who don't care.
People are lured away from their homes with promises of good jobs and education. Most of them end up in agriculture, mining, and prostitution - unpleasant, dangerous jobs that no-one wants to do. Poverty and lack of education make people easily exploited. Maybe they have no other skills, and maybe they don't have enough resources to pick up and go. And without education, they don't know where to go anyway: "we talk about it, leaving, but if we leave, where are we going to go, we don’t know anybody, so just have to, you know, just stay there."
Activists fight slavery by giving people the resources they need to be free. By giving them food, shelter and safety from angry slave owners. By creating a structure of sustainable freedom.
Slavery is illegal in almost all countries, but money is powerful. And we all benefit from slavery; we all like cheap goods, we all like a bargain. It's much easier to say "Oh, our government would never let that happen" than to think about where our Florida orange juice is coming from.
I don't have big plans for how to end slavery, but Free the Slaves does, as do various other organisations. And I figured if I can spend $20 on a Pesachdik hand blender, I really have no excuse for not spending somewhat more than that on a Pesachdik organisation. So I did.
What Pesach luxury did you buy this year, to celebrate your own freedom from slavery? And will you donate a comparable amount to helping someone else achieve theirs?
People are lured away from their homes with promises of good jobs and education. Most of them end up in agriculture, mining, and prostitution - unpleasant, dangerous jobs that no-one wants to do. Poverty and lack of education make people easily exploited. Maybe they have no other skills, and maybe they don't have enough resources to pick up and go. And without education, they don't know where to go anyway: "we talk about it, leaving, but if we leave, where are we going to go, we don’t know anybody, so just have to, you know, just stay there."
Activists fight slavery by giving people the resources they need to be free. By giving them food, shelter and safety from angry slave owners. By creating a structure of sustainable freedom.
Slavery is illegal in almost all countries, but money is powerful. And we all benefit from slavery; we all like cheap goods, we all like a bargain. It's much easier to say "Oh, our government would never let that happen" than to think about where our Florida orange juice is coming from.
I don't have big plans for how to end slavery, but Free the Slaves does, as do various other organisations. And I figured if I can spend $20 on a Pesachdik hand blender, I really have no excuse for not spending somewhat more than that on a Pesachdik organisation. So I did.
What Pesach luxury did you buy this year, to celebrate your own freedom from slavery? And will you donate a comparable amount to helping someone else achieve theirs?