In the world today, 27 million people live as slaves, according to Kevin Bales. Bales, co-founder of an organization called Free the Slaves, spoke about the issue Saturday at the TED 2010 (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference, reports Boing Boing. Twenty-seven million is, according to National Geographic, “more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.”
Think about this for a minute and let it sink in. It’s not a joke. Civil wars and ethnic conflicts create destitution that turns to desperation, which is easily exploited by underworld criminals looking to make a healthy profit off human chattel. The enormity, grotesqueness and audacity of this problem elicits in me a single, visceral response: Oh my god.
Oh my god, at least 14,500 slaves are trafficked into the US each year. Oh my god, the average cost for a slave, taking the entire globe into account, is a paltry $90. Oh my god, slaves may well have prepared the restaurant meal I ate last week or picked the produce I bought on my last trip to the grocery store or cleaned my hotel room on my last vacation.
Please, please, some good news! Is there any in this sad story?
Yes, there is, though you might be surprised to hear what it is: the price of human beings has plummeted. Slaves go for as little as $5 in India, and you can secure one for a mere $3,000 in the US. As Bales puts it, people are now like “styrofoam cups. You use them then throw them away.” The good news hidden in this depressing sentiment is this: The contemporary slave trade is not all that profitable, putting it, in Bales’ words, “on the precipice of its own extinction.”
All of the world’s slaves could be freed for $10.8 billion, which is a pittance when you think about the enormous suffering it would end. However, simply buying their freedom is not an option. As Ruchira Gupta, another inspiring anti-slavery activist, reminded me, their empowerment is as much a factor of their freedom as their physical emancipation.
Bales has his work cut out for him, but if Free the Slaves is correct, slavery can be eradicated in 25 years. If, that is, everyone does their part.
Photo courtesy of Simeon via stock.xchng.