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Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

english.elpais.com

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Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#41

Post by forinti »

t1234s wrote: post #25

I was talking to a doctor who went to medical school in Brazil and said it was normal for upper-middle class people to have a live-in domestic servant. Many of the floorplans for condos or houses include a servants quarters. They were telling me theirs cost around $12 USD a day which is not a bad deal.

If you pay minimum wage (about US$300) it would be about that per working day. Increasingly, cleaners are working per diem because they earn a lot more (about US$40 a day, but this varies a lot by region).

The downside is that they get no benefits.

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#42

Post by flyingshelf »

dev1ycan wrote: post #27
hobo_in_library wrote: post #14

Hot take: As bad as this is, I wonder if it would be kinder to leave her with the family for the rest of her life. This lady is in her 60s, does she even know any other way to even live? Life with that family may be better than whatever Brazil's equivalent of welfare shelters are. Seems like that may have been why the case workers left her with that family for now.

If I had a guess, the family got rid off her the easy way when she was old, they saved themselves a lot of money.

No, if they wanted to get rid of her there were a lot of easier solutions. As you may be aware, slaves can be sold.

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#43

Post by wahern »

t1234s wrote: post #25

I was talking to a doctor who went to medical school in Brazil and said it was normal for upper-middle class people to have a live-in domestic servant. Many of the floorplans for condos or houses include a servants quarters. They were telling me theirs cost around $12 USD a day which is not a bad deal.

This is true in Singapore and Malaysia, as well, where Filipino or Indonesian cooks and housekeepers are extremely common, as are separate entrances--typically into the kitchen. In Malaysia there's an odd situation, the reverse of the dynamic in the US, where Indonesian servant immigration is encouraged as a way to grow the Muslim population and help diminish the political power of Chinese-Malaysians and Indian-Malaysians.

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#44

Post by comrade1234 »

My wife's family were wealthy Chinese near Hong Kong. Her grandmother took in a poor girl as a servant. She was part of the family but also basically a slave. The grandmother arranged her marriage when the girl was older. We met the girls granddaughter when we visited china - she was a new college student. The two families still think of themselves as related.

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#45

Post by RickJWagner »

assimpleaspossi wrote: post #9
Razengan wrote: post #3

> Although the family has agreed to compensate her, Maria, who lived in near-total isolation and without contact with her relatives, will remain with her employers What the fuck? Why did the law need the family's "agreement"?? Why is nobody going to jail for imprisoning someone for 55 years??

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#46

Post by flyingshelf »

leoc wrote: post #8
Razengan wrote: post #3

> Although the family has agreed to compensate her, Maria, who lived in near-total isolation and without contact with her relatives, will remain with her employers What the fuck? Why did the law need the family's "agreement"?? Why is nobody going to jail for imprisoning someone for 55 years??

Just going on what it says in the article, it may be difficult to prove that anyone specifically forbade her to leave or made threats to prevent her from leaving.

I have some insight into this as my ex ended up in a similar situation in Malaysia. Rich family, no free days, 5-22 work hours.

It took me a year to convince her that it was not ok. They took away her passport, phone, she wasn't allowed to go out without them. I was ready to help her but she did not want my help.

In the end I'm sure she had to pay her "employer" for breach of contract since she left early. I think she had less than $1000 saved from these 18 months of work.

The thing that made me angry the most is that the family was incredibly well off, yet thought they deserve a slave (or more than one) at home.

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#47

Post by gosub100 »

mcdonje wrote: post #30
assimpleaspossi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying maturity, respect and a modicum of decorum makes a difference.

To whatever degree this site isn't a cesspool, we owe it to Dang, not the bad word police. They didn't swear at you, so there's no reason to get bent out of shape about it. It's ironic you're taking this stance on an article about a respectable family that literally kept a slave. There's a difference between superficial trappings of respectability, and actually treating people with respect.

Dang (and the other dude) do great work, but still I disagree. The GP comment was extremely low-effort. and while "complaining that HN is turning into reddit" is against site guidelines, I still agree with the critical comment. It's not the profanity alone, but the reddit-ism of the OP using the site as a complaint board (that's a large portion of reddit, especially local subreddits), and then making a 0-effort comment that any reasonable person will automatically agree with. The whole equation taken together is the formula for Reddit's echo chamber. The only people who tolerate that here are the noobs that are stepping outside their reddit coccoon and bringing the stink with them.

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#48

Post by throw_m239339 »

petcat wrote: post #18
forinti wrote: post #11

Its a common occurrence for families to take in poor girls to do house work in exchange for food and lodging. And with the insidious nature of Brazilian racism, they will pretend that she is part of the family. They might even take her on vacations (to work, of course). If you grow up with this mentality it might even be hard for you to see the injustice. Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, the last country in the Amer…

I was shocked to read how late even several prominent European countries abolished it. Most northern US states abolished slavery even before Britain, France, Portugal, and (especially) Spain did.

You'd be shocked how much of our "friends" in MENA still have legal slavery for non citizens. When an employer can legally confiscate someone's passport and one can only leave the country with their authorization, it is slavery.

I have no idea why we in the west consider that normal and look the other way... What am I saying, I know, oil & VC money...

Some of them also bring their Filipino, India, Nepali, or African slave maids in Europe and everybody looks the other way, they have too much money to be criticized...

They are so brazen about slavery they routinely sell their slaves on Instagram or Facebook ads, with copies such as "doesn't need much food","will sleep on the floor", "will work 20 hours a day"...

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50228549

> "African worker, clean and smiley," said one listing. Another: "Nepalese who dares to ask for a day off."

> When speaking to the sellers, the undercover team frequently heard racist language. "Indians are the dirtiest," said one, describing a woman being advertised.

They are dehumanized at first place, but the level of racism in these places, on top of all that is shocking...

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#50

Post by carlosjobim »

"Statistics suggest that Maria was undoubtedly poor and, most likely, Black."

That is a new way of reporting news, that journalist Gortázar seems to have invented here. When you don't know anything about the victim, just make something up from "statistics".

Where else can we apply this technique?

"Maria entered their lives around 1971 — the year Henry Kissinger visited China, John Lennon wrote Imagine, and Mexico hosted the first Women’s World Cup."

Good to know.

"The traditional maid’s room is gradually disappearing in Brazil, but buildings with separate social and service elevators — for domestic workers, visiting technicians, neighbors with dogs, or residents carrying groceries — remain commonplace."

Those are for separating workers carrying broken dusty floor tiles or ladders or a bunch of fiber cables from the other people using the building.

Anyway, ignoring the lacking quality of the journalism, more countries should do like Brazil and call slavery for what it is in legislation, instead of using euphemisms like "human trafficking".

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