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

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

#81

Post by encom »

phyzome wrote: post #40
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…

Correction: The US still has not abolished slavery. It is still legal in the case of prisoners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_Un...

Prisoners are not slaves, because they are not the property of the prison or any other entity. It's called involuntary servitude. I'm sure the people affected do not care about the distinction, but words matter.

It's also trivially easy to not end up in involuntary servitude.

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

#82

Post by Loughla »

inexcf wrote: post #71
iammrpayments wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was repeatedly told in school that Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery, only to find out recently that places like UAE had not abolished slavery until 1967.

"last country to abolish slavery" vs. "last country to practice slavery"

Yeah, have you ever been to Dubai?

Slavery is "illegal".

I'm convinced that the absolute modernity is only a sideshow attraction for the ultra-wealthy to visit Dubai. The real show is the servants.

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

#83

Post by 55555 »

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.

The median income in brazil is 10X lower than USA. So $12 a day -> $120 a day. That's similar to what someone in the US at the bottom of the economic ladder might earn. We have the same thing, it's just that Americans want to have servants but don't want to see them, so there's an app barrier between you and the poor. Someone cooks your food, someone else delivers your food, someone cleans your hotel room, but Americans prefer not to have to ever learn their names or talk to them. Is that really better?

Unlike when you use an app, for the most part, because we're not psychopaths, living with someone every day for months or years causes us to feel a great affinity and care towards them.

I live in a developing country. Some people treat their live-in staff badly. But for many others, this is not the case.

Imagine you are a high-earner and hard worker and so you and your wife get a live-in nanny to assist with childrearing duties. Often, two or three decades later, the live-in nanny is ready to retire, but your children (whom you love) have come to see her as a member of the family, or even as a second mother. Surely you also do. How can you live with someone for 20-30 years and not care about them? You might thus often take care of her for the rest of her life, even though she has her own savings.

(No, I do not have live-in house staff. But I've had the same maid for 7 years and she knows she can come to me if she needs anything.)

How one treats someone else is probably mostly just a reflection of the individual. But it's harder to disregard someone's humanity when they live in your house and you've know them for years.

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

#84

Post by manarth »

runsWphotons wrote: post #74
fmbb wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When an employer can confiscate someone's passport and one can only leave the country with their authorization, it is slavery. This happens in Europe as well. It is not legal, but it is the only way the Scandinavian berry market works at all. You don’t even need a huge market for this to be allowed to happen. You just need _a_ market and workers that are desperate enough to be tricked.

This is completely a figment of your imagination.

Passport confiscation is a common sign of modern slavery.

    "he was lured in with the false promise of a well-paid job in the UK"
    "The gang confiscated the passports of all their victims"
It's not legal. There are definitions of "Modern Slavery" and descriptions of the practices and warning signs because it is still an issue in contemporary times, including in Europe.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2kdg84zj4wo

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

#85

Post by sokoloff »

froh wrote: post #66
phyzome wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correction: The US still has not abolished slavery. It is still legal in the case of prisoners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_Un...

yes! which is _the_ driving factor behind the US prison system with its private prison labor facilities. there is zero financial motivation for the state for prevention or rehab or any other activities to reduce imprisonment rates did I mention disenfranchisement of the imprisoned?

Are you suggesting that the state turns a net profit on prisoners, making more from their labor than the full cost of their incarceration?

That seems…unlikely.

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

#86

Post by anonymars »

froh wrote: post #66
phyzome wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correction: The US still has not abolished slavery. It is still legal in the case of prisoners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_Un...

yes! which is _the_ driving factor behind the US prison system with its private prison labor facilities. there is zero financial motivation for the state for prevention or rehab or any other activities to reduce imprisonment rates did I mention disenfranchisement of the imprisoned?

Related: https://newjimcrow.com/about/excerpt-from-the-introduction

"Jarvious Cotton cannot vote. Like his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather, he has been denied the right to participate in our electoral democracy"

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

#88

Post by regenschutz »

runsWphotons wrote: post #74
fmbb wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When an employer can confiscate someone's passport and one can only leave the country with their authorization, it is slavery. This happens in Europe as well. It is not legal, but it is the only way the Scandinavian berry market works at all. You don’t even need a huge market for this to be allowed to happen. You just need _a_ market and workers that are desperate enough to be tricked.

This is completely a figment of your imagination.

No, it's real. Every year, there are several news articles about berry pickers being abused, at least here in Sweden (not sure about the other Scandinavian countries). Here's [0] just ONE of the myriad of articles I could find, but there are so, so, so many more (and even worse ones) [1].

[0]: (In Swedish) Berry entrepreneurs suspected of trafficking Thai nationals, (2025). https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vasternorrland/barforetag-...

[1]: (In Swedish) Berry pickers (Topic). https://www.svt.se/nyheter/om/barplockare

Both are from SVT, the public broadcaster in Sweden.

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

#89

Post by lordnacho »

argentinian wrote: post #78
Laurel1234 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a symptom of inequality. It will start happening more and more even in the first world if inequality isn't tackled and wealth continues to concentrate.

Why do you see inequality as the problem, instead of poverty?

Most countries we are discussing are richer now than a few decades ago, yet still have domestic servants.

Those servants will be richer in a few decades but will still be in that situation.

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

#90

Post by elmer2 »

phyzome wrote: post #40
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…

Correction: The US still has not abolished slavery. It is still legal in the case of prisoners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_Un...

I suppose using this logic, murder is legal, because of self defense. Theft is legal because of tax laws.

Prisoners aren't 'slaves'. They are being punished for crimes they committed. Very dofferent than being born into it and bought/sold to the highest bidder.

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