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Global Slavery Index 2014

globalslaveryindex.org

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Re: Global Slavery Index 2014

#11

Post by nickff »

smutticus wrote: post #4
josu wrote: post #2

The definition of slavery according to them: Modern slavery involves one person possessing or controlling a person in such as a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty, with the intention of exploiting that person through their use, management, profit, transfer or disposal. I would like to know what significantly means. Were African slaves in America "significantly deprived" or just "d…

I think your question is fair and don't understand why you were downvoted. I also question their definition of slavery. Are US prison inmates forced into labor also slaves? Slavery is not an easy thing to define.

It appears that inmates in modern US prisons are forced to work, though they are often incentivized to do work.[1]

Your question is still a good one though, and I would be interested to know whether penal labor would qualify as 'slavery', and whether the conditions of the facility, or the reason for incarceration would be taken into account in this judgement.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labour#United_States

Re: Global Slavery Index 2014

#13

Post by sgt »

happyscrappy wrote: post #9

I find it hard to believe that close to one percent of Russians are slaves.

I think there's a reason why they use the term enslavement rather than people being slaves. Enslavement implies modern slavery - which is far off from the chains and whips of a by-gone era. However it's still a form of slavery and quite a serious problem globally.

Re: Global Slavery Index 2014

#14

Post by vixen99 »

brixon wrote: post #5
josu wrote: post #2

The definition of slavery according to them: Modern slavery involves one person possessing or controlling a person in such as a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty, with the intention of exploiting that person through their use, management, profit, transfer or disposal. I would like to know what significantly means. Were African slaves in America "significantly deprived" or just "d…

Significant to me would include: - inability to change employers - inability to travel off site - inability to make more money than the employer charges for fees/housing/... - inability to quit - fear of harm from employer Similar to the workers in Abu Dhabi http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/22/abu-dhabi-migra...

You should qualify 'inability'. I would have thought that 'inability to change employers'. applies to millions of people particularly older ones where if they are sacked the chance of getting another job may be non-existent.

Re: Global Slavery Index 2014

#16

Post by VLM »

vixen99 wrote: post #14
brixon wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Significant to me would include: - inability to change employers - inability to travel off site - inability to make more money than the employer charges for fees/housing/... - inability to quit - fear of harm from employer Similar to the workers in Abu Dhabi http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/22/abu-dhabi-migra...

You should qualify 'inability'. I would have thought that 'inability to change employers'. applies to millions of people particularly older ones where if they are sacked the chance of getting another job may be non-existent.

A somewhat more controversial 'inability' would be a visa where you must leave the country within 72 hours of your job terminating, although its impossible to sell your house in 72 hours and close the transaction without any preparation and the typical workplace hiring cycle is perhaps two months long. So technically you could quit or get fired and stay in country, if you had preexisting arrangements, but in practice...

This would be an interesting, strange, startup idea for a jobs website. I'll work for you part time, for 1/10th pay or minimum wage whichever is higher, although I donno when, and only until I get a real job. I suppose this is basically the temp industry, in a nutshell, unless a startup could do it much better, somehow.

Re: Global Slavery Index 2014

#17

Post by alex_h »

sgt wrote: post #12

Today I learned there are 23 enslaved people in Iceland.

Figures for Iceland were actually extrapolated from figures for Britain. In all the index is pretty seriously flawed. Some countries are being ranked in the complete absence of any slavery data to justify a ranking.

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21631039-interna...

Re: Global Slavery Index 2014

#18

Post by DanBC »

josu wrote: post #2

The definition of slavery according to them: Modern slavery involves one person possessing or controlling a person in such as a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty, with the intention of exploiting that person through their use, management, profit, transfer or disposal. I would like to know what significantly means. Were African slaves in America "significantly deprived" or just "d…

African slaves count as slaves under this definition.

I'm not sure why you brought that up - that's not controversial.

They include significant to cover cases of bonded labour or trafficked workers. In theory a woman traffiked from one country to another and forced to work as a prostitute is free to go the that country's police forces to report the crime but we know that they don't actually have that freedom.

See also people who are transported to another country and have heir passports taken from them.

Here's a gruesome article about bonded labour in India.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27486450

Re: Global Slavery Index 2014

#19

Post by VLM »

nickff wrote: post #11
smutticus wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your question is fair and don't understand why you were downvoted. I also question their definition of slavery. Are US prison inmates forced into labor also slaves? Slavery is not an easy thing to define.

It appears that inmates in modern US prisons are forced to work, though they are often incentivized to do work.[1] Your question is still a good one though, and I would be interested to know whether penal labor would qualify as 'slavery', and whether the conditions of the facility, or the reason for incarceration would be taken into account in this judgement. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labour#United_State…

Something I don't understand about FPI is my sister in law's public school is FULL of FPI stuff although technically they can only sell to the feds. I believe there's a lot of "pass thru" and "non-surplus surplus sales" going on in the prison industrial complex. I suspect there's a lot of "Well, sorry about no federal funds cash this quarter, budget crunch and all that, but here's some nice FPI desks made by prison slave labor". The quality level of the carpentry work, both labor and materials, is usually pretty high compared to Chinese slave labor which always kinda surprises me. I wonder if folks closer to public schools than I am, see as much FPI as I do.

Re: Global Slavery Index 2014

#20

Post by naturalethic »

WiggleYourIndex wrote: post #6

The abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass initially declared, "now I am my own master", upon taking a paying job. But later in life, he concluded to the contrary, "experience demonstrates that there may be a slavery of wages only a little less galling and crushing in its effects than chattel slavery, and that this slavery of wages must go down with the other". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery

But taxes aren't right?
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