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

english.elpais.com

191–200 of 278 posts

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

#191
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 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.

This is quite interesting, given the UAE was only formed in 1971, and their precursor states only agreed to form the UAE in 1968.

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

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The crime done here is nearly death penalty levels. Nearly. Jail time for the entire family or stripped of all wealth. Maybe public humiliation is better, release names and address.

You are acting like the case is that the girl was kidnapped or taken from their family against their will. Barring extraordinary circumstances, this is far from the truth here. More likely than not, this is the case of some poor family that couldn't take care of the girl and gave her away. It is a horrible arrangement, and she should be given a lot more than what she is getting (at the very least , she should be give…

maybe.. but it's very close to "sadistic family". It's very very close. It wasn't slavery, but excruciating close to slavery.

And definitely the punishment given is a complete under-reaction and your attempt here to lighten the situation lightens it way too much.

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

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Abducted and enslaved? Doesn't kidnapping imply kids?

It doesn't imply kids (or napping). Nancy Guthrie is 84 https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/fbi-determine...

Oh. Yeah I thought it was slang language use but it seems like it is used for adults too over the board. I mainly wanted to point out that adults were victims also.

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

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At first I found interesting how you nitpick in irrelevant details while ignoring the bigger picture. The point of the whole article is to use a single case to illustrate a bigger picture that you seem to deliberately oversee: abuse and exploitation of manual and unqualified workers. But, then, I saw your Brazilian name and understood. Brazilian jingoism freaks out when Brazil "looks bad" to the world. It is a very c…

Dear Diego, Senhor Jobim had to leave hastily for the horse race track, and has asked me to briefly tend to his hacker messages and Kubernetes before I prepare his afternoon coffee. He regrets that you found his commentary as being picking of the nits, but says that the article itself didn't invite any much broader reflection on the subject matter. He also mentions that no amount of bad publicity could ever make Braz…

Lol, I liked the reply, congrats. It is stylish and well argued.

First, be respectful: I am Paranaense and we consider offensive to be called "Argentinean".

Second, my criticism on disrespect for manual labour is not directed towards Brazil in particular but towards most 3rd World countries, all over Latin America, Africa, Asia, Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe. I'd also stress that, in some but not all of these countries, this disrespect does have racial undertones.

Third, I agree that the article is not explicit in its thesis and is poor on facts. But I forgive it because it is journalism, not sociology or history. Journalism is entertainment, like movies or soap-operas; sociology and history are sciences. Entertainment aims at being easy, accessible and fun, science aims at being deep.

Fourth, I think "your" best composition is not the one you linked, but this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qttuCR18NMU

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

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because exploitation is a two-actor system and poverty is a unary operator.

That two actor system needs an poor person to exploit. You are confirming my statement that poverty is the main problem.

And you need a rich person to do the exploiting. The power differential is a key ingredient.

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

#196
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A family member stayed in a hotel in Dubai recently and on returning said how incredible the staff were and willing they were to help them, and my response was "no shit"

I went once. It feels like Disney Land but for the wealthy. I'll never go back, and I actually regret going to be honest. It's disgusting and it's right out in the open.

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

#197
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…

“The oppressors left, but their systems remain”

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

#198
post #77
post #72

Yup, my mom and her sisters were all sent off to work on family houses when they were about 10 - 12. They were born in the country side, and my grandpa didn't care for them at all.

Did they also eventually win their freedom like in the article?

Yes. She left that house to work on a nursery home with the nuns. Then on a supermarket, I think. Then my father knocked her up at the age of 20. Interesting woman.

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

#199
post #141
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This isn't very surprising. The vast majority of slaves went to the New World, so that's where most of its effects were felt. Of the 12.5M people kidnapped from Africa, only ~9000 went to the Old World. It just wasn't as obvious of a problem in Europe itself . An interesting side-effect of this is that a lot of European countries have two relevant dates: the first being the banning of slave trade , the second being t…

In addition muslim traders also exported as many as 17 million slaves to the coast of the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and North Africa.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1523100.stm

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

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are acting like the case is that the girl was kidnapped or taken from their family against their will. Barring extraordinary circumstances, this is far from the truth here. More likely than not, this is the case of some poor family that couldn't take care of the girl and gave her away. It is a horrible arrangement, and she should be given a lot more than what she is getting (at the very least , she should be give…

maybe.. but it's very close to "sadistic family". It's very very close. It wasn't slavery, but excruciating close to slavery. And definitely the punishment given is a complete under-reaction and your attempt here to lighten the situation lightens it way too much.

If it was as bad as you are claiming it to be, she wouldn't stay with the family before the investigation, yet everyone deemed better to let her stay with the family even after the sentence was given.
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