Slavery

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery.

Slavery at our present time is still very much alive. We may think that it’s abolished on certain countries, however the right word for it is, it’s well hidden. While I was watching CNN the other day, the CNN Freedom Project flashed and it got me intrigued. I browsed through their website and got more interested in it. They have articles and interviews of women who were working for pimps. They described how their lives were before they were rescued. It was horrible. I remember around a few years ago, I was watching in Discovery Channel about a man who was looking for his niece. It was his aunt reached out to him for help which he couldn’t say no to. He found out that his own niece was cheated to get a good stable job from another country. In reality, she was actually recruited by a pimp and was sold in a sex trade. It was sad as the man went through everything just so he can get his niece back. Unfortunately all the leads that he thought would make him get closer to getting her were all a dead end.

There are a couple of Hollywood movies based on sex slaves too. One movie that I like a lot is Taken (2009) starring Liam Neeson. It’s about a man whose daughter was kidnapped and used as a sex slave. He tracked down all the people who took her and eventually got her back in the end. Of course, Hollywood’s depiction of reality isn’t always correct. Things don’t always happen picture perfect as how it is in movies like Taken. Out of power and greed, a lot of people have succumb to their own world where things work only for them. How selfish isn’t it? Well it’s been proven that there wouldn’t be any good unless there’s evil. What do you think? Is slavery necessary to balance the good things in our society?