Disposable People: The New Slavery In The Global Economy I

A serious challenge for anyone writing about the ongoing enslavement of millions of human beings is how to express the action for emancipation message without falling into the obvious traps of off-putting the reader with the twin vices of excessive moralizing and representing the problem as an unrelenting tragedy.

Kevin Bales, director of Free The Slaves, managed to overcome that challenge and write a richly informative and compelling book about the “new slavery”, “Disposable People: New Slavery In The Global Economy. Describing his personal experiences in journeys to witness and study why slavery thrives in India, Brazil, Thailand, Mauritania and elsewhere around the world, Bales also offers astute economic, social and political commentary that elucidates the unique characteristics supporting the evolution or emergence of slavery in each locality, while not failing to note the common traits inherent in most forms of the new slavery.

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The new slavery focuses on big profits and cheap lives; where “people become completely disposable tools for making money.” A key aspect of the new slavery is the changing nature of ownership. While slavery is feasibly illegal everywhere in the world, nowadays “people buy slaves and don’t ask for a receipt or ownership papers; but they do gain control- and they use violence to maintain this control.” Unrestrained greed evolves in the global economy; “indeed, for the slaveholders, not having legal ownership is an improvement because they get total control without any responsibility for what they own.”

Bales is careful to use conservative estimates and descriptions throughout the book, halving the guesstimates of some activists and positing that there about 27 million slaves in the world now, mostly in South Asia under the guise of bonded labor. Its spread throughout the world, from sweatshop workers in California to enslaved domestic workers in Hong Kong. The final products resulting from the practice can be found in most homes and dwellings worldwide as he notes, “large international corporations, acting through subsidiaries in the developing world, take advantage of slave labor to improve their bottom line and increase the dividends to their shareholders.”

Race has little to do with slavery nowadays, instead, the “criteria of enslavement today do not concern color, tribe or religion; they focus on weakness, gullibility and deprivation.” The two factors Bales believes are critical to the shift from old slavery to the “exploitive greed of the new” is the “dramatic increase in world population following WW2″, which has collapsed already overburdened social, health and education systems in much of the developing world, leading to fewer and fewer opportunities for people to succeed in local or globalized economies and skyrocketing unemployment that causes the growing population to signify a massive supply “of potential slaves and drove down their price.”

Bales describes the grim outcome as “without work and with increasing fear as resources diminish, people become desperate and life becomes cheap.” The other critical factor is the “rapid social and economic changes” that have unfolded hand in hand with modernization. Populations and societies in flux offer a prime pool of cheap resources to be exploited.

Other highlights from Bales’ examination of how and why slavery is thriving:

Corrupt governance, especially in the guise of the local police who are often in cahoots with slaveholders, guarantees a low-risk environment within which slavery thrives.

Accepted labor conventions and laws are used to “legitimate and conceal slavery. Much modern slavery is hidden behind a mask of fraudulent labor contracts…” which serve two key purposes for slaveholders; entrapment and concealment.

“The new disposability of (slaves) has dramatically increased the amount of profit to be made from a slave, decreased the length of time a person would normally be enslaved, and made the question of legal ownership less important.” In essence, slaves are used until they are no longer useful (whether because the job is done or the environs maximized, i..e. making charcoal in Brazil, planting seasonal fields in Nepal), no longer usable (sex slaves in Thailand with AIDS, famished and dying charcoal workers in Brazil) or no longer profitable (sick slaves of almost any kind anywhere).

A Brilliant Mind In Iraq Deserving Of Your Attention

I wanted to introduce readers to psychologist and Navy Lt. Commander Tara Smith (she’s been promoted since this article) one of the eight people I am blessed to know as friends who currently serve in Iraq. She was a mentor and beacon of higher thought while I served on board the USS Kitty Hawk in the FDNF (Forward Deployed Naval Forces) and my prayers and thoughts are certainly with her, her staff and everyone else serving in Iraq now.

In a Univ. of Iowa profile in 2004, she describes her role on the aircraft carrier and what life is like there:

I’m in my fifth year as a psychologist for the Navy. Right now, I’m working as one of 15 female officers aboard the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, the Navy’s oldest active ship. We are in constant motion.

The ship is about 1,000 feet long and is essentially a floating airport. It has everything that a small town has-including two stores for necessities like candy, soda, and toiletries. There are barbershops; several cafeterias; medical, dental, and legal services; and educational services to help sailors complete their education while underway. The ship is mostly made of steel, which makes for achy knees and feet. And there are 18 levels with steep, steel ladders in between to make your knees feel that much better.

My office is an eight-by-eight-foot hole that I am very fortunate to have. As a psychologist, a private office is a necessity, but the majority of the ship is not so lucky. The office is a lifesaver for me because it gives me a place to get away from my seven roommates and the other 5,000 people onboard.

We’ve been deployed six of the nine months that I’ve been assigned to the Kitty Hawk. Being deployed, or underway, is difficult only if you can’t establish a routine. It is much like the movie Groundhog Day, which the media department often shows for “morale.”

My typical day begins with morning meetings at 7 AM We have endless meetings to keep everyone informed about the plan of the day. Between 8 and 9 AM, I supervise cleaning stations, where sailors clean the ship for an hour daily.

At 9 AM we have sick call, when I see patients. As the ship’s psychologist, I not only evaluate and treat mental illnesses but I also act as a high school guidance counselor, mother, and best friend to the sailors. I rarely see major mental disorders because the military screens sailors before they go to ships. But there is the occasional sailor who has a psychotic break underway, major depression, or an anxiety disorder. Unfortunately, many of my sailors are malingering: many do research and try to convince me that they have Bipolar Disorder, a psychotic disorder or major depression. Navy psychologists can recommend separation from the military and many sailors believe that if they threaten suicide they will be sent home.

In the afternoon I am occupied with administrative duties and other shipboard responsibilities. On the ship I am a sailor first and a psychologist second. I have the same responsibilities as other officers to inspect the material condition of the ship, to supervise maintenance, and perform other duties as assigned. The ship is always going through some inspection, so all hands are involved in making the ship inspection ready.

My additional duties include supervising the alcohol rehabilitation program onboard, which is obviously a busy job. Alcohol-related problems are common as the tolerance for misconduct is low and sometimes sailors who work 18 hours a day see alcohol as their only way to relieve stress.

After dinner-did I mention that meals are the centerpiece of everyone’s morale?-we have evening sick call to provide treatment to those who work the night shift.

We have drills several evenings a week. Everyone on the ship must be prepared to fight fires, stop flooding, recover a man overboard, treat patients in the event of a mass casualty, and obviously fight a war. During drills I am the Officer in Charge of a Battle Dressing Station. I coordinate the care of casualties with the help of medical assistants, dental technicians, chaplains, and stretcher bearers.

At the end of the day I take time to study to earn my Surface Warfare pin, which will signify that I’ve learned everything about the ship from deck seamanship and combat systems to weapons, navigation, and engineering. I never thought with a Ph.D. in psychology that I’d be able to tell you about an engineering plant or steering an aircraft carrier, but here I am!

Inevitably, around 11 PM a sailor will stop by because he or she is homesick and wants to talk. There’s also the occasional sailor who cuts his wrist or overdoses because of the stress. The sailors endure a lot, especially at 18 years old, fresh out of high school. They work incredibly long hours, and there is no such thing as a weekend when we’re underway. The only break is the occasional port call when we visit new countries to refuel and restock our supplies.

The foreign countries we visit are wonderful. I’ve been fortunate to see Hong Kong, Korea, Guam, Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Somewhere around midnight I hit my rack and say goodnight to my roommates.

But sleep isn’t easy. Try sleeping with the sound of the ship’s engines, the planes, the sailors working, and shipboard announcements. The minute you step off the ship you are overwhelmed by the silence.

Tara Smith (PhD ‘02 - Counseling Psychology), originally from Philadelphia, earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and Spanish from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania in 1995. She joined the U.S. Navy in 1999, originally for a one-year internship. She’s now in her fifth year with the Navy and says her best assignment so far has been working at the Naval Medical Clinic in Pearl Harbor for three years.

The War Criminals In The Pentagon & White House

would in theory not appreciate General Antonio Taguba coming forward with further revelations about their crimes at Abu Gharib and elsewhere.

Indeed, perhaps they and their allies in the media and hack think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute will find a way to discredit him, as they’ve done so with the others who have actually taken their oaths to the Constitution seriously and spoken out against what has transpired over the past few years.

Yet Taguba is different, and his character and story are quite compelling, backed up bit by bit by the mountain of evidence that has come to light in the past few years from Army CID & Navy NCIS investigators, FBI agents, uniformed investigators (who were largely stymied by the type of political games played by the generals and civilians above them in the chain of command) CIA operatives and legions of reporters.

The American people have already shown time and time again they care very little about the issue of detainee abuse and torture by American forces. Its not a moral or security issue to them, though it certainly should be.

So this fight is really about and within the armed forces itself. Will we tolerate this behavior in our midst, will we silently accept the back-door shredding of our time-honored virtues, laws and prestige? Will those in retirement sit back and allow hacks like Rumsfeld, Bush and Cheney to corrode the military they served in for decades?

The only acceptable ending for this disgraceful chapter in our history is for Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, and the rest of their ilk responsible for the deliberate use of torture and abuse to be tried in a war crimes tribunal for their transgressions.

A good number of the individuals who played a disgraceful role in this while serving in the upper echelons of the military should be hanged if found guilty. No they are not Nazis or jihadists, but they are traitors; they’ve betrayed their nation, its ideals, its laws and done incredible damage to its prestige and mission abroad. “I didn’t know it would get out of hand” & “we didn’t plan it this way” are not valid excuses.  Not a one of them came forward and called bull**** while this was going on.  They closed their eyes, ignored their duties, saluted smartly and covered their ass.

Cowards.

“From the moment a soldier enlists, we inculcate loyalty, duty, honor, integrity, and selfless service,” Taguba said. “And yet when we get to the senior-officer level we forget those values. I know that my peers in the Army will be mad at me for speaking out, but the fact is that we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib. We violated the tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated the core of our military values. The stress of combat is not an excuse, and I believe, even today, that those civilian and military leaders responsible should be held accountable.”