Millhouse

Modern slavery is a brutal reality around the world. The 2016 Global Slavery Index published by the Walk Free Foundation estimates that 45.8 million people are in some form of slavery in 167 countries. 58 percent of people in slavery are living in just five countries: India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. The report estimates that North Korea has the world’s highest prevalence of slavery at 4.4 percent of its population, followed by Uzbekistan (4.0 percent) and Cambodia (1.6 percent).

Slavery is most prevalent in countries producing consumer goods through low-cost labour. When it comes to the sheer number of people living in slavery, no country comes close to matching India. There are an estimated 18.4 million slaves in India, compared to 3.4 million in China and 2.1 million in Pakistan. Politically stable countries with high levels of economic wealth have few people living in slavery with low rates recorded in Canada, Germany, Singapore and the United States.

nonthaburi

"Some form of slavery"

A bit abstract. So easy to throw around these kinds of terms.

We're all f***ing slaves....

Millhouse

I suspect your personal feeling of slavery is someone different to the person born a sex worker or who was sold by the family with land.

nonthaburi

It probably is, but when you can show me the person born a sex slave, we'll talk again.

Bahtatboy

Some are born slaves, some achieve slavery, and some have slavery thrust upon them.

With apologies to Malvolio

Bahtatboy

If we plotted another graph showing the percentage of the workforce that are slaves, we all know which countries would come out on top. And the percentages would be even more alarming if you removed from the workforce calculation those who don't actually "work".

Lightandbitter

who was it that defined insanity as working 50 hours a week for 50 years for the benefit of others just to spend your last 10 years in.....I have forgotten the rest

Lightandbitter

The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Pica

What is the point of this thread?

Bahtatboy

It's in the Sand Pit, it doesn't need a point. But bearing in mind it's in the Sand Pit, I consider it as our starter for ten...

Millhouse

As other posters have said, it's the sandpit and therefore doesn't need a point.

The more enlightened will link the fact that many in the gulf are considered to be slaves and many of them come from India and thus see the link.

Bahtatboy

Dots joined up. Can you see what the picture is now?

Irishbeekeeper

Well, you would be surprised how many girls are actually born into it.
Ive done 2 different extensive documentaries in the red light district in Lahore. Its the area behind the Large and Beautiful Badshahi Mosque (quite ironic in my opinion but thats another discussion )
Its called Heera Mandi (Diamond Souk) also called Shahi Mohalla (The royal neighborhood). Its a huge are of about 2-3 square KMs atleast of two almost perpendicular streets which meet at one end to make an inverted V of sorts.
Its old old old Lahore so very very narrow streets, houses cramped with and on top of each other. Imagine a favela but on level ground. All the houses have secret openings to each other and the network is very very extensive. Ive been whisked many times from one side of the area to another completely different side in a manner of minutes. The network is there to protect the girls obviously when raids happen.
The 'left street' is for Mujras (dancing girls), they have proper ground floor shops with carpets / musicians / reclining pillows and you can walk along that street and look at whats on display and if you like something, you just walk in and sit down and pay money and watch the girls dance. If you have enough money you can take her with you for the night but the left side girls are younger and prettier so its more expensive there. Prices vary from age to virginity. Harsh, yes it is.
They are called tawaifs and it is a very old tradition from the time of the Mughal Empire. In those times as like now, the word tawaif means a dancing woman and is considered as bad as a prostitute i.e. no one will ever marry them. So they dance. And they dance from the day they learn to walk. It is considered a sign of great prosperity when a girl is born in their house, because she will earn a lot more money than a boy ever can. She dances till she is no longer fit for dancing and then she is transferred to the 'right street', where she becomes a prostitute for as long as she can get customers and when she is old-er, she becomes a 'dai' (old woman with a hanger) or a mistress (if she has enough money) to start her own dance school and the process starts all over again. The fathers usually are customers as I am sure you must have guessed by now. It is called Diamond Market because sometimes you can find a true diamond like girl on the left street and if she is smart and pretty enough, she can become a rich man's rakhail (keep) and he can buy her a flat and a car etc, so she will be his for as long as she is pretty or for as long as he has money.
So yes my friend, trust me when I tell you this, it IS possible to be born a sex slave but if she is smart enough and lucky enough and pretty enough, she can claw herself out of the vicious cycle and make enough money to be a 'respectable' person of that society, because as we all know, only money can command respect

Bahtatboy

And the difference is even smaller in certain countries.

scrubbedexpat141

All those slaves and I don't even have ONE.