King Leopold's CongoHave you heard about the colonial abuses in Congo by Kind Leopold's colonial government; then by the Belgian colonial authorities following his death? Read the book "King Leopold's Ghost" and you will never feel the same again about sitting at the Quartiere Leopold in Brussels or in the many places bearing the king's name. You will feel horrified.
Millions died in King Leopold's Congo and yet more were mutilated; usually their hands cut off but often other body parts too. Belgian school books don't mention this; Belgians are blissfully ignorant of the reality. The big African Museum of Brussels doesn't show the cruelties. Unbelievable especially when bearing in mind that Belgium has the famous law allowing prosecution of human rights abuses anywhere.
Everywhere except in Belgium or by Belgians it seems.
Afghan girls still largely out of schoolsThanks to international donors about 50-55% of Afghan children are now going to school. School in Afghanistan doesn't mean nice space with modern equipment, needless to say. Most pupils study in terrible old and dirty structures or tents. Still, one might argue that any school is better than no school. That is the good news.
Sadly, in many especially rural and thus more conservative areas, boys are sent to school rather than girls. Parents often refuse to send their daughters to a school to be taught by a male teacher - however, according to Oxfam (an international charity), only about 25% of all teachers are women. That then seems to be the root cause of the problem.
Would be interesting to know if donors could allocate their money only if a certain number of female pupils and students will be among its recipients. Another option would be to arrange urgent teacher training for women. The Afghan government seems to be interested in solving these problems; it may be hard to change the years of Taliban anti-woman atmosphere but with some pressure from donor countries this is possible. On some level then, the ball is at the donors' court.
We, you and I, have to make sure that our governments are aware of this issue. Western money should only go where it is spent in a way that benefits the recipients in the long run.
Isabel Allende's "Daughter of Fortune" is still contemporary - how sad a realityA while ago, on Freedom Day (March 25), I had the possibility to participate on an anti-trafficking event in Brussels. Yesterday, I had the possibility to read and finish the above book. Whilst the March event concentrated on prostitution and trafficking of mainly Eastern European women to Western Europe for purposes of forced prostitution, Allende's events take place first in Chile, then in California of the gold rush years in the 1850's. Despite the periodical distance, the similarities of situations are so large that the connection becomes disturbing.
At the anti-trafficking event a pastor, accompanied by two former trafficking and forced prostitution victims, told about his work in the red light district of Antwerpen. Almost all of Western European cities have similar districts so it doesn't really matter where he comes from. Anyway, women are lured under various pretexts to leave their families and countries. Their passports are taken away and they are repeatedly violated by their smugglers and captors until they realize that they have no escape from their hopeless situation. They are auctioned, sold, resold, violated and raped repeatedly. Sometimes they are killed when they are no longer sufficiently beautiful or young - and that life makes a woman old in no time. The women spend their time servicing, how many "customers" ever their pimp forces them to see. Violence is routinely used and at the end of a "work day" all money goes to the pimp.
In Allende's book, Chinese women (among others) are trafficked into California under similar pretexts. They are violated by sailors on the ship on the way to California, then they are auctioned to pimps, chained into a bed in a small room where they have to service customers. When they get ill, they are killed. Similarly to the pastor of the first story, the Chinese man, who tries to help them, has to be careful because the pimps would easily have him killed.
Eastern European men, and even some women, are lying to and selling women to horrible abuse, rape and murder. Western European men are buying these women just the way the were bought in the 1850's. Nothing has changed. Police is complacent all over the world claiming lack of evidence. Sufficient evidence would be to go and see if these girls have their own passports. Any adult not in possession of his/her own travel documents can be within reason thought of as a trafficking victim.
To quote Allende:
"
When the little sinsong girls were too sick to continue working, they were taken to the "hospital",as they called the secret rooms...and left there with a cup of water, a little rice and a little lamp with oil enough for a few hours. The door was opened again some days later when somone went in to be sure the girl was dead. If she was alive, she was killed; none ever saw sunlight again."
This is the reality of the 1850's and today's world. No one ever sees sunlight again!
More on chocolateMany are curious, how does one know what chocolate to buy then. There is a list at the
Stop the Traffik web site. But the sure thing is that Fairtrade chocolate is not made by using slavery. So any chocolate marked Fairtrade is a good buy.
The best thing is to ask the chocolate makers. I mean - can one continue buying chocolate knowing that one is contributing to such a horrible crime? I say no.
Until there is a label on my chocolate saying "slave free", I am afraid I cannot eat it...And I urge you to do the same.
Freedom DayWorld celebrated the international Freedom Day on March 25th. The only problem is that slavery is alive and kicking at this very moment. It touches more people than did the slavery of Africans, yet governments and individuals act as if powerless in front of it. The English people stopped buying their sugar because of moral issues. Are we prepared to do the same?
Most of the cocoa used for chocolate comes from one single place, namely Ivory Coast. Children, 12 000 of them, are being
trafficked into that country from its own villages and other African countries. They are tiny poor kids, beaten mercilessly and killed when no longer useful to the farm owners. Are you prepared to forgo your chocolate? Most chocolate comes from that horrible place. Could you at the very least go to your local supermarket or write to the chocolate makers? Ask them if they can guarantee that
no slaves were used to work the cocoa they use. Don't ask them about their social programs. They may well have plenty them.
But that is no help when they use slavery in this century.
We have to stop the traffic and the only way is to hurt them where it hurts. Don't buy chocolate if in doubt whose little suffering hands made that chocolate bar possible...
Dear Reader,
Forgive me for the inexcusable amount of time with no post at all. Due to personal changes and moving to another continent, I have been unable to write. But we are back, better and larger than ever :)
