November 23, 2011
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Slavery: A 21st Century Evil – Prison slaves
Over the past 20 years China has become the world’s biggest exporter of consumer goods. But behind this apparent success story is a dark secret – millions of men and women locked up in prisons and forced into intensive manual labor.
China has the biggest penal colony in the world – a top secret network of more than 1,000 slave labour prisons and camps known collectively as “The Laogai”. And the use of the inmates of these prisons – in what some experts call “state sponsored slavery” – has been credited with contributing to the country’s economic boom.
Thoughts???
Comments (17)
Most present day slaves are sex slaves. Back in the 1800s people wanted crops and sex was taboo. Now everybody wants sex and so the slave industry has changed.
This honestly just… doesn’t surprise me. It makes me very sad, but it doesn’t surprise me at all. In fact, I’d bet money on the idea that you’ll get at least a couple of people who say things like “They’re in prison! They should be working!”
I agree that prison should be a punishment– but I disagree that slave labor is ever, ever okay in any circumstance. One human being cannot own another with any degree of morality.
I also find it interesting that it’s Al Jazeera airing this story– I doubt we could find independent verification from American news companies. But I think tomorrow that will be my plan, to research this more so I can form a more full opinion and figure out what I think ought to be done.
Part of the problem is that, as the movie states, China IS the world’s factory. To be a lower-middle-class to low-income American and NOT buy Chinese-made products (the first reaction that presents itself) is so terribly difficult as to be almost impossible. Even now, curled up on my bed in college sweats and a t-shirt, I’m typing on a laptop I’m pretty sure was made in China. Texting on a phone, the components of which were made in China. Wearing clothes that were made in China and Malaysia. I’m about to go cook some rice, exported from… you get the picture.
So in order to fix it… well, I don’t know what I think needs to happen. But I think it’s clear that the problem of the laogai is symptomatic of a bigger problem running unchecked through the world. And I just have no idea what to do about human nature.
@opticalnoise - That’s funny. My very first thought was, “I’m not surprised.”
@mtngirlsouth - I feel like we should play CSI tomorrow. See what we can dig up and find out. I know you’re a great researcher.
@opticalnoise - Why, thank you!
I knew they had labor camps. I was unaware that their labor actively contributed to their economy. If the inmates were benefiting, like how our prison system has jobs but the money goes into an account for the inmate, I could understand even if it was hard labor, but the fact that they are not and that the conditions I have heard about it are inhumane, makes the situation pretty messed up.
Us westerners just need to learn to be self sufficient and stop being rabid consumers. The only way to ultimately avoid slavery altogether is to live in a transactionless society where everyone contributes entirely out of free will and nobody has debts. In fact such a society would take much less effort per person to maintain; all else being equal.
I am so glad you bring this up. America has prison labor too, in the form of convict leasing and prison labor. We also have a prison population that is 40% larger than china’s despite us having a third of their population. A large portion of these prisoners are in there for simply consuming chemicals/organic material or selling chemical/organic material that our government seems to find undesirable. Slavery is indeed a 21st century problem; it’s also still a first-world problem.
@jasonwl - Considering the level of technology our society is capable of, we could technically still consume at similar levels we do, while simply updating the techno-social structures to be fully efficient and sustainable. It’s amazing to me how much waste is inherent in the world’s manufacturing/distribution/reclamation the system in this post-Taylor age.
@FireMapleSong - I’d like to see two particular institutions ended; one federal the other simply has federal in its name. Either makes it very difficult to make a sane economy work.
Consumption of many things would be significantly reduced. It would be ROI effective to produce higher quality items and not design them to be obsolete in the near future. OTOH, living would be so inexpensive it would be ridiculous to charge for anything if all known tech is learned sufficiently by people interesting in making things.
@jasonwl - I mean if all tech options relevant to personal and environmental interests are learned.
This isn’t new.
When I read this I said to myself “That figures…”. China is so messed up.
Ya’know it’s sad that most people are not surprised. Upset, but not surprised. My self included.
@jasonwl - This is all true. I guess by “consume at same levels”, I was thinking in terms of ergs rather than material resources – we would be able to ingest the same amount of calories, use the same amount of kilowats, travel the same distances without exerting any more energy, etc.
*ROTFLMAO @ the hypocrisy of the American people* You Americans make me laugh. You would dare to chide China for having such prison labour camps (I already knew this long ago. You think an economy grows that fast on its own, especially a COMMUNIST one? You are all retards), when your own country became a superpower thanks to its own horrid past. The USA became an economic power via the enslavement of Blacks. The US prisons currently use prisoners for slave labour. Hypocrisy much? Pot calling kettle black? I could go on.
I absolutely agree with the Chinese methods. If you commit a crime, make the prick pay society back via the use of said prick’s labour. Simple, effective and most certainly efficient.
It’s a bizarre thought, because those yellow boots with black soles that the would-be defector’s prison camp made, really looked like the boots that the soignee, upper middle class fashion model type girl is wearing on the cover of the paperback book, “A Girl’s Guide To Hunting And Fishing”. She walks on a puddle of blood without knowing it and without wanting to know about it.
This isn’t a fashionable subject. The prisoners of the laogai don’t have Johnny Depp working for their cause yet, the way that the West Memphis 3 did. Americans don’t to a damn thing unless some rock star or movie star or pro football quarterback tells them to. And those people all know which side their bread is buttered on.