ahousekeeper (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ahousekeeper) wrote,@ 2007-05-06 18:27:00 |
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| Entry tags: | africa, british empire, colonialism, europe, neo-slavery, ottoman empire, quotes, slavery, zeytun |
Neo-Slavery
Slavery never really ended in this country.
They just gave it another name. Employee.The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)
In 1807 the British Slave Trade Act made trading in slaves illegal. However, according to The Independent slavery has not completely gone away even in today's Britain itself:
Modern slavery also exists in this country: last week The Independent on Sunday revealed that up to 5,000 children are being forced to work as sex slaves here.
And there is another harsh yet IMHO well-founded opinion about how slavery continued to blossom in Africa after its official abolition:
While the British are celebrating a hypocritical moral victory in the abolition of slavery they lose sight of the fact that colonialism was even worse. All the worst features of slavery were present in colonialism. And then added to it was extensive debauchery and pillage the likes of which is unparalleled in history.
Back to the quote that opens this post: as for my personal opinion, total slavery is everywhere, even in the richest countries on the planet. The modern society follows the model of the Ottoman empire, where the only person to be 100% free was the sultan himself and everyone else were considered to be his slaves. Of course, nowadays the methods of control are much softer yet the control is tighter. Because even in Ottoman empire there were regions where population didn't give much fuck about the sultan, for example, the semi-autonomous region of Zeytun in Cilicia.
Control is much softer, way less intrusive these days. No human branding with hot iron but taking fingerprints instead (with DNA stamps coming soon). No chains, but voluntary obligations that work much better than the brute force. The best slave is the one who thinks that he is a free man.
