So far, the IAAAC has been amazing. Taking Abolitionist facebook pictures, hanging out with Justin Dillon, taking “slave-free” photos to send to our favorite companies, discussing solutions to slavery with a panel of experts, watching Call + Response…it’s been a busy week!
But it’s not over yet! Come to Low Plaza tomorrow at 1 pm to hear Voices from Modern Slavery, eight true stories of deception and oppression that belong to children today. If you want to be more involved, let me know: we’re still looking for volunteers!
Also, don’t miss the Benefit Concert this Friday night in Earl Hall! Kayte Grace and Roam will be gracing the stage with their talents. More details later in the week!
See you guys tomorrow!
Lucy
Slavery is still a very relevant issue, and we should be doing more to stop it.
By
Published March 28, 2011
Remember that movie “Taken”? The one where Liam Neeson says that thing about “I have a very particular set of skills” and fights his way Bourne-style through a bunch of slightly less badass bad people to rescue his kidnapped daughter? In “Taken,” the daughter gets put up for sale as a sex slave to a bunch of gross, absurdly wealthy males—but it’s OK, because in the end Liam finds her. The movie is a failure, though, because it’s missing a crucial blurb that audiences everywhere probably would have appreciated seeing—that this actually happens.
The problem with “Taken” is that it doesn’t take the problem of human trafficking—modern-day slavery—seriously enough. I first heard about this issue two years ago through a documentary called “Call+Response.” The film, a self-styled “rockumentary,” features artists like Matisyahu, Cold War Kids, and Imogen Heap, intellectuals like Cornel West, and politicians like Madeleine Albright. The film makes the bold statement that slavery—yes, slavery—is as big a business today as it was 200 years ago. Not only that, but slavery exists in the United States and even here in New York, in what many of us call the greatest city in the world.
I think sometimes being a student at Columbia makes me naive. I find this strange, because I also think being a student makes me wiser. By this I mean that I start to think of the world as it should be, instead of how it is. Especially in classes like Lit Hum and CC, it’s very easy to swallow whole the narrative that’s presented to you—the teleological progression of morals and ideas that has culminated in our current state. Sure, we’ve got our problems, but we’ve picked the best from Plato and Hegel and the rest. We’ve had our Civil War and we know that slavery is evil. It’s illegal, it’s immoral, and it’s a thing of the past.
But how many times have we shaken our heads in anger when we’ve heard someone (let’s say on Fox News) say something about “post-racial America” when talking about the election of Barack Obama? Racism is still alive, we say. Legal, moral, social, and even physical battles have been won, but much work remains—the justification for it is dead, but racism still exists, waiting under the surface. I submit to you that in the same way, yes, slavery is illegal, yes, it is accepted as deplorable and despicable, and yes, it’s still alive and kicking.
Here are the facts. The Department of State estimates that there are around 27 million slaves in the world today and defines modern-day slavery as encompassing the following: bonded labor, forced labor, sex trafficking, child soldiering, child sex trafficking, involuntary domestic servitude, and forced child labor. Of the 27 million, 17,500 are trafficked in the United States each year. A side note—human trafficking just passed the illicit weapons trade to become the second-largest illegal market in the world, behind illicit drugs. In other words, in today’s global economy, criminals make more money selling people than they do selling weapons.
Modern-day slavery is a moral outrage and demands a response—a modern-day abolitionist movement. As a self-proclaimed global institution, Columbia should be at the forefront of both intellectual critiques of and movements to end the global slave trade, and as students we can be the force that propels the University into that position. This week, InterVarsity Social Justice will begin its “I Am An Abolitionist” campaign, a series of events designed to raise awareness of human trafficking and the ways we can fight it as students. The goal of the campaign is ambitious and provocative: that every student at Columbia will be able to say “I am an Abolitionist” and do something about one of the world’s great human rights crises. And who knows, maybe we can all learn some of Liam Neeson’s moves.
Bwog, an incredibly popular blog/news source on Columbia University’s campus, posted about us. Check it out! Click “An Abolition Campaign” above to check it out!
Please join our FACEBOOK GROUP, and then click “attending” on the event page for our first event of the campaign, a screening of the amazing documentary Call + Response with director Justin Dillon.
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Welcome to the Campaign.
This has been a dream of ours for several years now, and we’re so excited that it’s finally happening. Ever since we discovered that slavery is real, that it exists everywhere around us, that most products we buy, most places we go, have been somehow touched by slavery, we wanted to bring that reality to Columbia University. IV Social Justice hopes that, through the events over the next few weeks, the Columbia community comes face-to-face with the disturbing reality that 27 million of our fellow human beings are enslaved. But more than that, we hope that you, a Columbia student, can proudly say, by the end of this week, “I am an abolitionist.” We hope the stories, insight, and advice of the experts joining us at each of the events will inspire and empower each Columbian to help us work towards a solution. Above all, we hope that you can find your way, whatever that may be, of joining in the growing abolitionist movement that is happening all across the globe.
Check out our “Upcoming Events” page for a detailed description of the exciting goings-on during the next few weeks…don’t miss our kick-off screening of Call + Response followed by a conversation with director Justin Dillon on March 31! We hope you will join us.
What is Modern Day Slavery?: I Am An Abolitionist Campaign from Phillip Dupree on Vimeo.
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Coming soon to Columbia University. Check out the new “Documentary” page for this video and the others that will soon be following.
Check out this article by Jesse Eaves about what’s going on in Washington concerning the Child Protection Compact Act (legislation fighting against child trafficking): “Craziness Begins”. This is what stood out to me while I was reading this article:
”How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” (Habakkuk 1:2-4)
And, as the University of Denver student says, God’s answer to this cry is, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4) and what good is faith?
“Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1).
Have faith!
We’ve discovered that slave masters and traffickers expect their opponents to show up late and quit early — and they are simply not intimidated. What they do not expect is fearless, sacrificial love that does not go away.
Source: ijm.org
It’s easier to be ignorant and say I don’t know about the problem. But once you know, once you’ve seen it in their eyes, then you have a responsibility to do something. There is strength in numbers, and if we all work together as a team, we can be unstoppable.
This inspirational video really calls us to ACT on what we see, hear and know in our hearts!
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