"This is Modern Day Slavery"

There is abuse around the world but there are a couple of things different about the BBC story

1. The local media is allowed to cover the story

2. Intenational Human Rights organisations are allowed in the country

3. The law enforcers are trying to stop it

4. The criminals that are causing these attrocities are hunted down and punished when caught - no 'high conections' can make their problem go away.

You cannot solve a problem by making everyone look elsewhere.

Am Afghani and considered as Taliban :P no way every where if i go because i damn look so

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So how do we solve the problem?

I get your point and don't want to argue. Alright, I may have not experienced the same predicament as others, but I'm just trying to be optimistic.

I was never talking about a boy - his situation is different. I was referring to matured people like us with able bodies.

Fishing teacher - that's nicely put and very true. Again, I don't want to argue, this is MY OWN opinion. If you want a debate, you win!

Take a bow!

Joann, you said: "Everyone can improve their lives if they will work hard."

The report I saw last night featured a young Indian boy. Both his parents had died. He/his grandparents had borrowed some money, a relatively small amount, when he was nine years old. And in return this boy had to work on silk looms, for around 12 hours a day.

After working for more than four years, he and his grandparents still owed more than they had borrowed. He would be enslaved till he was 21 or 22, it would take another ten years to pay off the debt, because he was paid such low wages, only around 15 pence per day (just over one British penny an hour), for around a 12 hour day.

Do you dispute that a young boy, not even a teenager, working for around 12 hours a day, seven days a week, wasn't working hard?

You say if people work hard they will improve their lives. This boy undoubtedly worked hard, and yet he was unable to improve his life or his grandparents lives. And would likely never be able to do so, because while he was working, he was not attending school. So even in ten years time, when the debt was paid, he would not be able to get a better, more highly paid job, because he had been denied his education by a system of bonded labour - modern day slavery. So even after ten years, he would only go on to earn a subsistence wage, even if he continued to work hard, he would not be able to improve their lives, because he would be stuck in the poverty trap.

Joann said: "Is poverty a choice? or a predicament?"

Did that boy choose to be poor? Did he choose for his parents, his financial providers, to die? Did he choose -- at the age of nine --to be left in a situation whereby he would become the earner for his family, he would have to go out to work to support himself and his grandparents?

I really don't think you have "Been there. Done that" Joann.

"I believe that the power to change your life is within you, you only have to trust God and strive hard," then that's an incredibly naive and blinkered belief you have Joann, because if you would open your eyes you would see that there are many millions of people around the world who are striving hard and their lives aren't changing. Or indeed there are people who are striving hard, and then end up making their lives worse, people who believe what you say about people having the power to change their lives, so they borrow money and pay 'agents' and 'snakeheads' i.e. gangmasters, they are told they will get well paid labouring or waiting or kitchen or nannying jobs, and instead they are sold into prostitution.

If all it takes, to improve one's lot in life is to strive hard, when why are some of the people who work the hardest, the longest hours, for the least pay, some of the poorest people on the planet.

"I had my share of poverty, but I chose not to be enslaved," poverty is relative, and I doubt you've experienced the kind of poverty that leads desperate people to do desperate things.

"I know what some people are going through, but I believe that it is better to teach a man to fish rather than give them fish daily." No Joann, I don't think you know what some people are going through. I agree that it is better to teach a man to fish than give them fish.

But it's all very well to say that people just need to learn to fish, when it's not that simple, when the system some of these people find themselves in is that they been 'taught to fish', but they've had to borrow money (which they don't have) to pay for the fishing lessons. And in order to repay that debt, they have to go out fishing for 12 hours every day, seven days a week. And they have to hand over two thirds of their catch to their fishing teacher. But sometimes they don't even catch enough fish to feed themselves and their family. But still the fishing teacher wants some fish. And it will take them ten years of fishing to pay back their fishing teacher, during which time they might go hungry, because they have to give so many fish, such a large proportion of their catch, to the teacher.

I am Canadian, but here in Asia I'm a Russian whore.

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I thught u had revealed before that u were a canadian ,I came across one of ur earlier posts....

Yes the racial profiling in the UK is awful, not like the racial profiling in North East Asia, were just because I'm blonde and blue eyed I'm a Russian whore. :P

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Precisely it exists everywhere and that too the problem is compounded in the UK, I have seen even instances of racial profiling of asians Absolutely despicable

been so poor would be as blaze about it!! Poverty that you or i have suffered in life is nothing to poverty that these people suffer.

If you have no education how do you better yourself? If your parents had to make you work instead of going to school how you get an education? If you work a manual job and have no education how do you give up your job to get an education? How does someone with no money or education get themsleves out of poverty?

i grew up poor, very poor - but in comparison to my peers, when i look at how i group up to the rest of the world my family was a rich one. No one who has ever had to worry about where there next meal will come from could possibly be that easy about poverty!

You are correct in saying teach them to fish instead of giving them fish, but how can they fish if there is a drought and the rivers have dried up?

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love life!

what would have happened if your quest to get out of poverty landed you in a foreign country illegally, with no passport and a debt of 10,000-20,000 USD owed to the people who shipped you there (the ones forcing you to work in the sex trade, holding on to your passport, and threatening to physically harm you or members of your family back home should you decide to tell anyone about your predicament)?

with all due respect to whatever hardships you overcame to get where you are, if you "chose" to get out of poverty, then you have not come close to dealing with the kind of sh!t that many people deal with every day.

your comments are insulting to those whose suffering and misery can not be undone by simply chosing to make a change in lifestyle. you should take a look at oxfam.com or other such sites to learn a little more about what constitutes reality for many people.

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"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day." Withnail & I

Is poverty a choice? or a predicament?

Been there. Done that.

I believe that the power to change your life is within you, you only have to trust God and strive hard.

Everyone can improve their lives if they will work hard.

I had my share of poverty, but I chose not to be enslaved.

I know what some people are going through, but I believe that it is better to teach a man to fish rather than give them fish daily.

this goes on everywhere in every part of the world! People will exploit each other and treat each other like this as long as there is money to be made. It happens all over europe france, spain italy everywhere its cheap labour and the fat cats love it! how on earth do people think items can cost so little! How clothes and food can be so cheap in europe, where the " value" brands come from, they only sell so cheap because people are being exploited to make them!

its mass consumerism and globilization and the evil multinational comanys which do this!

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love life!

Go no further. Go to Industrial area and see for yourself how the living conditions are. They have pay arrers of at least 3 months.

Joann, if you really believe that people only become enslaved because they want to, then you really have no idea what some people go through.

And it's not a British speciality either.

Nor is it a speciality of one race or nationality who dominate another.

I was really upset to watch a report on television last night about bonded labour in India. Here it was an Indian exploiting an Indian. The officials who were supposed to be preventing this kind of thing were in offices about 500m away from where bonded labour was happening, and they didn't want to take any action, but the journalist made them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6505961.stm

we only become slaves if we want to.

we can always choose the life we want to live with God's help.

Dare to be different!