The Slaves in Our Midst (for real)

[donsu]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/22/AR2006122201019.html


Last Tuesday morning, one mile north of the White House, I sat in the upstairs dining room of a Dupont Circle cafe having a cup of tea with a slave. Well actually she's now a runaway slave who's living in the Washington area home of a good Samaritan.

But yes, she could have been considered a slave, if you define that as being bound to a specific area of land, forced to work without compensation, stripped of her passport and left at the absolute disposal of a master.

-snip-

Our meeting took place in the presence of her lawyer, Elizabeth Keyes of CASA of Maryland Inc.'s Domestic Worker and Trafficked Persons Project. CASA and the Break The Chain Campaign of Washington, D.C., have represented dozens of immigrant domestic workers held in similar slavelike conditions.

The ground rules for the interview limited the amount of information that could be disclosed in today's column because a lawsuit against her alleged employer-master won't be filed in federal court until next month.

But details about the exploitation and degrading treatment of this young woman, and women from other impoverished nations, will appear in future columns devoted to the topic of 21st-century slavery in the nation's capital.
-snip-

(but you can read about the case of "Lucia Mabel Gonzalez Paredes of Paraguay" she was made a slave by " Jose Luis Vila and his wife, Monica Nielsen".

and Rice, if she wanted to, has the power to stop Vila and Nielsen from claiming diplomatic immunity)
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drag the criminal neo con bushmilhousegang out of the White House and into prison

[MountainLaurel]

1. Kick

Living in DC near Embassy Row, when I'd see all of the international nannies out at the playground as I took my dogs for a walk, I would often wonder how many of them were there by their own will.

[seemslikeadream]

2. But no one could imagine

and since Rice has NOTHING in common with Lucia how could she understand :shrug:

[riderinthestorm]

3. A Saudi princess in Boston was just convicted of this and is being deported

Here's a link:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/12/21/saudi_princess_to_be_deported_judge_orders/

She basically enslaved two of her staff from Indonesia. Sickening.

kick.

[leftofthedial]

4. surely you don't begrudge these fine wealthy people

the benefits of their fairly won wealth? They have more money and a position of power. They are simply better than the rest of us. Why shouldn't inferiors serve them? These "slaves" are much better off than they would have been back home. You call it "slavery," but some might call it "opportunity in our glorious capitalist ownership society." Get in on the ground floor! In a few years you'll be glad that you are a house nigger instead of a field hand.

[Red Zelda]

5. And I wonder

...how many smug Americans would bring slavery back in the drop of a cotton ball.
Amazing.