MDS Reflection

When I think about modern day slavery, I still have trouble believing it. Here is a fact: there could be 21 to 49 million slaves on this planet right now, but I wasn't aware. We are so vastly naive about this issue that we assume that slavery pretty much ended back when the emancipation proclamation was issued. We are, however, in a paradox; the difference between back then and today is that slavery is now illegal. Before, it was legal to own slaves, and the underground railway was to illegally escape. Now, ironically, slavery is illegal in every part of the world, and yet it exists everywhere, just underground. I just assumed hat since it was illegal, it wasn't an issue anymore. All over the world, people, including children, can be tricked or forced into slavery; Masters can drown them in endless debt or take their documentation. All of them are unpaid, under the threat of violence and cannot leave.  I tried to blame it on the greed of the masters of those slaves, but then realised they were trying to make money buy selling to biggest companies who weren't asking enough questions. Passing the blame doesn't take it away, though, because in the end, it lies on my shoulders (the consumers), because I'm the one who doesn't ask enough questions. We, aren't aware of what's going on, and that's really why modern day slavery exists. The big question is: what can we do? We have to try and notice, to open our eyes and not blatantly believe that it doesn't exist. Acknowledging that it's real is the first step. As a consumer, a small, but important step would be not buying products that are a result of bonded labour, figuring these things out by spreading the word and doing a little research. It's up to us to notice the signs when something is off an report that to the authorities. Already, companies and organisations are making a difference (we can even donate to those, such as Free the Slaves). However, this won't do much unless a lot of people pitch in, so raising awareness needs to be a priority. A few easy ways to do that is talk about it to friends and family, and you can post about on social media too. We may not have an underground railroad, but we don't need one. Just us being aware about modern day slavery helps, so our second task is to spread the word.