STANDING FOR FREEDOM (l-r): Amber Collins and Nate Temple.
If you think slavery is a thing of the past, think again.
A group of students at West Virginia University are standing today with concerned folks everywhere to increase awareness among the general population regarding the issue of slavery.
The stand is part of a widespread event happening April 9 called Stand For Freedom: One Day for their Everyday, organized by the International Justice Mission (IJM). Participants stand for freedom for 24 hours.
The stand here in Morgantown began last night with an event-launch (which included music and speakers), continuing today in the free speech zone of the Mountainlair.
I highly encourage folks interested in the slavery issue to get over to the downtown campus to sign the freedom petition and to support the effort to build awareness. You can also follow on Twitter: WVU Freedom Fighters @IJM_WVU (use the hashtag #Stand4Freedom to see what everyone's doing) and join the Facebook event: WVU's 2nd Annual STAND4FREEDOM.
Attending the launch last night, I was impressed by speakers Abbey Estep and Brady Smith, who were both highly informed and articulate about slavery issues. I thank Abbey and Brady for teaching me more of the current facts-statistics regarding the huge scale of outright modern global slavery, which has many aspects, including human trafficking, illegal detention, abuse by "legal" systems or "authorities" and other brutalities against the poor.
Brady Smith showed us several anti-slavery videos which indicated an estimated 29.8 million people today are enslaved, according to the Global Slavery Index (you can check out the Global Slavery Index website, where you can download its country-by-country report as a .pdf.) Just think about that figure for a moment, 29.8 million, nearly 30 million; and that 30 million is JUST an estimate; the actual number is much higher.
For a bit of perspective on the scale of slavery in the "modern" world, consider this quote from Ndioro Ndiaye (in 2008, she was Deputy Director General International Organization of Migration.) (Note: This quote is pulled from the web, from a fact sheet from the United Nations 2008 International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade):
A group of students at West Virginia University are standing today with concerned folks everywhere to increase awareness among the general population regarding the issue of slavery.
The stand is part of a widespread event happening April 9 called Stand For Freedom: One Day for their Everyday, organized by the International Justice Mission (IJM). Participants stand for freedom for 24 hours.
The stand here in Morgantown began last night with an event-launch (which included music and speakers), continuing today in the free speech zone of the Mountainlair.
I highly encourage folks interested in the slavery issue to get over to the downtown campus to sign the freedom petition and to support the effort to build awareness. You can also follow on Twitter: WVU Freedom Fighters @IJM_WVU (use the hashtag #Stand4Freedom to see what everyone's doing) and join the Facebook event: WVU's 2nd Annual STAND4FREEDOM.
Attending the launch last night, I was impressed by speakers Abbey Estep and Brady Smith, who were both highly informed and articulate about slavery issues. I thank Abbey and Brady for teaching me more of the current facts-statistics regarding the huge scale of outright modern global slavery, which has many aspects, including human trafficking, illegal detention, abuse by "legal" systems or "authorities" and other brutalities against the poor.
Brady Smith showed us several anti-slavery videos which indicated an estimated 29.8 million people today are enslaved, according to the Global Slavery Index (you can check out the Global Slavery Index website, where you can download its country-by-country report as a .pdf.) Just think about that figure for a moment, 29.8 million, nearly 30 million; and that 30 million is JUST an estimate; the actual number is much higher.
For a bit of perspective on the scale of slavery in the "modern" world, consider this quote from Ndioro Ndiaye (in 2008, she was Deputy Director General International Organization of Migration.) (Note: This quote is pulled from the web, from a fact sheet from the United Nations 2008 International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade):
“Despairingly credible comparisons of scale and suffering may be drawn with the trans-Atlantic trade in Africans in the Americas in which more than 12 million people were forcibly transported over the ocean in four hundred years. It is to our great shame that if today’s statistics are correct, and 700,000 people are now being trafficked across borders into slavery annually, we will have equaled that total in a mere 20 years.”
A key part of spreading awareness is countering the idea (or wishful thinking) that "slavery ended with the Civil War."
As a writer interested in figuring out how to solve the problem of slavery, as a human being concerned about global economics and civil rights, the idea that "Slavery, in fact, did NOT end with the Civil War," IS the central thesis of my dystopian "STARLING Series," and book, "The STARLING Connection."
In "STARLING," I examine slavery as a global system, a social/technological construct, a kind of "Matrix," which is NOT representative of the Greater Reality. In particular, "The STARLING Connection," discusses how slavery and massive daily violence is disguised by a society that merely wears the mask of "high tech," "freedom-loving" and "progressive."
"STARLING" takes a hard look at how current technologies, modern constructs and systems (particularly the ever-increasing "surveillance society") are fast-developing into ever-more massive systems of human bondage and global suffering that threaten everything we can be as a people, even humanity itself.
Thus, it gives me hope to see that there are so many folks right here in my town who also care and are dedicated to figuring out how to solve the slavery problem that has long plagued humanity.
I believe higher levels of freedom and equal opportunity can be achieved, if we, as a people, choose to face the whole truth about ourselves, and I support anyone who is also trying to understand slavery and how to solve this problem.
Solving slavery should be the concern of individuals, far more than money or materialism, even status, careerism, etc. With those thoughts, I'll leave you with my favorite thoughtful quote from literature, from the writings of Charles Dickens, from "A Christmas Carol":
As a writer interested in figuring out how to solve the problem of slavery, as a human being concerned about global economics and civil rights, the idea that "Slavery, in fact, did NOT end with the Civil War," IS the central thesis of my dystopian "STARLING Series," and book, "The STARLING Connection."
In "STARLING," I examine slavery as a global system, a social/technological construct, a kind of "Matrix," which is NOT representative of the Greater Reality. In particular, "The STARLING Connection," discusses how slavery and massive daily violence is disguised by a society that merely wears the mask of "high tech," "freedom-loving" and "progressive."
"STARLING" takes a hard look at how current technologies, modern constructs and systems (particularly the ever-increasing "surveillance society") are fast-developing into ever-more massive systems of human bondage and global suffering that threaten everything we can be as a people, even humanity itself.
Thus, it gives me hope to see that there are so many folks right here in my town who also care and are dedicated to figuring out how to solve the slavery problem that has long plagued humanity.
I believe higher levels of freedom and equal opportunity can be achieved, if we, as a people, choose to face the whole truth about ourselves, and I support anyone who is also trying to understand slavery and how to solve this problem.
Solving slavery should be the concern of individuals, far more than money or materialism, even status, careerism, etc. With those thoughts, I'll leave you with my favorite thoughtful quote from literature, from the writings of Charles Dickens, from "A Christmas Carol":
“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
STANDING FOR FREEDOM (l-r) Kelsey Harper, Allison Pitchford, Amber Collins, Nate Temple.
CLICK PIC TO READ! THEODORE WEBB, a co-founder of Morgantown Poets, actively supports authors of all genres, songwriters, artists and all human beings, in sharing their voices. A poet, short story writer, and aspiring playwright, Webb is the author of the Dystopian fiction short novels, "Lifeline,” “Crucible,” “Colossus” and “Inferno,” which represents “The STARLING Series," available for ALL DEVICES VIA the FREE Kindle Reading APP: smartphone, PC, MAC, via Amazon.com. All 4 books are also available as 1 volume, "The STARLING Connection." Webb's short stories are online, including "Desperate Engine" (Amazon) & "Family Hour" (Smashwords).
