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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Bales (Understanding Global Slavery) provides a guide for eliminating the plague of slavery that continues to this day, involving some 27 million slaves worldwide producing $13 billion in goods and services. Bales provides a thorough overview of slavery, including its history, its methods, the lives of its victims around the world and the conditions under which it flourishes (modern slaves "are cheap, and they are disposable"); most importantly, Bales has put together guides to action at every level, from the individual to the community to the United Nations, in a six-point plan that includes protecting, arming and cloning "the liberators," enacting and enforcing effective antislavery legislation and, perhaps most important (and overlooked), helping freed slaves heal ("liberation is just the first step on a long road"). Alongside those goals, Bales also considers practical matters, including fundraising, increasing awareness among the general public and convincing governments to pay attention: though "all political leaders denounce slavery," its numbers are still up, "perpetrators go uncaught... and the minimal resources needed to rehabilitate freed slaves are not available." Shocking, saddening, angering and inspiring, this volume reveals in full a side of the global market many Americans simply do not know about, clueing readers in on "the extent of their own involvement in global slavery," and the unthinkable injustices that could be taking place even in their local communities.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
In his 1999 book, Disposable People, Kevin Bales brought to light the shocking fact of modern slavery and described how, nearly two hundred years after the slave trade was abolished (legal slavery would have to wait another fifty years), global slavery stubbornly persists. In Ending Slavery, Bales again grapples with the struggle to end this ancient evil and presents the ideas and insights that can finally lead to slavery's extinction. Recalling his own involvement in the antislavery movement, he recounts a personal journey in search of the solution and explains how governments and citizens can build a world without slavery.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where Slavery Hides and What We Can Do About Eliminating It,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves (Hardcover)
Many people falsely believe that slavery ends whenever a legislature outlaws the practice. But many people will employ slavery if it makes them more money or provides some sexual or psychological gratification. By being on the receiving end of force, intimidation, and overwork, ordinary people can fall into being slaves. Many poor families unintentionally sell their children into slavery under the misapprehension that their youngster is headed for a better life.Kevin Bales rips the veil away that hides the horrors of sex slaves, children tied to their rug looms, unpaid agricultural workers, and exploited household workers that comprise many of todays millions and millions of slaves. You'll be astonished by the facts behind today's slavery. For example, slaves are dirt cheap because of the growth in the population of poor people. This is bad news for slaves because those who enslave them don't even bother to keep slaves alive and healthy. It's too cheap to get another slave. The book next looks at the many reasons why slavery continues: People not recognizing slavery when they see it in front of them; slaves not understanding that people around them would help; and a lack of concerted international and governmental action. Instead, brave slave freers quietly look for missing children, track them down, and plot raids to run off with slaves before owners can counter attack. You can support those efforts by donating monthly to Free the Slaves (the organization Professor Bales heads) or Anti-Slavery International. I signed up to do so. I suspect you will, too. Professor Bales also addresses those with power about how they can change what is being done so that fewer people will be enslaved and those who are enslaved will gain freedom. But those who are freed also need a lot of help. The good news is that people are very good at overcoming adversity, and freed slaves often commit themselves to helping others avoid this terrible circumstance. One of the most effective methods is to inform agricultural communities of slaves what they can do to free themselves economically and physically from coercion and inherited debts. Governments need to attack the problem at the national level rather than keeping a blind eye as Japan does to sex slaves brought into the country through entertainer visas. Brazil is held as a positive example that could use some more funding. Professor Bales suggests that developed countries may want to subsidize anti-slavery efforts done by responsible governments in poorer nations. International organizations can also play a role in bringing attention and coordinating multinational efforts. Consumers can insist that those they buy products and services from investigate the sources of those offerings to be sure they are certified to be free of slave labor content (a particular problem for cocoa cultivation in Africa). If you believe that everyone should be free, you need to act on that belief by reading this book and picking something you can do to help free at least one slave. You can do it!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (45 customer reviews) 20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A call for action,
By Kyra_Athena "Kyra_Athena" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
This book is a poignant call for action. Most Americans have no idea where the products they purchase come from or at least who is making the products. Kevin Bales delivers a current status on enslavement. Slavery may have officially stopped in the United States with the Emancipation Proclamation. In search of cheap labor, companies went abroad. Some of the personal stories were so sad that I really cried, out of sadness for the people for their painful and ruined lives and wondering how much I as an American consumer had contributed to their misery. Bales offers a solution which begins with Americans recognizing the problem and the lobbying for change. Americans can impact this problem directly by not buying slave-produced products and campaigning against it through Congress. This is not a light read.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ending Slavery,
By Stephen Balbach - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
Kevin Bales is a recognized world authority on the generally hidden phenomenon of modern slavery; he best known for Disposable People (1999), a standard and influential text in classrooms and with policy makers. Ending Slavery (2007) is his latest book which reveals updated information and additional heartbreaking stories, balanced by optimistic practical solutions for the audacious goal of ending slavery around the world. Either one of these books would be an excellent place to start learning about modern slavery for the average reader. While slavery can be a depressing subject, Ending Slavery is ultimately uplifting because of its success stories, of solutions working, of the world becoming a better place and ways to keep the momentum going. By the end of the book there is a practical plan of what to do next for everyone from the concerned citizen, community leader, governments and NGO.Modern slavery is largely hidden from view because, unlike in the 19th century and earlier, slavery today is illegal everywhere and- like drugs- the problem has gone underground. There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today - by comparison in the entire 350 year history of the African slave trade, about 13 million slaves were brought to the New World. When talking about modern slavery this comparison to the African slave trade is often made, and for good reason, our culture is saturated with the history of slavery from the movie "Roots", the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Civil War history. If this cultural outrage of history were channeled to help modern slaves alive and toiling away today, imagine the good, but it starts with awareness. Most people don't know the basics of modern slavery: What is a modern slave? Where are they? What do they do? What can we do about it? This book answers those questions. As the cover-picture of the book suggests, a happy discovery awaits within. After slavery comes freedom. New found freedom is one of the most rewarding experiences imaginable, both for slaves and those who help free them. It is no accident Lincoln, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu and others are among the most revered and popular leaders; or that the first and oldest human rights organization in the world is an anti-slave group (which still exists in England, connected to Kevin Bales). The struggle for freedom is far from over, and its happening everywhere from the suburbs of Washington DC to the cocoa (chocolate) plantations of Africa. Take the time to learn how slavery impacts us all, and what to do about it. There are a number of free films online that tie into the book. In particular _Slavery: A Global Investigation _and _Dreams Die Hard_ detail some of the same people and stories in the book, including interviews with Bales. 12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Helpful, Smart, Practical Approach,
By J. Bowe - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves (Hardcover)
As an author who has also written about slavery, I can say that Bales' many years' experience with the subject are apparent on every page. Avoiding sensationalism or unhelpful despair, Ending Slavery is an expert and pragmatic guide for all of us, rich and poor, interested in advancing the cause of human rights and general happiness.We do not address problems of global poverty and slavery with our sympathy or pity. Bales' ability to articulate concrete, positive steps is invaluable. This book goes far beyond its issue. By addressing the tangible, achieveable mechanisms by which we address the roots and causes of slavery, Bales also manages to shine a light toward ways we can help smooth the iniquities and anti-democratic tendencies resulting from the current mania for "globalization." Ending Slavery is not luxury reading, a do-gooder tome for those of us with the leisure to care about poor foreigners in unimaginable situations. It's a technical manual for how we in the First World can save ourselves. As Bales has previously written (I hope I get this quote right), "slave labor anywhere threatens free labor everywhere." Slavery in a globalized world is not only wrong, but dangerous. |
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