Disposable people: new slavery in the global economy

Description

Slavery is illegal throughout the world, yet more than twenty-seven million people are still trapped in one of history's oldest social institutions. Kevin Bales's disturbing story of slavery today reaches from brick kilns in Pakistan and brothels in Thailand to the offices of multinational corporations. His investigation of conditions in Mauritania, Brazil, Thailand, Pakistan, and India reveals the tragic emergence of a "new slavery," one intricately linked to the global economy. The new slaves are not a long-term investment as was true with older forms of slavery, explains Bales. Instead, they are cheap, require little care, and are disposable. Three interrelated factors have helped create the new slavery. The enormous population explosion over the past three decades has flooded the world's labor markets with millions of impoverished, desperate people. The revolution of economic globalization and modernized agriculture has dispossessed poor farmers, making them and their... Preface to the Revised Edition Preface to the 2012 Edition 1. The New Slavery 2. Thailand: Because She Looks Like a Child 3. Mauritania: Old Times There Are Not Forgotten 4. Brazil: Life on the Edge 5. Pakistan: When Is a Slave Not a Slave? 6. India: The Ploughman's Lunch 7. What Can Be Done? Coda: Three Things You Can Do to Stop Slavery Appendix I: A Note on Research Methods Appendix 2: Excerptsfrom International Conventions on Slavery Notes Acknowledgments Index