BOOK REVIEW OF DAVID BATSTONE'S 'NOT FOR SALE ~ THE RETURN OF THE GLOBAL SLAVE TRADE'
“Abolitionist : A person who wants to stop or abolish slavery: an advocate of abolition.” Merriam Webster Dictionary
In David Batstone’s Not For Sale ~ ‘The Return Of The Global Slave Trade And How We Can Fight It’ the author offers hope for those trapped in the dark world of trafficking. As well as some practical things the reader can do to help fight it.
He details the issue of modern day slavery as a universal problem, not just an American one. In the western world “human-trafficking crimes can be so hidden, trafficking activity can persist for years with unsuspecting neighbors living right next door.”
Case in point, Batstone’s own research began when he discovered the workers in his family’s favorite restaurant turned out to be a part of this slave labor. As he worked to help the slave laborers in his personal life he also discovered many real heroes or abolitionists working on behalf of these voiceless slaves.
Mr. Batstone, a writer and professor of Business and Social Responsibility at the University of San Francisco, shares the work of certain abolitionists who are making a difference in their parts of the world. He gives names and faces to those individuals he calls “abolitionists.” People who are making a difference in the lives of these victims and invites us to do the same.
“No longer can we stand by while millions live in slavery. It is not enough to think about change. It is not enough to talk about change. It is time to shift gears—marrying movement with intelligent action.”
Author of Not For Sale David Batstone
Honestly, I could hardly read through the atrocities done to children and adults caught in sex trafficking, slave labor and indoctrination into terrorist armies such as the Lord’s Resistance Army, one that which terrorizes the people of northern Uganda.
The book takes us through the severe poverty and harsh conditions of places like Thailand to the violence of marauding armies like the LRA in Uganda. And, through the crime syndicate in Italy that moves young girls and drugs across international borders on a regular basis.
Every country on earth has antislavery laws. Yet it continues because the enforcement of the laws is lacking. The International Justice Mission is trying to make a difference in this gap.
Individuals are mentioned by name who have rescued children from their captors and how they do it. Organizations like World Vision offer a place for these children to have proper nutrition, meet their material needs such as clothing, food, and healthcare. Additionally, they give them a place to heal and learn what their true destinies are on this earth.
Lest you think the problem is not as bad as this review appears to make it, consider Lucy Borja an abolitionist in Peru. One night when two young boys approached her for shelter from the abusive life imposed on them, she opened up her office. She told the boys to offer the same shelter to any other children who might need her help and left to attend a party. After returning to her business she found six hundred children squeezed together on the floor of her building.
Not For Sale also details how children are lured into and kept in slavery. 1. Traffickers target children from communities that lack social power. 2.They remove the children by taking them from their homes and placing them in areas where there will be no support from law enforcement. 3. Their slaveholders keep control over them so that escape seems impossible. 4. Their captors use abuse and violence to ensure that they won’t leave. 5. The slaveholders give no care to the child in their pursuit of financial gain.
The testimonies of trafficking victims give a face to those suffering the brutalities and abuse from their traffickers. Yet without their stories, our hearts would never know the evil being done to humanity in our world.
Some practical ways to help are offered in this book as well as things to look for if you suspect human trafficking occurring in your area of influence. After reading Mr. Batstone’s book I can honestly say we can all be a part of the solution to help those effected by this evil done today.
This book also comes with an advisory that it deals with mature subject matter.
For more information check out these sites~
https://www.notforsalecampaign.org/about-us/
