International Women's Day

Celebrate International Women's day by:

1. Showing the women in your life how much you love and appreciate them; and



2. Support Amnesty International's Stop Violence Against Women campaign.

Wilberforce abolished slavery... or did he?

With Amazing Grace in the cinemas in America, there are some great articles emerging about slavery. The article Free at last on Christianity Today.com is truely worth a read. Here are some snippets...

Two hundred years after William Wilberforce campaigned to abolish the slave trade within the British Empire, slavery continues. Experts estimate there are 27 million slaves worldwide today, probably more than at any time in human history. About 17,000 are trafficked annually into the United States.
"They are not slaves in a metaphorical sense," notes International Justice Mission founder Gary Haugen. "They are held in forced servitude by other human beings."

Modern-day slave trading, called human trafficking, funnels slaves into two types of forced servitude: sex and labor.

Between the 1700s and 1860s, lawmakers banned slave trade and ownership in Europe and the Americas. In 1948, the United Nations condemned it in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Worldwide, many Christians have considered the victory complete and have found other causes to champion. The laws, however, merely drove slavery underground, and some nations do not enforce existing laws.
Modern slavery thrives through deception and secrecy. Traffickers lure millions of victims through lies, fraud, and coercion. A trafficker may offer to smuggle someone into a nation for legitimate work, such as becoming a waitress or nanny. Later, the unsuspecting target discovers the evil bait-and-switch: The actual labor is sinister and exploitive, with no pay, insane hours, and physical brutality. By then, escape is nearly impossible. Traffickers confiscate passports.
They relocate captives where they cannot speak the local language. In one infamous case, police caught traffickers after they had enslaved 1,000 mute or deaf Mexicans, whom they had lured into the U.S. to beg.
Traffickers instill hopelessness through violence and death threats against the slave or his or her family members. Bribed law enforcement officials look the other way.
Bonded labor is another ancient form of slavery that survives. Also known as "debt bondage," it is rampant in certain parts of Asia. A loan shark or trafficker lends money to someone who works at a very low wage to pay it back. The debt may not be paid off for decades and can be passed along to family members, sometimes enslaving generations.

Read the full article here.

William Wilberforce movie

There is a new movie out about William Wilberforce and his efforts to end the slave trade. It is called Amazing Grace. For a trailer, see here.

"Compassion"

I am not interested in picking up the crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu South Africa

The Amnesty International e-magezine issue 11 says...

"Close!""¡Cierren!" "Schliess!" "Fermez!"

When it comes to saying "Close Guantánamo!", few people have been as creative as Make Some Noise supporters. At home, on the bus, in parks and from rooftops, with the widest array of props (candles, flags, puppets, cakes, pebbles, glasses, ball pools (!)), alone, with family or in groups, you have expressed your outrage at the legal blackhole that is the US detention centre of Guantánamo Bay, demonstrated your solidarity with detainees who have been held for up to five years without charge or trial, and demanded that human rights violation there stop immediately.
You have taken the message to the four corners of the world, from New Zealand to Canada via Peru and Cyprus, in more languages than one could ever master. The first video came from Birmingham, England, less than 24 hours after we posted our call. The latest came a few days ago from Québec. Join in and add your voice to the international chorus of protest.
You can also sign the Guantánamo animated online petition , where you can customise your avatar and check out comments from other activists. Keep making some noise and lend a voice to people who are being silenced. You can make a difference.

"Amnesty International has been very supportive of our efforts to get a trial for my son. Their Make Some Noise campaign is very exciting to me. While I don't know much about music, I recommend it."(Khaled al Odah, father of Guantánamo detainee Fawzi al Odah)

I have added my voice (and animated character) by signing the Guantánamo animated online petition . (My character is Jennifer Reed from Australia, if you want to see my character).

Will you add you voice?