Mennonite Weekly Review

I don’t want to write today’s column, but I must. Certain situations in this old world are so terrible that I don’t even want to think about them. But we must look, and we must take whatever action we can. The topic is the global slave trade.

Elaine Sommers Rich

Some facts: UNICEF estimates nearly 2 million children are used in the commercial sex trade, where they routinely face sexual and physical violence.

National Geographic estimates there are about 27 million slaves in the world today. In 2005, the U.S. State Department reported that cases of forced labor were documented in 112 countries worldwide. The four most common types of slavery are chattel slavery (owning people as property), debt bondage, forced labor and sexual slavery.

In a 2000 report, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called human slave trade “the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world.” Experts estimate that such trafficking in the United States yields $9 billion a year. Of the 600,000 to 800,000 people trafficked annually, about 80 percent are women and children.

What to do? Look. See. Be aware. Be alert in our own communities. Be informed. Some recent sources: A periodical, Mission Frontiers, July-August 2007 issue; a book, Not for Sale by David Batstone (HarperCollins, 2007); and two Web sites, the International Justice Mission and the American Anti-Slavery Group.

Listen to what God tells you. After all, the Spirit spoke about abolishing human slavery to John Woolman (1720-1772), to William Wilberforce (1759-1833) and to me (“you must write that column”).

Dragon’s teeth in Iraq

An ancient Greek myth tells the story of Cadmus slaying a dragon that was devouring his men when they tried to drink from a spring it was guarding. Cadmus killed the dragon, and, on the advice of Athena, planted its teeth in a plowed field. Every one of those teeth sprang up into a fierce warrior.

The war in Iraq has caused me to think often of this old story.

Suppose you are an 11-year-old boy living today in Baghdad. Your father has been killed by foreign soldiers because he is a “terrorist,” “insurgent” or “member of al-Qaida.” Do you understand that about your father? No, you do not. You have always admired your father and wanted to be just like him.

I tremble to think of the bitterness, hatred and revenge being sown in those children.

Only a miracle from God and a tremendous outpouring of love and caring can prevent a deadly harvest of dragon’s teeth in Iraq.