Associated Press on Young boys rescued from slave-like labor:
Their bodies scarred by beatings and their hands callused from breaking rocks, 74 boys as young as 4 received medical treatment this week after their rescue from Nigerian granite quarries where they had been forced to work. Nigerian police rescued the boys Wednesday and repatriated them to Benin under an accord between the two nations on child trafficking and other cross-border crimes.
As the father of a young boy and a student of the writings of abolitionists like Douglass and Garrison, this story really, really hurt to read. The abuse of children or enslavement of human beings isn't something I can forget or shrug off. Its the kind of story that can cause a relatively anti-violent individual like myself to want to pick up an M-16 A-2 again. But my anger stops there.
I'm not advocating American military intervention in the modern slave trade, but I am wondering why today's self-righteous pro-interventionists aren't calling for immediate action. Considering how much outrage and pompous chest-thumping occurs on your typical chickenhawk pro-war blog or syndicated column, you'd figure they'd be all over this story – ready to send troops to save these children (and women) from modern slavery. Not a peep. I guess all that chest-thumping doesn't apply when its a bunch of Africans (with no oil reserves) getting abused, raped or buried in shallow graves. All those cries of "Saddam gassed his own people" ring kind of hollow compared to the deafening silence this issue has received on the pro-war side of the blogosphere.
Further, where is the outrage from those in favor of reparations? Is slavery only wrong when the slavers are of European descent?
This entry also posted at A Mixed Blog.