SLAVERY

If I should carry out an opinion poll and ask what we think of slavery as individuals, many of us would say how much we hate it and how God will punish countries that practiced it. When we mention slavery, our minds immediately go to the blacks and the whites or to what is happening in Libya when most of us are slave masters even without knowing it.

I saw a woman bruise the mouth of a little girl that lived with her, the ones we refer to as 'house helps' with the head of a broom simply because the little girl who should be not more than ten years of age forgot to sweep the sitting room because she went to attend to a customer at the woman's shop. That woman would never hurt her child that way but its very easy hurting another person's child and giving such child difficult chores with no room to play and enjoy her childhood. 

I saw a story on social media of how a woman used a hot iron to burn her 'house help's' back because the girl burnt her cloth while ironing. I know how many times I burnt my mum's clothes while ironing and all she did was get mad and scold me.

The sad part is that most of these children that live with us do not go to schools and if they do, they go to schools we dare not send our own children. These children wear tattered clothes while our own kids always look sharp. They do all the chores while our kids watch the television. 

I think another form of slavery is when you use someone while making promises to better the person's life only to throw the person out like a rag when you feel you have used that person to your satisfaction. This is found among the 'big men' in our society. They have people working without pay for them while they make false promises to better their lives. After draining such persons, they discard them like waste. I have seen this happen before my very eyes several times. 

If we want to stop slavery, we should start from us.

What other forms or scenarios of slavery do you think is obtainable in our society?