What a shame! Human slavery continues

In today’s world -- widely considered a global village with instant mass communication, the marvels of modern technology and unpredictable or unbelievable possibilities in the oncoming era of artificial intelligence -- it is shocking to know that there are about 50 million human slaves, with at least 10 million of them being children.   

Wednesday March 14 was “My Freedom Day” a worldwide mission sponsored and coordinated by the Cable News Network (CNN), setting an example to the mass media in the main role they need to play in being the voice of the voiceless people and taking pro-active initiatives to bring about a just and fair society. 

That is why it is tragic to see the increasingly powerful social media being abused and distorted by extremist Sri Lankan groups to bring about racial and religious tension and violence in the Kandy district earlier this month. The government had to act fast by declaring a state of emergency and imposing a temporary ban on the popular Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber. The ban on Viber and WhatsApp was lifted during the past two days and yesterday millions were smiling when the Facebook ban was also lifted.   

But government leaders are insisting that a regulatory authority will be appointed to monitor who is doing what on social media to ensure that vested interests with political agendas do not 

create chaos and disunity if not something worse in the country. Just as the print media and the electronic media are regulated in some way and most groups acted with responsibility during the recent crisis, it is necessary for the social media also to be regulated. Otherwise we will face the consequences of having freedom without responsibility and wild asses will play havoc.  

Getting back to the positive dimensions of My Freedom Day, we are glad that the main role in this mission is being played by students, the now generation. According to CNN though slavery is outlawed in every country, criminals earn more than USD150 billion every year from enslaving people and we all need to do something about it.   

CNN says we could define modern-day 

slavery the same way we define slavery throughout human history. Slavery occurs when one person controls another person, through violence or the threat of violence to exploit them, economically or otherwise, and the victim is not free to walk away.  

The biggest difference between slavery, then and now, is that there is no paperwork or documents of ownership since slavery is illegal now. Instead, slavery is kept hidden and it’s more difficult to identify. But it could be a woman kidnapped and made to work in a brothel in Europe or a man threatened to be killed or mutilated if he does not work in the fields or a child forced to do dangerous work in gold mines or on fishing boats. None of these people get paid and none  allowed to leave, for fear of violence against them or their families, the news network adds.  

In a deeper sense, we need to be aware that most of us most of the time are enslaved to selfishness, self-centredness and related vices such as greed, envy and vengeance. We need to be aware of the need to be gradually liberated from this slavery to our self-centred nature and become other-centred so that we can work with honesty and commitment for the common good of all. This inner liberation from self-centredness to other-centredness is vital especially for those taking leadership in the political field, religion or social areas. Otherwise what is done would be largely bluff or hypocrisy.