Other than Mexico, Haiti was my first taste of the developing world. My first experience in this country – the poorest the western hemisphere – was in 2003. I returned in 2005 and would happily hop aboard a plane today that is headed for Port-au-Prince.
Both times I worked with Mission of Hope which is located about hour northeast of the capital. The Mission of Hope touches thousands of lives daily in Haiti through the Church of Hope, School of Hope, the Hope House Orphanage, Feed A Child program and through medical teams in the Hospital of Hope.
The people of Haiti will always hold a special place in my heart. I pray that HOPE will begin to penetrate into the lives of the rural poor, the city slum dwellers, the aristicratic rich and the people of power. Haiti became a free country in 1791 when the sugar slaves revolted against the French. Unfortunately, slavery is still very present today. Restaveks – child slaves – are bought and sold on a daily basis. Their childhood will consist of domestic labor and forced sex (if you are a girl). Some restaveks remain in Haiti, while many accompany thier master to his/her home – which may be America…
Below is the beginning of a A Crime So Monstrous – a book about modern-day slavery that was just published March 11, 2008. The first chapter is about the author’s travels to Haiti and his experience with ‘buying a slave’.
The author, E. Benjamin Skinner will be sharing on Sun., March 30 at 8pm CST on our nightly conference call during the bike ride. Please click here to read more about the ride. Hope you can tune in to hear him share in person!
A Crime So Monstrous:
Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery
By E. Benjamin Skinner
Chapter 1: The Riches of the Poor
For our purposes, let’s say that the center of the moral universe is in Room S-3800 of the UN Secretariat, Manhattan. From here, you are some five hours from being able to negotiate the sale, in broad daylight, of a healthy boy or girl. Your slave will come in any color you like, as Henry Ford said, as long as it’s black. Maximum age: fifteen. He or she can be used for anything. Sex or domestic labor are the most frequent uses, but it’s up to you.
Before you go, let’s be clear on what you are buying. A slave is a human being who is forced to work through fraud or threat of violence for no pay beyond subsistence. Agreed? Good. You may have thought you missed your chance to own a slave. Maybe you imagined that slavery died along with the 360,000 Union soldiers whose blood fertilized the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment. Perhaps you assumed that there was meaning behind the dozen international conventions banning the slave trade, or that the deaths of 30 million people in world wars had spread freedom across the globe.
But you’re in luck. By our mere definition, you are living at a time when there are more slaves than at any point in history. If you’re going to buy one in five hours, however, you’ve really got to stop navel-gazing over things like law and the moral advance of humanity. Get a move on.
First, hail a taxi to JFK International Airport. If you choose the Queensboro Bridge to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the drive should take under an hour. With no baggage, you’ll speed through security in time to make a direct flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Flying time: three hours….
To find out how Benjamin faired in Haiti, I highly recommend you continue reading Chapter 1 of A Crime so Montrous, click here.
