https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/





21st Century Slavery.



the brutal slave-ships of centuries ago, from the cradle of humankind, the continent of Africa, may no longer ply the seas,


the unspeakable horrors meted out to the millions of  human beings are now conveniently forgotten.




today the ships of commerce and of Capital carry the noxious cargo of slavery – neo-slavery – as they ferry designer goods from the aisles of slaves in the free-trade zones of this world.




the slave-owners mentality has changed little,


the promise of the filthy notes of money,


the 20-hour long shifts enforced inhumanely,


the shackles of bonded labour, of small hands sewing high-street apparel,


reeks of ugliness, of the depths of depravity that the 1% are gladly willing to rain down on fellow human beings.




the vile stench of greed, sinks it’s talons into the souls of those in need,


in need of a few grains of rice, of some beans, as tears down the cheek of humanity perennially streams,


while labourers who sweat and toil build obscene skyscrapers that in the ashamed sun gleams.




the migrant workers who built countries with their calloused bare hands,


enslaved by colonialism and forced labour, of being auctioned as if they were soulless machines,


only to be flung when death visited them, into the emptiness of savage ravines.




today we see the same, on 24hr television screens,


the stories of the ravages of hunger, the tears of mothers and fathers, the little faces whose innocence has been stripped,


whose very sense of dignity is continually whipped,


all so we may drink champagne and shuck oysters and dance and fuck,


never for even a second thinking about the 99% ensnared in the rotten muck.




these words of mine may be obscene, but the ugliness of man lies elsewhere,


somewhere, everywhere,


while immigrants are vilified, ripped apart from them, the  tiniest sense of decency,


while as before they are treated as mere disgusting currency. 




these impotent words i spew make not a scintilla of a difference,


they just pour out and swirl down into the gutters of apathy,


so I lay my pen down now, in disgust and self-loathing,


of being a part of the machine that off human beings slave,


from the moment they are born and till they are thrown into countless a nameless grave,


yes i lay my pen down now, rotting inside, as the bile erodes,


the platitudes i scribble.




yes i lay my pen down now, knowing i am merely spouting inconsequential drivel,


that will disappear into the gutters,


quietly,

silently,


even as my empathy continues to shrivel …