US accuses 14 nations of slavery

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I personally believe that a sexual assault on a child is worse than murder. That may sound wild to most of you but it's honestly how I feel. I've seen the damage sexual assaults against children have caused and it's horrific. Depending on the age of the child, the severity of the assault and the amount of times it happens, any number of psychological and physical illnesses can take hold. Schizophrenia may be the result of pro-longed sexual abuse. Drug addiction certainly has been cited as a symptom of childhood sexual abuse. The youngest victim of sexual assault reported in the State of Florida was 2 months old. (Florida Department of Law Enforcement.)

For years deplorable and disgusting human beings (and I use that term ever so lightly) have been traveling to the Third World to have their way with boys and girls of all ages. I remember in college I wrote my first senior thesis on child prostitution in Thailand. When I went to the library to conduct research, the library assistant (an old man) pulled me to the side and said, "You want to know about Thailand? You can have anything you want there. Girls. Boys. Cats. Dogs. You name it, you can have sex with it." I hurriedly thanked him for that alarming editorial and promptly got the hell away way from him. Mind you, when I wrote my thesis child prostitution in SE Asia had been going on for many years. This event occured in 1997.

It appears to be rather plain to me that a certain segment of adults in this world simply hate children. I can't think of another reason why any government would allow such a large portion of their population to be victimized on an on-going basis. It's unthinkable that said governments would factor in child rape as a source of tourism revenue, such as Thailand does.

This recent citation by the US against Saudi Arabia as well as other nations is a nice gesture but it isn't enough and most likely enough will never be done to protect children in any country. Right now Saudi law states that sex is illegal without marraige however, said law sets no minimum age for marriage. I've read that girls as young as 9 are married off to men whom are considerably older and who knows how long they wait, if they wait at all to consumate the marraige. Again, it's not enough to point at Saudi Arabia and say, "bad Arabs!" You actually have to do something about it. But how do you change another countries entire culture? Some liberals will you tell you that you shouldn't even attempt to change another culture under the guise of multi-culturalism and cultural relativism.

Nuts to that. Child rape is child rape whether you're a white girl in Florida or an Arab girl in the Middle East. The behavior is unspeakably evil. More needs to be done about it. This is a start and any start is a good one but it may also be too little too late. To the children across the world being preyed on by cloistered pigs, I pray for you.

Here's the story from the Taipei Times:

The US accused 14 nations of failing to do enough to stop the modern-day trade in prostitutes, child sex slaves and forced laborers. The countries include Saudi Arabia, Washington's closest Arab ally in the war on terror.

Three other US allies in the Middle East -- Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar -- were newly listed this year as nations failing to deal adequately with the illegal trafficking of people. The State Department said Friday that the 14 countries could be subject to sanctions if they do not crack down.

As many as 800,000 people are bought and sold across national borders annually or lured to other countries with false promises of work or other benefits, the State Department said in its annual survey of international human trafficking. Most are women and children.

"Trafficking in human beings is nothing less than a modern form of slavery," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "The US has a particular duty to fight this scourge because trafficking in persons is an affront to the principles of human dignity and liberty upon which this nation was founded."

The other countries listed as poor performers in stopping trafficking are Bolivia, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Togo and Venezuela.

`politicizing rights'

Venezuela, which has had a tense relationship with the US in recent months, denied that it was ignoring the trafficking problem. A written statement from the Venezuelan Embassy called the country's inclusion in the list "a sad demonstration of how the administration has politicized its work on human rights."

The State Department report placed China, South Africa and 25 other countries on a watch list. Those nations have trafficking problems, but their governments are making what the State Department calls significant efforts to combat them.

Saudi Arabia has turned a blind eye to the problem of poor or low-skilled workers brought into the country and exploited or who go there voluntarily but find themselves in "involuntary servitude," the report said.

Saudi employers physically and sexually abuse migrants from South Asia, Africa and other places, withhold pay and travel documents or use migrant children as forced beggars, the report said. Some migrants work as domestics in the homes of wealthy Saudis.

"The government of Saudi Arabia does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so," the 2005 Trafficking in Persons report said.

The report said the Saudis apparently prosecuted only one employer during the period covered by the report, from March last year to March of this year.

Despite periodic differences, Saudi Arabia and the US have a tight alliance built on economic and military cooperation. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, the kingdom's de facto ruler since his half brother King Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995, visited President George W. Bush at his Texas ranch in April.

The US spends US$96 million to help other countries combat trafficking, Rice said. The US is not included on the list, although Miller said the country is far from immune.

"Modern-day slavery plagues every country, including the US," Miller said.

The Justice Department is due to issue a separate report this month on trafficking in the US.

Congress began requiring the international ranking reports in 2000. This is the fifth report, and it covers trafficking to and from 150 countries. Miller said the goal "is not to punish but to stimulate government action to eliminate" human trafficking. Countries that fail to crack down can be subject to a variety of sanctions, including the withholding of some kinds of US foreign aid. The US will not cut off trade and humanitarian aid, the report said.

Countries that receive no such assistance can be declared ineligible to take part in cultural and educational exchange programs.

Two countries have been sanctioned since the reports began, Equatorial Guinea and Venezuela.