I agree with you that Canada (and the US, and Western Europe) have a troublesome attitude towards importing people from the Third World to do our dirty work. You could certainly argue that it is a matter of degree between that and what happens in Kuwait. I think it’s a pretty large degree in this case, but it is a degree.

In Britain, for instance, there is a huge problem with illegal workers being brought over from Russia, Eastern Europe and China to work in disgraceful conditions under indenture. The deaths of 23 Chinese cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay in 2004 highlighted this issue, though unfortunately the government hasn’t done anything like as much as it should to deal with this.

The problem in Kuwait and the other countries I mentioned is much more widespread, more extreme, and more official. But yes, you’re quite right that these are global problems – and, as I said above, I also agree that the rapid-fire North American media response of “filthy, degenerate Arabs” is offensive and stupid.

I agree, those are some excellent points you have made and I am familiar with the frequent use of indentured servants in countries like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, etc. I place forced slavery, economically-coerced migration, and in some cases general treatment of immigrants on a continuum and so no, I did not limit my discussion to forced sex slavery.

Some of that comes down to the economic circumstances of that particular country. Oil-rich countries with very high GDP per capita have found that over the past generation, there is so much wealth for everyone that the class of people who would normally accept boring, underpaid work is shrinking. This sounds awfully familiar to me, as a Canadian who has seen every crappy, boring job become dominated by immigrants whose professional qualifications are not recognized here.

I do not see that as particularly far away from Canada’s or USA’s situation, just as a matter of degree. And yet these issues are so often framed as a “barbaric brown men” problem that happens “places other than here”, and I have to say the United States is particularly guilty of this in their media.

Using terms like “this happens in places like country X” is objectionable and innaccurate. The data you gave on Kuwait would have been great to mention in an article, because it gives specific information on one country, not “places like Kuwait”, leaving the reader’s imagination open to any backwards, furren country.

It perhaps seemed to you that I saw the West as more involved in this trafficking than rich, non-Western countries, (because I immediately turned to North America to blame). In fact, I am aware that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries do have a high rate of trafficking, however my problem is with the way that information is presented and the morally comfortable, holier-than-thou feeling the ignorant reader can subsequently feel.

Even if one country does it more or one country does it less, these are global problems. North Americans, whether they like it or not, are part of the world too. Our semi-literate journalists may one day have to embrace that fact.

I understand and appreciate that, as well as sharing many of the feelings about the Western media that have been expressed here. But the piece in question is about forced labour slavery, not sex slavery, and it’s about a Kuwaiti diplomat, not an American. Yet the discussion was dragged back so quickly to the more familiar issue of American sex slavery. Yes, that’s a huge problem, but it isn’t the problem described in Twisty’s post, and not *everything* has to be related back to America all the time. This is a separate story deserving of attention on its own demerits.

As the UNODC report “Trafficking in human beings: Global Patterns” makes clear, forced labour is seriously underreported because “the public media finds sexual exploitation a more appealing topic”. Blaming the patriarchy yet? You can download the report here if you’re interested: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/trafficking_persons_report_2006-04.html The report specificially acknowledges that human trafficking, especially for forced labour, is underreported outside North America and Western Europe, skewing the statistics. Forced labour, it further points out, is regarded by many countries as not even being a form of human trafficking.

As I was trying to explain above, this is why it’s a different problem from that in the US: in Kuwait, the practice of indenturing Indian labourers is publicly accepted. In order to combat this type of slavery, it is not a question of fighting organised crime; it is a question of changing an entire cultural outlook.

If I understand it correctly, your analysis suggests that Western countries are the main body responsible for human trafficking, while “to some extent” rich Middle Eastern countries may be responsible, and Malaysia is too poor to be at fault. Talking about forced and indentured labour slavery rather than sex slavery, this is just not true at all. 90% of the labour force in the UAE are foreign nationals. Most of them have no legal protection whatever and many (no one knows how many) are indentured. The situation in North America or Western Europe is not remotely comparable.

There is very little good information available on the topic, though if you go and stand in any Indian airport for an hour and watch the groups of half-starved, terrified, low-caste men and women being herded on to planes for Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi you get the idea pretty quickly. There’s a decent article on Dubai’s forced labour here: http://newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2635
And another here: http://www.aqoul.com/archives/2006/02/foreign_workers_1.php

I am the last person who would leap up to give the Western megatheocorporatocracy a huge hug. But there is a Middle Eastern megatheocorporatocracy as well, and an Indian one for that matter, and a Malaysian one too. Each of them oppresses in its own special way, and in the case of Kuwaiti megatheocorpocrats enslaving Indians, they’re getting on with their oppression quite happily without it having anything to do with the US or Europe.

When the only source of criticism and activism comes from an integrally racist, islamophobic, and sexist media source within a hegemonic western power framework, how is the ordinary world citizen supposed to find a fair way to voice their opposition to what is a global patriarchal, capitalist problem?

Furthermore, while I do agree that child and woman trafficking is a concern in most cultures (lived in West Africa next door to a trafficked kid for heaven’s sake!), I do not agree with comments that have minimized North America’s own role on that basis. The fact that Western countries control a disproportionate amount of wealth and power globally worsens the problem of trafficking through sheer economic clout. That may also apply, to some extent, to rich Middle Eastern countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. But Malaysia? Give me a fucking break-there is no comparison.

Some desparate women pay big bucks to bastard “brokers to come here. They dance a bit and then are forced to work as prostitutes or in body-rub places to pay back these assholes.

Sexual trafficking/slavery/whatever it’s completely misogynist and no one seems interested in changing the laws because seeing naked chicks is a patriarchal right.

And we have special temporary permits for immigrant women to be nannies and domestic workers–poor women who have to leave their homes and children to make money caring for other women’s homes and children.

I don’t feel too much sympathy for the “backwards Kuwaiti man” as a victim of ethnic oppression here. The Kuwaiti elite is unfeasibly rich, immensely powerful, and flippant about the conditions of its slave labour. Most of the slaves in the Middle East are from India or other South Asian countries. Men and women alike sell themselves for a period of some years to a slavemaster in Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia etc. Their passport is confiscated when they arrive. Sometimes they are treated approximately OK and put to work as cooks, drivers, maids etc. Sometimes they are absolutely not treated OK and end up being physically and/or sexually abused with basically no comeback, seeing as they have no passport and have signed away all their legal rights, and the intensely patriarchal system in the countries I’ve mentioned tends to view them as filthy foreign scum who probably deserved a good hiding anyway. This is a different situation to that of human trafficking in the US: it is overt, well-organised, supported and openly used by the governments, and widely publicly accepted.

I think some of us tend to assume that, because we’re looking at the situation from a liberal, white-majority American/European perspective and we’re probably aware of Edward Said, we have to be careful not to stereotype Arabs as evil, unscrupulous and sex-crazed. Rightly so, and yes, the “underwear and Bible” detail is grim. But, while it’s understandable that many of us would rather talk about human trafficking in somewhere like North America, that is a different story. It’s right to criticise the powerful white patriarchs who run the show here, but please let’s not pretend that there isn’t a massive and terrible problem with the powerful brown patriarchs in other parts of the world.

Twisty is right, as usual. The issues here are patriarchy and the distribution of wealth. And yes, those are interconnected.