Forgotten and invisible: modern-day slaves

Indian sex workers look out from their brothel in the red light district of Kamathipura in Mumbai. Socially conservative India, Bangladesh and Pakistan do not permit legal prostitution but all have brothels spilling with sex workers. (Photo: AFP)

In today’s modern world overshadowed by extravagant globalization, materialism and consumerism, it is very common for people to forget about people who are less fortunate.

These people with relative fortune and comfort might get a jolt if asked what they think about slavery and slaves. In most cases, the answer is likely to be simple: slavery was abolished in the 19th century.

The British parliament passed its Slavery Abolition Act in 1833 and the US government made the 13th amendment to the constitution in 1865, marking the official abolition of slavery.

However, slavery didn’t end with its abolition 154 years ago. It has just changed forms and continues to plague millions of people in the world today.  

The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery on Dec. 2 passed almost unnoticed in much of the globe as if our world today has almost pulled itself out of the curse of slavery.
The reality is that about 40 million people are trapped in various forms of modern-day slavery and one in every four victims are children, according to the United Nations.

No light in the darkness for Aung San Suu Kyi

Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi attends the inaugural summit between South Korea and five Southeast Asian nations along the Mekong River, at Nurimaru APEC House in Busan, South Korea, 27 November 2019. (Photo by EPA/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT/MaxPPP)

Myanmar and its civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi are in hot water again over the country's mistreatment of minorities, specifically the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.

In recent weeks, three international lawsuits have been filed against Myanmar over brutal atrocities in 2016 and 2017.

On Nov. 11, The Gambia filed a 46-page application at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention by committing crimes against humanity against Rohingya.

Three days later, Suu Kyi was named among several state officials in a lawsuit in Argentina by Rohingya and South American human rights organizations for serious crimes including genocide against the minority community.

The same day, judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) authorized a full investigation into allegations of persecution and crimes against humanity that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh from Rakhine.

Bangladeshi Catholics caught up in ugly land disputes

Bangladesh is a small country packed with 160 million people, so land disputes are common and it is often the poor who suffer most. (Photo: Rock Ronald Rozario/ucanews)

Residents in a southern Bangladesh village were shocked to hear that a violent clash erupted recently between two Catholic families.

The mob violence was the culmination of a bitter dispute lasting more than two years over ownership of a small plot of land.

South Haldibunia village is near the country's second largest port — Mongla in Bagerhat district — and also close to the Sundarbans mangrove forest, an area covered by St. Paul's Church in Mongla under Khulna Diocese.

The sense of shock was understandable, happening in a village where people of various faiths — Catholic Christians, Hindus and Muslims — have been living peacefully together for decades.

South Asia: a region of rising intolerance

Muslims protest against the verdict of India’s Supreme Court to award Hindus control of the bitterly disputed Ayodhya holy site for a Hindu temple, widely seen as a victory for Narendra Modi’s ruling BJP. (Photo: Arun Sankar/AFP)

“When a fire engulfs the city, even the temple cannot escape.” That is an old proverb but it still resonates strongly in a world today that is overshadowed by increasing intolerance and extremism.

The proxy wars in the Middle East, the constant global export of extremist Salafist Islam by some Persian Gulf countries, the deadly terrorism of transnational jihadist outfits like Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, the state-sponsored campaign of annihilation of Uyghur Muslims in China and the brutal ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The list is ever-increasing.

South Asia is home to more than a quarter of the world’s population and is well advanced in intolerance and extremism, having exited British colonial rule (1757-1947), during which time the imperialists adopted a divide-and-rule policy that stoked communal tensions and led to the bloody 1947 partition of India and Pakistan along religious lines.

50 Years of Truth, Love and Dialogue

A dance troupe kicks off Radio Veritas Asia’s 50^thanniversary celebrations at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh (CBCB) center in Dhaka on Nov. 1 (Photo by Stephan Uttom/ucanews)

In 1983, 10-year-old Ashik Iqbal was given a small radio and a list of stations to listen to by his elder brother to overcome times of boredom in their village in Bangladesh's northern Rajshahi district.

One of the stations was the Bengali Service of Radio Veritas Asia (RVA).

Iqbal, a Muslim, found the RVA programs very interesting, and became a regular listener of the Philippines-based Catholic shortwave radio service.

"RVA programs can attract and hold a listener's attention for ages. It is a voice of people like me. There are various religiously-affiliated media but the RVA is different. It is Christian but doesn't limited itself within religious boundaries," Iqbal, now 47, told ucanews.

RVA first went on air in 1969, while the Bengali Service stated in 1980.

Bangladesh fails to control hidden radicalism

Islamist activists protest in Dhaka on Oct. 21, a day after deadly clashes following a Facebook post that allegedly defamed the Prophet Muhammad. The failure to punish extremists threatens religious harmony. (Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP)

An unusual but most welcome calm prevailed at Borhanuddin in Bhola district of southern Bangladesh on Oct. 20.

Tensions had run high in the area over two days, involving the Muslim majority but also a handful of Hindus, over a Facebook messenger post that defamed Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.

A radical Islamic group, Touhidi Janata (Movement for Islamic Uprising), vowed to avenge the "hurtful religious sentiments" and declared a mass protest gathering on Oct. 20.

Biplob Chandra Shuvo, a Hindu man, was in the eye of the storm for allegedly spreading the messages. He told police on Oct. 19 that his account had been hacked and two Muslims were quickly arrested for the crime, allegedly carried out for the purpose of extortion.

Police engaged with Muslim clerics to assure them that action was being taken and asked them to cancel the impending gathering to avoid likely violence.

The clerics agreed but failed to stop Muslims from joining the protesters, who soon became a violent mob chanting Islamic slogans and demanding the death penalty for the Hindu man.

They vandalized Hindu temples and Hindu people's homes before attacking police with bamboo and bricks. Officers fired back — four rioters were killed and more than 100 people, including police, were injured.

News of the deaths infuriated Islamic hardliners. In Chittagong, clerics and students from the Hathazari Mosque and madrasa organized another march and attacked the local police station.

The escalating tension was only defused after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned of "stern action" against anyone attempting to create "anarchy" over the situation.

Three men, including the Hindu, remained in police custody a week later, while police arrested hundreds of unnamed rioters in connection with the violence.