Tea at Trianon: The Slave Trade Today

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, October 28, 2013

The Slave Trade Today

Sadly and tragically, it is going strong. To quote:

“Modern-day slavery has many faces,” said Ana Steele, president of the Dalit Freedom Network USA and Dalit Freedom Network UK, explaining that the United Nations’ definition includes “the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”

Regardless of what form it takes, Steele explained, “it is incumbent on each one of us to combat modern-day slavery wherever it exists.”

Her comments come in the wake of the release of the 2013 Global Slavery Index, which detailed the various kinds of modern-day slavery, as well as countries with the highest density.

The Global Slavery Index used research conducted over a period of 10 years and was compiled by a team of four authors and drew from support of 22 experts. Although this is the first, the aim is to conduct a yearly report on global slavery.

The report stated that “modern slavery takes many forms and is known by many names: slavery, forced labor or human trafficking,” and it included these different forms in its study of slavery around the world. (Read more.)