Slavery 2.0 – Part 5.

Slavery 2.0 – Part 5.

We have come to the end of this series of research articles on Nelson. Thank you for reading. The articles had two purposes. The first is to show how difficult it is to oppose popular culture. The second is to teach that regardless how polarising an issue is, we should never invent evidence to support any side of an argument.

Once we reject this teaching, and are willing be misled with proven invented evidence, then we become mentally enslaved, as described by David Comissiong. That type of enslavement is sustainable, when we convince the next generation that truth is not determined by evidence and reason, but by those who shout the loudest.

OPPOSING POPULAR CULTURE.

Nelson lived in a time when racism was popular, and the slave trade was legal. Yet, he went against the popular culture by paying and promoting sailors of all races equally. When politicians were opposing the slave trade, Nelson was opposing slavery itself. Nelson probably freed more slaves outside of the US, than any other person during that time. In return, our activists label him a racist white supremacist.

In our lifetime, slavery is illegal, but it is still being practised. As it was in Nelson’s time, the worst form of slavery is still sex-slavery. Sex-slaves are now an investment. They are forced into prostitution, and into making pornography, so that their ‘owners’ can be paid.

By 2010, Barbados become a transit location for sex-slaves [1]. Like the traders of Nelson’s day, the Government benefits from the taxes slavers pay, as they force their victims through our ports.

There are some countries that facilitate the lucrative sex-slavery trade, and do not care who knows about it. There are other countries who want the financial benefits of sex-slavery, but do not want to tarnish their reputations. So, they only pretend to do something about it.

Some spend years doing: educational lectures, sensitization workshops, awareness training, planning meetings, legislative changes, and a host of such activities. But they never charge, prosecute, or convict a single person.

BARBADOS AND SEX-SLAVERY.

A country that does not prosecute slavers, advertises to the world that sex-slavery is de-facto legal. Barbados was not like that. In 2016, Barbados passed the Trafficking in Persons Prevention Act, to show the world that we were serious about prosecuting slavers.

Every person who plans, transports, or assists the trafficking of persons within Barbados, or across our borders, is liable to a fine of $1M and/or a 25-year prison sentence [2]. If the victim is a child, then the slaver is liable to a fine of $2M and/or life imprisonment [3]. The courts may order that restitution be paid to victims of sex-slavery.

If a slaver takes the victim’s passport or airline ticket, they are liable to a fine of $250,000 and/or 20 years imprisonment [4]. If a company is involved, then the company is liable to a fine of $5M [5]. Consent is not a defence, neither is the victim’s past sexual behaviour [6]. There is no good reason to enslave another person.

In Barbados, victims are to receive: protection, housing, education, counselling, legal assistance, medical assistance, living expenses, and assistance getting to a safe destination [7]. They can also live and work in Barbados for the duration of the prosecution of their enslavers [8].

Such laws should signal to slavers that Barbados is too risky a place to traffic persons. However, an opposite signal appears to have been sent. The slavers take their victims through our ports with impunity, thinking that they will never be prosecuted – because we are only pretending.

In 2017, Barbados was identified as being a transit country for child sex-slavery. Barbados was also identified as doing little to address this serious problem [9]. Our refusal to do anything meaningful about child sex-slavery, has landed us on the Trafficking in Persons Report’s Tier 2 Watch List [10]. We can now rub shoulders with countries, where child sex-slavery also appears to be tolerated.

BARBADOS TOURISM INDUSTRY.

If we cared about the reputation of our tourism industry, the very least that we should do, is to install large posters in the arrivals’ section of our ports. The posters should clearly inform victims of their rights, and slavers of their liabilities. Unfortunately, in modern Barbados, that simple action takes many years of action-delaying meetings and seminars.

So, what have we done about sex-slavery in our generation? Have we used our influence on social media to advocate for their release? Have we used our political influence to stop the practise in Barbados? No. Instead, like the racists of Nelson’s time, we ridicule those who are on the right side of this popular culture.

We are afraid to tell our political leaders to enforce the law on sex-slavery. We are ashamed to encourage our friends to stop supporting it. We demand our right to access sex-slaves at clubs and on the Internet. We give our children smart devices, with no pornographic filters, that allows them easy access to sex-slaves – and we do not care.

Nelson hated corruption, unfairness, and all types of slavery, and did what he could to oppose those things in his generation [11]. Nelson also hated the hypocrisy of political agents when they debated slavery. Perhaps that is the real reason why today’s hypocrites hate Nelson so much.

Grenville Phillips II is a Chartered Structural Engineer and President of Solutions Barbados. He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com

References for Part 5 follow.

[1] Exploratory Assessment of Trafficking in Persons in the Caribbean Region. International Organization for Migration. 2010. p.5.

[2] Trafficking in Persons Prevention Act. 2016. Section 3.

[3] Trafficking in Persons Prevention Act. 2016. Section 4.

[4] Trafficking in Persons Prevention Act. 2016. Section 6.

[5] Trafficking in Persons Prevention Act. 2016. Section 12.

[6] Trafficking in Persons Prevention Act. 2016. Section 5.

[7] Trafficking in Persons Prevention Act. 2016. Section 18.

[8] Trafficking in Persons Prevention Act. 2016. Section 19.

[9] Trafficking in Persons Report. Department of State. 2020. p.99.

[10] Trafficking in Persons Report. Department of State. 2020. p.99.

[11] Letters and Dispatches of Horatio Nelson – Vol 4 1802 to 1804. p.125.