Stop the Traffic

There are 27 million enslaved men, women and children in the world.
Over 2.2 million children are sold into the sex trade every year.
There are more slaves today than at any other time in history.
In India children cost less than cattle.
Their traffickers pocketed $32 billion last year alone.

Sunday 22nd November is Abolitionist Sunday...

It is incredible how intricate and how well organised the trading of humans for illegal work is... Sadly, there is also so much corruption at the highest levels that allows it to occur. We are not is exempt here in Australia. In 2003 over 1000 women traded across our borders from South East Asia to be enslaved into brothels and forced to sell their bodies to provide for an industry that is gaining in popularity and demand. Slaves are forced to work against their will in cocoa fields, coffee fields, brothels, sweat shops and more so consumers get a cheaper product and the rich continue to get richer.

One of my favourite new poets, Gerard Kelly, wrote this poem and I thought it is so powerful and appropriate for Sunday 22nd November and every other day of the year. Let's do what we can to stop the traffic.

I am a person,
not a potato
to be picked and packaged
and sent to market
to be sliced and diced,
chopped up and ketchupped
on the other side of the world.

I am human
and I am not for sale

I am a living conscience,
not a cargo.
I travel passenger,
not freight.
I am not cattle,
not contraband,
not a catalogued commodity.
I'm not the bottom line
for those who trade in tragedy
and profit from perversity.
I am not a can
to be recycled.

I am human
and I am not for sale

I am a thinking individual,
not a rare exotic bird,
I am your sister,
not an inmate for your zoo.
I am not merchandise,
not meat,
not a meal ticket,
not manufactured,
begotten,
not created.

I am human
and I'm not for sale.

It's time to end this trade
in human tragedy,
to terminate this travesty
of a global economy.
Let the red lights
of your cities be put to better use
to stop the traffic.
Write it in your lights
across your seared conscience:

I am human
and I am not for sale.

Kelly, G. Spoken Worship, 2007.