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Internationally known Dr. visits UAS
By Sean Smith
Whalesong Staff
You just can’t
keep some people down. Despite being stuck in Ketchikan due to fog
for the duration of his scheduled visit there, Dr. Kevin Bales,
author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book Disposable People: New
Slavery in the Global Economy, and this years Bartlett Lecture Series
speaker, made a visit to UAS Juneau Campus on Friday Nov. 1, to
talk about slaves in the our present world economy. He presented
a short film that won both an Emmy and Peabody Awards at a luncheon
in the Lake Room followed by a lecture in the Egan Library that
night.
“There are an estimated 27 million people enslaved
around the globe,” Bales said as he began his speech. “And
everyone in this room is benefitting from those slaves in one way
or another.”
Dr. Bales is a Professor of Sociology at the University
of Surrey Roehampton in London, the Director of Free the Slaves
International, a Trustee of Anti-Slavery International (the worlds
oldest human rights organization), and a consultant to the United
Nations Global Program on Trafficking Human Beings.
Bales told stories of his inspections of other countries’
cash crops, most of which took place in India and the Ivory Coast
of Africa. He explained how everyone contributes to slavery whether
they know it or not. Some people might buy chocolate that was produced
from Ivory Coast cocoa, or invest in a slave supporting company
unknowingly. Even though “virtually everyone in the world thinks
slavery is wrong and the laws are in place to stop it in every country,
the problem still remains,” says Bales.
Bales, who will be traveling as the Bartlett Lecture
Series speaker throughout the UA system, has some advice for those
who wish to abolish slavery for once and for all. Bales narrowed
it down to education and involvement. “Read the book and watch
the movie,” he said. The proceeds for the book and video cassette
tape that were sold at the luncheon and lecture went to the Free
the Slaves, a foundation that aims to help slaves across the world
become liberated.
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