slave trade and collapse

We have always talked about slavery and the societies who have been involved with slave trades. But it wasn’t until this year and this class have I ever read so much about slavery and have discussed in depth about slavery in other countries. Our assignment was to look in the index and to read up on the parts where the book talked about slavery. Im not gunna lie, I figured it would only take 15 min or so to do the homework, but they I looked up slavery and found that just that subject took up about half a page in the index! I never realized how much this book talks about slavery.
As I was refreshing my memory about past readings I began to see a pattern between the different slavery occurrences. Majority of them begin with one country invading another and taking the natives as slaves. The natives then begin to rally together and fight back to gain their independence. The slaves were treated terribly, with few exceptions.
However, there is one incident that we have talked about in class, that is not in the book, and is taking place today. That is the sex slave trade. Although it seems the same as any other slave trade, I feel like it belongs in a category all its own. I have no idea why, but it just seems completely different. I’m not sure if it’s because it is happening today, in my time, or because I feel bad because it is mainly against women. Either way, this type of slavery is just so much more different than the other ones. I know that children were taken as slaves in past eras, but the fact that they are taking young girls today and using them for sex just blows my mind. I think that is what it really is. It belongs in its own category because these people are not being forced to do yard work or clean the house, they are being forced to give up their body and being put at the risk of sickness and diseases. One of the things that makes me most upset is that fact that these young girls have no idea what is happening to them. They are completely uneducated and have no way of fighting something they don’t know. The other fact that makes me really upset is how the older girls get “tricked” into agreeing to be a sex slave. How they are promised a normal job but get stuck doing a dirty job.
I know that we have groups that are fighting against this and our class is involved in one as well, but it just sucks that we cant do any more. How we cant just steal these girls away and how some of the only things we can do is convince them to use condoms. It is promising however to hear that people are making some sort of progress, it may not be a whole lot, but in time it will eventually get better.

collapse:
First I have to say that this packet is really long! I skimmed through it and thought that it was pretty interesting. But for the most part it was a bit boring. However I did read through the 12 environmental problems and found those to be very interesting. Before I get into that I would like to say that I don’t care much for this type of writing. I am not a big fan of the opinionated writing. I like to read facts. I feel like this piece is some facts, but more personal opinion. It kind of leaves me with the feeling of, “I get it’s a problem, but what do we do to fix it?” it does not give much solution to the problems the author is pointing out.
The first problem the author points out is the rate we are destroying natural habitats by making man-mdae habitats. I completely agree with this. Almost all of the world is covered by humans, there are very few places that are not covered by man-made habitats. I am very outdoorsy and I enjoy the natural habitats such as national rainforests. I think that there needs to be more protected parks in order to keep the natural habitats in tact.
Another problem the author talks about that I really agree with as well is the elimination of little species. I have never really thought about it. Its really sad when an animal goes extinct and I realize that it will have an impact on things because everything is connected in the food chain. But to think that if the little species start to be eliminated, it will have a slow impact that will creep up on us and take over. And that is where we get in a lot of trouble because by then it will be too late.
The other problems I generally agree with but I didn’t find them as interesting as these ones. I do agree with the author on the fact that all these problems are linked. The other thing I don’t like about this author is how the reading is conveyed. I get the feeling that this writer has no hope for humans or that we can’t change. Almost like this is whats going to happen so just accept it. Maybe he isn’t saying that but this is the idea that I get from reading it.