Re: [RC] The Sultan's Slave Trade - Truman Prevatt
Human trafficking is against international law. It's against the law in
most civilized countries. There is nothing cultural about it - it is
wrong and it is illegal. There may even be laws on the books in the EU
and the US concerning dealing with countries that precipitate in human
trafficking.
You are absolutly correct concerning the moral choice that every rider
going to Duabi has to make along with the moral choice of AERC Int and
USAE in supporting a country that is involved in human trafficking.
Truman
Lynne Glazer wrote:
I also
viewed this program. I think they said that the UAE instituted a law
in 2002, the program said, that jockeys must be 15 years old and 100
lbs, which they tout to outsiders, and apparently completely disregard
in practice. They bar all photography of the races, though hidden
cameras were used to get the HBO footage, though some of it was taken
before they barred photography.
Many photos were shown of Sheik Mohammed, as the primary underwriter of
the camel racing. And that it's not just one of the Emirates. They
showed the camel training facilities--luxurious accomodations,
treadmills, swimming pools, vets--and the human side living in hovels,
beaten, raped, and mentally abused.
The program profiled the actions of a courageous Pakistani couple who
kidnap and evacuate these camel jockeys from the primitive training
camps back to their home countries of Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Heartbreaking is that many of the boys were too young when sold to know
who their parents are or what village they're from.
I can't understand why they can't just abide by their own law, and have
a level playing field--100 lbs and 15 years old. Cultural condition or
not--to me it's more heinous than the mare tripping that went on in the
charreadas until barred by laws, because it's human trafficking.
I await the UAE's response and hope that they are willing to view their
actions through the world's eyes, and see how this represents them as
anachronistic barbarians, and perhaps perceive how civilized folk want
nothing to do with slave nations. Our competitors headed for Dubai
have an immense moral choice to make...
