Cowlix Wearing my mind on my sleeve

Thursday, March 14, 2002
Slavery today

The Social Psychology of Modern Slavery

Less than 100 kilometers away, the land turns flat and fertile. Debt bondage is common there, too. When I met Baldev in 1997, he was plowing. His master called him "my halvaha," meaning "my bonded plowman." Two years later I met Baldev again and learned that because of a windfall from a relative, he had freed himself from debt. But he had not freed himself from bondage. He told me: "After my wife received this money, we paid off our debt and were free to do whatever we wanted. But I was worried all the time--what if one of the children got sick? What if our crop failed? What if the government wanted some money? Since we no longer belonged to the landlord, we didn't get food every day as before. Finally, I went to the landlord and asked him to take me back. I didn't have to borrow any money, but he agreed to let me be his halvaha again. Now I don't worry so much; I know what to do."

[via Liberal Arts Mafia]

Comments
Post a comment
Name:


Email Address:
 

URL:


Notes:
  • Name and email are required
  • Email will not be disclosed
  • HTML will be stripped
  • URLs will be linked
Comments:


Remember info?



March 2002
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31            
Line

Copyright © 2001-2002 by Wes Cowley
wcowley@cowlix.com