anotherlook

With the influx of foreigners into the American landscape, the customs of these foreigners are coming with them.  However, in American, child slavery is against the law.  While child labor is cheaper, as well as acceptable in some countries,
America is saying no to this practice and those caught are being sentenced and in some cases deported. 

What makes one person feel so superior over another that they feel they can treat that person with less respect than they would treat a family pet?  Why would a parent, in effect, sell their child into bondage for a few dollars?  Is it need or greed or is it a sincere desire to see that child do better than the life they themselves can provide and is that truly what is in the best interest of the child – this desire of the parents. 

In 2006, a U.S. district court in Michigan sentenced a Cameroonian couple, Evelyn and Joseph Djoumessi, to 218 months and 60 months respectively, in prison, for bringing a 14-year old girl from their country to work as their unpaid maid. They were tried for conspiring to hold the young girl in involuntary servitude.   

Evelyn Djoumessi had forced the girl to take care of her children and perform household chores without pay, beat her with a belt, a spoon, and a shoe in order to force her to comply with these demands.  Joseph Djourmessi was found guilty of sexually abusing the 14-year old girl. 

During the trial, the girl’s mother flew to Detroit to testify in court against her daughter saying the girl was ungrateful for the “good life” her employers had provided her.  Even with the knowledge of the abuse, the mother claimed the daughter was ungrateful for the “good life” these people had supplied her daughter.  Does that sound like a concerned parent?

Also in 2006, a Moroccan couple was sentenced to home confinement for forcing their 12-year old Moroccan niece to work grueling hours caring for their baby.  In
Germantown, Md. a Nigerian couple used their daughter’s passport to bring in a 14-year old Nigerian girl as their maid where she worked for them for five years before escaping in 2001.   

In September, 2008, in Beaumont, CA. a wealthy, Egyptian couple brought a poor village girl, by the name of Shyima Hall, to live with them in their California home.  Shyima worked up to 20 hours a day; earned $45 a month, and was ordered to sleep in the garage with no air conditioning, no heat and no light, after the original light bulb blew out. 

Shyima’s mother states “I didn’t want her to travel but our family’s condition dictated that she had to go”.  Now this mother and father, who were both in the home, had 10 children, including Shyima and they all lived in a two bedroom house.   

My question is why keep having kids if you can not even support them.  The mother looked as though there were not too many meals that she had missed, so why sell off your daughter as though she were a commodity, a means to your end. 

Middle Eastern and African countries need to recognize that the way they treat other people has a direct bearing on the chaos and strife they are experiencing in their countries.  Until they recognized their part in their situations, nothing will ever change. 

And that’s the way I see it!!!