Taiwan's Economic Miracle

Amongst the recent tensions over the visit of Nancy Pelosi, a high ranking US politician, to the island of Taiwan (officially the Republic of China [ROC]) ...

Nancy Pelosi In Taiwan

It's often forgotten that although the Peoples Republic of China makes aggressive claims to Taiwan being an integral part of China (along with various islands across the South China sea), in point of fact Taiwan had been ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895.

Fanatic Fish Lovers

The ornamental fish lovers of Singapore know no limits in their fanaticism .....

Arowana - The King Of Ornamental Fish In Chinese Eyes ....

..... the city remains the worlds biggest exporter of Arowana, Koi, Guppies and Goldfish ...

Wet Wall Of China

Its been observed by many, that the Chinese often lack some of the social graces expected in the West, especially with regards to expectorations, and public expulsions of body matter generally.

 

No Spitting Sign

 

This lack of social graces in public led to Singapore, a state largely populated by people of Chinese descent, introducing some infamous edicts, with fines or even imprisonment, simply for spitting in public places, or even being caught chewing gum ... a $500 fine is not uncommon.

 

Modern Slave Trade

Some times a story kind of tells itself .... I stumbled across this image on the Internet.

Malayan Flyer Selling Maids

And this unlocked a whole new story, that was apparently little reported outside of the South East Asian area. It appears that Indonesia is the main source for cheap female domestic servants (or 'slave labour', depending upon your point of view) in the greater region (with Filipinos being the other source). Of course this leads to much abuse, including imprisonments, beatings, rapes and murder, and the stories of their mistreatment by the Arab employers of Saudi Arabia are legion.

Indonesian Maid In Saudi Employers Car

However, when it was reported in Jakarta that the door flyer above was circulating in Malaya, there was much outrage. Demands that the Malayan government do something (probably the standard request to 'kill the perpetrators'), were legion, but then it turned out that this kind of indignity was common regionally. Reports came in from all over that adverts selling Indonesians as servants were common. 

Indonesian Maids in Singapore

The trade is openly advertised in Singapore, and in fact any country around that region where the standard of living was higher than in Indonesia ...... it just goes to show that slavery has survived. It is still being practised in North Africa and Arabia (where there were over 300,000 slaves in 1960 when it was abolished - but carried on because the law was never enforced), with recent reports alleging that a castrated black African slave was sold on a Facebook style advert last year.

Alleged Slave Sold in Saudi Arabia (Facebook) 2012

  
So it is still practised in the Muslim world, but just not in the traditional form. Debt Bond slavery has now disguised the trade, and allows slaves to be owned, bought and sold and moved around the globe in much the same way as before the West tried to abolish it in the 19th and 20th centuries.