...it is cheaper to purchase a slave today than it was at the height of the Atlantic slave trade....

You —

I was just reading an interview with Rageh Omaar about his idealism and journalism etc on The Guardian and there are some startling things mentioned in there.

For one, there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world and:

According to research accepted by the US government, it is cheaper to purchase a slave today than it was at the height of the Atlantic slave trade.

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You — Tue, 8 Nov 2011 - 00:39

its a series pof documentaries... todays was on Brazil and the use of slaves in the charcoal industry which is then used in the iron ore industry.

there are a suspected 250,000 slaves in Brazil and while illegal, and if found the slavers have to pay a "moral" fine, no one is actually sent to prison for it.

Then it focussed on how the bigger companies who got iron ore from Brazil had power to demand that they change.

and ther ewas the mention of an iphone app that if you scan barcodes with, it will give a rating from A to F of how likely that is to have had some input from slaves.

Worldwide 27 Million slaves now compared to 12 million that were taken to the americas 2 centuries of the slave trade.

Next week's episode is slave brides in india.