But sadly that is not the truth.

One hundred forty-three years after passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and 60 years after Article 4 of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights banned slavery and the slave trade worldwide, there are more slaves than at any time in human history — 27 million.

Today’s slavery focuses on big profits and cheap lives. It is not about owning people like before, but about using them as completely disposable tools for making money.

During the four years that Benjamin Skinner researched modern-day slavery, he posed as a buyer at illegal brothels on several continents, interviewed convicted human traffickers in a Romanian prison and endured giardia, malaria, dengue and a bad motorcycle accident.

But Skinner is most haunted by his experience in a brothel in Bucharest, Romania, where he was offered a young woman with Down syndrome in exchange for a used car.

Currently a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and previously a special assistant to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Skinner has written for Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy and others. He was named one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the Year 2008. His first book, now in paperback, is A Crime So Monstrous: Face to Face with Modern-Day Slavery.

Continue reading “There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Time in Human History”

This question has been more energetically debated over the last few years, globally, due to the West’s confrontation with radical Islam, and in the U.S., to the political emergence and activism of evangelical Christians. This was brought to a head with the misadventures of George W. Bush, from Teri Shiavo to Bagdhad.

Robert Wright takes on big questions, and he’s taken this one on in his new book, The Evolution of God. He follows the changing moods of God as reflected in ancient Scripture, to see what circumstances brought out the best and worst in religions.

According to Wright, “The moral of the story is simple: When people see their interests threatened by another group, this perception brings out the most belligerent parts of their religion. Such circumstances are good news for violent extremists and bad news for moderates. What Obama is trying to do — make Palestinians feel less threatened, and make Muslims generally feel more respected — may now, as it did in ancient times, bring out the tolerant side of a religion.”

Wright is a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and founder and editor of bloggingheads.tv. His books include: Three Scientists and Their Gods: Looking for Meaning in an Age of Information; The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life; and Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny.

Continue reading “What Makes Religion a Force for Good or Evil?”

• The government is considering an $800 billion fund to purchase so-called failed assets.

• It is considering a separate $400 billion pool at the FDIC to insure investors in money market funds.

• It pledged $29 billion to help JPMorgan acquire Bear Stearns.

• It agreed to buy as much as $200 billion of stock in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

• The Federal Reserve offered an $85 billion bridge loan to AIG.

• The Federal Reserve joined with other nations to pump $180 billion into global money markets.

• The Treasury Department promised $50 billion to insure the holdings of money market mutual funds for a year.

In his new book,  The Wrecking Crew , Thomas Frank writes:

We can now say of that philosophy which regards good government as a laughable impossibility, which elevates bullies and gangsters and CEOs above other humans, which tells us to get wise and stop expecting anything good from Washington — we can now say with finality that it has had its chance. Whenever there was a choice to be made between markets and free people — between money and the common good — the conservatives chose money. It’s time to make them answer for it.

Frank, founding editor of the Baffler magazine and a contributing editor at Harper’s, is the Wall Street Journal‘s newest weekly columnist. He is also author of What’s the Matter with Kansas?, The Conquest of Cool and One Market Under God.

Continue reading “A Wall Street Bailout Wouldn’t Help Anyone But Rich Investors”

Author Nina Hachigian shows that some of the biggest threats to our security don’t come from rival nations. They come from us.

A new book, The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise by Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen, argues that it’s good for us that other pivotal nations grow wealthier and stronger. We need them on our side so that together we can solve global problems of peace, climate, health, and justice.

Nina Hachigian is a Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress and a Visiting Scholar of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. Earlier, she was the Director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Policy and a Senior Political Scientist at RAND. From 1998 to 1999, she was on the staff of the National Security Council.

Continue reading “Can the U.S. Thrive as Other Powers Rise?”