When I watched the film of Amazing Grace I found it difficult to comprehend the slave trade.
I know it is something that has been around probably as long as we have been in existence.
In later times with what has happened in the African countries, the Negroes in America and with the help of the media even individual examples of people held as prisoners or slaves even in suburbia.
Last Sunday as I was looking through the news on my Iphone and I read the story of what is happening in Myanmar in Asia. The heading of the article was, ‘The child bride trade is booming in Myanmar as the gender gap bites in China’.
The freelance correspondent went on to tell the story of a teenage girl who had been approached by a broker who suggested that she could make very good money in China as a hairdresser.
She packed her bags and crossed from Myanmar’s Shan State into China’s Yunnan Province.
It was soon apparent to the girl that she was part of the illicit Myanmar – China bride trade.
She was paraded before these men and eventually bought for $11,630.
It turned out he was making the purchase for his intellectually disabled son.
As we could imagine she was degraded in many ways and treated as a slave.
Escape for her or others is difficult; one is they don’t know the language and secondly they are unfamiliar with the geography of the area.
For this reason very few escape the situation they are in.
There are church groups working to educate the women in Myanmar of the dangers of these predators while also trying to help girls to escape from China.
Why is this happening?
I am going to talk about this next week – the gaping gender gap.
Fr Michael Morley
