One my favorite novels by Margaret Atwood is called Oryx and Crake. It is a piece of speculative fiction that leads us down the treacherous, slippery slope of wondering what sinkhole punctuates the current path of pathological commodification on which humanity jauntily lumbers along. As two examples of such commodification, Atwood makes precise, poignant use of child sex slavery and transgenic animals as plot elements. Her dissection of these sensitive subject matters (particularly the former) is terribly fascinating to witness, but while reading the relevant sections of the novel, one can't help but be filled with shame at the depth of humanity's depredation. Oryx and Crake has been on my mind lately, because the U.S. just published its 2007 human trafficking blackbook/blacklist. Just before you go out and celebrate New Rome's (yup, that's my name for home) respect for human rights, please note that India, one of the world's worst offenders when it comes to child slaves (for sex, or for hard, manual labor -- take your pick), was not accorded its rightful place in Tier 3 -- the group of the worst offenders. I guess our business interests (as usual) trump what was, at best, a hortatory attempt by New Rome to pave the shining, yellow brick road to the Emerald City of moral righteousness.
"We have labored long to build a heaven, only to find it populated with horrors." Watchmen, Alan Moore
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1 comment:
Hm...interesting read.
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