Rating: 
Summary: The race to the very bottom
Review: "Disposable People" by Kevin Bales is an important book on the topic of slavery in our time. The author intelligently combines original cases studies and third-party research with a solid understanding of global economics. The result is a startling but convincing expose that should be read by everyone.Mr. Bales describes the major factors driving slavery today. First, the post-WW II population explosion has created a huge and desperate reserve army of the unemployed. Second, the process of proletarianization continues in many so-called "developing" nations as millions of peasant farmers are displaced by mechanization. Third, economic globalization serves to break down the social fabric as materialism and greed substitutes for the communal values that prevail in peasant societies. Mr. Bales is careful to contrast the "New Slavery" of today with the "Old Slavery" of the past. The New Slavery is clearly embedded within the logic of post-industrial production, where capital avoids its social and environmental responsibilities and ruthlessly exploits human and natural resources for maximum profit. In this light, the New Slavery represents the race to the very bottom of a brutal system that is controlled by speculative investors and is accountable to no one. Case studies examining prostitution in Thailand and coal production in the Brazilian rainforest help us further understand the dynamics of the New Slavery. Subcontractors do the dirty work of luring and keeping laborers in servitude while shielding owners from justice. Mr. Bales tells us that in the case of Brazil, the landowners who blithely ignore such practices include some of the largest corporations in the world. The Old Slavery defined by the traditional master/slave relationship has survived into the present as well. Mr. Bales courageously traveled to the police state of Mauritania to gather evidence of slavery at great risk to himself and the locals who assisted him. The author devotes chapters to Old Slavery practices in India and Pakistan, where repressive sexist, class, and religious beliefs enforce an essentially Feudal social order. However, Mr. Bales makes clear that the economic forces unleashed by globalization are effectively breathing new life into these ancient practices. For example, upper caste slave owners in India are heavily dependent on slave labor to support both their privileged social positions and their increasingly Western-style consumerist lifestyle. As many in the U.S. theorize and debate from their easy chairs about the reasons why industrial jobs may be rotating to low-wage countries, Mr. Bales' book effectively shocks us from our complacency. As amply demonstrated in this book, slavery is an expression of the infinite demands of capital taken to its logical conclusion. Clearly, eradicating slavery is essential to reclaiming our humanity. To that end, Mr. Bales makes a number of policy recommendations and provides resources at the end of the book to help readers get involved in the anti-slavery struggle. I give this sensitive, perceptive and important book the highest recommendation possible.
Rating: 
Summary: A clear and documented picture of modern slavery
Review: As far as I'm concerned, this book only scratches the surface in regard to the dangers of powerful corruption in the hands of those at the top of a global economy. Suspiciously averse to pointing out what I consider to be an increasing wedge of slavery in the U.S., Bales nevertheless paints a clear and documented picture of slavery elsewhere that the U.S. clearly benefits from. We need more books like this, and Anti-Slavery International <http://www.antislavery.org> definitely needs more help and promotion. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money. Anyone who runs a website can give them a hand.
Read this book. Give it for Christmas. More, now than ever, how workers are being viewed and exploited is the most important window on where our government is going in 2004.
Rating:
Summary: Globalism and Capitalism: The Story Behind the Story
Review: Disposable People, by Kevin Bales, presents in disturbing and often uncomfortable detail what he labels as "new slavery" within the global framework of capitalism. Having traveled to Thailand, Mauritania, Brazil, Pakistan and India Bales illustrates for readers the dire conditions in which his respondents live and toil day after day. When discussing the new slavery, Bales points to four elements that allow for its persistence (31): Slaves are cheap and disposable; Control continues without legal ownership; Slavery is hidden behind contracts; Slavery flourishes in communities under stress. According to Bales, with these conditions in place, a way of life for 27 million people (conservative by his estimates) around the world is strengthened.
Well organized and logical in its approach, Bales begins with the issue of prostitution slavery in Thailand brothels and ends the book with a discussion of what can be done to eliminate slavery from the planet. By opening the discussion with prostitution-slavery, Bales not only puts the issue in the reader's face, he shows that Siri, a fifteen year-old enslaved prostitute, could be either a neighbor's child or worse yet one of our own. In using this approach, he grabs the reader's attention and holds it as he guides them around the globe for an unsettling understanding of the social conditions in these five countries; conditions which promote the entrenchment of such a heinous institution. Making several references to the African slave trade in the United States and Caribbean, Bales illustrates how new slavery is not only brutal in its enforcement, it is often accepted among tenets of religious and social norms in some countries and surreptitiously hidden behind dubious employment contracts in others. Being, more often than not, overlooked by investors engaged in what he calls "arms length capitalism" many corporations feign shock and ignorance when made aware of their role in creating and sustaining such conditions.
Having gained access to countries, sometimes under a guise other than social researcher, Bales gathers important interviews, which provide considerable data, which support his thesis, that today's "slavery focuses on weakness, gullibility and depression" as a mainstay in societies where it is present. Not only is his work timely, it is also path breaking provided his admonitions of "don't put this book on the shelf" and "ask hard questions" of charities, politicians and pension fund personnel are heeded. Not unlike efforts, which ended South African Apartheid, Bales' suggestions are a road map that readers can employ to bring the situation from the back burner to the front in seeking to make slavery unprofitable to corporations who are complicit in its existence. While some corporations and business owners turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to such atrocities in the name of profits, by pressuring multinational corporations the cycle of slavery will see its demise.
Disposable People is a good, albeit extremely disconcerting, read that explores the reality of slavery and the story behind the story as it is tied to an ever-expanding global framework of capitalism. Not only is it informative for the academic, it is also approachable by the non-academic alike. Given so, it will not only cause considerable discussion within academia, it will enlighten lay readers as to realities faced by millions of people around the globe.
Needless to say, while reading Disposable People, I found myself cringing, aching and even mentally placing myself into the conditions faced by Bales' respondents. Doing so, my mind periodically wandered to the quest for reparations by some African American scholars, lawyers and concerned parties in the United States. And a question nagged me, given the seemingly entrenched nature of Bales' "new slavery" as it is tied to global capitalist expansion and disenfranchisement, are proponents for economic reparations the equivalent of Albert Camus' Sisyphus? I mean, from a legal perspective, if efforts in the direction of an economic solution are realized, what does such a decision hold for the conservative estimate of 27 million slaves around the globe?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent journalism sparks deep philosophical questions
Review: I concur with the other reviewers, this book was well researched, structured and presented. The information not only worked to educate me as to how various groups of people are being exploited all around the world, but also caused me to re-evaluate my views on the notion of karma and my natural inclination to look for a bargain price. I was also reminded of Swift's classic "A Modest Proposal" [1729], and began to wonder if there will ever be a time when some of the world's inhabitants won't be viewed as "disposable."
Rating:
Summary: A revelation of slavery
Review: I first glanced this book becasue I was in need of information for my school project, and then I fell deeply into this book as it revealed things that I had fuzzy understanding in clear illustrations and explanations. Instead of giving abstract reports that abuses happened in some part of the world at certain time in certain way, the author presented a live descritption of the abuses and analyzed the reason and structure of modern slavery so reader could easily understand how this exploitation machine works.
Rating:
Summary: This is Not anti-global economy propaganda
Review: I was afraid to find yet another book talking about "progress" and "development" trashing the World Bank and the IMF. Although the author definately doesn't praise them, the book is really about slavery. It is about the hardship that fellow human beings endure, and that most of us believe is part of the past. It is so well written that you cruise through the book as if it was a novel, and at times you sure wish it was. From forced prostitution in Thailand, to water carriers in Africa and bondage slaves in India, you get a good picture of what 21st century slavery looks like. Excellent writing, research and message. I cannot think of something worth criticizing in this book.
Rating:
Summary: How much did your television cost?
Review: If you think slavery was abolished after the American Civil War, then read this book. Schoolbooks these days are mostly filled with historical references to the evil trade in slaves. Something that was used to build empires, but eventually was overcome by a moral desire to right the wrongs of the past. But next time you buy charcoal at the local Wal-Mart, think about the human and environmental cost of your BBQ. This book gives an excellent overview of modern slavery in various forms from direct servitude to forced labor in countries like Mauritania, Brazil, Thailand, India and Pakistan to the extent of an estimated 27 million people in some sort of forced labor worldwide. As a person interested in human trafficking, I found this book gets right to the heart of why so many people are in trouble in the world. Easy and cheap labor is a necessity of global corporations, the cheaper the better. What is cheaper than someone you don't have to pay? Bales looks at not only the economic factors, but also the cultural factors involved which keep people succumbing to slavery. Many cultures regard women or certain races or ethnic groups as inferior and therefore available for exploitation. This is one hindrance in the fight against slavery. The book is very well-researched (including undercover research)and only left me wishing the book was longer and wanting to learn more.
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Summary: Slavery exists today on all continents.
Review: This book documents slavery in just five countries, but more importantly it gives a face to victims of slavery. Slaves range is age from 3 years to the age of usefulness. Mr. Bales contrasts American slavery to the slavery of today's global economy. However, horrific and inexcusable American slavery was, in some ways today's slavery is worse. It is certainly far more prevalent than most of us would like to beleive. Mr. Bales gives fairly easy tips on how average people can help combat slavery. My hope is that so many people will read this book that our combined efforts will have a positive and real effect for millions of adults, children, and children yet unborn.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: This book is fascinating, well written, and informative. The author never whines when discussing horrible situations around the world; he simply presents what he has learned from his extensive research. Every issue that I would have wanted to ask the author about is addressed in the book. The book is interesting politically, economically and culturally. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Slavery is back. It probably never left.
Review: This is a book that should be required reading in schools all over the world. It tells the truth about slavery in our time. There are young African girls being enslaved in major cities like Paris, half-starved and tortured. There are little children in India and Pakistan working unbearable jobs all day every day for no pay. There are the sex slaves working in Thailand, unable to escape, picked up by the corrupt police when they try, and beaten, raped, and returned to the brothel where they are beaten and raped some more. There are the slaves of Mauritania, Brazil, and on and on, each with their own story. Of course there are topics not covered in this book, like the kidnapping and forced prostitution of French, British and American girls in the Middle East and Japan. But this book will motivate you to join Anti-Slavery International and become a modern day abolitionist.
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