Activist or Part – time humanitarian ?

It’s coming near to the end of 2017 and there are still people in the world that are being sold off like bonds on the stock exchange. The recent exposure of the Libyan slave trade has people horrified, but should we really be that surprised ?

Modern day slavery has taken several different forms in the 21st century , from the Chibok school girls in Nigeria , to child labor in India, to the US where Penal labor allows the government to make in-mates work for free when used as a punishment for committing a crime.

The truth is that this is currently happening all over the world right now as you read this article, and our governments will not do anything to intervene because it is not in the ‘national interest’.

A lot of people were posting on social media about the Libyan slave trade but how many of those people took the time to actually research Libya’s current political state and understand how something like this could even be possible. Since the death of Gadafi Libya has been stateless. A power vacuum that has allowed rebel groups to take control of territories.

Many of the sub-Saharan people captured in Libya and sold off into slavery were travelling through Libya to get to Europe, this bares the question of what were they running away from? It’s a problem inside a problem, something that Africa knows too well.

The march in London last week to stop the slavery in Libya had a great turn out but what are the UK government doing? They recently announced they will be  launching a £75 million program in aid of the migrants travelling from west Africa to Libya, but is that solving the problem?

There are so many social in-justices happening all over the world , it’s hard to keep up. Sure it’s great that people are posting and people are marching but you can not stand for a cause one week and forget about it the next and think that change is going to happen.

People dedicate their whole lives to making change and those people are the true activists.  We are human so we will all feel sympathy but there are some whose purpose is to educate and make a change.

Sometimes living in the western world it is easy to forget about those who are living less fortunate. We are all a part of the problem, the brands we buy , the products we use, the post we put up and forget about the next week. The idea of “Things will never change” is a concept that our oppressors want you to feel, so much so that it has transcended through the conscience of generation after generation. A unified front will make a change and in time we will evolve in understanding that we have the collective power to make a change.

Look at ways in which you can inform people of the things you care about, you have no idea what conversations it could  spark or what thought process it will unravel. Being bold enough to have the un-popular opinion is making a change, being brave enough to tweet something that is un-cool is making a change. Taking the time to educate yourself on your history is making a change.

Unearthing the history they refuse to put in libraries and classrooms will help you understand the world we live in. It is a system that works for those at the top and those at the top only. Un-picking this systematic oppression bit by bit by ownership, buying power and fighting for the rights of others will dismantle this very system that has mentally enslaved so many.

Don’t be a part-time humanitarian.