I lead a very comfortable life in my lovely home on the central Queensland coast. Many others live just like me. Yet I am fully aware there are people in the world leading much less comfortable lives. Among the least fortunate of these are the 21st century slaves.
But, you may ask, wasn’t slavery abolished a couple of centuries ago? Perhaps names like Wilberforce and Lincoln come to mind. This myth salves our consciences. We can feel justified in getting on with our comfortable lives without ever having to think about, far less address, the problem.
This is only one of many 21st century myths that serve to sooth us into inaction. Hasn’t racism been dealt with? Surely that’s a legacy Martin Luther King left us. Anti-semitism? But didn’t we defeat Hitler? Environmental degradation? Don’t we trot along to the supermarket with our own carry-bags?
Let’s get back to slavery.
My book, Where Pademelons Play, informs you, the reader, of a form of 21st century slavery alive and well in our own country. In our very own Oz, the land of oranges and sunshine!
It is sexual slavery. The players in this dehumanizing game are (more than likely) international criminal syndicates. One of my principal characters, Elena Rusalkova, uses her wits to sidestep these syndicates and avoid this particular form of slavery. Many of her less clever associates do not.
I have gone to great pains, in my book as such, to avoid preaching on social or environmental issues. This is because I believe preaching can be the kiss of death to art. But that doesn’t mean I must put aside preaching altogether. Preaching is exactly what I am doing on this blog.
My book is for telling stories. The time and place for the soapbox is blogs. And, even on the soapbox, I feel overreach should be avoided. Overreach has a tendency to turn people off.
Read my book. Read my blog. Then decide if, when, and how you might address the problem of 21st century slavery in our comfortable country.