The Dog and the Wolf

A gaunt Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a House-dog who was passing by. "Ah, Cousin," said the Dog."I knew how it would be; your irregular life will soon be the ruin of you. Why do you not work steadily as I do, and get your food regularly given to you?" "I would have no objection," said the Wolf, "if I could only get a place." "I will easily arrange that for you," said the Dog; "come with me to my master and you shall share my work." So the Wolf and the Dog went towards the town together. On the way there the Wolf noticed that the hair on a certain part of the Dog's neck was very much worn away, so he asked him how that had come about. "Oh, it is nothing," said the Dog. "That is only the place where the collar is put on at night to keep me chained up; it chafes a bit, but one soon gets used to it." "Is that all?" said the Wolf. "Then good-bye to you, Master Dog."

Better starve free than be a fat slave.

Aesop fable is certainly very helpful and still contemporary, hence the fact that it doesn’t take much to lead a person to a condition of slavery and although the parameters have changed considerably in the course of centuries, that does not mean that a person can not feel bound to something or someone so intensely that he or she feels irremediably trapped such as drugs, medicinal or otherwise, for instance.

On the other hand, slavery is still an issue very much alive. Human beings are still been bought and sold on daily basis, all over the world, for a number of different reasons, of course. The subject is delicate because is no longer viewed as a national economic necessity like it was centuries ago. Nowadays is more an uncomfortable truth that no one really likes to talk about.
On the subject, the so called white slaves market is without a doubt growing faster than many of us would like to admit. The internal national laws are incapable of dealing with this not so new type of criminality, which is extremely organized and I am ashamed to admit, appallingly well connected. Within this tragic scenario there are branches that extend on various activities: from kidnapping to extortion. The satisfaction is to make obscene amounts of money at the cost of the shattered lives of so many innocent people.

From a humanitarian perspective, is definitely a despicable line of work, due to fact that the “merchandise” that is sold is human beings, some of them still children, others are definitely barely toddlers and others are still just babies. Most of them are females who supply the western markets. They provide a huge wave of demands, like babies for parents who can’t conceive, as unwilling organ donors for patients on waiting lists and for the sex markets across Europe and rich America among several other areas that involve these priceless “goods”.

I think it was Hemingway that started one of his novels by saying "On the west there is nothing new", well I suppose he was right in so many ways, that not even he was aware of…