Christmas Special (recap)

Once again I’d like to thank the cast of our little Christmas Special

Ian Ralph as Razzap Snookums blakslee.com
Laurence Simon as Santa Claus isfullofcrap.com
Anima Zabaleta as the Cop zabbadabba.com
Arri Gaffer as the Guard
Justin Lowmaster as Sanjay the ‘elf’ thebeandom.com
Daphne Abernathy as the little girl daphneabernathy.com
Laeianna as the mom hodgepodgepoint.libsyn.com

And I’d like to reiterate the slightly hamfisted point I was trying to make throughout the program and that is that slavery is still alive and well in the world today. In fact according to the CIA over 50,000 slaves go through the country or are still here every year. Most of those are sex slaves but they also wind up as domestic slaves, in agriculture and the garment business. That’s just in the USA.

Worldwide there are about 27 Million slaves right now. That’s the highest number there’s ever been in the world. Fortunately, the percentage of people in slavery is the lowest it’s been in history.

I wish I could tell you a surefire way to combat this but there isn’t. Theoretically, you shouldn’t be able to buy anything in the states that was made by slaves but when you buy products made overseas that are super cheap, there’s always a chance. Wal-Mart officially does not deal with providers who use slave labor, for example, but has been caught more than once breaking its own rules on this.

There are a number of organizations who will take your money to support people who actively try to liberate enslaved people but I don’t have any statistics on the legitimacy of any particular group. If you do, please share. I do know that buying things that are locally grown and made or bear a Union or Fair Trade label on them are probably safe.

I’m not trying to ruin Christmas for you and I’m sorry I don’t have better answers for you but I do think the first step to ending slavery is to be aware that it is still going on and trying to shop accordingly. Hopefully, I was able to throw in enough jokes to make it palatable for you. And lastly don’t forget that instead of gifts, if it’s not too late, a donation to Oxfam probably does more good than getting the newest thingamabob or whatsit for the kids. Or at last including some level of charitable giving along with other gifts, is an excellent way to show compassion and teach the real meaning of the holiday season to young people. Personally, I’ve found those gifts to be much more memorable than the gift of stuff in a life full of stuff.

Merry Whatever