People Doing Good Things for Children in Worcester

I found this flyer tucked beneath the windshield wiper of my car when I went out for lunch today:

I'm always a little suspicious of religious groups' motivations in things like this, so I checked out the Love146 website and they seem like a legitimate, non-theistic organization that happens to work with churches among many other kinds of organizations (including the National Organization of Women). They've got a blog, too, if anyone seeing this wants to check out even more information about the group. I'm thus passing the word about Saturday's event to fellow Wormtowners who might not otherwise have seen it. LL is also going to make an announcement about this in the class she teaches at Holy Cross tomorrow night.

I'll probably go to the yard sale on Saturday. I don't have anything to donate for it, but for the same reasons I don't have stuff to give there are a few things I might well need to buy.

I hope to see some other folks from the Worcester blogosphere there. If you see me, please come over and say hello.

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Happy Birthday Chuck and Abe

Today is the 199^th birthday of two men who belong to the ages, Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. It is one of those great historical coincidences that both were born on the same day and that both held many values in common that shaped the respective legacies they left us. To review their accomplishments would be trite, I think. That Darwin formulated the first set of ideas that served to unify the field of biology, shifting the way in which mankind viewed the natural world and how it came to be, and that Lincoln undertook the unforgiving task of reforming American society to exclude one person's ownership of another are things that every school child understands in some way.

Darwin also had his own views on slavery. He wrote, for instance:

It is often attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer countrymen: if the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin; but how this bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well might the use of the thumb-screw be defended in one land, by showing that men in another land suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at the slave owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never seem to put themselves into the position of the latter; what a cheerless prospect, with not even a hope of change! picture to yourself the chance, ever hanging over you, of you wife and your little children - those objects which nature urges even the slave to call his own - being torn from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder! And these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty: but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least have made a greater sacrifice, than ever made by any nation, to expiate our sin.

— The Voyage of the Beagle, Chapter 21

I don't know if Lincoln was ever aware of Darwin's theory of evolution, having been assassinated five years after its publication. I have no idea how he might have felt about the notion that life changes slowly over time, creating new organisms from old. I get an inkling from his preserved quotes that he would have agreed with the notion that diverse populations are more likely to survive longer than are homogeneous ones, but it's nothing I can prove. It will have to suffice that Lincoln ended legally-sanctioned slavery in the United States, one of the last European-descended nations to do so (Brazil was the last, I think, in 1888).

I will be teaching today; it seems an appropriate thing to teach a biology class on Darwin's birthday. I'm not sure how to work Lincoln into today's lab, though.

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What That Flag Stands For: Mike Huckabee and the Confederate Flag Flap

We've all heard by now about Mike Huckabee's comments about the Confederate battle flag and its proud flapping in South Carolina. For his part, Huckabee won't say whether he personally finds the flag to be offensive, ducking behind the notion that only those who live in some particular place should have anything to say about what goes on there:

Colmes pressed, "But, Governor, people want to know what your sensibilities are. Do you see it as a symbol of southern pride or do you see it as a symbol of racism? How do you, personally, view that flag?"

Huckabee dodged again. He said, "It doesn’t matter. No, you’re missing my point, Alan, with all due respect. It is not an issue for me because I don’t live in South Carolina."

— Huckabee on Hannity & Colmes, 1/18/08

While it can be argued whether or not such a thing is appropriately an issue in a presidential contest, it can't be denied that the position on such a question taken by a candidate tells us something about his character and/or understanding of American history. The heart of the question that could be asked about Huckabee's response, then, is: Does Huckabee understand and support what the Confederate battle flag stands for?

This is an argument I've had a number of times over the years. People, whether out of ignorance or misplaced pride, like to argue that what the Confederacy was about, and by extension what the Confederate flag stands for, is essentially anti-federalism. "States' rights!" is the usual response from such people. The next question I like to pose in such discussions is, "States' rights to do what?" Typically, I get some vague comments about self-determination, which answers the question with an equivalent term.

At this point, I like to let a fellow named Alexander Stephens respond. You'd think it was hard for him to do that; he's been dead for a long time now. During his life, though, Stephens was the vice president of the Confederate States of America. On March 21, 1861, Stephens made a speech in Savannah, Georgia in which he laid out in no uncertain terms what the CSA stood for. For this reason, that speech has come to be known as The Cornerstone Speech. Among the core principles of the CSA, and so symbolized by the flag that flaps so proudly above the South Carolina state capitol building, we find these passages:

The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution—African slavery as it exists amongst us—the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically... The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error...

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth... Those at the North, who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the mind—from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the anti-slavery fanatics. Their conclusions are right if their premises were. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man. If their premises were correct, their conclusions would be logical and just—but their premise being wrong, their whole argument fails... They were attempting to make things equal which the Creator had made unequal...

May we not, therefore, look with confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our system rests? It is the first government ever instituted upon the principles in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments have been founded upon the principle of the subordination and serfdom of certain classes of the same race; such were and are in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature’s laws. With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system... The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them. For His own purposes, He has made one race to differ from another, as He has made "one star to differ from another star in glory." The great objects of humanity are best attained when there is conformity to His laws and decrees, in the formation of governments as well as in all things else. Our confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws...

— Alexander H. Stephens, The Cornerstone Speech, 1861

Does Stephens' Cornerstone Speech contain other things than this? Of course! It talks about other ideas embodied by the Confederacy — laissez faire economics, representation in government, and ideas about responsibility for infrastructure that we might characterize as Libertarian in modern parlance are all present as well. Still, all of these things rest, in Stephens' own words, upon a "cornerstone" of slavery, a foundation of racism positing that the proper condition of anyone of African ancestry was to become the property of superior European descendants. Stephens could hardly have been more clear on this point; he sees this situation as having been ordained by God. Slavery is not only a social arrangement in his eyes but a Biblical commandment and those who oppose it are both insane and blasphemous. It is no more justifiable to deny, then, that the Confederate flag stands for this philosophy than it would be to disregard the idea of the Final Solution in Nazi Germany and fly the flag of that regime while claiming that it stands for making the trains run on time. Stephens himself was not some insignificant southerner; he was a founder of the Confederacy and second in command of its government. He spoke with full authority as its representative.

This being the case, nobody with a knowledge of history and a functioning reasoning faculty can fail to understand why so many people see the Confederate flag as inherently offensive. That it stands for a base racism justified not only on the basis of expediency but religious fervor is beyond any doubt worth consideration. For Huckabee to endorse its being displayed on public property anywhere in America, for him to defend such a thing on any basis, reveals that he either sympathizes with what it symbolizes or else that he isn't aware of what it means. Neither one of these conditions speaks of an individual who is the best choice, or even a good choice, to be the leader of this country. It may not be a presidential issue, but Huckabee's defense of that flag and his subsequent refusal to express even personal objection to it speak volumes about the kind of human being that he is. At best, it tells us that he values his own political well-being above the strength of character necessary to stand up to racism, hatred and oppression. At worst, it tells us that he is a vile sympathizer with one of the most shameful institutions in all of the history of civilization.

That he once accepted an invitation to act as a speaker at a conference of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group that states among other things that

...We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called “affirmative action” and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races...

— Source

doesn't do much to dispel the idea that Huckabee may have some racist leanings. There is more on that story in The Nation today.

America would do better to elect a flagpole as president than it would in giving the job to Mike Huckabee. The best we can hope of the man is that he's an idiot.

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Slavemasters Convicted: Sabhnanis Face Up to 40 Years

Varsha and Mahender Sabhnani, the wealthy couple who kept two Indonesian immigrant women as slaves and subjected them to some of the most vile abuses imaginable (see this entry from November 6), have been convicted on all counts. They now face 40 years in prison. That seems like a mild sentence in consideration of their crimes, but hopefully they'll have to serve all of it and rot as they deserve to.

US 'slavery' couple found guilty

...Indian-born Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, and his wife, Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 45, could face up to 40 years in prison.

They were found guilty on 12 charges, which included involuntary servitude, harbouring aliens and forced labour.

The couple's lawyer said he would appeal against the verdict...

The women said they had been beaten with brooms and umbrellas, slashed with knives, made to take freezing showers and climb stairs repeatedly.

One said she had been forced to eat several hot chillies and then her own vomit.

"Apparently, the jury was taken by the histrionics (of the Indonesian women)," defence lawyer Jeffrey Hoffmann told AP.

Lawyers for the accused had argued that the housekeepers practiced witchcraft and may have abused themselves...

The women, identified as Nona and Samirah, arrived in the US legally in 2002 but had their passports confiscated by the Sabhnanis, officials said...

By the way, I suppose that there are occasions in which you just might be able to tell a book by its cover. That mug you see on the right is Varsha Sabhnani. Look at it for a moment; is there the slightest hint of kindness present in that bony visage? To me, she looks like a character from a story written to dissuade children from speak to strangers. One might suspect that she has a gingerbread house containing a large, bubbling black kettle full of greasy kiddie-bones in her real estate portfolio.

This is one case where it's rather tempting to conclude that they eyes are indeed the windows to the soul.

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The Disease is Still With Us

When I was living in Tampa, I worked for a couple of months as a photographer at Busch Gardens. I didn't work for Busch Gardens, but for a company that had a contract to take tourists' photos. It was a miserable job, and my misery was compounded by something I learned a couple of weeks after I started.

This contractor, the name of which I can't remember, had quite a scam going that amounted to slavery. What they were specifically doing was offering phony internships to Korean high school students under the pretense of bringing them to the US to teach them how to run a business. When the students got here, they were housed in dinky, run-down studio apartments near the amusement park. Three or four students shared each apartment; their shifts at work were set up so that they almost never were at home at the same time. There were no phones and the "interns" weren't paid; their rent was covered by the contractor and their meals were provided to them free of charge at the park's employee cantina. Needless to say, they weren't taught how to run a business; they took photos of tourists all day long. Before I left the job, I gave one of those "interns" the contact number for the Center for Human Rights. That's the last I heard about the situation.

All of that is pretty evil, and there's more of it about than you might suspect. Still, it doesn't even come close to this horror:

Servant Testifies About Alleged Abuse
By FRANK ELTMAN (AP)

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — An Indonesian servant for a millionaire couple accused of modern-day slavery testified Monday she was forced to eat her own vomit and was scalded with hot water for misdeeds such as sleeping late and pilfering food.

The 51-year-old woman, identified only as Samirah, said through an interpreter that she was also repeatedly poked with a knife and that her ears were twisted until they bled.

The fear of being abused caused her to involuntarily urinate, she said, for which she was punished further...

Samirah's testimony began last week in the trial of Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, and his wife, Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 45. The couple have pleaded not guilty to all charges in a 12-count federal indictment, including conspiracy, involuntary servitude and other offenses.

They are accused of bringing Samirah and another Indonesian woman, Enung, to the United States to work as housekeepers but enslaving them instead in their Long Island mansion, sending $100 a month home to their families but subjecting them to psychological and physical abuse.

The Sabhnanis — who operate a worldwide perfume business out of their home — were arrested in May after Samirah, wearing tattered clothes, was found at a doughnut shop, pleading for help after apparently escaping while taking out the trash...

Samirah said she was forced to walk naked from the servants' room to the kitchen and to eat 100 chili peppers.

"Not satisfied that I wasn't dead yet," Samirah said, she was then made to consume spoonfuls of chili powder mixed with salt water. She said she vomited and was told to eat the vomit...

And this sort of thing, too, happens more frequently than one would like to imagine. There are still far too many horrific instances of slavery in the US (one is too many, of course). This is right at the top of the worst I've heard about, though, and my mind reels at the thought that human beings can be this cruel to one another. What has to be missing from someone's conscience in order for them to do things like this to another person? How is it possible for anyone to be this depraved and still function in a society that condemns behavior of this sort?

Of course, slavery takes other forms. We still have indentured servitude; it's relatively common in big agriculture, particularly in the south and even more particularly in Florida. For instance, readers might recall that there was a boycott against a number of fast food restaurants (Taco Bell, KFC, etc.) because they were buying tomatoes from growers who didn't pay workers enough to survive and kept them in company-owned housing, etc., essentially owning them. A deal was struck eventually that guaranteed Florida tomato pickers a penny per pound they picked, which was somehow going to be enough for them to get out of the inhumane conditions under which they labored and olived. Now, the growers are backing out of the deal:

Tomato growers decry extra penny per pound
By MAURA POSSLEY (Bradenton Herald)

MANATEE --
As harvest gets under way in Manatee's fields and throughout Florida, opponents are again raising their voices against the campaign for a penny more per pound for tomatoes.

The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange on Monday announced its continued stance against a "Campaign for Fair Food" by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

The growers group said it believed the agreement struck by the coalition with McDonald's and Yum Brands to pay the additional penny was "non-existent," saying no growers have climbed aboard since the deal was struck...

...But the coalition contends that workers receive much less and work in unjust conditions, earning 40 to 45 cents per 32-pound bucket of the fruit, according to the organization.

If enacted, the extra penny would go directly to the farmworker who picked the tomato, according to the coalition. The organization entered into agreements with both McDonald's and Yum Brands, which includes fast food restaurants such as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC...

This, too, is slavery. It's not as dramatic as the conditions faced by the Indonesian maids on Long Island, but it's no less inhumane. Of course, many of the pickers are illegal immigrants. It's quite fashionable to despise illegal immigrants these days since they're apparently ruining our country and taking jobs away from Americans who, I'm sure, are camped out en masse at the gates of tomato farms in Florida hoping to catch their big break and earn 40¢ for every 32 pounds of tomatoes they can pick under the hot sun and the right to live in a company-owned shack with all the cold water they can bathe in. Heck, I'm thinking about blowing off this whole scientist gig and heading back down there myself. I want the good life, too!

It's comforting to think that slavery disappeared from this country in the 19^th century, but it didn't. Ownership of human beings became less common, certainly, and less open, but like any good pathogen it also managed to survive and evolve. It comes in more subtle forms now, finding ways to exploit loopholes and more obscure niches in its environment. The disease itself is still all too much with us.

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