Slave auction at Richmond, Virginia, public domain via VCU Libraries Commons

It is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. 
I just love all these awareness days, because they don't call for anybody to do anything, but just to be aware.  We recently had a Homeless + Homelessness awareness, so, at some time during the day of our choosing we were supposed to manifest awareness of the homeless "Damn, there are a lot off homeless people out there, absolute crying shame, ah well, Alexa - what's on TV tonight?"  So today we need to take a moment to be aware of human trafficking.  I did a photo search on that exact term to try to get some pics for this column and found a huge number of pictures of crowds of pedestrians, I shit you not.

Human trafficking is a horrible thing, in all of its manifestations and for all of its purposes and regardless of the identities of its perpetrators and victims .  It has been defined by the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol as consisting of:

The Act (What is done)

Recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons

The Means (How it is done)

Threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim

The Purpose (Why it is done)

For the purpose of exploitation, which includes exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery or similar practices and the removal of organs.

To ascertain whether a particular circumstance constitutes trafficking in persons, consider the definition of trafficking in the Trafficking in Persons Protocol and the constituent elements of the offense, as defined by relevant domestic legislation.

It can also be disguised as other things, including child marriages and some other marriages.  It is a practice that has been with us, at least in the west, for all of recorded history.  It used to be called slavery, and it certainly was a major source of revenue for some and grief for others.  It is still being practiced too, in many places today, both covertly and overtly.   In fact it is probably practiced in more places than not. One also cannot avoid asking whether the infamous US "school to prison pipeline" conjoined with for profit prisons and the practice of vastly under-compensated prison labor should not be considered to be simply a very convoluted disguise for officially condoned slavery right here.  Also courts which charge fines and collection fees that their victims cannot possibly pay and then jail those who fail to pay for contempt, and engage in similar contemptible processes.

There are many ways to exploit people, and I would think that some political prisoners easily qualify.  We kidnapped captures this suspect terrorist and stashed them without any trial in Gitmo to make you safe so vote for me.  The same with masses of people tricked, defrauded or terrorized into a plea bargain that lands them in the slammer regardless of actual guilt or innocence.  Show trials are clearly a form of exploitation, as are extraordinary renditions

And, as an aside, how can that not segue into wage slavery? Yeah, I know it is slang, but -

Percentage Slavery

I'm not talking about "being stuck working for a living", but situations where people are locked into a life where they are paid far less than a living wage, which goes straight to "the company store", usually in the form of "employee housing" and debt service, at least in today's US.  One gets a position on the bottom rung, usually as a "Management Trainee" or some similar title, is given an advance to cover the mandatory uniform or instructional materials, or on their future commissions, and then never quite earns enough to pay down the principal, which grows and grows due to accrued interest.  Maybe they borrow a few hundred to pay for special telemarketing techniques to sell a special product that nobody in their right mind would ever buy on commission or some similar scam.

A sufficient amount of coercion plus separation from the fruits or one's labor at a price sufficiently less than market value would seem to undeniably rise to the level of slavery. So, starting with slavery, at what levels of coercion and underpayment does it somehow become "commerce"?

The first Insurance Company in the 13 colonies

On January 11, 1759 the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Presbyterian Ministers and of the Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of the Presbyterian Ministers (now part of Unum Group) was "incorporated",  This was the first insurance company of any type in the US.

(see "The Weekly Underwriter" https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2605613&view=1up&seq=186  for an  interesting article. )  This raises assorted questions, such as: Why just ministers?  Was it because nobody else could afford insurance?  Did they have special circumstances such that they had an extraordinary need for insurance?  Why just Presbyterians?  And really, shouldn't that be god's job?  Ah well, just one of life's many mysteries.

On this day in history:

1630 – The prophet Muhammad and his followers conquered Mecca

1569 – The first recorded lottery in England.

1571 – The Austrian nobility (and nobody else) was granted freedom of religion.

1759 – The first "American" (US) life insurance company was incorporated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, then a British Colony and Royal Land Grant.

1787 – William Herschel discovered Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.

1805 – The Michigan Territory was created.

1879 – The Anglo-Zulu War began because nobody had colonized that area yet.

1908 – Grand Canyon National Monument was created.

1912 – The Lawrence Textile Strike took place in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

1922 – The first use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.

1935 – Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1949 – The first "networked" television broadcasts took place. We are none the better for it.

1961 – The Throgs Neck Bridge over the East River opened to road traffic.

1964 – Surgeon General of the US  published the landmark report saying that smoking may be hazardous to smokers' health

1986 – The Gateway Bridge in Brisbane officially opened.

2003 – Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois's death row based on the Jon Burge scandal.

Born this day in:

“Every human is like all other humans, some other humans, and no other human.”

~~ Clyde Kluckhohn

1503 – Parmigianino, somewhat cheesy artist
1786 – Joseph Jackson Lister, physicist
1814 – James Paget, surgeon and pathologist
1839 – Eugenio María de Hostos, lawyer, philosopher, independence advocate, and sociologist
1842 – William James, psychologist and philosopher
1850 – Joseph Charles Arthur, pathologist and mycologist
1885 – Alice Paul, American activist and suffragist
1887 – Aldo Leopold, American ecologist and author
1897 – Bernard DeVoto, American historian and author
1903 – Alan Paton, South African author and activist
1905 – Clyde Kluckhohn, American anthropologist and theorist
1906 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist and academic, discoverer of LSD
1911 – Tommy Duncan, American singer-songwriter
1923 – Carroll Shelby, American race car driver, engineer, and businessman
1924 – Slim Harpo, American blues singer-songwriter and musician
1933 – Goldie Hill, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist
1938 – Arthur Scargill, English miner, activist, and politician
1942 – Clarence Clemons, American saxophonist and actor
1946 – Naomi Judd, American singer-songwriter and actress
1946 – Tony Kaye, English progressive rock keyboard player and songwriter
1948 – Terry Williams, Welsh drummer
1949 – Daryl Braithwaite, Australian singer, and songwriter
1951 – Charlie Huhn, American rock singer and guitarist
1952 – Lee Ritenour, American guitarist, composer, and producer
1958 – Vicki Peterson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1962 – Susan Lindauer, American journalist and activist
1968 – Tom Dumont, American guitarist and producer
1971 – Mary J. Blige, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1971 – Chris Willsher, English singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor
1972 – Christian Jacobs, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1985 – Newton Faulkner, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1997 – Cody Simpson, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor

Died this day in:

It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.

also

A monopoly on the means of communication may define a ruling elite more precisely than the celebrated Marxian formula of monopoly in the means of production.

~~ Robert Anton Wilson

1753 – Hans Sloane, physician and academic
1882 – Theodor Schwann, physiologist and biologist
1891 – Georges-Eugène Haussmann, urban planner
1928 – Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet
1941 – Emanuel Lasker, mathematician, philosopher, and chess player
1947 – Eva Tanguay, singer
1954 – Oscar Straus, composer
1965 – Wally Pipp, quite possibly sports history's most important first baseman
1966 – Alberto Giacometti, sculptor and painter
1988 – Isidor Isaac Rabi, physicist and academic
1991 – Carl David Anderson, physicist and academic
2007 – Robert Anton Wilson, psychologist, author, poet, and playwright
2008 – Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay's companion on the way up Everest
2010 – Miep Gies, humanitarian
2012 – Steven Rawlings, astrophysicist, astronomer, and academic
2013 – Aaron Swartz, programmer

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

World Sketchnote Day
Eugenio María de Hostos Day (Puerto Rico)
National Hot Toddy Day
Kagami biraki (Japan)
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day (United States)
National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies