Reddit mentions of A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery

http://www.amazon.com/Crime-Monstrous-Face-Face-Modern-Day/dp/0743290089/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265554659&sr=8-1

Skinner purchased a Haitian child for $50.

In Disposable People by Bales (http://www.amazon.com/Disposable-People-Slavery-Global-Economy/dp/0520243846/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265554694&sr=1-1)

He talks about how many of the girls who are trafficked within and out of rural Thailand are often given up by their parents for payments as small as $200, or a television set.

Human life, when beset by misery, is not worth very much in monetary terms.

I doubt if we'll ever know whether he did or did not offer her for sale as the story seems to get more tangled with every article. It strikes me as more than a bit depressing that no matter what is going on with this girl, children are sold every day in most countries without any notice at all being taken of them.

Read A Crime So Monstrous- Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery which puts a bit more perspective on one child being offered for sale.

As he said, it's still the case in a number of countries. While the book A Crime So Monstrous mostly deals with "invisible" slavery and human trafficking, it also gets into open human ownership, too, including in surprising places like India.

Very much so.

There's between 20 and 60 million debt slaves in India right now if you believe the activists, and only 250k if you believe the govt. It's maybe a bit out of date now but "A crime so monstrous" examines some of the different forms of modern slavery. It's a lot more common than you think.