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Some Minor Human Trafficking

Aloun Farms is the most productive farm in Hawaii. It is 3,000 acres of cantaloupe, lettuce, zucchini, apples, bananas, parsley, onions, watermelon, beans, eggplant, cabbage, and pumpkins. We were planning to go there in October on a field trip to pick out pumpkins, but said field trip has now been cancelled.

Why? Because the two brothers who own it have been convicted of human trafficking. They shipped 44 farm laborers from Thailand and then once they were here, took their passports and used them as cheap slave labor with threats of sending them back to Thailand where they would have to face the money lenders who helped them get here.

The kicker? One-hundred and twenty letters have been written on behalf of the two brothers asking for leniency with "little or no jail time" because their farm is too important to the agriculture industry and because the brothers really have excellent character (other than the fact that they own slaves, apparently).

Those who support the brothers include Former Democratic Governor Ben Cayetano, Former Democratic Governor John Waihee, the former head of the State Land Board, the state Department of Agriculture, the Hawaii Foodbank, and many others.

Seriously?? They want these men to have a lenient sentence because they are nice guys?

Let me tell you something.....nice guys don't own slaves. They don't engage in human trafficking. They don't ruin other people's lives in order to make a higher profit and increase their business. The fact that these men are pleasant to those whom they do not own does not make them men of great character. Making political contributions and advocating for the homeless does not make you a good person if you are holding hostages at your business and forcing them to work for you. Being able to shake hands and smile and go to dinner and laugh and joke and make people like you while you are secretly buying slaves does not mean you have a high moral character. It means you are slick, and dirty, and really, really creepy.

And anyone who thinks otherwise has been sucked in and fooled.

Like all those people who thought Charles Manson had a great personality.

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 7, 2010 at 3:43 AM

    I appreciate and applaud your decision to take a stand against the pumpkin patch -- this should NOT be business as usual at Aloun Farms, not with what we know now about their business practices. Thank you --

    ReplyDelete
  2. MichelleSeptember 7, 2010 at 6:54 AM

    Apparently, they just caught some slave owners in SC too.

    And my pagan SIL thinks that people should, could and would be good for goodness sake. If eternal damnation doesn't scare you, perhaps prison time will.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 9, 2010 at 11:35 AM

    do you know of any addresses that I could write to on this matter? I am going to have my highschoolers write a letter of outrage (as am I) but I also am going to see about getting the homeschool community at large here involved. If you could e-mail me some addresses that would be fabulous. BTW, I e-mailed your friend but havent heard back from her. :-(
    Trina

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousSeptember 10, 2010 at 8:56 PM

    Wow. Glad you've decided not to go. One question.. what is going to happen to those poor laborers/slaves? Will they be shipped back?
    Caroleanne

    ReplyDelete

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