Slavery in our modern context takes on a lot of meanings from trivial to catastrophic. We have come to use expressions like “slaving over a hot stove” and in the process may lose what slavery is for some people. The term “abject slavery” will be used to differentiate from other contexts, such as the idea of “slave wages” which typically suggests low pay rather than no pay.

Abject slavery may be seen where work is performed for no pay or pay only sufficient for things like minimal food. The time working per day may be less than 8 hours to more than 16. The working conditions may be comfortable or harsh. What is perhaps most important is that those in abject slavery do not have any control of their time, their work, or their own bodies. The slave is a prisoner even in cases where some freedom of movement is allowed.

Examples of this can be seen in mining, farming, manufacturing, fishing, housekeeping, and the sex trade. Organ harvesting could also be considered part of this as it is where someone who has the right characteristics is taken without their will to have organs removed for sale to others. This is typically fatal for the donor, which is estimated to be well over 10,000 victims per year.

Estimates of the number in abject slavery range from 20 to 40 million. While it seems to be more common in what has been called the Third World, it is very real and present in the most affluent countries. It is just more hidden or ignored.

For you as an individual, what should your attitude and actions be? If it is simply “I don’t care” or “I don’t want to know”, you probably stopped reading or viewing long ago. If you have not known of the existence, or have a fear of what it might cost you personally, then you need to make a choice now to continue this or not, since a whole lot of pressure is about to be placed on you.

It hits home with me personally as I have more than strong craving for cocoa. I call myself a cocoa addict and most days include one or more raw milk smoothies with a big scoop of raw cocoa powder. My current source is from Peru. But why Peru when the largest producer is the Ivory Coast? Simply that estimates go as high as a million and a half of those harvesting cocoa are kids, slaves, and the bulk fit the abject slavery description. How can I enjoy the marvelous taste of my smoothie knowing that it may have been harvested by a young kid against their will? Perhaps he is from a nearby country and was kidnaped or sold to do the work. He is not spending his day learning or playing, but using a machete to harvest cocoa pods. Injuries are common. Hope is not.

This has been exposed by many such as the video “The Dark Side of Chocolate”. Promises are made by the buyers of the raw cocoa since 2001, but as subsequent videos show, little to nothing has been done. Class action lawsuits have been attempted in the US, but the courts say it is not the US jurisdiction, which I agree with. But I have a choice of what I buy, and so do you.

This literally hits home as most every week I walk by the Mars plant that makes about half of the M&Ms sold in the US. Mars has been named in lawsuits, but to no avail. However, since I have seen pictures of the kids harvesting the cocoa, I am fully committed to not knowingly buy any product made by Mars. Have it penetrate in your mind the image of a young girl without her family spending long days harvesting the cocoa used by Mars the next time you pop an M&M in your mouth. May it go down smoothly and cause you a serious heart ache.

But don’t stop there. The largest food manufacturer in the world is Nestles. For me previously I enjoyed a nice cold glass of Perrier. However, Nestles bought Perrier. Now that I know that, I have not had a Perrier in over 8 years and do not expect to have one for the rest of my life. Just like Mars, Nestles sources vast quantities of raw cocoa from the Ivory Coast, and knowingly is using slave labor. I am committed to not knowingly buy any Nestles products. How about you?

But there are problems with this. How do you know if a product you buy, or the company you buy it from uses abject slave labor to make their products? While you are drinking that bottle of Deer Park water, also owned by Nestles, do you want to connect the water, which might have no exposure to abject slave labor, to the cocoa issue? For me the answer is a resounding yes. I have a choice when I purchase a product and will not purchase from a corporation that for over 20 years does little to nothing to address the known slavery issue. How about you?

There are numerous other examples such as with mining, brick making, or farming where you have places where the slaves are essentially imprisoned, work constantly, see or communicate with no one outside, and are literally worked to death. Then there are the less harsh situations where the slave is kept working due to withholding travel documents, paying off an unpayable debt, or threats to their own lives or the lives of their families. Some are put on a boat in the fishing or related industries and do not get off the boat for years, with perhaps the final exit being in the middle of the ocean.

If you were a large corporation in the textile industry or manufactured cars or cellphones that required mining of toxic materials, you would want to protect the image of your brand. You with perhaps others in different industries could support organizations that appear to fight against slavery. You could provide them examples of the safe places you have to work, while looking the other direction at the rest. They could spend their time petitioning governments and making headlines, while making you look as if you cared. They won’t find any major issues with your corporation since you are the one that funds them. Does this happen? Does the sun come up in the morning?

For most of us we will not directly see this kind of slavery. We might be exposed to the domestic help slave, but it may be that they don’t fully fit the definition of abject slavery, so we don’t check into it. After all, we don’t want to impose or be a busybody. In most cases this is appropriate.

There is a particular form of slavery where the service performed by the slave is more of a direct revenue source, sexual slavery, which is estimated to be well over a hundred billion dollars a year.

It is easy to write this off as something that happens only in “those” places, the red light districts or the bad part of town. But it is nothing you see in your community. It is nothing you see at all, except perhaps on a business trip. If something like that showed up in your community, you are confident that the local authorities would take care of it. They would protect you, your family, and those involved.

But what if those authorities are involved?

We may see some of the high profile cases make the news, such as the recent example of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Pedophile Island. We may feel a righteous indignation or voyeurism. We may be glad they are in prison or dead as what they did is horrible. But then consider that what they did was not for themselves alone, but for customers. Who are the customers? Do the customers bear any burden or responsibility? Or is it because the customers are in positions of power, they will get away with it?

There is the idea of a Rite of Passage. A process that a person must go through to gain a credential or standing. This is seen in things like a diploma or a driver’s license. As a kid you might be invited into a club if you eat a bug to show you are a part. If it is a position of political power, you might participate in provocative group sexual activity or be caught in a Brownstone Operation. Once you have completed the Rite of Passage, you have power, but you are also controlled and there is no turning back. This is common in the halls of national power, or the local community. It is the local community that is the focus as it is not over there, but down the street.

The sex slavery issue is not just young women, but men and kids. It gets really disgusting. Let’s focus on a local young woman who may have been enticed or kidnapped. What can you do to help her? What can she do to be set free?

Keep in mind that the young woman could also be what is known as a gold-digger. She has willingly offered herself sexually. Some will try to exploit that all the days of their lives. Some will come to the point of saying they were wrong. I can’t see into their heart.

Sometimes local authorities can be of help and bring a wonderful resolution. Sometimes local authorities are controlled by the perpetrators or actively participate in the deeds. Sometimes an organization can be of help. Sometimes they are themselves compromised internally, influence externally, or simply monitored to be ineffective.

A fighting chance for some

While it may be helpful for some of the other forms of slavery, for the sex slave there may be a clear way to give them a fighting chance for freedom. It is the idea of turning that Rite of Passage into a noose. To get into the perpetrator’s club there may be things like photo or video evidence that is used to make sure club members do not divulge club activates. There may be cases, or even a single case, where the victim has this kind of evidence. Let’s help the victim turn the tables on the perpetrator irrespective if there are authorities or organizations who support the perpetrator. How?

An organization that is compromised or monitored may be the way the perpetrator finds that the victim is seeking help. This could be costly or fatal to the victim. Techniques need to be developed to give the victim, either alone or with one or more close trusted friends, a way to fight back.

What if a simple technique that was totally in the hands of the victim could be put in place that is not dependent on an organization, policy, whizzbang stuff like Blockchain or the next doodad, where the victim could place data in multiple places that even the data holder does not know what it is. That data, video, documents, photos, or the like, might be the key to set the victim free.

Perhaps the victim would simply inform the perpetrator that the data exists and so does a Dead-Man-Switch. The perpetrator is then faced with being exposed if anything happened to the victim. Could this be misused? Of course. However, because a butter knife can be used to kill, does that mean we outlaw toast? Because the gold-digger could use it maliciously, does that mean we keep it from actual victims?

Perhaps the victim simply needs some time to collect data. Then when the time is right to make it public, it must not be in one place where it could all disappear. The victim could compile a list of email addresses of relevant press, authorities, or the general population. The recipients would then have a way to obtain a copy of all the data without knowing where the data actually is.

There are numerous other options and a victim might be inventive to find their own. The objective is to support the victim not with an organization, policy, or just a kind word, but give them tools to have a fighting chance. It needs to be done in a way that is a self-sustaining ecosystem so it won’t fade because of lack of support.

The solution is ShofarLeaks, a project first attempted in 2012 with a focus on the whistleblower, as I am a repeat offender. The project sputtered. It is time to try again.

What is needed to bring ShofarLeaks to life?

First someone else to promote the idea and ecosystem. I’m the tech guy and not the pretty face for this. I don’t do social media. Perhaps you do?

Second a modest amount of funding, around 5 digits, not 7, as the majority of the technology is in place.

Third is people to be part of the ecosystem for principle or profit. To be a self-sustaining ecosystem, it has other purposes that generate revenue. ShofarLeaks is simply the idea that uses the base technology of ShofarNexus.

Forth are people who would do a technical review or test the technology.

Fifth is one or more young adept technical people to come up to speed on the project to one day make it their own. Be clear on this, it is an offer for hell on earth. You have to know why you want this and have a backbone.

Consider the example of the handgun. It is often described as an equalizer for a victim of a crime. It is often used as such. ShofarLeaks might be the handgun for one or more sex slaves. It is worth my time, but I can’t do it alone. Do you want to help?

Consider the costs of talking about this, or doing the project.

What is it like to point out issues with the local Mars plant when so many local jobs are on the line?

What is it like to put into the hands of a victim the tools to fight back with local or national authorities?

If you are seeing this in early 2023, the offer is on the table for you to be a part. The project has been years in the making and perhaps a few months from completion. Will you help me complete it?

My name is John Kozlowski. My email is John@Kozlowski.org. I am politically incorrect. I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will not give up until I am stopped. Contact me.

This may only help a few or maybe only one. What if that is your daughter?