我们身边的奴役

　　据估计，在英国工作的外籍家庭佣人有两万多人。通常，他们是被外国商人、外交官和从国外归来的英国人带来的。根据某个设在伦敦的帮助在英国做工的外籍佣人的政治组织说，两万名佣人中有近两千人被他们的雇主剥削、虐待。虐待有多种形式：家仆常不许外出或得不到工钱;有的家仆还受到肉体、性或精神方面的虐待;还有的护照遭到没收，这样他们走也走不了，逃也逃不掉。

　　今年早些时候引起大众高度注意的事件中，全世界女佣的悲惨状况得到了媒体的注意。其中一件是，一个菲律宾女佣在被判杀谋杀罪后，在新加坡被处决，尽管各方面都抗议她的罪行尚未充分证实。一些组织如"反奴役国际"称还有一些案件虽然没有菲律宾女佣案那么具有戏剧性，也同样值得关注。如在伦敦做事的菲籍女佣迪亚加西亚一案："1989年一个沙特外交官直接把我从菲律宾雇来到伦敦工作。说是一个月120镑，但多从没有拿过那么多。她还经常吓唬我，说要把我送回国去。"

　　此外，还有来自斯里兰卡的库马里事件。她家主要靠她赚钱维持生计，她曾在斯里兰卡一家茶场挣一份微薄的工资。因为她发现很难养活她的四个孩子，就接受了在伦敦做佣人的一份工作。她说在伦敦那所她工作的房子里感觉像个囚犯。"不放假，也不让休息，连一口像样的饭也吃不上。而且我没有自己的房间，让我睡在壁橱的隔板上，躺上去，身子离上面的隔板只有三尺来高，还不容许我跟别人说话，连窗户也不让开。雇主动不动就吓唬说要向内政部或警察告我的状。"

　　1993年末英国政府采取了新措施，保护家佣不再受雇主的欺负。其中包括把雇佣的年龄提高到18岁，让雇佣新闻记者并理解一份有建议的宣传材料，使雇主同意提供适当的生活费用和条件，把工作的主要条款和条件形成文字。

　　但是，这些措施能否有效地减少虐待的发生，很多人感到怀疑。外籍女佣和家仆虽有意对恶劣的生活和工作条件提出控诉，但主要的问题是他们没有独立的移民身份，因此不能改换雇主，故而他们敢发泄不满的话，就有被遣送回国的可能。

　　做家仆的人有选择雇主的自由，这也就是"反奴役国际"这类组织努力促使政府去实现的事。这类组织说，正是改换雇主的权利划清了雇佣和奴役的界限。　Return of The Chain Gang

　　Eyewitnesses say it was a scene straight out of a black and white movie from the 1950s. As the sun rose over the fields of Huntsville, Alabama, in the American South, the convicts got down from the trucks that had brought them there. Watched over by guards with guns, they raised their legs in unison and made their way to the edge of the highway, Interstate 65. The BBC's Washington correspondent Clare Bolderson was there and she sent this report:"They wore white uniforms with the words 'Chain Gang' on their backs and, in groups of five, were shackled together in leg irons joined by an eight-foot chain. The prisoners will work for up to 90 days on the gang: they'll clear ditches of weeds and mend fences along Alabama's main roads. While they are working on the gang, they'll also live in some of the harshest prison conditions in the United States.

　　There'll be no televisions or phone calls; many other day-to-day privileges will be denied."

　　The authorities in Alabama say there is a lot of support for the re-introduction of chain gangs in the State after a gap of 30 years (the last gangs were abolished in Georgia in the early 1960s). Many people believe it is an effective way to get criminals to pay back their debt to society.

　　The prisoners stay shackled when they use toilets. They reacted sharply to the treatment they are given:Prisoner one: "This is like a circus. A zoo. All chained here to a zoo. We're all animals now."

　　Prisoner two: "It's degrading. It's embarrassing."

　　Prisoner three: "In chains. It's slavery!"

　　Six out of every ten prisoners in chains are black, which is why the chain gangs call up images of slavery in centuries gone by, when black people were brought from Africa in leg irons and made to work in plantations owned by white men. Not surprisingly, although three quarters of the white population of Alabama supports chain gangs, only a small number of black people do. Don Claxton, spokesman for the State Government of Alabama, insists that the system is not racist:"This isn't something that's done for racial reasons, for political reasons. This is something that's going to help save the people of Alabama tax money because they don't have to pay as many officers to work on the highways. And it's going to help clean up our highways and it's going to help clean up the State."

　　However, the re-introduction of these measures has caused a great deal of strong disagreement. Human rights organizations say that putting prisoners in chains is not only inhumane but also ineffective.

　　Alvin Bronstein, member of the Civil Liberties Union, says that study after study has shown that you cannot prevent people from committing crimes by punishment or the threat of punishment: "What they will do is make prisoners more angry, more hostile, so that when they get out of prison, they will increase the level of their criminal behaviour."

　　Civil liberties groups say that chaining people together doesn't solve the causes of crime, such as poverty or disaffection within society. What it does is punish prisoners for the ills of society.　They say the practice takes the United States back to the Middle Ages, and that it is a shame to American society. But that's not an argument likely to win favour among many people in the Deep South of the United States. Alabama's experiment is to be widened to include more prisoners, and other States, such as Arkansas and Arizona, will very probably introduce their own chain gang schemes.

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