globalization

No country is “immune” from the scourge of modern slavery and the path that many of its victims take “can often by very similar”.

That’s the warning from Siddharth Kara, who was at UN Headquarters in New York recently, to launch his latest book on the issue, entitled “Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective”.

The senior fellow at Harvard University describes it as the “dark underbelly” of economic globalization, with unscrupulous private sector companies exploiting free labour to maximize profit.

When people are less equal, there’s more likelihood of social and political unrest; that’s the view of Harvard University Professor and Nobel Laureate, Eric Maskin.

He says that while it was widely expected that globalization would reduce inequality, income disparities between skilled and unskilled workers has only increased in recent years.

The International Monetary Fund’s Bruce Edwards has been talking to Professor Maskin.