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Modern Day Farms being prosecuted for importing Thai workers By MARK NIESSE HONOLULU — Two prominent, popular brothers who operate the second-largest vegetable farm in Hawaii will be sentenced in federal court this week on human trafficking charges — they pleaded guilty — but two former state governors, community groups, fellow farmers and other supporters are trying to keep them out of prison. The brothers were convicted of shipping 44 laborers from Thailand and forcing them to work on their farm, part of a pipeline to the United States that allegedly cornered foreign field hands into low-paying jobs with few rights. Aloun Farms may be too important to fail in an island state that once relied on pineapples and sugar cane but grows less than 15 percent of the food it consumes, according to supporters of defendants Alec and Mike Sou. "The incarceration of Alec and Mike Sou would threaten our food security and could endanger our future sustainability on Oahu," wrote Kioni Dudley, president of the community group Friends of Makakilo, in a letter asking U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway for leniency. "Find some method of punishment which allows them to stay in their positions at Aloun Farms." The Sou brothers are asking for a light sentence with little or no jail time based in part on the idea that their farm is too valuable to the islands' food supply to let it go untended. The plea deal they agreed to in January called for up to five years imprisonment. Prosecutors accuse them of manipulating the Thai workers by promising at least a year's employment at pay of $9.42 an hour, but instead delivering only a few months of work for little pay. If the workers complained, Mike Sou threatened to send them home without any way to repay recruitment fees exceeding $20,000 that they borrowed from Thai money lenders to pay for their jobs, federal authorities claim. The workers were trapped on the farm, forced to choose between long hours with low wages and an unpromising future in Thailand, said former farm worker Somporn Khanja, who arrived at the farm in 2004. "I'd been lied to, but I couldn't do anything about it," the 45-year-old Khanja said through his wife, acting as an interpreter. "I hope justice is being done. I believe in American law. It takes so long, but it's good. In America, we have to wait." In about 120 letters to the judge supporting the Sou brothers, community members praise their importance to Hawaii's agriculture industry, their ability to provide up to 200 jobs at a time and their character. Former Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano called the Sou family's immigration from Laos and creation of a farm a "remarkable success story." Former Democratic Gov. John Waihee commended the Sous' skill in transforming sugar fields into diversified farming. Others who offered support to the brothers include the former head of the state Land Board, the state Department of Agriculture, the Hawaii Foodbank, competing farms, two banks who are owed money from the farms and former Aloun employees. The Kapolei-based company grows a variety of foods including cantaloupe, lettuce, zucchini, apples, bananas, parsley, onions, watermelon, beans, eggplant, cabbage and pumpkin. Alec Sou is the farm's president and general manager, and Mike Sou is its vice president and operations manager. Human trafficking opponents say they deserve more than a slap on the wrist for enticing foreign workers with pledges of steady work and then revoking that offer after the laborers were already indebted and flown to the United States. Federal authorities and some of the workers also have said they were housed in cramped mobile storage containers, told not to leave the farm after work and denied any pay at all for months. (end story) ____________________________________________ This is about as pathetic as Early America, equally so, it is trying to claim the same reasons, that early America claimed after the Civil War, which allowed some areas in the U.S. to keep slaves until their death, and to keep the slaves until they were 18 as slaves. by claiming these areas as economic zones, and saying it would damage the economy if they lost their slaves. so people were continued to be forced into slave labor, rather than to simply pay them for their labor. Mankind can be a Greedy Animal, void of humanity or the respect of human beings. When will the world stop supporting anyone, going to other countries, disrespecting their people all because they don't have money. While every form of gluttony is engaged around the globe. It simply goes to show that when some people get money or make money, they will use anyone to keep making money, and have not thought, and claim it as their right to do so. Countries, Like Thailand, Cambodia Laos,Africa, Philippines, and the Poor people of India and China, equally so the poor people in South America locations. Must began to stand up, to other location using their people like a open slave market, to satisfy their own gluttonous arrogance and greed. Goons are everywhere, looking to treat others like slaves, for their own selfish consumption aims. Don't leave your home, on some scam, that you have no idea of what the results may bring, when people offer labor in foreign lands. You may want to ask, why they are not hiring their own people to do this work ?? |
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you are most certainly correct, unfortunate as it is, the madness of man for money at the expense of others, is a tragedy that has raged by many acts and many means, and dis-honorable persons, seek to try and justify these acts. always beyond their conjured excuses, the reality of their greed is evident in the results of their acts and deeds. some seek generalized absentmindedness to cover their tracks, but the evident damage they invoke, is beyond reason. In this particular case, the Thai Government, should stand up, and challenge this to the very core and bring shame to every party who engaged this activity. America as a nation should have had enough of this kind of activity, but unfortunately, it seems to be inherent in the culture of the nation. How can we as a nation rid this mentality from society, is a very big question. People only stand together when it benefit them personally, they will blind eye, the injustice done to other, in the name of money's pursuit.
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can you imagine the outrage this nation would raise, if another nation did this to Americans !! It's time people call this bigotry what it is, and when other nations began to address it in the international forum, then maybe change will spread. Because this nation is always in other peoples business, talking about "human rights",. but it won't fix the system it in its own land.
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(quote)The 1857 Dred Scott decision, decided 7–2, held that a slave did not become free when taken into a free state; Congress could not bar slavery from a territory; and people of African descent imported into the United States and held as slaves, or their descendants could not be citizens. Furthermore, a state could not bar slaveowners from bringing slaves into that state. This decision, seen as unjust by many Republicans including Abraham Lincoln, was also seen as proof that the Slave Power had seized control of the Supreme Court. The decision, written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, barred slaves and their descendants from citizenship. The decision enraged abolitionists and encouraged slave owners, helping to push the country towards civil war (end quote) Those who seek to learn about the America madness, may learn much, and may also see the mentality that prevails in so many people today. born of an Ignorance so vile, and so inhumane, that the perpetrators, are themselves but thieves of the human soul, and abusers of the dignity of the human being, and will say or do anything, to justify their greed, and their want for gain, at the expense of anyone, while it claims itself superior. When truth is, they are but liars, who conjure fallacy to cover their lazy glutton based selfish greed. to trust such beings, is a great tragedy that has befallen many people, from many lands. We even saw the modern version of this mentality today, with the Invasion of Iraq, It was no different than the actions taken againt the America Indians, they were first called names, to dehumanize them, and then bombarded with war actions, all in a pursuit to "gain Oil", and take what rightfully belonged to others. It drew no lines nor limits to the destruction, mayhem and madness it would engage, and then pushed ahead with every resource it could muster, trying to dominate and devastate the people of these lands, while treating them as second class human beings. all based on money, with no regard for their character as human beings, no regard for their dignity as person, and defaming their religion, as less than. this is the same that was done to the American Indians, they were called all sorts of names, had their religion trashed, and crooked deals that were reversed as soon as they could move enough troops to take it by force. Only this time, a whole region funded and supported the defeat of the American Agenda in this foreign land. We vilify them in the media, but we don't discuss the atrocities we create nor those we engage to initiate. And the propaganda machine rages on, all trying to justify taking what belongs to others. Today, China is well aware of this plot and this ploy and the tactical methods, and China simply say's NO.. they shut down talks when the talks are filled with demands, and expectations, that are not in favor of China managing itself and its own people. China is winning where others lost, because China has the history to draw upon, of occupation by the British, the Japanese, and the America; they know too well the cost, of allowing any encroachment that is not in their own best interest. They watched as the economices fell in the 80's and took back everything the Japanese thought they had gained, and when the economy collapsed in 2008, China said clearly, it did not care what the America said, it still wants its money back, and its debt will remain on the books and it will be repaid, so crashing markets, did not wipe out the debt or the stature of China. Bush had to rush and try to shore up banks with tax money, to cover the white collar robbery, as the scheme backfired, and to have failed on making the debt interest payments, would have caused immediate insolvency of the United States, and exposed it as a Global bankrupt nations. President Obama, came and made apology for the wrongs that were done, and the greed masters on the right were angry, because they are use to taking what they want, and telling others to shut up about it, and swallow it. but this time it did not work. and it will never again work on this planet. The days of the Anglo dominance is a done situation, as other nations now stand with their own strength, and their own unity, but more so, they stand with their own dignity they will not relinquish to the former slave master nation, and its aims to usurp others on the planet. The world cheered when America was no longer under the leadership of an Anglo President. And since that time, diplomacy has been re-engaged, and nations are willing to talk on equality terms, and we have a President who is not trying to dictate to the world as if to dominate, but to work with the world of nations, to embrace a unity perspective. But the Right wing is furious, because all they know, is take what they want, and kill who does not submit to give it to them. Other nations today, should speak up more so, when their people are trampled, used and mistreated, and let no issue come to pass without a challenge for justice and humanity regards for and of its people.
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