The 2030 Spike

CHAPTER 24

THE TOXIC CULTURE

The manifestations of the toxic culture on our planet are so damaging that they could rank as another 2030 driver, and a dangerous one. For instance slavery has reappeared and now involves millions of people. Kevin Bales, a lecturer at the University of Surrey, who is considered a world expert on contemporary slavery, puts the number of slaves in the world today at 27 million.¹ Most of these are not legally owned by other people – they are ‘bonded labour’. Driven by desperate poverty, the people of many developing countries sell themselves, or too often their daughters, into effective slavery for an indefinite period. Children as young as nine are taken away to brothels, where they are raped and beaten until they ...