By Brendan McLaughlin
The title of the book is disturbing enough, "Nobodies" Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy. It's even worse to see that the first chapter is entitled "Florida". Author John Bowe makes a convincing argument that slavery is part of our present, not just our past. From Saipan to Immokalee, men, women and children are forced to work punishing hours for little or no net pay and threatened with deportation or death if they complain.
Bowe's uses the word, "slavery" a little too liberally, considering our country's 300 year history of institutionalized, multi-generational, whip and chain bondage of African slavery in America. It's deplorable that indentured servitude persists in American, but it's not the law of the land. "Nobodies" also points the finger of blame at the reader. Our consumer culture puts enormous pressure on companies to sell fast food, toys, clothing and furniture at ever lower prices. This "super-capitalism, as Robert Reich calls it, makes the 79 cent taco possible, but impoverishes the people at the bottom of the production chain picking the tomatoes.
See my interview with Author John Bowe this Sunday morning on ABC Action News at 11:00. Creative Loafing's Wayne Garcia also gives us a post mortem on Hillsborough Commissioner, Jim Norman's Championship Park project. And sports writer, Gary Shelton answers the question, "Are these USF Bulls for real?"
Come back here and leave your comments to let me know what you thought of the show.
Have a great weekend.