Survival of the Fittest: Exploitation of Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge

Slavery has existed throughout history and it even exists today in various forms. Slavery is the imprisonment of an individual by another. Herbert Spencer proposed the idea of survival of the fittest in human society. With slavery, especially in today’s time, there are people who are socially stronger taking advantage of those who are weaker and more vulnerable. The societies of today view money as a form of power, and with this power it is used to entrap the weak and using them as disposable objects. One of the forms of slavery that exist today but goes unnoticed is human trafficking. Somaly Mam’s autobiography, The Road of Lost Innocence, gave her readers an inside look into her world as a sex slave in Cambodia. Throughout her book, she describes the cruel and awful things slaves experience throughout their slavery. Sex slaves and violence are persistent in societies around the world, especially in the Cambodian society, because of the lack of respect and morals a nd the disconnection between the people with in that society. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Southern Asia. Cambodia’s poverty is causing a lot issues within the country; two of these issues are crime and enslavement. The citizens of that society are working hard and are receiving little to no pay. The damage that the Khmer Rouge has done to Cambodia has left the people emotionally and physically scarred. In Mam’s book she talks a lot about the effects that the Khmer Rouge had on the people and her country. Her words painted a picture for her readers showing the way people acted towards one another due to the Khmer Rouge. For example, she states, â€Å"It was important not to see, not to hear, not to know anything about what was happening† (Mam 14). Mam... ...the Khmer Rouge.† Time World, 17 February 2009 Date Accessed: 25 January 2012 Mam, Somaly. The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine. Ruth Marshall, Trans. New York: Spiegel& Grau, 2008. Pearl, Mariane. â€Å"Global Diary: Cambodia.† Glamour Magazine, 1 August 2006. Date Accessed: 25 January 2012 cambodia#ixzz1kXXN4LqD> Spencer, Channing. â€Å"Modern-Day Slavery in America: Sex Trafficking and Labor Exploitation.† Perspective Magazine, Harvard’s Liberal Monthly, 30 March 2010. Weinstein, David, "Herbert Spencer", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) Date Accessed: 25 January 2012 .