“We may have found the single most searing, clarifying, helpful, world-altering fact… What the whole world wants is a good job.”1
It seems that everywhere one looks these days there is world stress, conflict and humanitarian crisis. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) lists Sudan, the Middle East and Myanmar as the top three crisis we can’t ignore. Yet, we know there are ongoing armed conflicts in Ukraine, Haiti, DRC, Somalia, Yemen, Mali and there are near conflicts in North Korea, Taiwan straits, Iran, and elsewhere.
One relatively unknown situation on the Thailand- Myanmar border piqued my attention this week. The Myanmar border area of Myawaddy has become the haven for for criminal syndicates who are estimated to have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia and elsewhere into helping run online scams including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches, and illegal gambling schemes.2
Scamming complexes are known for forcing trafficking victims into work under grueling conditions, alongside suffering physical violence and ongoing surveillance, according to a Feb. 25 update by IJM Australia on LinkedIn. Trafficking victims, numbering in their thousands, are enticed to the scam centers by traffickers falsely promising high salaries, according to IJM Thailand. These “jobs” are depicted as white-collar roles in Bangkok or the nearby region, but the victims are forced to cross the border into Myanmar and exploited in hard working conditions.2
Such scams have extracted tens of billions of dollars from victims around the world, according to U.N. experts, while the people recruited to carry them out have often been tricked into taking the jobs under false pretenses and trapped in virtual slavery. 2
However, little by little, victims are being rescued and repatriated, with thousands being held in detention centers waiting release. Thailand and China are attempting to dismantle the network of illicit and highly lucrative operations where hundreds of thousands have been trafficked by criminal gangs. The several hundred rescued so far are just the tip of the iceberg.
Obviously, a good start in the fight against this wicked form of human slavery, but what next? Where are the jobs in their home countries of Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Brazil?
Such is the challenge to rich Christians in the west – job creation – one of four pillars of the BAM Quadruple Bottom Line. We know the Wealth Manifesto and there are trillions of dollars in our retirement accounts. What if things were different? What if the 21st century “missionary movement” was a BAM movement of business leaders and resources dedicated toward these hurting areas?
After World War II, General MacArthur, while helping Japan recover from war, issued his famous statement “Send missionaries”. It seems that today, MacArthur and even Jesus would say – send businesspeople who understand how to integrate faith into the marketplace and applying Jesus’ Great Commandment to love our world neighbors.
- Jim Clifton in The Coming Jobs War, 2011
- News sources from IFM, CNN, Reuters, Christian Daily, AP News.
Larry W. Sharp, BAM Support Specialist, IBEC Ventures
Larry.Sharp@ibecventures.com